I feel called upon to preach for a moment. The subject is vegetables. Sometimes I just crave them. This is a great thing - used to be, all I craved were Ruffles potato chips or Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Yikes.
I had a discussion with a friend at work yesterday about how her kids won't eat vegetables. I wanted to say [but good manners prevented it] do you SEASON your food?! I've eaten at the homes of people whose only seasonings in the house consisted of salt, pepper, and maybe some garlic salt. That's just wrong people.
You don't have to go crazy with all sorts of herbal knowledge. Just use some seasonings.
I ate an entire Stouffer's spinach souffle for lunch yesterday.
I was making burritos for dinner last night, but for a veggie I wanted cauliflower. I wanted to NOT have to smell it cooking in a yucky way, which is always a danger there. My usual practice is to boil it until soft, then mash up some cheese and spices in it, like mashed potatoes.
Last night, I roasted it. MAJOR YUM. So so easy, too.
I took a head of cauliflower, washed it, and chopped it into florets.
I took a large ziploc plastic bag and put all the florets in there. To that, I added the following, in generous amounts:
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
I shook the bag up a bit. (This is the easy way to coat something you're going to cook. I used to watch my mother and grandmother do this with chicken pieces, coating them in flour prior to frying, except they used a paper bag.)
I dumped the florets in a 9x13 pan and roasted them, uncovered, on 400 degrees for about an hour. They were still a bit chewy. I pulled them out and admired the light brown color. I dumped on some cheddar cheese, and put them back in the oven on 200, until I had finished the burritos, about 15 minutes.
Olive oil is key. It's so good for you. Even if you have to watch your cholesterol, you can have some olive oil every day. It is good cholesterol. Even if you find it intimidating to read about it, buy some. I buy the cheapest kind, usually a store brand, and keep it on the counter near the stove. It never spoils. I buy a little better olive oil to keep to make Elva's Fabulous Salad.You can use it for other stuff, but don't get carried away.. LOL
Michael at a big helping of cauliflower, which did my heart good.
Other than that, yesterday was a pretty quiet day.
Bon Appetit!
