Eggplant Rolls stuffed with Cheese

I had leftover cheese from making the stuffed shells. It seemed a shame to throw it out, so I found a recipe for Eggplant Rolls and tweaked it to my specifications for an easy weeknight dinner.


Eggplant Rolls adapted from Epicurious

1-lb eggplant, sliced lengthwise, 1/4 inch thick
olive oil
mozzarella, shredded
feta, crumbled (I also used leftover ricotta/mozz mixture from stuffed shells)
basil
tomato sauce

Mix cheeses and basil together.

Spread olive oil on the eggplant slices on a broiling pan. Broil on low for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden. Turn eggplant slices and oil again. Broil for 3 to 4 minutes.

Pour some tomato sauce in the bottom of glass pyrex container.

When the eggplant is cool enough to touch, put some cheese mixture along the eggplant. Roll-up the eggplant and place seam-side down on top of the sauce.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or until the cheese starts to ooze out. (The photo shows the rolls before baking.)


This was a very easy dish and re-heated very well for lunch. I know the adaptations I made to the recipe make it a lot less interesting/homemade. I'm sure making your own "spicy tomato sauce" would make it fabulous, as would goat cheese rather than feta, but this was so darn easy and felt like the perfect combination of healthy and indulgent...I mean, vegetables...stuffed with cheese?! I had more than one co-worker "ooo" and "ahh" over the sight of this plate coming out of the microwave. People envying your lunch is a pretty good sign, right?

Stuffed Shells

I made these for a potluck a few weeks back (and a second container for a dinner with friends the next night). They are really so easy, delicious (and vegetarian, which comes in handy). They might become my go-to party/potluck dish.

I started typing a recipe, but I honestly can't remember the proportions. I know I used (part skim) ricotta cheese, (whole milk) mozzarella, Parmesan, one egg, TJ tomato basil pasta sauce, and lots of basil in the cheese and in the dish with the sauce.

As I stuffed the shells, I had a really strong visual memory of my mom doing the same thing. I think it's because holding a floppy piece of pasta in your hand as your force a cheesy mixture into it is not something you see or do often. There's something very tactile about the task because even if you use a spoon (I did. My mom did.), the shell is still cradled in your palm, you probably need a thumb to hold it open, and there's bound to be cheese on your hands by the end.

Fun and simple to prepare. So delicious. Someday when I have my own freezer, I may stock it with frozen stuffed shells...my mom used to do that, too. Smart lady!

Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese

I've made stuffed portobellos before but had never marinated the mushrooms first. This added a lot of flavor to the stuffing, which seemed sort of bland to me. I pretty much followed the recipe--minus Marsala and thyme sprigs. When confronted with the realization that I didn't have a garlic press, I minced the garlic instead. I did a quick web search to weigh my options, concluding that it wouldn't really make a big difference. Do you know what the flavor difference is between pressing and mincing garlic? An Alton Brown-esque answer would be appreciated.


Here's the 'shrooms' first soak. Loving both balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, I thought the smell of the marinade was wonderful. However, an innocent bystander described the aroma as "strong." Hmm, to each his own.









After a few hours of flipping back and forth in the marinade, they looked like this.





The filling was a bit bland for my taste. Ok, full disclosure, I under-salted...again. Since the final result wasn't so beautiful, I'll let you picture it yourself. Hopefully your mental picture will look better than the photo I took which resembled something more like a pile of white, brown, and green mush. Think: mushroom, balsamic, chèvre, spinach...do you have a lovely picture in your mind now? Good, now maybe you could make this recipe look better. I've never been one for presentation!

Mmmm....mac and cheese

The recent long weekend inspired a hankering for a warm casserole. After consulting someone who would be benefiting from this endeavor--and keeping me calm in the process--mac and cheese was the warm, gooey dish upon which I set to work. I've made baked macaroni and cheese once before, with light and crunchy Panko bread crumbs on top. I looked at a bunch of recipes on epicurious.com, but didn't end up following any one of them very closely. We created the cheese sauce with butter, onions, garlic, flour, milk, cheddar, Gruyere, and nutmeg. It didn't seem cheesy or thick enough in the end, so we just grated in the rest of the cheese. The cheese sauce was poured over shells and gemelli pasta, a pound of peas, and a pound of chicken breast cooked ahead of time with cumin and curry powder. I made a feeble attempt at my own bread crumbs...next time I'll just skip it or use Panko again. (Read: Bakery sandwich bread torn into pieces, baked in a 350 oven, crumbled on top, then realized they were totally unseasoned, hmph.)

Pre-baking with some extra cheese added at the last minute:
Here's a picture that shows the whole heterogeneous mixture (and a little bit of salad) post-oven: It was good enough to have second helpings, and to eat for lunch the next two days. But next time, I might follow a recipe for the cheese sauce to make it a little creamier and thicker. Do you have a favorite baked mac & cheese recipe?