Meatless Meal(s): Eggplant Parmesan and Eggplant Bruschetta

I know, I've been slacking on these. Part of the problem is that I feel like I have to have a picture of my recipes, and quite frankly, I'm just not used to snapping a picture of dinner before it's eaten. LOL However, I remembered today and actually took multiple shots! So you have a meatless meal recipe. Actually two meatless meal recipes but they are very similar. Eggplant Bruschetta (what I made today) is just a little variation of my usual Eggplant Parmesan that I make.
I love eggplant. Unfortunately, Matthew doesn't but he will eat eggplant parmesan but he doesn't love it. Mary sometimes likes eggplant (when it's fried- insert eyeroll) and Philip devoured the eggplant bruschetta today, but I'm not sure he will next time (he's kinda funny like that). I had a little eggplant from my garden. It was enough for a little personal (and a 1/2) eggplant parmesan. I have a good amount of basil in my garden so I thought, "Hmm! I bet an eggplant bruschetta type thing would be tasty!" and it was! So here is the recipe for the Eggplant Bruschetta I made today. Scroll down for the modifications to make a classic eggplant parmesan.
Eggplant Bruschetta

Ingredients:
1 small eggplant
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1/4C of your favorite spaghetti sauce
10 leaves of fresh basil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray (or better yet spray with olive oil using a Misto)
2. Slice eggplant so that they look like circles, 1/4 inch thick. Here is the trick. Squeeze the slices of eggplant (in one layer) in between two paper towels to squeeze out some of the juices. This removes the sometimes bitter taste you might taste in eggplant dishes sometimes. 
3. Dip in egg then coat with bread crumb and put on cookie sheet
4. Bake about 10mins on each side or until lighted browned. You can also pan fry the slices of eggplant instead. This is quicker, but less healthy. :)
5. Put a small spoon of spaghetti sauce in a small, deep baking dish.
6. Place one layer of eggplant on the bottom and then a spotty layer of sauce.

      7. The place a layer of thinly sliced fresh mozzarella on top

         8. Then a layer fresh basil leaves

9. Repeat steps 6-8 until all your eggplant is gone. For the top layer though, do not put basil leaves on top. Just put fresh mozzarella slices on top. I like to add a little extra sauce on the top layer before putting the mozzarella on.

10. Bake in oven for about 20mins or until bubbly. Serve with your favorite pasta and marinara sauce or spaghetti squash! Or just serve it as is! YUM! Here's a picture of all the layers. 

     

Eggplant Parmesan
I do not have any pictures of this, but it is very similar to the above recipe. The difference is no basil and add freshly grated parmesan cheese instead. So basically just follow the above directions for Eggplant Bruschetta and instead of the basil layer, add parmesan cheese instead. :) That's it! Also a healthier alternative to the above recipe, is to skip the breading of the eggplant. I do this a lot actually. Instead of breading the eggplant, simply brush some olive oil on each side of the eggplant slices and broil them in the oven. Then layer as directed above. I love my eggplant parmesan and my new egg plant bruschetta recipes and I hope you enjoy them too!