Sick days are the best days. Sleeping in, reading, cooking the most decadent meals of life! I really look forward to the days of mild illness – too sick to work, but just enough strength to make a casserole!

I began my day by sleeping until 8 a.m. – 2.5 hours longer than usual. Then, I read about 100 pages of my current book (Silver Linings Playbook – much different than the movie, I swear) over about 3 cups of coffee. The most blissful of days.

I couldn’t waste a free evening on takeout so I knew I had to cook. With no time restraint, I went all out. My eggplant parm is not quick, but dagnabit is it worth it.

This is my favorite thing to order in any Italian-American restaurant. I’d never made it myself, but I’d recently seen about 8,300 different recipes for it so I combined about 6 and got the most scrumptious dinner of life.

Let me toot my own horn briefly and say that it tasted like restaurant quality – THERE I SAID IT.

BRB gotta have another helping.

Time: 2 hours (prep + cooking)

Serves: 2 hungry humans (in my case) or 4 normal ones

Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
• 3/4 cup of italian breadcrumbs
• 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 jar of tomato sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella, shredded
• 2 tbsp. of olive oil
• S+P, to taste
• Fresh basil, for serving

How to:

• Salt each side of the eggplant rounds and place into colander, letting drain for 30 minutes
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• While draining, line two baking sheets with foil and drizzle with 1 tbsp. of olive oil each
• Whisks eggs + water into a bowl
• Combine breadcrumbs + parmesan + oregano + basil + S+P in another bowl
• Dredge each round in egg and breadcrumb mixture and place onto baking sheet, repeat until sheets are full
• Bake rounds for 20 minutes
• Flip rounds and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden brown
• Remove sheets and turn heat up to 400 degrees
• Line a baking dish with 2 cups of tomato sauce
• Place 6-8 rounds on bottom and add a cup of mozzarella + more tomato sauce
• Place the rest of the rounds on the top with the remaining mozzarella + tomato sauce
• Sprinkle top with a tbsp. of extra breadcrumbs + two tbsp. of parmesan, bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce bubbling
• Remove and sprinkle with fresh basil
• BON APPETIT!

Loosely adapted from:

http://www.marthastewart.com/313564/baked-eggplant-parmesan?czone=entertaining/holiday-entertaining/holidaycenter-menus&center=0&gallery=275640&slide=261802