Easy Ratatouille

Hey kids! Van graciously added me to the blog, which I'm really, really excited about. I tend to be the rip-open-a-bag-of-salad-and-dump-some-tuna-on-top type eater, since it's hard to cook for one, and during the school year Ben and I are usually too busy to cook for one another. But now that we're supposed to be studying for the bar, um, we suddenly have so much non-free time that we want to use for other things. Like cooking! We were on a homemade pizza kick awhile back and burning through bags of mozzarella fairly regularly, and on the back of the Kraft 2% Milk Mozzarella was this recipe. I love ratatouille, and have ever since I was in France after 8th Grade and we cooked it in the dorm--easy, tasty, healthy. This took about 40 min from beginning of veggie-chopping to completion, and you could probably add whatever other veggies you wanted to it (yellow squash or mushrooms would probably be delicious).

The recipe:

Easy Ratatouille

1 large eggplant, cut into bite-size pieces
1 medium red pepper, cut into ½-in wide strips, then cut crosswise in half
1 medium onion, cut into ½-in-thick slices
1 medium zucchini, cut into ½-in thick slices
¼ C South Beach Living Italian Dressing
1 can (14.5 oz) low-sodium diced tomatoes, undrained
½ C Kraft 2% Milk Shredded Reduced Fat mozzarella cheese (I probably used more than this... I do love cheese)
2 Tbsp Kraft Grated Parmesan cheese

Mix eggplant, peppers, onions, zucchini, and dressing in a large skillet; cook and stir on medium-high heat 6-8 min or until vegetables are crisp-tender and lightly browned. Add tomatoes; cook 15 min, stirring occasionally. Top w/ cheeses; cover. Cook an additional 5 min or until mozzarella cheese is melted.

(Tip: when buying eggplant, look for one that is firm to the touch.) <--that's what the bag said, and I thought it was useful. :)

Oh, and I didn't take any pictures of the real deal last night, but here are photos of the leftovers from this evening, served with brown rice:






...and then, of course, we watched Ratatouille, which gets cuter and more charming every time I see it.