Cari Fit

Fitness Advice, Workout Tips, and Inspiration

Recipe of the Month!

Grilled Baby Eggplant With Raisins, Pine Nuts and Rosemary

This recipe is perfect for summer! You could use regular eggplant and cut into smaller pieces. But, you should be able to find “baby” or “mini” eggplants at your local grocery store or even farmers market.

Cari’s Suggestions: My only problem with the recipe is that is kinda high in calories and fat. So, I reduced the amount of olive oil to about 1 TBSP (vs. 1/2 cup) and then used olive oil cooking spray (like PAM) to coat the eggplants for grilling. However, even though this recipe is 333 calories per serving, each serving is 2 eggplant halves with the cheese and it’s going to fill you up due to all the fiber from the eggplant. So, you could treat this dish as your main course and just serve it with a salad or just reduce your serving size to one piece and then pair with grilled fish or chicken.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup  goat cheese
  • 1 tablespoon  finely chopped rosemary
  • 1/2 cup  extra-virgin olive oil *See Cari’s suggestion above
  • 2 tablespoons  balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon  salt plus additional for seasoning
  • 6 baby eggplants (about 2 pounds), trimmed and halved lengthwise
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons  raisins
  • 3 tablespoons  pine nuts

    • DIRECTIONS

    -In a bowl, combine the goat cheese and rosemary. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
    -Preheat a grill to medium-high heat. Brush the eggplant with the marinade and season with salt and the black pepper to taste. Reserve remaining marinade.
    -Transfer the eggplant to the grill cut side down. Close cover and cook, 5 to 7 minutes, turning once halfway through, until eggplant is very tender and lightly charred.
    -Remove eggplant from grill and spread the cut side of each half with goat cheese mixture. Top each half with a sprinkling of raisins and pine nuts.
    -Return eggplant to grill cut side up. Close cover and cook until goat cheese is slightly melted, about 30 seconds. Drizzle with reserved marinade and serve.

    Nutrition Info (per serving – about 2 halves):
    333 calories
    5g protein
    17g carbs
    29g fat
    7g fiber

    *Recipe courtesy of Fitness Magazine.

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    About Me

    About Me
    Cari Shoemate

    Hi! I'm Cari! I'm a fitness star turned Mom of 3 who lives in Houston, TX. Getting fit and healthy is a journey and one I understand well. After graduating from college I worked in a corporate setting for many years and gained a lot of weight and had an unhealthy lifestyle. Finally, after I had enough - I decided to regain my healthy lifestyle that I had in college by fitting in workouts and eating healthier. Eventually, I left my corporate job to become a full-time personal trainer and group fitness instructor. I also created Bombshell Bootcamp over 10 years ago and it has become one of Houston's top bootcamps! My passion then turned into greater opportunities to write workouts for national magazines, appear on tv doing workouts and speaking about healthy and fitness, making fitness DVD's and working with many celebrities. Fast forward a few years....and then I had my first baby! I'm now a Mom of 3 little ones and try to incorporate healthy living and exercise in our family's lives. Not only do I still blog about workouts and fitness, but I have shifted some to include family fitness, family travel, fashion, health/beauty and general lifestyle.