Back on Track

After the excesses, good and bad, of Thanksgiving, I am ready for simplicity again, just some unadorned, healthy food. Here's a bright fresh recipe that suited my craving well:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Tomatoes
Ingredients:
brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved - I used a large bag from Costco
a pint of grape tomatoes
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper


That's it -- just stir all ingredients, coating the veggies well. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange veggies in a roasting pan. Roast for 20-25 minutes. This cooking time is based on the fact that I had a lot of sprouts that filled the roasting pan thickly. If you have a thinner layer, you will want to check the veggies after about 17 minutes or so. They will cook more quickly if they are not as crowded.

Here's the finished product. The sprouts were still crisp-tender, and will still be good when I quickly heat the leftovers up again in the oven. The tomatoes were hot and sweet and just beginning to burst. My favorite part is the crispy, paper-like outer edges of the sprouts.  Really, really delicious, and just what I wanted to eat!

In addition to these veggies, I made a simple salad:

So minimal -- fresh spinach, half an avocado, a couple of radishes and a squeeze of lime juice. You could also add some evoo, but I felt the veggies were rich enough with all their oil. I love the combination of radishes and avocados together. They are complete opposites that compliment each other well. My omni husband loved this salad!

Next to the salad bowl, here's my whole dinner plateful:

Again simple and easy, my main dish was a couple of gardein cutlets sauteed in a little olive oil and earth balance, then brightened with a squeeze of lemon juice, and smothered in onions and peppers I had also sauteed in the oil/butter. I topped it off with capers.  Mmmm.  Andres had the same thing, but with a tilapia fillet in a separate pan. That's right, I had two pans going! But that's okay, since all the rest was identical prep. The kids, swamped with school projects and not big fans of fish, gardein or brussels sprouts, ate leftover pasta in their rooms while working. I also gave them bowls of plain spinach which they just grab with their fingers and cram in their mouths. They always used to put ranch dressing all over the spinach, but now just leafy finger food -- isn't it funny how their tastes keep changing too? I would have done more for them, but they didn't care.

Seeing these photos again makes me hungry -- maybe a little bowl of re-roasted sprouts for breakfast?