Kitchen Therapy

I love eggplant dishes at restaurants or when other people prepare it. I think I've cooked eggplant successfully maybe once or twice in my life. I've tried baking it, frying it, frying and baking it, smothering it in sauce an vegan cheese and baking it. It just never turns out. It's always too greasy if I fry/saute it, and baking never works out. It seems like no matter how long I bake it, it never gets soft. I haven't bought an eggplant in at least one year, maybe more. My last meal in Seattle is actually the last time I've had eggplant!
I was craving eggplant, and thought of making it the way I make cauliflower wings meaning battering it and baking it first, and then smothering it in delicious sauce and baking it again. I used oat flour for my batter because that's what I had, but I think a regular gluten free flour mix or if you aren't gluten free a regular flour would work much better. Oat flour is a bit dense. Maybe even rice flour for more of a tempura batter? Either way even with the batter being a bit dense the dish still was delicious!

After baking it on a baking sheet for about thirty five minutes, I coated it in a hoisin, gochujang soyaki sauce, added a few cubes of tofu an baked it in a casserole dish for thirty minutes while I cooked some brown rice. The eggplant was cooked, and because I baked it and use no oil it wasn't greasy.  It felt really great to make a successful eggplant dish. And it reminded me to take a breath, maybe walk away for a bit and then try again, maybe with a different approach. I kind of needed to be reminded of that in my life outside of the kitchen. It's really great when therapy results in a delicious meal!

I had yesterday and today off so I had breakfast in bed with Afro. This smoothie had spinach, banana, frozen pineapple and a few raspberries. 

This also went down while I was reading the interwebz yesterday morning. I guess we all were feeling a little lazy! Notice that a lot of the cuddle action happens on the pink/light salmon sweater that has unfortunately become a part of my bed!