FOODIE FRIDAY NUMBER ONE

I was having a hard time thinking of posts today and then remembered that I made delicious food this week and should share. I think I will call it Foodie Friday. If I have any sense I will make it a regular feature. This will mean that I will have to make at least one fun and exciting dish a week. This will keep me from eating the same stuff all the time, or so I think. Since this is the first Foodie Friday I’ll put in two recipes, cause I made two new yummy things this week. As this goes on I plan to hoard recipes in case of emergency and will provide only one.

Vegetarian Egg Rolls- Prep time 12 minutes, Baking time 15 minutes
I was excited by this because I have never made egg rolls before. These were really basic but incredibly yummy. This amount of filling yielded about 12 small egg rolls, I think. Obviously many common egg roll ingredients are missing from this recipe but that’s cause I didn’t have them and I wanted to make egg rolls.

½ brick of super firm tofu finely diced
1 cup mushrooms diced
2 cups fresh spinach chopped
4 good sized radishes grated
1 clove garlic chopped or pressed
1 lime
½ onion
12 egg roll wrappers
2 tbsp canola oil

Preheat oven to 350
Heat 1tbsp oil in skillet over high heat
Fry tofu in oil for about 2-3 minutes until nice and brown
Turn heat down to medium
Add onion and cook for one minute
Add garlic, mushrooms, spinach, and radishes cook till spinach is limp
Add juice of the lime (and a little zest if you so desire)
Turn of heat and let mixture cool
Put 1tbsp oil on baking sheet (you could use Pam but I was out)
Put approximately 2tbsp of mixture in each wrapper and roll em up (use a little water on last folded edge to make sure it stays sealed)
Bake for 10 minutes or until browned and crispy turning once
ENJOY

Not Moussaka Not Lasagna Baked Yum- Prep Time 30 minutes, Baking/cooling time 55 minutes
I had an eggplant and didn’t know what to do with it. I usually make some ratatouille or something but I wasn’t feeling it. I needed some inspiration. This is what I came up with. I would say it makes about 6 servings

2 baking potatoes
1 large eggplant
Olive oil
½ onion diced
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 large can whole tomatoes
1/8 cup fresh basil chopped
Salt, Pepper, sugar, and garlic powder to taste
½ cup feta cheese (I used this great fat free stuff Mom introduced me to)
½ cup low fat plain yogurt
½ cup grated mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Slice eggplant into ½ inch thick rounds
Brush rounds lightly with olive oil on both sides and bake 10 min on each side

Cut potatoes into thin rounds (as thin as you would for au gratin or something)
Microwave potatoes for about 2 min (I like mine real mushy. If you like a firmer potato don’t do this)

While eggplant is baking and potato cooling, make some sauces
Crush feta cheese and mix with yogurt (with the addition of some grated cucumber, garlic powder, and a dash of pepper this makes a fine dip on its own, thanks again Mom)
Add onion and garlic to the feta mixture

Drain juice out of tomatoes
Plop tomatoes in blender or food processor
Add basil and a little of those other to taste spices
Blend
Taste to see if you need more of any spices (you can see I cook on the fly)

By this time the eggplant should be done and if it isn’t just chill out and read a blog for a few minutes or something.

Remove eggplant from oven and turn heat up to 450

Get a casserole dish I think mine is 9x9in and 6in deep and get to layering
Put a tiny bit of tomato sauce on the bottom to avoid stickiness
The layers go like this
Eggplant
Potato
Feta spread
Mozzarella
Sauce
Continue until you run out of food, mine fit perfectly and on the last layer I went sauce mozzarella instead of mozzarella sauce cause who doesn’t like a cheesy top layer?

Bake for 45 minutes and let cool for 10
ENJOY