Vegetables Promoted from Side Dish to Entree

Before I get into the Vegetables Promoted from Side Dish to Entree recipe, I want to talk about this image of Marge holding her stomach. Because she feels ill, Marge is holding her stomach. But to me it looks more like she is holding her breasts. I know she isn’t very “top heavy”, well except for that one episode, but for some reason this seemed like the animation was off here. Discuss!

After the Simpson family embraces a vegetarian meal they all get sick, except for Lisa. That’s because their bodies aren’t used to digesting plant based foods. Then Lisa sings them all to sleep and the rest of the episode devolves into a parody of American Idol. But not before my favorite joke of the episode where (as the family is feeling better) they are eating a bucket of Shakespeare Fried Chicken. Of course, I would also prefer to be eating fried chicken. But instead I did what I could to recreate vegetables being promoted from side dish to entree.

There’s a lot going on at the dinner table including:

• Portobello mushrooms
• A bowl of mushrooms
• An eggplant with peppers for garnish
• Salad
• Two vegetable casseroles
• Stuffed peppers
• Vegetable platter

So, that’s a lot of food. I guess the animators wanted to really stress how many dishes you can make from vegetables? I almost had this pegged as an “I’m Not Making That” entry. But instead I decided to pick and choose a few items and experiment with making a *shudder* healthy, meatless meal.

Ingredients

• Eggplant with Peppers
• Portobello Mushrooms “steaks”
• Vegetable Casserole
• Salad

Directions

I didn’t cook the eggplant or peppers since I think they were meant to be presented raw? I did fry up the Portobello mushrooms for a few minutes a side. The vegetable casserole was thrown together with various vegetables, cheese, milk, flour, and some spices. I put salad in a bowl and that was that.

So, it might seem like I didn’t really try with this recipe – at least as far as conveying what I made to you, the reader. But, really, how many of you actually recreate dishes that I make for this blog anyway? Even if you were going to recreate something I doubt this would be the recipe, most people are way more interested in how to make a Lean Cuisini.

In my mind, the point of this whole thing was to try eating a vegetarian meal that isn’t just a bag of potato chips. By the way, potato chips are usually vegetarian AND gluten free, which basically makes it the healthiest thing you can eat! Overall, this food tasted fine. I’m not a fan of Portobello mushroom “steak” and no amount of spices and grilling will convince me it is a steak. I would (and did) eat all of this as a meal, but I would have been happier with a vegetarian meal that comes from Rahmatpur…that or fried chicken.

Cromulence: 6 Astronauts on a Surfboard out of 10

Vegetables Promoted from Side Dish to Entrée Recipe From: A Star is Torn (The Simpsons Season 16 – Episode 18)