Broccoli Supreme

I was in charge of side dishes the other day, and I went right for an old standard: Roasted Broccoli.  We had 3 heads of it (without the stems.  I used them in a sauce that will be posted another time) so it was a natural choice.  I wanted to spice it up a bit, so I searched the internet for ideas.  Idea Found.

I mixed a ton of broccoli tops with olive oil and salt.  Then it was spread on a baking sheet with sliced garlic.

Baked at 425 until it was browned....

Then a lemon was juiced and zested (is that the past tense of zest?) on top and mixed with shaved Parmesan Cheese.  

WOW.  This was just as easy to make as regular roasted broccoli, but the taste was out of this world.  That might have had something to do with our new obsession with really good cheeses.  The Parmesan we shaved on it took it right over the edge. 

PS-The main dish was a John concoction of grassfed beef cubes diced even smaller, brown rice, and eggs.  It was delicious!

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Macaroni Monday!

Continuing with the whole oats-in-the-morning thing, today was peanut butter and banana oatmeal.  I heated up the banana and made it all mushy and sweet.  It was really good.  

Now that I am almost totally healthy, Macaroni Monday was back!  I wanted something fast, easy, and healthy so I pulled something from here.  We had all the ingredients for "Velvety Broccoli and Feta Pasta" except the feta, so that's what I made!

I steamed a bag of frozen broccoli in 1 cube of homemade chicken broth.

While that cooked, I cut up an onion and 4 cloves of garlic.

I mixed it all together with a little olive oil and 1/4 cup of parsley and let it cook up.

While THAT cooked, I squeezed up 2 lemons and added it to the mix.

When it was all cooked I threw it in the blender.

Once mixed in with whole wheat shell macaroni?  YUMMY!

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Jackie Cooks Again!

Whew! It's been a while since I made a nice meal. For dinner last night I made spaghetti in clam sauce with roasted broccoli.

The spaghetti sauce recipe is from John's mom, although I do lower the salt content in it to just a sprinkle.

• Crush lots of garlic (almost a whole bulb) and warm it in olive oil
• Add 2 cans of chopped clams (1 with liquid, 1 without)
• Add lots of parsley
• Add breadcrumbs to thicken it up
• Sprinkle Salt and pepper to taste
• Combine with Whole Wheat Spaghetti

I was so excited to have roasted broccoli after reading this that I made sure to buy lots of broccoli and do it with this!

The end result? A meal of beauty that even JOHN had seconds of. And that's really saying something.

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