Jazz Up the Vegetables

My preferred way to eat vegetables:

Carrot Cake

But I recognize that what Baby wants isn't always what Baby needs.

I got this recipe for carrots from Web MD. Those people are always telling me to eat my vegetables! They call this farmhouse carrots:

About 15 carrots
1 cup thinly sliced spring onion
Thyme (3 tablespoons fresh, or 3 teaspoons dried)
Rosemary (1 tablespoon fresh, or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2  tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
salt & pepper
Fresh chives, for garnish

Warm the honey, butter and vinegar or lemon juice. Add the onion and spices and set aside to marinate. If you like, do this ahead and keep in the fridge for  few days. You can also substitute flavorings according to your taste (or what's in the cupboard)!

Oven method: Preheat to 400. Clean the carrots and dry with a dish towel. Put on a baking sheet in a single layer, drizzle with the butter honey mixture and gently toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Roast on the upper rack for about 20 minutes. Garnish with the fresh chives. Cooked this way, the carrots will be very crispy.

Stove top or microwave method: Steam the carrots 5 or 10 minutes to soften them. Remove from water, add the butter honey mixture and saute a few more minutes. Garnish with the fresh chives. This is the method I prefer.

It really doesn't take much to jazz up a vegetable, but it's definitely worth the trouble. I usually do it myself, rather than buying those flavored in the pouch things you get in the grocery store freezer. I don't use the canned or packaged sauces much, either. A lot of those things are high in salt and sugar.

Don't get me wrong. I like salt and sugar. I probably eat too much. But at least if I'm putting it in myself I'm aware of it. One of my favorite ways with carrots (already a starchy vegetable) is to slice them thin and saute until tender in butter, adding a bit of brown sugar near the end.

As for clever ways with no-cal lettuce: Sorry, I'm all out!

By the way, it you've ever wondered how to convert the fresh herbs in a recipe to dried, maybe this will help. I found it on O Chef:

"In general, you can substitute one teaspoon of dried herbs for one tablespoon of fresh herbs and vice-versa (which is a one-to-three ratio, by the way). But let taste be your guide. Packaged dried herbs start out with a stronger taste than fresh herbs, but lose their pungency as they age. So if you've recently purchased the container, you might want to use a light hand, or add a bit more if the herb is older. When possible, use fresh ingredients to gain the most flavor."

Of course, but I'm not that well organized yet!

All I want is for vegetables to taste as beautiful as they look:

If people didn't have to eat their vegetables, God wouldn't have created V8. The Original, please; none of that low salt stuff!