Eggplant Rollatini

I was disappointed to find that the Eggplant Rollatini that I use is not accessible online. Martha (yes, we are on a first name basis) does a "Zap It" series in her Everyday Food catalog where she suggest gourmet meals made in the microwave. Microwaves are used for one thing: leftovers. So I normally take her recipe and make it into an oven-bake recipe. I also added a few more vegetables.

I am NOT an eggplant fan, but a friend of mine planted eggplants and I "inherited" one so I made this dish. It was an awesome surprise. I also learned that eggplant is one of the easier vegetables to grow, so save your grocery money, buy $2 packet of organic eggplant seeds and try this out.

Eggplant Rollatini

1 large eggplant (2 lb) cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices (at least 8 slices, don't use the heels)
1 hefty handful of baby spinach
1/2 cup low-fat ricotta
1-2 egg whites or 1/4 c egg white substitute
1 garlic clove
1/2 c grated parm cheese
Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, rosemary)
low-fat mozzarella cheese
1 cup marinara sauce

Preheat oven 350 degrees. In a rimmed plate or shallow dish layer eggplant into a microwave-safe bowl for about 6 minutes or until eggplant is tender and pliable. Blot with paper towels to absorb some liquid. In a square baking dish spread 1/3 - 1/2 cup of marinara sauce.

Rinse spinach. While still wet, add spinach to heated pan and stir until slightly wilted; squeeze out liquid with spoon and remove from pan. Coarsely chop spinach with butcher knife or ulu knife. In a bowl, mix ricotta, parm, egg whites, garlic, Italian seasoning, spinach and salt and pepper. Spread 1 hefty tablespoon cheese mix on eggplant slices, leaving a good edge. Do not overfill or you will have a time rolling it. Roll eggplant starting with the wide end. You should make two rows of 4 rolls. Lay seem-side down in baking dish. Top eggplant with another 1/2 cup of marinara.

Bake dish for 15 minutes. Top eggplant with mozz cheese and bake another 5 minutes. Believe it or not, two of these little rolls will satisfy you. To reheat, wrap eggplant rolls in tin foil and bake in toaster oven for 5-7 minutes. Microwave leftover marinara and pour over eggplant.

Which vegetables do you love?

Nutrition Action is a journal I subscribed to for a while. My favorite aspects are the journal was to take similar products on the market and compare them according to nutritional value v calories and fat content. It saves so much time at the grocery trying to read calories per serving and ingredient lists. You get accustomed to know what brands are better for what products.

Another edition I loved was a comparison of vegetables and how they scored in their content of calories, vitamin K, lutein, vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Because of this list, there are vegetables I have learned to embrace because of their intense health benefits. I have also enjoyed the fact that if I don’t particularly like a vegetable and it’s low on the list, I don’t force myself to try use it. I do think the more variety, the better you are able to get the vitamins and nutrients you need without a vitamin supplement.

Top choices:
Kale is far and away the biggest powerhouse vegetable you can find. My sister marks it as a food garnish, but there are so many great sides you can make with kale. NA score: 1389. Most leafy greens are top choices, including baby spinach at 672 point for 2 cups raw.

Interesting notes: canned pumpkin (raw, not the seasoned pie variety) is more wholesome than fresh (117) and is the first non-green top scorer on the chart at 570 points. Also, South Beach and Atkins got it wrong - sweet potatoes (485) pack in more vitamins and are nine times healthier than white potatoes (53). Don’t let the name “sweet” keep you away from these wonderful roots.

Not just for seasoning:
I found a surprisingly high number of herbs on this list as well. A quarter cup of raw parsley packs out enough vitamins that beat out green leaf lettuce and ½ cup cooked broccoli. Cilantro, just 2.5 tbsp, still brings enough vitamin K to your meal to compete with zucchini and lima beans.

Learned to love:

For a good while, I convinced myself that supplementing parsnip for carrot was an acceptable exchange . . . not so much. Carrots give me much-needed fiber and vitamin K and tower vitamin richness over parsnips by 350 points. The non-pepper bell pepper has also had to sneak its way into my menu because of scores like 340 for red and 193 for green. I was quick to replace bell peppers in recipes with the spicier pablano or green chili pepper, which was only scoring 53 in vitamin richness.

