I love flicking through Bon Appetit magazine for its up-to-date food trends and inspiration, however they can be slightly unreachable due to the hard-to-find ingredients or time involved in making them. In an effort to get The Hubby to eat more veg - especially veg he doesn't like has been hard. I knew the cheese would be a major swaying factor, and even though I have cut out cheese from my diet, it would be worth it to convince him.
I chose Bon Appetit's Best Eggplant Parmesan recipe as on the surface it didn't require a gazillion ingredients and it seemed simple enough to follow. No fancy techniques or blowtorches needed - plus I've never made anything like this before. We usually go to his parents for Italian after all!
Yay or Nay: Yay on taste, Nay on workload!
This was delicious and was given a huge thumbs up from The Hubby. I just did not anticipate the amount of work required - it took two hours from start to finish! I mean, I had to make the marinara sauce from scratch, it was worth it for the taste and it was pretty easy, but it added to the washing up pile which I definitely did not enjoy! I guess you could use store bought marinara and do the rest of the recipe and it would still be tasty.
I ran out of flour so used cornmeal instead but it just added to the crispiness, also I didn't have enough basil from my now, dead, winter garden so just used parsley in the cheese mixture and it didn't take away from the recipe. In addition to these subs and changes, I couldn't be bothered to make three layers or properly encourage the water out of the eggplant but again, it was still delicious!
As much as I love Italian food I've never been a big fan of meatballs, I think it's the unknown quality of the meat hidden under a tomato sauce. My husband's mother makes great meatballs and it kind of made me want to try to make my own ones. I was struggling for ideas for healthy weeknight dinners and the Chicken Meatballs and Garlic Bread was in a Real Simple I was flicking through.
Yay or Nay: Yay
Like it says on the tin, real simple! Surprisingly tasty, filling and great for leftovers. I did substitute turkey for chicken mainly because I couldn't find any mince chicken! Any ideas as Wegmans and the local public market do not have any?? No I didn't make my own tomato sauce but the Rinaldi Marinara one was pretty good!
I know I should publish pictures of the finished product but it's hard when you're hungry after work!
