Eggplant Rollatini & Product Review

First things first! You all sure know how to make a girl blush! I was seriously expecting several anon. comments all "your blog sucks!!!" but instead I got serious comments that showed me that I am in fact getting across what I want to share with this blog, but more than that, you all are enjoying itright along with me. So thanks for that. Also - so glad you enjoyed my fairy tale story this afternoon. I had so much fun writing it, and I'm glad it made some of you smile. (P.S. The prince found and disposed of the dead roach, so all is well in our kingdom and we all are living happily ever after...minus the roach, he's not happy being dead).

Moving on! In addition to some un-pictured snacking, I also tried this little gem this afternoon: a medjool date with almond butter and 3 little chocolate chips in it. It was tasty, but would have been better had the AB stuffed date been dipped in chocolate!


Now for dinner - Vegan Eggplant Rollatini! First, coat an 8x8 pan with a thin layer of tomato sauce.


Take your thin slices of eggplant and spread a spoonful of tomato sauce on it.


Next comes a layer of tofu ricotta. For the tofu ricotta I used 2/3 a block of tofu, juice from half a lemon, salt, dried basil, 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast and about a Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.


Carefully roll the eggplant slices and lay in your pan. Top with more tomato sauce, any leftover tofu ricotta, and some breadcrumbs (I was trying to make a "crisp" topping with the breadcrumbs, but I think next time I would need to toast them and add them part-way through the baking/ kick it up to broil a few minutes).


Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Voila.



As you can see, I served it on some simple steamed spinach. This was so delicious. There are only two things I would change for next time. I would lightly grill the eggplant slices before layering and rolling and reduce the baking time to 20 minutes, and I would add some vegan mozzarella to the layers and on top for some extra pizazz.

*****

Now, one last thing. Foodbuzz sent me some Nature's Pride bread to try as part of their Tastemaker's program. I was sent a loaf of 12 Grain bread and a loaf of 100% Whole Wheat bread.


12 Grain ingredients:


Whole Wheat ingredients:


Do you see what I see? Milk. Both loaves contain milk ingredients. Now, in my defense - I tried to research on the Nature's Pride website, as well as the general internet for a list of ingredients. The only information they provided was nutritional statistics for each variety. This is great, but ingredients are important, too. However, I know that bread is one of the easiest things to include in a vegan diet. There is honestly no need for milk products in bread. I was very disappointed to see that both of these loaves were de-veganized by the inclusion of milk products.

Now that my vegan rant is over, I will say that my other half is enjoying Nature's Pride bread. He got home from a run tonight and immediately tried a slice of both breads. He commented that while they were both good, he really loved the texture of the 12-Grain (he felt it was "seedy" and he enjoyed that), but he also loved the flavor and the extra sweetness he tasted in the 100% Whole Wheat loaf.

I hope no one thinks I was overly harsh or critical of Nature's Pride bread. If I had been able to find the ingredient information online, I wouldn't have jumped on the offer (bread is usually vegan, anyways). That said, I'm still grateful for the bread, because my husband eats a lot more sandwiches than I do anyway, and now he has plenty of bread for it. :) So thank you Foodbuzz for the opportunity!

Almost time for Castle - good night friends. :)