Happy November! I hope the weather is still nice where you live. It’s been absolutely gorgeous around here lately, especially for Halloween! We’ve eaten way to much candy lately, so it’s definitely time for something a little healthier….
Jim and I are going to start making a conscious effort to have more meatless meals. Jim’s a big-time “meat-a-tarian” (as he calls himself), so meatless meals are quite an adjustment for him. Most of the time he will say that he likes my meatless creations when we’re eating them only to say the exact opposite when I bring up the idea of making them again. I am perfectly fine eating several meatless meals a week… it’s not as big a deal to me.
So we’re working on coming up with a few meatless meals that we can keep start working into our busy weeknight schedules. We’re off to a good start… we made a roasted vegetable lasagna for dinner a couple of nights ago and it was a winner. Jim even suggested that we make it again next week!
It’s a meatless “lasagna”. There are plenty of veggie layers, but no lasagna noodles. So it’s gluten-free & grain-free.
Lots of veggies here, including grilled eggplant, roasted yellow bell peppers, roasted mushrooms, and roasted shallots. You could actually taste every single veggie in there. The star here was definitely the eggplant (it wasn’t actually roasted, Jim cooked it up in his grill pan).
- 1/2 Eggplant, cut into thin rounds
- 1 large shallot, split in half
- 2 yellow bell peppers, sliced into quarters and seeded
- 1 C baby portabello mushrooms, sliced
- 1 C shredded mozzarella
- 1 C tomato sauce
- Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper as needed
- 1 Tsp dried basil
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Saute (or grill) eggplant with a bit of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
- Wrap shallot in foil with about 1 tsp of olive oil and season with salt. Cook for 20 minutes, or until soft.
- Place bell pepper on a baking pan lined with foil. Roast for 30 minutes, or until skin starts gets slightly blackened.
- Place mushrooms on a baking pan lined with foil. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, or until browned.
- Change oven temp to 350F.
- Remove the skin from the bell pepper as much as possible. Remove the skin from the shallot and chop roughly.
- In a baking dish, layer eggplant, bell pepper, mushrooms, and shallots. Spoon tomato sauce over veggies and then cover with cheese. Sprinkle basil on top.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- There are a lot of veggies here, so there's a chance that this can get watery. Just spoon out any liquid that cooks out.
What are your favorite meatless meals? Do you do Meatless Mondays? Tell us about it in the comments!