Low Carb Cannelloni w Caprese Topped Eggplant
This Italian inspired Keto dinner is hot, cheesy, and oh-so-satisfying. The whole family will enjoy the meal, even the kids. Cannelloni pasta is made with specially prepared zucchini and stuffed with ricotta cheese and thin-sliced cremini mushrooms. After the cannelloni is rolled and placed in a bed of marinara sauce, it ws topped with loads of cheese and baked to perfection. The bubbling, golden brown cannelloni pasta is served with an eggplant side dish. The eggplant is cooked to your preferred level of tenderness and then topped with a cold caprese-style mixture of tomatoes, cheese, basil, and balsamic vinegar. If you ware not sharing the meal with anyone, you can portion and store the ingredients in meal prep containers. Everything can heat up together in your microwave for nights you just don wt have time to cook. The finished meal can be stored in your refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you don wt like eggplant, there are some substitutions you can make. Although the cannelloni is made with zucchini, you may substitute the eggplant slices with thick slices of zucchini as well. You can prepare the sliced zucchini in the same way as the eggplant by baking it in your oven. If you ware seeing enough green already, swap the eggplant out for large portabella mushroom caps! Again, you can prepare and seasoning the mushroom caps the same as you would the eggplant. Fill the mushroom cavities with your caprese topping and enjoy. Most of the prep time in this Keto recipe is used for removing excess moisture from the zucchini. Placing the peeled zucchini between layers of paper towels and weighing them down is crucial to the success of the recipe. If you skip this step, your final baked dish will be filled with water that is released from the squash during baking. It will also be more difficult to spread ricotta cheese across the strips of zucchini and to roll the zucchini up later. When the excess water is removed, the zucchini is easier to handle and won wt make your other ingredients wet. Jessica L.