Winter Favorites

I’ve always been a huge fan of Special K Products, so when I saw The Special K Challenge and Beyond: Your Complete Guide to Weight Management, Healthy Living & Delicious Cooking in my grocery store about a month ago, I snatched it up as fast as I grab my drinks at Starbucks as soon as my name’s called.

I have a system in place when it comes to buying cookbooks. I have to keep myself in check because, frankly, I’d spend all my money on adding to my cookbook collection if I were to be left unsupervised. What I’ve started doing is thumbing through the book and seeing if I can find 4 different recipes I really just cannot live without.

The first 4 recipes I saw were:

• Asian-Style Braised Baby Bok Choy
• Roasted Winter Vegetables
• Greek Style Spaghetti Squash
• Crispy Baked Crab Cakes with Spicy Re’moulade

They had me at Asian-Style Braised Baby Bok Choy, actually, but I went through the motions of being a tough sell. I sat the book directly into the cart (ironically right on top of a box of Special K Cereal – the kind with bits of chocolate… so, so, so, so very good!).

My grocery store didn’t have any Bok Choy that day – baby or otherwise – so I rounded up some favorite vegetables for the Roasted Winter Vegetables recipe (the recipe is at the bottom of this post).

If you see this book in a store, snatch it up – it’s fantastic.  You can also order it from Amazon by clicking one of the links in the post or the picture of the book below.

Other recipes include:

• Artichokes with Carrot-Cornbread Stuffing (I’m definitely making these for Thanksgiving)
• Black Bean and Corn Dip with Oven-Baked Chips
• Banana-Stuffed Multigrain French Toast
• Spinach-Feta Frittata
• Lemon-Chive Ricotta Dip
• Enlightened Guacamole
• Lemon-Pepper Salmon
• Spanish-Style Cod with White Beans
• Sauteed Shrimp Tacos
• Chicken and Red Chile Enchiladas
• Thai-Style Chicken in Lettuce Wraps
• Oven-Fried Chicken Cutlets
• Easy Chicken Potpies
• Turkey Meatloaf with Barbecue Sauce
• Braised Turkey Thighs with Winter Root Vegetables
• Italian-Style Chicken Parmesan
• Polenta Gratin
• Rice Pudding with Dried Fruit
• Dark Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Raspberry Sauce (you should see the picture!)
• Frozen Yogurt with Berries Sundaes
• Red Velvet Cupcakes
• And A LOT MORE!

In addition to tons of healthy recipes (with suggestions, information, and nutritional facts), The Special K Challenge and Beyond: Your Complete Guide to Weight Management, Healthy Living & Delicious Cooking serves as a handbook for weight-management and weight-loss goals. You’ll learn about the Special K Challenge and how you can use it EASILY in your day to day life and make it fit your own personal needs.  Allow me to point out, though, that whether you read one word about the Special K Challenge or not, this book is more than worth it for the recipes and nutritional information alone!

I’ve made the Roasted Winter Vegetables recipe below quite a few times, and have used different vegetables each time. I’ve used sweet potatoes, corn on the cob (with the ears halved… looks better), red potatoes, carrots,  garlic. and cauliflower.  I’ve also used the same method on roasted tomatoes, but with a shorter baking time. The balsamic vinegar and rosemary are a perfect match for every vegetable you can imagine!

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Cooking Spray
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into 6 wedges
2 medium red potatoes, cut into 1 to 1-1/2 inch pieces
2 large shallots, cut into quarters
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced

Mellow balsamic vinegar blends beautifully with fresh rosemary to flavor this colorful combination of roasted sweet potatoes, fennel, red potatoes, and shallots.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Meanwhile, on 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking pan lined with foil and coated with cooking spray, toss together sweet potato, fennel, red potatoes, shallots, oil, vinegar, salt, rosemary, and garlic.
3. Bake in preheated oven about 40 minutes or until vegetables begin to brown, stirring every 10 minutes. Transfer to serving bowl.

Make it your own:  Comb farmer’s markets in the cooler months of the year for a variety of root vegetables to try. Here are suggestions for other varieties to roast using the method above:

• Carrots – Peel and trim whole baby carrots, or cut larger peeled and trimmed carrots into 1-inch chunks.
• Garlic – Separate a garlic head into cloves and leave peels on. Squeeze garlic from peels after roasting.
• Onions – Cut peeled and trimmed medium yellow onions into 1-inch pieces.
• Parsnips – Peel and trim parsnips and cut into 1-inch pieces
• Turnips – Peel and trim whole baby turnips, or cut larger peeled and trimmed turnips into 1-inch wedges.