Delicious summer starter: Eggplant, roast red pepper, feta, and arugula

1) preheat the oven to 400 degrees : 

2) Slice eggplant(s) length wise at a 1/4-1/8 inch thickness. Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle with salt. Put them in the oven! and every 10-15 minutes flip them and check them. You want to cook them till they are brown and super soft so they melt in your mouth. I would estimate 12 minutes each side. No one wants a soggy undercooked eggplant. In the summer simply throw the slices on the grill. 

3) Roast some red pepper(s)- I do it on my stove top burner (yes probably a minor fire hazard but simply hold the red pepper with tongs over an open burner). But once again if a grill is available- by all means grill! cook the peppers until the  skin is blackened. Let the peppers cool in a paper bag and peal the skin off. Slice the red pepper into thin strips and add about at tablespoon of quality balsamic vinegar to the mix. 

4)LAYER!

eggplant- pepper with balsamic- sheep feta-arugula leaf----garnish with salt and olive oil- and in this case garlic scapes. 

Note: eggplants aren't in season right now! I suggest waiting till July/August...to give this recipe a try. 

Sunshine Lentil Soup

This soup is easy and delicious, but organic ingredients make it extra yummy. Hence the name, it is a soup that I usually make on a rainy day when I don't feel like going out since all the ingredients are staples in my kitchen.

1.5 tablespoons canola oil

1 onion 

2 carrots

2 teaspoons of ground cumin 

(saute these four ingredients till the carrots are tender and the onions are translucent)

then add:

1 cup red lentils

1/3 cup rice

stir for 10 seconds then add:

8 cups broth or water 

LET it COOk for 25-30 minutes till the rice is done and lentils are mushy

then squeeze the juice of 1-2 lemons and salt to taste and garnish with some fresh parsley sprigs.

As it is true with most soups - this soup is always better the next day 

The no-carb variation: 

skip the rice!  add 1/2 cup extra lentils - decrease the water or broth to 4 cups instead of 8 and Puree! wah-laa you still have a thick and yummy soup. I also like to add a sauted yellow pepper to the mix for a little extra sweetness. 

Justin's yummy muffin recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir wet and dry ingredients in seperate bowls then combine both into one big bowl.

When ingredients are combined add the berries, and spoon into the muffin pan. (The most important things with muffins is not to over-stir the batter just make sure the ingredients are well combined). After all the ingredients are mixed spoon the batter about 1/3 cup per muffin into a greased muffin tin or muffin cups .  After 15-18 minutes you will have 24 delicious muffins waiting to be eaten. 

3 cups all purpose flour (or a mix of whole wheat mix)

1/3 cup flaxseed

4 tbsp wheat germ

1/3 cup bran

2/3 light brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt 3 eggs

1 mashed banana

1 cup lowfat plain yogurt

1/3 canola oil

1/3 cup applesauce

BERRIES - whatever kind you like I do half raspberry and half blueberry 

I like this muffin recipe because unlike some muffins these muffins aren't overly sweet cupcakes... they give you REAL energy and will keep me going till lunch. They are also easy to freeze if you can't eat them all in one sitting. 

Return from the hiatus

I have been getting phone calls, emails, text messages all saying the same thing: When are you going to update the blog? Why haven't you updated? Where did Zebra Tomato whatever-the name-is go? 

Truth:

These past two weeks not only have I NOT updated the blog, I have NOT done my laundry, I have NOT cashed two checks, I have NOT checked my text messages, and I have NOT inserted the grammatical corrections that my dad suggested into the blog. 

Why? 

It's not that I am falling apart- not to worry. I have been very busy, cooking for clients, catering for a party, working for a local resturant. I have been having a great time!  But on the other hand,  as my yoga teacher would say, I have been going on automatic pilot. As someone who loves cooking, I have not been cooking for myself. I have been eating on the go, shoving food into my mouth without paying attention to the taste, forgetting to breath, and literally waking up with my hands in fists. Lets face it: it is easy to take care of ourselves when we have nothing else to do, it is when we are busy schlepping (yiddish) things around that we forget about ourselves. We forget to nourish ourselves properly. Lately: I have been forgetting about myself, and for that matter about the blog. (Notice without judgement if you fall into the category of someone who always finds something else to do except nourish yourself) - I must be watching to much entreatment...hahhahha

But as my yoga teacher says: all you have to do is START again. That's all you have to do: begin again over and over and over again. That's really easy to say but it hard to do when you are not on vacation. So here is a free voucher I am inviting all of you to try it... as I am doing right now even though there are dirty clothes all over the floor of my room, and my blog is not grammatically correct.... and... and.... START again. invite yourself to start again.

It is a constant battle to stay present with yourself; the easiest way I find is to prepare a meal for yourself. Even if it is take out: take the meal out of the wrapper, sit down!, put the food on fine china with your favorite beverage and enjoy it! Sit down, don't eat it out of the refrigerator!

On that note- 

Bon appetite

love Mollie 

The experience of Cooking for 100 people

As my mom says reflecting on the experience: "Mollie you were cool as a cucumber"

It's true, no tears were shed to make all this food. Overall it was a very meditative experience. The key was time management, and listening to my new favorite Julie Delphy CD on re-run over and over and over again, and of course my taste tester and cooking guru (mommy). 

I did have some anxiety: 

1) My number one anxiety was: is there going to be enough food... at one point I was thinking of making another Cake. I have quiet a starvation complex... and have been know to be like a chipmunk stuffing pancakes in my pockets. Reality check: THERE WAS PLENTY OF FOOD

2)Is my kitchen big enough? This was mostly what other people were saying:" there is no way you can cook for 100 people in your size kitchen." You can look at a post made earlier of me working in my kitchen . That's actually how big my kitchen is: TINY!. But I did it! (even when the dish washer broke I still did it). 

3) Will I hit someone in the whole foods parking lot by accident. I am a new driver.... and this was a serious concern.

4) Will a child with a food allergy break out in hives or worse go into shock? There was a serious peanut allergy on the premise... so at the last minute I had to adjust my menu from sesame peanut noodles to the lentil salad. 

5) "I CAN'T FIND WHOLE WHEAT ELBOW PASTA AT WHOLE FOODS"... that was a scary moment. 

This is a surprisingly short list of my various anxieties considering I probably have a mild anxiety disorder when it comes to other parts of my life. What can I say, cooking calms me down. Cookbooks have always been my preferred literature of choice ( I read them cover to cover like novels). The truth is: unlike standardized tests I have taken, I have been preparing for this party my whole life. Ever since I was a 5, I have been cooking with my mom delicious Vegetarian and Vegan food. We used to pretend we had our own cooking show: Chef Miller was mommy and I was Chef Bedick.... (that's a whole other posting) Stay tuned...

Wah-laaaa!

caio bella