Healthy "Side" Dishes

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~Doug Larson



Apron from overstock.com



 I recently came across an article by Real Simple with a new suggestion on how to eat your meals so that you get the recommended servings of  the different food groups. The technique was very simple picture a plate.  Half of the plate should be vegetables, the other half of the plate is divided agian, one of those halves is for protein and the other one is for whole grains.  Makes eating healthy a whole lot easier when you picture it that way.  Since I've read that I've been trying to picture all of my meals that way and that has lead me to the shift from vegetables being the side dish to vegetables being the main dish.  The husband loves this because unlike me he doesn't care about the "picture a plate method" so the less "main dish" protein I eat the more for him.

 This is also a great money saving technique as usually the most expensive part of your meal will be your proteing, but make veggies your main dish and toss in some brown rice and you have an inexpensive healthy dish.  In honor of this newfound method I thought I'd share one of my favorite veggie dishes I've been making lately... Happy Healthy Eating!!!

Roasted Lemon Scented Broccoli

Ingredients:

1 bunch of broccoli florets (use fresh not frozen or they will get soggy)

1 lemon

2 TBSP olive oil

Sea Salt

Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut and rinse broccoli and pat dry

Wash outside of lemon

zest lemon (can use a box grater or microplane)  ** see tips about zesting **

In large bowl toss together broccoli, lemon zest, olive oil, and the juice of half of the lemon

Add salt and pepper to taste

Place on baking sheet and roast in oven for around 10-15 minutes or until parts of the broccoli start to turn brown

Enjoy! (I also love to toss leftovers with some brown rice, chopped chicken, and a low fat asian dressing for a quick healthy mock "stir fry")