Eggplant Cannelloni

Hi everyone! I'm slowly starting to adopt the DASH diet at the recommendation of my mother-in-law. It's a diet aimed specifically at helping to lower blood pressure through increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables, moderating the amount of grains intake, and eating more lean meats and meat less dinners. For more information if you're interested, you can go to the following link: http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3862329/k.4F4/Healthy_living__The_DASH_Diet_to_lower_blood_pressure.htm


Now one of my problems that I've noticed is that I rely too much on grains to make me feel full after I eat a meal. I can be pretty uncreative when it comes to finding ways to feel full without having having both protein and grains be a part of a meal, which is why I have trouble eating just a salad for lunch or dinner. I stumbled across this fabulous recipe which is for cannelloni but replaces the pasta with roasted eggplant slices. It's a great little meal because it takes the grains away and boosts your vegetable intake, but keeps you full due to eggplant's higher fiber content. When you're dieting it is very, VERY important to be increasing your fiber intake because it will help you feel fuller longer but it also helps you lose weight and prevent cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
This recipe does take a bit of time, so it may be best to give it a shot during the weekend.

(original recipe with some adjustments courtesy of epicurious at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Eggplant-Cannelloni-240811)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 large shallots, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 jars (12 ounces each) roasted red peppers, drained
• Juice of 1 orange (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 medium eggplants, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch slices
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 2 ounces goat cheese
• 2 ounces low-fat ricotta
• 1/8 of a cup of finely chopped walnuts
• 1/8 of a cup chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1.       Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook shallots and garlic until soft, about 1 minute. Reduce heat. Cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Add peppers and juice; bring to a boil. Lower heat; simmer until peppers are soft, about 5 minutes. Cool. Puree in a blender. Pour into a 9" x 13" baking dish.

2.      Coat eggplants with cooking spray and broil on a baking sheet until golden on both sides, about 15 minutes. Heat oven to 400°F. Mash cheeses, walnuts, basil, and 1 tablespoon of the parsley in a bowl. Place 1 tablespoon of filling at the end of each eggplant slice; roll up and pin together with a toothpick if you need to. Lay seam side down in dish. Bake 10 to 15 minutes. Top with remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.

I have two notes about this recipe:

Firstly, the original recipe calls for olives and capers. You are more than welcome to add these instead of the walnuts. I am not a huge fan of olives or capers so to give the filling a little more texture I thought I would add some chopped walnuts.

Secondly, when it comes to the nutritional information, the numbers may be slightly inflated because in the end we didn't end up using all of the filling or the sauce and actually ended up freezing the left overs. We have no idea how much is actually left over so we can't correct for this. The sodium amount will especially be lower in reality since most of the sodium comes from the canned roasted red peppers in the sauce. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

(per serving, meal should yield 3 servings)=386 calories, 13 grams of fat, 6 mg of cholesterol,753 mg of sodium, 42 grams of carbohydrates, 10.4 grams of fiber, 14 grams of sugar, 10.9 grams of protein