What's for Friday?

As some of my friends know, our household, at least the adult part, decided to trim some of our perimeter or in other words, go on a diet.

So this Friday, I would like to honor this decision with lots of vegetables, and use my old trick: If you can't do carb, do colorful.

I am talking about a crazy, rustic medley of vegetables: red peppers, eggplants, butternut squash and more that are sauteed and then roasted to sweetness. To accompany, salmon in an easy!!! red sauce that will never dry on you. Since salad is our friend,why not change it's texture just for fun? Instead of dicing, we are peeling the veggies with a vegetable peeler and creating beautiful stripes. I believe that the way we cut a vegetable changes it's taste a bit. Check out, and let me know if you agree with me.

Crazy vegetable medley:

You will need a big roasting pan, such as the one you use for your turkey, saute pan

Tip: Try to cut all the vegetables into about the same size. Think rustic.

2-3 onions diced into large cubes

2 red peppers cut into large pieces

½ butter squash, large dice

2 zucchini, quartered and then cut into half.

½ eggplant, large dice

½ jalapeno, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 tomatoes, peeled, and diced

3 teaspoons salt

black pepper

1 tablespoon tomato paste

11/2 cups of boiled water

¼ cup canola oil

To peel the tomatoes: make a cross with the tip of your knife on the bottom of the tomato (not on the stem side); Dunk in boiling water to cover for 10 seconds. Take out and pull the peel off. It should peel

quite easily and still keep it's integrity as an uncooked tomato.

1. Arrange your cut veggies in separate piles. Heat the oven to 400F/190C.
2. Lightly saute each vegetable about 4 minutes each by the order that was mentioned. Remember to salt each vegetable. After you're done with one vegetable, move it to the roasting pan.
3. Mix in the tomato paste and the remaining of the salt into the boiling water. Pour over the vegetables in the roasting pan. Bake for 40 minutes until the vegetables are starting to brown.

Salmon in an easy red sauce:

You will need a big, flat pot.

3/4Lb salmon fillet, cut into 3 ounce pieces, and skinned(not a must)

1 red pepper diced 1”x1” cubes

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

3 whole sprigs of cilantro

2 tablespoons olive oil

about 3/4 cup water

1. Put the olive oil and the garlic in the pan on medium heat. Saute the garlic until you can smell it. Add the pepper, salt, and saute until tender. Add the cilantro sprigs and saute for another 30 seconds.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the fish. Arrange the fish on top of the vegetables and keep sauteing for another minute. Sprinkle over the fish the chopped cilantro.
3. Add the water to come up to ½ of the height of the fish. Bring to boil and immediately lower the heat to simmer. Cover the pan and cook for another 15 minutes.

Salad just for fun:

1 yellow squash

1 green squash

1 big carrot

½ red hot pepper, chopped thinly

1 Tablespoon parsley, thinly chopped

A few leafs of bib lettuce

2tbs canola oil

1 tbs white wine vinegar

½ tsp salt

1. Arrange the lettuce on a plate
2. Peel the squashes and the carrot with a vegetable peeler, into stripes, add the pepper, and mix.
3. Mix the oil, vinegar and salt pour over the salad, and sprinkle the parsley over.