Mediterranean Flavors!

After living the island life for the last two weeks and being lucky enough to have others cook for me or eat out, it's time to get back on track and back to cooking!  I'm not one of those people that looks at recipes first and then buys those ingredients when I go to the grocery store.  I usually stock up on the basics and lots of fruits and veggies when I go to the grocery store and THEN find recipes to match the ingredients I have on hand.  While searching through Pinterest today, I came across this recipe for eggplant and a mediterranean salad that looked great!  I decided to give it a try today!

Here's the Pinterest recipe I used:

http://www.themediterraneandish.com/mediterranean-chickpea-salad-with-zaatar-fried-eggplant/

Here's how it turned out!

Pasta and Grilled Veggies

I happened to have a lot of grilled eggplant left in my fridge from a bbq I had the other day and decided I wanted to use it in a pasta.  I made my own "red" sauce by sauteing some garlic and onions in olive oil with some allspice, salt, and pepper.  I added a can of crushed tomatoes and let it simmer while cooking my pasta.  One of the things that makes me feel better about eating a lot of pasta is to make it with half whole wheat pasta and half regular.  You can barely taste the difference and it's a little better for you!  I cut up some yellow and green zucchini and onions and sauteed them in some olive oil and garlic powder.  I then cut up my grilled eggplant and added them to the veggie mix.  When everything was all done, I mixed the sauce, pasta, and veggies all together with some fresh basil from the garden and some shaved parmesan cheese!

Just finished eating some of this for lunch with a couple pieces of a french baguette!

Here's how it looked:

Eggplant Roll Up!

My husband has been trying to consume less meat in a quest to be more healthy and take better care of our bodies.  So I keep trying new "meatless" recipes and to my surprise, most have them have been really good!  I found an eggplant roll up recipe on Facebook via the Tasty page as I was scrolling one night and thought I would try it.  Of course, when I went back to find the recipe, I couldn't and so I just typed Eggplant Roll Up in Pinterest and found tons of recipes!

Here's the link to the Pinterest recipe I used.  I also added onion powder, garlic powder, and fresh cilantro to my cheese mix!  After salting my eggplant slices to allow it to sweat (this takes the bitterness out of the eggplant), I pan fried them to brown them and allow them to soften.  The recipe says to put them in the oven, so I guess you could do either one!

https://www.buzzfeed.com/merleoneal/heres-how-to-make-lasagna-roll-ups-with-egg-plant?bffbtasty&ref=bffbtasty&utm_term=.em4APdEzN#.hpnGAgnp9


Here's how mine turned out!

Eggplant rollup after baking

Before baking in the oven

Eggplant rolled up before adding final topping

Ricotta cheese blend

Pan fried eggplant slices

First time Moussaka!

While watching The Chew this morning, I got inspired to try to cook some Greek food!  They were doing a special on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (which is a repeat episode because that came out a while ago right???).  One of the things they prepared was a yogurt chicken kabob and the other was a Moussaka.  I just bought chicken and eggplant last night and had them both in the fridge, so I thought "why not?!?!?!".

Just as a side note, one of the reasons it's easier for me to cook with the 2 kiddos is because when I buy meat, I season it all right away and then put it in separate ziploc bags in the freezer.  In the West Indies they make something called a "Green Seasoning". Although lots of people make this fresh, many (especially those living abroad) buy it from a West Indian grocery store already made in big glass jar.  We have a decent herb garden here in Jax and so we tend to make our own!  I usually make a big batch and season all of my chicken with it at one time and then separate it into batches that I would likely cook with.  This makes cooking MUCH easier on a regular day because all I have to do is pull out a bag and thaw the meat.

So back to the Greek recipes.....I decided to not use Greek seasoning on one of my batches of chicken and instead, marinated it using the yogurt chicken recipe on The Chew today.  I decided not to cook this today and am saving it for another day, but now it's already made and all I have to do is thaw it!
 Here's the yogurt chicken recipe from The Chew today:
http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/yogurt-marinated-chicken-kebobs-daphne-oz

What I did decide to make today was the Moussaka.  I am Egyptian and we make something that we think is similar called "Macarona bil bechamel" or Macaroni in a Bechamel sauce, but I've never made Moussaka.  I did my best and tried to follow today's recipe!  My husband is on an "eat less meat" sort of thing and so I skipped adding the lamb and only made a tomato sauce to go with it. Here's the link to the recipe and some pictures of how I put it together today!

http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/moussaka-michael-symon


Here's how my Moussaka turned out:

The complete Moussaka hot out of the oven!

Moussaka before going in the oven with the Bechamel on top

Layering the Moussaka with the peppers and onion

Salting and sweating the eggplant to get rid of any bitterness

Bechamel sauce

Tomato sauce

Frying the eggplant