Roasted Veggies Recipe

Roasted Veggies

This is the easiest/laziest of all my recipes. If you don’t feel like cooking, I promise you can manage this. The only prep-work is cutting up your veggies, then it’s mostly hands off!

I do most, if not all of my grocery shopping at Aldi. If you shop there, you know that they don’t always have the same stuff. I work with what looks good that they have there. For instance, I just made mine with onions, zucchini, potatoes, and mushrooms, because that is what they had at Aldi that looked good. You can make this with ANY veggies that you have that sound good at the moment.

You can season your veggies however, for whatever mood you are in. Want something spicy? Try using salt, pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, maybe a dash of cayenne for extra heat. Whatever you are in the mood for!

This is how I usually do mine when I make this. It’s comforting and delish!

Ingredients:

Sliced veggies of your choice/whatever you have on hand

            Garlic powder to taste

            Onion powder to taste

            Salt and Pepper to taste

            (again use whatever seasonings you want)

            Olive oil drizzled over top

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and spread sliced veggies evenly on pan. Season with desired seasonings and drizzle olive oil over the top. Place pan in pre-heated oven, and let roast for about 45 mins. Enjoy!

(See, I told you it was easy!)

You can pair this with anything you want, but to make sure I get full and have enough protein, I like to eat this with my quinoa rice. (which I usually keep in the fridge, because I eat it with almost every meal) sometimes, I will eat some beans with this too, especially if I have some leftovers from a previous meal. 

How I Plant-Based Diet

Plant-Based Diet (It’s seriously not that hard)

So, I was speaking with my Aunt/Bff (she’s a dietitian and total health freak… in a good way) about my back pain. I have scoliosis and experience back pain every day, but I had recently injured myself while exercising and in more pain than usual. I also have joint pain, because I guess I’m an old 23 year-old. If it storms, I’m in pain. If the weather changes (I live in Alabama; this is a regular occurrence) I’m in pain. It’s something I have to live with. Anyway, we were talking, and she told me about how she recently changed to a plant-based diet for all of the wonderful health benefits. While doing her research on it, she discovered that this diet has great anti-inflammatory benefits. She told me to read up on it, and maybe I’d like to try it. If it helps with my pain, I’m all for it! Let’s face it, we’re also helping save the cute little animals out there! That’s a plus, right!?

I decided I would give this diet a try. It can’t hurt, and if I hate it or have a bad experience I can stop. It seemed so ridiculously complicated to do this at first. What do I eat when I’m out and about? How to I make sure I get all of the nutrients that I need? I need PROTEIN!! (There is PLENTY of protein in plant-based food. PLENTY.) Another thing; I’ve always planned meals based on meat, so I was unsure of how to begin planning a meal with no meat! (some kind of meat, a veggie, a starch; some kind of meat, 2 veggies; maybe a roll or bread with either of those) I would even season everything based on the meat I was cooking.

 When I decided to go on Pinterest and look up plant-based meal ideas, I got even MORE overwhelmed. There were hardly ANY easy/quick meal ideas. Everything had all of these crazy ingredients, and recipes trying to be non-plant-based foods. “Vegan Nacho Cheese Dip!” “Cauliflower Mac N Cheese!” “Chickpea Buffalo Wings!” It was just too much. You cannot dwell on what you can’t eat on this diet, and spend too many hours and ridiculous groceries making pretend mac n cheese that probably won’t even be worth it. Think about all of the delicious foods that you CAN eat. I love veggies. I mean I LOVE VEGGIES!

Once I got the hang of what I can/need to eat, I realized how easy it was. I’m a creative cook, always have been. Not everyone is that way, so I decided to share what I make, and how I get all of the nutrients that I need. The biggest tip I can give you for being able to accomplish this is LEFTOVERS! Make a lot of food for dinner and you can eat on it the next day for lunch and even breakfast. Sometimes I will make enough for the next night too! I don’t get tired of it, because I change it up! I feel better than I’ve ever felt. I feel great about what I’m doing. I have more energy for exercise and day to day activities. I have a better attitude. I’m never “hangry” anymore! (and let me tell you, I was the devil when I got hungry) I have a very high metabolism and I’m naturally thin, so I do have to eat A LOT. If you are doing this to lose weight and won’t eat as much, I still believe you will not feel too hungry. You’re getting all of the nutrients that you need, but I do recommend at least taking a daily vitamin. Anyone would recommend you take one on any diet though. I hope this helps you in your journey to go Plant-Based. You will feel GREAT!!