First off, let me tell you, this dip is like a piece of heaven. Don’t let the simple ingredients fool you. I want to shove it in my mouth and lick the bowl. And I won’t even feel bad about it because this is all that’s in there:

 

 

I have been trying SO HARD to get back on a clean eating streak. I enjoyed too many glasses of wine and allowed too much sugar to pass my lips. And that is a slippery slope!

 

If you want to have a great week of clean eating, you HAVE TO, HAVE TO, prepare. You must have fresh things at your disposal. I like to make one or two things that will last me the week and get me excited about eating at home. Many times it is a quinoa salad, like my tabouli quinoa or curried quinoa.

 

 

This week I made Barefoot Contessa’s Roasted Eggplant Spread.  It is SO easy you will not believe it could be so good.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes:

 

 

Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper:

 

 

Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking:

 

 

 

Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste and cayenne pepper:

 

 

and pulse 4 or 5 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.

 

 

Then eat like this:

 

 

Or spread on a sandwich like this:

 

 

Let’s look at that again a little closer….soooo good…