Tonight it's "Italian Leftover Sauté'

Which sounds a bit boring, but it's really yummy.

I have some stuff in the fridge I should try to use up, especially an eggplant, but I also have peppers, mushrooms, onions, and a rope of smoked sausage. Gonna chop it all up, fry with a little garlic and olive oil, maybe toss in a can of diced tomatoes (or get ambitious and chop some romas I have in the fridge somewhere) and serve this luscious, fridge-clearing concoction over pasta. Ooooh, I have a mozzarella ball too to cut up and toss in!

The thing is, whenever you have extra stuff lurking in your fridge, you can make something truly yummy for supper by grouping similar ethnicities together and spicing it up accordingly. The peppers and onions and tomatoes can go mexican with some corn or beans and a bit of hot spice or cilantro. Mushrooms, peppers, garlic and onions go asian with a little soy sauce and rice. If you add curry and something creamy (like yogurt) to pretty much any of the combinations you can go indian. Fresh vegetables are so, so versatile and there's no excuse to let them go bad, so everyone see what's in your crisper and think up something fun!

But that eggplant, she's italian and dreaming of tomatoes and cheese! ;)

Eggplant Parmesan

My usual recipe for eggplant parmesan involves slicing, sweating, breading then frying a LOT of slices of eggplant, layering them with cheese and tomato sauce, more cheese, and baking the omg nummy cheesiness until hot and bubbly. It's time consuming, mostly me standing at the stove frying the eggplant slices, and it's super high calorie. But did I mention nummy? Oh yes. Today, though, I'm going to try to save some calories (mostly from the frying) by following Chef John's lighter version.

And here it is.

Other than the frying, it's just as labor intensive I think and took nearly an hour to slice, shred, fold and all that jazz before heading to the oven. I did salt and sweat the slices, contrary to the recipe, because I think they are a good deal less bitter. I'm also wondering if I should have added some mozzarella anyway, perhaps sliced on top just below the breading, because it wasn't as cheesy-gooey as my usual recipe for Eggplant Parmesan (pretty much followed verbatim from my friend Doug) which is OMG amazing.

This stuff was good, but not OMG amazing. But, then again, it's also about half the calories. ;)

Basic Broccoli Salad

Broccoli salad with peanuts and cranberries

I LOVE broccoli. It's my favorite vegetable and perhaps my favorite food (closely followed by cheese) and, since I do love the luscious green flower so much, I make this salad fairly often. Like every time broccoli goes on sale. I'll buy two bunches, one for cooking and one for broccoli salad. Yummy, yummy stuff.

You'll need:

About a third to half a package of bacon (but you can use more, or less. Whatever's handy or needs used up)
Mayonnaise or salad dressing (low fat or regular) - I'll explain the amount below
2 T sugar
2 T vinegar* (I use cider vinegar usually since that's what I always have around)
1/2 of a red onion, chopped
1 bunch of broccoli (or 2 small ones if they're rubber-banded together) chopped, including tender part of stems
Nuts* (peanuts, cashews, etc) a handful or so
Dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, blueberries, whatever you like) a handful or so

Cut your bacon into strips, about 1/4 in wide, ish, and fry them up until nice and brown and 'chewy-crisp'. You can also cook the slices and crumble if you want, but pre-slicing works better for me. Drain on paper towels.

Get a tablespoon from your silverware drawer (not a measuring tablespoon) and put two biggish, heaping spoonfuls of mayo/salad dressing into a med/large bowl. Add sugar and vinegar. Whisk to combine, should be smooth and a bit runny. Add onion, broccoli, nuts, fruit, and bacon. Mix, lifting up from the bottom and flipping (sort of like folding a batter) until sauce is well distributed. Serve immediately or chill an hour or two for additional tanginess!

*You can give this an 'asian flair' with rice wine vinegar, chow-mein noodles, and a dash or two of soy sauce. :) Make it more 'country' by adding sliced hard boiled egg. There are lots of options!