Goodbye Mr. French Fry

I love you Mr. Potato, but we need to talk.  I'm sure you're not all that surprised by what I am about to say.  It's time for a break & honestly it's really not that unexpected.  I'm sure you've picked up on the growing warning signs and noticed my more frequent absences.  Perhaps it won't be forever and know that I will still think of you often.

My new mantra is clean eating.  I'll be following some advice I got from the athleticbuild.com.  Their article "The Big Ten: 10 Nutrition Rules to Achieve an Athletic Build"  got my attention.  I will paraphrase the article for you.

1. Eat Clean
If it was made naturally it's ok.  If not it must not go. (no candy bars, cheetos, soda)
2. Drink Water
3. Eat lean Protein (fish, eggs, chicken, beans)
4. High Fiber (Broccoli, whole grains, beans, peas, oatmeal)
5. Protein Shakes (well......maybe I'll give these a try)
6. Avoid Simple Carbohydrates (White breads & rice, most baked goods, anything with sugar....GASP!)  Fried food & Sodium Nitrate
7. Eat Healthy Fats
 (almonds, olives, salmon, peanut butter)
8. Choose slow digesting carbs (oatmeal, beans, brown & wild rice)
9. Eat your Fruits & Veggies
10. Cheat - This is my favorite!  The only problem will be only doing it once or twice a week as they suggest.

So my new friend is the roasting pan.

It's really shocking that I've never tried roasting vegetables this way until now because it's so easy!
On my first attempt I did a sweet potato & a head of broccoli.

Preheat Oven to 400 & bake for 30 minutes.

I peeled and diced the potatoe & then put in a ziplock bag.  Next I added 1 Tablespoon of Olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon sea salt & 1/4 tsp. pepper.  Shake well & spread on parchment paper.
The broccoli looked dry so I added another Tble of olive oil to the bag.  The result was I burnt the shit out of the broccoli & the same amount of salt was way too much for this veggie.  However, the potato was very good!  Tonight with our fish I'll be trying cauliflower & maybe another recipe with tomatoe and cipollini that a friend shared.  I love that people want to help with this quest and I'm not ashamed to admit I'll need all the help I can get!  Hope you enjoyed today's roasting lesson although I'm sure most people are not new to this.  How about I demonstrate how to properly spread peanut butter on bread tomorrow?

...that was a trick....You mean dip celery in the peanut butter right?  Right!  See you are reading this thing.  Thank you.