Naked Eggplant Parmesan

My friend, Jodie recommended this recipe.

This one comes out of the new Hungry Girl Clean and Hungry Cookbook.

This is probably one of the very easiest eggplant parm recipes I've ever made and yet I managed to screw it up.  More on that later.

There aren't a lot of exotic ingredients or a list of ingredients that say "see recipe".

It was relatively inexpensive too.

If you're unfamiliar with Hungry Girl this is a name to know.

Lisa Lillien created the Hungry Girl name.

This is one of my favorite websites.

I also subscribe to her daily e-mails which are packed full of good info on product finds and recipes.

She also has several cookbooks.

While the above mentioned book does not list Smart Points(probably for copyright reasons) she does have each of the recipes on her website with the Smart Points listed there.

My tenacious friend Jodie actually bought the cookbook and went through and wrote the pts in by hand.

Now that's dedication!  What a woman!

Now on to the recipe...

This comes out to 4 Smart Points per serving.  One serving is 1/4 of the pan.  Woo hoo!  

If you can't find the Smart Points on her website for the book recipes go here.  Then click on the blue box at the bottom that says "CLICK FOR SMART POINTS & PHOTOS!"

Ingredients

1 (20 oz) eggplant sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices lengthwise(I also peeled mine)

1 cup of store bought or homemade marinara of choice

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan

1 cup part skim mozzarella

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp salt.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray both a 8x8 square casserole dish and a baking sheet with olive oil spray.

Mix together the spices and set aside.

Place the eggplant slices on the baking sheet and sprinkle with the spice mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes then flip and bake 10 more minutes.

Put 1/4 of the marinara in the bottom of the 8x8 pan and then layer on half of the eggplant slices.
Place another 1/4 cup of marinara over the eggplant plus 1/2 cup mozzarella and 2 Tbsp of the grated Parmesan.
Repeat layering ending with cheese.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 min or until hot and bubbly.
Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes.

So truth time~

Here's what I screwed up....

I have had eggplant Parm where it tasted really bitter because the eggplant slices were so thick and not breaded as in this recipe.
So, I took it upon myself to make the slices 1/4 inch thick instead of the 1/2 thick she calls for.
In doing so not all of the slices fit on one baking sheet so I was dirtying an extra pan.
Some of the slices also ended up burned and desiccated.  They were kind of like eggplant chips.
Believe it or not some of them tasted good so I may have to experiment with that someday later.

Anyway, the eggplant really shrinks down as it cooks and loses lots of moisture.  When they're as thin as I made them they can also break apart and stick easier.

The volume of eggplant in the pan was so low it looked like half-ply eggplant Parm.

But I own this mistake.  This one's all on me.

Sometimes I screw it up.

And as I've said before- sometimes you burn it and you eat it anyway!  :)

Even after my mistakes this was REALLY DELICIOUS!!!!

I have to admit that before I made this I was skeptical.

The little fat lover in me was saying "Yeah right.  Sure it tastes good without the yummy fatty breading.  Whatever!".

I really have to eat my words here.  This was so crazy good!

Don't you love it when you can find something healthy that tastes so good?!!!!

Now I can't stop thinking of just how good it'll be when I don't screw it up!

Who says healthy food can't be decadent?!

Happy Cooking!