Eggplant Parmesan & Zucchini Spaghetti

Last week Kara and I made some pretty tasty dinner (as I mentioned previously in a post) except I forgot to take a picture so here are the leftovers! Still not bad, right? Added some spinach on the side this time.

Zucchini Spaghetti might be my new favorite invention. Aside from mashed cauliflower, of course.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplants, (about 2 pounds total)
• 3 egg whites
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, (1 ounce), divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup slivered fresh basil leaves
• 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce
• 3/4 cup grated part-skim mozzarella cheese, (3 ounces)
• 
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat two baking sheets and an 8-by-11 1/2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Cut eggplants crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Whisk egg whites and water in a shallow dish until frothy. Combine breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, salt and pepper in another shallow dish. Dip the eggplant slices into the egg-white mixture, then coat with the breadcrumb mixture. (Discard any leftover breadcrumbs and egg white.) Arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, turn the eggplant slices over, and bake until crisp and golden, about 15 minutes longer.
3. Stir basil into tomato sauce. Spread about 1/2 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange half of the eggplant slices over the sauce, overlapping slightly. Spoon 1 cup of the remaining sauce over the eggplant and sprinkle with half of the mozzarella cheese. Add a layer of the remaining eggplant slices and top with the remaining sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 15 to 20 minutes.

From EatingWell

din din

mmm looks tasty? i think so.

maybe i should quit and go into food photography...

no, no. i'd have to live in a cardboard box.

we'll just continue on with this graphic design nonsense.

this was dinner tonight --and last night too for that matter. i made rice and pinto beans yesterday after class and then had soybeans for dessert (yummyyy) so tonight i decided to be radical and eat them all together. plus broccoli of course because who doesn't like broccoli? if you answered no, we can't be friends.

ooh and good news there are still enough beans and rice left for at least another 3-4 meals! what fantastic planning on my part.

got some projects to tackle. finished up my typography poster design thingamabob. working on editing some photos now. more stuff to do after. we're hoping for a full night of sleep tonight -- so did not happen last night. i washed my pillows, sheets, comforter and quilt tonight so they are all sweet smelling and still a tad warm. maybe that will help?

ps: snow update-- ITS STILL SNOWING. in fact, it has not stopped since saturday. and we're not talking like a 2 flake an hour type of nonsense. real snow guys.

adventures

Life has been rather eventful lately (both good and bad). So much so that this blog post has been postponed a few days.

Last Thursday Rochester, like much of the rest of the country, got slammed with snow and wintery weather. It wasn't so much deep snow drifts but the ice that was created on top of the snow. Walking to class on Thursday proved to be quite the challenge... involving not one but two times when I totally wiped out. Luckily the first time no one was around to experience my awkward tumble as it was 7:30 in the morning. The second however was in a more populated space in the middle of the day. I felt a little better when I found out that I was not the only person this happened to. Both times were not particularly bad falls although my leg is still sore days later, but they did make me feel a little nervous for my tour Thursday afternoon! Which ended up going just fine and I didn't fall once walking backwards.. go figure! It was kind of fun to give a tour in the snow, it adds a level of excitement and I got to take some back routes to avoid the outdoors. Hopefully my tour group wasn't too cold!

Life event number two... Thursday after classes I was hanging around working on homework or something of the sort when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. Now ordinarily, not a problem. However, as mentioned above, it was snowing bucketloads and also about 25 degrees out so I was slightly less than excited to be standing outside. I had the sense to first put on sweatpants, a winter coat and grab a blanket before heading outdoors. Public Safety came after some time to figure out the problem (no actual fire or anything as far as I know). After about 45 minutes of cold we were allowed back in except the catch was the fire alarm had not yet been disabled so we stuffed a bunch of hats and sweatshirts on to mask the noise. Ironically when it finally turned off an hour and a half later I didn't even realize it because I had become so accustom to the obnoxious noise.

Moving on, Friday morning my roommate and I decided it would be a good idea to go out to lunch and do some Christmas shopping because we had some extra time on our hands. Ashley wanted to stop by Tim Horton's for a quick cup of coffee. That quickly turned into an hour and a half cup of coffee when we realized that she had left the keys in the ignition and the car was locked. Not to worry, my handy internet searching phone found us a locksmith and we were soon on our way.

Last night was the only RIT hockey game in the WHOLE month of December. I've been rather hockey deprived lately and I've had to resort to watching tons of NHL games. Anyway, after a long winning streak, the Tigers lost to Niagara. Our shots on goal were nearly double but their goalie was on all night and their shots looked a little stronger. Definitely a good game, just wished the Tigers could have pulled out another win! Now we'll have to wait until January for another game.

