Well...in my attempt to not only start a blog I have also decided that its high time I stop making excuses for not getting my ass out of bed in the morning to do some kind of exercise. I figured that I would start off slow - with a 4 mile jaunt with the pups this morning. Within the first 100 yards Hunt had pooped 3 time and Halie's leash tried to decapitate the diva at least twice. We were off to a stellar start!!! Around the 1.5 mile mark it started to rain, which felt good as the humidity was high and had I not had a hat on I would have looked like a character from the lion king.
We made it home, and with only a few blisters we were fine. Unfortunately I think that Halie won't be able to go on these log walks she seemed to be moving gingerly the rest of the morning Today was fairly decent for a Monday and I was able to get out of the office right on time - which was helpful as I had to pick up an ingredient that I had forgotten at every store I went to yesterday!
So here we go....tonight's recipe was great for a Meatless Monday meal! I walked in the door and turned the oven on so it could be ready when I was. I let the girls outside, and put on my new cooking shirt - what do you think! LOL
I then got my pandora going and was feeling a bit like singing this evening so the BROADWAY station won tonights pick! First song up was from Rent - it was a great start to the night!
Step one - Dice up that eggplant and get it in the sauté pan- bought this bad boy at the farmers market for 50 cents!!
(make note - first photo bomb)
Step 2 - Dice up the onion add some garlic and get it in another sauté pan this is a little different from the recipe - as the original post had you wait until eggplant was done and use the same pan - great for clean up but crappy for time!
SIDE BAR - the first of two kitchen tools you need to have! This is called a stir fry tool from Williams Sonoma and trust me when I tell you this is my favorite tool - I actually have 2 and have given it to many people as a gift! One of the best things about this tool is that it fits in a peanut butter jar perfectly and the peanut butter doesn't stick to it! lol Mom even has one so ask her what she thinks about this awesomeness - here is the link
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/williams-sonoma-silicone-angled-spatula
Back to the cooking - next step getting everything in the food processor. Now I have been fortunate to have a really great food processor, her name is Chop-pot-lay! She was given to me by my sister and brother in law a few years ago and when they gave her to me they were the lucky winner of my hand-me-down which was also fantastic!!
Once they were on the cookie sheet and in the oven I started with the next phase...Zucchini pasta! Now if you do not have this next tool it is one that you will want to go out and get as soon as possible. THE SPIRIALIZER!!!!! You will not be disappointed with this purchase, I am pretty sure that I use it at least three times a week during the summer and then as the fresh veggies taper out during the winter so does my usage. Here is the link
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/paderno-sprializer/
As you can see from my pictures above it is about the easiest thing in the world to use, mine has the 3 different blades, 1 that would give you what I consider a ribbon cut, 2 which would give you a cut like an Arby's curly fry and the last is the one in use - which makes a pasta cut. I have used this thing with so many different veggies that I could write an entire post about it. No joke it will be the best $40 you spend mark my words!
So once this was all sliced up and ready to go I put it in the sauté pan just to warm it up a little bit - I just put a little olive oil in the pan and it was at a very low temp - you don't want a lot of oil or heat or it will shrivel right up on you and not act like "pasta" and you will be disappointed - at least I know I was the first few times!
While that was warming up I also saved some time and used a jar of Trader Joes sauce - I did add a few of those fresh veggies that I chopped up yesterday just to add a little extra to the sauce! I had to channel gram tonight too as I couldn't get my jar opened so I used this little thingy she gave me! Thanks gram!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2014/05/vegan-eggplant-meatballs.html
While everything was warming up I started cleaning up what I could as there really is no way anymore for me to just use one pan while cooking! By the way did you know that you should always let your pans cool completely before trying to clean them?? If you do not do this and you put them in water this will lead to the pan warping which will eventually lead to uneven cooking and well you being pissed off that your meal turned out crappy! Again personal experience - learn from my mistakes people! lol
Now that everything is done its a matter of plating things up - I like to make it look pretty even though I am the only one judging things! I feel like I owe that to myself right??? So here is the final product...
Believe it or not it tasted really good and this is coming from someone who has never liked eggplant! The original recipe stated she got 12 "meatballs" but as you can see I made mine small and ended up with close to 30! I also added another 8 minutes to the cooking time as I wanted them crispy so I flipped them at the 25 minute mark!
Here is the original recipe:
Alrighty my pans have cooled down now so I must go get that kitchen cleaned up!
Happy Cooking!!!
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