I delved into some very interesting reading this weekend. Specifically, the heated controversy regarding grains.
It all started when I watched Dr. Terry Wahls YouTube video on curing herself of multiple sclerosis.
If you have 20 spare minutes, I highly recommend watching it! I love her approach of eating more fruits and vegetables (9 cups, to be exact) to get the nutrition you need in order to heal, rather than taking supplements, but it left me even MORE eager to learn about the pros and cons of such a drastic lifestyle change.
The Nourished Kitchen has a great post on some of the cons regarding eating grains, but I have yet to research the argument FOR grains.
While we could go on and on all day, debating the pros and cons of such a matter, I thought it'd be a fun personal challenge to go grain-free for the month of April! My biggest challenge will be the absence of overnight oats! I won't bore you with the details of every physical/emotional change, but I will be joining back in with 'What I Ate Wednesday', showing you the types of (grain-free) meals I'm eating at least one day of each week...and all of the recipes this month will be grain-free. 🙂
I figure this is a great time to do this, for me, considering two of the arguments AGAINST grains are its tendency to cause inflammation and skin problems, both of which I've been experiencing lately.
I hope this will be an interesting month, and, at the very least, you still get a few cool recipes to try! :-)...beginning with today's!
I really adore eggplant. I've had it raw, baked, sautéed, blended, and spiralized, and I enjoy it in each state. It has a mild flavor that blends will when paired with other stronger ingredients, and I really like the softer texture.
It lends itself well to being a veggie noodle substitute too!
Initially, I was striving to create a vegan eggplant parmesan, but the resulting eggplant slices were so tasty, that I thought it deserved its own post!
Baked Fried Eggplant
Ingredients
- 1 medium eggplant sliced into about 1/3 inch disks (I like to leave the peel on)
- oil spray
- DRESSING:
- 6 T. extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil plus extra for drizzling
- 2 T. apple cider vinegar
- 1 T. lemon juice
- ¼ t. + 1/8 t. sea salt
- 1 t. dried parsley
- 1 t. dried basil
- ½ t. dried oregano
- ⅛ t. garlic powder
- a few grinds of black pepper
- COATING:
- 1 c. almond meal
- ½ t. salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Whisk the ingredients for the dressing together in a shallow bowl until emulsified.
- Mix the coating ingredients together, and pour onto a plate.
- Dip each slice of eggplant into the dressing, and then lightly coat it in the almond meal mix.
- Transfer the coated slices to a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.
- Spray the slices with an oil spray or drizzle a bit of oil onto them.
- Bake the slices for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pan, and flip the slices over.
- Bake for another 15 minutes until golden and slightly crispy!
- Enjoy dipped in your favorite marinara sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
This is about the width each slice should be...
These were just delicious! I was not expecting them to turn out as well as they did, which is why I decided to showcase them on their own.
The almond meal paired beautifully with the flavors in the Italian dressing and the eggplant. It doubles quite well in place of higher carb bread crumbs! 🙂
What are your thoughts on going grain-free?
I'm hoping that by reducing my grain intake and supplementing with the right nutrients , I will find some relief for my current eczema flare-up. 🙁
Susan
It is not a good idea to go grain-free. While I understand watching how many you eat, grains contain nutrients we need. My dental hygienist told me a long time ago that if you don't eat grains your gums will bleed more, and my personal experience substantiates that. (I think it's the B vitamins in grains that make the difference.) It is never a good idea to eliminate major nutrients from your diet, especially for long periods of time, unless required to for medical reasons and under a doctor's supervision.
Ariane @ Skyeslife
This is great, Iately I've been questioning if we should be eating wheat and/or any grains,I might end up cutting out grains for at least a little while.
Lauren
I hope, then, that the recipes I post this month will help you! 🙂
Kim
These look good! I will try them as soon as I make those chocolate chip cookies that you posted last week. As far as grains, I definitely notice that I don't feel good after eating refined wheat flour (tortillas, pizza dough, etc) and I avoid those when I can. Eating whole, gluten-free grains like brown rice, quinoa, and millet don't seem to bother me and I feel better when I eat them versus no grain. I think it's definitely an individual thing. Everyone is different!
Lauren
I feel very similar to you and think, ultimately, I will be back to my overnight oats. 🙂 In the meantime, it'll do me some good to get heavy doses of veggies in me. 🙂
Kiersten @ Oh My Veggies
Good luck! I'll be interested in seeing how it goes for you. I've been having a bad eczema flare up lately too and I'm going on a raw food & juice cleanse (3 days raw food/3 days juice/3 days raw food) next week to see if that helps...
Lauren
Oooo, that sounds interesting! Are you going to be blogging about it? My eczema is on my hands, and it is really debilitating, so I NEED to try something different! I hope you find some relief for yours! 🙂
Kiersten @ Oh My Veggies
Yes, I'm going to blog about it! Probably in my What I Ate This Week post. 🙂 My eczema is on my hands too and you're right, it is debilitating. They are SO painful, raw, and itchy all the time lately. 🙁 I hope yours gets better too--we'll compare results! 🙂
Eliza
I used to get eczema and rosacea and tried many different approaches to get rid of it... To my total surprise, eliminating grains didn't help, and what did was going to an Ayurveda practitioner who told me to eat very specific spices and foods (a lot of cooked vegetables with mung beans or pink lentils, white rice and spices to aid digestion, and organic ghee for valuable fats and nutrients!). I really didn't see that coming... Within a week, my digestion was back on track, and my skin was glowing. I had much more energy and a sense of peace and strength I had been lacking on all the previous anti yeast, dairy free, and grain free diets. Go figure!? All that said, this eggplant dish looks amazing, and I can't wait to make it! 🙂
Lauren
That's really interesting! It sounds like his main goal was to correct your digestion?...which I definitely have trouble with! I've never dabbled in Ayurveda medicine, but you've piqued my interest with it! Thank you for the valuable information. 🙂
Eliza
Yes, in Ayurveda they believe that good health begins with good digestion, and they make a pretty direct link between digestion and skin conditions. After spending thousands of $ and years trying to "figure out" the skin and belly stuff, this 5000 year old traditional medicine approach from India (and maybe a little extra magnesium every other evening...) really brought back my glow! I would also always recommend checking for yeast issues or other issues in the digestive tract too, and then having some basic blood work checked (ask for the zinc/copper ratio, magnesium, vitamin D, selenium, and iodine tests too) since we run low on these essentials sometimes after pregnancy or even after a season of winter colds, and that can cause imbalances resulting in some skin issues at times. Let me know if that helps, or email me if you have any questions.. I look forward to making your wonderful recipes. Thanks for your amazing contribution to healthy and pleasurable meals!
Lauren
Love your pros! The argument I keep seeing is that grains don't contain anything we can't get from another, more nutritious source and, in fact, they are more detrimental to our health than we realize. It's fun to try this experiment, but I don't think I could EVER give up oats and brown rice! 🙂
Lea H @ Nourishing Treasures
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures' Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
Donna
This looks amazing....Could it possibly be FURTHER lightened up by using an egg "wash" in place of some of the olive oil...and using quinoa flakes/hemp flakes or crushed pork rinds or plantain chips for the nut "breading"?...Just curious! The recipe "as is" looks scrumptious and I do not wish to "damage" the outcome in the name of calorie considerations! Thanks for any enlightenment!
Lauren
Oh you could definitely use egg in this. Maybe try one egg in place of four tablespoons of olive oil. As for the coating, anything with a little fat in it, like the hemp or pork rinds would work better than something that's virtually fat-free, like the quinoa. If you find some substitutions that work for you, let me know. Thanks! 😀
vanessa
Made them today,so good!!thank you
Debra
Just thought i would let you know I just made this and it was amazing. I go to a restaurant that serves a very similar recipe and mine came out just as good.
Lauren
That's great Debra, thanks for letting me know! 🙂