Meal Three - Eggplant Redux

I went to IKEA today and bought essentials that were making cooking difficult. I managed to escape without too much damage to the credit card.

Tonight is a leftover night. I’m going to remake last night’s eggplant dish with tomatoes and white beans to give it a new flavor. The beans and tomato sauce expand the leftovers so in my case I unfortunately still have some left. I recommend doing at least part of the salad before starting the eggplant.

Menu

Eggplant Redux

Green Salad with Avocado and Ginger-Cilantro-Yogurt Dressing

Strawberries and Meringue Cookies

Green Salad with Avocado and Ginger-Cilantro-Yogurt Dressing
Ingredients
Romaine lettuce, cleaned and cut into bit-size pieces
½ avocado
¼ C plain yogurt
3 t. cilantro, finely chopped
2 t. grated ginger
1 t. oil
1 wedge of lime

Directions:
Mix yogurt, cilantro, ginger, oil and juice from lime wedge in a small bowl. Arrange cut avocado on lettuce and pour dressing on top.

Eggplant Redux

Ingredients
Last night’s leftover eggplant dish
1 small can tomato sauce
1/2 can white or Great Northern beans
1 clove garlic, chopped

Directions:

Reheat leftover eggplant in pot. Add tomato sauce, garlic and beans. Heat thoroughly.

Notes:
This meal is really easy to cook. Even making the dressing doesn’t take much time. If you don’t like the sour tang of plain yogurt you probably won’t like this dressing. I love plain yogurt. I’ve been in a plain yogurt phase for a few years now. It took some getting used to but now I can hardly eat sweetened yogurt because it’s too sweet for my taste buds now. I guess taste buds are trainable.

Anyway, if you have parmesan or romano cheese you can try that on the pasta. I would have if I had some. The pasta was good. I have done a similar dish, without the beans, and baked it with cheese in the oven.

I made more pasta but I realized too late that I really didn’t need to. I also have leftover beans. Those can be mashed up and made into a dip or sandwich. Mix the mashed beans with oil or lemon juice for moisture and garlic, herbs and spices for some flavor. A food processor makes making the dip quick and easy.

Dessert:
Meringue Cookies with Strawberries and Honey

This is really simple and really good. Put some strawberries and meringue cookies in a dish and drizzle with honey. The meringues are airy, crunchy and melt in the mouth; think crunchy marshmallows. (I, btw, love crunchy marshmallows. As a kid, I put marshmallows in the microwave until they puffed up really big. Then I took them out and let them sit for an hour so. The marshmallows quickly deflated and over time became hard and crunchy. Ah, the joys of a microwave.) The honey provides a different kind of sweetness than the cookies and goes perfectly with the berries. To expand this dessert a little you could put the berries and cookies on a mound of whipped cream and garnish with mint. Go the extra mile and flavor the whipped cream with the mint or a drop of almond extract.