Homage to Gusteau and Nancy: Clean Eating Ratatouille and Clean Popovers

Music: Boston. Basically any song by Boston.
Beverage: Water. You gotta hydrate people!

Steve actually made this one – before I got home from work he prepped the veggies, mixed the seasonings and had all the instrumentation ready for a rumble! It was excellent! We downed our smoothies, blasted out a quick run, then came back and he threw it (neatly and artistically) into a casserole dish and POOF! Dinner was in the oven in a matter of minutes! Its clean, its simple, its GOOD for you, and its TASTY tomatoey-deliciosity! I'm telling you, if you like Italian flavors.. you will LOVE this dish!

Complimenting this fabulous main dish was popovers – a Nancy classic J A delicious, eggy, airy side “bread” that compliments just about everything under the sun. We’ve “cleaned” it up by using whole wheat pastry flour, soy margarine and skim milk… but they sure do smell JUST the same as moms! YUM!

The magic here is that we cooked both dishes simultaneously. And since you can’t (DON’T YOU DARE) open the oven during popover baking (DON’T EVEN THNK ABOUT IT), it’s a dang good thing… don’t you think? (you sure do!) Our ratatouillie had to bake for an extra 10 minutes after we took the popovers out to get that just right texture! YUM!!

Clean Ratatouille (15 servings)

Ingredients

Sauce

×          3 - 15 oz. cans tomato sauce (no additives people! And Sugar free if you can!)

×          1 tablespoon garlic powder

×          1 tablespoon onion powder

×          1 tablespoon basil

×          Dash Oregano

×          Dash Parsely

×          Dash Thyme

Main Dish

×          1 lb zucchini, sliced

×          1 lb yellow squash, sliced

×          1 lb tomato, sliced

×          1 lb eggplant, sliced

Instructions

1.       Set oven to 400 degrees

2.       In a large bowl, combine Sauce ingredients and mix thoroughly

3.       Slice and dice your veggies

Casserole Dish (9” x 13”)

4.       Layer in a 9” x 13” casserole dish

5.       Ladle/pour sauce on top of veggies

6.       Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until you can easily puncture the veggies 

Before we put on the heat...

Clean Popovers (12 popovers)

Ingredients

×          2 eggs, room temperature (or warmed up in some room temperature water)

×          1 cup slim or soy milk, room temperature

×          1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

×          1 tablespoon soy margarine, melted

×          ½ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

1.       Set oven to 400 degrees

2.       Mix all ingredients in blender for 40 seconds (no longer!)

3.       Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray of your choosing (please, make it a healthy one)

4.       Fill cups 2/3 full

5.       Place in oven and DO NOT DISTRUB for 35-40 minutes