beet rice with baked eggplant and grilled zucchini

i boil beets to cook them, though i know it’s nutritionally better to do it some other way.  it’s just that everything else is so slooooooowwwwwwwww!  (if i ever claimed to be a patient person, i take it back!)  i chop them up into bite sized cubes and boil them for ten or fifteen minutes, leaving a pot of gorgeous magenta colored water.  i really need to get more creative with this in the future!

i saved the water to do something with, even if it was just to throw it out onto the tree in the backyard (i do live in a desert!) and decided that cooking rice in it would be brilliant (brilliant pink if nothing else ;)  

we had locally grown eggplants, which i sliced into half-inch or so rounds and put on a baking pan drizzled with olive oil.  oven was preset to 300, and the eggplant was covered (loosely) with aluminum foil.  i didn’t set a timer.  (it usually works out ok for me, but you might not agree!  be safe :)  this was the first thing to start cooking, as i wanted to try and give it at least 45 or so minutes.

the rice was short grain brown, which i like very much.  it seems soft somehow...the ultimate comfort food!  it’s also a little bit sweet, and i believe it’s more nutritious than white.  one cup rice to two cups (pink) water was brought to a boil and then turned down to simmer.  i kept a good eye on it, in case the beet water was thicker and didn’t absorb as well.  it did just fine :)

who knows when eggplant is done....as long as it’s softer than when it went in it’s probably ok!  a fork shouldn’t meet much resistance, but other than that, it’ll be fine :)

i put a little butter and ground flax in with the rice, and put the eggplant rounds on top.  yum!

sides were grilled zucchini and green salad.

beet rice with baked eggplant and grilled zucchini 

approximate price: $4

egg and beet hash browns

woah, surprise winner!

will doesn’t like beets so unfortunately we had a bunch from the farm share go bad while i was out of town (i hate admitting to things like that!), so i was determined not to let that happen this week.  my mom’s been telling me that beets are one of the best things you can eat and i do like them, but i’m never excited to cook with them for some reason.  they take a while i suppose, and they kind of have to stay by themselves or else everything they touch turns a bright unappetizing pink.

it was actually on my to-do list to eat the last beet in the fridge (i’m a strange and happy creature :) and my thought to save on cooking time was to grate it into a pan (and decide what to do with it later).  well grating takes forever....so much for the time saving idea, but the task was getting done nonetheless. 

i put in a little butter and bragg’s (liquid amino acids for anyone who doesn’t know this vegan staple!) and after ten or so minutes of intermittent stirring (low heat) i added a couple cloves of minced garlic.  they started to look a little dry so i covered them and also added about a quarter cup of water.

i cracked two eggs into the pan (too lazy to dirty a dish to mix them first....) and mixed them in evenly before flattening everything into an even layer.  i wasn’t sure if the egg-to-beet ratio was high enough it to stick together, but when i came back ten or so minutes later it definitely had.  i separated it down the middle in order to flip both halves and was pleased to find a delicious golden shade to the undersides.

i grated a little sharp cheddar on top and sprinkled cracked salt and green onions from the pot outside (i’m lucky that the chickens don’t like them, now that the back porch is apparently the cool place to hang out!) 

egg and beet hash browns

approximate price: $2