Eggplant Rollatini

I know right?  Eggplant?  This is what happens when I set out to eat low carb.  Don't worry though, it's pretty good!  I think I can say, "it's good" honestly, even though I have a cold and can't taste most things at the moment.  If I can taste this through a cold it must be flavorful right?  Oh and if Jon gave it a 4 right off the bat that's pretty good considering it's rather experimental and way out of my cooking comfort zone!

I've been trying really hard to stick with the lower carb/high veggie type of diet and I think I've been doing reasonably well with it for the past week and a bit.  Heck, I'm even liking the fact that I get to try out new recipes involving only vegetables.  Gasp!  Only vegetables.  Who said that?  Who am I?  What is happening?  Ha ha ha!!  Okay but seriously, this is a great recipe.  I found it while searching on foodgawker for eggplant recipes after I found out that eggplant is a relatively low carb vegetable.  1cup of cooked eggplant is only 9g of carbs.  Not bad.

I have also had a generally good view of eggplant growing up.  We didn't have it often at my house, in fact we only ever had it prepared one way, but it was good!  My mom used to make torta talong (translates to eggplant fritata) and I loved it as a kid.  I've also learned to appreciate eggplant parmesan since Jon and I started dating because at the time it was (and maybe still is)his favorite dish. 

This recipe looked appealing because it seemed to be halfway between eggplant parmesan and canneloni.  But I had to tweak a few things with this woman's recipe.  To keep the carbs down I didn't double bread the eggplant before pan frying it.  I also added twice the amount of herbs she called for (just because I didn't think her recipe sounded like it had enough) and I used kale instead of spinach because we were fresh out of spinach!  I think next time I might use a bit more garlic and spinach instead of the kale I substituted, because the kale seemed to have a little too much texture to it in this dish.  Other than that, I really liked it and it totally satisfied my craving for something Italian tasting, and it wasn't crazy high carb!

I am pretty sure that this recipe is completely gluten free too for my gluten intolerant friends!

You should definitely try this one!

Eggplant Rollatini
adapted from Sprinkles of Parsley
Makes about 8 rolls

Ingredients
Eggplant
1 large eggplant sliced lenthwise into 1/4 inch slices (the longer the eggplant, the better- makes it easier to roll)
3 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Filling
2 cups chopped kale

8 ounces of Ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used the Trader Joe's provolone, parmesan, asiago and fontina mix instead)
1 large clove fresh garlic, minced

Topping

1 cup tomato sauce
1 clove garlic minced
2tsp italian seasoning
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (again, I used the TJ's mix)

Procedure

1.  Heat a small amount of butter in a large frying pan (cast iron or non stick will probably work best) and fry your eggplant 2 at a time over medium heat until they get floppy and seem rollable.  They'll brown lightly and might become slightly translucent.  Don't forget to season them with a bit of salt and pepper!

2.  Mix all the ingredients for the filling together in a large bowl until it's well combined.



Filling Ingredients





All mixed together.  See?  The kale gave everything a little too much texture.  It was still good, but I think I'll stick with spinach next time.



3.  After all the eggplant is fried and cooled a bit so you can handle it easily spoon two or three tablespoons of filling onto the end of a slice of eggplant and roll it up carefully.  Place it into a square (I used 9x9) casserole dish.  Repeat until you've used up all the eggplant slices and all the filling.



4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Combine the tomato sauce, garlic, and italian seasoning for the topping and spoon or pour some over each of the eggplant rolls.  Sprinkle with cheese. 

At this point I was thinking that they looked like mini enchiladas!

6.  Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until your cheese is golden brown and everything is heated through.

Enjoy!

Dinner success!  Even Mikey seemed to like it!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  thank you for providing for our every need.  Help us to remember that we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from your mouth and specifically, the word made flesh.  Amen.



Beef and Mushroom Tart

So keeping with the lower carb meals tonight I present something mildly experimental.  I got this recipe from my mom a long time ago.  It's actually an hors d'oeuvre that we make for parties, but tonight I thought I'd try a bigger version and just make it into a meat pie/tart type of thing.  I think it turned out pretty well. 

Since I'm trying to keep the carbohydrate count low so I can pass this next 3 hour gtt I had to make a few changes to the recipe.  I don't actually know where she got the recipe for this, so hopefully it's okay that I'm posting a modified version. 

In the original recipe if you were going to make these as  hors d'oeuvres for a party you would smash slices of bread into muffin cups to use as tart shells and use a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup along with the other ingredients in the filling. 

For tonight's recipe I made my own whole wheat pie crust (so that'd be about 10-12 grams of carbs for 1/8 of the pie).  I didn't use the cream of mushroom soup, but used real mushrooms and thickened up some milk with some parsley and a bit of added garlic powder and onion powder instead.  If I had used the cream of mushroom soup 2 things would have happened:

1.  It would have tasted better.

2.  It would have had 6.75 more grams of carbs per slice (assuming you had 1/8th) of pie. 

Since I was planning on eating more than 1/8th of the pie I decided to skip the soup.  If you're not so worried about carbs I'd definitely say use the condensed soup (get the organic kind without msg!!). 

Otherwise, on it's own this was pretty good!  I had the flavor of the hors d'oeuvres in my head, so this pie wasn't as amazing as those, but not too shabby for a low carb, weekday meal. 

Here's the recipe if you want to make it!


Beef and Mushroom Tart

Ingredients
(Pie Crust)
1 1/3c whole wheat flour
1/2c butter cubed
1/2 tsp salt
3tbsp cold water

(filling)

1lb ground beef

1cup mushrooms diced

1/2 green pepper diced

1 small onion diced

3large cloves of garlic minced

1tbsp butter

1cup milk

1tbsp flour

1tbsp parsley

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder and onion powder to taste

1/3cup cheddar cheese grated

For the filling:

1.  Brown the ground beef. If you're not using lean meat drain off some fat.

2.  Add the mushrooms, green pepper, onion, garlic and butter and saute on medium heat until the onions are translucent and the green peppers are soft. 

3.  Sprinkle the flour over the beef and veggie mixture and stir it in. 

4.  Add the milk and bring everything to a boil over medium heat.  Allow the sauce to get thick and bubbly.

5.  Add the parsley, salt and pepper, and garlic powder and onion powder if you think it needs a bit more kick.  Stir everything to combine well.

6.  Take the mixture off the heat and cool down a bit.

For the crust:

1.  Combine the flour and salt in a food processor.  Just pulse it a couple times.

2.  Add the cubes of butter slowly while pulsing. 

3.  When the flour and butter look like coarse crumbs add the cold water slowly.

4.  When it comes together into a ball it's ready to roll out.

5.  Roll out the dough on a floured board until it's larger than the pie plate. 

6.  Carefully place your dough in the pie plate.  Roll the edges over and if you want to be fancy flute the edges. 

7.  Prick the bottom of the crust and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

Bringing it together.

1.  When the pie comes out fill it with your beef and mushroom mixture and top with cheddar cheese.

2.  Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes!



Before it went in the oven!





The finished product.



 Hope you enjoy it!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the Christmas Season and all of the joy that comes with celebrating your son's birth.  As we begin this New Year help us all to remember the gift you have given us in your son and the gift of our lives.  Help us to remember not to squander what we've been given and appreciate it and cultivate it every day.  Amen.