Eggplant Parmesan - a lighter version

My youngest son is 5.  He will pretty much eat anything you put in front of him. But there is something about eggplant that fascinates him.  My guess is the color.  Last year he begged me to plant some in the garden.  We got several off our plants.  That was the 1st time I had cooked eggplant in 8 years and only the 2nd time ever. 

I can still clearly remember my 1st time to cook it.  I found a recipe for a healthy eggplant parmesan.  The picture looked good, so I gave it a try.  We don't have too many meatless meals around here so I had no idea how this would go over with the hubby.  Hubby liked it, oldest son (7 then) hated it, oldest daughter (4 then) loved it, and my pregnant self could hardly take a bite.  I had a hard time getting myself to try this recipe again.  Matter of fact, it still took me a whole year after we planted them in the garden to try an eggplant parmesan again.

I am older and wiser and more experienced in the kitchen now. Plus the internet is easily available at my fingertips to help me find just about any recipe my little heart could desire.

Eggplant Parmesan

1 medium to large eggplant

1 jar of marinara sauce

2 cups of cottage cheese

1 cup of grated parmesan cheese, divided

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

4 cups of loosely packed fresh baby spinach leaves

8 oz block of mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

fresh grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400* and lightly spray a cookie sheet.  Slice the eggplant into 1/2" slices.  Mix breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese in a shallow bowl (I like to use pie plates) and the eggs in a separate shallow bowl.  Dip the eggplant in egg and then dredge in breadcrumbs to fully coat.  Place in a single layer on cookie sheet.  Bake 15 minutes and then flip them and bake another 15 minutes.  Your eggplant slices should be a nice and crispy golden brown.  Set them aside.  Reduce oven temp to 350*.

I like the taste of cottage cheese (and the nutritional value) a lot better than ricotta.  But I like the creaminess of the ricotta.  So I always put my cottage cheese in the blender/food processor or ninja in my case and blend until smooth.  Mix 1/4 cup of parmesan in with the cottage cheese.

Remove the stems from the spinach leaves and discard.  Stack the leaves on top of each other and slice into thin slices.

At this point, I used 6 individual casserole dishes.  If those are not available, use a 9" square baking dish.  Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of your dish. Place the eggplant in a single layer.  Put a small spoonful of cottage cheese on each eggplant, top with a large pinch of 2 of the spinach, a slice of mozzarella, a spoonful of sauce, and another eggplant slice.  If you have extra slices of eggplant keep stacking in the same order.  (*note - when I made them in the individual dishes, I did some with 3 eggplant slices and some with only 2 for the children)  Finish up with sauce over the top, slices of mozzarella, and a sprinkling of spinach.  More sauce and cheese makes it extra gooey.

Bake in 350* oven for 20 minutes or until it is melted and bubbly.

I thought of taking pictures of this about 3/4 of the way through.  One of these days I will actually have the camera in my hand when I start to cook.

This recipe is lighter than a regular version because the pieces are baked and not fried.  Also the use of cottage cheese ups the protein and calcium content.