Friday Fix.......Easy Eggplant

I LOVE Eggplant Parmigiana, floured, fried, and oozing with cheese.......Oh I Really Really Do! But, it's not something I want to indulge in on a regular basis. I needed to find a way to get my Eggplant fix without the extra pounds. This easy eggplant is delicious, simple to make, and pretty darn tasty!

Slice the eggplant just under 1/2" thick, sprinkle with salt and let drain about 20 mins in a colander. You can rinse or just wipe the salt off with paper towel. Dry the slices if you rinsed. You're almost done! Put the slices on a lightly oiled sheet pan, brush with olive oil, top with a bit of your favorite sauce, sprinkle with oregano, and pop in the oven. I like to bake in a 300 degree oven till fork tender 20-30 mins.

Sometimes I'll just have a salad with a side of eggplant for lunch or dinner. So yummy, so healthy! I got several beautiful organic eggplant at the Flemington Farmers Market last Sunday.

I feel so great going there on a sunny Sunday morning (think Shiny, happy, people). There's always live music and good produce to be found.

Check it out!

and, check out the Food Renegade Blog for Fight Back Fridays!
Go for it! Rebel against processed food!!

Enjoy!
Maryann

Not so Cool Whip..... Ditch it!

Even if you can't spend the extra money, or don't have the time to frequent the farmer's markets you can still make healthier choices at the supermarket. Let's take a look at Cool Whip whipped topping.

Wired Magazine did a post in 07'

CoolWhip
A delicious blend of sugar, wax, and condom lube.

I laughed out loud when I read that one..... I knew whipped cream was sexy, but...

Here are two of the worst ingredients! hmmm, might inspire one to actually whip cream..

Polysorbate 60
Polysorbates are made by polymerizing ethylene oxide (a precursor to antifreeze) with a sugar alcohol derivative. The result can be a detergent, an emulsifier, or, in the case of polysorbate 60, a major ingredient in some sexual lubricants.

Sorbitan Monostearate
Chemists call this stuff synthetic wax, and it's sometimes used as a hemorrhoid cream. It's one of the magical substances that keep Cool Whip from turning to liquid over time in the fridge.

So, next time you reach for that whipped topping think about those very sexy hemmorrhoids. You might just reach for a carton of plain old heavy cream.......

Friday Fix.......Vegetable Fritters.....

These Zucchini Fritters remind me of the Cauliflower Pancakes that are a staple in our house. My Italian father has been making them since I was a kid. Follow the recipe below but use cooked Cauliflower instead of the zucchini. We make with parsley and serve with sour cream. (I only use about 1/2 cup flour. See how wet the batter is. If too wet add more.)

image courtesy Grist

Zucchini Fritters (recipe from Grist)

4 cups grated zucchini (1 ½ to 2 pounds), squeezed dry
About 1 ½ cups of bread crumbs, flour, or cornmeal
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
4 scallions, chopped including the greens
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup chopped herbs—any or a combination of parsley, cilantro, basil, mint
salt and pepper
A splash of milk or buttermilk, if needed, to give the batter a spoonable texture
Olive oil for the pan

Sprinkle about 1 ½ teaspoons salt over the grated zuchinni and set it aside in a colander to drain for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients together except the oil. After 15 minutes squeeze any excess water from the zuchinni and then mix it with the batter. Season with a big pinch of black pepper. Film a large skillet (or two) with 1 Tablespoon or so olive oil. When the pan is hot (on medium heat) drop heaping tablespoons of batter into the skillet. Cook over medium heat until golden brown on the bottom. Flip and cook the second side. Eat while hot with sour cream, yogurt, or salsa verde.

TIME MAGAZINE'S COVER STORY

CHECK OUT THIS WEEK'S TIME MAGAZINE!!!

If my neighbors don't already think I'm nuts, I'm sure they do now. After I grabbed the mail out of the box the other day, I was literally jumping up and down in the street.

FRIENDS, LOOK AT THIS COVER STORY!

The headline: THE REAL COST OF CHEAP FOOD.

The fine print reads:

WARNING: This hamburger may be hazardous to your health. Why the American food system is bad for our bodies, our economy, and our environment--and what some visionaries are trying to do about it.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA FINALLY GETS IT!!!!

I urge you not to miss this amazing, eye-opening cover story. Here's how it starts:

"Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped of so they won't bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He's fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he'll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than 2/3 of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and town into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That's the state of your bacon--circa 2009."

Also, did you know that $1 can buy 1,200 calories of potato chips, 875 calories of soda, 250 calories of vegetables, or 170 calories of fresh fruit? It's no wonder there's an obesity epidemic!

That's just the start. There's a lot more great information, including a cost-comparison of conventional vs. organic food.

Triumphantly, I read the begnning of this article to my husband, who (uncharacteristically) had no comment. Happily, I don't think he'll give me the hairy eyeball any more when I inform him I'm going to the farmers' market, or proudly explain the local origins of items that appear on his dinner plate!!

I know we can't all be visionairies, but we can do our own small part to change our food system. Buy local and organic whenever you can, and support brands that have a committment to sustainable agricultural practices. PEOPLE, GET OUT THERE AND ROCK YOUR FOOD WORLD!!!!