Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘aubergine’

Dinner Of Herbs Eggplant Bruschetta

Posted by terrepruitt on April 29, 2014

I love eggplant.  I read a blog called Dinner of Herbs and she posted a recipe for Eggplant Bruschetta.  Yum.  I used to not like bruschetta because I didn’t like tomatoes.  But I like it now . . . well it depends.Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga  I like some bruschetta and since I love eggplant I thought I would like this.  As I was making it I laughed because she only listed amounts for two of the ingredients and it turns out I didn’t use the amounts for those that she stated.  Also, I had to laugh–yeah, right!–because I went to the grocery store on Thursday right after my Nia class.  I like to do my shopping while I am already out, so on my way home I stopped by the store.  My WHOLE reason for going was to get the ingredients for the bruschetta!  I even wrote them down.  But while I was there I thought of a few other things and completely overlooked one KEY item on my list.  I forgot the bread.  DUH!  Can’t really make bruschetta without the bread.  I used to think bruschetta WAS the bread.  Then I came to think bruschetta was the tomato mixture.  But bruschetta is the bread topped with the tomato mixture.  Eggplant bruschetta just has eggplant added to the mixture.

Since I like to run all my errands while I am already out I decided to wait to get the bread on Sunday after my rotation of teaching Nia at the YMCA.  HOLY MOLY!  My husband is under strict instructions to remind me never to go to the grocery store on a Sunday.  Geez louise.  I was there over an hour.  It was so crowded.  But I got the bread!  I got two different kind since my husband doesn’t really like bread and he really doesn’t like hard sourdough.  So you can imagine he doesn’t like TOASTED sourdough.  So I got him some wimpy soft bread and I didn’t even toast it.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaAnyway . . . for Dinner of Herb’s recipe I used a very large eggplant and I cut it up into tiny cubes.  Way smaller than she shows on her site.   I put garlic salt on it.  I roasted it for 45 minutes.  I only used three tomatoes for roasting.  I also roasted them with garlic salt.   Then I added a half of a raw tomato along with about two tablespoons of raw chopped onion to the mix of roasted eggplant and tomato.  I actually always thought that bruschetta was raw tomatoes so that is why I added some raw tomato.

So I loved it.  My hubby ate it.  As I said he is not a bread fan so he was not at all excited about it as I was.  I thought it was delicious.  I think it is so delicious I am going to make it again, but just the eggplant-tomato mixture and put it over pasta.

I am excited about this because – as I just said – it is something else to do for pasta, or heck . . . .anything.  To me it is that good that I would just make it as a “salsa” to put on chicken or pork.

I have to say that I did not take good pictures.  I was kinda in a hurry.  And if you take pictures of food, you know you can’t do it when you are rushed.  So . . . .sorry the pictures are not very appetizing, but if you like eggplant and if you like bruschetta you will love this!

Do you like bruschetta?  Do you like eggplant?  What other type of bruschetta do you make?

 

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Really Easy Pizza

Posted by terrepruitt on November 2, 2013

https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7303/10639802725_52e4c7e10f_b.jpgI have always wanted to make “pizza” using eggplant.  But I usually don’t have tomato sauce.  The eggplant “pizza” I have always wanted to make is using a slice of eggplant as the “crust”.  Not putting eggplant ON the pizza, nor making the crust with flour and eggplant.  Just a slice of eggplant as the “crust”.  You might be familiar with me not really liking tomatoes.  That lends to me not really liking tomato sauce.  When we have pasta we don’t normally have tomato sauce.  Although lately I have been buying some.  Yes, the jarred kinds.  I know it is silly to buy the jar kind when it is so easy to make, but since I don’t really like it, it is one of those things that I don’t bother making.  If I can buy an organic jar of tomato sauce for a quick dinner every once in a while I do.  Well, the last time I used it I made the My First Tomato Sauce Lasagna.  I didn’t use the whole jar.  Recently I bought an eggplant and it was HUGE.  Normally I slice them in half and roast them, but this one was huge, but I was really looking forward to the roasted kind, so I didn’t want to make pizza out of it all.  So I sliced it in thirds lengthwise.  Planning to use the middle slice for the pizza crust.  I finally had eggplant pizza!

I roasted it first.  Then I piled on my toppings.  I realized I needed to roast it longer.  The eggplant got VERY soggy after all of the toppings were on it.  If you REALLY like eggplant it is no big deal.  I am not sure if the eggplant pizza would ever be a pick-up-and-eat-it-like-regular-pizza type of pizza, but it was really good.

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Eggplant Pizza

One large eggplant, sliced in either rounds or length-wise (about 1/2 inch thick)
olive oil
salt
your favorite pizza/tomato sauce
your favorite pizza toppings

Sprinkle oil on the eggplant and roast at 400° F for about 20 minutes . . . depends on the size of your eggplant and how thick you cut it.  After 20 minutes flip it over sprinkle with oil and salt.  Cook for another 15 or 20 minutes.  Check it and decide how cooked you want it.

