Guest Author - Jill Valente

My husband and I recently moved into a bigger apartment to make room for our baby girl who is due at the end of November. Although I am thrilled about the new place, I am not so enthused about my new grocery store. I used to have 2 fabulous markets right near my house and now I just have one big food store that doesn’t have nice produce, seafood or meat. The only good thing that has come out of this is they sell reusable bags which I am now obsessed with. Using reusable bags is obviously great for the environment as plastic bags create litter and waste oil, but they are also great for life in general! I like to carry my bag around with me everywhere I go and use it in the store while I shop instead of a basket as it’s much lighter. Plus it can hold about 5 plastic bags worth of stuff and is very sturdy. Then when you get home there are no unsightly bags to throw out. It’s honestly a more enjoyable process and I hope everyone tries it!

On to the food…

Even though my new grocery store stinks, I have found a little market that has some really great produce and baked goods. It’s almost like a farmers market but on 86th Street in Manhattan and just like a farmers market, they don’t have everything you need but what they do have always looks fabulous. The vegetables I saw there this week were the inspiration behind my pasta dish. I am not sure how Greek this meal really is but the market is Greek and I use feta cheese so that’s Greek enough for me. Try it out tonight!

Greek Vegetable Pasta

Ingredients
• 1 small eggplant, diced
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 pint sweet cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 2 ears corn on the cob, kernels removed
• 2 cups marinara sauce
• 1 tbsp herbs de provence
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 12 ounces whole wheat pasta
• ½ cup fresh feta cheese, crumbled

Directions
Combine the diced eggplant and salt in a colander and place in a sink for about 5 minutes. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion, zucchini and eggplant and sauté for 10 minutes until vegetables are soft. Then add the cherry tomatoes, corn kernels, marinara sauce, herbs de province and black pepper. Toss to combine and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile boil a pot of water and prepare pasta according to the package. When the pasta is ready, combine with the vegetable sauce and top with crumbled feta cheese. Makes 6 servings. 8 points per serving.