Eggplant Parm Salad

I planned to take a walk today. After a succession of weekends with one busy day and one lazy house day, I was hoping for a hybrid sort of Sunday. Yesterday was a hybrid sort of Saturday. I had work and had a party to attend, but in between, there was some much-needed downtime. I relieved my overflowing DVR of a few shows, checked in on a few of my favorite food blogs and did absolutely nothing. So today, I planned a walk around my neighborhood, including a visit to Trader Joe's and Michael's to stock up on art supplies, rainbow sprinkles and candy melts (which one of these is not like the other). And then it rained.

 So a blog catch-up is in order, followed by a possible cookie-baking session. First, the salad. A few weeks ago, my husband, let's call him Seth, and I made Eggplant Parmesan Polenta Pizza for dinner (polenta "crust" topped by marinara sauces, mozzarella, broccoli and breaded eggplant).

I baked way too much breaded eggplant, so it seemed logical to use the leftover ingredients in a lunch salad.

Which gets us to the Eggplant Parm Salad (make two servings):

• head of romaine
• breaded baked eggplant (about 1/3 an eggplant)
• broccoli
• cherry tomatoes
• mozzarella 
• balsamic vinegar or balsamic vinaigrette 

Chop the eggplant, bread and bake it. I used the shake and bake method by combining the chopped eggplant and a few tablespoons of fat free Italian dressing in a large ziploc bag. Shake!

Pour breadcrumbs into a new ziploc bag and combine with the eggplant from the other bag.

Shake some more! Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the eggplant pieces. Let cool.

Toss the eggplant with chopped romaine, broccoli, cherry tomatoes (I halved mine), mozzarella (Parmesan would also work in this salad) and balsamic.