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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles

April 10, 2017 by Mary 13 Comments

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Salad Dressing.Don’t you wish you had a go-to recipe for a cool meal you could make ahead and serve either hot or cold to your guests? Well, let me tell you about my Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles recipe with the wonderful Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Dressing & Marinade. This dressing & marinade is so rich and flavorful, it is so much more than a salad dressing! I was able to make this amazing main course dish in practically no time, because “dresser”/owner/creator Vanessa Miller has done all the work for you. Full of garlic, sesame and red chili spice, this is a dream to work with and makes a delicious spicy vegan meal!

Vanessa was a NYC school teacher who loved to entertain large groups of friends and family in her Manhattan apartment, much like her Tunisian mother did when she was growing up here. At those gatherings, Vanessa would fill a buffet table with tons of food and many different salad dressings. Her friends raved and encouraged her to go public with them. So she quit her teaching job, pooled all her resources and started Get Dressed Salads!! Now, she has five flavors and is working on expanding her distribution.

Her husband, a commercial real estate broker, happened to bring one of his clients to our space, as we were moving out of our offices and noticed our boxes – and that’s how we met! He’s a sweetheart, always on the lookout for placement of his wife’s products.

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles - cut eggplant that is super fresh and white.This recipe of Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles is just perfect for a complete meatless meal. Buy smaller eggplants that are super fresh and firm and chop into the 1/2” cubes and roast for only the 15 minutes as you don’t want them to be mushy. I only added the red pepper to roast for 5 minutes because I wanted that to be a bit crisp. You could also add matchsticks of seedless cucumbers as a topping if you’d like, along with the chopped peanuts, scallions and cilantro.

I served this warm when I first made it, but eating the leftovers cold is just as yummy, maybe even better, so you could make this a day ahead and relax the day you’re serving.

Make this soon, with LOVE! It’s so easy!

GET DRESSED SESAME SENSATION ROASTED EGGPLANT NOODLES – serves 6

1 lb. eggplant – 2 small ones are better than 1 large, chopped into 1/2” cubes
1 red pepper, cut into ½” squares
1 cup of Get Dressed Sesame Sensation, divided
1 Tbs. low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
3 scallions, thinly sliced
½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 lb. spaghettini
Coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta.

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles - garnishes.Cut the eggplant into ½” cubes and toss with ½ cup of Get Dressed Sesame Sensation salad dressing in a bowl. Let marinate at room temperature for 20 – 30 minutes while you prepare the red pepper squares, shell and chop the peanuts, wash and chop the cilantro and slice the scallions.

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles recipe with roasted eggplant and red pepper on a baking sheet.Turn the marinated eggplant out onto a parchment covered rimmed baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. At the 10-minute mark, add the red pepper squares to the eggplant, tossing to mix and coat with the dressing and then roast both for 5 more minutes. The eggplant should be crisp tender and the red pepper should be slightly crisp.

While the vegetables are still roasting, salt the boiling pasta water, generously with coarse sea salt to taste like the ocean. Cook the pasta. Start testing at 2 minutes less than the least amount of time stated on the package.

Meanwhile, pour the remaining ½ cup of dressing in a wide pasta bowl. Add in the soy sauce and two vinegars and whisk together.

Drain the cooked al dente pasta and add to the sauce in the bowl along with the roasted eggplant and red pepper, scraping all the juices off of the parchment, tossing with tongs to coat thoroughly.

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles - finished dish in a white soup bowl.Serve in wide soup bowls, topped with the chopped scallions, peanuts and cilantro, with a squeeze of fresh lime over all. The lime is so great! Just the right spark of acid.

Enjoy!!

 

Filed Under: Dinner, Vegetables Tagged With: cold noodles, cold spicy peanut noodles, easy dinners, Get Dressed, Get Dressed Sesame Sensation, marinades, quick dinners, salad dressings, vegan, vegetarian

Guest Post: ‘Don’t Eat Anything With a Face’

December 6, 2013 by Mary 8 Comments

Hello everyone! My name is Sophie Johnson, and I am posting on Mary’s behalf.

Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of representing The Daily Meal and LOVE- the secret ingredient at a fascinating event at the Kaufman Center in New York City. I would like to share my experience with all of you. Feel free to contribute your own thoughts!

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The award-winning debate series, Intelligence Squared U.S., concluded its fall season with ‘Don’t Eat Anything With a Face”, moderated by ABC News correspondent, John Donvan.

The debate was centered on physical, psychological, environmental, and moral impacts caused by the American consumption of animal protein.

Not surprisingly, the topic ignited a strong reaction from vegans and omnivores alike. The program’s chairman, Robert Rosenkranz, announced to audience members that the online response prior to the debate was so great that the Intelligence Squared website was unable to handle the massive increase in traffic. None of their previous events have ever sparked so much interest.

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What made the public feel so strongly about something as basic as food? Rosenkranz speculated that it was because our dietary choices have become a form of branding.

