VEGETABLE RECIPES AND IDEAS

I have gotten some great feedback on my vegetable inquiry from friends, and I would like to share some of these ideas with everyone!

One of my old buddies that I used to play basketball with told me about Mrs. Dash, a company that makes salt-free spices for all kinds of meals. I am looking forward to trying out some of these flavors they have, and on their web site they even have recipes that I want to try. You can check it out here.

I got an e-mail from a high school friend who said, "I LOVE grilled vegetables and it's super easy to cut some up, stick them on a kabob stick, season with whatever you like, and stick them on the grill (or in a george foreman haha!)". I really like this idea, because I do use a George Foreman for some meals.

Another old friend sent me this, "I like to marinate squash, zucchini, mushrooms in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic for a few hours then grill them. Zucchini and squash are also good roasted in the oven or sauteed on the stove with onions and bell peppers."

I even got an e-mail from the mother of one of my trainers, who filled me in on how to roast my vegetables, "I use parchment paper to keep the veggies from sticking to the pan, but I also use Pam on the parchment and on the veggies themselves. Olive oil Pam is good for this. 400 degrees is the oven temp for most. For broccoli & cauliflower, spray with Pam, season lightly, and roast about 15 min. Sweet potatoes, squash, turnips, carrots, eggplant, sweet peppers... these will probably take about 20 min. Eggplant soaks up oil like a sponge, so roasting is a great alternative to frying. To add some variety to green beans, toast slivered almonds in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes (careful not to burn). Steam the green beans (or try roasting), then drizzle with some olive oil. Season with a little salt and a sprinkle of garlic powder, and top with the toasted almonds. You only need a couple of teaspoonfuls of the slivered almonds. Not a lot of calories, but really fun and tasty on boring green beans."

Then I got a recipe from a college friend on making a hamburger using a portabella mushroom instead of beef.

1 portabella mushroom (stem and gills removed)
olive oil to coat frying pan
1 tomato
1 avocado (optional)
sprouts
low fat cheese
whole wheat bun

Turn your burners on medium heat, remove the stem and gills from the portabella mushroom and place it gill side down on the frying pan in a little bit of olive oil. let it cook on medium for 6 minutes then flip it over to the other side and cook it on medium for 5 minutes. place low fat cheese on to melt. place cooked portabella mushroom on whole wheat bun and garnish with sprouts, tomato, and avocado.

This post was a little long, but I really wanted to share a lot of the ideas I got. I really appreciate all the great information I received, and can't wait to try them all out!