Yesterday in my battle about what to make vegetarians I decided that I would be proactive and do that first thing in the morning. So I started my day like I do any normal day, I went and looked in the walk in cooler. I loved confused at the eggplant thinking, oh eggplant why in my brain do you not seem so versatile? Why do you seem like your only good in an eggplant parm? Or how about a ratatouille? The vegetarians love you eggplant so why can’t I think of anything else to make? So I went into my office, sat down at the computer and googled eggplant recipes. This recipe from Emerald came up- Eggplant Casserole Recipe : Emeril Lagasse : Food Network.

So I got out my eggplant and diced it up. Then I sauteed it on the stove and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

While that was cooking I got out some celery, peppers and carrots out. I diced them up and sauteed them and then I added some garlic for good measure. Everything has to have garlic doesn’t it?

Then I hit a road block of sorts. I remembered that we have a student who is gluten free but the recipe called for bread crumbs. I immediately thought about my friend, quinoa. So I cooked some up and used it instead of the breadcrumbs. Once everything was cooked I mixed it together and then added the cream, parmesan and I added some mozzarella as well.

It then went in the oven and baked until it was bubbly and crusty. I need to get better at taking pictures of things when they come out of the oven. It wasn’t until the casserole was half eaten that I thought to myself. “Hey self you should really take pictures of things you plan on writing about.”

Ok so not the most attractive picture but at least they liked it! It just came to me that this would be a great recipe if you were trying to stay away from carbs as well but liked that mac and cheese style taste. The most fattening part of it is the cream and cheese.

As I’ve said before to me cooking is all about making something your own. I remember in culinary school the instructors would always say ‘a recipe is a guideline’. I needed a gluten free version so I made one. I like garlic so I added it. I think that’s what makes cooking so much fun. You can really do whatever you want, as long as the ending result is something delicious!