Choosing to buy organic and locally grown foods, or to only consume a plant-based diet is part of our identity that broadcasts our personal values to the rest of the world. For example, being a vegan implies that you value your own health and the well being of other species and the environment. However, is it possible to be ecological, ethical, and health conscious while still consuming meat? The debate’s four panelists sought to answer that very question.

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In his opening argument, Dr. Neal Bernard, M.D. testified to the negative effects that animal products have on our health. He grew up in a family where meat, specifically red meat, was present at just about every meal. In his early twenties, he was dissecting a cadaver when his instructor pointed out a hard substance lining the cadaver’s blood vessels. “There’s your morning sausage,” said the teacher.

Since then, Dr. Barnard has devoted his practice to the study of how a person’s diet affects body weight, chronic pain, and diabetes. He cited cases where patients suffering from type-two diabetes were cured simply by switching to a strictly plant-based regimen. He went on to say that other studies imply that people who consume meat have a greater risk of Alzheimer’s and even cancer.

Countering Dr. Barnard’s argument, Chris Masterjohn, Ph. D., a Nutritional Sciences Researcher and blogger for The Daily Lipid, cited his own personal experience. Masterjohn lived as a vegan for several years and developed several health problems including lethargy, irritability, anxiety, and tooth decay during that time. He claims many fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, essential to bone, dental, and even psychological health are most efficiently obtained by eating meat. Masterjohn suggests that the maladies Dr. Barnard attributes to meat are actually the result of modernized food processing as supported by the research of dentist and nutrition advocate, Weston Price. Beginning in the 1920s, Price studied how dental health of people living in developed areas differed from those living in less modernized surroundings. He found that the developed areas had a far greater rate of tooth decay, which Price attributed to a diet of refined grains and sugar. Masterjohns concluded that a simple, unprocessed, well-balanced diet would not carry any of the negative effects Barnard presented.

Gene Baur, the president and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary, an organization that rescues animals from commercial farms. He was most concerned with the ethical aspect of the debate. Baur stated, referring to our ability to gain nutrients from plant-sources rather than ‘murdering’ animals, “If we can live well without causing harm, why wouldn’t we do it?”. He added that whenever animals are raised for consumption, no matter how humanely, there is always exploitation.

Joel Salatin, a third-generation alternative farmer, disagreed with Baur. Salatin expressed his deep love, compassion, and respect for the animals he raises. He also argued that environmental integrity depends on the cycle of life. Plants feed prey which feed predators, which die and decompose to provide nutrients for the plants. Everything that lives must die.

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Both sides of the debate could agree that large-scale commercial farming was a dangerous industry, and presented data on the nutritional quality and ethical considerations that were lacking in modern food productions.

‘Don’t Eat Anything With a Face’ was a lively discussion with emotions running high for both parties. However, it would appear from this debate that the information on health defects relating to the consumption of free-range, grass-fed, ‘happy’ animals as part of a balanced diet is still unclear at this point.

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That said, it would suggest from Salatin’s use of the word ‘dressing’ instead of ‘slaughtering’ when referring to an animal’s final moments, that even he feels some guilt about it. So, health concerns aside, will meat-eaters ever be able to feel like their brand identity is as morally intact as their vegan counterparts? Perhaps not.

What do you think?

– Sophie

Photos by Samuel LaHoz

Filed Under: Meat, Travel, Vegetables Tagged With: Chris Masterjohn, Debate, Don't Eat Anything With a Face, Ethics, Gene Baur, Health, Intelligence Squared, Joel Salatin, John Donovan, Neal Bernard, The Daily Meal, vegan

New!

November 17, 2012 by Mary Frances 7 Comments

This past week we had a meeting on lower Broadway and anytime I go there, I must stop in at Fishs Eddy, a fun, everyday china shop. They started out by carrying lines of old restaurant dishes (they even have the Steak ‘n Shake dishes – I worked the counter there in high school), and now have gotten really more interesting. Somebody there is starting to pay attention, and the shop looks great!

I needed some cheering up as I had to have outpatient surgery the next day on Thursday. What makes us so happy about spending money? Or is it really about getting something new? I was also able to pick up some Christmas presents – that always makes me feel so accomplished when it’s early. (I’m usually running around the city buying for everybody the week before December 25th.)

Well, I thought that perhaps you all might be getting tired of looking at the same old serving bowls here at LOVE, so I bought this bright red one. Just perfect for the holidays, don’t you think?
Broccoli in a red bowl.My wonderful husband has been cooking since Thursday and just look at how beautiful his steamed broccoli looks in it! He made a little sauce of Dijon mustard and olive oil to lightly drizzle on top. It was delish!

Filed Under: Dinner, Sides, Vegetables Tagged With: broccoli, dark green vegetables, Fishs Eddy, steamed broccoli, vegan, vegetarian

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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