Real Food Sunday

I work full time during the week, and take my lunch every day. To save time, I prepare my food for the week on Sunday and divvy it up into glass containers so it’s easy to pack each morning. Also, I cook enough to cover dinner too as I never have time to cook during the week.

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Yikes! This was a busy day in the kitchen. Here are all the things I fixed to be ready for the week:

  • Black Bean hummus
  • Roasted red potatoes with olive oil & rosemary
  • Summer Squash casserole
  • Banana Peppers stuffed with cream cheese & bacon
  • Sauteed kohlrabi greens
  • Bleu Cheese Coleslaw
  • Eggplant Lasagna with spinach and sausage

The lasagna came out amazing. Technically, it probably shouldn’t be called lasagna because there is no pasta – eggplant slices replace the noodles. But is any case it is delicious. I had eggplants from Pinckney’s Farm CSA that I needed to use, so I cobbled together two recipes from Allrecipes.com.

Here are the links to the two original recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-lasagna/detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/worlds-best-lasagna/detail.aspx

and here is my cobbled-together version:

Eggplant Sausage Spinach Lasagna

2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 large eggplants, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
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2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound bulk sausage
½ c chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
Italian seasoning/basil/oregano etc.
48 ounces chunky tomato sauce
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1 egg
16 oz ricotta
½ tsp salt
1 package frozen spinach, thawed
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2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Prepare Eggplant:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Oil two baking sheets with 1 teaspoon olive oil.
  • Whisk eggs and water together in a shallow dish.
  • Combine Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, salt, and ground black pepper in a separate shallow dish.
  • Dip eggplant slices in egg mixture.
  • Press slices into the crumbs and tap off excess. Arrange slices on the prepared baking sheets.
  • Bake eggplant slices in the preheated oven until tops are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Flip eggplant and bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes.
  • Remove eggplant from the oven and increase temperature to 375 degrees F.

Meat Sauce:

  • In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned.
  • Stir in tomato sauce. Season to taste. Simmer until heated through.

Ricotta Blend:

  • In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
  • Squeeze/drain the liquid out of the thawed spinach & stir into ricotta mixture.

In this order: meat sauce, eggplant, ricotta, mozzarella, make two sets of layers in a 9×13 pan. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.

Bake covered at 375ºF for 25 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes.

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