I am Officially a Housewife

  As some of you may already know, I've been making some adjustments to my personal life. After many conversations between myself and my wonderfully supportive husband, we have decided that it's time for me to pursue some other opportunities. I have finally made the leap from working wife to housewife(/student). I enrolled a little while ago in some online courses and have been very slowly making my way through, and now I'm able to focus on that full time! And hopefully now that this shift has happened I'll also have more time to dedicate to the blog (which I've really been missing!).

  Also, now that I'm back writing again, I couldn't start up with just any old thing, so tonight for dinner we spiced things up, Moroccan style! One of my favorite places is Marrakesh, the restaurant in Portland Oregon, not the city in Morocco (although I've never been there and am sure that I would love it there too!). It wasn't somewhere that I went often, but I always enjoyed the experience whatever the occasion. If you are one of my many Portland area readers and haven't checked it out yet, you definitely should. And if you are one of my many readers from elsewhere, or just want to save some money, I suggest having a Moroccan night in your home too!

  My husband had no idea what he was in for as I was whisking around the kitchen preparing dinner with ingredients that you don't too often find in our house, but I'm sure common in most other homes they are more common. In fact one of the biggest appeals to this meal, besides the familiar smells wafting though our home, was that I only had to run to the store for 3 things! Another added bonus was that the main course hasdbeen prepared in the crockpot, so NO FUSS! 

  For those of you familiar with the Moroccan way, we ate dinner sitting on the floor and eating with our hands this evening. And we started that awesome meal off with a salad, but not any ordinary salad, a roasted eggplant salad! In Morocco they call it Zaalouk, and it turned out perfectly! (After Ryan's first bite there was a loud and resounding "MMMMMMMMMMM!")

Roasted Eggplant Salad: Zaalook/Zaalouk Recipe

4 servings

For the eggplants

1 medium eggplant
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

For the sauce
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut off the top and bottom of the eggplant and peel it, leaving sporadic strips of skin throughout. Cut it into 1-inch cubes. If the eggplant is old and excessively seedy, you may need to salt and drain it for at least 30 minutes before use, otherwise proceed directly. Place the eggplant cubes in a single layer in a baking dish or cookie sheet and generously brush them with olive oil. Roast them for 25 to 30 minutes (I'm at a little higher altitude and I only roasted them for about 15 minutes and they were perfect). Remove from the oven and mash the eggplants on a cutting board with a fork or potato masher.

In a medium sauté pan, cook the tomatoes with garlic and olive oil over medium heat, for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the mashed eggplants and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, mashing them some more with a spatula to completely blend with the tomatoes. Remove from the heat and stir in the sea salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and vinegar.

Serve warm, cold or at room temperature, garnished with chopped parsley. Serve flat bread or crusty bread (I went with a crusty artisan flat bread that I found for $2 at the store) **I served it with finely diced cucumbers and green leaf lettuce (again, that's how it is prepared at the restaurant, but you can take it or leave it). 

  It comes out looking, or at least mine did, like a big pile of mush. But, if my memory serves me correctly, that's what it looks like at the restaurant and it smelled EXACTLY the same! It can be served warm, but I prefer it the way that I've been served it in the past, which is kinda cold. The greatest part is that you can quickly make this up after you've thrown dinner in and let it chill for a while in the fridge, then just pull it out right when the crockpot goes off and VOILA! And speaking of dinner, the main course tonight was:

Lemon and Olive Chicken!

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped onion
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I actually used chicken thighs because I love the taste of them)
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 cup green olives (you can always add more, I did!)
1 tbs white vinegar
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup swason 99% fat free chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Place onion in bottom of slow cooker. Arrange chicken breasts over onions. Place the thinly sliced lemon's on top of the chicken breasts, add olives, vinegar, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Slowly pour broth over chicken.

Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours or on HIGH 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until chicken is tender. Add parsley before serving.

 I can't even begin to tell you how awesome your house will smell!

  About 5 minutes before the Crockpot went off I whipped up some Cous Cous (SUPER EASY TO MAKE, just follow directions on the box) and dinner was ready! I know that this might seem like a lot, trust me, I thought the same thing before attempting it, but it really is one of the easiest meals I've ever made and with the greatest reward. 

  It was definitely something different than we normally do, and I'm fortunate enough to have a husband who is equally as adventurous and doesn't just roll his eyes when I carry dinner past the dining room table and set it on the coffee table. :)