Grilled Eggplant and Extra-Special Oatmeal

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you're enjoying this nice warm weather we're having. Here's Maggie catching some rays. :o) She loves soaking up the sun, but then who doesn't on beautiful days like today. :o)


Last night we grilled out, which we haven't done in a while since it has been so hot. Tony grilled some eggplant for me, which was delicious. I put a Rosa Maria spice blend in a little cup of olive oil and rubbed down the eggplant right as it went on the grill. The spice blend consisted of garlic, salt, rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano, and pepper. The flavor that the eggplant had was amazing! Tony also grilled some yellow squash and zucchini in our new grill skillet that we got while we were on vacation. Tony cut up some of the red potatoes that I got at the farmers market, while I was slicing the eggplant. I then tossed the potatoes in some olive oil and added some paprika, salt, garlic, and pepper and then baked them in the oven. Oh yeah...can't leave off the grilled bread. I spread a little vegan butter on both sides before the bread went on the grill. It was a very yummy dinner.

For breakfast this morning I fixed some Extra-Special Oatmeal. I got this recipe out of my new Hippy Gourmet cookbook. It was so easy, and tasted fantastic. I cooked some steel cut oats, then put them in a glass pie dish. I then topped the oatmeal with a little brown sugar, chopped walnuts and some dried cranberries. I then put the dish in the oven on broil for about 3-5 minutes. The recipe called for fresh blueberries, but I didn't have any. I decided dried cranberries would be just as good and it was!!

I'm off to do some cleaning before the day gets away from me, so I can enjoy some more of this lovely weather before I have to go back to work tomorrow. Have a great day!!

~Peace~