Open Faced Eggplant and Tomato Melt

Tonight's dinner is Open Faced Eggplant and Tomato Melt, with corn on the cob

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz. pine nuts (handful)
3 tbsp. olive oil (or as Rachel says, "EVOO")
1 small eggplant, peeled and diced
Coarse salt and black pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp. ground cumin (a few good pinches)
12 sm. grape tomatoes, diced
6 oz. feta cheese
10 fresh basil leaves
1 Joseph's Pita (oat and flax) - I used this, not recommended
1/2 loaf crusty baquette, split lenghtwise (this is what I should have used)

So, let me explain. I know the only person who does not care for crusty bread. My hubby only likes pocket bread, so that is what I used. Don't do it. The oil made the pita come apart. Although, the calorie count is greatly reduced by using this bread, I highly recommend using the baguette. That is what I usually use, but I thought I would try it in the pita. Live and learn.

You have to toast the pine nuts first, then put them aside to cool. Next, add the eggplant to a frying pan with the oil and let it cook, covered, for six minutes. Shut off the heat and add the cumin, salt & pepper. Move to a bowl. Combine the diced tomatoes, feta cheese and basil, (roll up basil to a log and cut into confetti).

To assemble, toast your baguette in the used frying pan (there should still be a little olive oil in it0; add the eggplant mixture, then the cheese-tomato mixture, top with pine nuts. Very tasty. I added an ear of my Trader Joes, two buck shuck, that I microwaved. I picked it up at the store today. It is so good, it doesn't need butter. Yummmmmm!

Now, for the calorie count:

Total calories: 357, fat 27, carbs 26, protein 9

The recipe above makes 3 servings. I refrigerated my last serving. Also, since I went to TJ's, I purchased an impulse item of peanut butter filled pretzels. I had one serving of that (I was hungry....it is cold and raining here again today--Ugh!)

So, I went over my daily total a little. But I did work out today, hard. I did yoga for 30 minutes this am and then took Linda's Circuit training class today for 75 minutes. She had us doing all sorts of crazy things on the exercise ball today. Wall sits, lunges, squats, you name it. and with added dumbells for 20 minutes Plus we jumped around doing old school Hi Lo for 35 minutes straight. But it was fun. She had us do 20 minutes of continuous abs. My abs are going to be killer abs, once the fat is gone.

Total count for the day:

Calories: 1528
Carbs: 192
Protein: 70
Fat: 64 (bad)
(over by 8 grams) Probably over by the pretzels I should not have eaten-not on my planned schedule


:)