Munchie Monday: Easy Roasted Vegetables

Recently I have been trying to use less added fat.  Mainly because I have been listening to Chef AJ.  I like her thinking.

This morning I used a wonderful summer squash and some other vegetables to make a big tray of roasted vegetables.  They were absolutely fabulous.  The crowning glory was the cherry tomatoes cut in half the way Sarah C. taught me a couple of summers ago.  Mister, they are some good!!!

This is what I did:

Preheated the oven to 400 degrees F.

Half sheet pan covered with a Silpat mat.

Sliced crookneck summer squash in 1/4" slices and filled the whole bottom of the pan.

Cored one large red bell pepper and cut into about 1-inch pieces and sprinkled on top.

Sliced, then chopped, one large red onion and placed on top of the red peppers.

Cut 10 ounces of grape tomatoes in half and sprinkle on top.

The final step was to briefly spray with non-stick spray then sprinkle on Greek Seasoning.

Put in the oven and roasted for 30 minutes.  Removed from oven and stirred.  Returned to oven for 30 more minutes.  Removed from oven.  Thought they were not quite done so put them back for 15 more minutes.

When they came out they were so good I had to ration them to keep from eating the whole pan.  After all, I want some for lunch tomorrow!

 I will make these again.  There is NOTHING to beat a roasted cherry tomato.  Thank you, Sarah! Truly.

Food Bonus: Roasted Cauliflower with Mustard Cream Sauce

It really is hard to beat nicely roasted cauliflower.  (Thanks, Rachelle, for teaching me so many years ago!)  Today I tried adding a sauce to the roasted cauliflower.  Oh, my, was it good!!!  For breakfast.

I also brought it to the office for lunch.  If there is any leftover, I will eat it for supper!

Here is a quick synopsis of what I did:

Roasted Cauliflower with Mustard Cream Sauce!  So good.
 375 oven

Put cauliflower in cast iron skillet, sliced in thirds and drizzled with olive oil.  Covered with cast iron cover.  Foil would work.  Baked 30 minutes.  

Removed cover and cooked an additional 25 minutes, until tender.

The underside of the roasted cauliflower.  Isn't it pretty!

Sauce
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons stone ground mustard

1 Tablespoon whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons snipped scallions, green part.

Melt butter and add flour.  Cook for 1-2 minutes then add cream.  Cook for 2-3 minutes then add the salt and mustard.  Cook, stirring, until thick. Add snipped scallions.  Pour over the roasted cauliflower.

So good.  Did I already say that?  My plan is to share at lunch time but the closer I get to that time the less I want to share....I guess I better buck up and remember a giving nature is a Christ-like attribute.

LATER:  Well, I did not happen to share the sauced cauliflower with the people in the office.  I did not stop for lunch.  Well, actually I had to go home, or chose to go home, to pick up the Envelope Punch Board by WeRMemoryKeepers. I also picked up a 12 by 12 pad of paper  and the 1-2-3 Punch Board. (While at home I ate a sausage I had left in the microwave earlier...Hope it won't kill me but I was hungry by then...) I had opened an enveloped that was not addressed properly so I thought it was meant for the mission office, since that is what it said on the outside of the pretty blue sparkly envelope.  When I opened it, the first this I saw was:  "Dear Sister M...."  Whoops!  Not for the office...so I went home to get paper and punch board to make a new envelope to mail the card to the missionary in.

After making the envelope ( a cool purple one), I showed Sister J and Sister D how to make envelopes, then we worked together to make a box on the 1-2-3 Punch Board. Both sisters liked the punch boards.  Maybe a sale for WeRMemoryKeepers!  Nice.

Anyway, by the time we had finished that Sister B. had come in to talk about some changes to documents on our missionary portal.  Then President B. came in for other meetings and when he was done Sister J. and I were involved President and Sister until we finished learning some nifty new things that will make Transfers so much easier on everyone.  And it was time to go home.  

So I ate the last of the cauliflower for supper.  Dear One was not interested at all.  NOT. AT. ALL. Well, his loss.  The best part about that was that I did not eat anything after supper.  First time in ages I did not get sucked into getting more stuff for him to eat and then joining him.  I feel virtuous, and hopeful that the scales will be my friend in the morning...

Munchie Monday: Roasted Cauliflower, Sort Of

Last night I needed to go to the nearby Grocery Outlet (a place I can walk with my stroller to hold the groceries on the way home. I can also put on my headset and listen to a book. Currently the book is Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond who also wrote Paddington Bear.  Enjoyable. 

When I got to the store there was a big display of large heads of cauliflower so I picked one up.  Today I turned it into roasted cauliflower.

This is what I did:

Cut/sliced cauliflower about 1/4 inch thick and placed in a large bowl. Drizzled the cauliflower with olive oil then used a long-handled wooden spoon to coat all the cauliflower with the oil.  Sprinkled on the last two teaspoons of the homemade Greek seasoning then stirred well.

Baked in a pre-heated 375 degree F oven for 30 minutes, turning once at about 20 minutes.  After 30 minutes I shut of the heat but left the cauliflower in the oven for another half hour.  This is what it looks like.  It tastes GREAT!  I will have to exercise extreme self-control not to eat it all before bedtime...

Munchie Monday: Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Here is the promised recipe for Roasted Rosemary Potatoes.  Daughter M found the recipe on The Barefoot Contessa-Ina Garden on the Food Network

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes 

1 -1/2 lb. small red potatoes-we used new red potatoes

2 Tbs olive oil

3/4 tsp kosher salt 

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tbs. fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary; toss until the potatoes are well coated. 

