Say Hello To My Purple Friend

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend… I know we did! It was the first weekend in awhile that Jeremy, my husband, didn’t have to work overtime so we got to spend some good, quality family time together. Sunday we went downtown and to Temple Square.It was so much fun watching the boys run around and play. Jeremy and I also took the first picture of us kissing… Only took five years! Jeremy loves taking pictures, and he is great at it; he just doesn’t like being in them. So getting him to actually sit down for a picture takes a little bit of bribing. Guess who got a nice back rub last night 😉

Aren’t we cute?!

When we were going through pictures and talking I started thinking about other firsts for us. I asked him if he remembered our first date. And guess what… he did! His memory is amazing; which can be a good and bad thing (like when he remembers I told him he’d get a massage for being in pictures). My brother had introduced us 5 years ago and we talked on the phone and spent many nights talking on his porch swing before our actual “first date”. But when we did go on our first date we went to Buca di Beppo. Not only was it our first date, but it was also the first time I had ever been there so I let him order. He ordered Eggplant Parmesan for us to share. I was a little worried because, at that point in my life, I was not very adventurous when it came to food. If I went somewhere Italian I always got spaghetti and meatballs. When the food got there I took the smallest bite possible expecting it to be ~~horrible~~ not my favorite. But I was very pleasantly surprised. I actually really liked it. So much that we went back a few weeks later and got it again.

When I was thinking of recipes to make for Meatless Mondays, Eggplant Parmesan was the first thing that came to mind. I’ve been making this for about 6 months now and it is one of our family’s favorite dinners. Very rarely do we have leftovers and a lot of times Rohrl asks for seconds. When I talk to family or friends about what we have or what I’m cooking for dinner and I tell them we’re having Eggplant Parmesan, a lot of times I get asked “What does it taste like?” My best answer to that question is it tastes like Chicken Parmesan only softer. Try this recipe for your next Meatless Monday and you’re sure to have an instant hit! Bonus: You can’t really see the purple when it is cooked this way so if you have picky eaters just tell them it’s Parmesan and they will never know they are eating a vegetable! Recipe adapted from: Tried and Tried Again

Ingredients:

1 medium-large eggplant

1 c breadcrumbs

1 tsp garlic powder

2 eggs

1/2 c milk

1- 1 1/2 c shredded cheese

1 1/2- 2 c Spaghetti Sauce (or 1 28 oz jar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°

Wash eggplant and slice into 1/4″ thick pieces

Combine breadcrumbs and garlic powder in one bowl. Combine eggs and milk in a second bowl.

Dip eggplant a piece at a time into breadcrumb mix, then into egg/milk mix, then back into breadcrumb mix. Make sure to get it completely coated with breadcrumbs.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and top each piece with 1 tsp of shredded cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray and then cover the bottom of the dish with spaghetti sauce. You don’t have to use a lot just enough so you can’t see the bottom.

Place cooked eggplant on top of spaghetti sauce. Cover with 1/3 cup cheese. Pour remaining spaghetti sauce over everything. You may think that there is a lot of sauce but the eggplant actually soaks up quite a bit of it so use more than you would normally use for a casserole.

Top with remaining cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy. I serve ours with angel hair pasta just because my boys love pasta but this is filling enough that you could serve it as is and still get full.