Part-time Vegetarian

Eggplant Parm Florentine

The kids and I tend to eat a lot less meat whem Brett travels for work (except for occasional chicken nuggets of course.) As I've mentioned before, I'm not anti-meat, but it's generally more work than I feel like adding to a long day and I'm perfectly happy without it. Also, since Brett's not a big veggie-guy, I try to take advantage and enjoy vegetable-centric meals when I can!

The other thing I'm going to admit about my husband traveling (and this recipe in particular) is that I love to cook a huge "something" and eat it for a few days. Lately it seems that unless I serve hot dogs or mac and cheese (from the box) I spend most of dinner time arguing and bargaining with my children to eat. It certainly makes the effort of a lot of cooking and cleaning see fruitless night after night...especially when Brett's not around. I'm semi-ashmed to admit that I made this recipe on Sunday and proceeded to eat in Mon night, tuesday night and Wednesday night as well. I suppose it could be worse...

Where this recipe came from
I LOVE LOVE LOVE eggplant parm, but wanted to make it a little healthier (this turned out to be a good instinct since I ate it for 4 days). I decided to bread and bake the eggplant instead of frying it, and also added spinach to boost the nutrients.

Making the recipe
Obviously baking the breaded eggplant and then baking the entire casserole took longer than I would normally have on a weeknight. Because it was a Sunday though, I didn't mind. When I make this again, I think I'll chop the spinach before adding it. It was still good, but I think smaller pieces might have been easier to manuever.

Note: I realize 3 eggs seems like a lot for breading, but eggplant soaks it right up! I actually started with 2, but didn't have enough.

The results
No one else went near this but me. The kids? Yup...they ate "kid food" for a few nights (and I still had to bargain at dinner time...thank god for leftove halloween candy!) Whatever...enjoyed my dinner 4 nights in a row!

The recipe
1 large eggplant
3eggs
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2-2 cups whole wheat breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
2 cups baby spinach
2 cans garlic and oregano diced tomatos
1 clove garlic
3/4 cup shredded mozzerella
2 tbsp parmesean

Preheat oven to 400. Slice the eggplant horizontally into 1/4' slices (I left the skin on, but that's up to you).

Whisk eggs, olive oil, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Mix breadcrumbs, salt and pepper in another bowl. Dredge the eggplant in egg mixture, then coat in breadcrumbs. Spread out on a baking sheet(s).

Bake for 20 minutes, turning halfway through.

When the eggplant is done, drain enough of the juice from one can of tomatos to coat the bottom of a casserole dish. Line with half of the eggplant.

Sprinkle half of the spinach over the top and then top with the rest of the canned tomato. Layer the remaining eggplant, spinach and tomato. Top with mozzerella and parmesean cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes.