Roasted Veggies

I love, love, love roasted veggies. In fact, most days I will just re-heat the veggies for lunch with a big side salad and call it a day. I don't miss the meat at all.

Now, let's talk root veggies we need to step out of the carrots and potato mentality. There are sooo many amazing root veggies out there (turnips for example) that taste amazing when roasted, and the kids never notice. So next time you hit the grocery store, and you want to grab an extra veggie for the family to try out...roasting is a great way to do it.

I also love to mix in some fennel, celery, garlic, onions or leeks to add flavor and aeromatics. Use one or all of these amazing veggies to change up your palate. Ok, with that said, I'll give you my most used combo...but PLEASE get creative and come up with your own according to what your family likes most.

Ingredients:
1lg          Vidalia Onion

1lg          Fennel Bulb (with fronds and root base removed)

3lg          Carrots

2lg          Parsnips

splash     Olive Oil

sea salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400degrees. Roughly chop veggies into slightly larger than bite sized pieces. Carrots and turnips a bit smaller than fennel and onion.

2. Toss veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on cookie sheet with parchment paper.

3. Bake for 1 hour - 1:15, until brown and carmelized. Toss every 20 minutes or so to evenly cook.
Then turn off the oven and leave them in there for an extra 15 minutes to soak up all the juice.
Super tasty, all the ingredients get super sweet and release their natural sugars, I love this with a spicy roast or like I said, for lunch with some fresh green salad. In fact I will often put roast veggies on top of my salad to give myself a little change. It's great with the Red Onion Dressing.

The leftovers are perfect to toss into a pot with some stock and meat for a soup the next day.(if you actually have leftovers)

ALTERNATIVE: you can also use a splash of apple juice, and balsamic vinegar for a sweeter twist

Meatloaf (featured recipe)

Today we are featuring a recipe from my new cookbook Everyday Paleo.  Written by a busy mom of 3, Sarah Fragoso. She has a great easy going approach to the Healthy Cooking, I love her already. Here's a little taste of what she has to offer, with lot's more to come.

MeatLoaf
Ingredients:

2 pounds        Ground Beef
1 cup             Almond Meal
2                    Eggs
1 (6oz)           Tomato Paste
1                    Red Onion - finely diced
3 cloves          Garlic - minced
1/2 cup           Fresh Basil - minced
1 tsp               Marjoram
1/2 TBLs        Sea Salt
2 tsp.              Pepper

1. Pre-heat your oven 350 degrees.

2. Mix all ingredients together by hand in large mixing bowl.

3. Place meatloaf mixture into a large glass baking dish. form into a loaf.

4. Bake 1 hour, or until meatloaf is no longer pink in the middle

Ok, I made this for my family last night and made just few tiny adjustments. I did not have almond meal so I ground some almonds and made a fine powder to add. I only used about 1/4 cup of this almond powder. I used a palm full of dried basil (didn't have fresh) I also added fresh parsley (minced).

It was a little dry for my taste. I think when I make this again I will add Braggs Liquid Aminos to moisten it. I might also make a glaze with Worchershire sauce for the outside to create a crust; or perhaps cover in marinara sauce to bake, it just needed a little something extra for me. But all in all, I liked the recipe. I loved her use of tomato paste instead of ketchup, which has soooo much sugar in it.

So leftovers... they would make an amazing base for some meat sauce. Just crumble meatloaf into marinara and serve over some baked spaghetti squash - YUM! Or use in chili, soup, lasagna etc.
Or another idea, is to just bag it up into freezer bags to store for the next time you need some italian style hamburger for a dinner.

Hope you try it out and let me know how you made it. Looking forward to sharing some more of Sarah's recipes soon. If you like them I would highly recommend her cookbook, I have found several recipes I'm looking forward to try.

Everyone's Journey starts at day one...where will you end up?

Easy Winter Salsa ---bonus raw chili

So wintertime means no fresh garden tomatos..but that doesn't mean no fresh salsa! That would be a travesty! So here is a little recipe to get you through the season...

Ingredients:

2Lg cans       Diced Tomatos
1-2               Whole Jalapenos - spicy
                     (remove stem, seeds and membranes - mild)
1sm              Onion
bunch           Cilantro (handful)
3-4cloves     Garlic
1-2               Limes (juice)
                    sea salt & pepper

1. In a blender - dice jalapenos, garlic, some tomatos and some cilantro.
Blend until finely chopped (no large pieces) place in a glass or metal bowl.

2. In the blender - pulse the rest of the tomatos, onions, and the rest of the cilantro. (pulse till desired thickness)  Add to bowl.

3. Season with lime juice (and/or zest - your call) salt & pepper,
If too acidic add a TBLs. of raw honey
This will taste best after a few hours sitting in the fridge.

BONUS RECIPE: Raw-ish Chili

Grab some black beans (canned) drain and heat. Pour into a bowl, Cover in fresh cold salsa. Add a pinch or two of cumin. Stir.
- you could use a different bean too.

Makes a great lunch, but split it in two and you could easily get a couple snacks out of it. I like to up the raw veggie factor by adding fresh dice tomatoes, green chillies, avocados, cilantro or mangos etc.

Could be used in corn totillas as a filling if you tolerate corn. Lettuce wraps are a great alternative to tortillas. Of course all the usual suspects: cheese, corn, tortilla chips, sour cream etc. if you are not avoiding these foods. but I just love it in the bowl covered in yummy avocado...so good!