A Month-of-Mediterranean: Heart-Healthy Eggplant Parmesan

Another apology for picture quality and lack of pix for prep steps. I just forget, sometimes, that I’m supposed to be documenting. Especially if it is a dish I make often.

But, the good news is, here’s another chance to use your homemade marinara sauce in a Meatless Monday meal. I LOVE traditional eggplant parmesan, however, there aren’t too many foods that are so calorie laden. Thus, years ago, I went searching for a more healthful alternative. After combining parts of various recipes, I came up with one we eat on a regular basis. A small side of spaghetti with a little olive oil, salt and pepper accompanied by a side salad, and we have a delicious and filling dinner.

Instead of breading and frying, the traditional way of prepping that is sooo tasty, instead I bake and use a little Panko to stand in for the breading. I use my own marinara sauce, but jarred would work, too. A few simple ingredients is all you need.

Heart-Healthy Eggplant Parmesan (serves 2)

1 eggplant, cut in half length-wise

1 cup marinara sauce, divided

½ cup herbed panko crumbs (or put Italian seasoning in plain crumbs)

½ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (can use grated cheese)

Butter-flavored non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

 

Cut the eggplant and spray the cut side with butter-flavored non-stick cooking spray and place, cut sides down, on the baking sheet. Pierce the skin side of the eggplant four or five times with a fork.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and flip over the eggplant halves.

With a fork, “rough up” the surface a bit so the sauce can get down into the meat. Put ¼ cup marinara on each eggplant half.

Divide panko crumbs between the two, patting them down into the marinara a bit. Add the rest of the marinara and top with the mozzarella.

Return to the oven for another five to ten minutes to melt the cheese. Serve with a small side of spaghetti and with a salad.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

He really likes this dish when I make it. As I said, it’s a regular at our house. It’s filling, but relatively low-cal and low-carb. I buy small- to medium-size eggplants, so we don’t have any leftovers. I’m not sure how good these would be warmed up the next day. It you do, let me know how it worked.

Meatless Monday: Spinach Roll-Ups

Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month. This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask? We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.

Lasagna noodles are so versatile. You can layer them, chop them into pieces, or roll them up with a stuffing. I always have a box on hand to use in a variety of ways. We all have our own lasagna recipes, vegetarian and meat-lovers. Here’s a tip for you: I never precook my noodles for lasagna, nor do I buy the more expensive packages which say no pre-cooking required. Nope. I make an extra gloopy sauce so the sauce thickens as the noodles soften during baking. Works every time.

And you probably do with I do with the inevitable broken noodles. I cook up the pieces and cover with some sauce or I drop them into soup. Sometimes I toss the cooked pieces with butter and tarragon and put on a dinner salad.

But how often have you rolled them up? For this recipe, and other roll-ups, I have to precook the lasagna noodles to al dente. That’s the hardest part! Even your kids can make this recipe!

The recipe’s origin is lost in the mists of time, I’ve been making it so long. I don’t even have a “real” recipe for it because I just dump ingredients together. I had to stop and gasp) measure as I made this recipe. The things I do for you people!

 

Cheesy Spinach Roll-Ups (serves 5)

10 lasagna noodles, al dente

15 ounces ricotta cheese (store-bought or M-Y-O)

1 cup shredded Asiago, divided

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon dried basil plus, more for sprinkling before baking

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 package chopped spinach, frozen; drained

1 ½ cup Alfredo sauce, homemade or store-bought, divided

        

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Cook noodles per package directions and set aside, separated, so they don’t stick together.

Blend together the ricotta and ½ cup Asiago with the egg until thoroughly incorporated. Add salt and pepper, basil, and garlic powder. Mix thoroughly.

Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the spinach, then break up clumps in a small dish.

Put ½ cup Alfredo sauce in the bottom of a prepared baking dish.

Lay out the noodles on a flat surface and divide the cheese mixture among them. Distribute cheese mixture along the length of the noodle, but keeping both ends uncovered.

