Weekly Eats...

Per usual, I like to make several things at the beginning of the week and eat them throughout the week (and sometimes I have a serving left to decide whether or not to eat or throw out on the weekend), and even though I am not at school all day (and therefore have more time to cook dinner at night), I am pretty much sticking to the same schedule.

I am really, really liking Appetite for Reduction, this is a BLT sandwich made with eggplant bacon and a dab of Cesar Chavez dressing.... I don't know if my oven is not as hot as other ovens or something, but I had to bake these waaaaaaaay longer than the recipe called for to get them to crisp up (now that they have been in the refrigerator, they no longer get crispy, but oh well- still delicious). It's pretty simple, basically, you bake eggplant with a little cooking spray then dip it in soy sauce/liquid smoke mixture and re-heat.

I also made a nice drink to go along with it- lemon-thyme cucumber water. It's so simple, I probably shouldn't even post a recipe, but here it is:

Lemon-thyme Cucumber Water
1/2 large cucumber, sliced thinly
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Thin lemon slices
Sprinkle of dried of fresh thyme

1. Slice veggies and juice lemon
2. Add to a pitcher and fill with cold water
3. Add thyme and shake/stir.

Let this sit for a while, as it doesn't taste like much at first.  

I also used the dressing/eggplant bacon for a pretty tasty salad that I ate a couple of nights last week as well:

Overall, I would say that this is definitely a dressing I would make again. I feel that if you lick the spoon after spooning dressing onto a salad (and even dip it back into the container for more dressing to lick) it's a good sign of future use potential.

In other news, I am mulling over in my mind doing an additional project besides my dissertation on the CO immigrant rights movement.... It seems like a lot of work (and something my advisor and likely everyone else I ask would be opposed to), but I am becoming more and more interesting in identity development and deployment among vegans. I will give this more thought (I have over a month until the next IRB deadline, it might be doable by then....). We will see.