The "Big" Salad

After spending a few days with miss amanda rotella in New orleans, i have been thinking about my diet.  it's not bad, but it could be better.  She recommended i take a few weeks and cut a bunch of foods from my diet to help kick start my metabolism.  these foods to be omitted include lactose/dairy, soy, gluten, sugar, pretty much anything white and starchy.  I've been researching cleansing diets but havent had much luck finding the diet plan outlining her advice.

well i digress.  by researching all these healthy diets and cleanses, i have seen some commonalities.  these include greens, lots of greens.  especially bitter greens.  also includes fiber, and citrus.  lots of veggies.  so this inspired my dinner i made for alex and me sunday night, the Big Salad.  it was too delicious to be forgotten!

Big Salad, serves 2

Ingredients:
Juice of two lemons
6 garlic cloves
1 scallion
olive oil, divided
honey to taste
salt and pepper to taste
dash of cayenne
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
balsamic, divided
pint cherry tomatoes
half red onion
arugula
half roasted pepper, sliced
1 carrot, shaved, grated, or julienned
sunflower seeds

Directions:
in a small food processor combine first seven ingredients.  my lemons were quite sour so i needed a lot of honey to balance it out.  Soak beans in dressing while preparing rest of ingredients.
half cherry tomatoes.  toss with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.  slow roast on rack at about 300-350 degrees, depending on time.
dice red onion and saute on medium heat until beginning to brown.  add salt and splash of balsamic, lower heat and saute until beginning to caramelize.
divide arugula between two bowls.  top with tomatoes, beans/dressing, onions, carrots, roasted pepper, sunflower seeds.  Serve and enjoy!

Eggplant Crisps with Skordalia and Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Balsamic Roasted Squash

Eggplant Crisps with Skordalia and Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Trying to clean out the fridge, I stumbled on this recipe. all I needed to complete it was eggplant and some herbs. It was a very time consuming recipe (allow almost 3 hours!), but very delicious. Timing is everything...

First, preheat oven and prep garlic, tomatoes, and eggplant. The garlic can roast during the first hour with the tomatoes. since i don't know my oven well yet, I would turn the temp down next time, as it seems to be running very high. My tomatoes were roasted after an hour, not really oven-dried. Soak the eggplant in just enough milk (NOT 4 cups) for the first hour while the tomatoes and garlic roast. Then prep and boil the potatoes, almonds, mix together sans roasted garlic, and set aside. Once garlic is roasted and cooled, it can be mixed in. Then prep the eggplant breading ingredients. check on tomatoes and garlic (should be about an hour, remove garlic if done), and start breading eggplant. While breaded eggplant is resting, prep the other dish you are serving. Alex started frying the eggplant while I did this (he also breaded it, it is useful to have a sous chef!) Take tomatoes out when they are done and start stacking. before serving. I would let it rest in a 200 degree oven to bring everything to temperature.

It was suggested to double the roasted garlic, which I did, but it was waay too garlicky! I couldn't get the taste out even the next morning! A lot of people say this isn't a true skordalia, but it resembles what I have tried at Mykonos, and the soft texture compliments the crunchy eggplant very well. This whole dish has a lot of flavor! We can't wait to eat leftovers! (tonight possibly?) Also I used only 2% milk (what I had on hand) for soaking the eggplant and subbed for the cream in the potatoes. Others have suggested omitting the butter and cream and subbing with olive oil, but since I had milk, that is what I used. Our eggplant did not yield 18 slices, more like 12. There is exactly enough left for us to have one more stack each.

Also we decided to make balsamic roasted squash. I bought 1 large zucchini, 3 small yellow squash, sliced and quartered. Then I diced half a sweet onion. Threw all in a roasting pan with a splash balsamic, olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper (ended up needing more balsamic at the end, will put in more next time!) and roasted in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes. SO good!

Served with garlic bread, that baked next to squash while it was roasting. If I had two ovens, I could have heated the eggplant through, but we just ate it at room temperature. definitely was an amazing dinner!