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Dinner is served!
Trader Joe’s sweet potato gnocchi, Johnsonville smoked apple chicken sausage, and an entire head of purple cabbage, chopped. All sautéed in olive oil, ready to eat in under 15 minutes.
That’s my kind of meal this week.
What easy, semi-homemade masterpieces have you been whipping up?
Tags: cabbage, chicken sausage, dinner, easy recipe, Food, gnocchi, quick meals, quick recipes, recipe
A Med Month recipe and a giveaway! As I mentioned in yesterday’s eggplant dip post, I am celebrating National Mediterranean Diet Month with Oldways. If you haven’t heard of Oldways, I would suggest checking out their site. They are all about changing lives through real food, and their various programs offer something for everyone.
When planning my grocery shopping this week, I had the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid in mind and decided to whip up a dinner of fresh Mediterranean-style lettuce wraps for our Meatless Monday dinner.
I started with a couple of simple ingredients, a large bag of red lentils, soaked in several cups of water for a couple hours, mixed with a box of Near East Taboule wheat salad mix. Once I added the Taboule (Tabouli? The box says Taboule, but it looks strange to me!), I added a little more water, stirred in the seasoning packet that came in the Taboule box, and refrigerated the lentil mixture until we were ready to eat.
That’s right, we ate the lentils raw. There is something about red lentils, just soaked in enough water, that I love. They have a sweet pea flavor and a nice little crunch.
Preparing the rest of the meal was simple. I mixed up the eggplant dip and left that at room temperature, then chopped and grilled a rainbow of bell peppers. I hope you don’t get tired of seeing my grill pan; I love the way food cooked on it tastes!
Everything is more fun eaten in a lettuce wrap, so large romaine leaves were the base of this meal. Once the peppers were grilled and chopped, I added scoops of the lentil and bulgur mixture to the lettuce, and then we topped them as we wanted.
To my lettuce wraps, I added a spoonful each of the eggplant dip and Fage Greek Yogurt, then I rolled them up and enjoyed a nice crunch!
Our dinner incorporated elements from many parts of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, including two vegetables, a grain, a legume, and yogurt. It certainly felt like a well rounded, healthy meal while also being filling, inexpensive, and flavorful.
To celebrate Oldways and Mediterranean Month, Oldways is giving me a copy of their book The Oldways Table to give to one lucky Travel, Wine, and Dine reader.
Enter to win!
1) Follow @oldwayspt on Twitter and tweet “I want to win The Oldways Table from @traveleatlovemm & @oldwayspt” with a link back to this post.
2) Leave a comment with your favorite ingredient/s from the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid
3) Check back on Monday morning for the announcement of the winner. I will post the winner here, and if I don’t hear from him/her in 48 hours, I will choose another winner.
Good luck!
Tags: Food, healthy recipe, Med Month, Oldways, recipe, vegan, Vegetarian
Happy Med Month! What is Med Month, you ask? And why am I so excited about it?
During the month of May, Oldways celebrates National Mediterranean Diet Month (Med Month)! Here’s what Oldways has to say about Med Month:
This campaign is all about eating meals that taste terrific (and happen to be healthy too), and about inspiring everyone to make small but profound changes in their lives. While many of us wait until the New Year to set out goals for health and fitness, we’re offering another opportunity, a sort of mid-year second chance, to think about your relationship with food and how you live.
Please join us in celebrating the Mediterranean Diet, which is built upon an active lifestyle and delicious, fresh flavors, the makings of which are as close at hand as your nearest grocery store. It’s a diet that doesn’t taste like a diet, and its proven health benefits are remarkable: It can help you lose weight, fight disease, and even boost brain health.
Last year, I participated in Med Month with a delicious recipe that pulled together some of my favorite parts of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid including salmon, olives, tomatoes, and of course, wine. When asked to participate again, I jumped at the chance and hope to have several recipes and maybe even a couple giveaways for Med Month.
Last night’s dinner was centered completely around Med Month. I will be posting the main course tomorrow morning, but thought I would share this easy, delicious dip that I also served.
It started with a large eggplant which I sliced into disks, generously salted, and set aside for about 30 minutes to get rid of the bitterness.
While those were hanging out, I started getting my grill pan hot and placed on it 3/4 of a yellow onion, in thick slices. I also gathered the rest of my ingredients, cumin, a red chili pepper, and olive oil. Lots of olive oil.
Once the onions were grilled, I rinsed the eggplant, rubbed a bit of olive oil on the slices, and grilled them until soft. Grilled eggplant is amazing.
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To make the dip, I waited until the onions cooled, then added them, along with the red chili pepper and a teaspoon of cumin and 1/4 cup of olive oil to my food processor.
I pulsed it until the onions were completely pulverized and then added the eggplant. A minute of pureeing later, I had a creamy, spicy eggplant dip that was perfect with our dinner.
This dip would be great for a Mother’s Day dinner, served with pita chips and veggies or atop grilled chicken or vegetables in a sandwich.
Stay tuned for the next installment in my Med Month eating!
Are you participating in Med Month? What is your favorite ingredient from the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid?
Tags: eggplant, healthy, healthy recipe, recipe, vegan, Vegetarian
