Like I said in my Toledo post, I spent much of this weekend cooking. So much cooking!
This week, I spent 23 Euro (but actually closer to 40 Euro because I went for extra groceries). However, here is what I go for 23.
Eggs // arugula // romaine
Carrots // bananas // clementines // onion // tomatoes // peppers // beans // canned tomatoes // canned tomato sauce // squash // cream cheese // laughing cow cheese // canned corn // baking soda // pomegranate // cinnamon
butter // vanilla // eggplant // cucumbers// sunflower seeds
Unpictured: Cranberries // chocolate chips // quinoa // mozzarella cheese
And this week I made:
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Quinoa/ pomegranate/ cranberry/ squash salad (with arugula)
- Eggplant parmesan
- Chili con carne
Chocolate-Chip Cookies
I followed this recipe from Averie Cooks. This is THE BEST cookie recipe that delivers consistent, perfect cookies. It was a little difficult to perfect in my Madrid kitchen, but I was pleased with the result.
Let me tell you, finding baking ingredients in Madrid is not like it is in the United States. It’s not just like…hey baking aisle! With sugar and brown sugar and vanilla and flour and baking soda. No. Everything is randomly all over the store and impossible to find. I had to buy the chocolate-chips from a specialty store because they only have chocolate bars and candies in the chocolate aisle. Maybe it was somewhere else. And vanilla? Crazy expensive, so I bought these little vials and after dumping an entire vial into the batter, I realized that it’s concentrated vanilla. No wonder the stuff was coming out in drops… Luckily, the cookies came out really well. I’m going to make more this weekend 😉
Quinoa // Cranberry // Pomegranate Salad
Ingredients
- Quinoa
- Cranberries (dried)
- Pomegranate Seeds
- Squash
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- Cinnamon
- Arugula or other greens
Directions
- Dice the squash into bite-sized pieces, coat with olive oil, s&p, and cinnamon. Roast in the oven (or toaster, in my case) at the highest temperature for about 45 minutes. Let cool, if you want,
- Cook the quinoa as usual
- De-seed the pomegranate
- Toss the quinoa, squash, seeds, cranberries with a little olive oil and salt and put it over arugula. You can also roast the squash seeds with oil, s&p and other spices, and add them to the salad.
Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients
- Eggplant
- Mozzarella cheese
- Tomato Sauce
- Bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- Vegetable oil, for frying
Directions
- Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices.
- In one bowl, whisk an egg
- In another bowl, add some breadcrumbs (or crush some crackers, which is what I did)
- In a pan, heat some vegetable oil. It doesn’t have to be much
- One at a time, coat a piece of eggplant in egg and then the breadcrumbs and add to the hot oil
- Repeat with all pieces
- Let them fry until golden brown on each side and remove them to a plate
- With a baking pan, put a layer of tomato sauce, then eggplant, then cheese, then sauce, then repeat until the pan is full.
- The top layer should have a layer of sauce and then a layer of cheese
- Cover with foil and bake at the highest temp for about 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the eggplant feels soft.
- Optional: Add raw zucchini slices to the layers of eggplant. I did this and it worked nicely.
Chili Con Carne
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef
- olive oil
- 1 onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/2 lb beans, soaked overnight
- 1 can corn
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1 can of tomato sauce
- 1 Tbs of cumin
- 1 Tbs of hot pepper
- salt and pepper
Directions
- Add oil to a pot and heat it.
- Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft, about 3 minutes
- Add the beef and keep moving it so that it cooks evenly
- Add everything else to the pot, cover, and put on low for an hour or more- until the beans are soft.
- Don’t burn your tongue, like I did.
