Sunday, July 6, 2008

Another day, another vegetable

My 83-year-old mother has come to live at my house with me and my husband until she can get a new place to live. She's getting older and needs to be in assisted living, but until we can get her into a nice place she takes turns living with me and my brother. So, while she lives at my house, I am trying to make sure she is meeting the old 5-a-day requirement. That includes both fruit and vegetable. Her idea of a vegetable with dinner is a package of frozen broccoli with cheese sauce. We will have none of that here. Only fresh ingredients will do. However, one of my favorite vegetable dishes that is quick and easy to prepare uses frozen green beans which I steam and then toss with soy margarine and some toasted slivered almonds. Not overly long on flavor but still delicious and satisfying. The other night though I used fresh green beans and chopped some waxy potatoes, such as Yukon, and tossed them together with a small amount of olive oil, enough to coat. I try not to overdo it with the olive oil - I like to think that 1-2 teaspoons per serving is enough. So for 4 servings, I used approximately 1-1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. I also added sliced onion and garlic and tossed all together with a slight sprinkling of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, then spread all out on a baking sheet, put into the oven at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes-20 minutes. My oven cooks/bakes slow so it always takes a little longer. Suffice it to say, roasted green beans make the grade! They were delicious and I will do it again only next time I might add some fresh herb such as rosemary. The beans were nutty and flavorful. And my mother gobbled hers right up which I guess was the point of all of this.
Still seeing radishes in my future - probably roasted. tonight might be good for that.

4 comments:

EmLit said...

Roasted vegetables are the best, I think. I'm especially fond of roasted broccoli and roasted brussels sprouts (YUM!) I'm sad that I missed the green beans :(

SueWho said...

Do not worry - roasted green beans will be making another appearance in the not too distant future, and I have heard there is a rumor that an appearance of roasted radishes is imminent too.

Binx said...

I need to experiment more with roasted with very little oil. Sometimes it works, sometimes not... I like roasted brussels sprouts with potatoes. Yum!

zebeckras said...

You know who else likes brussels sprouts (since Charlotte mentioned them)? Dorothy. ;)

I sound like a broken record, but there are very few foods she doesn't like! Sometimes you just have to trick her into eating them: like she thinks she doesn't like eggplant but if you tell her they're mushroms she'll eat 'em. Ask her if she wants blueberries and she says no, but hand them to her and she pops them into her mouth and asks for more. Tricky baby.

So just for future reference, Mom - you don't have to stick to just broccoli, she likes a LOT of stuff now...