Breaded Eggplant Parmesan

Back in September I found this great recipe in Whole Living Magazine . I have been wanting to try it out for several months and finally got around to it this weekend. Husband gave it a rating of a 10 so it is for sure a winner for our kitchen! It has so much great flavor and if you are looking for a great meal for your "meatless monday" this is for sure one to try out.

The original recipe is called: Breaded Eggplant with Arugula and Parmesan

Here of course is my version:

Ingredients:

1 medium sized eggplant - cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick slices
coarse salt
1/4 cup flour
1 large egg, whisked with 1 TBSP water
1 cup breadcrumbs - I made homemade garlic ones
1 cup EVOO
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (can find vegan subs)

Directions:

Arrange slices of eggplant in a colander and coat both sides with salt. Let set for 30 minutes then rinse and pat dry (this step takes away some of the bitterness of the eggplant).
Divide flour, egg mixture, and bread crumbs mixed with parm cheese into three separate bowls.
Dip each slice of eggplant into flour, then egg, then bread/parm mix until both sides are nicely coated.
Heat oil in large skillet and fry eggplant until crisp and golden on both sides.
Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain grease and serve warm.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving spending Thursday with Small Group friends and Friday at home together. I was determined to cook us a big meal so that we could enjoy leftovers and stock a couple more things in the freezer before our baby girl arrives. These recipes are SO simple and a great way to use up your leftovers.

Shepherds Pie 

Ingredients:
mashed potatoes
peas or green beans (really any leftover veggie)
ham or turkey

Directions:
In the bottom of a casserole dish place veggies and meat mixing with a little bit of broth or water so they don't dry out. Add seasoning as you desire, onions and garlic are a go to for our house.
Top w/ mashed potatoes and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Split Pea Soup 

Ingredients:
2 cups peas (dried, canned, frozen)
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced onion
1 cup diced ham
4 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
I just throw all the ingredients in my slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours. This freezes great and of course goes good with those leftover dinner rolls.

AND a Tastefully Simple recipe using that leftover Turkey - from TS Recipes.

Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup (we try to stay away from this but once in a while it won't kill you!)
1/2 cup water
1 TBS Wahoo! Chili Seasoning Blend
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Garlic
1 cup Corn and Black Bean Salsa
2 cups cubed turkey
4 flour or 6 corn tortillas - cut into strips
1/2 cup cheese (can sub Daiya)

Directions:
Stir the ingredients minus cheese in a large bowl to mix. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart shallow baking dish. Top w/ cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until bubbling.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving!

Peanut Butter Goodness!

Being almost 37 weeks pregnant means I want dessert every night. Having the doctor tell me at EVERY appointment that I need to work on gaining weight means I get dessert every night. :)

The husband LOVES peanut butter, to the point I can't really keep it in the house. His meal of choice when we need something quick is a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. He can eat an entire bag of Reeses in one sitting and if you have seen him you would never know he eats like that!

On the other hand I am not really a peanut butter person. I really don't even like sweets but I guess Lucy does because being pregnant makes me want to eat not just sweet things but peanut butter. Weird.

I needed a good recipe and one I had all the ingredients on hand for last night so I called my sister to help me search our Pinterest Boards for something good! We found these:

Special K Cookies

I renamed them Peanut Butter Goodness because I didn't have Special K cereal but I did have some off brand honey nut cheerios that needed to be used up. Here is what I ended up doing and by the way it turned out amazing! There is NOTHING healthy about these and I can't even really promote them as I am normally really against white corn syrup but ...

Peanut Butter Goodness

Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups cheerios

Directions:
1. Combine syrup, sugar, vanilla and salt in a microwave-safe dish. Cook on high 3-4 minutes or until mixture boils and sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in peanut butter then add cereal.
3. Drop on waxed paper in the size and shape you want. Let cool in fridge before serving.

Prep for Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving food - although I am not a fan of turkey. Seems a little odd but turkey just hasn't been my favorite for many years. Such a shame as there is so much you can do with the leftovers but I prefer to spurge on a ham and have the husband grill it! 

Our Thanksgiving menu otherwise is pretty traditional. 

Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing
Green Beans
Rolls
Pecan Pie

This year we will be of course grilling ham. I always use some kind of Tastefully Simple glaze - not sure which one this year but leaning towards our Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce or just  a simple coat of Burger and Brat Mustard leftover from our Spring/Summer line that we both love on everything. 

The mashed potatoes are the easiest part. I use my slow cooker to help cut down on so much in and out of the oven (ham on the grill helps this too!). I dice my potatoes into 1 inch pieces and throw them in with enough water to cover them and a little salt. When they are soft I just mash them with a potato masher, you could use a hand held beater if you are worried they will be too chunky. Then I add a ton of Garlic Garlic (ts), butter (earth balance vegan), and sour cream (green valley lactose free). When it is blended together they are ready to serve. 

The stuffing I am going to try this year is from a recipe my aunt made last year for Thanksgiving. It was amazing so I asked her to pass it on so we could enjoy it again this year. 

Bread Stuffing with Sausage and Apples

10 cups of bread cubes (½ inch)  (combination whole wheat and other breads) **

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped

3 medium celery ribs with leaves, chopped with leaves

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 lb. pork sausage 

3 – 4 raw apples finely chopped, with peelings on (or 3 oz. chopped dried apples)

2 – 3 cups of reduced sodium chicken broth 

Thyme and sage (or 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning)

Salt

Pepper

To dry bread cubes, let them stand at room temperature over night.  Or bake them in a 350 degree oven, stirring occasionally until dry, 20 – 30 minutes. Do not toast. The bread will crisp as it cools.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, celery and parsley.  Cook, stirring often until the onion is golden, about 10 minutes.

