There is no reason to eat boring vegetables!
Today, I am going to teach you a few recipes but more important techniques so you are not stuck with bland veggies every meal. No more forcing yourself to eat them.
Roasted Fennel and Onion Gratin:
Ingredients:
2 bulbs of fennel
1 whole red onion
Greek extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)
Unsweetened almond milk (enough to cover)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450°F (232°C).
Cut the fennel bulbs and red onion into thick slices.
Toss the fennel and onion slices with Greek extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Place the seasoned fennel and onion in a baking dish and cover with foil.
Roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the top.
Add enough unsweetened almond milk to cover the fennel and onion.
Return to the oven and bake uncovered until bubbly and golden brown.
Air Fryer Carrot Fries:
Ingredients:
Pre-cut carrots
Olive oil (or lemon olive oil)
Kosher salt
Instructions:
Parboil the pre-cut carrots for 6 minutes until just starting to soften.
Spritz the carrots with olive oil (or lemon olive oil) and sprinkle with kosher salt.
Air fry the carrots at 390°F (199°C) for about 10 minutes or until crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Broccoli Salad with Greek Yogurt Dressing:
Ingredients:
Broccoli crowns
Greek yogurt (1/2 cup)
Mayonnaise
Apple cider vinegar (3 tablespoons)
Honey (3 tablespoons)
Salt
Pepper
Raisins (optional)
Instructions:
Whisk together Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper to make the dressing.
Chop broccoli crowns into bite-sized pieces and toss them in the dressing.
Add chopped onion and raisins (if using) to the salad.
Allow the flavors to meld for a few hours before serving.
These recipes offer a variety of delicious ways to enjoy vegetables, from roasted to air-fried to in a salad, with flavorful dressings and complementary ingredients.
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A Simple Prayer of Gratitude
Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. You have surrounded me with people who always look out for me. You have given me family and friends who bless me every day with kind words and actions. I am forever grateful for each of you❤️
welcome to lean and clean with Fitness
Chef Christine I’m Christine your host
and today we’re going to be talking
yummy vegetables if you ever gone to a
restaurant and had a fantastic vegetable
dish maybe it’s a side maybe it’s your
main dish but you’re like oh my gosh
this is so good why are my vegetables at
home so tasteless in comparison the
answer is f if you are not cooking
yourself like a restaurant where they
load up the butter and they load up the
oil and it gets all happy and happy in
the oven your vegetables are going to be
a little bit more bland so today let’s
solve that problem without adding a ton
of extra fat we want to do those
flavorful vegetables so to a pan Which I
actually recorded but realized I wasn’t
actually recording I cut up two bulbs of
fennel and one whole Red Onion but I’m
going to show you what I did with that
fennel since I accidentally didn’t press
record like a dingling it happens
sometimes so I cut the bulb this part as
you wouldn’t
just in thick layers but then we have
these stocks and we’re going to use
these stocks we’re going to take off the
fronds and we’re going to use those in
the sad later but you’re just going to
come and cut that on the bias and the
reason I cut it on the bias is to get a
little bit longer thicker cut so that
they don’t cook too quickly because if
you’re cooking them with the rounds then
you want it to cook about the same time
all right so we’re going to go ahead I
put a little bit of extra virgin olive
oil in there so I’m going to put some of
this Greek extra virgin olive oil in not
too much but enough that you’re going to
get it coated then we’re going to put
some salt and pepper on there cuz we
want a season and season that is part of
the reason that our vegetables at
restaurants taste so darn good because
they’re so well seasoned and if we miss
that step then obviously we’re not going
to get the results that we want so a
little dash of coaster salt and some
fresh ground
pepper don’t be afraid to season your
vegetables listen vegetables are
wonderful they’re low in calories high
in fiber they keep us full you never
heard of anybody getting obese eating a
ton of vegetables it just doesn’t happen
so utilize that thought process and
let’s make them yummy all right we got
some foil
here and I’m going to cover
