Baba Ganoush & Greek Salad

Day 133

So, Thursday was a most depressing day and I wasn't even close to being in a blogging mood. We ordered the Mediterranean Pizza from Pizza Delight, in case you were wondering. Friday was another shitty day and I also wasn't home most of the evening. I ate a peanut butter sandwich for supper. Not very blog-worthy, is it?

Today is a better day. My boy got a job and I got some things done. And, Laura made baba ganoush. Well, she made it last night, but we didn't eat it until today.

Baba Ganoush & Greek Salad

Baba Ganoush

Baba Ganoush is a lot like hummus, but with a slightly different, slightly smoky taste and a much different (creamier) texture. It's made with eggplant instead of chick peas, but like hummus, it has parsley, garlic, tahini, lemon, olive oil and yoghurt.

Here is the baba ganoush recipe she used, but, rather than the three medium eggplants it called for she only used one because it was a nice big one, about 2 lbs, and she also used more lemon juice.

Baba Ganoush

Homemade Pitas

I'm sorry, but the pitas from the grocery stores tend to be super dried out, even from the minute you buy them. Fold them in half and they crack. So, Laura makes our pitas. They take a little time and effort, but she thinks it's worth it and I really appreciate her effort. They're sooo good. They're not only soft and pliable but they're tastier.

Homemade pitas

Greek Salad

What would complement baba ganoush better than a nice, fresh Greek salad? Laura made a wonderfully tangy Greek dressing for it. I could drink it right out of the bottle. The recipe is posted below.

Greek Salad Ingredients

1 head of Romaine lettuce
1 tomato
1 English cucumber
3 small red onions
1/2 block feta cheese
1/2 bottle sliced Kalamata olives

Greek Salad

Greek Dressing

We have these awesome salad dressing bottles that show you the recipe right on the bottle and Laura used it for today's dressing. In case you can't read it, you add the following to the bottle:

1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp minced garlic
1/8 cup blue cheese (we skipped it)
1/8 cup feta cheese (we doubled it)

Greek dressing

The above ingredients fill the bottle to the first line. Then you add EVOO until you reach the next line, red wine vinegar until you reach the following line and lemon juice until it's filled to the line at the top.

The dressing in the pic above has obviously settled since the ingredients are of all different weights. We have to shake well and use it quickly. It's also half gone as you can see. Here's a pic we took earlier.

Greek dressing

Baba ganoush & Greek salad

Reviews/Comments

We had this for lunch and supper and it was amazing. I give it a 10. Laura too. So healthy and fresh. Probably added an extra day to our lives...hahaha

Roasted Veggies with Barley

Day 130

I know the blog has seen roasted veggies a few times now, but hey, at least they're always somewhat different, right?

Roasted Veggies with Barley

Reminiscing

Let's have a look back on some of the other roast veggie dinners.

Day 1 

Roasted Potatoes, Carrots and Herbs with Beets

This was mostly food from our fall harvest, including the potatoes, carrots, beets and fresh herbs.

Roasted Potatoes, Carrots and Herbs with Beets

Day 57 

Herb-Roasted Veggies

This was your standard "use what's on hand" type of meal. Typical but yummy.

Day 64

Roasted Round Things

The theme of this meal was round things, like brussels sprouts, mushrooms, tiny potatoes and shallots.

Roasted Round Things

Day 111 

Herb-Roasted Root Vegetables

This one had sweet potatoes, mushrooms and some different herbs than I used tonight.

Day 130 (Today)

Roasted Veggies with Barley

What's different about this one that none of the others had? Two things: parsnips and barley.

Roasted Veggies with Barley

Ingredients

5 potatoes

4 carrots

3 parsnips

1/2 small green cabbage

1/2 medium turnip

1 yellow onion

1 box vegetable broth

3 or 4 bay leaves

1/2 cup pearl barley

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp thyme

1 tp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Roasting ingredients (most of them)

Barley

I simmered the barley and a few bay leaves in the vegetable broth while I was peeling and chopping the other ingredients. 

Barley

It probably simmered about 25 minutes, then I added it all to the roast pan with the chopped vegetables, sprinkled the dried herbs and seasonings on and put it in the oven at 400 degrees F for 50 - 60 minutes. 

Roasted & Ready

Wa-lah! 

I think that's a hilarious word to use for a joke, now that I've accepted that most people will never realize that it's "voila". Laura and I have griped and then joked about it so much that we have adopted it as a "yes, some people are idiots - let's celebrate our brains" word.

Anyway, here is the result. Steaming, aromatic roast pan full of delicious veggies and barley.

Roasted Veggies with Barley

Yes, that's a lot of food. I will be taking this for lunch tomorrow. If anyone I work with wants in, let me know. If anyone Laura works with wants in, let me know. We don't mind being share bears! :)

Reviews/Comments

Thoroughly enjoyable, incredible filling and highly nutritious. Not expensive either. What's not to love?? I give this a 9.