Scrape the vegetables and butter into a bowl with the bread cubes.

In the same skillet over medium heat, brown sausage until cooked through, about 10 minutes.. Use a spoon to break up the meat as it cooks. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add cooked sausage and apples to bread mixture. Toss so bread is coated evenly. At this point stuffing can be covered and refrigerated  for 24 hours.

Add thyme, sage (or poultry seasoning) to stuffing.

Place stuffing in a buttered baking dish and drizzle with additional broth if need more moisture. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Or place in slow cooker on low temperature for about 5 hours.

Servings: 10 cups

** Note: One (15-ounce) bag cubed seasoned stuffing can be used as a substitute.

The green beans are a tradition at our house. They are Kevin's favorite veggie so I always stock up when they are in season and freeze several batches for the winter months. I mix them with a little bit of Meyer's Lemon Oil (TS), garlic and sliced almonds. Great alternative to the midwest green bean casserole I grew up on since we are doing our best to stay away from cream based soups in our cooking. These just need warming in the oven and are ready to serve. 

In past years for the rolls I have made a loaf of Bountiful Beer Bread. This year I haven't decided on what I might do. I am thinking about a package of crescent rolls using Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning with butter (TS). 

Now on to dessert - Kevin's favorite pie is Pecan. Last year I searched forever for a good recipe that I could make homemade. This is the best one I have found - Pecan Pie -  and will go with it again this year. It makes two so I will be able to freeze one for when my family is in town for Christmas. Pecan Pie is my dad's favorite too! 

Time to get shopping - then on to cooking - then on to the leftover menu! YUM

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Beer Cheese Au Gratin Potatoes (not dairy free)

Since it is towards the end of the month we are trying to use up lots of items from our pantry and sometimes that means getting creative. I actually look forward to this time each month because often our best dinners and new recipes come out of random things in the kitchen. This morning I realized I had 6 potatoes, 1/2 lb ground sausage, 1/2 onion and some soy milk to use up. I knew I wanted to use up those potatoes before they started to sprout even though I knew I could freeze the sausage and onions for another month.

My next thought was to look in the pantry and see what I had Tastefully Simple wise - one of the best parts of the business is experimenting with the products and coming up with new recipes. It keeps me excited about the business and the opportunity that I can provide people. I found a sample pack of Bountiful Beer Cheese Soup - a product that I am still playing around with. I have found that when I want soup I can thin it out with a little extra beer or milk or leave it thick to pour over our Bountiful Beer Bread. The only ingredients it needs is beer and milk or you can always omit the beer and add the extra milk. I often don't suggest it to clients as just a soup but offer all the other ways you can use it. I was so happy to find another fun way to use the product today and can't wait to share it with my November hosts!

From the ingredients I had I did a 1/2 recipe, but listed below is for a full recipe since as a client you can only order it that way.


Beer Cheese Au Gratin Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 package Bountiful Beer Cheese Soup
1/2 cup beer
4 cups milk (I used soy)
1 lb ground sausage
1 onion, diced
10-12 potatoes, sliced thin

Directions:
* Thinly slice potatoes and place 1/2 of them in slow cooker.
* Cook ground sausage and onions - when browned add beer cheese soup mix with beer and milk. Whisk to mix and heat until it starts to thicken.
* Pour 1/2 of the mixture over potatoes and add rest of potatoes, then finish off by adding the rest of the soup sausage mix.
* Cook in your slow cooker on low for 5 hours or until potatoes are soft.

*** Please note this recipe is NOT dairy free - the Bountiful Beer Cheese Soup does contain a powdered cheese. I did the best I could by using soy milk instead of regular as I really wanted to experiment with a product my clients really love!

Egg Drop Soup

We eat a lot of Chinese food at our house. It is such an easy and affordable way to go dairy free plus we love experimenting with different recipes. I had been craving a really simple Egg Drop Soup and happened to have some edamame and frozen egg rolls to use up.

I found the original recipe on Mommypotamus. A great blog for parenting and fun recipes. I of course adapted it for us - for example my recipe doesn't have celery in it only because I didn't have it on hand. However, this turned out amazing and reheats great as well.

photo credit 

Egg Drop Soup - original recipe 

Ingredients:
1 diced onion
1 TBS coconut butter
1 teaspoon soy sauce
8 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons sesame oil
8 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
chopped green onion for garnish

Directions:
* Add coconut butter to medium-sized pot and warm adding onions until soft.
* Add chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil and bring to a boil
* Stir in egg gently
* Use salt and pepper to taste and add green onion before serving

Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Here is another fantastic squash recipe - this time using Acorn Squash!



Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash - original recipe

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash - halved and seeded
1 TBS EVOO
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 lb ground sausage - hot
1/4 cup diced onion
1 diced apple - granny smith
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
1 egg - beaten

Directions:
* After you have halved and seeded the squash drizzle with EVOO and garlic salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. (fill pan w/ a small amount of water to cook the squash in, helps prevent burning)
* Make stuffing: fry sausage and remove from pan, in drippings from pan fry onion and apple until lightly browned.
* Combine onion and apple mixture to sausage and add breadcrumbs. Season to taste.
* Stir in beaten egg.
* Fill squash halves with stuffing mixture - they should be slightly mounded.
* Return to oven and bake, covered with foil for 20 more minutes.