this covering it we’re going to pop that
into a high heat oven so it’s
450° until they’re nice and soft then
that’s where the Magic’s going to happen
we’re going to add to it
delicious all right popping that in in
the
meantime on a quest for lots of
deliciousness I have some carrot
now I bought these already cut so you
can buy them already cut up and I par
boil them so I boil them for 6 minutes
until they’re just starting to get soft
but they’re not mushy that’s what we
want and then we’re going to sprin them
with some olive oil and and some good
kosher sauce and we’re going to put them
in the air fryer to get nice and crunchy
so they taste like french fries trust me
when I tell you they are really
delicious and because I’m so
self-sacrificing I’ll taste T them for
you all right so you got them in there
we’re going to add a little bit this
time I’m going to use a little bit of
lemon olive oil so I like that little
bit of
acidity in there if I can find the there
it is little bit of lemon olive oil I
like that little bit of acidity with the
carrots and then I’m going to go put you
could use regular it doesn’t matter just
going to drizzle and then I’m going to
add that kosher salt in there which in
the air fry will probably blow all
around and get all over them all right
now one thing you should know about me I
cook everything in the air at the same
temperature it makes life so much easier
so mine only goes up to 390° so that’s
what I keep it on and then I just vary
the time and it makes life so simple I’m
going to pop these in there we’ll start
about 10 minutes we’ll take a look I
want it to be crunchy on the outside and
soft on the inside so here we go
all right those are working all right
next one up we’re going to work on a
cold broccoli salad now this is
something I grew up with and I
absolutely love but had a lot of
mayonnaise in it so I opted to swap out
some of the mayonnaise for some Greek
yogurt so let me show you what that
looks like let’s start with the dressing
for this broccoli salad so traditionally
like I said it was a mayonnaise based
dressing but we’re going to St out some
of that mayonnaise for Greek yogurt that
is going to up the protein and it’s
going to be just as delicious okay so
we’re going to start out with a half a
cup of Greek
yogurt I like to use my 1/4 cup ice
cream
soup it makes things a lot easier
thankfully that drops the right way and
we the Mayo some use the Mayo but not
quite as
much now I like Dukes or
helmond or homemade is even better if
you have the time obviously the more
that you can make stuff homemade the
more you can control what goes in it
don’t mind me I appear to be dropping
everything
today see if we can get this thing
off pop that bit of Sucker off there we
go sometimes these things do not want to
work with me that’s just how it go some
days all right measure that into here
I’ll scoop it out
[Music]
as this is real life sometimes it
doesn’t want to come
out good
enough we can adjust that as we go and
we’re going to put three tbspoon of
apple cider vinegar I do really like to
make sure that it has the mother
included in it so we’ll do three C of
that
one and and three and then just like
everything else we make sure that we
season it and we’re going to add
some
honey about 3
tbspoon
go and
salt and
pepper and then we’ll give it a little
whiskey that’s whis
good whisk and we’ll whisk that together
until it’s nice and
emulsified nice and smooth see it’s nice
and smooth
now give it a little
taste over here a little
T see if we need to adjust
[Music]
anything that that’s pretty good all
right we good sh
there so now we’ll go ahead and we’ll
add our broccoli so for this one I
usually like just to use the crowns but
I will chop
up the crowns a bit because I don’t like
them to be too chunky not only these
people that really like it super chunky
we’re just going to go ahead and give
them a rough chop doesn’t have to be
tiny but I don’t want mouthfuls of giant
pieces of
broccoli now it will
soften after it’s been in the uh
dressing for a while and this makes a
lot so don’t worry about the amount of
drastic scoop that in
there that in
there that off and we’ll just flip it
around do the same thing to this
side what I like about this is that You’
got all that fiber from the raw
veggies but it’s nicely balanced with
acidity and creaminess
a little bit of sweetness from the
honey and it’s nostalgic it’s something
I grew up with for me that’s a
bonus all right going add one last bunch
of
broccoli and not to worry these stems
will not go to
waste and just a nice Ro Chop on the
