Crockpot Eggplant Lasagna

Ah, Breakfast...Sometimes the simplest dish can be so satisfying.  I don't tend to be much of a cereal person because I don't find the boxed stuff to be filling, and there's always about a bazillion ingredients, but man, oh man did this hit the spot!  A bowl of granola topped with almond milk, some chia Seeds and some dried fruit. :)

After my very first Recess Duty at Kai's school I returned home for lunch.  I made myself a delicious salad of Spinach, nutritional yeast, flax seed, TVP, mango, red pepper, blueberries, cucumber, pecans and balsamic vinaigrette.

And then I snacked on an apple.  Apples really do make a perfect snack.  :)

On to the main event:  Crockpot Eggplant Lasagna

I decided to make an eggplant lasagna in the morning and decided to experiment with the crockpot since that would mean I didn't have to do anything in the evening.  The results were tasty but not very pretty.  You win some you lose some. :)

I started with my eggplant:

Peeled (not necessary but makes it MUCH easier to eat)

Sliced into disks and salted to pull some of the bitterness out.  I just let it sit with the salt while I prepped the rest of the food.

Other ingredients:
Sliced tomatoes, chopped onion, minced garlic, olive oil, sliced mushrooms and ricotta cheese.

Into the crockpot on low went a double layer of tomatoes, some onion, some garlic and a drizzle of olive oil (I was basically making a tomato sauce without ACTUALLY making a tomato sauce).

Then I rinsed the salt & juices off the eggplants and layered them on top of the tomatoes, smeared on some ricotta cheese and a layer of mushrooms...

And then kept layering the tomatoes/onions/garlic/eggplant/cheese/mushrooms/tomatoes/onions/etc....

 Once all that was layered I added a can of drained diced tomatoes.

And forced the lid on!

 8 hours later it looked pretty much the same, if not a little shorter. 

And then I scooped it onto my plate.  YIKES!!  That's an ugly mess.  The ricotta cheese took on a tan color that was straight up unappealing...

But a layer of nutritional yeast and some parmesan cheese covered the ugly right up.

And in the end it was a delicious dish!  Even Kai ate hers on top of some macaroni. :)