This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Barilla®.
One thing I love about lunchtime on the weekend is the fact that I get to eat lunch with the kids and my husband and sit down together during the day – something that doesn’t happen often. The family table we’ve created at dinnertime has helped us connect more as a family and truly enjoy each meals together but enjoying lunch together is like an added bonus.
Unlike dinners, lunches are usually sporadic last minute plans that just happen to come together. And that means I need a great arsenal of easy lunch ideas – like this delicious eggplant french bread pizza – ready to use when I don’t have a clue what I want to make.
Another great tool I have at the ready is a pantry full of Barilla® sauces and a garden full of veggies. For those times that I just need something the whole family will enjoy and eat but is still nutritious, I grab my favorite Tomato & Basil sauce and start creating. You’ll taste the difference because Barilla Sauce has a real taste from real vegetables and all-natural, quality ingredients like vine-ripe tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and fragrant herbs.
Paired with a great salad, this pizza is the perfect weekend lunch. And the whole family will eat it!
What I love about this recipe is how versatile it is. Don’t have french bread on hand? Grab an english muffin! There really are so many ways to spruce up this pizza. But the sauce is the key. We love to keep Barilla® sauces on hand for easy meals any time.All we have to do is pop open a jar, pour (or spoon in this case) and enjoy.
Some of our favorite family meals include a jar of Barilla® sauce – including my son’s favorite spaghetti with marinara sauce. Sometimes the kids will just take pieces of bread and dip directly into the sauce without any noodles. Easy meal for mom to make and makes my son smile – win-win!
Every jar of Barilla® sauce makes it quick and easy to prepare delicious meals the whole family will enjoy. Plus, for every jar of Barilla® sauce purchased from 4/1/14 through 5/31/14 Barilla® will donate $0.05 to Feeding America’s National Produce Program with a minimum donation of $150,000.
Eggplant French Bread Pizza
- 1 loaf french bread (or Italian)
- olive oil
- 1 jar Barilla® tomato & basil sauce
- 1 medium eggplant (sliced)
- 1 cup mozzarella (shredded)
- 1 bunch of fresh basil leaves
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grab a pan and heat on medium. Drizzle about 1 tablespoon olive oil into the pan and let heat.
- Season sliced eggplant with salt and pepper. Then cook in olive oil for about 5 minutes on each side, or until completely cooked.
- While eggplant is cooking, cut loaf of bread in half and drizzle with olive oil. Top with cooked eggplant. Take Barilla® sauce and spoon over eggplant. Top sauce with mozzarella and basil leaves.
- Cook pizza for about 12-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starting to get a little brown on top. Pull out of the oven, cut into individual slices, and serve with a nice big salad.
How do you give back to your local community?
We’re giving away a special Barilla® giveaway package to one reader, which includes a jar of Barilla® sauce and one Barilla® branded wooden spoon, one Barilla® Spaghettata Bowl, and five (5) coupons, each redeemable for one (1) jar of Barilla pasta sauce valued at $60.
To enter, simply post a comment about how you give back to your local community. Make sure to provide your email address when leaving the comment. Giveaway ends on May 31, 2014 at 11:59 EST. By commenting on this post you confirm that you’ve read the giveaway rules found here: http://barilla.com/RealTasteRules
We’re also giving away 10 $1 off coupons to randomly selected readers who comment on this post and share how they give back in their local community. Free coupons are valid through 3/31/2015 and the $1 off coupons are valid through 6/30/2015.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Barilla®. For every jar of Barilla® sauce purchased, $0.05 will be donated to Feeding America’s National Produce Program which secures one pound of fresh produce on behalf of local food banks. Barilla® will make a minimum donation of 4.2 million pounds of fresh produce ($150,000) from 4/1/14 through 5/31/14.
nice
We give back to the community by putting together shoe boxes of basic needs for local homeless shelters.
This recipe looks very tasty! We love Barilla products! Yummy and affordable!
We give back to the community by donating school supplies at the beginning of the year to a few local classrooms.
And I cannot wait to try this recipe! I’ve been looking for some new lunch ideas for myself!
I usually donate clothes and food to my community.
Love your recipe. I’m a huge fan of french bread pizza & egg plant, so this work perfectly for my family. I will be trying it.
Thanks!
I wish there was more I could do to give back to the local community. We donate toys, clothes, and whatever we can. We buy a lot of chocolate candy bars too. 🙂 and don’t get me started on those cute little girl scout cookie peddlers.
The only time I’ve ever eaten eggplant (we call them aubergine here) was in Greece! I’ve been too scared to try one since, but this looks yummy!!
These look delicious! I will have to try to see if my children will eat eggplant this way!
I have to admit, I have never eaten eggplant, but eggplant parmesan is on my “to try” list. This looks like it is eggplant parmesan on a sandwich and is definitely something I am putting on my “to try” list!
Ohhh, that loos really yummy!
I donate our gently used clothing to a consignment shop that provides help to women in domestic abuse situations. They give the women clothes for life, and all profits go back into a DA non-profit. It’s a really great cause.
Yum! I’m not fussy about eggplant but it looks delicious the way you made it.
As for the local community, I donate old clothes to the Salvation Army every time we do a Spring/Fall clean up
Ha. And I totally didn’t read the question right. I donate to my daughter’s developmental preschool on a regular basis. I also just donated a Kitchen Aid stand mixer to my son’s schools yearly fundraiser. 🙂
Oh I never thought of using eggplant on pizza! I love Barilla sauces too I keep them in my pantry.