Eggplant Parm Salad

I planned to take a walk today. After a succession of weekends with one busy day and one lazy house day, I was hoping for a hybrid sort of Sunday. Yesterday was a hybrid sort of Saturday. I had work and had a party to attend, but in between, there was some much-needed downtime. I relieved my overflowing DVR of a few shows, checked in on a few of my favorite food blogs and did absolutely nothing. So today, I planned a walk around my neighborhood, including a visit to Trader Joe's and Michael's to stock up on art supplies, rainbow sprinkles and candy melts (which one of these is not like the other). And then it rained.

 So a blog catch-up is in order, followed by a possible cookie-baking session. First, the salad. A few weeks ago, my husband, let's call him Seth, and I made Eggplant Parmesan Polenta Pizza for dinner (polenta "crust" topped by marinara sauces, mozzarella, broccoli and breaded eggplant).

I baked way too much breaded eggplant, so it seemed logical to use the leftover ingredients in a lunch salad.

Which gets us to the Eggplant Parm Salad (make two servings):

• head of romaine
• breaded baked eggplant (about 1/3 an eggplant)
• broccoli
• cherry tomatoes
• mozzarella 
• balsamic vinegar or balsamic vinaigrette 

Chop the eggplant, bread and bake it. I used the shake and bake method by combining the chopped eggplant and a few tablespoons of fat free Italian dressing in a large ziploc bag. Shake!

Pour breadcrumbs into a new ziploc bag and combine with the eggplant from the other bag.

Shake some more! Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the eggplant pieces. Let cool.

Toss the eggplant with chopped romaine, broccoli, cherry tomatoes (I halved mine), mozzarella (Parmesan would also work in this salad) and balsamic.

Another cookie recipe on my salad blog

It was a long week. And a long Friday night and Saturday. Between work obligations and friend-seeing, Friday and Saturday were full of back-to-back activities. Combine that with some strange almost-winter allergies, and I am pooped! When my Sunday plans were unexpectedly canceled, my husband declared today to be a pajama day. I did get dressed (in yoga pants) sometime after lunch, so I could leave the apartment to pick up cookie-baking supplies.

I know, I know. I started this blog to write about salad recipes and all things roughage, but lately all I want to do is bake. I am more and more and more my mother's daughter in that realm. On weekends, I like to to trade in my gym time for baking time.

I knew I wanted to bake an oatmeal, white chocolate chip and craisin cookie. They are warm and comforting and December-appropriate. When I saw that canned pumpkin was on sale, my recipe deal was sealed. Pumpkin-Oatmeal-White Chocolate-Craisin Cookies. Lately, I've enjoyed experimenting with recipes, so I decided to create my own by modifying what I consider to be the best oatmeal cookie dough recipe: Oatmeal Scotchies (you can find the recipe on the back of bags of Nestle Butterscotch Morsels or here).

Pumpkin is one of the best baking substitutes for fat. Unlike apple sauce, which gives cookies a strange chewy texture (don't get me wrong, I still use it sometimes), pumpkin keeps cookies moist and springy. So these cookies are free of butter. I'm not sure I would describe them as healthy, but they aren't as bad as they could be. And boy are they delicious!

Pumpkin-Oatmeal-White Chocolate-Craisin Cookies

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin (3/4 a can)
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag (11 oz) white chocolate chips 
• 1 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking, soda, salt, cinnamon, sugars, pumpkin and vanilla and mix well until combined. Add oats and stir into dough. Mix in white chocolate chips and craisins. Use a table spoon to drop dough on to cookie sheets. Bake for about 7 minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Depending on the size of the cookies, the recipe should yield about 40 to 48 cookies. (I got 47 cookies.)

I hope you like white chocolate chips. (Can you see the paw in the top right corner of the photo. That is courtesy of my dog, who thought the cookies looked delicious.)