Happy New Year! We’ve survived the holidays and a Mayan apocalypse only to be told we need to lose 10lbs before February again. It’s silly the detox diets that people come up with, like raw green juice only for a week or “The Cookie Diet”(sounds promising but it’s not).

I definitely could use less desserts after last month and will probably try to post more healthy vegetable recipes. But that doesn’t mean you should be stuck on juices. Whole foods like broccoli and quinoa are perfectly good for you.

I read on a blog that quinoa was one of those 2012 “food fads” that ought to fade away in 2013. I hope that’s not true because it’s a great way to vary things up in the kitchen like roasted broccoli.

Roasted Broccoli Quinoa

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4-6 servings):

• 1 cup dry quinoa, washed
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts(optional)
• 1/4 cup craisins(optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Lay the broccoli florets out on a baking tray and drizzle with 3 Tablespoons of olive oil.
3. Roast for 45 minutes until the broccoli begins to brown.
4. While the broccoli’s roasting, combine the quinoa with 2 cups of water in a pot and bring it to a boil. Add a lid and turn off the heat and wait for the quinoa to cook.
5. In a large bowl, toss together the cooked quinoa, roasted broccoli, remaining olive oil, hazelnuts and craisins if using, and salt and pepper.
6. Add extra seasoning as desired. Serve hot or cold.

Much better than green juice.

Every year when squash season comes around I make this recipe; it’s probably the second or third time I posted it. Once more can’t hurt, right?

Maple syrup and curry powder are an underrated combination. The sweetness in the syrup smoothes out the heat in curry powder and creates something unexpectedly delicious. Acorn squash is a great base for this since it doesn’t have too much flavor on its own and is good for you, too.

Maple-Curry Acorn Squash

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 3 servings):

• 1 Large acorn squash
• 3 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt*

*omit if your curry powder is already salted.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a baking tray
2. Cut the squash in half to remove all the seeds. Once de-seeded, cut along the ridges into thin wedges.
3. In a large bowl, toss the wedges with the maple syrup, curry powder, and salt.
4. Lay the squash out on the baking tray and roast for 45 minutes or until fork tender.
5. Remove from the oven and serve hot.

If there’s any extra of the syrup mixture after you coat the squash or after it bakes drizzle it on top of the finished product for an extra hit of flavor.

I’m not the best speller. In the past week I’ve learned three different words I’ve been spelling wrong all along. The first was “forcable” instead of forcible. That one could have gone either way, right? Another was “judgement” for judgment. I’m still left wondering what happened to that missing e. And then there’s “brussel sprouts”; to be fair, I don’t know anyone who’s ever taken time to pronounce that extra s.

It’s a good thing I’m better at preparing brussels sprouts than spelling them. They can seem intimidating and bland at first but with the right seasoning you’ll have no problem finishing a plateful.

Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 4 servings):

• 1lb fresh brussels sprouts, stems removed and halved
• 3 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
2. In a large bowl, toss together all of the ingredients until the brussels sprouts are evenly coated.
3. Lay the brussels sprouts out in an even layer on a non-stick surface.
4. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the sprouts begin to brown on the outside and are tender.
5. Serve immediately.

If you don’t have maple syrup, use something like honey to add the sweetness.

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine asked me to teach her how to cook. I can’t think of any other time I’ve ever taught someone to cook; I don’t think I’m very good at it. When I write a blog post I just say what I did. But when I’m in the kitchen, I don’t usually follow a recipe; I just feel my way around and do what I think I should do and if it doesn’t work out—well, that’s what the garbage can is for.

The hardest part was picking what to make. We ended up settling on Mediterranean chicken, a pretty basic salad, sautéed broccoli, and this potato recipe. I’d seen vanilla used with savory roasted vegetables on blogs before and had been wanting to try it. The idea isn’t to have the potatoes become sweet like candy but rather gain a subtle flavor that’s familiar but hard to pin down.

We learned three things that night:

1. A little sugar in any recipe is a good thing. I love to add just a tablespoon of sugar to marinades or dressings, sauces and vegetables to help bring out the natural sugars.

2. I make really good chicken for a vegetarian(or so I’m told).

3. Vanilla rosemary potatoes are shockingly delicious. There were some skeptics who thought vanilla on vegetables couldn’t be good, but by the end of the night everyone was converted.

Vanilla Rosemary Potatoes

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 60 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4-6 servings):

• 5-6 medium Russet potatoes, cut and cubed
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Methods:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, toss all of the ingredients together until the potatoes are covered in oil.
3. Lay the potatoes out in a single layer on a baking tray.
4. Bake for 60 minutes shaking the pan halfway through.
5. Remove from the oven and serve hot.

This is definitely more of a Fall and Winter dish than it is Summery, so you might want to bookmark it and hold onto it until October. Then again, potatoes are always plentiful and cheap so what’s not to love even in the Summer time?