The easiest dinner ever: Roasted Veggies with Goat Cheese

It's a main, a side dish, AND a salad. It's pretty and it's good for you. You need it in your life.

If you've never made roasted vegetables, you need to start immediately.

I make this two or three times a week and it's always fantastic. Vegetarian. Vegan, even, if you omit the cheese. And very filling.

Roasted Veggies with Goat Cheese

Ingredients

Any combination of vegetables you like, cut to about the same size.

Need some inspiration? Here's what I like to use:

Butternut squash
Beets, peeled
Parsnips
Carrots
Broccoli
Kale (give this a rough chop and add it at the end)

Salt
Olive oil, for drizzling
Fresh herbs of your choice (thyme and rosemary do it for me)
2oz or so goat cheese, cut or crumbled into small pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Chop everything (or buy it pre-chopped. No judgment!) and mix around in a roasting pan of your choice. I have two roasting pans and use both, because one you start chopping you may as well keep going: one is Pyrex and was purchased recently; the other is aluminium and was my grandmother's. The aluminium pan roasts better, probably because it conducts heat more evenly. Word to the wise.

Anyway, don't overcrowd your pans otherwise you'll have steamed veggies and not roasted veggies.

Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pop them in the oven for about 35-40 mins. Add the kale and stir it all around, and roast for another 10 mins.

Serve hot with goat cheese on the top. Delicious!!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup

I love cheesy broccoli soup. Back when I used to snowboard regularly, it was my favourite thing to eat after a day on the slopes. Perhaps not the best choice nutritionally, but man did it taste good.

Luckily for me, broccoli and several dairy products are on the beneficial list, and it's easy to healthy it up a bit. I based my recipe on the Broccoli Soup recipe at Fat Loss Quickie by Scott and Angie Toussignant.

Ingredients:
Extra virgin olive oil
2 large heads of broccoli, chopped (including stems)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
1 large stalk of celery, fine dice
1 onion, fine dice
2 tbsp almond or walnut oil
2 tbsp arrowroot starch
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
Dash of ground nutmeg
1/2 cup goat milk
1-2 oz. goat cheese
cheddar (AB) or feta (A), for topping
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Heat oil over medium heat
2. Add broccoli, celery, garlic and onion, sprinkle with salt, and saute until slightly softened.
3. Add water, cover and boil for 5-10 minutes or until broccoli is tender. Do not drain.
4. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth.
5. Mix arrowroot and oil together until smooth, and add a ladleful of warm soup. This is going to create a slurry.
6. Stir slurry into hot soup, add broth, and heat to boil. Boil mixture for 1 minute while continuously stirring.
7. Add nutmeg then turn heat down to low (or off). Add milk and goat cheese and stir.
8. Remove from heat and season to taste. Serve with grated cheddar cheese or feta on sprinkled on top.