Spinach, Tomato, and Eggplant, Oh My!

Sometimes simplicity is best. I had an eggplant from the farmer's market on Tuesday that I hadn't used yet, and I'm determined to not let my produce go bad. (On a slightly unrelated note, I have a bag in my freezer where I'm collecting vegetable scraps and veggies slightly past their prime so that when winter arrives in 2 weeks-this is Wisconsin, remember-I can make a big ol' pot of vegetable stock. Just this morning I threw some wilted scallions and mushrooms in there.) Eggplant isn't really a stock vegetable, and I didn't feel like taking the time to find a recipe, so I decided to just slice it up and roast it. The only ingredients: eggplant and freshly ground black pepper. The results:
Perfectly roasted eggplant. It took less than 5 minutes to prep the eggplant, which I threw in the oven (on an unknown temperature, because our gas oven has no temperature dial) and checked on it periodically. I enjoyed this on a whole wheat pita with hummus, tomato slices, and spinach. I ate my sandwich before I could take a picture. More proof that it's neither difficult nor time-consuming to eat delicious, healthy food.

Fuck You, Food Court

I pretty much always make my lunch and bring it to work, for a number of reasons: to save money, to eat healthier, to eat awesome food instead of crappy processed shit, etc, etc. With the warm weather I've been going with simple sandwiches like hummus, tomato, and cucumber on whole wheat with a piece of seasonal fruit. Last night I got home past my bedtime and a bit tipsy so I didn't have time to make my lunch before work. There is literally a brand new food court right outside the door of where I work, so I figured if I was willing to compromise a bit, the whole forgetting to bring a lunch thing would be of little consequence.

Turns out my definition of "food" differs significantly from popular understanding of the word. There is an appalling lack of healthy, veg-friendly choices. There's a Chinese food place where every vegetable is accompanied by either chicken or beef. There's a stir fry place that doesn't have any tofu. There's a pizza place, which is relatively veg-friendly but not terribly healthy. And finally there's a sandwich place, which thankfully made me a veggie sandwich, despite its nonexistence on the menu.

So I complained about this conundrum to a friend of mine, who decided to write what was supposed to be a humorous blog about my problem. He began with the sentence "I know a girl who can't eat lot."

BIG mistake.

I am in no way a picky eater. I am convinced that I have more variety in my diet than 95% of the American population. Just because I don't eat meat, and I prefer not to eat processed, food-like shit, does not mean that I "can't eat a lot." Just the other day I went to the farmer's market and could have bought any item of produce there and made a meal out of it. (For the record, I went with green peppers, eggplant, onions, tomatos, scallions, and pears. The veggies have yet to be used but the pears are fucking AWESOME.) I totally resent the idea that because what I eat falls outside of what is mainstream that I'm necessarily disabled or hindered. I eat almost every cuisine and pretty much every vegetable or fruit. I may have some atypical guidelines for what I will or won't eat, but within those guidelines I like and consume virtually anything.

Furthermore, I've been biking to and from work 5 days a week, walking my dog Xavi 2 to 3 times a day, and trying to get my marathon training on track. I demand a lot of my body and don't see the fucking point of putting low quality fuel in it when I'm so dependent on its functionality. I think this is kind of a silly analogy, but would you put shitty gas in your car if it needed premium? Fuck that. Only the best for this girl.

This is less a recipe than a rant, but it relates to food so I feel somewhat justified. Just for good measure, here's a pic of last week's farmer's market haul and the little guy:

My CURRY Conundrum

Let's face it, American food is fucking horrible, especially for those of us who don't consider livestock to be a viable food group. Personally, I gravitate towards cuisine from the Eastern Hemisphere. Luckily, there's no shortage of Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, or Middle Eastern restaurants around here, but seeing as I just took a big fucking paycut I probably won't be visiting those places terribly often. I've cooked curries at home before (I even have a 700-page Indian food cookbook with 1,000 recipes) but they always seem to lack something. I've resorted to buying ready-made curry paste at the store, but something about that feels like a cop-out.

