I apologize to any and all of my blog readers for my lack of attention to my blog lately... my life has been taken over, by all good and amazing things. But, I have been lacking in my blogging skills. So I am here and I am ready to share my vegetarian meal from last week!

It was nothing really special... it was basically what I had thrown together from leftovers from the week before. One of those "hmmmm, what is in my fridge and what can I do with it?" nights..

And this is what I had to work with...

Leftover pesto, asparagus, mushrooms with some garlic and gemelli pasta

Like I said, very simple... and easy.

I cut the asparagus into bite sized pieces and laid them and the sliced mushrooms on a baking sheet with EVOO, salt and pepper. Roasted those babies for about 10-15 min.

While the veggies were roasting, cooked up the pasta and I mixed in a little pesto when it was finished...

love pesto... creamy...delicious...amazing

Mixed it all together and got this amazing, simple and yummy dish!

The leftovers were even better!

It was a toss up what I would be making for dinner tonight. I had two options, but I went with this great eggplant parmesan dish from The Dainty Vegetarian. I ended up choosing it because, like Leslie, I have a carnivorous male that frequents my apartment on Tuesdays. Although he usually puts up with my vegetarian meals on Tuesdays,  I knew that he would probably roll his eyes at this meal. (I could just switch up my vegetarian days to ones when he doesn't come for dinner...hmmmm). Lucky for me, and Leslie, this meal is easily made with chicken as well!

It also requires very few ingredients, most of which you will probably have in your fridge already! (probably not the eggplant). All you need is flour, tomato sauce (I used a Safeway brand that was on sale and was actually really delicious!), breadcrumbs (I used panko), one egg, parmesan cheese, 1 eggplant and mozzarella cheese. "But Kristin didn't you make us swear to only use fresh mozzarella cheese and grate it ourselves?" Yes, yes I did. But I am currently financing a trip to Switzerland so.... pre-shredded it is! But I do recommend using fresh if you can! 

I apologize for the quality of these pictures because most of them are straight out of the camera, with very little editing done to the terrible lighting in my kitchen. Anyways, back to the food. Once the dredging is done place the eggplant slices on a baking sheet. I baked them at 350 for 30 min and flip them over halfway through. (same with the chicken). Once they bake for 30 min, top with sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese and bake until the cheese melts. As Leslie noted on her blog, baking them is much healthier than frying them, and I honestly couldn't tell the difference!

I served mine with a side of whole wheat pasta and some roasted asparagus.

They were so delicious! The panko crisped right up but the inside was nice and soft. And they were super easy! 

Jake's version didn't look half bad either! (Note: yes that is the largest chicken breast ever...)

Thanks Leslie for the amazing, quick and simple recipe! I already have my eye on a few others for later on...