Eggplant

We have been participating in Bountiful Baskets for almost a year now, and we love it! Each Saturday morning I take the kids and pick up our basket, Grace has so much fun seeing what we get. She always wants broccoli and celery. It's been really good for us, we have made an honest effort to use all the veggies each week and to try new things.

One of those new things this past year was eggplant- I NEVER would have tried it had it not been in our basket, but I love it! We usually turn it into eggplant parmigiana and make a marinara sauce with it, but if an effort to eat better we put away the breadcrumbs and the oil and made herb crusted eggplant-

Eggplant- sliced - rub salt on it and let it sit for 20 minutes, then wipe the salt off with a paper towel. (This makes it so the eggplant isn't rubbery). Salt and pepper both sides of the eggplant and back at 400 for 6-8 minutes on both sides. Then put fresh chopped herbs on top. We had fresh from our basket, but I bet it would be good with dried too. Thyme, oregano, basil & rosemary. Put a tiny bit of cheese on the herbs, either mozzarella or parm and broil for 2 minutes.

Sauce - 2 cloves garlic minced, 1 onion minced, saute in a tiny bit of oil until the onions are soft, add 1 can diced tomato's, 4-6 chopped Roma tomato's, 1 T Basil, 1 T Thyme, 1 T Oregano, Rosemary, salt and pepper (as much as you like.) and 1 T sugar. The recipe calls for cooking red wine, but not having that on hand I used 1 c. chicken broth and about 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, and let it simmer about 30 minutes. Also, the sauce calls for 1-2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but we omit it, for calorie reasons.

I start the sauce first, then slice the egg plant and cook it will the sauce is simmering. It seriously is better than Olive gardens red sauce! Once the eggplant is finished put it right in with the sauce and serve over noodles. We use low point pasta, splenda and cut out most of the oil. I can't wait until we get our next eggplant!