Taking hints

I’m not sure if I’ll ever learn, but my husband does not catch on to my hints.  Last night I really didn’t feel like cooking dinner, I felt like eating anything I wasn’t cooking, so I kept mentioning HOW WORN OUT I was.  Hint, hint!  When that didn’t seem to elicit the reaction I was hoping for from Tate, I made sure to say, “Oh.  Wellllll, I guess I should start dinner.”  HEAVY SIGH, HEAVY SIGH, HEAVY SIGH.

I ended up making dinner.  SHOCKING!  Dinner was actually was delicious, a recipe that I used to make all the time, but it somehow fell out of rotation.  Not to toot my own horn, but it’s my very own recipe and it’s pretty fabulous.  (Toot, toot!)

I made Three Cheese Eggplant bake.

This recipe is easy to make.  If you’ve never had eggplant before, don’t be afraid!

What you’ll need…

1 medium to large eggplant
2-3 TB Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 C Ricotta Cheese
1 C Mozzarella Cheese, shredded, 1/2 C reserved for topping
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Marinara Sauce  (homemade or from a jar)

Here’s what you do…

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two cookie sheets with cooking spray. Carefully cut skin off of eggplant.  I hold it upright and with a sharp chef’s knife, I slice the skin off, taking care not to cut off too much of the actual eggplant.  Once the skin is removed, slice the eggplant lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips. (Don’t worry if you end up with short pieces of eggplant, you can combine these pieces together later.) Place the eggplant strips on cookie sheets and drizzle olive oil evenly over each piece. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 15 minutes.

While the eggplant is baking, make (or heat) the marinara sauce and make the cheese filling. To make the filling, stir together the ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses.

Spray an 11 X 7 casserole dish with cooking spray. Place 2-3 TB of filling at the end of each eggplant slice and roll up. Combine the smaller eggplant slices to make longer strips if needed. Place each roll-up in casserole dish. Spoon marinara sauce over each. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 C of mozzarella cheese over casserole. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.

I serve this with whole wheat spaghetti and a salad of grape tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

In case you’re interested, here is my recipe for Marinara Sauce.

1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 garlic clove crushed
3 TB of Extra-virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp dried Oregano (if you have fresh, even better!)
1 tsp dried Basil
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1 TB Sugar

In a medium saucepan over medium low heat, cook the garlic clove in the olive oil just until the clove begins to brown. Remove from heat, remove the garlic clove, and allow the oil to cool. Once cool, add the remaining ingredients, cover and simmer over low heat until thoroughly heated.

*****

This post is a part of Rachel’s Mouthwatering Monday at A Southern Fairytale.  Go visit her for more great recipes!  HINT, HINT.