Then top with your favorite pizza/tomato sauce and your favorite pizza toppings.  Bake it until your cheese is melted.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaMine had tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and sautéed mushrooms.  It was sooooo good.  Mushrooms are my favorite pizza topping.  When I make pizza, it is usually just with mushrooms.  I prefer to cook the mushrooms first — no matter what crust I am using — to get out most of the moisture and ensure that they are cooked when I eat my pizza.

Anyway . . . this was very good.  So good I made it again but this time I sliced the eggplant in rounds.  I used the same toppings.  This second time the eggplant was a little less soggy, but it was still not something you could pick up like a regular piece of pizza.

I roasted the slices for about 20 minutes on each side. The eggplant adds a nice flavor to the pizza toppings I used (tomato sauce, cheese, and mushrooms).  And as long as your sauce and your toppings are gluten free this is a great pizza to have for those who are avoiding it!

What about you?  Have you ever wanted to try eggplant as your pizza crust?  Have you ever tried eggplant as your pizza crust?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Baked, Split, and Broiled Eggplant

Posted by terrepruitt on May 5, 2012

The past two Thursdays have been pretty cold here and since I don’t teach Nia on Thursdays evenings I have been cooking soup.  One Thursday I had it planned so I actually did go to the store after my Nia class on Wednesday to buy the ingredients I needed, but yesterday it was cold so I just decided to use what I had, which was not much.  While I think that a bowl or two of soup can easily be a meal, I like to serve something else with it.  When I looked in my fridge I saw the eggplant I had bought.  Yay!  Perfect.  I saw a recipe on icancookstuff that sounded interesting.  While I do not eat spicy hot food I thought I could use the garlic and the cummin.  But it turns out I don’t have any cummin.  So I decided to use ginger and turmeric.  I have them in powdered form so I got the bottles out of the cupboard and set them on the counter.  Then I put the eggplant in the oven to bake it.Dance Exercies, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia,

The recipe said to bake it at 200 degrees for 45 minutes.**  I didn’t think I had 45 minute so I put the temperature up to 300 and left it on for 30 minutes.  I didn’t feel that the eggplant was cooked enough so I turned the convection oven on and set the timer for 30 more minutes. I turned it four times because it was getting flat on the pan side.

In the meantime I was cooking my soup.  I only had one bunch of baby bok choy, a bunch of kale, and some broccoli.  I swore I wasn’t going to put broccoli in a soup again, but . . . I didn’t think the rest would make it.  So while I was trying to fake making soup I wasn’t really paying attention to the eggplant.  My soup finished before the eggplant.

By the time I finally thought the eggplant was cooked enough to split I split it.  I was thinking that I would make one half for me and one half for my husband.  I salted it, I put a bit of garlic on it, I put a little bit of parmesan cheese on it.  Then I looked over and I saw the onions I had chopped to put on it.  And the kale.  So I decided to put the onions and kale on one half and hubby and I would just get a half of each half making a whole half.

I put it back in the oven and let it bake for a bit more.  Half way through the end of baking portion I saw the ginger and turmeric on the counter.  Snap!  I forgot to put it on.  So I sprinkled a little turmeric on both halves.  I put the broiler on for about 10 minutes.

Here is the result.

Dance Exercies, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia,

From the time I thought to cook the eggplant to the time I put it in the oven to finish baking I had thought of three different ways to flavor it.  I had originally thought to use garlic, turmeric, and ginger, then I thought of garlic, onions, and kale, then I thought of garlic, and cheese.  That really is not a big deal the big deal is that I forgot one each time I thought of the new one.  Geez!  What I ended up with was ok.  I think it needed a little bit more flavor.  I will work on that.  I don’t even think I tasted the turmeric.

I like cooking eggplant this way because it is much less time-consuming than turn the slices all the time.  But I think I like the roasted slices better.  But I will continue to experiment with this.  I might try slicing it into three pieces next time.  Although a baked eggplant is not easy to slice.

**It just dawned on me that the 200 degrees was probably Celsius and not Fahrenheit.  So it would actually be about 400 degrees F.  Ha!

I can’t wait to try this again!

What do you think of this way of cooking eggplant?  What would you put on the eggplant?

Posted in Food, Vegetables | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Meatless Mondays

Posted by terrepruitt on March 20, 2012

Have you ever heard of Meatless Mondays?  I thought about it when I was talking to my Nia student who is about to go vegan.  Seems as if we always try to make things sound neat or nice.  The double M has a nice ring.  MEATLESS MONDAY.  It is just a tool that someone thought up to help and encourage people to eliminate meat from their diet. I guess the thought process is that people eat meat every night for dinner so one night would be good to not have meat and why not make it Meatless Monday.  I always thought it was just for dinner, but I guess you could have a whole day of non-meat.   The reasons for eliminating meat from the diet range from health to environment.  We don’t have a meatless Monday in our house.  What we have is a oh-snap-I-forgot-to-take-any-meat-out-for-dinner-so-we-aren’t-having-any kind of meatless dinner.  Or sometimes I just decide I am not going to cook meat and I figure something else out.  We do not have meat every dinner.

