Food In Many Forms

It's early March, and at work we are just starting to think about what we are going to planting in the garden. Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the last few weeks of winter vegetables - roasted sweet potatoes, onions and garlic galore, and now Brussels sprouts. While dinner was baking in the oven today, I was prepping this sprout-gnocchi combo for lunch tomorrow. I let it cool, packed it up, and threw the vinaigrette in an empty jar for tomorrow. Ingredients 2 Meyer lemons 1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered 1 (12 ounce) package  refrigerated gnocchi 1/2 medium onion, sliced 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided ½ teaspoon ground pepper, divided ¼ teaspoon salt, divided ¼ cup slivered oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes Directions 1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 2. Slice and seed 1 lemon. Toss in a large bowl with Brussels sprouts, gnocchi, 2 Tablespoons oil, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1/8 teaspoon salt. Transfer to a large rimmed baking sheet. ...

 This week was my turn to work the weekend, which meant I had Thursday off, so I spent the day grocery shopping, prepping veggies, making dip and baking lasagna. With the thermometer stuck below 20 degrees, it was too cold to do much else.  I was inspired by a roasted root vegetable lasagna that I had at Kramerbooks in Dupont Circle a few years ago. You wouldn't think that radishes, squash and leeks would make for delicious lasagna, but it did. So I had high hopes for this recipe from "The view from great island" blog. Ingredients: 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and sliced (I used the pre-cut squash) 1 leek, sliced 1 fennel bulb, sliced a couple of handfuls of Brussels sprouts, quartered about a cup and a half of thickly sliced mushrooms 3 garlic cloves,whole with skin on olive oil 1 package of no cook lasagna noodles (I used a little more than half the box) 1 large jar of your favorite tomato sauce, or tomato puree 1 1/2 lb of whole milk ricotta cheese ...

After all my pledges to eat better, I sat down last night and made a list of recipes and ordered groceries so I am able to cook healthy food every night this week. My partner at my internship gave me a kitchen-tested recipe for Brussels sprouts t hat was too easy to pass up. But I thought it would be a little easier on the palate  if I mixed it with some whole wheat pasta, chicken breast and Parmesan cheese . Here's the original recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts: Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Clean and trim Brussels sprouts and spread them out on a baking sheet (I went ahead and pre-chopped them so I could toss them directly into the pasta when they were done cooking).  Brush them with olive oil, and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Roast Brussels sprouts in the oven until they begin to brown. Enjoy!