Eggplant Lasagna (glutenfree!!!)

Here is my favorite lasagna recipe; even though it takes some time to prepare, it is just worth all the trouble. This recipe is great because it's full of veggies (you can also make it a vegetarian lasagna just don't add the minced meat). There is no pasta in it, so for the ones who might be on a diet or have gluten allergies this is a great alternative.


Preparation time: 1 1/2 hours

Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:

1 good sized eggplant (for a lasagna dish 33 x 22cm. If you have a bigger dish just use two eggplants.)

2 carrots chopped in cubs

1 zucchini chopped in cubs

1 yellow pepper chopped in cubs

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable stock

1 bottle of tomato puree

1 onion chopped in cubes

3 garlic cloves chopped or minced

400 grams of good quality minced beef (I like to use the one that has the least fat.)
1 big bag of grated cheese (I use mozzarella light but you can use whatever cheese you prefer.) breadcrumbs
Fresh Basil
salt
pepper

*You can use whatever veggies you have in the fridge for this recipe; the only must have is the eggplant.

Preparation:

Step 1: Start by cutting the eggplant length wise in thin slices. Don't worry if slices are not perfect it will work anyway and no one will see because it will be used for layers.

Step 2: Dip the eggplant slices in the eggs and then in the breadcrumbs. Put some butter in a frying pan and fry them still they are golden brown set them aside in a dish. Do this till all the eggplant is fried.

Step 3: Pre-heat the oven to 190 C. In a medium pan add some olive oil and saute the onion and garlic till soft. Then add the minced meat let it cook till all the juices of the meat are gone. Then add the zucchini, yellow peppers, carrots and any other veggies you want. Let it fry for a little while. Add the tomato sauce (leave some sauce in the bottle so you can use this for the bottom of the lasagna dish), vegetable stock, salt, pepper (I like to add some vegetable stock to the sauce but it is not a must but if you do this be more careful with the salt.) Let it simmer till the sauce thickens a bit. At the end add the fresh basil (I love to use a lot of fresh basil but its up to you how much you put in it...if you don't have fresh basil just use dry oregano.)

Step 4: In the lasagna dish use the left over tomato puree for the bottom (I do this so the eggplant doesn't burn and it gets the taste of the tomatoes too.) Add a layer of eggplant then a layer of the minced meat sauce then a layer of grated mozzarella cheese. Continue till all the eggplant and sauce is gone. Now be sure to leave some mozzarella cheese for the top, its the best part!

Step 5: Stick it in the pre-heated oven till you see the top become golden and the sauce bubbly. Take out of the oven and serve. There it is, a beautiful healthy dish which will comfort you, your friends and family without breaking the budget. Enjoy!!!

Great little animation videos!!!

I usually don't add any videos to my posts by these are just so funny and simplistic that I could not keep myself from sharing it with all of you! Enjoy the show:

I have not forgotten my Blog!!

Sorry everyone for the long silence, but things are just hectic at the moment. Finally managed to download some pictures to the web. As you can see here I am and I am getting bigger and bigger by the minute! So we finally have are own house and how I missed my own things and my bed and my space after two years on the road. We are still unpacking boxes and the house still looks like we just moved in but we are slowly getting there. I have not started to arrange the baby room yet so it will probably be ready when the baby is 15 years old or something hahaha!!

For the rest I am healthy and the little one too, he is so strong that he kicks and leaves me sore for a couple of days but I am not complaining the midwife said is a very good sign that he is active. Rob and I are starting our labour and parent classes on the end of the month and I cant believe there is only 13 weeks to go it is sooooo scary. I am learning how to drive and that is scary too not only for me but everyone else on the road! It took sometime for the Internet to get connected that is why the long silence and also with the new house, learning how to drive and having some social life there were not enough hours on the day to update my blog. Will put more pictures up soon don't worry...the four slide shows that I have added bellow are of The Move, Zoo Trip with Tania and the kids, Making Proggy With Grandma and Belly Pics. I hope you enjoy...the proggy one and the belly picture were taken today. I miss everyone very much and I promise not to neglect my blog for so long!!!! Have fun...

Luca's Quilt in Progress

I was waiting till I moved to my new home to start Luca's quilt which I promised him he would receive for Christmas but my mother in law just gave me the extra push I needed to start. I reached for the stars for inspiration on this one and I already had all the fabric tones that I wanted to use, just got some extra material from my mother in law. I started by washing all the fabric that I was going to use seeing it was kept in boxes for half a year. When I hanged all the fat quarters outside to dry I realised that this quilt will be very very special. I am sure Luca's will love it and use well in his new home in France. After some color matching and some cutting I kept all pieces separate for each star. It does make the whole process easier and I am thankful for Tiiu's tip on this one. So I hope you all enjoy the small slide show of the progress so far and hopefully soon I will be able to post the end result! Enjoy.