Rice and Zucchini "Lasagna"

This is what happens when I have NO idea what to make for diner because of too many options...
It's totally freestyle cooking at its best, it kinda came together I don't know how, I just got inspired as I cooked. Love that! It also used up a lot of letfovers...the spaghetti sauce was about a week old and needed to be used for something, the zucchinis were getting a little soft and the rice...well ok, I cooked that fresh but it was the bottom of the bag. Not too shabby, still, huh?



First I started by cooking some basmati rice, I think it was 1/2 cup DRY.
Meanwhile, I sauteed 2 medium sliced zucchinis in olive oil with salt, pepper, paprika and oregano.



Then I started with the layering, in a 8x4 loaf pan, or if you have a big family use your favorite casserole dish. (This one here feeds 2-3 people)
At the bottom of the pan a bit of spaghetti sauce, then a layer of zucchinis, some parmesan cheese, rice, spaghetti sauce, zucchinis, parmesan, rice, etc...up to the top, then finish with a layer of shredded cheese (here it's cheddar).



Then in a 400F oven until it starts to bubble (LOVE the glass pan!!) and under the broil for 2 minutes or so.

Pretty darn good for a week night...

Millet salad with Mediterranean flavors...

It's summer time, almost, so there will be a lot of salads coming on this blog. This is one I made a few days ago but kept the pictures for a later post...one week later. I have a full time job now, food-related, so my cooking/baking time as gone WAY down! But I'm still around...
So this salad was thrown together after looking in the fridge and grabbing whatever was in there:

1 zucchini
3-4 button mushrooms
1 clove garlic
Leftover millet from last week "bread of the week"(about 1/2 cup was left...)
2-3 big pieces sundried tomatoes
BIG chunk feta cheese
about 1/4 cup roasted UNsalted sunflower seeds.

I started by sauteeing the zucchini, mushrooms and garlic in olive oil, with oregano(lots of it!!), salt, pepper, and paprika.
In a big bowl I mixed the cold millet, feta, sundried tomatoes and sunflower seeds with cracked black pepper. Didn't add salt because feta is pretty salty already...
I threw in the hot sauteed zucch's and 'shrooms to make the cheese soften a bit.
I then mixed in 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2-3 tablespoons olive oil.

So fresh and delicious.



Only thing missing is a nice cold glass of white wine...

Zucchini Bread

Back from an amazing week-end in Quebec City! For details of my swimming races go to my other blog.
Now on to today's recipe. I actually made this last thursday to bring to the meet and share, along with the protein bars, which were well liked I might say...And very usefull before and after tough races!! This bread too was good to have on hand, low in fat, high in protein and super tasty!



I love making breads like this because it's easy(as opposed to "real" bread where yeast can play tricks on you...), and it makes a great snack! This one is a zucchini bread, adapted from my favorite healthy baking recipe book by Sarah Philips.
I just now had the last piece and 4 days later it's still moist and so amazing, I think I'll make another one later today, since I gave almost all of it away!!
Okay, so here's what you need:

Dry stuff:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup quinoa flakes, or oats.
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
pinch of salt

Wet stuff:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened appelsauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 TBSP canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grated zest of one lemon(or orange would be good in here, too!)

1- 1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini(the more zucchini the "wetter" the bread...)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cut chopped walnuts

-Heat oven at 350F, place rack in the middle, oil-spray a 9x5in loaf pan.
-Mix all dry stuff, set aside.
-In another bowl, beat all the wet stuff until frothy.
-Pour the wet stuff in the dry stuff, mix until just humid. Add zucchinis, nuts and raisins, mix to combine but no over-mixing!!
-Spread the batter gently in the pan, and bake for 55-60 minutes. When it's ready the loaf will spring back when you press on it, and a knife inserted in the middle will come out clean.
-Cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack, then unmold and cool on the same wire rack.
-Try to fight the temptation to dig in right away, it will fall apart if it's too hot, this bread is so moist and tender!



Enjoy!

I don't how to call this one...brown rice gratin? ok.. Brown Rice Gratin.

This is a perfect example of freestyle cooking. Tonight i had NO idea where I was going with this, I just kinda made this dish up as I was going along. I knew I wanted something with rice, brown rice, so as that was cooking I kinda startd chopping veggies with the intention of a stir fry, then I had the idea of turning it into a gratin. A little cheese never hurt anybody right? Everything tastes better with cheese anyway. So I think I ended up with something pretty darn good.



Here's how it happened:
First, I cooked the brown rice. Toasted it first in a bit of butter(unsalted butter!) and added 3 parts of water. I knew it was gonna be a little too much but that water can be used to add moisture to the stri fry. Meawhile, I shredded half a zucchini(it was a big zucchini...), chopped about 1/2 a cup of mushrooms. couple of green onions, clove of garlic and 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley. When the rice seemed to be almost done I started sauteing the veggies in grapeseed oil, added salt, pepper, paprika and cajun spices. As I had thought the rice was done with a little extra liquid at the bottom, I threw all that in and cokked for a few minutes. That would have been awsome on its own. But the cheese! So I threw the rice mix in an oven proof dish, mixed in a couple big pinches of parm in it, stirred and topped it with about 1/3 cup shredded Montrey Jack queso. In the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes to make the cheese melt,(in the meantime the dishes are done...)broil for 5 minutes to give it a crisp and voila! Oh and to be fancy I sprinkled dried parsley on top. Restaurant habits die hard...
Pretty good diner. Also, the brown rice and the cheese together make a complete protein, so it's a great vegetarian meal!