Eggplant Manicotti

Last night, we had a dinner night with one of our couple friends, who are vegetarians! For me, picking out vegetarian meals are so difficult...I couldn't imagine a life without chicken..seafood...and nice, juicy, medium rare steak (I can NOT wait till I get enjoy these little things in life again...43 more days till Ollie's here, god willing).

Since I've been in the mood for a nice italian dish lately, I decided to switch it up a bit. My favorite italian dish is manicotti, I used to love when my mom made this, it was my favorite meal when I was little. Except this time, I made it with Eggplant, and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Eggplant Manicotti

Ingredients:

3 eggplants
1/2 container mushrooms
Pasta Sauce
Basil
about 8-10oz of Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Salt, Pepper
Minced Garlic
Olive Oil
1c. Heavy Cream


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Slice eggplant into long thin slices. If you have a mandolin, I'd suggest using this to get your slices perfect, but I just used a knife and my keen slicing techniques...haha.
3. Brush eggplant with olive oil, place on a well oiled pan, and bake in the oven about 10 minutes, or until eggplant is tender and pliable. Let cool for a couple of minutes.
4. While eggplant is baking, chop your mushrooms and basil, and mix it into a bowl with the ricotta cheese, and a handful of mozzarella. Here, add any seasonings you want, but I just added some salt and pepper.
5. In a baking dish, place a thin layer of pasta sauce at the bottom, until it just covers it, and set aside.
6. On a plate or a cutting board, lay out a couple of slices of eggplant. Take a spoonful of your ricotta mixture, and place it at the widest end of your eggplant. Roll the eggplant up, tucking and making sure not too much ricotta mixture comes out of the sides. Lay the eggplant roll in the Pasta sauce, seam side down. Repeat with the rest of your eggplant.

7. Once pan is full, pour a tablespoon of heavy cream over each of your eggplant rolls, then sprinkle with cheese.
8. Bake your manicotti for about 20 minutes, and serve!

Sausage, Butternut Squash, and Brussel Sprouts

This weekend was a CRAAZZZYY weekend for Gus and me, between family, our "winter cleaning", and finishing up baby Ollie's room. Last night, he took me to the movies to watch the Hobbit (I have to admit, despite all of my protesting, it wasn't THAT bad), and by the time we got home from the never-ending movie, it was already 9, so I whipped up something real fast for us. And lo and behold, I tried out this recipe I found last week from this lady's paleo website, Jen's Gone Paleo. It was quite easy, and delicious!

Sausage, Butternut Squash, and Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients

1 container of Pork Sausage (I used the Jimmy Dean in the roll sausage)

1 medium butternut squash

10oz Brussel Sprouts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375degrees F.

2. In a medium pan on medium heat, cook the sausage until browned (Doesn't need to be fully cooked, as it will cook in the oven). Drain and set aside.

3. Peel, de-seed, and chop the butternut squash into bite sized cubes.

4. Mix the butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and sausage onto one large baking pan, then cook for about an hour, or until the veggies are fully cooked.

Afterwards, I sprinkled some salt, pepper, and italian seasoning on it. And of course, Gus sprinkled cheese, because "No meal is complete without cheese"! Enjoy :)

Thai Chicken Curry Soup

This past Sunday, Gus and I were in food heaven...or Sam's Club, as most people call it. I've had a card for quite a while, but only to get the cheaper gas, or to run and grab random items for parties. But that day, we decided to walk...the ENTIRE store, after my 40 minute yoga session. Talk about a prego workout haha.

So we browsed for a while...and sampled, a lot...and browsed some more. Then got to the grocery section, and found nice, quality chicken breasts for $1.77/lb! And we bought enough to last the entire week haha.

So when I got home, I pondered meal plans and ideas I'd use for this week. I've been in a Chinese-wanting phase, and decided to go with a healthy asian, and did this...Thai Chicken Curry Soup. Delicious! And it was Paleo friendly... now don't get discouraged, you can make it as spicy as you'd like, or not spicy at all, just be prepared for an amazing, healthy and filling dinner.

Thai Chicken Curry Soup

Ingredients: 

3 chicken breasts, chopped
1 green or red pepper
1/2 an onion
3tbsp minced garlic
6oz mushrooms
Red curry paste
1tbsp. Yellow Curry powder
1 bag of fresh spinach
2 cans Coconut Milk
2c. Chicken Broth
Olive Oil
1tbsp. Salt
1tbsp. Pepper
2tbsp. lime juice
Green onions

Directions:

1. Chop all the vegetables into bite sized pieces, then set aside.
2. Heat a small amount, about 1tbsp, of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, and add 1tbsp of red curry paste, 2tbsp if you'd like it a little spicier. Saute onion and garlic until fragrant, then add chicken and brown for about 4-5 minutes. Add peppers and mushrooms, and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Add chicken broth, coconut milk, curry powder, salt, and pepper, and lime juice, and let simmer for at least 30 minutes on low-medium heat. The longer you let it cook, the more flavorful it will become, and the thicker it will become. **If soup is not desired thickness, add a cup of hot soup to 1tbsp of flour, mix well until dissolved, then add to soup, and let cook at least ten minutes longer to get rid of any flour taste**
4. At the last moment, stir in spinach, so it won't become too wilted, then top with chopped green onions. Serve as desired. We added a dollop of sour cream to the mix, made it even more delicious!

Enjoy :)