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| The pups. |
The Meal Plan:
Sat (L) soup and artichoke dip (S) leftover Chinese
Sun (L)
Mon (yoga) leftover eggplant
Tues - leftover brats
Wed - leftover eggplant
Thurs (yoga) leftover brats
Fri - leftovers
Artichoke Dip (modified from Cooks Country)
I bought the ingredients to make this dip to enjoy during football, but we got busy, I forgot, etc so I put it on the meal plan for this past week. Except I forgot to double check the recipe and realized I didn't have the spinach. Drat and bother. A quick review of options led me to this one.
A couple of substitutions: I used panko bread crumbs instead of making my own crumbs, canned artichokes instead of frozen, dried thyme in lieu of fresh, and pickled jalepeno's instead of fresh parsley and cayanne pepper.
Result: very good. Creamy, a little bit of zing from the jalepenos, and a tich of crunch from the panko. I warmed up a baguette and served this along side a bowl of butternut squash soup. Recommended.
Topping:
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Creamy Base 2 (14.5-ounce) cans artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained well
3 teaspoons olive oil
½ teaspoon table salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 cup (8 oz) light cream cheese,at room temperature ½ cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese
¼ cup low-fat sour cream
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapenos
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray 2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
For the topping: combine panko with 1/2 tsp oil, mix well. Add Parmesan and stir.
For the base: Toss artichoke hearts with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil, salt, and pepper on parchment lined baking sheet. Roast in 425-degree oven until browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then chop coarse.
Heat remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Add artichokes and cook until beginning to brown and liquid evaporates, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Pulse cream cheese, cheddar, sour cream, Parmesan, lemon juice, and jalapenos with prepared artichoke mixture until coarsely chopped, about ten 1-second pulses. Season with salt and pepper. Scrape mixture into prepared dish. (Dip can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring back to room temperature before baking.)
Sprinkle topping over dip and lightly spray crumbs with cooking spray. Bake until browned and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve.
Eggplant Parmesan (Eating Well, Oct 2020) vegetarian
Unlike the Broccoli-Tatertot Hotdish from last week, this was very easy to pull together with plenty of time to clean up and set the table. I made this as written (shocking, right?), and my only observations are - it needs more tomato sauce. At least an extra two cups. It was not as "saucy" as I would have liked and a bit on the dry side. I suspect the eggplant soaked up quite a bit of the liquid in addition to evaporation in the oven.
I did use a spicy marinara, which added a nice bit of zing! I did increase the red pepper flakes to a teaspoon. Yum!
Other than the dish being a bit on the dry side, this was quite good and I would absolutely make it again.
A 9x13 pan made four meals for two of us.
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| Photo from eatingwell.com |
1 serving Canola or olive oil cooking spray
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons water
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 medium eggplants (about 2 pounds total), cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick slices
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
1 (24 ounce) jar no-salt-added tomato sauce
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, torn, plus more for serving
2 cloves garlic, grated
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
Position racks in middle and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 400°F. Coat 2 baking sheets and a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Whisk eggs and water in a shallow bowl. Mix breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup Parmesan and Italian seasoning in another shallow dish. Dip eggplant in the egg mixture, then coat with the breadcrumb mixture, gently pressing to adhere.
Arrange the eggplant in a single layer on the prepared baking sheets. Generously spray both sides of the eggplant with cooking spray. Bake, flipping the eggplant and switching the pans between racks halfway, until the eggplant is tender and lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, mix tomato sauce, basil, garlic and crushed red pepper in a medium bowl.
Spread about 1/2 cup of the sauce in the prepared baking dish. Arrange half the eggplant slices over the sauce. Spoon 1 cup sauce over the eggplant and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan and 1/2 cup mozzarella. Top with the remaining eggplant, sauce and cheese.
Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden, 20 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with more basil before serving, if desired.
Julekaga (Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Bread)
Too long to type out the recipe, but I recommend this cookbook! It's become my go-to for baking bread.
Which is how I know *I* made a mistake with the recipe and a big one too. I'm pretty sure I killed the yeast. Clayton recommends a water temp of 120-130* for his yeast, and even with checking mine was at or below 130*, I think it was too high for the yeast I used. My bread did. not. rise.
Factors I eliminated:
Yeast is new and stored in the freezer
All ingredients were at room temp
Flour was still good and was bread flour
Though! I did use Gold Medal bread flour and not KA so...maybe a small factor there?
Plenty of food for the yeast
While the bread was still edible, it was not how it "should have been". I'll try again.
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