Diet Friendly Fast Food

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Easy Roasted Tomatoes and Shrimp with Feta, Oregano, and Fennel is a perfect summer-into-fall dinner idea.)

The recipes I find myself making over and over again are the ones with super-easy preparation methods but plenty of complex flavors, and this recipe for Roasted Tomatoes and Shrimp with Feta, Oregano, and Fennel definitely falls into that category.  I admit, it was the lovely garden tomatoes that I have in abundance right now that pushed me into making this, but because roasting intensifies the flavor of the tomatoes, I think you could make this with good quality store-bought tomatoes as well. 

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, August 2014)  One of the wonderful things about having summer squash in your vegetable garden is that soon you'll have so much of it you feel perfectly justified in picking them when they're tiny, similar to the baby squash you get in the fanciest of restaurants. I first posted this wonderful recipe for Easy Roasted Baby Summer Squash with Feta and Thyme back on 2007 when I had an abundance of baby squash from my garden, but now that I don't have a garden at the new house (yet!) I buy the packages of baby squash from Costco to make this. If you don't have a garden or a Costco membership you can still make this recipe with larger squash that are cut in strips.  Roasting the squash with fresh thyme concentrates the flavor in vegetables in the most lovely way, but dried thyme will also work fine for this recipe.

I re-did the photos for this recipe with my niece Kara and her adorable four-year-old daughter Quinn.  It had been a long cooking day and Quinn was getting tired of entertaining herself, so I grabbed a kid-safe knife and enlisted her to help cut the baby squash in half.  Quinn has pretty strong food preference, as most kids do at that age, and the whole time we were cutting them up she kept saying "I hate zucchini."  But when the finished dish was ready, she surprisingly agreed to take a bite, and even more surprisingly, she liked it and ate a couple of pieces.  So if you have kids who won't eat their vegetables, maybe getting them to help cook will help!

Turnips don't get much respect, but these Roasted Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar and Thyme are delicious!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, April 2014.)  Kale has had it's place in the food spotlight, and now cauliflower seems to be the new trendy vegetable, but turnips don't get much respect.   I grew up eating raw turnips as a snack (thanks mom!) but I'd never cooked turnips until 2007.  Then one day I thought to myself, "I wonder how roasted turnips with a bit of balsamic vinegar would taste?"  And you guessed it; I loved these Roasted Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar and Thyme.

I wasn't sure where the idea came from (although I found Roasted Kohlrabi on A Veggie Venture, which might have inspired it.)  I peeled some turnips, tossed them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and decided they were very good indeed.  When I decided to update this recipe with better photos, I added a little dried thyme to the turnips (and a little Feta cheese sprinkled over the top would also be a nice addition.)   I cooked the turnips in my counter-top toaster oven, which makes them a good option when you don't want to turn on the oven.  If you've never thought of turnips as a side dish option, I hope you'll give them a try.

Today the temperature in Utah is supposed to get above 90F so we've definitely entered the season for warm-weather eating, and lately I've had pasta salad on my mind.  It seems like there are a lot of ho-hum combinations that give pasta salad a bad name, but I like the challenge of coming up with something that's really good, and I loved the Whole Wheat Spaghetti Salad I made recently.  Then I excitedly discovered Delallo Organic Whole Wheat Orcchiette at the store in my new town, and my mind started spinning with thoughts of making a really drool-worthy vegetarian pasta salad.   This Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Roasted Asparagus, Red Bell Pepper, and Mushrooms has wonderful flavors from roasting the vegetables, and then I added this fun pasta shape, sliced green onion, chopped parsley, kicked-up Italian dressing and coarsely grated Parmesan to make a truly fantastic salad.  If you can't find the whole wheat Orecchiette I used, just use any smallish whole wheat pasta shape, even macaroni.  And if you're seeing this at a time of year when asparagus is not going to be available or you're not an asparagus fan, I'd just increase the mushrooms and red peppers and you'd still have a delicious salad.  (If you skip the Parmesan and use a vegan dressing, this salad could easily be vegan.)

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and these Roasted Green Beans and Red Bell Pepper with Garlic and Ginger are not only beautifully red and green for the holidays, but they're delicious!)

I came up with this recipe as an idea for my collection of Low-Glycemic Thanksgiving Recipes, but these green beans are so festive and colorful that they'd be perfect for anyone who's looking for a holiday side dish for Christmas dinner as well.  The beans and peppers roast at high heat for a short time, so they can cook while you're coming up with the final touches on the meal.