What's for Dinner Wednesday

I've already shared my very technical approach to meal planning. Last week, eggplant was on sale. I'm trying to introduce different foods to the kids so that maybe we can eat something besides spaghetti. It's a work in progress.

Both kids like fried zucchini, so I thought maybe I could get away with breaded eggplant. Then I had the brilliant (and modest) idea to try Eggplant Parmesan--after all, it's spaghetti. The Mister is a carnivore, so I knew I needed to make some chicken too.

First, I made homemade breadcrumbs. If you haven't done this, it's easy as can be. I just took six slices of wheat bread and tore them in half. Then I put three pieces in my blender and pulsed until my fluffy little breadcrumbs were born. I also added in about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and two teaspoons each of dried basil and garlic powder. The breadcrumbs were split into two batches to prevent cross-contamination.

Then I took two chicken breasts and cut them in half so they were thinner, then each half in half so they were shorter. So basically, I butterflied them, but all the way through, then cut those pieces in half.

I mixed two eggs with a pinch of dried basil and garlic powder.

Then I dipped the chicken pieces into the egg, then into the breadcrumbs. I popped them on a cookie sheet that I covered with cooking spray. Then I sprayed the tops of the pieces and put them in the oven at 400 degrees.

Next, I cut my eggplant into slices. This was where I went wrong with the kids and the Mister both. I cut my pieces too thick. Next time I'll cut them much thinner.

I mixed up another egg with basil and garlic. The process is the same for the eggplant as the chicken.

I put a pot of water on to boil, and added a box of angel hair pasta when the water was at a rolling boil.

After draining the pasta, I dumped in a jar of marinara sauce.

Dinner was served!