Ratatouille

The hubby was working late tonight, and he usually cooks, so instead of scrounging for leftovers, I decided that I would take advantage of all the vegetables we have growing, and make something with them.  One of the vegetables that I have not used yet (because they just recently started growing) is eggplant.  So I searched eggplant recipes, and decided on ratatouille.  I found this ratatouille recipe.

I didn't quite have all the ingredients, so I had to tweak it a bit.  Instead of regular olive oil, which I was out of, I used chili garlic infused olive oil.  We didn't plant zucchini, so I used summer squash in it's place.  I omitted the mushrooms (because we didn't have any and because I don't like them), and replaced the parmesan with shredded cheese (again-we were out of parmesan).  I figured the boys would like the cheesy-ness of the shredded cheese a little better than what parmesan would have to offer, anyhow.  It looked so colorful and pretty as I was putting it all together with reds, yellows, and greens!  I had a hard time waiting for it to finish cooking because it smelled so good, too!

I have a family of meat-eaters, and I was a bit concerned these veggies would not be filling enough for them, so I checked the fridge for any leftovers I could put with it.  I found a chicken breast, which I sliced and heated; and I found some bowtie pasta that had been tossed with cheese (probably queso fresco) and something green (probably green onion if I had to guess). 

The verdict:  I thought it was amazingly delicious!  The fresh garden tomatoes were full of flavor, as were the squash and green pepper.  The eggplant was really good, too, although next time I will be sure to use regular olive oil (surprise-after I started baking it I found it!)  The cheese did not seem out-of-place, which I had worried about.  The chicken and pasta were perfect accompaniments, too!  The boys felt a little differently, though.  They don't care for "weird" vegetables, and they barely picked at their plates.  Oh, well-more seconds for me!