Fried Green Tomatoes - Guest Post by Tracy from Busy Vegetarian Mom

Hello again.  Tracy from Foodie Friends Friday here.  I am back this week with my original blog "Busy Vegetarian Mom". 

This blog I started to help keep my family on track with our new diet after taking a health class (CHIP) to help reduce my husbands cholesterol.  I didn't know then that the only source of cholesterol is animal fat.  To eliminate cholesterol, you need to switch to a Vegan diet.  Easy? Well, not as hard as I thought. 

Along our journey we came up with a lot of new recipes and answers to a lot of questions most beginners have, so I thought the best way to record them would be to blog it.  Then just maybe, someone else would find it useful too.  I guess the info was valuable as I do have a lot more followers that I thought I would.  That just motivates me to keep on track and keep bringing new recipes. 

Most of our recipes are "Vegan" (no animal product), but I call us "Vegetarian" because we do still eat "egg beaters"/Egg Whites and Fat Free Cheeses from time to time.  Regardless of the label, I have done all I can to substitute the "bad" foods with "good".  For instance, replace milk with soy, almond, coconut or rice milk.  Replace eggs with flax seed or "egg replacer".  Sub regular flour for whole wheat or oat flour. Sub applesauce for oil.  Replace sugar with natural or sugar free substitutes, and cheese with a vegan cheese substitute.  Doing this we reduce the fats and sugars and produce ZERO Cholesterol!

Please do come over to my blog at Busy Vegetarian Mom and check out all of my recipes.  You will definitely find something you like. I have recipes from Breakfast to Dessert, a little healthy something for everyone! 

Busy Vegetarian Mom

Today, I really debated what recipe to bring you and I finally settled on this one.  It is not as "healthy" as I would like...If you were really good, you would bake these instead of pan fry!  My hubby LOVED it and it is really just a fun recipe for summer (fall).  I hope you enjoy.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Plum Jalapeno Sauce

or try it stacked with Fresh Mozzarella Cheese (not a healthy choice but yummy none the less)

Ingredients:

Sauce:

• 2 Cups Plums (peeled and chopped)
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1 1/2 TBSP Jalapeno (canned/jarred-about 4 slices)
• 1 packet of Truvia

Tomatoes:

• 3 Green Tomatoes Sliced
• 1 Cup Egg Substitute (Egg Beaters)
• 1/4 Cup Soy Milk
• 1 Cup Panko Crumbs
• 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 tsp Mexican Paprika
• 1 tsp Chipotle Chili Powder

Directions:

• Start sauce: Add all sauce ingredients into a small saucepan.
• Stir. Bring to boil and simmer until reduced (about 15 minutes). 
• Add a bit of water (stir) to thin before serving (about 1/2 Cup).
• If necessary, use a hand mixer to smooth the sauce. 

• Prepare Tomatoes: Make egg mixture in a small pan with eggs/milk.  In a separate pan, combine panko, flour and seasoning.
• Dip your sliced tomato into the egg mixture then place in panko mixture to coat.
• Place in small frying pan (med heat) with small amount of canola oil and brown on each side (approx. 2 minutes per side)
• Remove tomatoes and place on paper towel and dab off excess oil.

Serve it up however you like! I hope you LOVE it too!

Summertime Pasta with Tomato & Basil

My most favourite cookbook series is the Whitewater Cooks series.  A very dear friend introduced the series to me, and she has given me two of the books as gifts.  My husband bought me the other.  The recipes are great, the photos are lovely, and the books are just beautiful.  The author is from British Columbia (the province where I live) and she uses ingredients that we can easily find, even people who are from smaller towns.  It's great! 

Last summer we had an abundance of tomatoes in our garden.  Last year was a stellar tomato crop, our little garden gave us over 1500 cherry tomatoes (4 different varieties)...I stopped counting at 1500 (yes...I counted, I couldn't believe our crop!).  Everyone had a gazillion tomatoes, so I wasn't able to share our bounty as much as I would have liked.  I turned some into salsa (YUM!) and we ate a lot of salads with tomatoes.  Then I found the recipe for Summertime Pasta in the Whitewater Cooks book.  And it became an instant favourite!  Here is the recipe (it is SO EASY):

½ cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced or minced (or more if you love garlic)
2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half
Sea salt (to taste)
Fresh pepper (to taste)
Fresh basil, chopped (to taste)
1 cup asiago cheese
1 package spaghetti or other thin pasta

In the morning, cut cherry tomatoes and chop basil, put into a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste (we use Epicure’s Chili Garlic Sea Salt and the 4 Pepper Blend). In a frying pan over medium low heat, heat olive oil. Add garlic to the olive oil. Cook for about a minute, just long enough to infuse the garlic and oil. Transfer oil and garlic to the bowl of tomatoes. Cover with plastic wrap and let the mixture sit at room temperature all day.

At dinnertime, cook and drain your pasta. Add the pasta to the tomato mixture and toss to combine. Serve with freshly grated asiago cheese. If you find asiago cheese too strong, try a different cheese, such as parmesan or mozzarella.

We usually serve the pasta with a grilled chicken, makes for all around nice, healthy meal.