brle
grab that in
there and we’re going to add some onion
to
that our
onion s off this cutting board
into our garage
B just to a nice clean
surface there we
go and let’s grab our onion
so you have to decide how much onion you
like I really like onions so I usually
put the whole onion in but if you’re not
a big onion lover half to a quarter
should do it if you’re just looking for
that
flavor and we’re just going
to a large dice on this cuz I don’t
really I want some
texture but not a ton okay go put that
in
there
and
side piece
there I think that’s good enough I’m put
that in there and then you can decide
what other things you like to put in so
sometimes I put some dried cranberries
in sometimes I put some raisins in there
so I think today we’re going to put some
raisins in
there which
don’t I have these little boxes of
raisins which are really great mostly
for my grandson but also it’s nice
portion control you don’t have to try
and figure it all
out so I’m just going to put one box of
these raisins in there
like everything today it doesn’t want to
come
out some days are just like that
sometimes things work easily with you
and sometimes they fight you but today’s
one of those days where it’s just
fighting me all right then we’re going
to give it all a mix in these tongs and
it will look like the dressing is not
really coating all of it that’s cool
don’t worry about it as the moisture
leaks out of the broccoli and as it sits
it will get more liquidy so you don’t
need to make any more dressing you are
good to
go now you can get crazy you can add
more crunch to it you could add some
toasted almonds you could add a number
of things you could add to it some cut
up apples if you like more sweetness but
truthfully I like it just the way it is
I like it Lan and I like it to at least
be made a couple hours in advance so the
the flavors have a chance to
marry all right we’re looking good
and now of course even though it hasn’t
had time to really set up a lot I’m
going to taste
it making sure I’m happy with it and I
am I’m going to wrap this up pop it in
the
refrigerator and we’ll have it tonight
for dinner I’ll come back and I’ll show
you more here are our carrot fries
they’re wonderful on the outside nice
and crunchy and then soft on the inside
that parb oil really helps if you don’t
have time you can go right straight to
the air fryer I’m dipping it in in some
Marie’s blue cheese
dressing
now you can eat it straight up with the
blue cheese dressing as it is but if you
want to cut it with half Greek yogurt
you still get the taste of the blue
cheese dressing but you get extra punch
of protein again it’s about the flavor
you want to add pretend that you’re at a
restaurant it always comes with a
dipping sauce now you’re in your home
restaurant you want to have a dipping
sauce that make it lovely and really you
want want to get to the point where
you’re looking forward to those
vegetables they’re not just something
you have to eat they’re something you
look forward to eating and I’m going to
tell you you’re going to look forward to
eating these cuz they’re
delicious
so let’s take a look at our our fennel
and our onion that’s in the
oven it’s been in there on it’s been in
there covered for 30 minutes we’ll take
a look at
it all right
looking good it’s nice and bubbly nice
and hot I’m going to give it a little
stir which is something you want to do
fairly frequently so you don’t get some
that are overcooked or some that are
undercooked you want to keep it
moving okay we are at a good point now
I’m going to put it back in
uncovered for about 10 minutes and then
we’re going to add our liquid and our
cheese and that’s what’s going to make
it so wonderful okay stick that back
in and while we do
that we’re going to reuse the P tin foil
cuz I’m not a fan of wasting anything
nor am I fan of clean up so we got our
box grater I’ve got my parmesan cheese
I’m just going to gr the heck out of the
sucker now there’s a lot in there so
we’re going to need a significant amount
of
cheese now the idea is not to add a ton
of calories but you’re just trying to
get that
flavor I’m looking at about a/4 cup is
what I’m looking
for this cheese is very
hard it’s parmesan regana by the way go
for the real stuff don’t go for the fake
parmesan if it cost is an issue get what
you can afford but if you can afford to
spend just a little bit more and use a
little bit less it’s totally worth it
okay so that’s about
enough we’ll set that aside for a moment
while we grab our
liquids I’m going to use some
unsweetened almond milk along with that
