Eggplant Bolognese

Food can be expensive, there's not doubt about that. It used to be that the whole chickens would go on sale at the grocery store for 69 cents a pound. And for a few dollars, you could get a large chicken that would make two entire meals. Not so much anymore.

With the boyfriend still finishing up school, I've been paying the lion's share of the bills — including the food bill. I shop grocery store sales, clip coupons, and buy what I can at the local discount grocery store.

A week or so ago there was a great sale on eggplants (77 cents a pound) plus, they were local. Score. Browsing the meat case, I found extra lean ground beef was discounted because the sell by date was the next day. At nearly $4 for a pound.. ground beef is really an occaisonal food. Any more though, all meat and fish are becoming more occaisonal foods. I'm finding more and more meatless meals showing up in my menu plans to keep costs down.

Anyhow, I had ground beef and eggplants, which means it was the perfect time to make eggplant bolognese. I liked this recipe but didn't love it. I assume it's because it's a dish where fat adds all the flavor. I bet it would have completely different if I had used ground chuck instead of extra lean beef. And, if I had used all the oil the recipe called for.

I just goes to show sometimes you can lighten up a recipe without ill effects, and sometimes you can't.