If only I could live on lettuce alone...in my attempt to shed some pounds for the upcoming nuptials, I am eating rabbit food, slurping "diet soup" and noshing on rice cakes...and I've been bored out of my mind! It was time for a food intervention - I needed something substantial, something delicious and something that wouldn't send the scale soaring...these little beauties did all that and more.
Eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, onion, tomato, red bell pepper, mushrooms and parsnips - that was the basis for my Veggie Stacks. I sliced them thin, and for those slices that were too big to fit into my muffin tin, I used a cookie cutter to trim them to the right size (and finely chopped up the remaining bits and sprinkled them on top so nothing went to waste.) In between each layer of sliced veggie I sprinkled a tiny bit of Parmesan cheese, about 1 tablespoon went into each stack - just enough to hold the veggies together but not enough to make the scale jump!
Can you guess what the pic above is? No? There is a bottom tray, upon which the muffin tin rests. The muffin tin holds the veggie stacks. The veggie stacks stick up about an inch higher than the muffin tin when they are made. The muffin tin is covered with foil and then a few extra trays and bakeware are set on top of the foil so as the veggies bake they will be compressed. When they come out of the oven the veggie stack will have shrunk to the size of the tin.
These are great just like they are pictured above, adorned with only a bit of salt and pepper. When they are placed into a puddle of marinara sauce, they go from being a side dish to the main event. Diet friendly and definitely delicious - the two are not mutually exclusive! These are dang good, easy and fun to make and company worthy!
Veggie Stacks in Marinara - Pots and Pins
If you have a mandoline, use it, if not, just slice veggies as thinly as possible. You can use whatever vegetables you like - and if you want them to be a bit on the spicy side, toss in some chili flakes.
1 medium eggplant, thinly sliced
1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
1 yellow squash, thinly sliced
1 parsnip, peeled, thinly sliced
8 mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 white onion, finely diced
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
Olive oil
1/2 cup (or more) Parmesan cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste
1 jar (16 oz.) purchased marinara sauce
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and set on to of a rimmed cookie sheet. Layer slices of vegetable with a sprinkle of the diced onion and red bell pepper between each layer of veggies along with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Use up all of the veggies, cutting to fit the muffin tin if necessary. Stack the vegetables high, about 1-inch above the muffin tin. Drizzle a little olive oil over each stack, sprinkle on a bit more Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cover muffin tin with foil and stack some trays on top, or something heavy and oven-proof, so the vegetables will be compressed. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Heat marinara sauce. Spoon 1/4 cup of marinara sauce into each dish, place 2 or 3 veggie stacks on top of marinara. Makes 12 Italian Veggie Stacks, serves 6 (two veggie stacks each).
