Eggplant Pizza by Jill Piers

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to announce that this latest post is from a guest blogger - my long time pal Jill Bradbury Piers! Jill made this amazing Eggplant Pizza the other day and when I saw the photo, I had to invite her to guest blog. She's funny too so I knew she'd be a good writer for the blog. Without further delay, here she is!

Guest Blogger - Jill Piers

So, I've known Dvorah and her dear brother Jonathan (aka Lionel) for about (yikes) 35 years now.....we met out of the womb.  Although Dvorah and I have only really seen each other once since about 1988....we've managed to reconnect by good old Facebook.  It is here where our latest chapter begins.  Last week, Dvorah announced that she was going to give up sugar for one month.  I'm thinking, "That sounds doable....I'm in!!"  I should also note, she also said she's not going to buy anything new for one month as well....(NOT in!).

So we start to chat and she shared with me a lovely bread recipe (http://richlerrecipes.blogspot.com/2013/06/meretes-danish-rye-bread-from-susan.html), as well as a recipe for granola (which I've yet to try), homemade peanut butter (http://richlerrecipes.blogspot.com/2014/05/homemade-peanut-butter.html)....delish....and on it goes.  

Then my son asked me to make a homemade pizza for Friday night supper.  No problem....for him and hubby....but what the heck am I going to eat???  Inspiration hits me!  Eggplant Pizza!!  What could be easier?  That will be just like eating pizza...but better.   

Truthfully?  Wasn't bad at all. Even better the day after. I shared a pic of this glorious new recipe with Dvorah and she asked me to be a guest blogger.  So here goes.....

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (I chose one that was relatively the same width from top to bottom)

2 vine-ripened tomatoes

8-10 fresh basil leaves

1 cup (approx) grated cheese (choose what you like, I used Monterey Jack)

1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

Slice the eggplant in 1/3 inch slices.  Do the same for the tomatoes.  

Lay the eggplant on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

Lay a slice of tomato on top of each eggplant slice.  

Layer all of the basil and roll tightly (like I cigar...I guess)....slice with a sharp knife into what is called a chiffonade (thin slices)....(for some reason, my son, John does not like that word...). 

Sprinkle the chiffonade of basil over each eggplant/tomato layer.  Then place some of each cheese onto each piece of layered eggplant, tomato and basil.  

Bake in the oven for about 20 mins until the cheese is bubbling and the eggplant is tender.

Enjoy!!

Thanks to Dvorah for inviting me to be a guest blogger.....!!!! This has been fun!!!

Snack Bars - Sugar Free!

Full disclosure - this recipe is from someone else's blog. Here is the original link: http://www.superhealthykids.com/blog-posts/healthy-no-bake-snack-bars.php

I am attempting to go sugar-free for a month. Today is Day 5. My friends have been kind enough to send me some recipes to help get me through the hard times and this is the first one I received. I made these last night and they are very yummy. I know those of you with kids are wondering if your kids will eat these - mine tried them. Sam said it wasn't terrible. Noah spit it out. There you go.

I don't have a big, long, rambling story to tell here, so I'm going to get right to the recipe!

Ingredients

2 cups pitted dates
3/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup nut butter (You have to use homemade or natural nut butter to ensure there is no sugar in there. Here is the link to my homemade peanut butter: http://richlerrecipes.blogspot.com/2014/05/homemade-peanut-butter.html)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt

Method

Put everything in a food processor and mix it up until the mixture forms a ball. I put everything in except the nuts for the first few spins because I wanted the nut pieces to be a bit bigger. So after three or four pulses of the processor I removed the lid and added the cashews into the mix. This is what the mix looks like when it starts to form a ball in the processor.

Pour the mix into an 8 inch by 8 inch square pan

Press down firmly. Cover the pan and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Cut into bars or squares and serve! Make sure to store your squares in the fridge in an air tight container. They won't last long!

P.S. the original blog suggests using parchment paper in the pan, but I didn't have any and they turned out just fine.

Raspberry Millet Muffins

On the last day of our yoga retreat when we returned from morning yoga in the yurt, there was a basket of something yummy on the big wooden table in the front hall. Whatever was in the basket was covered with a colourful napkin, and there was a sign next to the basket and a little ramekin as well. The ramekin had a couple of dollars in it. Interest piqued, and smelling something delicious, Sarah and I approached the table to read the sign.

It went something like this: muffins, homemade and fresh out of the oven. Please leave $2 and enjoy a muffin. An honour system for baked goods - how very Zen.

The Shanti yoga retreat also had a store of sorts, selling things like blankets made from yak wool, books on yoga and meditation, hand made soaps, lip balms, and salves. Yoga clothes and props, candles and incense. There was an exercise book (or 'scribbler' for you fellow Newfoundlanders) on the floor next to the credit card terminal, and a price list. If you wanted to buy something you just had to write it down and pay before you left. This is the kind of world I want to live in.

But I digress. Back to the muffins. We ran upstairs to our room hoping to find some coins and lucky for us, we did. $4 and two muffins later, we were replete. I pushed my chair back from the table and went to rinse my tea cup, then I noticed the Shanti cookbook open to the recipe for the muffins. That kind of sealed the deal - a cookbook would be coming home with me.

The recipe in the book is called Apple Cinnamon Millet Muffins, but the version we enjoyed was made with local blueberries that day, since that was what was on offer at the market on Wolfe Island. When I returned home I decided that I would make these muffins for myself. The challenge would be to make them without sugar.

I had decided (been inspired by Sarah, actually) to go sugar-free for a month when I returned from Shanti. So I had to modify the recipe to suit this dietary restriction. It was pretty easy to do and the muffins were still amazing. I made them on a Sunday afternoon and one warning for you bakers out there - by Wednesday they had mould growing on them and 6 whole muffins ended up in the compost. Sadness. So my advice to you would be to freeze whatever you don't consume on the first day. This of course, really makes you think about baked goods that you purchase from the grocery store. You know the ones that have a shelf life of 10 days or so? What do you think is in them to make them last that long? Indeed.

You've waited long enough. Here is the recipe for the muffins, my adaptations are in brackets, as always.

Ingredients

2 cups spelt flour
2/3 cup millet (looks kind of like big grains of cous cous)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup non-dairy milk (I used skim milk from a cow)
1/2 cup apple sauce (I used unsweetened applesauce)
1/2 cup maple syrup (I used 1/4 cup of pureed prunes, but next time I will use 1/2 cup as they could have been a tad sweeter)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups fruit (either apples and cinnamon, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or whatever you want! I used frozen raspberries.)

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and coat 12 muffin cups with a light coating of oil.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Whisk together the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. Combine the wet with the dry and stir until the flour is just absorbed.

 Then fold in the fruit.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy! And Namaste.