Warm eggplant and tomato salad

This salad, with it's meaty eggplant slices and chick peas, makes a great main dish. Serve with a green salad and bread for a full, healthy meal. For two people:

• Half a medium eggplant, peeled and sliced into thin strips


• Half a yellow pepper, sliced into strips


• 1 small onion, thinly sliced


• 1 large garlic clove, crushed


• 2 medium tomotoes, cut into wedges


• 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed


• turmeric, cumin & cayenne pepper


• small handful of fresh parsley, minced

Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook on low heat until translucent. Add the spices to taste as well as the eggplant and stir to coat with the oil and spices. Cook on medium heat until the eggplant becomes just soft, then add the yellow pepper and the chick peas and cook for a few minutes (or longer if you don't like your pepper too crunchy). Add the tomato and cook for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the parsley. Serve warm, garnished with black greek olives if you happen to have some.

Carrot salad

This little side-dish of shredded carrots loaded with garlic and onion will give your immune system a boost, not to mention keep the vampires away! Scroll down to see a second recipe made with the leftovers of this salad.

In a large bowl, add 2 or 3 large garlic cloves and half a small onion, both minced. Add a generous teaspoon of salt and mix. Add 3 generous tablespoons or so of olive oil and stir. Peel and shred about 5 or 6 large carrots. Add to the dressing, stir to coat, and then add a few heaping teaspoons of hemp seed if you have any. Serve at room temperature with a slice of lemon.

Sautee a can of drained, rinsed chick peas in a tablespoon or so of olive oil until browned. Mince a large handful of fresh parsley. Stir the chick peas and parsley in a large bowl with about a cup and a half of leftover carrot salad described above. Serve a side dish. (For the curious out there, the dish behind this one in the picture is creamy rainbow chard, which is simply one chopped leek sauteed in olive oil with chopped chard to which I added salt and creme fresh when the chards were nicely wilted. It's very yummy, too.)