 

Distribute spinach on top of the cheese mixture. Roll up each noodle and place seam side down in the baking dish. Nestle the noodles tightly. Cover with the remaining Alfredo sauce and Asiago cheese. Sprinkle on basil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until the top just begins to brown. Serve immediately with a salad.

Okay, you have everything you need but ricotta cheese. Don’t dash out to the store. Make Your Own.

Bonus recipe: M-Y-O Homemade Ricotta Cheese

2 quarts whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 fine mesh cheesecloth

Place a layer of cheesecloth over a sieve with fine holes and place it over a large bowl.

Slowly bring milk, cream, and salt to a rolling boil in a large heavy pot over moderate heat. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching.

Add lemon juice and reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring constantly, until the milk curdles, about 2 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into the lined sieve and let it drain 1 hour. Discard the liquid in the bowl. Roll the ricotta off the cheese cloth into a container with a lid. Chill until ready to use. Keeps two days in the refrigerator.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

This is one of his fall-time favorite Meatless Monday meals, and it makes enough that we have leftovers for another evening. Cook once, eat twice!

A Month-of-Eggs: Nid d'oeuf

Baked Egg Nest

For the next three posts, I’m going to give you a series of eggs cooked “in something”. All three are vegetarian dinner alternatives for when you are limiting your meat. Obviously, they are equally great for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.

These kinds of dishes are also great when you are trying to serve a crowd a nutritious breakfast. They are all prepared in the oven, so you can do a lot of the prep in advance and then just let them bake and serve right from the oven.

And, no. Not one of them is an egg casserole. (I’ll have a couple of non-traditional ones later this month!)

Another meringue recipe! And you can use this with that yummy Hollandaise sauce 

I shared with you. Or not. Just top with some sharp cheese like Asiago!

This recipe is seriously fun. Kids will love eating their eggs this way, especially if they can help make it. In fact, it appeared in a children’s French cookbook I own. You can find recipes on the Internet for this and other like recipes.

Today, Egg Nests are up. I suppose you might call them Cloud Eggs and serve them with cinnamon cloud bread. That could be yummy!

 

Here’s the adapted recipe, “Nid d’oeuf”, from the book, La Cusine est un jeu d’enfants by Michel Oliver. This is a fun book with primitive illustrations such as a child might draw and very large print. It would be fun to cook from with kids!

Nid d’oeuf (Egg Nests) (serves 2-4)

4 eggs, separated, room temperature

1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar.

¼ cup Asiago cheese (or cheese of your choice)

1 cup Hollandaise sauce (or more cheese for topping)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put parchment paper (or a Silpat sheet) on a cookie sheet.

Separate the eggs, keeping yolks in different dishes to keep from breaking.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy with your mixer on low speed. Add cream of tartar and beat on medium speed. Once stiff peaks form, fold in cheese very, very gently.

Nests

Make four equal meringue piles on the cookie sheet. Make an indentation in each (a nest) so you can add the egg yolk later. Place the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven for 3 minutes.

With the cookie sheet still on the rack, pull out oven rack and put an egg yolk in the center of each next.

Egg in Nest before baking

Push rack back into the oven and bake for 3-5 minutes more (depending on how done you like your eggs—we like them runny). Serve immediately.

Serve with ¼ cup hot Hollandaise sauce on each nest (or more cheese or none).

This makes a filling main dish if accompanied by fruit salad and a muffin.

NOTE: If you are a "meringue virgin", I have made some notes on previous recipes that might help. The main thing is to use room temperature egg whites for whipping and use a bowl and utensils with NO oily residue. Add the cream of tartar after the eggs are foamy not at the beginning.

Lots of recipes have you adding extracts or other ingredients like cheese here. And remember that “fold” is not a synonym for “stir”!  To fold in something, is to lift the bowl ingredients and incorporate from below. Stop when it looks just done. Better to under mix than to flatten the meringue with too much handling.

DH’s Rating: 5+ Tongues Up   He liked the presentation and agreed this could be a good company dish. He loved the cheese flavor in the meringue, too. But, he thought it would be even better with bacon or ham, and I had a hard time convincing him this was a complete protein as is.