I’m Back! … with Eggplant!

I must apologize – I’ve been MIA this week.  It’s been a crazy busy week with school starting and getting back into a normal routine.

I even missed the ‘What I Ate Wednesday’ post, which I really hated to do!  I love doing the WIAW pictures.  This Wednesday, my firm hosted a seminar on Healthcare Reform for our clients.  (Don’t even get me started on Healthcare Reform – maybe I’ll save that for another post another day).

It was a catered event so there were the usual pastries, muffins and cereals.  Carb overload.  So I refrained.  I was going to take a picture of the buffet for you, but I was too busy talking to clients.  Because I had skipped breakfast, I was starving for lunch.  I scarfed my salad down before I even had time to think about taking a picture of it. But it looked something like this:

That’s Thursday’s salad.  I ate it at my desk while I worked.  Then on Thursday night, the hubs made us some amazing fish tacos:

But all of that wasn’t too exciting.  It was what I did on Friday that I’m excited to share with you.  I had the BEST day on Friday!!  I don’t know what it was.  Maybe I finally got the hang of the new school routine.  Maybe it’s because I was wearing jeans.  Or maybe it’s because my hubby snuck some eggplant into my kale shake.  Yes, you read that correctly.  EGGPLANT.  In a Protein Shake.  It sounds disgusting, right??  He didn’t tell me until I had drank the whole thing.  And I couldn’t tell anything different.

(Kale Shake recipe here)

In fact, I had just gotten to work and as I sat down, I had an email from the hubs asking me if I liked my shake.  I replied yes.  To which his follow up question was, “Could you tell what the secret ingredient was?”  I had 3 sips left, so I took a big swig, swirled it around in my mouth, furrowed my eyebrow and responded “No.  What is it?”  And then he dropped the bomb.  Eggplant.  Seriously??  We had leftover grilled eggplant in the fridge from dinner two nights before.

Not being the kind to waste food, we like to use our leftovers rather than throwing them out.  But he’s never gone so far as to put leftover grilled veggies in our breakfast shake.  Weird.  But it worked.  And eggplant is brain food.  So I really think it helped me have the most productive day I’ve had in a really long time.  I was even offering to help other people get their work done.

I had so much energy by 5pm, I went for a run after work at my favorite place:

Lakeshore Park

It was a beautiful day, but still so very hot.  I remembered why I don’t like to run outside in August!!

So that was the end of my week.  I apologize for being absent for the last couple of days.

I’ll leave you with a sunset picture and a promise….

I promise not to miss a post next week, especially the WIAW post!!  (It’s my fave).  Oh, and stay tuned on the 31st when I reveal my foodie pen pal box!!

Eggplant and Kale Lasagna

I’ve actually never bought an eggplant before.  I don’t know why not. They are such pretty vegetables.

I found a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan, but I was lacking a few of the ingredients and I also wanted to add some kale.  I always take recipes as suggestions anyways.  And you can take this as a suggestion too.  In fact, if you don’t have kale, fresh spinach would work great!!  And if you wanted to make it more like a normal lasagna, you can add the usual layer of cottage cheese mixture.  I personally don’t care for cottage cheese so that’s why it’s absent in this dish.

You’ll notice there aren’t any measurements in my recipe.  That’s because it’s totally up to you.  If you want more cheese, add more cheese.  If you don’t like kale as much as I do, then don’t add as much.

Eggplant and Kale Lasagna

2 large eggplants

kale

tomato sauce (I used Prego Heart Smart traditional)

parmesan cheese

mozzarella cheese

garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  We’re going to roast the eggplant first.  After skinning it, cut in 1/4″ slices and lay on sprayed cookie sheet.  (They will stick if not properly sprayed).  Should take about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them.

When you get the roasted eggplant out of the oven, turn the oven down to 350 degrees.  Now we’re going to start assembling the lasagna.  First, pour about a cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.  Then arrange a layer of eggplant over it, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garlic powder.

Then top with kale and mozzarella cheese.

Repeat the layers again until you’ve used all the ingredients and filled up the casserole dish.  (I had 3 layers of eggplant and 2 layers of kale).  Top with more cheese.

Bake in 350 degree oven for around 30 minutes.  But watch it, I overdid it just a little.

Serve with white wine.

And as you can see on my last WIAW post, it makes great leftovers!!  Enjoy!!

WIAW – 7/25/12

I kinda forgot it was Wednesday.  And I forgot all about WIAW until dinner time.  So you won’t get many pictures from me today.
This really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.  I told you in my last post I was a slacker. 🙂

This morning I was running a tad late so I didn’t have time for the usual kale shake. Instead, I used my handy GNC shaker to mix one scoop of chocolate protein powder and one scoop of Mike’s Mix recovery drink. I poured in the rest of my mug of coffee for some extra caffeine.  Yummy!

For lunch, hubby and the kids picked me up at work. We grabbed some Chick-Fil-A and took it to the park. I really wish I had taken some pics there.  My 2-year old daughter was so cute dipping her nuggets in ketchup.  And my 7-year old son lost his 3rd tooth after eating a chicken sandwich.
I had the chargrilled garden salad.  (Pic is from the Chick-Fil-A website).  Only 180 calories, 5 net carbs and 23g protein!!  I used half a packet of the Spicy dressing, which added 70 calories and 2g carbs.  Not bad.

Leftovers were on the menu for dinner. The previous night I tried my hand at an eggplant parmesan.  I strayed from the recipe, added kale and tomato sauce and turned it into more of a lasagna, without the noodles.  It was absolutely delicious!!  Add a fresh salad and some jalapenos on the side, and you have a fine meal.

It doesn’t look that pretty, but trust me, it tasted wonderful!!
I will post the recipe tomorrow, if I can remember it.  🙂