Hey! How is everyone this Cyber Monday? I guess we are officially into the holiday season. Did anyone participate in some online shopping today? The sales seem pretty good and I don't know about you, but I don't think you can go wrong shopping from the comfort of your own home!
I was inspired by this large container of tomatoes that I bought this weekend. I started searching out recipes that used tomatoes and was immediately taken by a recipe from the kitchen of thefrontburnerblog.com. She made a healthy tomato pie recipe that looked FAB! So I based my recipe on hers, only I ended up making a few changes to use what I had on hand. Now before I go any further, I want to tell you that I planned to get two dinners out of the "rice crust"(you will see in a minute what I am talking about)so you will have to check back tomorrow for the second recipe using the left overs from the tomato pie recipe. OK, so I was very pleased with how this recipe came out. If you do not have goat cheese, this would be great with Mozzarella cheese too! I may try it with Mozzarella next time.
What you need:
about 6 small tomatoes or 3 large
1/4 cup of marinara sauce
1 cup uncooked brown jasmine or brown rice
1 whole egg
2 tablespoons - You may want to use a tad more - Parmesan cheese - divided - you will use 1 tablespoon for the crust and the other tablespoon is for the pie mixture
1 red onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves - minced
dried basil
Sea salt and pepper
1 & 1/2 tablespoon goat cheese -- or replace this with mozzarella cheese
Lay your sliced tomato out on a paper towel to allow the excess water to soak up.
You will want to cook your rice and let it cool just a bit.
Add in a small 2 or so pinches of basil and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup marinara ( Put the rest of your jar of marinara sauce in the fridge - we will use this for the next nights dinner so there will be no waste) and mix well.
Next add 1 whole egg and mix together with your hands. Add a dash of salt and pepper. You will need just over one cup for the crust of your tomato pie. So use the rest of your crust mixture to line a separate casserole dish and bake it at the same time that you bake your pie crust for the tomato pie. You are going to use the casserole dish rice crust for the next nights dinner - I will post that tomorrow so this isn't the world's longest blog post! You will bake the pie pan and the casserole dish at 350 for 15 minutes allowing the rice crust to brown up a bit. While this is baking you will slice one red onion and two garlic cloves. Heat a small dash of extra virgin olive oil in a saute pan and saute your onion and garlic allowing them to brown up and soften a bit.
Once the 15 minutes is up pull out your pie dish and your casserole dish. The rice should be solid and browned up a bit. Let the casserole dish cool and cover with foil and put in the fridge for tomorrow night. Now we will put our tomato pie together. Put your sauteed onions/garlic on top of the rice crust. Then you will place your sliced tomatoes on top layering them so that it covers the crust.
Spray the top with a bit of olive oil spray. I just used my Misto to give it a quick spritz.
Sprinkle a little salt on top and a dash of dried basil covering the tomatoes. Next you will sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and goat cheese (or mozzarella if you prefer). Bake at 350 for 40 minutes and serve! This smells so good while it's baking. It will make you want to enjoy a glass of wine :-} 
The smells are fantastic! My kids even enjoyed this and ate it along side the chicken tenders I made.
Tomorrow night I will post the recipe using up the second rice crust and the marinara sauce so that you can see how to get two dinners out of this and not waste anything. So be sure to check back tomorrow for part II.
As for being reunited with a long lost love of mine...well that might be a little dramatic, but I have re-discovered a wonderful snack/cereal....Kashi Go Lean cereal. Have you tried this before? This cereal is sooo good! I love it! I eat mine with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and find it to be very satisfying and filling. If you haven't tried this I highly recommend it. This cereal is not only great for breakfast, but at night when I am craving something crunchy or good I will eat a bowl of this and it really keeps me satisfied!
I hope that everyone is off to a great week. I will be back tomorrow - hope you will too!
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