And the final event was our christmas party today! Last night after the hockey game we got back and immediately set to work decorating our entire apartment with those old school paper chains and snowflakes! It looked very festive along with all of our holiday lights and live christmas tree. This morning we woke up and got to work baking lots and lots of cookies! Chocolate chip, cranberry white chocolate, peanut butter with hershey kisses, and puppy chow. A bunch of people came over for dinner and a movie. We had spaghetti (minus the syrup) all inspired by Buddy the Elf, which was of course the movie choice of tonight.










All in all, a pretty decent weekend. The nice thing about these three weeks is that while there is still work to do, there is a good amount of time for hanging out before we all leave for the holidays. The good thing about blogging is that no matter how unfortunate the situation, the first thing I think about is what a good post it would make :)

a better way

i wrote out 56 notecards for art history. it took for freaking ever. it was semi fun though. i can't believe i'm saying that. test next week. eek.
made squash for dinner. let's just say that it was rather difficult to cut through.
it came out a tad uneven.
and took 4 different knives
oh yeah i made brussel sprouts too
with salt and pepper. they were so tasty.
and my squash turned out after all! with apples and brown sugar in the middle. plus i couldn't even eat it all so there is more than half left in the fridge for tomorrow night! with the rest of my sprouts and napa cabbage. i love veggies.

I'm not alone, I really believe
You never go, You never leave
Here and now, You always stay
I love you could not be said a better way
It's everything You've promised
There's no greater love than this

[A Better Way- Downhere] <------ that's where the title came from.

midnight shoe excursions

broccoli with a peanut butter and soy sauce mix and rice!

fancy grilled cheese with 2 cheeses, mushrooms and spinach

midnight trip to walmart

i actually took this picture with the camera upside down so its correct

my shoe broke in the middle of the walmart parking lot...

new orange curtains. we can never seem to keep all of the pillows on the couch at once

soup i made for us for lunch...

cheesey crackers!

potato soup with corn and cheese and real potatoes, crackers and VG splash what a good sunday brunch

food

mac & cheese that ashley made

pancakes & hashbrowns

taco night with the guys, first sunday before classes started

some of the guys

intense uno games

watching fireworks on the hill

i made oatmeal for dinner one night with cinnamon and apples

it tasted better than it looked...

pb&j with apples, i've been eating this every morning for breakfast. i've gone through so many apples lately

my desk/bed/the only place we get internet

dresser

art history poster over my bed bc i have to live and breathe this stuff for 3 quarters

typography project, stage 1

grilled cheese, spinach, carrots and cucumbers.. see mom? i get my veggies

soup i made today for lunch. broccoli, onions, mushrooms, spinach, can of cream of mushroom soup, little bit of soy milk, salt, pepper and cheese.

it was goooooood. and there are leftovers! :)

things i've learned

today i've learned a few things...

• applesauce will go bad if it is not in the refrigerator. you know that "please refrigerator after opening"? yeah... stick to that.
  
• ice tea when opened will grow little things that resemble mini jelly fish, they are gross and should be prevented in the future by a refrigeration system. 

this morning was fantastically awesome due to my long attention span. inputting is surprisingly mind numbing and focusing is rather difficult but the morning went by really quickly. 

i had yogurt & fruit for lunch-- which was the same thing i had for dinner last night except today the mango in it tasted like pumpkin... weird. just put some laundry in. i got broccoli/pineapple/tofu stirfry for dinner along with some grapes. it was excellently tasty. need to get the laundry in the dryer in a bit, maybe finish watching friends, send out some emails, put my sheets back on and then SLEEP! these days are all blurring together, i've got quite the routine down. 

today is seeming like a list kind of day, so...

things i love...

• broccoli, i could eat this everyday of my entire life. 
• soy milk 
• clean sheets

one more day in the work week... and then ALISON COMES! yayy

food updates

i don't know why i suddenly feel the need to document lunch and dinner but it's something to do.

lunch on tuesday was outside in this little garden place by building 7. carrots, a peach and homemade trail mix =) with a book of course, but i didn't eat that.

dinner tuesday night was spicy kung pao pasta made in the microwave and milk. tasttyyy

last night there were some crazyyy bad storms, huge thunder and lightening and pouring rain. in fact, it flooded one of the walkways i get to work on so i had the lovely experience of walking in 3 inches of muddy water to get to work today and ended up with water and mud all over me. 

tonight for dinner was oatmeal & peaches! there is actually oatmeal under that HUGE peach.

couscous with curry

Dinner tonight was couscous with curry, onions, and raisins. Tastyyyy