Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Mediterranean Egg Plant Dish!

Wow, where has the time gone? It feels as though I have not posted a recipe in FOREVER. I am so ashamed! Between school, track, and preparation for graduation I had absolutely no spare time to write about any of the meals I have made since the end of March. In my notebook of recipes I found notes on the last dish I made for this blog- it was on March 27th, I invited my cousin and friend over to try out this colorful, not to mention, antioxidant-packed dish. I call it, the Mediterranean Egg Plant Dish.

One word: Nostima (delicious in Greek).





Isn't she a beauty :) Alright that is weird. Sorry. Moving on...
This dish is incredibly light and as I said before high in antioxidants and also, fiber!

Let us move onto the ingredients to get a closer look at what super foods that are in here, shall we?




Ingredients:
* 1 large Egg Plant
* 4 Roma Tomatoes
* Feta Cheese (3/4 of a container)
* Fresh Basil
* Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
* Dash of Sea-Salt
* A gracious serving of Ground Black Pepper and Garlic Powder
* Dill

Man it feels good to write again about delicacies such as this one :)

Anyway, back to the dish! Not only does eggplant contain a significant source of crucial Vitamins such as B vitamins, folate and vitamin C, it also holds a special antioxidant in its peel called: Nasunin. According to the August 10, 2005 issue of the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry," Nasunin has antiangiogenic abilities. I know what you are thinking, what is antiangiogenic mean? Is that word even in English? 

The term antiangiogenic stands for the halt of new growth of blood vessels and blood supply. This may seem more harmful than helpful, however, when it comes to the invasion of cancer cells, you will be glad you ate your helping of eggplant!!

Another ingredient that is worth talking about is Feta cheese. Yummy :) Who doesn't love Feta? Are you one of those people that love Feta so much that you could just eat the whole container? Well  I am hear to tell you that you can eat Feta and not feel guilty for doing so! Just do not eat the whole container at one sitting, okay? :)

  
Do you ever notice how Feta just crumbles as you touch it? It looks like a beautiful snowfall as it is sprinkled across the dish, wouldn't you agree?

Perhaps, I am a bit obsessed...am I worried though? No way. You know why?

Feta is one of the most least fattening cheese selections out there! Woohoo!

There is a bit of science behind the structure of this cheese. Feta crumbles because of the lack of saturated fat in it; the cheese cannot stick together
simply for this reason!

Not only does Feta have a low source of fat in it, but it also provides a significant source of your daily needs of calcium and even protein. In addition, the acids found in the raw sheep milk that goes into this Mediterranean cheese, helps combat Listeria, a bacteria that causes food poisoning!  


So now that you know more about some of the health benefits this dish includes, let us take a moment and discuss how YOU can prepare it at home!

The instructions are so easy! The inspiration for this dish came from MAZA May recipe, "Grilled Eggplant with Tomato and Feta" and it had quite the popular demand on Pinterest; it had over 100,000 repins!

Of course, I modified the dish so I could call it my very own!

Here is what I did:

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, and plugged in my family's own Panini grill contraption thing. I then painted on a thing coating of a mixture of garlic powder, dill, sea salt, pepper, and olive oil on each individual eggplant slice.


 Once those beautiful grill marks appeared I simply stacked them in a large cake pan, where I generously sprinkled the Feta, Roma tomato slices, and fresh basil leaves all across the dish :)


After 15 minutes in the oven the dish was complete and ready to eat. For extra flavor I added marinara sauce and just a dash of Parmesan cheese to the top. And I added a small side of grilled asparagus as well just to add an extra veggie for the day :)

Ta-Dah!!!

Delicious and INCREDIBLY nutritious! Why go all the way to Greece (although that would be really cool) to enjoy a classic Mediterranean dish when you can make it at home!

Hope you enjoy! Great to be back in the blogging world!

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