Have you checked out Healthy Yum yet?  Give it a shot… tons of great entries so far

I made this side dish 2 days ago and then again yesterday.  I had 5 eggplants (the long skinny kind; now I only have 3) to use up and this is a delicious way to do so.  It serves just one. I used a ton of spices – eggplant is the perfect palette for strong flavors.

Sesame’d Spiced Eggplant

Ingredients

• 2-3 teaspoons olive oil
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, grated (or crushed and chopped finely)
• 1 eggplant (2+ cups chopped?)
• spices (1/2 teaspoon each) – chili powder, turmeric, Asian 5-spice
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup water
• a few teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a skillet (I used cast iron) over high heat.  Add the garlic; saute for 30 seconds.
2. Add the eggplant.  Add the spices and stir around; saute for a minute.  Add the vinegar and soy sauce and continue to saute for another 30 seconds.  Add 1/4 cup water and stir as it evaporates.  Repeat again if you like.
3. Top with toasted sesame seeds and devour.

It was really good; definitely give it a try.  It’s kind of like my Savory Eggplant Stir-fry, which is also yummy.

Another yummy thing that I’ve been doing is super thick and creamy oat bran.  If you cook it with a lot of water, and cook it for longer, it gets very voluminous and thick.  I use almost 1.5 cups of water (plus a little more than 1/4 cup PBU and a big dash of salt) to cook 1/2 cup oat bran.

I let it cool slightly in the pot before I dump it in the bowl (making sure to scrape every last bit), and top with sesame seeds… then cool it some more.  I like my oat bran at room temperature.  I’ll evn put it in the fridge/freezer to speed up the cooling, depending on how hungry I am. What temperature do you like your oats/oat bran?

I haven’t really decided what I’m doing today.  Yoga definitely (this morning) and working on the new site.  We have gotten so many awesome entries.  I think I want to do some slow yoga today. I’ve been doing these faster and sweatier routines recently, but I kind of miss the relaxation bit.  I did Sara Ivanhoe’s Sunset Yoga yesterday afternoon and it was really nice for relaxing.  Maybe I’ll do a shorter vigorous flow and follow it up with something slow.  Thanks for all the congrats about the headstand – I tried to do it again yesterday but couldn’t get away from the wall.  But I’ll keep trying.

Have a great Thursday!

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