Eggplant Zucchini Gratin- A-la ME!

We've been trying to eat less meat and in doing such, I've been getting creative. (We can only eat so much tofu and stir fry!! LOL)

Here's my healthy version of this recipe. Click HERE to see the original.

Yield 10 servings (made in a big lasagna pyrex)

Time 1 hour 15 minutes



Ingredients

• medium eggplant
• salt
• ½ c Fibre 1 cereal (swapped out breadcrumbs, to add fibre :) )
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1.5 T parsley
• 2 t olive oil (one is to oil your baking dish)
• 4 oz LIGHT Philly cream cheese
• 1 c Fat Free Cottage Cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 t cornstarch or flour (I used cornstarch)
• ½ c milk (I used 1%) (I would use 1/4cup next time. Came out a little runny)
• nutmeg
• salt
• pepper
• medium zucchini, sliced
• 1½ c tomato sauce
• 2 oz low fat feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 oz sun dried tomatoes (not in oil) sliced

Directions Cut eggplant into .5" thick slices. Original recipe then asks you to salt, drain and pat dry your eggplant. Frankly... who has time for that? I sure don't. I put them to grill on my hamilton grill for about 5 min. Seasoned with a little souvlaki seasoning (no salt). This worked GREAT and is much less work. While these are grilling you can move to other steps.

Place Fibre 1 cereal, garlic, parsley, and oil in the food processor and process until minced and well blended.** Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

Place cream cheese, cottage cheese, egg, cornstarch, and a couple tablespoons of milk in the processor and blend. Scrape down the side, then start processing again as you gradually add the rest of the milk. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Oil the baking dish, and place eggplant in the bottom. Top with tomato sauce, then the zucchini, then the sun-dried tomatoes. Spread the custard on top, then sprinkle with feta, then Parmesan, then bread crumbs.

Here's a pic of the gratin half built

And here it is ready to go in the oven:

Bake about 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let sit for a couple of minutes before slicing. (Watch your oven on this one. Mine is a little on the hot side, so I baked for 25min the first time... then again @ 200 for 15min to try and get rid of some of the moisture- worked only to a certain degree)

Here's the final yumminess. It was really good. Little on the watery side, but that's ok. Next time will be better. The custard layer was awesome! Mmmm...

Notes *There are two ways to do this. One is to use a medium-sized baking dish, about 9x9, which will give you a taller/thicker gratin. The other is to use a very large baking dish (I used my lasagna pan, which is 11x15), which will give you a thin gratin. The taste is the same; it's just the appearance that changes.

And finally... the best part about this dish... the nutritional values! Only 165cals/ serving! Subbing the cottage cheese upped the protein value to 9.5g/ serving. NICE! Not sure what the original recipe was, but surely over my 165cals! YAY!

Here's a link to the recipe on The Daily Burn in case you use it.

Give it a try and let me know how it turns out! :)