Skinny Eggplant Parmesan

I have made both Chicken Parm and Eggplant Parm multiple times. This time I tried to "skinny' the recipe by adding more veggies and cutting down on oil, cheese and breadcrumbs.

First of all, I used my new Misto to spray the pan. Whitney from Whit Likes Fit recommended this to me, and then I realized that Gina from Skinny Taste uses one too! It is a pressurized spray can that you add your own olive oil to and use it to lightly spritz the pan. It cuts way back on use of olive oil. 

 I did the usual dunk the eggplant slice in egg and then breadcrumbs. However, my breadcrumb mixture was one quarter part ground flax seeds, half part panko breadcrumbs and half part Italian breadcrumbs. I figure the flax adds some nutrition! I fried them in the misto spray before assembling. 

 Here is my healthy tomato sauce! I started by sauteing onions with NO OIL, which I learned in my Healthy Cooking with Whole Food event I recently attended. As long as the pan is really hot you really don't need oil, it doesn't burn and it tastes the same. Plus you save at least 140 calories! Then I added a whole bunch of super food Chard and some water and let that simmer under cover before adding a jar of Marinara sauce and some cherry tomatoes.

 I assembled the eggplant parm---one layer eggplant topped with my veggie loaded tomato sauce, then some mozzarella and Parmesan cheese (go light to make this dish skinnier) , repeat until you run out of eggplant. Then top with dried AND fresh basil, and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.

It was super yummy and honestly I didn't even taste the different from the last time I made it without the chard, flaxseed and reduction in amount of cheese!