cheese and that’s going to give us a
really nice base for that sauce okay so
we’re going to set that aside for a
second let’s talk about some
mushrooms often I see people cooking
mushrooms in sort of crazy ways in my
opinion and this is just how I like to
cook them I like to keep them what I
call Seated on the pan so I start out
with no oil I start out dry on the pan I
keep them in one solid surface so
they’re not overlapping a whole lot and
then I just let them do their thing I
let them cook down I salt them a little
bit let them cook down and then I flip
them and then I add a tiny bit of fat
and keep going and this way they get
really nicely Brown and they’re just
delicious you can add anything from a
little red wine to um a little balsamic
vinegar whatever you like or you can
just keep them plain they’re great
addition to any steak any chicken
whatever it is you like so let’s go
ahead and do that let me get a
[Music]
p today I’m using chiaki
mushrooms go ahead and get this pan
heated if those of you who have not been
with me before don’t know I do not have
a gas stove because there is no gas out
where I live I live out in the country
so we
are able to only get
a an induction oven which is what I have
no big deal it works great but not my
favorite I I would still miss my
gas okay so as this does heat up fast so
that’s the only positive bur we’re going
to get those mushrooms in to the best of
our extent we’re going to get them nice
and flat so there’s not a whole lot of
overlapping there we go and we’re just
going to let them do their thing let’s
sprinkle with a bit of
salt and I put my salt oh there it
is and then once they start to Brown up
a bit give them a little shaky shake and
then we’ll going to add some fat to that
while that’s doing its thing we will let
that go for a little bit and I’ll come
back to you and show you okay our sauce
not sauage
just our mushrooms have been cooking a
little bit here you can see they B L
reduced we’re looking good we’re not
trying to burn them so we want to make
sure that you keep moving them around
once they’ve started to shrink up a
little bit now we’re going to add just a
little bit of olive
oil and turn it down a
bit continue
cooking you get that nice bit of
caramelization on
them but they still retain some of their
shape and their firmness that’s what
we’re looking for show you what that
looks like there we go beautiful now I’m
going to set those
aside I’m going to give another
pan and we’re going to use up some of
the uh fennel frons that we had with
some
sausages because fennel and sausage go
beautifully together so let me grab
those sausages out
and all I’m going to do is take one of
these sausages out I’m going to take it
out of this
casing slice it down
here and we’re just going to crumble it
up into this pan I use one or two I
don’t know we’ll decide we’ll see I one
should do
it and then with the back of my knuckle
the part that has not touched anything
I’m going to go ahead and put that on
medium I’m going to let that cook down
I’m going to go wash my hands I’ll be
right
back okay member of the Clean Hands
committee again okay so I’m going to go
put this in the
sink and we’ll break that sausage
up using our spatula just break it up a
little bit
as it Cooks down it’ll be easier to
break up but we want to get at least
flat for
now and then we’re going to take our
fenr let me pop
that our Fel FR
again now I obviously I’m not going to
need all of these cuz it’s a
lot but we’re going to they built down
to basically Nothing by the time we’re
done so not terribly concerned about how
much we have my knife here
and we are just going
to go ahead and take these off and you
just pull them off by hand or you can
use the side of your knife and get them
off sometimes they come off nice and
easy and sometimes they want to be a
butt it’s okay just keep working on
it you have a nice big
pile and then going to chop roughly chop
them and add them in with our
sausage good and the bre you can use for
a salad or a
garnish we
go all right so block those all together
and we’re just going to give a rough
shot and then keep on moving this
around and once that starts to leash out
a little bit of it’s fat that’s go ahead
and add those
FRS so what this is going to be I’m
going to add the Italian sausage the
sauteed fena frons and the mushrooms to
a
pasta so it will have lots of great
flavor my pasta water is boiling in the
back over there can’t see it but it is
and just go ahead and add those cenel
CRS in there
they tend to get everywhere so be
prepared they’re so
