Our peach tree is loaded this year – it’s awesome! We picked peaches for the first time yesterday and you’d better believe we’re going to have peach juice running down our chins all week long. :)
I also picked a lot of produce from our friend’s garden. They were out of town and told me to help myself – and so I did.
I’ve never really been successful with eggplant, so I’m going to do a little searching online to see what recipes I come up with. Do you all have some eggplant ideas?
I finally was able to make tomato sauce last night – so exciting! I’ll share more about that (because I learned a new trick!) soon.
Here’s our menu this week:
Sunday, August 7
Easy breakfast casserole, peaches
Roasted chicken, carrots, potatoes, gravy
Sloppy joes on homemade buns, watermelon, carrot sticks with ranch
Monday, August 8
Simple soaked pancakes, applesauce
Popcorn chicken, fried okra, green beans
Black bean and rice bowls with salsa and kreme fresh, cucumber salad
Tuesday, August 9
Blueberry streusel muffins, peaches and cream
Pizza pockets, strawberry orange smoothies
Tacos (with homemade tortillas and fresh tomatoes from the garden!), death by chocolate dessert (with guests!)
Wednesday, August 10
Scrambled eggs, creamy orange cooler
Sweet bean casserole, corn bread muffins, something with eggplant?, peaches
Taco salad, watermelon
Thursday, August 11
Coconut flour muffins, apples
Meat and cheese burritos, fresh pineapple
Lasagna casserole, tossed salad, sweet corn
Friday, August 12
Homemade poptarts, applesauce
Grilled cheese sandwiches, chips and salsa, carrot sticks
Homemade pizza, watermelon
Saturday, August 13
Giant breakfast cookies, plums
Leftovers
Hot roast beef sandwiches with gravy, peas, tossed salad
I saw where you cooked fried okra, i have a very simple way to presever okra that we do each year. I fried a jar that i canned in 2008 and it is still like its fresh from the garden. You take 2 qt water, 1/2 vinegar and 4 tblsp, bring all 3 to boil, after it comes to a full boil, add about a gal chopped okra, stir until just starts to boil again, remove from heat, spoon into jars and cover will remaining juice, place hot lid on and your done. when you cook it, just open the jar, dump into a collendar and rinse well, roll in flour and fry. Its delicous.
Oh, nice! I didn’t know it would taste the same after being canned. Can you hot water bath okra to process it, or does it have to go through the pressure cookier?
You do neither, once you pack it in the jars and cover it with the remaining
juice, and put the hot lids on it, you are done. My mother tried the hot
water bath because she thought it needed it, but it ruined it. I still have
some from 2008 and its just as good as what i canned this year.
I love to cook eggplant lasagna. I use eggplant,squash,and zucchini. I cut the veggies into strips and use those as the “noodles” and just layer like you would normally do lasagna. Super yummy!
I also like an Italian eggplant, slice thin, fry and use it as a pizza topping. or bake it and scoop/mix into tomato sauce. Good luck!
Looks and sounds so yummy!
While you eat a few too many carbs for ME personally, you ALWAYS INSPIRE me to plan our menus out and TRY to walk in that discipline. My menu plans primarily revolve around our harvests during the week and sometimes things can seem a little monotonous, so I always appreciate new ideas. Thx <3
How do you grow peaches organically?
We haven’t researched this – we simply don’t spray anything on our tree. Sometimes the peaches are a little buggy, but we’re okay with that. We’d rather cut out a few buggy parts than eat pesticides!
Oh, one thing Matt did was to put some peppermint oil around the base of the tree to keep ants away.
I bought peaches from a local farm that uses Integrated Pest Management. Even though they use some pesticides, but very little, so I’m happy with that. The area I live, it’is verym, very difficult to grow fruits without pesticides. I am jealous you can grow your own though.
