Cozy Evening at Home

November 8, 2012

Despite it being early November, it was a snowy evening in NYC. While I wanted to come home and lazily lay on the couch, that wasn’t an option. First I had to catch up on Insanity because I’ve missed too many workouts this week. I started with the Fit Test and am happy to say I saw some improvements. Here are my numbers from the original fit test 2 weeks ago and the one last night:

(Every number went up slightly, except for Power Jumps which I actually stopped midway through because the jumping is too noisy for my apartment (thanks crazy man downstairs).

To get back to my schedule I also did the Plyometric Cardio Circuit workout. It was fine but I’m getting a little bored, I’ve now done that video 4 times. According to my calendar, I’ll have to do this video 3 more times. Let the countdown begin. Insanity is good but a little too repetitive for my taste.

After a good sweat it was time to cook up some dinner. I found a delicious looking recipe for Eggplant Stacks by Proud Italian Cook and used this as a guideline for my own creation using what I had in my kitchen. The result? SO good.

Here’s what I did, slightly altered from the original recipe:

Ingredients:
  • Fresh mozzarella
  • Roasted eggplant slices
  • Roasted Zucchini
  • Fresh Tomatoes
  • Marinara sauce
  • Fresh Basil leaves
  • Grated Parmesan
  1. Prepare the eggplant by cutting the tip and ends off, take a peeler and peel of some stripes of the skin, leaving some of the skin on. Cut the eggplant into ¾ inch rounds. Cut ¾ inch rounds of the zucchini. Toss both the eggplant and zucchini with extra virgin olive oil and bake in the oven at 450F until tender.
  2. Cut up the tomatoes in ½ inch rounds
  3. Spread sauce in a baking dish, and begin layering the vegetables and fresh mozzarella (eggplant slice, tomato slice, zucchini slice- put a little more sauce on the stack, add in a slice of fresh mozzarella and continue to add layers, mine were about 4-5 vegetables tall). 
  4. Dribble a little more sauce on top and then add a fresh piece of basil and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
  5. Repeat for as many stacks you’ll be making. Bake uncovered at 375F until heated through and cheese is melted.
I was excited to use fresh basil leaves from my garden (and by garden, I mean my flower box) – they were a nice touch, getting a little crispy on top in the final baking phase.

A healthy, vegetarian, easy dish I highly recommend and plan to make again!

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