Costco Favorites #2, + How to Roast Your Veggies

 1) try-Roots Quinoa: This bag is always in our pantry.  I like to mix it with white rice when we eat that just for more staying power, but also to completely replace rice with dishes like stir-fry, hawaiian haystacks, sweet and sour chicken, Indian chicken, and with my beloved veggie bowls (of which I will soon share a picture).

2) HONEY: I bake a lot, including things like our own granola and, lately, our own granola bars.  Also, we like honey!  It’s not organic, but it’s a great amount for a good price.

3) Bob’s Red Mill Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats: This is a recent find, but I also love normal steel cut oats.  I cook two cups of this in the crockpot–add 4 1/2 cups of water and put it on high for about two hours.  I store it in a giant tupperware container and dish out servings for myself and the kids each morning with a little almond milk.  Hint: TOP IT WITH ALMOND BUTTER!!!!!! Here is a post where you see how I dress it up in the mornings.

4) Verka Organic Plain Yogurt: First, a confession.  For probably the first four years of our marriage, Brad knew our plain yogurt as “sour cream…”  I finally told him the truth, and it felt good to get it off my chest.  This yogurt is awesome.  It’s full fat, which is important to me (whole energy!), and I LOVE that it has no added sugars.  I use it in place of sour cream (tacos, hawaiian haystack gravy, baked goods and other recipes that call for sour cream, etc.), and because it’s full-fat, you can’t tell the difference.  I eat it plain for myself, but it’s usually mixed with my super choclately granola, so it gets sweetened up.  My baby eats this plain, as do my kids when it’s dripped over savory dishes (they like a lot of it).  When they want it for a snack, I give it to them with a little bit of strawberry jam, agave nectar, or just plain unsweetened applesauce (we call this “applegurt”).

OK, now on to roasting those veggies.  Here’s how I use one of my big ziplock bags of frozen Costco veggies, that I’ve washed and chopped. (See this post.)

I put them on a sprayed pan, do some salt and pepper, and either drizzle a little olive oil or spray it with olive oil (I usually have olive oil in a mini spray bottle, for this purpose).  I put it in a pre-heated oven (usually 350 degrees), and turn the veggies every ten minutes.  I take it out when things look done, which I believe is usually around 20-30 minutes.

Here’s an example of a lunch I made for myself with said roasted veggies.  Actually, every part of this lunch includes Cotsco items: spring salad mix, baby tomatoes, veggies (roasted), hardboiled egg, and Johnny’s caesar dressing: