Well, it has been awhile but we are back, and on track now! To make up for the lack of posting last week, today we will have a double Meatless Monday, from last week and this week. Both Mondays had very creative things and exciting food and both were delicious. I can tell you for lunch and breakfast both weeks I had Cheerios and Grilled Cheese. I do not think anyone needs recipes for either one of those, but just to let you know we did add homegrown tomatoes to our grilled cheese both weeks, and yeah, only I am eating the Cheerios, Laura is eating Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch!

Monday 10.11.2010

Veggies getting ready for ratatouille!So for this day we had some Eggplant that needed to be picked from the garden, and we also had some zucchini that needed to be cooked. As I racked my brain trying to figure out that to do about this situation of combining both of these veggies. Well, after some recipe searching! I found it! Ratatouille!

Now the recipe was fairly easy, and it tasted great! It took a little bit of time, with all of the simmering, but it was absolutely delicious. We served the Rataouille over some farfalle pasta, and it worked great! The recipe can be found here, or here it is written out for everyone:

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes with juice
• Red, yellow, and green bell pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces, about 1 to 1 1/2 cups
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil, about 12 large leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Dash dried leaf oregano
• 3 small zucchini, halved lengthwise then sliced
• Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

Preparation:

Peel eggplant and cut in 1-inch cubes; put in a colander and sprinkle with the salt. Let stand in the sink for about 20 to 30 minutes to drain.

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is tender. Add the tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, pepper, and oregano. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add zucchini and eggplant; cover and continue simmering for 10 to 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Taste and add salt, if needed. Serve with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Serves 4 to 6.

Here are some photo's of how it turned out for us!                                                                                                

  Ratatouille simmering, with fresh picked basil and oregano getting ready to go inLet the simmering begin!

Finished product!

Monday 10.18.2010

Ingredient Volcano!Laura with a ball of doughCutting the dough log.   Noodles unrolled and ready to cook!

So, Laura and I have always talked about making our own pasta. We have been talking about this for about five years now. Well, about a month or two ago, we finally did it! It was pretty easy and very delicious! So we thought that it would only be appropriate to use this for an excellent meatless Monday.

We Used:

2 1/2 Cups of Flour
3 Eggs
1 tablespoon of butter
and milk for consistency

You mix all of the ingredients together and kneed them until you get an even consistency and get a nice large ball of dough. Then you quarter you ball of dough into four balls of dough. You take each ball individually and with a rolling pin, flatten as thin as you can. From there you roll up your dough into a log type shape. Cut your dough into slice of desired with of the pasta. Then unroll your slices, and you have a noodle! This pasta when fresh takes about 4 minutes to cook in boiling water!

We also added an Alfredo sauce to the pasta. To make the sauce, start with 1 table spoon of butter and melt it in a saucepan, add in 4 oz of heavy whipping cream, let them cream and butter get hot and intermingle, then add 3 to 4 oz of shredded parmesan cheese, until desired consistency. We then added in some fresh cut broccoli and then you add the sauce into the pasta.

For this meal we also had a side of grilled Eggplant, and grilled crooked neck squash. These were left over from the other night, but I will tell you really fast how to make it, since it is super easy and super yummy.

Take a whole eggplant, or desired amount or desired amount of squash. Cut into 1/2 inch slices length wise. Brush both sides with olive oil, and salt and pepper. The on just the eggplant brush both sides also with balsamic vinegar. You throw those on the grill, cook each side for 10 minutes, only flip once, and your done, and it's delicious! 

Sorry about the long delay of your Meatless Monday fix, but I hope some homemade pasta and some Ratatouille made up for it! If you have any suggestions let me know, or energy saving ideas!

Pictures of the complete product below!grilled eggplant and crooked-neck squash

---Justin J. Stewart

complete homemade broccoli Alfredo.