Gluten Free Eggplant Parmesan--Super Simple and Quick

These are some of my baby eggplants. I couldn't wait to pick them. I love eggplants and mine are taking too long to grow.  Since I don't have time to wait around for them (I'm moving in a few weeks) I decided to pluck off several and make the quickest-ever version of eggplant parmesan.  I have a much longer recipe, with many ingredients and lots of labor intensive stuff...
But this recipe is fast and easy.  It's from Clara's Great Depression Cooking.  I love Clara (I know, it sounds like I'm in a lovey mood).   I've adopted her simpler recipe in times when I just really needed to get some eggplant into my system quick--because I have odd cravings for eggplants.

Clara is 92--maybe 93 now--and she is so sweet and wise.  She has a great blog and lots of cooking shows at YouTube.   Even my children enjoy watching them with me.

Here is Clara to demonstrate her budget savy method of preparing this dish:





The basic idea is to slice your eggplants.  Heat a half inch of olive oil in a hot skillet.  Layer the eggplant slices into the pan and cook on each side, until they're 'rosey red'.  Then remove to a plate and cover with a bit of your favorite pasta sauce and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  I also add mozzarella to mine.



A quick and easy pasta sauce recipe:
1 can of tomato paste
2 cups of water
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp. oregano

Puree in a blender, pour into a microwavable dish and heat for five minutes (covered!  Or you'll have a lovely mess).

Update on Life and Gardening

You might remember from Our City Garden how little all of our plants were.  Now, they're bearing fruit and we are beginning to enjoy Sweet Corn, the occasional Cherry Tomato and the promise of Eggplant Parmesan from our cute, egg-sized eggplants. 

Brussel sprouts, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes and fancy squash

Me with the corn.

You might also remember how I wistfully shared my dream of one day leaving LA and having our own bit of affordable land and less madness.  That dream was a sort of two-to-five year plan.  But NOW, it has become a reality!  

We'll be moving to Tennessee this Summer to take care of my grandmother who was recently widowed and broke her hip shortly after that.  She's invited us to live with her and we're thrilled.  I'm praying that I'm up to all of the tasks ahead...one of which is moving!  And it's killing me to try to figure out how to yard-sale and pack-up the possessions of a young, family of five.

Eggplants and Beefmaster tomatoes.

Long snake-like Asian Green Beans

It's a huge blessing and a dream come true.

Our City Garden

We live in Los Angeles, in a small house with a tiny backyard.  Our big dream right now is to 'one day become homesteaders with a real self sustaining farm'.  This, of course, means leaving LA.  We'd like to move to Tennessee ideally, since I'm a native.

     But for now, this is our lot.  Or, at least, our little box garden.  We're growing eggplant (my favorite), brussel sprouts, lettuce, two types of tomatoes, corn, squash, basil, carrots, potatoes, onions, stevia, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, bell peppers, watermellons, cantelopes and random flowers (and there are several unopened seed packets that my husband keeps buying). 

Yes, that sounds pretty ambitious for people with a backyard the size of most people's living room, but we've squeezed stuff in everywhere we can.  And amazingly, the plants seem to enjoy all the crowded company. 
Our last year's garden looked like a small jungle had exploded in one corner.  We had tomatoes off and on all through the winter.  And the strawberries began blooming before spring had rolled in.  This is due to our very mild weather (some say we don't actually have 'weather' here at all).

These February photos, with beloved cartoon characters, show what our garden looked like in the midst of a massive Tennessee snow storm.  We know all about it because my family called us several times to tell us about it and sent us 'invites' to view their web albums of the said snow storm.  Meanwhile, as you can see, we were hanging out at the beach and enjoying vine ripened cherry tomatoes...  But yes, we want to leave all of this LA 'goodness', for a bit of affordable land and less madness.  We can't wait.  So we're studying up about farming and gardening.   We highly recommend Nature's Harmony FarmCasts, if you want to learn more too.