muffuletta, roasted leeks and potatoes

It's the end of the quarter, and you know what gave it away?  It wasn't the stress or fatigue, but rather, our slacker eating habits. Last week, we ate out a few times, which is pretty uncharacteristic.  This week, we were prepared, and we pulled homemade lasagna (made earlier in the quarter) from our freezer and next week, we'll do the same and eat soyrizo, corn, and black bean enchiladas.  

Despite being tired and busy, we did manage to make muffulettas.  I don't know the provenance of muffulettas, but I know the main components are cold cuts, cheese, and a marinated olive salad.  Our version is a vegan version made with roasted eggplant, spinach, and roasted red peppers, in addition to the olive salad.  The recipe is from Veganomican, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who blogs over at Post Punk Kitchen.    

I adore Moskowitz, and I have all of her cookbooks (and she has published many of them).  Many people are skeptical of vegan cooking and baking, but Moskowitz's cookbooks show you that it's easy and super tasty (okay, except for Veganomicon, which is a bit labor intensive).  I have never been disappointed with her recipes.  

The olive salad is addictive, and fortunately, there is a bit leftover, which is perfect for eating with the leftover bread you scoop out to make the gigantic sandwich.  I've been lucky in the past- I've been the one to assemble the sandwich by myself, but this time Drew and I did it together, so I had to share the leftover olive salad with him.  But I shouldn't complain- he did let me have the last bite. 

Drew roasted leeks and potatoes, both of which were amazing.  Usually, leeks aren't considered a side dish (apparently they are in England), but after eating Drew's leeks, I'm baffled as to why not (we had intended to make a leek and potato soup, so that's why we had the leeks).  Drew par-boiled the potatoes first, so they were extra crispy after baking them.  It's a bit high maintenance, but worth it in the end.