Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Meatless Mondays: Week 1


This was supposed to be my awesome overdose of grilled veggies: skewered eggplant, red & green & yellow peppers, and button mushrooms, lightly covered in olive oil and a dried Lebanese herb mixture my sister gave me, which I'm going to assume is za'atar (thanks to my foodie Twitter friend @yasminATlesauce); whole scallions (a.k.a. green onions); tomato halves; and some fun with lemon, oranges and pear.

I was psyched to do a few more playful things -- such as brush a couple of the vegetable skewers with different glazes/oils: chili olive oil, toasted sesame oil, and Trader Joe's sweet Thai chili sauce. And of course, squeeze the grilled lemon on top.

I was also planning to melt some chocolate chips for a drizzled sauce over the grilled fruits but alas, it wasn't meant to be. I wasted four matches trying to light my barbecue. It was no use. I was out of gas.

So I threw the skewers on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, preheated the oven to 450F and roasted them instead for 20 minutes. In the meantime, I made buttery, creamy mashed potatoes (with real butter! and real cream! 35%!) and chopped up the scallions to mash up with the spuds. The pears became snacks as I prepped; although I contemplated poaching them but didn't have any suitable liquid for the task. Oranges and tomatoes ended up in tupperware in my fridge.

After the veggies were done, I tossed them with romaine lettuce, chili olive oil and squeezed the (raw) lemon over.

Albeit a boring little meal, it was successfully satisfying and made up for the greens I lacked earlier in the day.

2 comments:

yasmin said...

i still think this dinner sounds great. where did you get trader joe's stuff from???

Heather Li said...

lol. Not Canada. It's leftovers from my trip to Boston. I really need to finish it asap.