Monday, August 2, 2010

Grilled Eggplant Parmesan

We dont have to sacrifice taste to eat healthier. We just need to be creative, improvise and add herbs or spices to add flavor. Mom mentioned she bought an Eggplant and mentioned she felt like having Eggplant Parmesan. So sunday morning I decided to prepare the pan of EP for monday nites dinner. I peeled and sliced the eggplant to about 1/4 inch slices. Drizzled with olive oil and went outside with my iced coffee for some grilling. I thought grilling off the eggplant would be alot healthier than breading it and frying it in oil. Putting some nice grill marks on the eggplant slices I then assembled the EP. There was left over sauce in the refrigerator from thursday nites dinner ( we made extra purposely ), and we usually always have some fat-free shredded mozzarella cheese on hand. Preparing the EP the way I would normally, I stacked the eggplant, sauce and cheese, I topped it with about a 1/4 of a cup of grated parmesan for some added flavor and texture on top. I will bake the casserole dish in a 350 degree oven until sauce and cheese is bubbly approximately 30min. Half covered to heat thru and half uncovered until the cheese is a golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving. Some steamed broccoli for my side dish and Voila, EP the quick and healthy way. I think next time I am going to experiment with maybe some whole wheat panko breadcrumbs sprinkled in between the layers or on top of the melted cheese to add some of that texture we get from our fried counterpart. Remember, Life is full of Tasty Morsels!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You need to ask you Mom about the time I asked her to help me "bag" the 16 qts. of homemade sauce, meatball, sausage etc. She came over and helped me use the vacuum seal and bag the sauce and in return I brought over by giant handheld clippers same day and clipped all those bushes in the front of your house! Great memories for sure!!!

ChefMichele said...

Dottieeeeeeeeeeeeee - tryin to figure out who the heck is leaving the comments! LOL Mom says hi, when I started asking her about the event to bag the sauce she started laughing!