Since Roland’s seasonal cooking lecture last spring, I’ve been trying to do more seasonal produce buying. He advised us to walk in the store and look around at the produce, selecting what looks good and then creating our meals for the week based on what’s good, rather than just what’s on my recipe list.
Our family (and probably yours, too!) is always looking to be as efficient as possible with time and nutrition for our meals. When the weather turned colder this fall, I decided to try what I called a “roasted challenge”—I bought a bunch of seasonal veggies, chopped and roasted them one day. The challenge was to see how many different meals I could make from this one massive roasting and chopping session.
We didn’t use recipes per se, just combinations that our family generally likes. I stored all the different veggies separately to accommodate both differing tastes and different meals. We did learn that the jalapeños should be roasted by themselves as they will infuse anything in our oven with spice, which isn’t welcome by Max and Gigi just yet. I toss all the raw veggies with organic extra virgin olive oil and sea salt before roasting at around 350 degrees.
Here are the veggies that I roasted:
- Sweet potatoes with red onion
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Red potatoes with red onion and whole garlic cloves
- Zucchini and red onion
- Jalapeños
Here are the meals I created:
- “Warm salad” – toss everything that isn’t a potato with pesto, enjoy with a side of roasted potatoes (we had this the first night when everything was fresh out of the oven).
- Quinoa, black beans, avocado, salsa, roasted veggies (above left)
- Sweet potato, cauliflower, fresh Justa Pasta pasta and sautéed green beens, all tossed with pesto (above right)
- Potatoes, jalapeños, black beans, egg and avocado
- Tostada with diced veggies, organic sharp cheddar
Food for thought! Hopefully our adventures in healthy eating can be helpful on your journey as well.
Hyatt family eats are occasional posts devoted to sharing some of the things our family is cooking. We believe in a whole-foods, minimally-processed approach to nutrition that is realistic for a busy family of four. We’d love to hear about what you’re eating too! Email us at Go@HyattTraining.com.
