I chuckled at your having no other goal at first other than getting your kids to eat it! Wish mine weren't so picky! I've made lasagna with eggplant sliced thinly lengthwise and substituted for the pasta (so, eggplant noodles) a couple times, and then the Husband said he liked lasagna with pasta better. So much for that!

So you didn't have to salt it and let all the excess water drip out before roasting it? Maybe you're getting a different variety there. The ones I bought were so juicy that I'm pretty sure they'd have just gotten soggy if I tried roasting them.