Deliciously Easy Roasted Vegetable Recipe

As I mentioned before, I love vegetables. One my favorite girlfriends gave me this amazing roasted veggie recipe. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT!

You can choose any vegetables you like. I usually eat...

1 Red Pepper

1 Yellow Pepper

1 Purple Onion

1 Large Zucchini or 2 Small Zucchinis

3 Large Potatoes or 6 Small Potatoes

(feel free to add Asparagus, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Brussels Sprouts, or even Turkey Sausage)

Cut up veggies and put into glass pyrex. Drizzle with olive oil, a splash of vinegar, salt, pepper, a sprinkle of sugar. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes at 425 F. When you remove from the oven sprinkle with herbs of your choice. I would recommend rosemary, thyme, and red pepper flakes.

YUM

How to Make Cold Vegetable Pizza - Perfect, Easy Veggie Appetizer Recipe for Parties!

Vegetables are the best! I actually prefer them to fruit, which is probably why I love my mom's Vegetable Pizza Recipe. It tastes fresh, creamy, and cool. 

This recipe is extremely easy to make, but does take some prep time. When you make it, I would recommend placing each veggie within each square, as opposed to just throwing the vegetables all over the pizza. It just gives a nicer presentation. 

YUM!

Vegetable Pizza Recipe

What you'll need...

2 Cans (8 oz each) Crescent Dinner Roll Cans

1 Package (8 oz) Cream Cheese, Softened

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

Dried Dill

1/2 Cup Broccoli

1/2 Cup Cauliflower

1/3 Cup Cucumber  

1/2 Cup Chopped Tomatoes

1/3 Cup Green, Red, and/or Yellow Peppers

1/4 Cup of Chives

(Obviously you can switch up to the veggies, depending on what you like. You could add anything! Carrots, Olives, etc.)

Start by heating your oven to 375 F. Open the crescent rolls, unroll, and press into the bottom of an ungreased 15x10 pan. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Now get to chopping those veggies and place to the side. Next mix cream cheese and sour cream. Spread this mixture over the cooled crust. Now (in my opinion) it's important to cut your pieces. I recommend 4 rows by 8 columns. Then sprinkle generously with dill. Lastly, add your veggies. I usually start with 1 type (i.e. broccoli) and put a piece on each square, then move onto the next vegetable. This gives it a nice neat and clean look (as seen above). 

Unfortunately this doesn't store very well, because the crust gets soggy, so it's best served immediately. 

Hope you love it as much as me!!

-Xtina

• 
  

My Favorite Veggie Pickling Recipe - You Can Even Pickle Peaches!

When my girlfriend ask me if I wanted to try pickling with her I jumped at the chance. Who doesn't love pickles? So we hopped in the car, headed to Whole Foods, and wandered around the produce section asking ourselves what we should pickle. 

While discussing our pickling we met a very interesting man who told us that he pickled all the time. He suggested we try beets, brussel sprouts, and peaches... Yes peaches.

The recipe we had was very simple. The most time consuming part was cutting all the veggies. The great thing about it is that you can pickle just about anything!

This recipe takes about 40 minutes to prep and is best if you let it refrigerate over night. 

Makes about 2 quarts 

FOR THE BRINE:

10 Cloves Garlic, Peeled

2 Cups White Vinegar

6 Tsp Kosher Salt

Several Sprigs of Fresh Dill

1 Tsp Celery Seed

1 Tsp Coriander Seed

1 Tsp Mustard Seed

1/2 Tsp Black Peppercorns

1/2 Tsp Pink Peppercorns (if you have them)

FOR THE VEGGIES: 

Anything you like! Here we did...

Cauliflower

Asparagus

Pickle Cucumbers

Carrots

Beets

Brussel Sprouts (forewarning - if you use them, cook them a little bit beforehand so that they are soft)

and a separate jar of Peaches

You can also add Red Hot Chiles or Jalapenos to make it spicy!

Veggies

Spices

In a medium saucepan bring 4 cups of water to a boil, reduce heat so water simmers and add garlic. Cook for 5 minutes. Add vinegar and salt, raise the heat and bring to a boil, stirring until salt dissolves. Remove from heat.

In 2 clear 1-quart jars, place a few sprigs of dill (we ended up tripling the recipe). Divide the seeds and peppercorns between the jars. Using tons, remove the garlic from the brine and place 5 cloves in each jar.

Mixing it all up

Pack the jars full of vegetables. You want each jar to be tightly stuffed.

YUM

Peaches and veggies, before we poured in the brine

Bring the brine back to a boil, pour it over the vegetables to cover completely, let cool, then cover and refrigerate. The pickles will taste good after a a couple hours, but will taste better after a couple of days. These will keep for about 3 months.

After pouring in the brine, the beets started turning the water bright PINK

Now we wait...

If you've never had pickled peaches, try it, they're surprisingly good!

I can't wait to dig in!