Easy Eggplant and Burnt Beans?

So, have you ever been cooking dinner and then the phone rings? You know where I'm going with this--most likely a disaster? Happily, it was a disaster averted. Here's the deal: I'm making easy eggplant and decide to switch up the side dish from boring green beans to spicy Sichuan beans. All is going well, eggplant is happily baking in oven  but oh the poor beans. My hubby and I were busy on the phone with our son and suddenly the smoke alarms are ringing and opps, I forgot that the beans were cooking with very little water and oh, the smoke was rising! As I said before, disaster averted and now I had "blackened" Sichuan beans but they were actually quite tasty.  So, my advice, this dinner is really simple IF you stay off the phone!

Easy Eggplant Parmesan

1 medium eggplant
Parmesan cheese
3 large egg whites
Garlic powder
cooking spray
1 jar Trader Joe's pizza sauce
1 pkg of low fat mozzarella

Peel eggplant, and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Whisk egg whites in bowl. Dip eggplant slices into egg whites and the Parmesan cheese and place on baking sheets that have been coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle garlic powder on eggplant slices.

Bake for 20 minutes in 400 degree oven, then flip and bake another 10 minutes.

Layer in small casserole,: eggplant, sauce, cheese-- ending with cheese.

Bake 20 minutes at 400--let sit a good ten minutes before cutting into it.

Easy peasy and good.

Spicy Beans

Spicy Sichuan Style Green Beans
recipe adapted from Easy Party Food, a special-interest publication of Sunset Magazine.)

Ingredients:
1/2 bag of Trader Joe's whole green beans
2 T soy sauce (I used low-sodium)
1 T rice vinegar
2 tsp. Truvia or sugar substitute or agave syrup
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Black pepper
1 T vegetable oil
2 T minced garlic
Instructions:
Cook green beans with just a little water. In a bowl, add all the other ingredients and add that sauce after the beans looked cooked to your liking. In the picture my beans are WAY overcooked and basically burned..........oh well, we enjoyed the phone call :-)