Eggs, Toast & Hash Browns

Day 129

It was my night to cook, so I knew it was going to be potatoes and something. Laura came up with the breakfast idea, and I happily agreed to go with that, quick and simple as it is.

Eggs, Toast & Hash Browns

Tonight's Ingredients

3 eggs
4 Eco-spud potatoes (our feature ingredient)
4 slices potato bread
1 onion
1 tbsp sunflower oil
Butter for the toast and 1 tbsp for frying the eggs

Hash Browns

Potatoes inspired the meal tonight. I just cubed them and put them in the new beloved electric frying pan with a chopped onion and 1 tbsp sunflower oil. Put the lid on, did some dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, flipped them, covered them again, loaded the dishwasher up again. Took about 15 - 20 minutes but they were both tender and browned. Good with ketchup.

Potatoes frying

Eggs Over Medium

We both like eggs fried over medium. That means that the whites are completely cooked and the yolks are partially cooked. That's what it means to me anyway, and how I cook them. Laura says I make them perfect.

Eggs frying

Eggs frying

Toasted Potato Bread

Potato bread's our fav. We luff it so...

Toast toasting

Eggs, toast & hash browns

How Cheap Is It?

Ok, let's figure this out within about a dime.

Potatoes: $6.00/bag. Probably 30 potatoes in a bag. That's about $0.20/potato. We used 4 potatoes tonight which is about $0.80.

Eggs: $3.63/dozen. That's $0.3025 each and we used 3 eggs tonight which is $0.91.

Toast: Potato bread is $3.99/loaf. There are 13 slices in a loaf. That's roughly $0.31 per slice. We toasted 4 slices tonight which is about $1.24.

Onion: Onions are $2.99 for 2 lbs, which is 5 onions. That's about $0.60/onion. I used 1/2 an onion tonight so that's about $0.30.

Butter: Butter is 4.89/lb. There are 64 tbsp in a lb of butter, so that's almost $0.08/tbsp. We probably used 1 tbsp to fry the eggs, plus whatever we used for our toast, which I'm guessing is about 3 or 4 tbsp (I use less than 1 tbsp per slice), so altogether we would have used 4 or 5 tbsp - let's just say 5. That would be $0.40.

Sunflower Oil: This is 9.99 for a gallon. There is 256 tbsp in a gallon and I used 1 tbsp of it to fry the potatoes so the oil cost $0.04.

Total

$0.80 (potatoes)
$0.91 (eggs)
$1.24 (bread)
$0.30 (onion)
$0.40 (butter)
$0.04 (oil)
___________
$3.69

That's $1.85 per meal. Do you love it? I LOVE that!

Reviews/Comments

We were hungry and we both thought it was good. Yummy bread. I give it a 7.5. Then I bump it up to an 8.5 for being quick. Then I bump it up to a 9.5 for being easy. Then I bump it up to a 10 for being cheap,

Laura: 7; the usual breakfast, got the job done; it was good. The bread was yummy and the eggs were perfect.

Apple Blackberry Crisp

Day 127: Bonus Blog

Laura made a late dessert and I thought I'd blog it just for some extra Saturday night fun.

Apple Blackberry Crisp

Apple Blackberry Crisp Recipe

Based on this recipe

Filling:

5 Granny Smith apples
1 pint blackberries
1 lemon (in desperation, we used a lime...it was fine)
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
We skipped the water because it was runny enough

Directions

Soak the blackberries in a bowl of water and vinegar (3 cups water, 1/4 cup vinegar).

Peel, core and slice the apples, squeezing lime (or lemon) juice over them to keep them white until you get them all sliced.

Melt the butter and stir in all the sugar and the cinnamon until the sugar dissolves. Cook for a few minutes and then add the apples and the water. Cook until the apples are soft, stirring occasionally. Drain the blackberries and stir into the apple mixture.

Pour the hot apple mixture into a greased casserole dish.

Topping:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup granola
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions

Mix oats, granola, flour, butter, white sugar and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Pour evenly over the apples in the casserole dish.

Bake about a half an hour in 375 degrees F oven.

Hot, bubbly apple blackberry crisp

Ice Cream

We served ours with Breyers French Vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm.

Breyers French Vanilla ice cream

Apple Blackberry Crisp

Sweet Potato Burritos

Day 127

We had these a month ago and we loved them so much! We really may never make burritos again without sweet potatoes to stuff in with them. You wouldn't think it but the two go together very well.

Sweet Potato Burritos

Sweet Potato Burritos

I took a few pics while Laura made them but there is probably no need to go into detail about the making of them again. If you do want sweet potato burrito instructions, visit the other page from Day 90. There is some extensive bean preparation to be found on it as well.

We plan to have them again tomorrow and then freeze whatever is left. Although...I might want to take one for lunch on Monday. We'll see.

Beans

Sweet potato

Green onions & grated sharp cheddar

Tortillas

Tortilla with sweet potato, beans & cheese

Burritos ready for the oven

Done Like Dinner

Served with sour cream, salsa and green onion.

Sweet potato burritos

Reviews/Comments

Well, I was super hungry by the time we ate so they were the best thing I've ever eaten. Total 10.

