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Baba Ganoush

If you have never had it or you are wondering what Baba Ganoush is, it is really not as strange as it sounds.



Baba Ganoush is made from smoky roasted eggplant, Tahini (Sesame paste) lemon juice, garlic and a few herbs and spices. It is creamy and has a subtle smoky flavour that is greatly paired with crisp tortilla chips straight out of the oven or next to fresh-cut veggies. Though the traditional spread is not made with chickpeas, I add them in to add a bit of bulk and make it more of a complete meal, yet I don’t add enough to change the taste. So maybe this is more a Baba Ganoush style humus if you were really getting technical.

It had been quite a while since I had made it and I kept on forgetting until I found some eggplants in the discount section at the grocery store. A little bruised but perfect for roasting. Wilhelmina fell in love with it and ate it with tortilla chips the night I made it and then ate more for various snacks and even breakfast in the days after with carrot sticks and sliced red peppers. I bought more eggplants this weekend because she was asking for more once it was gone.

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggplants
  • 2/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher or coarse Sea Salt
  • Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • a half bunch flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 can of Chickpeas (about 2 cups)
  • 1/2 teaspoon chile powder
  • 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika (or)
    • a few dashes of liquid smoke*

* The smoked paprika or the liquid smoke add an amazing depth to the Baba Ganoush. You don’t want to overdo either though, especially the liquid smoke, so use sparingly and adjust at the end as needed.

 

  • Preheat the oven to 375.
  • Prick each eggplant a few times, then broil in the oven until the skin blackens turning over a few times. Keep a close eye on them to not overdo it.
  • Place the eggplants on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until they’re completely soft. You will able to prick them easily without resistance.
  • Remove from oven and let cool.
  • Split the eggplant and scrape out the pulp. Place the pulp in the blender or food processor with the other ingredients and process until smooth.
  • Taste, and adjust seasonings.
  • Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of chile powder or smoked paprika

For the Chips:

  • Preheat oven to 400
  • Combine a tsp of garlic powder, a tsp of chile powder, 1/4 tsp cumin and  1/2 tsp of salt to a few tbsp of olive oil.
  • Cut some tortillas into wedges and place on a baking sheet.
  • Brush the wedges with the seasoned oil and bake a few min until crisp. They will cook fast so keep an eye on them and take them out when golden.

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Meals for the week…

Over the years I have tried to start this as a weekly thing but I only do a few weeks and then I forget.

So here is to another try… and as a bonus I will add last week’s meals also.

Last week we had an all vegetarian week which is something I love to do because I feel so much better eating vegetarian meals, however, my family is not as much on board. We have figured out that pork and chicken just doesn’t agree with any of us much anymore, so we will not be making many meals with those ingredients except for a few exceptions. However, we do enjoy beef, and I have a good butcher, so this week I am adding back a bit of meat so that the rest of the family is happier.

Last week:

  • Homemade Baba Ganoush (or hummus as I made it with eggplant and chickpeas) with homemade pita chips
  • General Tso Tofu  (using this recipe but with Tofu)
  • Spinach Salad with Roasted Veggies and Garlic Bread
  • Homemade Pizza
  • Spinach Salad and Perogies
  • Snack for supper (bread, cheese and other snack things)

This week:

Do you plan your meals in advance? If you are interested in knowing more about my menu planning, check out this post. 
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More than 2 weeks in…

I am now on day 16 of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) in which the goal is to post a blog post a day for a whole month.

Surprisingly it hasn’t been too hard up to now. I think the habit of writing everyday is sinking in slowly and now I find myself thinking about posting and trying to find things to post about. I used to look at the my blog dashboard and shy away because it was no longer a habit and now it is feeling natural again. (though I do look forward to having a small break)

I have been wanting to write a few parenting posts and I have a few subject that I know I want to touch on, or go back on, since many of my posts are now a bit outdated. (for me) But,  each time I sit down to write one I have trouble getting the words out. It is like that idea is there, but the passion that I need to write it is just not there at the moment.