Learned to live without:
No need to fret over not getting enough sprouts. These seedlings only scored an 18 for half a cup. I’ve also gotten over my distaste for eggplant (19), cucumber (29), beets (32), radishes (34) and corn (47). No need to worry, I will still present recipes with these fine vegetables.

What are your favorite vegetables? Did your favorite make the cut? What are you told you need to eat more of but can’t stand? Maybe it’s not worth fighting. Let me know your thoughts.

Vegetable Burritos with Smoked Gouda - Tupelos World Cafe

Tupelos is a fantastic eatery in Boone, NC. For those old timer Mountaineers, it is the old Angelicas vegetarian café on King Street. Tupelos added meat to their menu but didn't lose their touch on fresh ingredients and organic products. Their spring special included Smoked Gouda Enchiladas, but below is a modified version for the meatless eaters.

Vegetable Burritos with Smoked Gouda

2 lbs red or gold potatoes (or whatever amount you have growing twigs in your cabinet)
Mashed potato staples e.g. milk/cream, butter, salt/pepper etc
1 small can yellow or white corn
2 handfuls of spinach ('cause let's face it, who measures 5 cups of leaves?)
garlic - freshly crushed or minced in a jar
1/2 onion (favorite kind)
2-3 ripe zucchini or yellow squash
1/2 red pepper, chopped (or roasted red pepper)
1/2 cup smoke gouda, shredded
pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
6' or 8' whole wheat tortillas
ripe avocado
favorite salsa

Boil and make mashed potatoes. Typically that consists of cleaning potatoes, cut into quarters, boil until skin starts to come off (about 20 minutes) and mashed with potato masher with tasty add-ins like milk (1%) or light half-n-half and Brummel & Brown butter. There will be so much yummyness in this meal you can probably cut back on the cream and butter. I use a potato masher over a hand blender just to give the potatoes a hearty texture. Don’t forget garlic salt and pepper.

Prep vegetables while potatoes are boiling. Slightly chop spinach and drain and rinse corn. Cut zucchini into 1 inch rounds and then quarter. You want hearty-sized vegetables for this dish so don’t chop too finely. Also chop onion. And fresh red pepper, if using. Sauté vegetables with 1 tsp olive oil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

While potatoes are still steamy hot, stir in cheese, corn and spinach until wilted. If using roasted red pepper (from a jar, not the fresh, sauted pepper), also stir into potatoes.

Steam tortillas by wrapping only the number you intend to use in a damp dish towel - make sure it’s clean and not the one you’ve been wiping your hands with all week ;) Microwave for 1 minute. Layer tortilla with mashed potato mix, vegetable mix and top with pepitas. Fold over and lay seam-side down. Top burritos with sliced avocado and favorite salsa.

Pepitas are yummy pumpkin seeds, but not the kind you pull out of the jack-o-lantern. They are tiny, crunchy and solid green. They are surprisingly great on most Mexican dishes. I bought the roasted, salted kind, but the raw, unroasted are a much better pick since you can do more with them raw (there is a dessert I will share with you in the fall).

For a non-vegetarian meal, layer tortillas with sliced, smoked chicken sausage. The Tupelos burrito was so huge it really didn’t need the meat, but it was nonetheless tasty.

Trader Joes now has a reasonably-priced ($4) bag of shredded, smoked cheddar, gouda, mozzarella and provolone - perfect for this recipe. TJs also has wonderful whole wheat tortillas. The other whole wheat I have found in the grocer has been dry and tears easily but TJ’s are unbeatable in taste and texture. Plus they are only six inches so you know you won’t overstuff.

Pasta with Zucchini and Almonds - Cooking Light

Pasta with Zucchini and Toasted Almonds - Quick and Easy Italian Recipes - Photos - CookingLight.com

I know I am already wearing you all out on zucchini and tomatoes, but this was an awesome recipe! The linguine was the real treat here. I found a lemon pepper linguine at Trader Joes that goes so perfect with this dish. It's cheap ($2) and the thick ribbons absorb a lot of the flavors in this spring/summery dish.

