"If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff."

It's summer time and nothing is better in the summer than fresh veggies! After a weekend of putting lots of calories into our bodies and spending a lot of money doing it in Chicago, it's time to get back to the cheap, fresh and light.  I had planned on making this dish last week but it never worked out so last night was the perfect time to whip out some Ratatouille.  The best thing about this dish is that it is so simple and easy to make.  It is also incredibly cheap.

I decided to add meat into our ratatouille since I like to incorporate protein into all of my dinners.  I also took out the eggplant that is usually used in this dish since Eric is not so much the fan.  So ingredients were:

zucchini

yellow squash

onion

garlic

tomato puree

bell pepper

italian sausage

salt

pepper

olive oil

thyme

I ended up having too many veggies so you can probably cut down on some, just depending on what you want more/less of.  

So to start, I sliced everything into rounds and chopped the onions and garlic up.  I also browned the sausage in a pan just to make it easier to cut into rounds. 

Once everything was cut up, I placed some tomato puree in the bottom of a casserole dish.  I added the chopped onions, garlic, a little olive oil, and a lot of salt and pepper.  The salt and pepper added to this dish are the main source of flavor so make sure you add enough so they actually come through.  Plus, the salt really makes the tomato taste amazing.  It brings out its sweetness and gets rid of a lot of the tart. 

I gave the tomato mixture a quick stir just to incorporate and then began adding the veggies and sausage.  I chose to layer them but you can actually just throw it all in if you want.  You also have the option of cutting the veggies into chunks/pieces instead of rounds and slices. 

I then topped it again with salt and pepper and sprinkled some olive oil and thyme, covered it in foil and then put it in the oven at 350 F for 55 minutes. 

While that was cooking, I cooked 1 cup of quinoa using chicken and beef broth for the liquids.  

The Ratatouille came out great.  You want to make sure the veggies still have a little crunch to them so they don't get soggy and just become mush. 

I served the dish on top of a mound of quinoa and topped it with feta cheese.  I have done this before with parmesan and I know some serve it with goat but I don't like goat cheese and feta sounded very fresh so that's what I went with!  

 The hardest part about serving this was getting it out of the dish without having all the slices fall apart everywhere.  I think the sausage was a nice touch since it had those great Italian flavors in it that fit well with the tomato base.  The quinoa was a great way to soak up all the juices with less calories than rice.  Overall, this turned out really well.  I made this once before for my mom and I can definitely say it came out better this time than the last. It's such a great cheap meal that is so light and healthy but delicious at the same time!

I will work on getting Moto pictures up soon.  There were a lot of courses and a lot to remember so hopefully I can do it justice.