In Guatemala, the macadamia farm uses a natural lemon grass mixture that works as a pesticide, but is completely safe for people.
http://sagaunscripted.blogspot.com/2011/05/macadamia-nut-farms-and-how-they.html
Eggplant subs or melts~ I just stir fry onions and chopped eggplant (maybe a little minced garlic-) with olive oil till tender. Add spaghetti sauce till heated then I add mixture to sub rolls or on top of bread (whatever I have) then top with mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some garlic powder :-) Heat in oven for 15 min at 350 so cheese gets melted. Yummy-Husband loves it so -p.s. Will need to brush teeth afterwards from garlic!
Ooh, that sounds great!
My Italian friend makes a great eggplant parmesan. You can use the sauce you just made!
My two favorite things to do with eggplant:
http://mommysrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/04/roasted-vegetable-couscous-salad.html
http://mommysrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/05/baba-ganoush.html
My husband likes the Eggplant Parmigiana his gourmet-cook best friend makes, but I haven’t tackled it myself yet. Can’t wait to see what YOU come up with! :)
I use the eggplant for lasagna noodles too! It works well and is the perfect healthy alternative : )
I love eggplant sliced into strips, sauteed in garlic butter, and sprinkled with salt. You could also try babaganoush (an eggplant dip), though I’m not a big fan of it. Or just breaded, fried, and either topped with sauce and mozzarella or dipped in ketchup or ranch.
I have a very yummy eggplant lasagna recipe that I’d be willing to share. I know eggplant is also in ratatouille (along with many other yummy veggies in season right now) if you want research it.
The only way I have liked eating eggplant is in eggplant parmesan. And it is delicious!
We’ll be anxiously awaiting your tips on the tomato sauce! My tomato plants have gone pretty crazy this year, and are taking over their space in the garden. I think I’ll have a bumper crop this year!
I see you have mashed potatoes and gravy on the menu plan this week. Would you mind sharing your recipe for gravy? I make gravy any time I roast meat, however do you have a good (healthier) recipe for when you haven’t just roasted meat, and just want gravy to go with your potatoes. I’ve seen a lot of varieties marketed in the store, but don’t like all the “extra” ingredients on the list! This may sound like a strange request, but just wondering what you do! Thanks so much Laura, I love your site! It’s been such a blessing to me and my family!
Here’s a post on how I make turkey gravy, which is how I made today’s chicken gravy: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/holiday-help-how-to-make-turkey-gravy
Thanks Laura! (I just had a “Oh, yeah!” moment! It’s amazing the things we forget! What an easy, and great way to make gravy! Thanks, again!
Kimberly just shared an eggplant recipe on her page: http://www.raisingolives.com. It is Mushroom Stuffed Eggplant and she has fallen in love with it! I haven’t tried it, but it sounds good!
My grandmother was full blood Lebanese, so I grew up on a lot of Homemade Lebanese food (most of which have no recipe…you just learn by watching someone make it), and we stuffed eggplant with a rice and ground beef mixture. We did the same thing with squash.
I was also going to suggest eggplant parmigiana. I bake the breaded eggplant instead of frying, and it’s fluffier I think. You can use your newly canned tomatoes! OR, you can just sautee the eggplant and add to your sauce and serve over whole wheat pasta. :)
i bread and fry my eggplants
What kind of tomatoes do you use to make your own tomato sauce? I’m drowning in cherry tomatoes, but wasn’t sure if they were good for making tomato sauce.
I use whatever tomatoes I can get my hands on for my sauce, cherry tomatoes included. Now, if you ONLY have cherry tomatoes, it’s gonna take a LOT to make sauce. If you can add them with other tomatoes, it won’t take as much time. :)
I like to roast some in a little olive oil and salt and then either
use them in tomato soup or can them like that for future batches of
tomato soup. I have frozen cherry tomatoes before to use in
soups and chili.
Here’s my tomato soup recipe that we LOVE
http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2009/05/not-from-can.html
you have to try baba ganoush. also called mutabal. if you don’t like it you haven’t had a good batch.
put your eggplants on a flame (gas stove or bbq) and turn until blackened all over and liquid is dripping out of cracks.
let cool.
peel off charred flesh.
put in colander and mash up.
put in bowl and add tahini until creamy and smooth.
add salt, cumin, lemon juice, and crushed garlic to taste.
serve with pita wedges.
