Blueberry Breakfasts and Another Italian "Slim Down"....

Wow...I didn't realize how long this post was going to be until it was all typed out:) hahahahahaha...I guess that means we ate pretty good yesterday:)  Starting with our Sunday morning dessert breakfast!  I made 3 quick biscuits with:

• 1 1/4 cups Bisquick Heart Smart Mix
• 1/4 Almond Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar

Mix the ingredients until just combined and drop by rounded tablespoon on an ungreased toaster oven pan cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  While they were still warm, I split them open and topped them with (non-fat) Cool Whip & fresh blueberries.  Yum! 

For dinner, I took a little help from our trip to the farmer's market on Saturday morning....

...and used all of the fresh, bright and beautiful produce to lightened up another Italian "classic"....Eggplant Rollatini with Basil "Spaghetti".... ;)

I started by cutting the eggplant into thinnnnn slices with the help of my cheese slicer....

And then Scott lined them up on the grill sheet and tossed them on the grill for about 10 minutes until they were SLIGHTLY charred.  I wouldn't even recommend drizzling these with olive oil since eggplant is like a sponge and would just SOAK UP all of the excess oil!  It cooked up just fine without it...

While Scott was busy grilling the eggplant, I got to work on the filling.  I mixed:

• A pint of low fat (not non-fat!) Ricotta cheese
• Tons of parsley (love parsley with ricotta:)
• 2 handfuls of FRESH Basil (heavenly!)
• Salt & pepper
• Both 3 minced garlic cloves AND garlic powder (cause we don't mess around:)
• Diced part skim mozzarella cheese (or shredded...whatever you have on hand) 

Scott wasn't even hungry until he 'sampled' a bite of the cheese...and after that, he was STARVING!  He said it was perfect:)

Once Scott brought the 'plant back in from the grill, I added about a tablespoon of the ricotta on top of each slice...

And got busy rollin on a river... ;)

After I filled all of the slices, we covered the grill pan with aluminum foil (don't want to loose any of that cheese!) and threw them back on the grill to let the cheese warm through.  They came back in looking gooey and delicious!

And while the eggplant was going through the second round of grilling, I also got to work on the quick tomato "sauce" to go on top. Might as well use the beautiful, fresh Jersey tomatoes while there in season, no?!  I quickly diced 2 pints worth of cherry tomatoes in half...

...and tossed them in a pan to saute with some garlic and olive oil and let them cook until they broke down....

Truth be told, I actually completely FORGOT about the tomatoes until ALMOST the last minute, so we had to speed up the process a bit by covering the pan with foil and then mashing the tomatoes with a potato masher:)  Speedy, but it turned out just fine:)

Once the eggplant came back in, we topped it with the super quick tomato gravy and called it a day.  The cheese is really the standout star in this dish, so much so that you do not miss one OUNCE of the oiled & breaded fried eggplant.  Not only do you save yourself from standing over a stove almost DEEP FRYING the eggplant, you also save yourself hundreds and hundreds of fat & calories!  A win/win as far as I'm concerned!! :)

And for our side dish...we also took some help from the grill  (no oven in this heat...thank you very much!) I split open the spaghetti squash and let it cook face down on low heat for 45 minutes until it was soft.  After Scott brought it in, he scrapped out the inside of the shell so the squash formed spaghetti like strands....

After that, I tossed the squash into a pot to let that ALSO saute with some garlic and a little olive oil...(yes, when all was said and done, we used about 10 cloves of garlic for this meal:)

I really wanted to keep the squash simple so I mixed it with a little grated cheese and 2 HUGE handfuls of fresh basil.  I can't even tell you how simple & perfect this was for a spaghetti swap.  The fresh basil mixed with the grill-kissed squash with just a hint of the salty cheese = perfection! 

So there you have it, yet another "slimmed down" Italian dish (not that they eat like this in Italy anyways:)  But by removing the heavy breading and excess fat, you are able to enjoy all of the clean, fresh flavors without feeling greasy and heavy afterward.  You must give this one a whirl, especially while all of the summer produce are at their PEAK!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and are refreshed and ready for the week!  (the jury is still out on this one:)  I have another new salad planned for tonight with even MORE of the great summer produce being put to use:)  Stay tuned:)