I am still trying to maintain a high protein and carb diet, so I ate fruit salad, granola, yogurt, milk, and vitamin powder for breakfast.
Then at 12:15 I had a hankering for some good Vietnamese food and because I knew I wanted to go by Sprouts Farm Market, so I drove to Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo and Zuni and sat at my favorite table with its view of the snow capped Sandias and ordered my favorite dish, Number 21, a bowl of fluffy steamed rice noodles sitting on a bed of fresh chopped lettuce, basil, mung beans, cucumbers, and cilantro and topped with slices of hot grilled lean pork and two pork filled egg rolls served with a sweetened fish sauce for $8.50. I order an extra fish sauce so I can dip my egg rolls and a side plate of fresh mung beans, basil and cilantro for $1.50, to add freshness and flavor to the dish. My body must still be craving protein and carbs, because I ate the entire bowl today.
After lunch I drove north on San Mateo to Lomas, where Sprouts Farm Market is located. I had three things in mind, fresh fish, more organic broccoli, and tomatoes for a tomato sauce to revive the Eggplant Parmesan dish. I bought two tuna steaks on sale for $5.99/lb. The broccoli was a different stocky form of broccoli, but I bought it anyway. Lovely mature Roma tomatoes were on sale for $.50/lb. I picked out the softest most mature six I could find. I then bought about a lb. of granola for $2.99/lb. and about a lb. of milk chocolate almond clusters on sale for $6.99/lb.
I went home and worked with Aaron on the Los Lunas project until a little after 5:00, then went to the garage and said hello to Suzette, who was sanding cabinet doors for Los Lunas and told her I was going to meditate and would start a tomato sauce for the Eggplant Parmesan first. I then went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh oregano and a small clump of garlic growing among the tarragon that I wanted to get rid off.
Tomato Sauce
I sliced and diced ¼ onion, 4 Roma Tomatoes, the garlic and oregano.
There was approximately ¼ cup each of oregano and garlic.
I then heated two T. of Spanish olive oil in a large skillet and sautéed the onion for a couple of minutes.
I then added the oregano, tomatoes, and garlic and added ¼ cup of Chianti and stirred the ingredients to mix them together.
I cooked the ingredients until I had to leave at 6:20 for meditation when Suzette took over. When I returned home at around 7:30 Suzette had constructed a casserole dish with PPI spaghetti on the bottom, then the PPI Eggplant Parmesan, then the tomato sauce, and finally, slices of Pecorino Romano cheese that she had covered with Saran Wrap and put into the microwave. We discussed wine and she decided on another bottle of Aquino Chianti Reserva from Trader Joe’s, so I opened it and poured glasses of it while she heated and served the Eggplant Parmesan casserole.
The dish was fantastic. The fresh tomato sauce reinvigorated the dried out overcooked Eggplant dish to create a mouth watering delicious dinner with a completely fresh flavor. It was revelatory for me to see how an unappealing dish could be transformed into an appealingly fresh dish by the addition of a fresh sauce and reconstruction into a casserole. My idea to add a tomato sauce to the tired old Eggplant dish worked better than I had hoped.
Suzette wants to lose weight so the simple tomato sauce was a good start for her new diet.
Bon Appetit
No comments:
Post a Comment