Beefy Ratatouille

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     I purchased a produce combination box from my local wholesale produce supplier and among other great items, it contained 4 eggplant!  
      I am not a real expert on cooking eggplant, I've only tried my hand at it a little bit. (Here is an eggplant lasagna I did a few YEARS ago!)  But, I knew that Ratatouille is an eggplant dish.  Two of my grandchildren actually sent me a video of themselves making it!  For some reason that post never made it up here on the blog, but they are adorable and real Foodies at a young age! 

    Thinking of these cuties made me think that I should give Ratatouille a try, but with a twist! 

     My husband and I do like beef.  (We recently purchased 1/2 a beef with Lindsey and her family!)  So, not only did I want to use my eggplant, I wanted to use some of that delicious Montana beef! 
     Also, I need to put a disclaimer out there, I've never actually tasted Ratatouille besides never having made it before!  So, if you are looking for something very authentic, you are looking in the wrong place.  But, if you want to use your eggplant in a tasty ratatouille-ish dish, and incorporate beef, then this recipe is for you.  I did do a lot of research and tried to incorporate the seasonings and flavors used in the recipes I found. 

• Olive oil was used freely throughout all of the recipes I found. Use it to sauté your veggies. 
• Basil and Thyme figured prominently.  You may want to play around with them according to your taste.
• I used canned diced tomatoes flavored with garlic, basil and oregano to enhance those flavors. You could also use fresh cherry tomatoes. 
• I coarsely chopped the garlic cloves and threw them in the veggie mixture.  They became soft and disappeared leaving behind their wonderful flavor.  Next time I may put in more. 
• When I first made this recipe, I used a Tablespoon of Thyme, but it was very thyme heavy in flavor, so I increased the basil and lowered the amount of thyme I used and wrote the recipe that way. You can always change it according to your taste.
• Let the vegetable mixture simmer as long as possible because the vegetables are supposed to be soft and buttery.

Even with the beef, this is a very veggie heavy recipe.

     Now that we are empty nesters, I still have the problem of making too much food for just my husband and myself.  This recipe should feed us for the next couple of days.  We aren't mad about it.
       Let me know if you give it a try! 

Or give these recipes a try: 

• Chicken Fajita Casserole
• South of the Border Casserole