One of Those Days!!

You know it's going to be a bad day when halfway through you're sitting at a bus stop sweating to death and crying. You see yesterday, July 24 was Pioneer Day here in SLC.The whole state actually, it's an official holiday. Something to do with the Mormons settling here. Banks are closed, the library and all state offices closed for the day. It's so weird. And tons of buses are detoured for hours because of the parade, and all buses run on a Saturday schedule which means certain buses don't run because they don't operate on weekends. And no one cares that this is a weekday, and people still have work or errands and what not. And customer service for the metro system also was closed so you couldn't even try and navigate what was happening, hence me sitting at a bus stop crying halfway through the day. And it was a one hundred degree day so it was a lot of fun having to do all that extra walking. I also had to reschedule one of my interviews because there was no way I could get there by bus and it isn't super far away, but far enough I wouldn't have made it walking in this heat. Luckily the person was understanding. So yesterday was a super frustrating day. I don't love SLC the way I love Seattle, but I also don't loathe it the way I did Erie. But yesterday was one of those days where if I had the money I would be booking a U Haul.
Needless to say when it came time for dinner my nerves were completely frazzled. If I would have had any kind of pre-made easy food that's what I would have gone for. But what I did make was still pretty easy and also exceeded my expectations in the tasty department! I made little eggplant pizzas! I got the idea from watching an Edyn Jacks vlog. I also did something I've never done, I salted and sweated the slices before cooking, I struggle with cooking eggplant correctly so I wanted to make sure these turned out delicious!

Look at those sweat beads! I could give those slices a run for their money in the sweat department yesterday afternoon! I guess it's supposed to help draw out some of the bitterness. After I let them sweat for twenty minutes I baked them alone for twenty minutes because no one wants crunchy eggplant! After that I topped them with sauce, lentils, pepperoncini and daiya pepper jack shreds that have been in my freezer for who knows how long!

Look at those cuties! This is such a great idea! Obviously you have to eat these with a fork, but it really tastes like pizza. And if you're gluten free these are much better than half the gluten free options out there, and eggplant are much cheaper than anything labeled gluten free! The eggplant slices were nice and tender and not bitter at all. These would be fun if you had friends over, you could pre bake the slices and then set out toppings and let people top them however they want. I'm sure you could also do these on a grill. Give them that fire roasted taste! These will be on regular rotation at my place!
Wish me luck, I have an interview this morning and it's in a part of the city I've never been, requiring me to take two buses I've never taken. I don't know if anyone remembers but in the beginning I got super lost here pretty much anytime I left my apartment. So this is terrifying to me. People from SLC swear it's so easy to get around because we're "on a grid" (??!!) but when I meet people who aren't from here they agree with me that it's confusing AF to get around. So I'm leaving super early to give myself lost time. But I'm super scared and feeling pretty anxious. Keep your fingers crossed for me!