Laura's review: "They were good."

I didn't try to get her to elaborate because she's making dessert and I don't want to distract her...stay tuned...

Vegetable Pizza

Day 126

Ugh. I know, I haven't blogged all week. Trust me, I'm not giving up on it. I still continued to take pics and make notes, but I had to give some other projects some attention this week. Now I'm done with those and I can play a bit of catch up.

Vegetable Pizza

Monday, Day 122

Tortilla Soup

This meal merits some attention, because it was fantastic. I should have blogged it on its own page, but I have a feeling it will be making another appearance before the blogging year is over.

It's basically a soup which is similar to a chili, containing beans, corn, peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, etc. Sooo good.

Tortilla soup

Then you serve it with sliced avocado, shredded cheddar, sour cream and cilantro leaves. Just throw it all on top of the soup. I ate it with tortilla chips, using the soup and garnishes as a dip. It was amazing. I took it to work in my lunch the next day and brought enough to share with Patricia and she said she loved it too.

Tortilla Soup

Tuesday & Wednesday, Days 123 & 124

Pizza Subs

These open-faced baked sandwiches were really yummy too. The buns, cheese and toppings that we had on hand were not only enough to make these two nights in a row, but enough for me to take homemade submarine sandwiches in my lunch two days and make a pizza tonight.

Baked pizza oven subs

Pizza subs

Thursday, Day 125

Boston Pizza Mediterranean Vegetable Linguini


Friday, Day 126

Veggie Pizza

My cousin, Julie, gave us a pizza stone and this is the first time we're using it. We were supposed to invite her over to help us test it out, but there was poor planning on our part tonight for that. Plus, we're not having the type of pizza I promised her. Soon though, Jules...soon.

Crust
Laura made the crust from scratch and spread it with Classico Tomato & Basil sauce.

Pizza crust

Toppings
Red onions, green peppers, red peppers, black olives, spinach and fresh mushrooms.

Pizza toppings

Cheese
We used both mozzarella and parmesan.

Mozzarella & parmesan 

A final sprinkle with oregano and it's ready for the oven.

Uncooked veggie pizza

We cooked it at 350 degrees F for about 40 minutes.

Hot, melty veggie pizza

Review/Comments

Come on, homemade pizza is a no-fail. Unless you burn it or something, which we didn't. It would always be good for at least a 7 but with Laura's fantastic yummy homemade crust and our favorite toppings it was definitely a 9. Disappointed we didn't use poppyseeds and sesame seeds on the crust, or stuff it, but it was still amazing.

Lentil Sweet Potato Coconut Curry on Quinoa

Day 121: Part 2 - Supper

I had this recipe bookmarked for awhile, so I thought I would finally try it. It's definitely health food but don't let that scare you, because it tastes fantastic.

Lentil Sweet Potato Coconut Curry on Quinoa

White Quinoa

Unlike the last quinoa dish I made, this time I used white quinoa. Actually, it was Laura's sprouting quinoa. A few went down the sink drain when I was washing it because they're so small they slipped through the mesh. Do you think quinoa will sprout in our pipes?

Quinoa

So, like any grain it's pretty easy to prepare. You do have to wash it, as mentioned, until the water runs clear. But then, it's just a matter of adding 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa and simmering about 15 minutes.

Quinoa, uncooked

Fluff with a fork and it's ready to eat. Sorry, I know that's not exciting.

Lentil Sweet Potato Coconut Curry

The sauce was super easy to make too. Peel and chop the onions, carrots and sweet potatoes. Melt the oil in a saucepan and add the onions. Cook until clear.

Onions in coconut oil

Ingredients

I followed this recipe exactly
1½ tbsp coconut oil
1 cup diced onion
1 cup dried red lentils
1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 large carrot, sliced lengthwise and chopped
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tsp ginger powder
½ tsp sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3½ cups vegetable broth or water
½ cup coconut milk

Some of the curry ingredients

Measure out the lentils and spices. Add the carrots, sweet potatoes, lentils and spices to the onions, give them a stir to incorporate everything and then add the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then turn down and cook on medium-low for 25 minutes.

Lentil sweet potato curry

Add the coconut milk. The sauce will lighten and turn creamy.

Coconut milk

Lentil sweet potato coconut curry

Serve over a grain. Although we used quinoa, this sauce would be good on rice, bulgur wheat, couscous, barley, maybe even orzo.

Lentil Sweet Potato Coconut Curry on Quinoa

Reviews/Comments

I thought this was really good and I even had seconds. I'm rating it an 8 as a side dish and a 7 as the whole dinner. I liked the texture as much as the taste, probably because I love the texture of lentils. In fact, I think it would even be good as a soup instead of a sauce. I plan to take some in my lunch tomorrow...if there's work.

Laura was pleasantly surprised that she liked it at all since it's flavored with 2 spices she typically doesn't enjoy: turmeric and curry powder. However, she did like it and she especially appreciates that it was vegan, which is how she prefers her diet.

Spice drawer