Cooking Outside the Box

You would be SO proud of me! I tried a completely new food tonight. I'm not scared of new foods. In fact, I usually come up with some strange concoctions, but I was CLUELESS on how to even eat this, let alone cook it!

I'm talking about eggplant. That's a funny looking, funny sounding thingy....a vegetable, I do believe.

I was grocery shopping the other day.......yes, I realize that it wasn't the 1st of the month, but I needed a few things. See, I usually do most of my shopping once a month. ....Wait, I got side tracked, imagine that! Oh yeah, grocery shopping... & saw an eggplant & started thinking (don't EVEN go there!) So I bought the funny looking purple thing & came home to find a recipe here.

• 2 eggplant (1 or 1.5 lbs each)
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce (26 oz)
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp garlic salt

Place ground beef in a large skillet and sprinkle with garlic salt. Cook meat until no longer pink, drain and rinse of excess fat. Slice eggplant into 1/2 inch thick slices. Cook for a few minutes on each side in a hot skillet until lightly browned. Grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Place 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the dish. Cover the sauce completely with eggplant slices. Sprinkle with half the ground beef, half of the cheeses and half the remaining sauce. Repeat the layers once more. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Let stand a few minutes before serving.

Only thing....if you know me at all, you KNOW that I did NOT follow this recipe! I glance at a recipe & "make do". Up side, you use whatever is on hand, down side, it NEVER tastes the same! LOL

Well, I loved it. Justin liked it. Austin said it was ok, and well, Makenzie's opinion doesn't count! It honestly tasted like lasagna.