Saturday: Cooking from the Pantry Challenge

I am hip-deep in the Pantry Challenge. I am soooo tired of having a pantry full of stuff I am not using. This month, it is use it or donate it to a food bank.

With that in mind, I finally used up the last of the whole-grain pasta I had. I bought an eggplant last weekend--which emant I had to find something to make. Usually it is ratatouille, but I wanted something new. So I  finally settled on a similar dish (isn't everything sort of like ratatouille with eggplant?): eggplant, tomatoes, capers sauteed together with garlic, pregano, and thyme over rotini... or rive, or chicken strips, or pork tenderloin, I suppose. Easy and delicious.

I also cooked up the two last pieces of skirt steak in my freezer, with frozen/crockpot white onions in butter and bacon. The cholesterol banquet was off-set with broccoli and green salad. Simple sautee'ing in butter and olive oil of pieces 4 oz. or less--satisfies my desire for real beef without being a bacon-avocado-Swiss cheese-burger.... oh, yeah.

Actually, having a fridge full of ready-to-go salad and cut-up vegetables, favorite fruits, and yogurt is a cblessing! Simple dark chocolate, cold water, and cut-up lime and lemon wedges are bonus.