Fun with veggies

Roasted sweet potatoes and Zucchini parmesan

 Today I wanted to share two veggie recipes. The first being a Roasted sweet potato, the second being a zucchini parmesan. Veggies can be the blah part of the meal, the classic "Billy eat your peas or you don't get dessert!". I am here today to show ways to make your veggies pop and be the star of the meal.

  

Eating healthy is a very important part of my life, so naturally I eat a lot of vegetables. This can be boring if you stick to the same serving of peas or green beans. I like to mix it up and do something great tasting and yet still fairly simple to make. One of my favorite ways to do this is by making oven roasted sweet potatoes.

 Meal prep is a weekly task for me so I like to lean toward something that is easy and quick to make but has a taste I wont dread eating everyday for lunch. Normally my lunched consist of brown rice, ground turkey or chicken breast and a veggie of some sort. Roasted sweet potatoes have fast become one of my favorites to pack. 

Savory roasted sweet potatoes:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Medium to large sweet potatoes (the orange ones also known as yams)
• 1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (enough to lightly coat the potatoes)
• pepper to taste
• paprika to taste

*Preheat oven to 350*

*this step is slightly optional depending on if you like the skin of the potato*

 -Wash and peel potatoes, cut away any discolored spots.

 -Cube up into approximately 1 inch cubes, put in large mixing bowl.

pour in olive oil, just enough to lightly coat the potatoes. stir potatoes coating them with the olive oil and add in the pepper and paprika to your personal liking. make sure everything is well mixed and evenly coated.

- Pour onto a baking sheet in one layer.

-Bake for 20-30 minutes or until fork tender.

This recipe is super simple to make and can be mixed up just by playing with your spice mix!

 Try with ground nutmeg, cinnamon and a little ground ginger to make a slightly sweeter version.

Zucchini parmesan:

Next up Zucchini parmesan, a twist on the classic eggplant parmesan. Personally I am a huge fan of zucchini, so I find myself wanting to use this wonderful squash in new ways. I just happened to have some bread crumbs in the cabinet and thought to myself... why not? So one night before the gym I whipped up a little gourmand meal for myself.

*Preheat oven to 375*

Ingredients:

• 2 large Zucchini
• 1/2-3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cups bread crumbs (I used whole wheat panko)
• dried parsley
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder (seasoning is always to personal taste, add more or less to fir what you like)
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• paprika
• 1/4 cup shredded or grated parmesan (I used Parmigiano-reggiano)

- cut the zucchini into "zucchini steaks" basically a center cut from the zucchini.

 I save the rest and freeze it to make stir fry with another day.

- I a dish large enough to fit your zucchini steaks in, mix together the flour, pepper, salt and 1 teaspoon garlic powder. in a separate dish pour in the milk. in a third dish mix together the bread crumbs, dried parsley, onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/4 cup parmesan.

- take each piece and coat it with the flour making sure both sides get a nice even light coat.

next put each piece in the milk and wet both sides. lastly, crust the pieces with the bread crumb mixture, coat well. 

- place on greased baking sheet. use foil as well for easy clean up.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until desired crispiness. 

I made pasta, layered my zucchini and put a roasted tomato and garlic pasta sauce then topped it with some fresh shredded Parmigiano-reggiano.

A wonderfully simple meal that looks impressive and tastes great!

Thank you as always for stopping by!

Coming up next will be fun with frosting, I will share some adventures in making some unique frosting's as well as a recipe of my very own that I created.

Cheers,

Angel