When it comes to dinnertime planning, it’s a very well thought out process… I plan my meals each and every Thursday evening, go through coupons, and draft my shopping list in preparation for my Friday shopping trip… To make things simple, my mom comes over on Friday mornings and stays with Emily so I don’t have to take her out and can get in and out of the store… For the most part, I plan 5 meals a week, the 6th is usually something I come up with on the fly based on what I have in the house, and the 7th (usually a Saturday) we get some form of takeout or go out to eat… So when it came down to figuring out what to make for the “6th meal”, I really went on the fly… I do this a lot and sometimes have some successes and definitely have some fails!

This time, I had an eggplant that was becoming very ripe so I started rummaging thru my freezer and pantry and found chicken sausage (spinach & feta), whole wheat penne, & sundried tomatoes… I decided to throw it all together with the help of a few other ingredients and it turned into an amazing dish that will probably make it into my dinner rotation now!  Hope you enjoy this “6th meal” creation!

Eggplant Sausage Toss

Serves 4

• 8 oz whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 large eggplants (I only used one but next time I make this I will definitely use two since I was searching for yummy eggplant pieces)
• 1 package of dry sundried tomatoes, chopped (you can use the kind soaked in oil or even roasted red peppers would work as well)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Romano grated cheese
• crushed red pepper
• 2 T crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 package (4 links) of spinach & feta chicken sausage

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice eggplant and place on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, boil water for the pasta and brown the sausages in a skillet.  Cook the pasta as desired.  When pasta is cooked, drain and replace back into a large pot on low heat.  When sausage is done, remove from heat and cut the links into bite sized pieces.  Add the sausage to the cooked pasta along with the package of sundried tomatoes.  Add in a generous helping of crushed red pepper flakes, and Parmesan Romano cheese.  Mix everything well and then add the extra virgin olive oil to coat.  Finally, add in the eggplant, careful not to turn the eggplant mushy (this is the only challenging part of the entire meal!), combine well and let sit on medium heat until desired temperature.  I personally like all of my foods scalding hot so I let mine sit for a good ten minutes, stirring every so often to distribute the heat evenly.

And here’s the yummy & delicious outcome… Next time I would definitely use two eggplants instead of one, but lesson learned!