This week I kept talking about wanting to cook something epic! So last night I decided to take on two new dishes: an eggplant sandwich and summer salad on the side. Of course, I look at two of my favorite magazines for inspiration:

And I have a confession: I love cooking. I put on some good music and my apron, pour a glass of wine and dance around my kitchen while prepping food. Tonight was no different. I put on old jazz standards and started on the salad out of Sunset Magazine.

The salad has heirloom tomatoes, asparagus, and avocado with a light dressing which is comprised of dijon mustard, small amount of EVO, salt, pepper, lemon juice. I subbed goat cheese for Gorgonzola.

Just cook the asparagus in some water for two mins and then combine all the ingredients in a bowl. According to Sunset magazine this recipe is around 250 calories, but I figure I saved some calories from switching Gorgonzola to goat cheese.

Wonderful! I set this aside and got cracking on the eggplant sandwich, which required a bit of an assembly line…

I cut the egg plant into slices and breaded it in the assembly line.Then I fried it (I KNOW, I KNOW!) in canola oil…

In two mins you flip…

I love fried things. I also know its bad for me but hey its canola oil and according to Real Simple its under 600 calories.

So crispy and delicious! At this point you cut up basil, heirloom tomato, and arugula. Then you put goat cheese on the eggplant and layer like a sandwich.

Yum!!! This is what my plate looked like last night:

This was a great meal! I love summer veggies and I love goat cheese. The eggplant sandwich was good! I love the crispiness of the eggplant and the freshness of the heirlooms and the bite of the arugula.

Truly an epic dinner, right? It was delicious.

In other news I went on my hilly run (4.1 miles) I only ran about 3.75 and I timed by run on my ipod. Today I ran 3.1 miles in 25:40 mins! Whoo Hoo! Bring it on July 11th!