The tip to great eggplant is to make it “weep” first. Slice and peel your eggplant. Sprinkle each slice with salt and layer into a pie plate. Put another pie plate on top of the slices. Put a very heavy can in the plate. Wait about 30 minutes, a dark liquid will weep out of the eggplant. These are the bitter juices of the eggplant. Rinse the slices and pat dry then proceed with your recipe. Enjoy!
I have the BEST recipe for eggplant “spahgetti” sauce that I got from my Sister’s Southbeach cookbook. Seriously, I love this stuff. It’s really good over spaghetti squash as the “noodles”:
1 small eggplant, cut lengthwise into 1/2″ slices
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can or 28oz. plum tomatoes
2 TBS tomato paste
2 TBS chopped fresh basil
preheat the broiler
lightly coat the eggplant slices with the olive oil cooking spray. place on a broiler-pan rack and broil until eggplant slices are brown on both sides. remove the eggplant slices from the oven and cut into 1″ pieces.
Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes, or until tender. stir in the tomatoes (with juice), tomato paste, and basil. cook, stirring to break up the tomatoes, for 5 minutes, until the mixture begins to boil. reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add the eggplant, stir to combine, and simmer for another 5 minutes.
My husband LOVES eggplant Parmesan (just like the chicken version). We’ve also used it sliced thin and layered just like lasagna noodles. Can’t tell the difference!
I have a Romanian friend and have traveled to Romania several times and one of my favorite foods is eggplant salad. There they make it with eggplant, real mayo, and some spices (can’t remember, sorry!) I’m sure you can research it and find a recipe. you spread it on warm bread and it is amazing!
I love Roasted Eggplant Ratatouille and Molly Wizenberg has an awesome recipe for it on her blog Orangette.blogspot.com
Here’s one I was going to try, but haven’t yet – maybe you can let us know if you like it :)
http://raisingolives.com/2011/08/mushroom-stuffed-eggplant/
Eggplant Recipe!!
1-2 eggplants
4-8 cloves garlic thinly sliced
3-6 big fresh tomatoes, cored and halved around the ‘equator’
fresh basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary (any combo or none at all)
Peel and dice one or two eggplants.
Salt liberally put in a strainer and let weep for at least 30 minutes.
Rinse and press out the liquid. Pat dry.
Saute in a mix of butter and olive oil until just starting soften/turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute until really fragrant. Clear some space on the bottom of the pan and put in the tomatoes cut side down. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and put a lid on the pan. After a minute the tomato skins should slide right off. break up the tomatoes with your spoon and mix everything together. Eggplant pieces and tomato should dissolve into one another. Sitr in your herbs and serve over rice or pasta or with chicken or pork cutlets. Most importatnly – Enjoy!!
I second the ratatouille idea. It’s just perfect when you have fresh tomatoes, eggplant and summer squash!
We are growing egg plant this year for the first time. I just stuck them in the ground and they are doing fine. They are not very plump (as is the same case with my green peppers) but are long and tasty. My plant grows 4 at a time and then takes a week break and gives us 4 more. I hope for bigger plumper ones next year.
I just tried a new eggplant “recipe” the other night. It was one of those I just threw it together things. :) I sliced the eggplant and dipped it in an egg/milk mix. Then I breaded it with some Parmesan cheese, GF flour, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. I then fried it in some grassfed butter. I then layered GF noodles, pasta sauce, the fried eggplant, and then mozz cheese. It was yummy but FYI it doesn’t reheat good.
This is my favorite eggplant recipe! You make a YUMMY vegetable mixture that you freeze in 4 individual servings. The recipe then provides 5 TOTALLY different recipes that you can make from the frozen “vegetable mixture” base. Our favorites are the black bean soup and beef-and-vegetable supper. It’s another great freezer friendly recipe! I’m making my 2nd batch yesterday as we’ve had peppers and eggplant coming out of our ears from our CSA! :)
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/day-by-day-vegetable-medley-10000000643742/