Delicious guilt:


This particular curry was easy as hell. All you need is an onion, a tomato, some mushrooms, a couple peppers, a can of chickpeas, curry paste, some water, and about an hour of simmering time to cook off the extra liquid.

Since I used the last of our curry paste in this dish, I decided to try my hand at making my own this morning. It looks pretty good, but I haven't actually cooked anything with it yet. I think I will wait to post my homemade curry paste until I can check it for quality and modify, since I can pretty much guarantee that I won't get it right on the first try.

ZUCCHINI in a wok

Yes, I took a picture of this with my cell.

Let me preface this by saying that today I went to the Italian market and spent only ten dollars to purchase the following vegetables: two small bunches romaine, a large bunch of spinach, head of cabbage, three green peppers, a pound of tomatoes, two bunches of scallions, 5 heads of garlic, 4 banana peppers, 1 pound of broccoli, two avocados... 

I deduced it would be worth noting.

But I wish I had picked up some cilantro, too. If you add cilantro to the following recipe at the end, I guarantee it will be totally delicious.

So I had a motherlarge zucchini from the garden, and prepared it as such. I didn't work from a recipe, so the amounts of each ingredient are all... well... not really present. Season to taste!

Another side note, I never cook with table salt or any kind of sugar. That is, not even any of my seasonings or sauces contain either of these things. I find them rather overused and flavor consuming, not to mention my body goes "what the fuck?" every time I insert more than a negligible amount of straight sugar or salt into it...

Anyway...

INGREDIENTS (appr amount I used):

olive oil or sesame oil (1 tbsp)

fresh garlic (4-5 cloves)

fresh ginger (I guess a piece about the size of your thumb)

scallions (1 bunch, that is, about 5 large ones)

zucchini (1 HUGE zucchini. The equivalent of 2-3 normal sized ones)

liquid aminos (you can use soy sauce if that's what you like. I personally prefer liquid aminos)

black pepper 

paprika

SERVED OVER: This stuff I kept raw, mixed together in a bowl, and served my zucchini atop.

tomato

green pepper

spinach

dash sesame chili oil

dash black pepper

dash liquid aminos

I'd also recommend adding cilantro, chick peas, hummus, tahini, and/or falafel. I, however, had none of these, and so ate it without them. (It was still delicious.) I probably also would have just put the whole thing in a pita or wrap if I a.) had pitas/wraps b.) was not sensitive to wheat/gluten/starch/whatever the fuck it is. But I recommend the pita idea for you.

ACCOMPANIED BY: Mint iced tea. 

Step one: insert peppermint tea bag into room temperature tap water in a cup. Step two: swish it around a bit. Step three: Drink that shit. Add ice if you want. Best. Drink. Ever.  I suppose some people would like it even better with a bit of honey. I carry unsweetened peppermint tea around in my water bottle all day. Also, peppermint tea is great for stomach pains! Er, at least the kind I've been having. I get quite nauseous at times when my stomach is empty, probably due to some ulcers leftover from ibuprofen or something. For a while, I was taking antacids for this. And then I discovered that peppermint tea works just as well! I usually carry a tea bag with me in my purse. That way, if I end up thirsty, I can grab some water and throw it in for some delicious and sugarless refreshment.

DIRECTIONS:

Hear oil. Saute garlic, ginger, and scallions until aromatic and slightly browned. Add cubed zucchini. You may want to cut some of the tougher seeds out, if you're using a big one. I only had to cut out the innards of a few slices. It usually ends up soft enough upon cooking that the seeds are not bothersome.

Add enough black pepper and paprika to coat the zucchini. Squirt on liquid aminos or soy sauce. If you haven't cooked with liquid aminos before, add to taste. If you season with too much, you may end up with zucchini that's way too salty. I don't think you want that.

Cover and cook until desired tenderness is reach.

I recommend removing the cover every few minutes to stir, and simply to smell it. That ginger and garlic is delicious...

Uncover and cook off some of the excess liquid. Then serve over a bowl of greens and veggies, as mentioned above.

This was pretty delicious. In my humble opinion.