Berenjenas Guisadas con Queso / Stewed Eggplants w/ Mozzarella cheese

Good Evening dolls! Posting a little late had project at the office that delayed my leaving so I got a late start on some things. I'm sure everyone is getting ready for Easter by the way!

Today as always I didn't want to invest too much time in my kitchen. Have a few things going on and a friend dropped by to share some news so was distracted on that lol.

Ok, Thursday's treat!

Ingredients:

-Eggplant
-cooking oil

-onion

-garlic

-oregano

-tomato sauce / paste

-mozzarella cheese

Peel and cut 2 Eggplants into cubes.

In a large skillet with medium heat add one large spoonful of cooking oil let simmer add cubes and drizzle another spoonful of cooking oil. Cook on med heat till tender. It's about ten minutes then you add half an onion cut into small pieces and 3 garlic heads cut small pieces also.

Notice how the eggplant when cooked shrinks? That's why always best to use at least one more eggplant even if small if you want left overs. 

Add half a can of tomato paste and a small amount of water to break it down if you have sauce then your fine add half a can of sauce. 

I let it cook another few minutes. 

I noticed it didn't have much flavor so I added 1 tablespoon of Adobo, then I was happy. I served on plate then added a few slices of Mozzarella cheese it will melt a little with heat of food. 

I ate it with some Spinach and Tomatoes on the side no dressing. I wanted to enjoy the flavor of the Eggplants. 

Quick and easy 30 minutes or so I'm ready to sit, eat and finish talking with my friend. Then quick clean up and check my inboxes. 

Enjoy!

Always stress free xo. 

Stuffed Eggplant Canoe

Stuffed what?!

Yes you read correctly Stuffed Eggplant Canoe.

Thursday's Treat!

Last night after work I was exhausted and had a lot to do. I had emails to read, pictures to edit, company coming over and didn't want to invest a lot of time in the kitchen. I remembered I had bought two lovely Eggplants on Saturday after my visit with grandma and the Salon. I only grab them when on sale and the size is right. I don't want to waste time or money if I won't use the whole veggie.

I was wondering how to use them this time and googled some ideas found one I liked and tweaked it to my likes, here it is.

Ingredients:
-2 medium eggplants
-olive oil
-2 small tomatoes
-peppers
-2 garlic cloves
-parsley
-shredded / grated cheese
-breadcrumbs
-Parmesan cheese (optional)
-salt (optional)

So you recall I used the word canoe in my title right? Well that is because what you are going to do is scoop the inside of the eggplant out not to deep but just enough to form a canoe shape and set the insides aside for stuffing!!!

Heat a large skillet on medium with 2 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil when hot add 2 cloves of garlic minced when that cooks down a bit add the eggplant pieces. Cook for about 5/7 minutes then add 2 small tomatoes chopped into small cubes. I had 1 small tomato and 1 can of diced so I used that instead. I used 1 handful of red peppers diced in small pieces and 1 handful of orange just for variety you can use plan ole green ones and 1 tablespoon of parsley.
I tossed to spread everything evenly and cooked that for another 10 minutes.

While that cooked in a bowl I added 3 cups of breadcrumbs you can use plain or seasoned. I used the Italian seasoned one and added 1 cup Parmesan cheese. I love cheese! I mixed that and removed skillet from heat and dropped the eggplant stuffing in the bowl. I mixed it all up till even coated.

I used a large serving spoon to scoop stuffing onto the eggplant canoes, I made 4 so I made sure every canoe was evenly filled. I sprinkled more cheese on top, this time a 6 cheese Italian blend.
I placed them on a baking tray and baked for 30 minutes. Making sure cheese was semi melted and eggplant canoe tender enough to eat.

Wow what an amazing blend of flavors! My daughter took hers to school today and texted me to say how yummy it was another two thumbs up from my picky eater yippy!
I didn't make a side because the "stuffing" had peppers, tomatoes, cheeses and breadcrumbs I thought that was enough.

Enjoy!

Always stress free xo.