Vegetarian Victims

Monday was Valentine's day so we moved this week's dinner to Wednesday night and invited our friends Sarah, Michelle and Alice over to Suzanne's house.  Alice had to work in Lynchburg (boo!), so she only got to make a pit-stop and get some dinner before her next meeting...


Tonight's Victims...



Sarah is vegetarian, so this was the perfect time for April and me to delve outside our comfort zone and maybe eat some veggies we wouldn't normally (i.e. eggplant for Suz).  Amazingly, Suzanne was still able to utilize her go-to vegetable - zucchini, and we are using our favorite cooking method - roasting!  It's become almost a joke, considering we add it into just about everything!

We had a RV planning meeting this weekend and came up with some new ideas for the Spring:

• in the next few weeks, we'll be making a trip to the grocery store together to search out vegetables that we've never tried before... then we'll find recipes and build a meal around them (Suz: This one kind of scares me!)
• later this Spring, we're going to head to the Grandin Farmer's Market and come up with a menu based totally on locally grown/produced foods.

We are really enjoying having different Victims each week and would love to have you over - we'll even come to your house if you want!  Just let us know and we'll figure out a week that works for all of us.  Speaking of "letting us know", we have a huge favor to ask of our loyal lurkers :) - we know you're reading the blog, we can see it in the stats/followers and you often tell us that you're reading.  But we need your comments/suggestions!  Drop us a line in the comments section to let us know what you think - have you tried something similar?  Did our pictures last week stink?  Do you have a recipe that you think we've got to try?  Please, let us know - we could use a little encouragement! ;)

Roasted Ratatouille Pasta
adapted from The Rachael Ray Show

1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 bulb garlic
1 medium eggplant, ends removed, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 medium zucchini cut into small chunks
2 medium sweet red pepper cut into small chunks
4 sprigs, fresh thyme, leaves removed
1 large red onion, quartered and cut into chunks
1 pint grape tomatoes,
1 box Smart Taste Penne
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450F. Place a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring to a boil.

Cut a sliver off the top of the garlic head just large enough to expose the cloves. Tear off a large square of aluminum foil and place the garlic in the center. Drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil over the head and wrap the foil up around it. Place in the oven and roast until golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes.




While the garlic is roasting, cut up the veggies and place everything except the tomatoes on one or two large baking sheets, along with the thyme leaves. Once the garlic has been roasting for about 15 minutes, drizzle the veggies with 1 teaspoon olive oil and season them with some salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast them in the oven until tender and caramelized, about 30 minutes.


Once the veggies have been in the oven about 10 minutes, place the tomatoes onto another baking sheet, drizzle them with 1 teaspoon olive oil and hit them with some salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss them into the oven with the other veggies and roast until they've burst and shriveled up slightly, 15-20 minutes.



Once the veggies have about 10 minutes left to go, drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook to al dente according to package directions. Before draining the pasta, ladle about 3/4 cup or so of the pasta cooking liquid into a large serving bowl. Drain the pasta and reserve.

Once the garlic is done roasting, allow it to cool enough to handle, then hold the head in your hand over the bowl with the pasta water and squeeze out all of the roasted cloves into the bowl. Add the tomatoes and mash everything together.

Add the roasted veggies, drained pasta, parsley and grated Parmigiano to the bowl and toss it all to combine.

Serves 6, with a PointsPlus Value of 9 each.

Suz: This recipe looks daunting because it seems like it has a lot of steps, but it was pretty easy to put together. The one thing I was worried about was roasting the garlic, so I did it this morning before I went to work.  I also prepped all of the other veggies and stuck them in the fridge so they'd be ready when I got home.  Dinner was Delicious!  Definitely a recipe to make again.  Michelle suggested that it would be even better with some italian sausage, Alice thought grilled chicken would be nice.  Sarah thought it was good as-is (go figure!). Even the eggplant was good.

April: I loved the flavors and textures in this dish. I thought it was fine without any meat. I really enjoyed it and Maggie enjoyed the leftovers with me today. She doesn't eat much so it's wonderful when I can find foods she will gobble up so quickly!

 

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

From Weight Watchers: Comfort Classics

1 1/2 cups fat-free milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon of reduced-fat creamy peanut butter

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup frozen thawed fat-free whipped topping

1 6oz prepared reduced-fat graham cracker crust

1 tablespoon chopped dry roasted peanuts

1/2 ounce semisweet chocolate coarsely grated

1. Combine the milk and sugar in a medium saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Cooke, stirring constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes; remove from the heat. Whisk in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour into a medium bowl and refrigerate until completely cooled, about 1 hour.

2. Gently stir the whipped topping into the chilled milk mixture; spoon into the crust. Sprinkle with the peanuts and grated chocolate. Loosely cover the pie with wax paper, then with heavy-duty foil. Freeze until completely frozen, at least 4 hours or up to 2 days. Let the pie soften at room temperature 15 minutes before serving.

Suz: This pie was much lighter than I thought it would be, and not super peanut-buttery.  I would have liked a layer of chocolate, or maybe a chocolate crust? 

April: This pie was a pain to make. It never had the texture I thought it would in any part of making it... I spilled it everywhere at one point. Then my son pulled it out of the freezer and dropped it cracking the pie shell... dramatic I tell you DRAMA! Surprisingly though it was quite tasty. I thought it should set out longer before serving, but on a side note... it melts fast in your car... just saying...



After dinner, we headed down to pub quiz for our regular Wednesday night trivia. As I was rooting around in my purse looking for a pen, I (Suzanne) found this:



Onions like pub quiz too!

Apparently while I was stirring the roasted vegetables, a piece of red onion went overboard and jumped into my purse.  Why was my purse next to the oven, you ask? My apartment is very small and does not have a lot of storage space.  I have a bench that sits next to the oven and my purse found its way over there when I got home.  Don't worry, I'm moving in April to a much larger apartment so embarrassing episodes like this should happen far less often! :)