I did not include the mint, but I think it would be a great additive. I would love to have a fresh mint plant. Not only is it great for adding flavors to summer drinks and desserts, but my cat loves the plant and it is a great way to "mello" her out. Dried mint is another herb I would not substitute for fresh. If you have some fresh, use it (or better yet plant your own) but otherwise it is just as yummy without.

The almonds also did it for me in this dish. It adds a crunch that really changes the flavor compared to other summer pasta dishes. I buy Trader Joes raw, unroasted almonds. Almonds are a great source of good fat but the roasting and salt add unneeded calories. In a trail mix you can surely taste the difference, but in this kind of meal it is worth saving the calories.

Another tip I have learned is to buy in the bulk aisles at grocery stores. This is of course not the case for Trader Joes, but the "scoop and fill" bag aisle can save you a lot of money if you are not the kind of person who keeps nuts in the house often. I have a crate of nuts so I don't mind buying in bags, but if you know the majority of the bag will go bad before you use them, just buy the amount you need in the bulk aisle. It's an ingredient worth having in this dish.

Omit salt and fat: Cooking Light is big on omitting salt and oil when boiling pasta. I am not. I don't use the oil or the salt to "season" the pasta. Adding salt to water before boiling will help water boil faster. Hardly any of the salt is absorbed by the pasta itself. I add oil to the water if I am boiling large/long pasta such as linguine or spaghetti to keep the noodles from sticking together. However, when I drain the water the pasta is without the oil. Use only the amount needed to separate pasta noodles (1 tbsp) or boil water (1 tsp salt) but the added salt and oil will not affect your daily allowance.


Don't forget: cherry tomatoes over grape for a more tender, juicy tomato. Use fresh lemon juice to get the real effect. Top dish with parm instead of mixing it in. Also, I love shallots and think they are far superior to red onion. However, shallots are small and more often used in one sitting. Red onion can linger around waiting to be used. If you have leftover red onion and a recipe calling for shallots, finely chop the red onion and use as a substitute to get rid of onion and save yourself a spare trip to the store.

Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables

Add-ons to Martha Stewart's Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables

This is just about word-for-word what I do for this recipe as well. Some tips: do not overcook the gnocchi; otherwise it will taste like mashed potatoes. I use Trader Joes fresh gnocchi (in the pasta aisle) mostly because I can't find frozen and fresh is so much faster.

I do not like grape tomatoes as much as I like cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are more tender and mix better in this dish. To add a bit more flavor and a thicker sauce, stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste after the vegetables are sauted. You don't particularly add a lot more calories with paste but you double the flavor. But watch out for tomato paste with added salt; you may not need to season your vegetables if your paste has salt already.

Tomato paste is one of those staple items that are terrible to store. I use one inch cube sized ice cube trays to store and freeze leftover tomato paste after I've opened the can. Some groceries will sell a tube of paste for easier storage, but you normally pay more for that luxury. The ice cube trays give me the amount that I need (about one tbsp) and an easy way to store leftovers. I have been floored by how many times I use tomato paste now that I know it is readily available.

This is one of those times I will highly recommend fresh basil over dried. Fresh herbs are hard to come by unless you have your own garden (which you should!). I am perfectly okay with substituting dried for fresh, but this is not one of those occasions. Fresh basil adds depth and texture to this dish that cannot be substituted. Julienne cut the basil: layer several leaves of basil and roll into a cigarette-style tube. Thinly slice basil to get lovely ribbons. If you have one, use a plastic knife to avoid browning the basil leaves.

Another healthy tip is to top your dishes. Stirring two tablespoons of parm is hardly going to add taste to your dish, but if you dress your meal with a garnish of parm you get more taste without adding too much cheese. I did include the butter in this meal, but I used Brummel and Brown, which is a yogurt-based butter with fewer calories and no hydrogenated oil.

