Eggplant Bake (Southern Living, 1980) AKA DISASTER

I didn't have high hopes for this one.  I typically like eggplant, but the hubs does not.  We keep trying to cook eggplant in different ways to see if it will grow on him, but I think this meal put us back a few steps in the eggplant ranking system.  Lin picked this recipe for us, and I won't say that I blame her for this disaster - really, due to my poor planning, I think I ruined this one all by myself...

Southern Living, 1980, has the following:

My version had a few changes...

EGGPLANT BAKE
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 large eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cream cheese
3 tbls water
3/4 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp onion
1/2 tsp garlic
1/3 cup mozzarella

Spread rice evenly in lightly greased baking dish.  Top with eggplant slices.
Combine next 8 ingredients and pour on top of eggplant.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Top with Mozzarella Cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes

Can you tell everything I changed?  The cottage cheese we had was bad (whoops) and I forgot to buy tomato paste thinking we already had some (double whoops) and I only had vanilla yogurt (triple whoops)...
Oh, and I changed to mozzarella in lieu of cheddar; but I think that was a good call on my behalf (cheddar sounded really weird).  And I just took out the breadcrumbs and butter - why is that in there??  So I substituted/eliminated and will take full blame for the disaster that I created. 

As it was cooking it *almost* smelled good and Chris & I were feeling somewhat encouraged.  But then we took a bite.  To quote my husband, "I have to be honest, this is another strike for Southern Living."  Neither one of us could finish our plates.   Definitely a strike for Southern Living.

At least someone liked it... too bad we won't be making any version of this again.

- Chery