Recipe -- Eggplant Lasanga

It was delicious.

'Nuff said.

There's a few things I learned while putting this together, baking it, and cooling it.

1. Make sure you've got all the things you want to put in the lasagna in plain sight and laid out in the correct order. Otherwise you might forget your spinach and then there wouldn't be any pretty green colors in your lasagna. Not to mention you could have had even more vegetables and didn't.
2. When your lasagna finishes baking, it will shrink. When you put it in the fridge and it's cooled thoroughly it will shrink to half it's pre-cooked size. I kid you not. I'm thinking in order to get over this I'm going to try using a bread pan instead of a 9x9 square pan. This way, I can stack it super high and it'll seem like a "normal" lasagna when I'm done with it.
3. Try and use a sauce that is low in sodium. For some reason when I was reheating my lasagna at work, it was tasting somewhat salty. I don't know if that's just my taste-buds being weird or what but the next time I make it I'd like to make my own marinara.

Here's some pictures from my second attempt...

(2 eggplants, 1 box of frozen spinach [thawed and drained of excess water {you'll thank me when you have lasagna and not soup}], an 8th of a jar of spaghetti sauce, half a container of cottage cheese, and 3/4 cup mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese)

(Slice the eggplant nice and evenly with a mandolin for each layer. It becomes brown, like a banana, once it hits the air so slice as you need it to keep it from going brown-ish. I didn't bother putting sauce in the bottom this time -- it still turned out fine and was easy to get out of the pan. It all bubbles in the oven anyway so it's fine.)

(From the bottom... eggplant, sauce, eggplant, spinach and cottage cheese, eggplant, cottage cheese, eggplant, sauce, cheese. At this point, if you were preparing it in a throw-away foil container, you could cover it with wrap and freeze it. Otherwise, proceed further!)

(Cover with foil; bake at 375F for about 50 minutes. Remove foil; bake for another 10-15 minutes, until cheese is to your liking.)

(You can either let it cool in the fridge, if you're meal prepping for the week, or let it sit for 5-10 minutes before digging in)

(lovely.)

When cooled, it sliced up nice and easy into portioned sizes. I imagine it would freeze well. I'm experimenting now and will let you know my findings in the future. I've had frozen eggplant parmesan before so... Yeah... 

Eggplant Lasagna

Yield - 21 Day Fix: 3 Servings (1 1/2 green, 1 red, 1 blue)

Pan Used: Loaf Pan

Ingredients

• 2 Eggplants (size may vary -- you could use just one if they're longer then mine, which were more circular)
• 1 package Frozen Spinach, thawed, drained
• 1/2 a container Cottage Cheese (or Ricotta Cheese, depending on your preference)
• 1/8th of a jar of Spaghetti/Marinara Sauce (you only need a little bit to go a long way, since both the eggplant and spinach have a lot of moisture)
• 3/4 c Shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar Cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. With a mandolin, slice the first layer of eggplant. Lay in the bottom of the pan. Add a small amount of sauce right across the top. It doesn't need to be spread out with a spoon or spatula -- it'll move on it's own. add a second layer of eggplant. Top with spinach and cottage cheese (you can mix the two together like a dip or just layer one on top of the other). Add the third layer of eggplant. Top with more cottage cheese. Here's your fourth layer of eggplant. Top this with the remaining sauce you'd like to use (spread this one, though, since it's your final layer) and your cheese mixture.
1. At this point, you could cover with cling wrap and foil and freeze for another day. Or you can proceed to the next step...
3. Cover your pan with foil; bake for 50 minutes. 
4. Remove from oven. Remove foil. Return to oven and bake until cheese is to your satisfaction.
5. Remove from oven -- let stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
1. If you're meal prepping, go ahead and stick it in the fridge, covered, for a few hours or overnight. Portion it out into three servings.