Another "no substitute" rule for this meal is fresh lemon juice. I used the bottled kind for years, but fresh lemon juice is so much better, especially for summertime dishes that emphasize light and citrus flavors. One reason I was skeptical about buying fresh lemons is lack of use. I would use one tablespoon from half a lemon and throw out the rest. BUT lemons are a fantastic cleaning agent. I use lemons to clean my counter tops and cutting boards instead of cleaning agents; it keeps your food cleaner. Lemons clean and make the kitchen smell so clean. I buy them in bags now.

Bowties and Spicy Broccoli Rabe with Crunchy Crumbs Recipe - Rachael Ray modification

Bowties and Spicy Broccoli Rabe with Crunchy Crumbs Recipe - Every Day with Rachael Ray

On a shoe-string budget? Vegetarian meals can help. This recipe was a pleasant surprise to me. It is amazing what a difference the crunchy crumbs make to the taste of this meal. I seasoned the crumbs with garlic salt and pepper but be wary of too much salt. I also substituted red pepper for red pepper flakes. You still get the extra kick, but I am more likely to have flakes in the house than a leftover red pepper.

Bowties with Spicy Broccoli

1 head/flower garlic
1-2 bunch broccoli rabe (I like to use two for more nutrition)
1/2 lb. bowtie pasta
course salt/pepper
1 red chili, chopped OR crushed red pepper
1 slice wheat bread or roll
8 oz ricotta cheese

In large sauce pan boil garlic, sleeves on, for 3 minutes. Fish our garlic with a slotted spoon and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, peal the garlic and cut cloves in half. Add broccoli rabe to water and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse broccoli. If you want to use fewer pots, I put a steamer over the pot and cover for my broccoli while my garlic is boiling. This way I can use the same pot of water to boil my pasta. Be sure to reserve 1 cup pasta water before draining.

At first I was skeptical of boiling garlic, but it makes the garlic more palatable. One more thing you will learn about me is that I am never afraid of garlic. Garlic is God's gift to the Earth, and I use it. Garlic is very good for you at fighting cancers and keeping down cholesterol and blood pressure. And nothing smells like a kitchen more than garlic roasted in oil. Whole garlic is not as overwhelming as it sounds. Garlic powder is in fact dehydrated and more concentrated. I am more likely to use fresh garlic than powder to get a softer seasoning.

If you have a broccoli head you are needing to use, I would say go ahead and use it. However, I much prefer using rabe for this recipe. Broccoli rabe, also referred to as broccolini, is a more tender broccoli flower. I will cut and steam most of the stem to get more for my money. The stem is not as bitter as regular broccoli.

Heat 1 tbsp oil on medium. Wait until the oil is hot before adding the broccoli and garlic halves. Add chili or crushed red pepper, and course salt and pepper. Saute until the broccoli is tender and garlic is brown.

Another healthy tip is do not use all the recommended olive oil in recipes. As silly as it sounds, make sure to measure how much oil you use. A teaspoon is about all you need for most sautes. I am as guilty as anyone to just pour and move on, but olive oil calories build up fast. Keep a teaspoon measure next to your olive oil to keep yourself in check. One teaspoon is actually enough if you buy a good non-stick pan and make sure your pan is hot before adding vegetables. Olive oil is also great for your veins. Be sure to always use extra virgin and I actually prefer Trader Joes unfiltered = less processed. And the color is fabulous.

You will not need to use a whole pint of ricotta. I used Trader Joes ricotta, which is much smoother than other store-bought versions and acts more like an alfredo sauce. Unfortunately Trader Joes does not offer a reduced fat version. For a lighter ricotta, I highly suggest Sorrentos. Mix 8 oz of ricotta cheese with the reserved pasta water.

Add another tbsp oil to heated pan. Use a food processor to make bread crumbs from your leftover bread. I do not recommend store-bought bread crumbs because you won't get the same texture. Add crumbs to pan and heat until oil is absorbed and crumbs are crunchy.

Mix pasta, vegetables and ricotta mix together. Serve immediately with crumb topping.