fine that they kind of poop everywhere
and we’ll let that
go we give that a little bit of a cover
we’ll lower that heat just a little
[Music]
bit we’re going to cover that and let
that sort of leech out in the meantime
last thing we’re going to
do I’ve showed with you before that my
mom’s side is all Lebanese and it’s very
common to have squash and
eggs so I’m going to go ahead and put
this yellow squash into the air fryer it
has a little bit of that fenr on it just
from sharing the cutting board but
that’s okay I love
flavor go ahead and put that in there
we’re going to add a dash of ker Sals
Over the Top flavor that’s what we want
and then we’re going to go ahead and add
just a drizzle of this olive oil
and we’re going to let that cook down
while all of this is doing its thing and
then once it’s nice and soft go ahead
and move that to a sauté pan and add
some eggs and make scrambled eggs with
it it is so good it’s such a great way
to start breakfast you’re just going to
love it don’t knock it until you try it
all right let me put that in the pasta’s
boiling the mushrooms and fenr and
sausage are cooked everything’s looking
fantastic we’re back here with our
fennel and our roasted fennel roasted
onions looking fabulous the smell is
amazing so if you’ve ever eaten raw
fennel you know it has a nice licoricey
pretty strong flavor but when they’re
cooked they’re nice and mellow and
delicious so right now we’re going to go
and hit it with that paresan cheese that
we
grated about a 1/4 cup and I use the
larger whole grater so it’s a little B
bit
chunkier go ahead and put that on there
then we’re going to add some almond milk
unsweet almond milk you can use heavy CR
you can use almond milk you can use
whatever this you
like and you’re just going to put it in
there to covered up a little bit that’s
going to help that cheese make more of a
sauce and we’re going to put that back
in the oven until it’s nice and bubbly
yummy
yummy if you’ve never had baked
fennel going to love it all right so
back to the oven it goes then I like to
hit with just a little bit more um salt
make sure that we’re in a good shape
making sure that all the flavors are
going well together once our pasta comes
together we’ll review everything and
I’ll show you what it looks like I
transferred the sash to a sauté pan
added a little bit of butter and now
it’s softening up you want it to be
really soft okay so none of the hard
edges should be there it’s pretty much
overcooked because you wouldn’t want to
eat it that way but when you’re
scrambling with eggs you don’t want it
to have a lot of texture you want melt
in with the eggs so we’re just going to
keep on cooking it down and keep that on
the back burner we’re going to move our
sausage with our feno frons and our
mushrooms up to the front
here and I’m going to get that on
medium maybe wants to work with me there
we go and we’re going to add some of
that pasta water to it and that is going
to help us to create a nice little
sauce all right so we’re just going to
stir that right up once that comes to a
higher temperature we’ll add our pasta
in there and get that good and mixed and
transfer us to a bigger pan
here that pan seems to be a bit
small transfer over normally I would
start out in a big pan I have been doing
a ton of cooking so I need the mother
load of pans
lately all right I’m going to add just a
little bit more of that pasta cooking
water
here it is just wonderful for making a
beautiful sauce it has that little bit
of starchiness left over from the pasta
which is
lovely and let me show you what
our so really how it just came out of
the oven what our gatan looks like so
that is our fennel and our onions there
our grated cheese and a little bit of
almond milk and it’s so so good it’s
almost addicting and in between filming
I ate all the carrot fries so it was a
perfect
lunch okay now I’m going to go ahead and
TOS in my
pasta I won’t need all the pasta I need
so
go up in
there mi
in that work in
here you can see that beautiful fennel
bronze all melted down in there by the
way you can also make a really really
great pesto with all the fenel Fons and
I do have a lot so probably would I’m
going to do the rest of it
but and then once you’re at this stage
you can lower the heat just a little
bit
and we got a big spoon we’ll give a
little tasty make sure it’s okay super
hot and us a little more
salt and some fresh
pepper and we’re going to put a little
bit of cheese in there just a tiny
bit maybe
so just about a tablespoon of cheese
across the top there melt that right in
there just for that little
