Ratatouille: The Best Way To Eat Lots of Vegetables

As mentioned in my meatball post, a few weeks ago, I had a fair amount of time on my hands, so I decided to make myself a nice dinner. I felt that I needed to amp up my vegetable consumption, so I decided to make one of my favorite dishes: ratatouille. My mom makes this a lot and we love eating it with pasta. Ratatouille is not only super yummy, but it's a great way to eat a lot of veggies -- something my mom always says when she makes it. Of course, everyone's ratatouille is different and you can use whatever vegetables strike your fancy! 

I really enjoyed this dinner, and though it took a while, what with having to prep/clean/dry the veggies, it was well worth the wait. Healthy and delicious! What more could you ask for?!

Ingredients: 
- 1 medium size eggplant
- 1 red pepper (or yellow)
- 1 zucchini
- 1 container cherry tomatoes 
- 2 onions, chopped
- salt, pepper, herbe de provence, garlic powder, to taste
- 1 jar marinara sauce 
Directions:
1. Slice up your eggplant and zucchini.
2. Place eggplant and zucchini in a bowl filled with salt water. Let it sit for a few minutes. This will draw out the bitterness from the veggies. 
3. In the meantime, chop up tomatoes, red pepper, and onions.

4. After about 10 min or so, drain eggplant and zucchini. Pat dry. 
5. Once all of your veggies are prepped and ready to go, it's time to get cooking! 
6. Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat. 
7. Once hot, add eggplant.
8. Once eggplant is slightly browned, add onions.
9. Once onions are a bit translucent, add tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. Mix well. 
10. Once your vegetables start to get soft, add marinara sauce and seasonings like herbes de provence. Mix well. 
11. Cover pot and let simmer until veggies are nice and soft. 
This is optional, but if you want to add the meatballs, you can add them at the very end, if not, enjoy the ratatouille as is! 
Et voila, my ratatouille and meatball pasta!

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