Now onto the dilemma-- to all the mothers and fathers out there who are trying to get their kids to eat vegetables, I feel your pain. Every Wednesday Rebs and I cook dinner for two boys who would otherwise go weeks without a single carrot. Jeez. I feel a duty to put as many vegetables and fruits into these Wednesday night dinners as possible, so the menu last night included whole wheat spinach ravioli, homemade tomato sauce, sauteed spinach with garlic and panko-crusted eggplant.
To make this meal just pick up your favorite pre-made vegetable-filled ravioli. Rebs made the sauce with a 24oz can of crushed tomatoes, 4 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 heaping tbsp. dry oregano and salt and pepper. She let all of this sit on the stove on a medium-low heat for 30 minutes. It was so flavorful and I love using crushed tomatoes (as opposed to a stock or liquid and vegetable paste) because you get these delicious, juicy chunks of tomato. Yum yum yum.
She sauteed 1 medium-sized bag of spinach in a pan with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and 2 cloves of crushed garlic and she also boiled our ravioli. While she was manning the stove, I was on the other side of the kitchen prepping the eggplant. For this dish you'll need 1 eggplant, about 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 3 tbsp. canola oil, 2 whisked eggs and 2 cups of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs).
Slice the eggplant into 1/3 inch slices. Pour flour and panko on separate plates and egg into a bowl. Toss the eggplant in the flour, dip in the egg and then pat with panko. Repeat this for all of the slices and place onto a baking sheet greased with 1-2tbsp. canola oil. Carefully drizzle 1 tbsp. canola oil over all of the eggplant slices. Place the baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, flipping the slices over once after 20 minutes. Serve this crispy side immediately to two boys who have eaten nothing but pizza for a week.
The panko is perfect for this because it offers a light and crispy coating!
Our beautiful table of nutritious foods.
Alex and Bill happily eating their eggplant. "Are you almost done setting the table? I want to try this eggplant!" -Alex. I will take that as a compliment!
My plate... looking at this is making me hungry! I topped the ravioli with some grated parmigiano-reggianno.
The happy cooks!
Remember that breading and baking vegetables is always a good way to get picky kids (or 20-year-old guys) to eat them!
This morning I went to the Newseum for a press conference for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Ping Pong is a supporter of the festival this year so I was able to go and mingle with our fellow-sponsors! It was really great to see some news-making happening right before my eyes; my PR Writing professor was very happy! Anyway, I couldn't just go there without snapping some pics from my phone so here they are:
Scrambled eggs and roasted potatoes with red pepper and some fruit (I was SO happy to bite into that cantaloupe and have it be juicy, usually melons at events are unripe!).
I snuck around some photographers to get a photo of Mayor Adrian Fenty speaking.
Tomorrow starts my Spring Break, woo! Over break I am going to photograph everything I eat and post it here for you. I did this while I was in Paris and Barcelona for Winter Break in London and it was really interesting to see what I ate over the course of a day. I challenge all of you to take pictures of all of the food you eat during one day this coming week and share it with your friends. It will tell you a lot about yourself and your taste!
With health,
Melissa
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