Fried Eggs, Wild Rice & Kale
Remember me? One time frequent blogger who’s been sucked into the Columbia postbac pre-med program, swallowed by terrifying Physics tests and crippling amounts of work?
I’m alive! I’m eating all the things! Today I added some kale to leftover wild rice and poured a glug of soy sauce and a squirt of sricacha in the pan. Once the kale was wilted, I set the rice and greens aside and fried up two eggs. A hearty lunch is necessary to make it through my classes today, which end at 10:30pm.
Please accept this photo of Emily Dickinson acting like Emily Dickinson as an apology for my absence.
Sometimes I just feel like eating a big plate of greens.
Eggplant & Kale with Gingerly Dressing
Eggplant, kale, and brown rice are clearly part of my regular dinner rotation. When I like something, I stick with it, but I like to find new ways to prepare the ingredients I love. In an effort to save some time, I purchased Annie’s Gingerly Dressing - something I rarely buy. To me, pre-made dressing is a waste of money, since it’s so easy to make at home. However, I love Annie’s products, and this dressing has lots of ingredients which makes it feel more like a marinade. Either way, it tastes great on eggplant.
I cooked the eggplant in a sauce pan with:
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 1/4 cup Annie’s Gingerly dressing
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 small shallot, diced
The eggplant needed about 30-35 minutes to cook - until it becomes mushy.
I cooked the brown rice and steamed the kale and then served them all together. I might have thrown a little extra dressing on top as well.
If you’re not into the idea of using this dressing, it could definitely be recreated with some fresh ginger, tahini, soy sauce and mustard. If you try to make your own, let me know how it turns out!
Sweet Potato, Kale & Barley Casserole
I considered titling this recipe, “MAGIC CASSEROLE OF DELICIOUSNESS” but I figured that “Sweet Potato, Kale & Barley Casserole” would be more descriptive. Really though… Mmmmmm. I could have eaten the entire thing.
This recipe is inspired by Candle Cafe’s dish, Paradise Casserole, which is made with sweet potato, black beans and millet. I wasn’t in the mood for beans and I had a lot of kale.. thus this recipe was born.
The best part is the roasted red pepper dressing (from Smitten Kitchen) that I poured over my plate of casserole when it was finished. Delicious + delicious = MIND BLOWING DELICIOUS. Not exactly what I’d call a summer dish… but who cares! It’s pretty.
For the casserole you’ll need:
- 4 large sweet potatoes
- 4 cups of STEAMED kale
- 1 cup barley
- 1 cup low sodium vegetable broth
- 1.5 cups water
- salt
- 1/4 cup milk (or soymilk)
For the dressing you’ll need:
- 3 large red peppers
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 TBSP red wine vinegar
- 1 shallot, diced
- salt, pepper
Method:
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roast peppers for 45 minutes and sweet potatoes for 1 hour, turning every 15 mins. When finished, let cool. Keep the oven on.
- Add barley, water and broth to a pot, bring to a boil, and then simmer until liquid is gone and barley is cooked.
- If you didn’t steam your kale yet.. do that.
- When potatoes are cool, remove the skin. Add to a bowl with milk and a sprinkle of salt. Turn them into mashed potatoes!
- In a 13x9 dish, layer your ingredients. Barley on bottom, kale in the middle, potatoes on top. Bake for 7-10 minutes.
- While the casserole is baking, remove skin from peppers and add to a blender with oil, vinegar, shallot, salt and pepper. Blend together.
Pour some dressing over a square of casserole (it will fall apart a bit) and enjoy!
Nom, nom.
Tomato Sauce with Eggplant
I really like pasta. In general, I’m just a big fan of carbs. I had a craving for pasta this week and I came up with what I think is a great way to bulk up your average tomato sauce. Add an entire eggplant.
I find that eggplant is a very polarizing vegetable. Some love it, some hate it, but to me the aubergine is delicious and unlike any other vegetable.
To make the sauce I first peeled the eggplant and sliced it into 1” discs. I rubbed these with just enough olive oil to coat them. I lined them on a pan and baked them at 350 degrees for 10 minutes on each side.
Typically when I make last minute sauce I use a large can of diced tomatoes and a half a can of tomato paste. I just chopped some onion and garlic and sauteed this in a pan for a few minutes and then added the sauce.
When the eggplant is soft, add the slices to the sauce mixture. Cook until the eggplant it is beginning to fall apart, about 10-15 minutes.
Finally, use a blender or immersion blender to combine everything together. It will make for a thick sauce.
I served my sauce over some whole wheat corkscrew pasta, my favorite! I find that the best way to cut down on eating the entire box of pasta is to eat it with a healthy serving of greens. In this case, steamed kale.
Alternate Uses for Cat Litter (and Today’s Lunch)
First up: lunch. I deconstructed my salad. You can just call me Wylie Dufresne.
Instead of putting kale in my salad I turned it into kale chips! Just lay your kale on a baking sheet, combine with olive oil (don’t be lazy, put down that Pam!) and stick it in the oven at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Crispy and delicious. I added salt to mine.
In the rest of my salad:
- Avocado
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Beets
- Cottage cheese
Not pictured: a slice of whole wheat toast and blackberry jam. It was a weird lunch today.
After lunch today I went for what I planned to be a 4 mile run, which ended up being a 3 mile run. IT’S HOT. However, I ended up getting in an unexpected strengthening workout! I stopped and picked up 16 lbs of cat litter on my way home and carried it for 6 blocks. Thanks, cat litter!
I also stopped to pick up some wine on my way home because a wise lady once told me a glass of wine while studying is a GREAT thing.
Just picture… a seriously sweaty girl strolls into the liquor store carrying a 16 pound jug of cat litter and buys some white wine. It’s probably a good thing I already have a boyfriend (hi George!). Don’t worry… I reenacted everything for you, dear reader:
Today’s Lunch: Balancing the Carbs
Last night’s dinner service may have been a disaster, but the pizza was tasty. Luckily Jocelyn and I filled up on bread during the hour wait, which meant doggie bags for both of us!
I had two leftover slices of portobello and smoked mozzarella pizza. This morning I mixed a handful of kale with lemon juice, shaved parmesan, and garlic powder. The kale spent the morning marinating in the lemon juice and by lunch time it had softened a bit.
I always forget that carb-loading is about replacing some foods with carbs, not eating MORE carbs. Sigh.
What I Made: Back of the Pantry Ramen with Kale and Black Beans
You know what’s exciting? When your boss goes on a month long press tour and his CSA box is sent to the office to be enjoyed by whoever grabs the veggies first.
Luckily I spend about 95% of my day in the office kitchen and I grabbed a big pile of kale from the box. This was good news because my dinner tonight was looking like black beans and rice, which I was NOT excited about.
I didn’t really know what to make until I dug through my pantry and found a package of ramen-style noodles. Excellent, I can work with this.
How I made this:
- Sauteed the washed kale in a ton of garlic, fresh thyme and olive oil.
- Boiled the ramen (takes about 5 minutes)
- Poured a can of black beans (and a bit of the bean liquid) into the kale and garlic mixture
- Drained the ramen, threw it on top of the kale, added an extra glug of olive oil and twist of pepper.
Easy dinner, seriously tasty. I always know my dinner is a winner when I reek of garlic.
Nom, nom.
One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf
(found a new site - Food52.com - be prepared for a lot of recipe photos today)
