food comas

I was feeling too lazy to go to the grocery store and my fridge was empty except for one eggplant and two zucchinis.  So I headed to my favorite allrecipes.com site to see what I could whip up with this bare minimum of ingredients.  The easiest recipe I found was Eggplant Snack Sticks, which not only was super quick to prepare but healthy as well — instead of frying, you just broil the breaded vegetable sticks for a few minutes and serve with a warm marinara sauce.

This recipe is so versatile you can use eggplant, zucchini, squash, mushroom, or sweet onion to make onion rings!  I used half an eggplant and one zucchini and then used all the same ratio of ingredients as listed below.  Later, I ended up using the remaining eggplant half and the other zucchini to make Ratatouille, as both of these hearty vegetable dishes require the same ingredients.

Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Sticks (adapted from Mary Murphy’s recipe)

Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1/2 C bread crumbs (or toasted wheat germ)
• 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 3/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 C egg white (about 3-4 eggs)
• 1 C marinara sauce (quick recipe at the end), warmed

Directions:

Cut eggplant lengthwise in half and horizontally in half to get four quarters.  Slice into 1/2-inch thick strips.  I did the same with the zucchini.

In a shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic salt.  Dip eggplant sticks in the egg whites, then coat with crumb mixture.

Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray.  Spritz eggplant with cooking spray (since I didn’t have any, I just brushed some olive oil on each stick).

Broil on high for 3-4 minutes.  Remove from the oven.  Turn sticks and spritz with cooking spray.  Broil 2-3 minutes longer or until golden brown.  Serve immediately with marinara sauce.

For the marinara sauce, I just sautéed some garlic and onions in olive oil and stirred in a can of crushed tomatoes.  I seasoned it with some Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and sprinkled with some Parmesan cheese.  It took only a couple minutes to prepare, which you can do while the vegetable sticks are broiling.  Enjoy!