extra so for me this is a whole meal
right you’ve got your veg you’ve got
your carbs your protein everything’s in
there it’s delicious and it doesn’t take
long at all so the thing about it is
that if you batch cook you’re going to
have a lot of stuff available during the
week and if you don’t like to batch cook
it’s fine you just have to do that
grocery shopping and plan as you go but
I love having the Dual functionality so
you’ve got the fennel bulb then you got
the fennel fron and you can use it in
multiple ways it makes things wonderful
I’m going to take now that this is
cooled off and it’s not molten lava I’m
going to take a little taste of that
fennel it’s so mellow
now you absolutely have to try try is so
so good even just baked fennel is
delicious or broiled fennel is delicious
but something magical happens when you
pair it with onions and you bake it for
a long time and you add a little bit of
cheese it’s just it’s so good all right
we’re going to go back to our squash I’m
going to add those eggs in
now and look feel free to make this
creative you don’t have to do exactly
like me if you like something else in
your eggs let’s see want to add feta
cheese you do that you want to add more
veggies do it the more the merrier but
the idea is that we really want to
incorporate yummy veggies I’m so tired
of just looking at you know wilted
broccoli on people’s plate and they
think that’s what they have to have in
order to be healthy that’s certainly not
the case we’re just going to break those
eggs right into there if you’re not
confident or you’re worried to getting
shells feel free to use a separate Bowl
in fact probably should but because I’m
got enough dishes to do for the next
year
here I’m going to do it that way get a
for not rocket science regular scrambled
eggs I’m not adding any liquid to this
because the squash has quite a bit of
liquid and that water from the squash
will help the eggs become nice and
creamy again you could add cheese you
could add other veggies in there but I
think this is just perfect the way it is
this is how I grew up and so so I love
it I this is like a great breakfast for
me so I hope that you try it and that
you love it too maybe it’s something
different that your family hasn’t tried
before it’s really good to get out into
the comfort zone and try different
dishes you could try different spices in
there maybe make it a little bit spicier
add a little touch of cayenne in there
or some hot sauce extra yummy you could
do it any number of ways you can do more
tomatoes in there and have it more like
a Greek omelette there’s so many
different ways you can go with it some
olive love it love
it I’m going to switch over to my
spatula just keep it moving until you
don’t have your wetness there
anymore and everything is nice and this
is why it’s important to have your
squash real soft by the time you get add
those eggs in there or they just won’t
have a chance to cook sometimes I shred
it so that it cooks really fast in the
morning um it just depends I I tend to
like a little bit of bite too it so that
having the bigger pieces gives you a
little bit more to work with but telling
you if you eat this for breakfast you
will be full for
hours and your workouts will thank
you but this is even great as a quick
lunch you can have it with a little side
salad you can have it just as it is it
is
fabulous sometimes I add some peppers in
there it just depends
Sometimes some little chunks of
ham but this is how I grew up with a
just plain squash and
eggs there we have it so you don’t want
to cook them to death you want it to
have a little bit of moisture still left
in
there and let’s check it make
sure oh
yeah super good all right my friends get
those creative juices flowing make sure
that you hydrate your body make sure
that you move your body and fuel your
your body and keep tuning in if you have
questions if you have suggestions I’m
always open to them you can email me
I’ll leave it in the show notes and I
look forward to hearing from you as
always keep in touch with me on social
medias you can find me on Instagram and
Facebook and I have two free groups on
Facebook one is called menopause macros
and movement and one is called lean and
clean with Fitness Chef Christine so
easy to find come and join me I love you
all I pray for each and every one of you
I hope you have a great day and if you
feel so moved I would really really
appreciate it if you would rate the show
follow along get involved it is really
appreciated share it if you love it have
a wonderful day many blessings