Paleo & Gluten-free Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Is paleo and cheese an oxymoron? The research I've done says...maybe. Some people on the paleo diet eat cheese, some believe that animals were not domesticated so they don't eat cheese. So what ever your preference is, follow that. You can take out the cheese if you want, or add more, it's all up to you. But this will taste just as good if you just omit the cheese. 

I've always made my own marinara. Prego? No thank you. I know everyone has their "secret" recipe from great great grandma, but I've tweaked this around and finally found one I really love. So my recipe for marinara is as follows, and like I mentioned before, you can omit the cheese. 

1 (28oz) can organic crushed tomatoes (San Marzano if possible) 

1 (8oz) can organic tomato sauce

1 fresh organic tomato

3-4 cloves organic fresh garlic

1 small organic onion

1/4 cup fresh oregano

1/4 cup fresh basil

1 teaspoon fine roasted garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon finely crushed red pepper

1/8 cup organic grass-fed butter

1/2 cup really good olive oil

Chop the onions, garlic, and fresh herbs. Add the olive oil and butter to a heated pan. Toss in the onions and garlic, let it become translucent before you add in the herbs. Turn the stove from a medium heat down to the lowest setting, and give it a minute to cool down. If you add the tomatoes while it's too hot, you have a big mess on your hands. So once it's a little cooler, add the crushed tomatoes, and the tomato sauce. Take the crushed tomato can and fill it half full with water, and pour into sauce. Chop the fresh tomato into cubes, and add those to the sauce. Mix in the garlic powder, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Let simmer for 2-4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so to make sure it doesn't burn. You can take it off at two hours, but the longer the flavors have time to hang out together, the better it will taste. 

The fresher your eggplant, the less bitter it will be. Once the seeds have taken over and the brown starts showing, your a in for a bitter meal. One large eggplant should do the trick, so slice the eggplant as pictured above, about 1/4" thick. 

You will also need:

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon parsley (fresh or dried)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 free-range eggs

2 tablespoons avocado oil (or your choice of oil)

Set your oven to 350F.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the eggs and oil in another. Mix the eggs and oil very well, so they bind together. Then dip the slices of eggplant in the egg wash, then the coating mixture, and set on a greased pan.

Bake them off for 20 minutes. They should be just starting to turn golden brown. For the plating, top the first layer with marinara, on the second layer add the fresh mozzarella, and another scoop of marinara. Sprinkle parmesan and you have a super delicious lower calorie dinner! 

Be careful, this meal is addicting. And the sauce? You just want to put it on everything, and you can! On chicken, or any veggies, it's good on everything. This is a non-cheat meal, that feels like an all out cheaters meal. I can't get enough!