Trader Joes checklist: pasta ($1), broccoli rabe ($6 for two), ricotta ($4 or use leftover) and head of garlic ($0.50) = dinner for two for around $10!

Pear and Arugula Pizza

Modified from "Cooking Light" Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

I was actually more inspired by the photo than the actual recipe. I made this pizza and I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's a great vegetarian choice and a promo for Trader Joes.

1 bag prepared Trader Joes pizza dough for $1! (or homemade, do not use Pillsbury)
1 7-8 oz ricotta cheese (I have a new obsession with TJ's ricotta but reduced fat Sorrento is also good. Don't use fat free)
dried or fresh thyme leaves
minced garlic (from jar or crushed fresh)
1/2 red onion, chopped
1-2 Bartlett pears, cored and thinly sliced
4-5 oz arugula or baby spinach (about half a bag), lightly chopped
balsamic vinegar or vinegarette
finely shredded mozzarella, preferably TJ's goat mozz

Preheat oven to 450 and heat pizza stone, if using. If using store-bought dough let it sit out for 20 minutes or until room temperature. Saute' onion in oil and garlic until caramelized. Remove from pan and add tbsp more oil and pears. Saute' until slightly brown and softened. Flour counter surface with cornmeal and roll out pizza dough into thin crust. Move dough to pizza stone or cookie sheet and bake 5-8 minutes until mostly done. Let cool slightly; otherwise your ricotta will run.

Spread ricotta cheese onto dough and top with thyme leaves. Evenly spread sauted onions and pears. Top with greens, and sprinkle dressing and cheese. Bake for another 5-8 minutes or until cheese is browned to liking. If crust starts to burn but cheese is not melted lower temp to 400 or broil for a few minutes (do not leave kitchen if you choose to broil!). Serve with a white wine. It is ab fab!

Tips: Chopping greens keeps the pizza from being a tower when you put it in the oven. I simply pile my greens (I always prefer spinach for the iron and nutrients) and quickly chop with a butcher's knife. The greens will wilt when cooked so they are manageable to eat. Do no, do not use fat free cheese for this recipe. Trader Joes also has a great low-fat mozzarella you can use, but reduced fat and fat-free cheese do not melt well. It is better for you to use a higher-fat cheese and use more sparingly. This recipe was the first time I used to goat mozzarella and loved it. The flavor went perfect with the pear and spinach.

Win choices: I am one of those strange people who love dry, red wines but do not like the meals that standardly go with them i.e. red meat. However, I love chicken and fish dishes but do not prefer the lighter, sweet, white wines that are recommended. I say go with what you like! I did recommend a white for this dish because the greens and pear and white cheeses paired very well with the Chardonnay I had in stock.

Variations: for a non-vegetarian dish, add pancetta to pizza before baking. I have also seen versions with feta or blue cheese. The goat mozzarella is enough kick for me :)

Welcome to my Food Blog

I absolutely love food and love to talk about, read about, make, eat all kinds of food. I prefer "everyday" recipes for quick dinners and recipes using leftover or staple items to cut down on costs. However, you will find some exotic and unique ingredients in what I post. Introducing new ingredients to your menu is a great way to expand your horizon and expand your nutrient source.

All of these recipes I post will be a modified version of something that is already out there. I preferred blogger.com because most of the owners of these recipes allow recipes to be "shared" via blog. I will try to branch out but most of my recipes will come from my favorite everyday meal makers: Martha Stewart, Cooking Light and Rachel Ray.

This is not just a posting of my favorite recipes. I primarily plan to use what I have made and add a personal touch; either create a healthier version, vegetarian version or a cheaper version. Please note most of my "reduced price" modifications will be accompanied by the wonderful products and prices of the Trader Joes franchise. There are some products that should not be substituted for a cheaper or lighter dish e.g. never cook with entirely fat-free cheese (a combination of fat free and reduced fat is acceptable). I will make specific "do not do" comments for modifications.

I am terribly excited about this opportunity. I hope you all can learn something from my experiments and learn to love and enjoy cooking as much as I do!