So let's talk some more about side dishes and veggies! Not everything I make is a casserole or a mixed dish. Some nights, I'll cook up some pork chops (future blog!) or a little sausage and then focus more on the sides. Like the homemade mac-n-cheese I made for my mini-guest, I have quite a few pasta ideas (future blog!) and I love thinking up new ways to present my veggies.
One of my favorite vegetables of all time...CARROTS! I love carrots! I almost don't even care how you cook 'em...I could eat them all day long. But I don't...because then my skin would turn orange. Yuck!
As much as I love carrots, I also adore potatoes! Yes...My name is Stephanie...and I'm a carb-oholic. I can't get around it. I just love 'em.
One of my favorite ways to cook both the carrots and potatoes is roasting them. I've done some roasting of my veggies for a while. But last year, after doing a little research from different Super Chefs, I developed a little technique of my own. And I'm going to share it with you! Aren't you excited?
Your ingredients are very simple: Potatoes, carrots, olive oil, and kosher salt. That's it! Use however many potatoes and carrots that you'll need for your family. I typically do four or five potatoes and six or seven carrots for mine. I'd do more carrots with more time, just because these get eaten fast!
First...pre-heat your oven to 405 degrees. Not 400. Not 410. Just 405. Don't know why this worked best, but it did. Now prep your pans. You'll need two baking sheets. One for each. Line them with foil and then spray them with non-stick spray. They make it in olive oil flavored spray...so if you've got that use it. This will keep your flavors consistent. If you don't. Don't worry about it. Use what you've got!
Next you'll need two, gallon size freezer bags. Go ahead and have them open on your counter. Peel and chop your potatoes and toss them into one of the bags. Then peel and chop your carrots. I quarter mine and this helps them cook evenly.
Once you've got them both in their bags, add three tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of kosher salt. Zip up those bags...and then shake, shake, shake! But make sure the pink and blue really do make purple on the zipper! Or your veggies are gonna go flying! As soon as it looks like they're all coated with the oil and salt, dump them out on their separate baking pans.
Slide the pans in the oven and let them cook for 45 to 55 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs and how many you've put on each sheet.
As soon as their done, remove them from the oven and let them cool for just a few minutes. The foil will cool quickly so you can just lift those sheets and slide your veggies into their bowls.
I do have one word of warning...if your family enjoys carrots as much as mine...cook A LOT of carrots. I made these for our family Christmas dinner this year. I took them out of the oven and set them aside so that more dinner goodness could go into the oven and they were eaten like candy. Seriously! They were so delicious! There were no carrots left for dinner. But we sure did enjoy them as a snack.
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