Beef and Ratatouille Skillet
Beef and Ratatouille Skillet
Fresh eggplant, squash and tomatoes with lean ground beef
Adding protein to a classic vegetable dish
This Beef and Ratatouille Skillet sure sounds fancy but it’s truly a classic vegetable dish that uses eggplant, yellow squash and a whole list of other vegetables and adds in lean ground beef.
The results? A fantastic post-op dinner in one skillet. Lean meat and vegetables. Voila!
The basic principles of the bariatric diet (as I recommend) is to eat two bites of lean protein to one bite of vegetable. This dish will have a higher ratio of vegetables to beef because it limits food waste to go ahead and cook the whole eggplant, yellow squash, green pepper and tomatoes.Â
If you find yourself with far more vegetables than protein, you may decide to freeze half of the chopped vegetables and save them for a stew another day. This is what I do with my Instant Pot Grilled Vegetable Taco Stew.
One skillet dinners
I’m sure I’m not alone in enjoying dinners I can make quickly on my stovetop using just one pan. Here are a sampling of one skillet dinners on FoodCoachMe:
Beef and Ratatouille Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb 93% lean ground beef
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1/4 cup Light Italian Dressing
- 1 eggplant cut into cubes
- 1 Yellow Squash cut into cubes
- 1 tsp dried minced garlic
- 2 roma tomatoes diced
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
Instructions
- Heat a large deep skillet to medium high heat. Add onion, green pepper and minced garlic. Add ground beef and brown. Drain, remove from pan and set aside.
- Return pan to heat. Add Italian dressing, eggplant and squash. Heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add ground beef mixture back to pan. Cover and turn heat to a low simmer. Add diced tomato. Heat another 10 minutes.
- Remove lid, stir and place onto serving plates. Top with chopped fresh basil.