Pintesting in the Kitchen - Deconstructed Guacamole Salad

I love avocados, tomatoes, onions, and guacamole. So when I saw this pin for a deconstructed guacamole salad I was too excited. It seemed as if I just couldn't make it fast enough. Soon enough I had.

How was it? Kind of terrible :( I'm going to operate under the assumption this was my bad and that I made it incorrectly somehow. I guess I'll have to try it again.

Sunday Snack - Grilled Cheeseburger Wraps

I adore burgers. If you've followed me in the past when I was Pro-Portional Designs you may know a little bit about just how much I love burgers.

A friend of mine who spent her first pregnancy with gestational diabetes told me that I may need to steer clearer than I usually would. She told me I would probably need to skip the ketchup because of all of the sugar and I would be better off not eating the bun.

When creating my Dealing With Gestational Diabetes board on Pinterest I somehow came across this gem of a pin. Grilled cheeseburger wraps sounded so good that I decided they needed to be made that week.

1 lb ground beef

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon dried minced onion

pepper and salt to taste

5 flour tortillas (the larger ones)

shredded cheddar cheese

sliced tomatoes

 yellow mustard

Brown ground beef in large skillet and drain. 

Add Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, dried onion, and salt and pepper

to the beef

and simmer for 5 minutes. 

Sprinkle shredded cheese down center of each tortilla. 

I added a little green pepper and onion I had in the fridge.

Sliced up a beautiful organic tomato.

Then added that as well.

Mustard.

And finally ground beef.

My husband is a picky eater so his had a lot less.

Cheese.

Beef.

Roll up tortilla burrito-style and place wraps on preheated indoor grill (I used my George Foreman).

Grill wraps for about 5 minutes until cheese is melted. 

Mine was a bit more of a mess when it came time to grill.

But the taste was still really wonderful.

I plan to add this recipe to the list of things we somewhat regularly make.

 

Pintesting in the Kitchen - Eggplant Caviar

Making the adjustment to having gestational diabetes isn't easy. Still in the stage where all I knew was that I had to eat and that I had to be even more mindful of what I was putting into my body I really had no choice about trudging forward and trying to make this work.

Today's pintest comes to us via this pin and the information found here - in French.

Ingredients you're going to need:
3-4 small eggplants - I chose to just use 1 large one

 3 tablespoons tahini / tahini / tahina (or sesame paste)

1 clove of garlic
Juice of one lemon
1 dash of olive oil
1 c. in s. of Labane or buttermilk
1/2 c. to c. ground cumin
salt
 
Description 

Preheat oven to 200 °.

Wash and prick the eggplants all over with a fork 

and place them on a baking sheet.  

Bake 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through cooking. By the time my 25 minutes was up, because I used a large eggplant the center wasn't cooked as well as I was going to need. I cut it open, removed a few seeds, and put it back in for another 12 minutes and 30 seconds. 

I was getting nowhere really fast and my headache and hunger was only getting much more intense. I flipped the eggplant over, turned the heat up to 300, and set my timer for 15 minutes and 30 seconds. I removed as many seeds as I could 

and hacked up the insides 

and put it all back into the oven for another 15 minutes.

Let cool, peel by holding the stem and remove the seeds. Keep only the flesh. Yes yes it is a bit tedious but the result is much better without grains!

Then mix together the flesh of the eggplant with garlic, tahini, lemon juice, cumin, Labane (or in my case buttermilk), a drizzle of olive oil and salt.

Stay far, far, far away from this time consuming recipe. Nothing about this was worth it for me.The taste was no good and I just about wish I could get that time back.

Andouille Marinara Over Zucchini Noodles

While I waited for my results about my glucose test I needed to insure I was doing what was best for the little guy I was growing. The morning after my test I woke up feeling irritable and miserable - what one earth was I going to eat now!? It seemed like 90% of what was currently in my house was stuff I wasn't allowed to eat.

The last time I visited my parents my father gave me some andouille sausages - I can eat those. It seemed like I good jumping off point to create a dish. Zucchini pasta had sounded appetizing enough - alright then, how about andouille marinara sauce over zucchini pasta?

The andouille was frozen so I boiled it so I could have it ASAP.

