Each square = 100 calorie count

100 Calorie Brownie Bites. Photography by Christian Stella and Elise Stella

Harvesting Ground Cherries at the Lowell Elementary School Garden

I feel incredibly lucky that our elementary school has a fantastic learning garden. During the school year, students help prep, plant and maintain the garden. During the summer, families volunteer to take care of the garden, making sure the beds get plenty of water, weeding as needed and harvesting ripe vegetables. Last week was our week to tend to the garden and when we arrived, the boys and I were delighted to see their literal fruits of their labor from earlier in the school year. The garden was overflowing with big, fat juicy tomatoes, deep purple eggplant, humungous zucchini and vibrant peppers. Ratatouille anyone?

Well, not for my kids who are pretty much against eggplant and zucchini. But I recently came across this Grilled Ratatouille with Pasta recipe from Martha Stewart and I knew I had a chance to convert them.

It doesn't get any easier than this:



Cook a 1lb of pasta (we used farfalle) according to package instructions. Reserve a cup of pasta water and return cooked pasta to the pot. Heat grill. Brush the following with olive oil: 1 large zucchini (cut lengthwise into thick slices), 2 bell peppers (halved, stemmed and seeded), 2 red onions (halved), 1 large eggplant (cut lengthwise into thick slices), 4-6 large tomatoes (cut crosswise into thick slices). Season with salt and pepper and grill all the vegetables until browned and tender. Roughly chop the grilled vegetables then add to pasta. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

The boys ate it all up. And asked for seconds. Just one of many reasons all schools should have a school garden!

It was a perfect storm - the little one had decided on going on a "pasta only" diet. Fridge was nearly empty with one lone eggplant hanging out in the crisper. Afternoon thunderstorms were in the forecast. It was time to try Rainy Day Rigatoni.

I came across this dish on one of my favorite websites, www.thekitchn.com. The recipe actually comes from Apron Anxiety, blog from Alyssa Shelasky. I absolutely love her writing style and the site's design is simple yet sophisticated. Thanks kitchn for introducing me to yet another gem.


This dish is very easy to make using ingredients you probably have on hand. I made some modifications to the recipe based on what we had in the house (Penne instead of rigatoni, diced tomatoes v. crushed, oregano instead of basil, red onion and garlic).

The family chowed just as the storm blew through. The look on umdaddy's face told me this was a winner. And just as my son finished the last morsel of eggplant, the sun was shining. And was there a rainbow at the end of our meal? Maybe. I was too busy to notice as I was squirreling away the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

Adapted from Apron Anxiety's Rainy Day Rigatoni
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS: