Chicken Stuffed Eggplant

* 2 medium size eggplants, washed, stems trimmed
* 2 boneless chicken breasts (about 12 oz), cubed
* 1 1/2 cups PictSweet Seasoning (about half a bag);
or 1 cup diced onion, 1/4 cup diced celery, 1/4 cup
diced bell pepper
* 2 tsp minced garlic
* 2 tsp olive oil
* 1/2 tsp salt (more or less, to taste)
* 1/2 tsp black pepper (more or less, to taste)
* 1/4 tsp ground sage
* 1/4 tsp cajun seasoning (like Zatarins)
* 1 tsp worstershire sauce
* Fat-free butter spray (or Pam Butter flavor spray)
* 3 oz Italian Five Cheese, Shredded (approx 1 scant cup)

Optional: parsley for garnish; 4 slices bread for stuffing.

Assuming the eggplant is washed, and stemmed, and the chicken meat is cubed, cut eggplant in half longwise. Use a paring knife to cut along edges of halved eggplant shells to help scoop out the inside. Use a spoon to scoop out the fresh eggplant, and cut into cubes (this will be about 2 cups). Don't worry if it turns a little brown; it's not going bad, that's just what happens to eggplant when exposed to air, and cooking.

Put the scooped out eggplant halves into a glass casserole dish sprayed with Pam. Spray scooped halves with cooking spray or fat-free butter spray. If desired you can sprinkled a little pepper and salt on halves. Cover dish with wax paper, and cook in microwave on HIGH for 6 minutes.

Meanwhile spray skillet with Pam, and heat olive oil on med-low for a minute; add garlic and onion/celery/pepper mix, stir. Cook on med to med-low for a couple of minutes until onions are sizzling a bit.

Add chicken and worstershire. Cook until chicken is nearly done, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add cut eggplant, salt, pepper, sage, cajun seasoning, and stir. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 4 or 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times, until eggplant is just tender. Remove skillet from heat, stir in most of shredded italian cheese, reserving about 1/2 oz (about 2 TBLS) for topping.

Divide eggplant/chicken mixture into eggplant halves. Add a bit of water (about 2 TBLS) into the bottom of the pan.

Now you can either cook in microwave on HIGH for about 6 minutes, covering dish with waxed paper. Removed from microwave, sprinkle remaining shredded cheese over top. Optionally, you can sprinkle some fresh or dried parsley flakes as a garnish. Let dish sit for a couple of minutes to soften cheese.

Or you may use the oven to finish this dish. Put casserole into a 350 oven for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with cheese (and optionally the parsley garnish), return to oven for 5 minutes or so to melt cheese.

As noted in the introduction, cubed bread may be added to this dish, if desired. Use one regular size slice of desired bread per eggplant half. Toast lightly and cut into cubes. Toss into eggplant/chicken mixture before spooning into eggplant shells, or into a casserole dish for baking. The bread cubes are not added into my nutritional value, so you want to track that separately if you use it. In my recipe photo I did 2 without bread cubes, 2 with bread cubes.

Number of Servings: 4

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user MSHEBERT.