That got me to thinking of why. I think that one of the ways posting was made easier over the years was to participate in online forums. If you have even been active on an online forum you will know that not only are they a “time-suck” but they are also breeding grounds for drama. I would read or participate in a post and then I would come here and rant and let all of my opinions out. That is of course how and why my blog started in the first place.

I need to find a way to find that voice somewhere else now. I don’t want to be sucked into the drama anymore, but I enjoy sharing my parenting views and I believe that there are people that like reading them also. So I am going to make an effort to find that passion in another way so that I can get these posts out of my head and onto the blog where they belong. I am also going to go back to a few of my older posts and re-work them and include the parenting experience that I have now.

Stay tuned…

 

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Too much of a good thing…

I have fond memories from childhood, making popcorn with my mom and then with friends and topping it with tamari and nutritional yeast. It was one of my favourite snacks as a child and still is.

And now it has become a favourite for my children as well.

Popcorn drizzled with Tamari and sprinkled with Nutritional Yeast

 Not only do the kids like the Nutritional yeast on popcorn but they also love it on rice and other savoury dishes I make and I have to admit, there is not much that it doesn’t go with. Wilhelmina especially loves it and has been known to sneak a handful when I am not looking.

This morning I hadn’t noticed that she was already up when Khéna came and got me out of bed way before the usual time saying that Wilhelmina was in the yeast jar. I got my glasses on, got my house pants on and came upstairs and took the jar away and cleaned up the mess. I helped them grab a quick bowl of cereal, got my coffee and sat down and then I looked at Wilhelmina. I saw a bit of red on her face and thought that it was strange that she still had raspberry on her from yesterday… I mean, she did have a bath.
When I glanced again the red had spread and her whole body was become beet red. OMG! I thought about Khéna’s hives from a few days ago and brought her to the bathroom to check her out more. But there were no hives, just red all over and she was itchy and she wanted to wash her hand which still had a bit of yeast stuck to it.
The yeast! I went to the computer to see if there are cases of Nutritional yeast reactions and a post on a forum mentioned Niacin Flush. I have never heard of it so I looked into that quickly and guessed that it was probably what was happening.

Nutritional Yeast is very healthy and contains Niacin. Niacin is great for cholesterol levels by raising good cholesterol and therefore decreasing bad cholesterol. Niacin also helps dilate blood vessels and can cause a warm feeling which is the “Flush”. This is a very common side effect of having too much Niacin. Some people do this on purpose taking enough Niacin that will dilate the blood vessels enough for them to go beet red. If you haven’t taken too much, the flush will last about 10 minutes and will go, but if you take too much it can last up to an hour. Either way, it is a vitamin and though it could overload the kidneys if there is a problem with the kidneys, it will just be flushed out of the body naturally.
Wilhelmina’s Flush lasted about 10 minutes and then disappeared.
Though I knew that nutritional yeast was healthy along with being completely delicious, I never though that you could have this reaction from eating too much of it…

She knows that she became red because of the yeast and I think she knows better now…  I hope!

(Just as the Flush was leaving… a minute or two before this, her whole face and body were the colour of her cheeks… you can still see her neck is pink)

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Update on the braided table runner…

I am loving how this table runner is coming together!

After I had bought the fabric and was putting it together I thought that I had made a mistake with the choice I made but once I brought the colours together in a different way, I knew that it would turn out pretty and it is even better than I would have imagined it would be.

The top is now finished and I have sandwiched it with the batting and the backing and “all” I need to do now is to quilt them together and then finish the edges. I have the “all” in quotations because though I know I will like it when it is finished, actually putting the needle down and figuring out how I am going to quilt it is the hard part.

There are some definite mistakes in it but I don’t think it all that bad for a first try at the design with no pattern or instructions. I also think the overall look of it can make the mistakes seem quite minimal…

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