Eggplant Mozzarella Melt - Recipe and Review!!

Ok, so quick recap. My husband is a full time pharmacy student, and also works full time as an intern for CVS pharmacy. Long story short? I have a LOT of free time during the week. I usually go visit my horse at the barn, but I only do this about 2-3 nights a week (and weekends of course), so that means I have 2-3 OTHER evening where I don't have much to do. SOOO...I either craft, or I cook. Right now I've been cooking, simply because I get hungry, and that way there is some sort of dinner for my hubby when he gets home.

Tonights meal?? Eggplant Mozzarella Melt! Whoho! Oh and tonights movie's are Harry Potter and Goblet of  Fire (about the last 30 minutes) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. ABC is doing their Halloween TV stuff...so LOTS of Harry Potter!

I basically follow the recipe exactly. It was quite delicious! The only thing I would change - is add a bit more tomato sauce, a lot of my sauce just soaked into the bread and their wasn't much 'saucyness' to the finished product. Still awesome tho! This will definitely be a repeat meal! Good luck!

I used the recipe from Martha Stewart -> http://www.marthastewart.com/340875/eggplant-and-mozzarella-melt

• 2 large eggs
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
• Olive oil, for baking sheet
• 1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound), sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
• 1 loaf (8 ounces) soft Italian bread
• 2 cups store-bought tomato sauce
• 8 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. In a shallow bowl, lightly beat eggs with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Spread breadcrumbs in a pie plate or shallow bowl.
2. Oil a rimmed baking sheet. Dip eggplant rounds in egg, then dredge in breadcrumbs, turning to coat completely; transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake (without turning) until golden and tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, split bread lengthwise, and place cut side up on another baking sheet; press gently in centers to create a well. Layer both halves with tomato sauce, eggplant, and cheese. Bake until cheese is browned in spots, 6 to 8 minutes.

Delicious Skinny Tortilla Pizza - Recipe and Review Time!

Hello!
So I had a wonderful eggplant melt planned for tonight,  but I was missing a couple key ingredients and we'll.. It just wasn't meant to be I guess.  One of the downsides of shopping for 2 weeks at once is you do tend to forget a thing or two... Oops!

Instead I made these yummy yummy yummy skinny tortillas!

Now I made some glorious homemade tortillas last night,  and the 2 extra left over were supposed to be for my hubby's egg burritos, but I forgot to tell him about it this morning,  and we'll,  I just knew these would be just as lovely for dinner!

Now I made this recipe for two peeps,  so just double/triple/whatever it if you need more. 

Persian Pickles Skinny Tortilla Pizzas

2 - 8 inch tortillas...  Doesn't have to be homemade :)
1/2 C. Prego Tomato Sauce (yes I think this is the best brand, but anything yummy will do!)
4 oz. Mozzerela Cheese
1/4 C. Baby Spinach
1/4 C. Shredded,  seasoned,  cooked chicken breast. (season this however you like,  I prefer soy sauce,  garlic salt, and pepper.)
Heat your oven to 400 degrees.
I put the ingredients on in this order - Sauce, Cheese, Spinach, Chicken, & a little more cheese to top it off!
Place the pizzas on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.  Tada! Delicious pizzas!
Top with parmesan cheese and savor the flavor baby!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Dana

Homemade Tortilla Walk-Thru and Flauta Recipe Review

Hi!

So today was very 'focused' day at work, so besides going to the barn and visiting my horses, coming home and trying a new recipe while watching my favorite episodes of Doctor Who is second best! Just for the record, episodes of Doctor Who watched were....Asylum of the Daleks, Dinosaurs on a Space Ship, The Impossible Planet, and The Satin Pit. I made two recipes, so yes, it took me 3 1/3 episodes to complete them. The Satin Pit is on right now! Woho!

Ok...so! I made these delicious homemade tortillas with this recipe from The Life and Love's of Grumpys Honeybunch (what a adorable name!) Please visit her blog for the recipe.

Ok so here goes the walk-thru! So first let me say that these homemade tortillas are WAY better than anything store bought, and totally worth the time!

