A Fall Dinner Bowl

Is anyone else excited by the time change? I love that it's light out again when I wake up in the mornings! This morning I could see the roads when I was roller blading. That's refreshing, especially since I took a little spill last week while trying to glide through gravel-disguised-as-asphalt. Oops.

This chilly weather makes me crave warm foods & blankets. When I found this delicious recipe on EatingBirdFood.com for Kale & Sweet Potato Brown Rice Bowls, I knew I had to make it.

I used white beans instead of garbanzos, mainly because we've been eating lots of hummus lately & I thought we could use the nutrients of another bean. They went really well with the other flavors & textures.

Sorry for the dark pictures, but by the time I realized how seriously delicious this was, all natural light was gone. Believe me when I say this was one of the best dinners I've eaten in awhile. It wasn't really hard, either. Chop up some sweet potatoes & throw them in the oven to roast. Dump the rice in the rice cooker/pot on stove & let it cook. Easy!

It was warming & full of nutrition, perfect for a chilly fall evening.

On the side, we had Mama Pea's Bliss Salad. It paired perfectly with the meal! I subbed green bell pepper for the red, cashews for peanuts, & added apple chunks instead of green onions. I liked the hint of sweet that the apple lent to the salad.

I think you should try both of these recipes! They're easy to make & so delicious!!

Eggplant Chips with Fresh Tomato Sauce

I wanted to feed these to my nephew. He was really interested in them, & watched very carefully when we were flipping them while they baked.

Poor guy couldn't have any, though. Something about not having teeth & just starting on solid foods? I guess itsy bitsy babies aren't quite ready to eat eggplant chips. :-) When he is, I'm inviting him for dinner! I think he's going to eat like a champ.  

While he finished trick-or-treating with his mom & dad, we had deconstructed eggplant parmesan.

We still have a few lingering tomatoes from our garden, so I loosely followed my recipe for Fresh Tomato Basil Soup  to make the sauce:

Fresh Tomato Dipping Sauce

Serves 2

8 fresh tomatoes, any variety (should be 3 c once pureed)
1 T minced garlic
1 T Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper

Quarter tomatoes and remove the white stem/core. Fill VitaMix/blender with tomatoes and process until smooth. There should be no skins or seeds visible at this point - they should be blended together with the juices. Transfer to a medium pot and heat over medium heat. Once the soup comes to a low simmer, add minced garlic, Italian seasoning, onion powder, salt and pepper. Let cook on medium low for 15-20 minutes to allow flavors to develop, stirring occasionally. Ladle into bowls and serve!

The star of the dinner was the eggplant, though. It crisped up nicely in the oven, making it easy to dip into the sauce. We sprinkled vegan parmesan cheese over the top to complete the eggplant parmesan taste.

Eggplant Chips

Serves 2

1 large eggplant

sea salt

Preheat oven to 400*F. Slice eggplant as thinly as possible. Lay slices on a towel & sprinkle with sea salt. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to sweat out any excess liquid. Pat dry with towel. On several baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray, place slices in single layers. Bake for 8 minutes, flip, and bake another 8 minutes. Flip again and bake until crisp, checking often to prevent burning.



October Snow

There is something very wrong with that picture.

Flower & snow do NOT go together!

But they did on Saturday. Everything was covered in a blanket of white!

We declared a snow day & watched it fall from the warmth of our home.

For awhile, we were afraid the tree branches were going to break. At one point, the Bup went onto our front porch stoop & was able to knock snow off of a branch with a broom. Usually you couldn't even come close to touching a branch from the stoop, but the snow was SO heavy!

We worried that the branches would knock down the power lines. The power flickered off & on a few times, but we were fortunate to not lose it for any length of time.

Right after the snow started, we covered the garden. The tarp covered the purple bell peppers, the glass "greenhouse" went over the lettuce, and we put a tee-pee sheet over the other lettuce patch.

The kale wasn't fazed. Snow? No biggie!

I picked some swiss chard & then we left the rest to chance. The big leaves collected a lot of snow, so some of the stems snapped, but it didn't kill it.

It was so strange to see all that snow during October!

Our garden survived the snow storm, only to get frost bite the next night. :-(  The greenhouse lettuce is still alive, though, so we have fresh greens for a little longer! I'm hoping with the warmer weather we're getting now that a few of the plants that didn't get too much frost will perk back up.

I saved my last roses from the snow. They're a nice bright spot on the counter to remind us of sunshine.

How did everyone else in the northeast survive the snow?