VERDICT:
This dish is a HUGE hit in our house, and I can see it being made regularly over the next while with the tomatoes being harvested.  And it is so easy to make - start it in the morning, let it sit all day, cook up some pasta and grill some meat and dinner is done, just like that!

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Scrumptious Sunday #10 - Features

Another week of FANTASTIC recipes...you make it so hard for a girl to pick features!  Before we get into them, I just wanted to THANK YOU for linking up in my weekly party!

If you are featured this week, please grab a button!

<a href="http://iamaddictedtorecipes.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w519/AddictedtoRecipes/addictedbutton.jpg" width="200" height="177" border="0" alt="I was featured, I was Featured by Addicted to Recipes"></a>

Alrighty, here are my features for this week:


Breakfast-On-The-Go from Lady Behind the Curtain

Pesto Pasta Stuffed Tomatoes from Hot Eats and Cool Reads

Cheesecake Burritos from Dishing with Leslie

The Crazy Brownie from Mandy's Recipe Box

And because it's Mother's Day this weekend, it just wouldn't be complete without these beautiful Mother's Day Cookies from Lizy B!

Congratulations everyone!

These features will be linked on my Facebook page, on my Pinterest page, and (new!) I will be tweeting too! Thanks again for coming to my party!

Reminder, Scrumptious Sunday Link Party #11 will open on Saturday evening at 8 pm PST and will run until Wednesday evening.  I look forward to seeing what you bring to next week's party!

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

My Dad will be so pleased...I made squash for dinner.  Or maybe he won't be once he reads the verdict below.  I guess we'll see!  My Dad is a big squash fan...and everytime it was prepared when we were growing up, we (me, my brother, and I am pretty sure my Mom) all turned our noses.  Ewww, squash.  I painted all squash the same.  If I didn't like one, I didn't like any of them.    But then I grew up, and occasionally at a restaurant one of the vegetable sides would be a squash of some sort.  Sometimes it was spaghetti squash.  And I sometimes tried it.  And I discovered that I like it. Fast forward a few moons and I'm reading through my pile of cookbooks and I come across a recipe for "Spaghetti Squash Casserole"...hmmm...sounds promising.  I think I'll try it.  And we did...here is the recipe:

Spaghetti Squash Casserole - from Taste of Home

1 medium spaghetti squash
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F.

Slice the squash in hal lengthwise; remove and discard the seeds.  Place squash cut-side down in a baking dish.  Bake for 45-60 minutes or until easily pierced.

Increase oven temperature to 375F.

Melt butter in a skillet.  Add in onion, garlic, mushrooms, herbs and seasonings.  Saute until the onion is translucent.  Add in the tomatoes and cook off most of the liquid.  Set aside.

When the squash is cool enough to handle, use a fork to separate into strands.  Combine the squash, tomato mixture, cottage cheese, mozzarella, parsley and crumbs.  Pour into a greased 2 quart casserole.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  Bake, uncovered at 375 for 40 minutes or until heated through and the top has started to brown.

VERDICT:
Wow, this was so good.  My husband's first reaction was "mmmmm" and he then proceeded to have three servings!  He even took leftovers to work and I think he shared a little there.  We gave some of the plain (baked) spaghetti squash to the baby, he wasn't a fan.  Our oldest son, well, we had to tell him that the spaghetti squash was noodles...which he found acceptable and he cleaned his plate.  My husband is already asking me to make this again!

Salmon with Sundried Tomatoes and Capers

We are a family that loves salmon.  We are always looking for new flavours to add to our salmon dishes.  This week I found a recipe that I found in 2001 (yes, I have had the recipe for 11 years and never made it!).  Yesterday was the day! I picked it because my husband has been on a sundried tomato kick lately. 

My husband came home from work last night to me prepping dinner, to which he commented "Wow, looks fancy!" and "I thnk this blogging thing is the best, we are getting spoiled by all these new meals."  I think my responses were along the lines of..."It's not as fancy as it seems" and "Remember I'm going back to work this summer, we might not be as spoiled once I'm working again".  I think I also asked him to win the lottery for us, then I could stay home and cook "fancy" meals all the time, LOL!

Here is the recipe:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

8 sun-dried tomatoes, oil soaked off, chopped

1 tablespoon capers

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste (freshly ground)

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

4 salmon fillets, about 4-6 ounces each

Preheat the broiler (on high) or grill.  I had the rack in the middle of the oven.

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the sun dried tomatoes and capers, season with salt and pepper and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook until it has reduced to a syrup, abour 5 minutes, and set aside.

Meanwhile, season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper.  Broil or grill the fish on each side until it is cooked through, about 4-5 minutes per side.

Please each fillet on a plate and spoon the tomato and caper mixture over it.

VERDICT:
We served the salmon with rice and peas.  We enjoyed the flavour of the salmon with the tomato mixture on the salmon, but not mixed with the rice.  The salmon balanced out the flavour of the sauce, but with the sauce on the rice the flavour was overwhelming.  I made the recipe with 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar (which is what the original recipe called for) but my husband and I both agreed that we would reduce the balsamic to 1/3 cup and I would also add a little more salt and pepper.  It was good, and we will have it again, with our modifications!