5 Easy to Make Roasted Vegetables for Meal Planning

Roasted Vegetables are a Great Compliment to any Meal Plan…

You are welcome! These easy to make roasted vegetables will keep you on track with your nutrition goals. They work easily into your meal plans and allow you to cook them ahead of time. Then bag them or include in your meal boxes to heat and eat later. They are tasty, and go perfect with almost any protein. So lets get cooking!

Pan Roasted Green Beans

Well technically we are not roasting these in the oven but I like to call it that. You can roast them if you want. I found that it is easier to do them in a non-stick frying pan. Here is what you will need:

• A Large Bag of Green Beans (snap the ends off if they have not been purchased that way).
• Garlic Powder
• Ground Pepper
• Salt
• Paprika
• Olive Oil or Cooking Spray
• Large Non-Stick Pan

Then simply heat up the pan, and pour your oil into it. Use as much as you want or as little as you want. Once the oil is heated add all the green beans into the pan. Sprinkle liberally with spices. Stir until all sides are brown, about 10 minutes. Then remove, let them cool, and they are ready to bag or box.

Roasted Red Potatoes

P-O-T-A-T-O-E-S, you know mash em up or put em in a stew or however the line goes. Well these oven roasted gems are delicious and very easy to make. Here is what you will need to do it…

Spray the baking dish with non-stick spray, then dice the red potatoes with the skins on into desired size (wash them first). Throw them into the baking dish and drizzle with olive oil or liberally coat with non-stick spray. Add pepper, garlic powder to taste and stir so all potatoes are coated in oil and spices. Then add parsley on top. Roast in Oven for about 40 minutes at 400 Degrees. Then if you want them crispy broil them for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Oven Roasted Zucchini or Yellow Squash

 The funniest named vegetable is probably one of the easiest to make. Simply cut them up, roast them, and enjoy. They do tend to hold on to more water than other vegetables so they can be a little soggy. Put a nice crisp on them and make them even better. Here is what you will need…

• 6 to 8 Large Zucchini or Yellow Squash
• Favorite Mrs. Dash Seasoning (for this one I like garlic and herb)
• Salt and Pepper if desired
• Olive Oil or Cooking Spray
• Large 9 x 13 Baking Dish

First wash the zucchini then cut of the stem and a little from the other end. Then cut in half length wise and then dice to desired size.

Throw them all into the baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Liberally coat with your favorite Mrs Dash seasoning, and pepper and stir so they are all coated. Roast in Oven for about 40 minutes at 400 Degrees. Then if you want them crispy broil them for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Oven Roasted Asparagus

I love this recipe, I was actually introduced to this at a dinner party with some good friends. You do not need much to make it and it tastes great every time you do. Asparagus is one of those roasted vegetables that go great with almost any protein.

So here is what you will need…

• 2-3 Bunches of Asparagus
• Garlic Powder
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil or Non-Stick Spray
• Tin Foil
• Large Baking Sheet

Lets make this quick and easy. Take the tin foil and cover the baking sheet. Then snap of the bottoms of the Asparagus as they naturally snap when you bend them.

Lay them on the baking sheet. Brush olive oil on them, or spray with non-stick spray.

The liberally coat with garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Throw them on the bottom rack under the broiler for about 5-10 minutes depending on how crispy you want them. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.

Brussels Sprouts and Turkey Bacon

A lot of people hate the Brussels sprout. I happen to love them. So when I came across this idea while hunting for meat in the freezer I was excited. There was some unused turkey bacon that needed to be cooked. And what goes good with turkey bacon, well Brussels sprouts of course. Lets see if you agree. Here is what you will need…

• 1 Bag of Halved Brussels Sprouts
• Package of Turkey Bacon
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil or Non-Stick Spray
• Non-stick pan

Like most of the recipes above this one is fairly easy. It is in two parts for ease. First you want to cook the bacon as crispy as you can cook turkey bacon. Cook as much as you want. I like a lot of bacon so I cooked the whole package. Once done, chop it up into bite size pieces.

Next spray a heated non-stick pan with non-stick spray or pour olive oil in it. Then cook the Brussels sprouts until they have a nice sear on each side. About a few minutes before they are done add the bacon pieces and pepper to taste. You can also add some other spices as you see fit.

So “BON APPETITE” and if you have any great simple roasted vegetables recipe please share them in the comments below. And remember it is SUPER EASY to eat clean and it can taste great too!

The Ancient Veggie World Tour

Your dinner plate is actually a crowded botanical family reunion made up of historical overachievers that traveled across continents just to end up on a sheet pan. Over 7,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, indigenous farmers were busy domesticating wild gourds into the ancestors of modern zucchini and yellow squash, long before the Columbian Exchange shipped them across the globe. Meanwhile, Roman emperors were obsessing over asparagus, and medieval Belgian farmers near Brussels were meticulously breeding a single wild, bitter weed into tiny, tight cabbage clones we call brussels sprouts. Combine those with green beans and red potatoes—the ultimate high-altitude survivor that mountain farmers cultivated in the freezing Peruvian Andes—and you realize your side dish has a better passport stamps collection than you do. It turns out that humans spent thousands of years manipulating wild flora just so we could have something colorful to ignore next to our steak. To see the bizarre evolutionary origins of how these vegetables spread across different eras and cultures, take a look at the history archive of these veggies.