Two For One Special!!

I haven't posted much lately and I do have another nail polish post to put up but I thought I'd do a quickie.

We eat a lot of broccoli and asparagus in this household and after I figured out the perfect way to roast them I'll never ever ever ever ever go back to steaming. EVER!

Let's start with the Roasted Broccoli.
1 bunch of raw broccoli
2 TBS of olive oil or coconut oil (I like using lemon or garlic infused olive oil!)
1/2 tsp sea salt

Wash and cut the broccoli into smaller pieces with long stems
Toss the broccoli with the olive oil and salt
Spread it out in a baking dish
Bake at 400F (204C) for 12-15 minutes until tender and slightly browned.
EAT!

Roasted Asparagus:
1 large bundle of asparagus (20 to 30 spears)
1 TBS coconut oil or olive oil.
Sea salt to taste (pepper and thyme too if you want)

Wash and remove the tough ends of the asparagus
Place in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet
Drizzle the oil over the asparagus and toss it around to make sure it gets evenly coated
Bake for 10 minutes at  400F (204C) THEN reduce the heat to 250F (121C) and bake for another 15 minutes.
Season it up with some salt and pepper!
EAT!

I'm telling you, this is how we will eat broccoli and asparagus for the rest of our lives... OK GARY? FOREVER!!!!

That is all. :)

Rosemary Chicken and Roasted Broccoli

My pictures always look like garbage. I can't ever get food pictures to look "good" but maybe that's because I'm using my phone? I really should invest in a good camera. <.<

Anyway, this turned out to be really, really good (and not because I was STARVING by the time dinner rolled around).

You're going to need:
4 chicken breasts
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
zest of lemon
2 Tbs fresh rosemary
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper


Ok, for starters, I didn't have any lemon to zest so I used a lemon infused olive oil from Olive Creations. When it came to the rosemary, I pulled the sprigs off of the stems and kinda roughly chopped it.
Get a big bowl and mix up the garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss in the chicken breasts and make sure they're completely covered in the marinade. Let it marinade for 30+ minutes. Obviously, the longer the better. I think I let it go for about 4 hours.

Preheat your oven to 400F (205C). Heat up a large pan over medium high heat. You shouldn't need to add any more fat to the pan since you marinated it in so much oil. Once it's very hot, place the chicken breasts in the pan and let them cook for 3 to 5 minutes on either side. DON'T flip them back and forth. Let it cook on one side and when you can turn them with no resistance then it's time to flip to the other side and let it cook on that side for the same amount of time.
Remove the chicken from the pan, and place in a dish to put in the oven that you've pre-heated. Put them in for about 15 minutes so that they can finish cooking (NO pink).

Now, when I was done cooking these I wrapped them up in foil and put to the side so I could roast some broccoli really quick. I did this for the first time last week and I don't think I'll ever steam broccoli again. Roasted broccoli is AMAZING!

All you need to do is turn the oven up to 500F (260C). Toss the broccoli (3 to 4 large crowns) in a large bowl with about 3 Tbs of olive oil and 5 to 6 cloves of minced garlic. Put it in the heated oven for about 10 minutes give or take. When it's done, just put it on your plates, unwrap that chicken and NOM NOM NOM!

I didn't feel like it was missing anything without the lemon zest, in fact I think the lemon would have been overpowering. The lemon olive oil was perfect. I could smell it while it was cooking and had a hint of it while I ate it.

Asparagus with Mushrooms

I made this as a side last night with our Cumin Chicken. I wasn't happy with the chicken recipe. It was "ok/edible" but I realized that I really don't like cumin all that much. It cooked up nice and tender so I'll make it again but this time with a different herb or selection of herbs.

Anyway, back to the asparagus and mushrooms. First off, don't be turned off because of the mushrooms. I HATE mushrooms but I used them, picked them out and the asparagus was just as delicious so feel free to leave them out or if you're making some for people who do like mushrooms, just pick them out. I slice them in BIG slices to make that easier.

 You're going to need:
- 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
- 1/4 tsp sea salt, (optional)
- freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 1 pound fresh asparagus, ends trimmed
- 2 Tbs Coconut oil (but I used olive - Gary isn't a huge coconut fan)
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 cup green onions, sliced



Ok, Add the vinegar, 1 Tbs of the oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Add the asparagus in boiling water, just enough to make them crisp (few minutes)
Drain and IMMEDIATELY pour iced water over them (or blanch them by dumping them into a bowl of ice water)
Heat the remaining oil in a pan on medium high heat.
Add mushrooms and saute until they are soft.
Add green onions and saute for another minute.
Add the asparagus and cook for another 3 minutes.
REMOVE from the heat then slowly add in the vinegar mixture.

EAT!