My neighbor gave me two fabulously huge and beautiful yellow squashes out of her garden. I looked for all kinds of squash recipes on the internet as the only recipe I know and love with yellow squash is called calabacitas – a Mexican dish my Aunt Cass makes with lots of cheese. It is amazing but not on this diet!

I opted for a version of a French dish – Ratatouille. I am linking the original recipe (my inspiration) as I made some changes to suit my mood.

Serving size varies with appetite but at least 4-6. Only one of my kids would eat it as they claimed it had good flavor but they did not like the mushy texture of the vegetables. They tried to pick out all the sausage and left the rest. My husband and I thought it was delicious and we each had seconds!

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. of olive oil

2 large yellow squash

1 large onion

1 large eggplant

1 orange and 1 red bell pepper

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 can of tomato sauce (15 oz.)

4 chicken andouille sausage, chopped in small pieces

¼ cup of basil, julienne

Note: to change the recipe into an Activate recipe, add 1 bag of quinoa and brown rice, precooked package (ex: Seeds of Change)

How to make it:

Cut up your vegetables and sear them in small batches in the olive oil for at least 10 minutes a batch on med/high. As you finish each batch, add it to a large crock pot. When finished, pour in the tomato sauce and add the bay leaf. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Stir hourly to make sure all the vegetables get submerged.

When you are ready to serve, sear the andouille sausage and stir into the crockpot. I do this at the end as the sausage is already cooked and will lose flavor and get tough if you cook it for 4 hours! Add the basil and serve hot.

For Activate Recipe: Add your bag of quinoa and brown rice. Let warm up as it is already precooked and it is ready to serve or heat it separately and serve the ratatouille on top.