While it boiled I got out my zucchini and washed them.

Cut the tops off.

Then I took my vegetable peeler, peeled off that outer green layer and set that aside to compost.

Peel slices of zucchini off until you hit seeds.

Seeds will mess with the groove of your "pasta."

Set the remaining zucchini aside to use for something else later.

By the time I was finished peeling the zucchini

 the andouille was ready.

My food processor wasn't clean so I got out my trusty blender.

Cut up the andouille and put it in the blender.

Get out your marinara sauce.

Add a bit on top of the andouille.

Blend until you've got something you're happy with. I knew I didn't want large chunks.

Set the sauce aside for now and get out a pan to cook your noodles. Add a bit of olive oil.

Turn on the heat.

Add your noodles and cook them for just a moment or two until they're warm or hot (whichever you want). In fact, you don't even have to heat the noodles - you can eat them as they are if you like.

Toss with a little sea salt, garlic, salt, garlic - whatever you like. I chose a little garlic salt.

 Once they were warm I put them on a plate, topped them with some sauce, and got out my fresh mozarella.

Slice off a few pieces of fresh mozarella and microwave just long enough to get it melty.

The resulting dish was really wonderful - even more so than I thought it could be.

I ate it pretty quickly and was still hungry so I whipped up a salad with baby spinach, tomato, avocado, chicken, and a teeny bit of dried cranberry. Then I topped the salad with oil and red wine vinegar.

Well, that's one evening down.

Saturday Snack - Eggplant Involtini

Eggplant is another one of those foods I can't get enough of, yet somehow I always managed to forget how long they can take to prepare.

The second I saw this pin while searching for things I should be able to eat while "stuck" with gestational diabetes I knew it was for me. The link from the pin doesn't go directly where it should go but here is the page you should end up on.

 Looks completely mouthwatering doesn't it?

I had my head in the game just this side of early enough to make myself a late lunch out of this. You better bet I did all I could to motivate my pregnant booty to waddle into the kitchen and start prepping for it.

Involtini
1 eggplant
kosher salt
olive oil for frying
tomato sauce 
heavy cream
freshly grated Asiago cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano (I used the stuff in a shaker because it was all we had at the time)

Stuffing
bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup, made from about 3 slices day-old bread I used panko
1 cup whole milk ricotta
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, minced
1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1. Trim the stem end of each eggplant. 

Put those end pieces in your composter, compost bag, or wherever it is you keep your food waste.

Using a mandoline, cut the eggplant lenthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices. You should have about 12 slices. I didn't use a mandoline, I used a large serrated knife.

Sprinkle the eggplant on both sides with kosher salt, layer them in a colander, and let stand for 1 hour. (I was impatient and only let them drain for about a half hour… worked out just fine.)

Press the moisture from the eggplant and blot them dry with paper towels. As you know, I try to avoid using virgin paper sources so I went ahead and used my UnPaper towels for this.

Pour olive (or canola) oil to a depth of 1 inch in a deep, heavy saucepan or large skillet and heat to 360ºF on a deep-frying thermometer. (I did not use a thermometer — just watched the oil and tested when I thought it was ready.) I didn't use a thermometer on the oil either.

Place 3 to 4 eggplant slices in the hot oil and cook until the slices take on some color, 3 to 4 minutes.

Using tongs, transfer the slices to a colander (or paper-towel lined plate) to drain. Repeat with remaining slices.

2. Meanwhile, make the stuffing. In a bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, ricotta, lemon zest, juice, thyme and salt.

3. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Spoon tomato sauce into a medium-sized baking dish till bottom of dish is covered in a thin layer.

Place a spoonful of filling at one end of each of the eggplant slices.

Roll the slice around the filling and place it seam-side down in the dish on top of the tomato sauce.

Spoon a tablespoon of cream (or less) over each roll to moisten. I just poured a bit of cream over all of the ends and as you can see it made a little mess.

Bake until the edges of sauce around the sides of the dish are dark and the rolls are nicely caramelized, 20 to 25 minutes.

Garnish with the Asiago (or parm) before serving.

So how was it? I thought it could use a little less lemon juice. It wasn't bad though. TEENSY bit bland in the stuffing department.