Ok so I got all my ingredients out at once because I'm one of those people who can easily feel very overwhelmed in the kitchen. If I have everything out in front of me and make a complete mess while I'm at it...I'm good! 

I measured out my flour and crisco. I got to say, i LOVE the crisco that comes in the sticks. It makes measuring just that much simpler, and a bit more easy to clean up also.

I mixed up the crisco and flour real good with my hands. It took me a few minutes to get all the crisco fully mixed into the flower (third picture in the collage above). 

Following my recipe I added my 3/4 cup of salty water a little at a time, and stirred. I ended up using about 1 full cup to get the final result (bottom right picture above).

Ok so I followed the instructions and kneaded my dough (no pics! Sorry!). I couldn't help but have some flash back of the year of ceramics classes I took in collage. It took a little bit of effort to stop pounding that clay on the counter and start putting them into balls. 

FYI the recipe made 12 balls, i got 9. Not sure how that happened, maybe my tortillas were a little bigger than plans, but I was very happy with the 9. 

Then it told me to let the dough sit for 30 minutes. So in my 30 minutes, I took a quick shot of me and Bandit, watched some Doctor Who (Asylum of the Daleks pictured!) Aaannddd.....I cleaned up my kitchen! I apologize for the poor panoramic pic...still getting used to it! 

OK! So its been 30 minutes - I used some extra flour like the recipe said all over my rolling pin and counter top. Don't worry...its sanitized! My hubby bought me that amazing rolling pin for our first christmas together. What a sweetheart! 

I'll be honest, getting the tortilla to roll out in a nice purty circle does take some effort, and a lot of finesse...probably more than I have! But I managed to get them mostly round. 

Then I put them in my pan! Now I am in love with my cast iron pan, and thats all i ever use, so I actually went against the recipe a bit and added a bit of olive oil to lube up my cast iron and made her a little happier about roasting some tortillas. They came out perfectly fine, but I supposed I did add quite a few extra calories. 

Believe it or not, they started to roast up nicely. I'd say the tortillas spent about 2 minutes on each side, but like the instructions said, each one will cook at its own time. 

I didn't have any cloth napkins like the instructions called for, but I used nice thick paper towels, and to be honest, those seemed to work quite well. 

Now I made these homemade tortillas to replace the store bought ones, considering I can make about 3 dozen for the price of one 8 pack. It was a bit of work, but I think with practice, it will go by rather fast!

I had two left over from my Flauta's recipe for my hubby to try out with his breakfast burritos in the morning. 

I used a chicken flauta recipe from Healthy Delicious! Please visit her blog for the recipe. 

I must say! I give these chicken flauta's a 10/10 stars. They were absolutely delish! So light and yummy, yet so flavorful and filling at the same time. 

Well I hope you enjoyed this walk thru/review of these homemade tortillas! I must say that homemade IS the way to go for these things, they are absolutely divine and taste completely gourmet and WAY better than the store bought ones. GOOD LUCK!

Hasselbeck Baked Potato Recipe Review - yes I made this and they were pretty awesome!

I made these wonderful scalloped baked potato things from Pinterest and they were actually pretty yummy! I just wanted to give a quick review and also a few tips on what I think I could have done differently. Every recipe needs a little tweaking, and most meals seem to come out out different in each kitchen.
I used the recipe from Seasaltwithfood.
My sister-in-law and her (new!) hubby came over for dinner. I made my own recipe of Soy Sugar Salmon, with a side of almond green beans and these hasselback potatos. They loved the potatos and had such great things to say about them, but my main complaint was they came out a little harder than I prefer.
Changes:
Bake them at a higher heat than 220 degrees. I did 4 potatoes at 250 for an hour (the recipe called for 40 min) .... Still to stiff. I would recommend normal baking temperatures, or better yet, stab your potato a bit and stick them in the microwave for 8-10 minutes before you bake. This will get you a much softer potato, which I prefer.
Also, I served them with sour cream and shredded cheese, which I think was a win!
If the potatos were a little more tender, I'd give them 4.5/5, which qualifies for a remake in my household. So make these tweaks and you should be good to go.
Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the amazing potatos!