Sometimes I just don’t feel like meat.  It was a few years after we had been married that my husband gave me the go ahead regarding meatless dinners.  I probably was whining about having meat every night and he said he was ok with not having meat for dinner.  WAHOOO!  That was a happy, happy, happy day for me.  Meat for us primarily consists of chicken breast or ground turkey.  Yes we do have pork every once in a while.  Beef even less often.  But actually more than we used to.  Just not having to have meat every night was so freeing.  Because having that freedom meant to me that we could have less meat.  So sometimes we can still have meat but instead of having a piece of chicken each we can split one.  Since he is ok with not having meat than having less is ok too, right?

But we do have meatless dinners.  Having the added help of quinoa to get a seedy/grainy protein is nice.  Because I am not a fan of beans I usually don’t substitute beans for meat.  Sometimes I do during the summer when we are having a bean salad, but not always.  Sometimes we will just eat soup for dinner.  If we are not having soup or bean salad then we are filling up on a ton of veggies.

Tonight we had a green salad, roasted eggplant, and mushrooms with broccoli thrown over pasta.  It was pretty good. Between the pasta and the mushrooms I am ok with the amount of protein.  We don’t have just pasta every night.  (I took pictures because I actually thought, “Hmm, I might blog about this.”  And they didn’t come out.  I mean my computer is giving me that little question mark in a red box.  Hmmm.  Oh well.  You would have drooled.)

Even though I might be having meatless dinners for other reasons there is still the same benefits that some people are doing it for.  It seems as if it is a “movement” and it is for those that truly do eat red meat every night.  That is probably why when I first heard about it I didn’t really get it, because we rarely eat red meat and we don’t even eat meat every night.  I can see how it can help people that do, although I didn’t know that people did eat red meat every night.

What about you?  How often do you eat red meat/beef?  Do you eat meat every night?  Do you have a Meatless Monday (or one night a week that you plan to not have meat)?

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Easiest Way To Cook Eggplant

Posted by terrepruitt on August 4, 2011

Often I hear people say they would like to cook eggplant but they don’t know how.  I also hear a lot of people say you have to get the water out of eggplant before you cook it.  Well, I would like to try cooking it another way because the only way I know how is to roast it, of course.  Recently I bought some eggplant specifically to cube it and sautee it to see how that would be.  But when I started thinking about how yummy it is roasted, I opted for roasting it.   I have used Japanese eggplant, which it nice because it has less seeds.  It is also nice because it is more evenly shaped so all the slices come out basically the same size so they cook at a more even rate.  I typically use the large pear-ish shaped eggplant.   The last time I bought it, the store clerk said she had always wanted to try it but didn’t know how to cook it (see, I told you people tell me that).  So I decided to share my way of cooking it.  You know I love to roast veggies.  Roasting veggies is so easy because you can put them on and work on cooking the rest of dinner.   I was so busy cooking the rest of dinner I forgot to take pictures of the roasted eggplant.  I remembered to take pictures of it as I sliced it, but I forgot to do it after it was cooked.

I slice at about 3/8 of an inch.  I put olive oil on the pan (I use a cookie sheet), then place the slices on the pan in rows, then I drizzle a little olive oil on the slices.  I sprinkle garlic powder on each slice.  Then I sprinkle salt on each slice.  The salt will help release the water.  Pretty much the same way as sweating the vegetables, but the water will evaporate in the oven.  I usually cook them for about 15 or twenty minutes at 400 degrees.  Then I flip them over.  I usually add more seasoning.  It depend on how much salt I put on before.  I might add more or not.  I put them back in the oven.  How long depends on how they look.  Often times they don’t cook evenly so some will be done where others will not.  So I take the done ones off the pan, then I set the timer for the time I guess that the next ones will be done.  When that time is up I take the done ones off the cookie sheet and put the pan back in the oven.  Depending on how they are cooking, I might flip them.  It is a process.  You have to watch them a bit.  That is why it is good to have other stuff to be cooking in the kitchen.  You also have to decide HOW cooked you like them.  You can cook them just a little until they are still really soft and doughy or you can cook them until they are crispy–almost like potato chips.  I like mine crispy.

A friend on FB said she puts cheese on the slices.  That would be excellent.  I haven’t tried that.  I am sure it is really good.

I don’t squeeze out the water before cooking and I don’t take out the seeds.  I also do not cook it for a set amount of time.  I start with 15 minutes and go from there.  It is best to decide as you go along.

I did not realize that eggplant is a fruit, a berry in fact.  I don’t think in terms of botany.  I just think in terms of eating and cooking.  The information I saw said eggplant is a fruit that is used in cooking like a vegetable.  So yeah, I think of it as a vegetable.

So that is how I cook eggplant 🙂 pretty much how I cook all my vegetables.  What about you?  Do you cook eggplant?  How?  I really would like to try it other ways, but I don’t know how to cook it aside from roasting it.  Did you know it is a fruit?  Did you know it is a berry?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »