Selena Robins, Author

“What’s for dinner?”

“Cupcakes.”

So what’s the catch, you ask?

I’ve been giving my crock pots a workout, making different dishes to freeze, and I was going to make an eggplant casserole in one of my crock pots, but I had chili, soup, stew and a yet-to-be-named dish in each crock pot that I own, so I decided to nix the casserole idea and experiment  with the eggplant to come up with something fun and of course tasty.

Now, before you turn your nose up at the main ingredient, (as I know a lot of people don’t like eggplant), just read through the recipe and as John Lennon would sing, “Give eggplant a chance”….okay, I may have taken some liberty with his lyrics, but you know what I mean.

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday

EGGPLANT CUPCAKES:

Studies show that eggplant lowers cholesterol, and they are good for the hips. http://www.livestrong.com/article/299172-how-eggplant-lowers-cholesterol/

INGREDIENTS:

3 large eggplants

4 zucchini’s (yellow or green)

1 clove garlic

1 egg

4 egg whites

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup freshly grated romano cheese

1/4 cup provolone cheese

1 cup quinoa

2 fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 cup tomato sauce (no meat it in, just plain sauce)

1 cup fresh basil leaves

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Sea salt

Olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 F

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Spray cupcake pans with non-stick spray or you can line the pans with cupcake paper. If you do use cupcake paper, spray those with the non-stick spray.

Wash and slice the zucchini, put on a tray, sprinkle with a bit of salt and a bit of olive oil and roast until tender (usually takes about 15 minutes).

Once done, take zucchini out of the oven, set aside and reduce the temperature of oven to 350 F.

Peel the eggplant and cut into cubes.

Put a large pot of water on stove and bring to a rolling boil.

Add a salt to the boiling water.

Add the cubed eggplant into the water and cook until the eggplant is tender.

Once eggplant is cooked, drain well. Squeeze the water out of the eggplant.

In a food processor, add: eggplant, zucchini, garlic, fresh tomatoes, egg, egg whites, provolone, parmesan cheese, romano cheese, quinoa and basil leaves and process, until everything is well mixed together.

If it’s too loose, then you can add a bit more quinoa.

If it’s too dry, then add another egg.

I don’t think you’ll need to add anything extra, but it all depends on the size of your vegetables.

Taste the mixture. If you feel it needs some salt, then add a little salt, or you may want to add a bit more of any of the cheeses (it’s up to you, which is your favorite, I prefer romano cheese, but a lot of people like parama cheese).

Once your mixture is how you want it to be, spoon it generously into each cupcake pan, you can fill it to the top, these are not like cake batter, they won’t rise or overflow.

Make sure your oven is at 350 now.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until mixture is a golden brown.

Remove from oven and set your oven to Broil.

Spoon tomato sauce over each eggplant cupcake and top with mozzarella cheese.

Broil for about 5 – 10 minutes (depending on your oven, but keep an eye on them, you just want the sauce and mozzarella to melt on top).

Remove from oven and they come out easily from the cupcake pans using a spoon.

Serve with a salad.

Authors changing the world one recipe and one word at a time.

Please stop by my fellow author blogs and pick up a few more Tasty Tuesday recipes.

 Yummy Pot Roast by Nancy Lauzon

Workday Meat Loaf by A. Catherine Noon

Paniolo Cornbread by Renee Wildes