Dump the potatoes on a baking sheet (we lined our sheet with Silpat) and spread out into 1 layer; roast in the oven for at least 1 hour, or until browned and crisp. Flip twice with a spatula during cooking to ensure even browning.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, season to taste, and serve.

These were really scrumptious!  Dear One ate quite a good serving of them.  Yay!  Successful cooking.

Food Friday: Roasted Vegetables Again

Roasting vegetables is a such a delicious way to get vegetables into bodies.  Well, I love most vegetables so they are not a problem for me.  At the weight and wellness class the other day Jane told me she had roasted beets, cabbage, and onions.  I tried it.  It was scrumptious!

This does look rather unappetizing but it was amazingly good.

Chop half a green cabbage into large-sized dice.  Chop one large onion into the size pieces you like, about the same size as the cabbage.  Scrub and dry 4 small beets. Cut off the tap root then chop everything you have left (no skinning, not taking off the cap of the beet) into medium-sized dice.  Place all into a large bowl.  Pour on 2-3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and stir to coat.  In a small bowl, mix together 1 teaspoon granulated garlic and 1 teaspoon granulated onions, 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper.  Sprinkle the spice mixture on the vegetables and stir again.

Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees F. for 30 minutes.  Stir and roast another 30 minutes.  This is how I did it.  It worked in our oven.  You might want to check more often to see if they are done to your liking.  I wanted the beets to be VERY WELL done.  Not a big fan of them, but they are good for us so...

Garden Harvest: Roasted Beets

Beets are not my favorite vegetables.  They are edible however, and are supposed to be very good for you.  SO...when I was given a bunch of beets, I decided to roast some of them.  In the back of my mind I remember making some wonderful roasted beets many years ago when dear friends asked us to use their CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) shares when they were going to be gone for half the summer.  That particular CSA hostess often included recipes, especially for vegetables that were lesser well-known.  She gave us a recipe for roasted beets, roasted in the (well-scrubbed) skins.  They were so very good.  Just not good enough for me to plant beets in our garden yet.  If I find the recipe and it still is as good as I remember, perhaps beets will be in the garden next year.

This is what I did with the beets:

Scrubbed 5 large beets.  Cut off the tops and the root ends.  Cut the beets in half then sliced into 1/2 inch slices then sliced the other direction as well.

Put the beet chunks in a 3-quart bowl.

Beets in 3-quart bowl

Added to the bowl:
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mixed all this together well (I used my hands, but you could use a rubber spatula or long-handled wooden spoon.  I enjoyed licking the salt-pepper-and-thyme-y goodness off my fingers.)

Preheated the oven to 400 degrees F.

Beets on pan and ready to roast

Put the prepared beets on a large rimmed baking pan, in this case a half-sheet pan.  Spread the beets around so they were in one layer.  Cooked for 30 minutes.  Removed from oven and stirred well then returned to oven for another 30 minutes of cooking.  Removed from oven again and let sit a few minutes to cool.

Roasted beets cooling

They were more than edible!  Not fantastic as in feeling like I had died-and-gone-to-Heaven good, but very much eat-able.  Based on how these taste, I may try to turn some of them into borscht soup.  My last effort in the borscht department was such a disaster taste-wise that I thought I would never make it again.  Just today I saw a recipe that looks really good.  It uses sauercraut!  What can go wrong with sauercraut?!

Food Friday: Roasted Parsnips. Yes!

We came into two very large parsnips.  I thought of putting them into a soup pot but then thought of something else.  Roasted vegetables are so good.  Why not roast parsnips?!

So I did.

This is what I did:

Peeled the parsnips.

Cut the parsnips in half then sliced them into about 1/2 inch slices which I then chopped into about the same size chunks.

Parsnips coated with olive oil and seasonings

Put the parsnips in a large bowl with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.  Stir until all chunks are coated with the oil.  Sprinkle over the top in 1 teaspoon of garlic/onion granule mixture, 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, and 1/2 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt.   Toss until every piece is seasoned then put in preheated 350 degree F. oven for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, check to see that the parsnips are softened.  If they are not quite soft enough for you, give an additional 10 minutes in the oven.

Roasted parsnips ready to eat!

Add more salt if you think they need it.

These tasted pretty good.  We shared them with the local grandchildren.  Did not expect Dear One to even try one...

Garden Harvest: Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

We had about a quart of cherry tomatoes that I did not want to eat in salads or just plain.  What to do?  What to do?  Why not try roasting them?  Lots of vegetables taste wonderful roasted, even if they are not so hot raw or cooked other ways.  I repeat:  why not try roasting them?

This is what I did:

Washed the cherry tomatoes after removing a few stems.

Cut the tomatoes in half an put in a large bowl.

Poured a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over them and swished the bowl around to connect the tomatoes to the oil.

Sprinkled on 1 teaspoon granulated onions and garlic (50/50 mixture I had made to take on vacation and which needed to be used up), 1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning--oregano, basil, etc.  (NOT Italian salad dressing mix), and 1/2 teaspoon of coarse Kosher salt.  Mixed well by sloshing the bowl around a bit to get the seasonings on all the tomato parts.

Roasted Tomatoes showing the caramelizing.

Put tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet that has been covered by parchment paper.  There will probably be a little some delicious "juice" in the bowl.  That can be used to flavor some other vegetable dish.

Place the pan in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 45 minutes or so.

They will be nicely caramelized and taste really delicious.