A Rainbow for St. Patty's Day

Okay, Okay, I know...I'm a day late for an official St. Patty's Day celebration. Can I blame it on being a little stuck in laid-back California time? :) San Francisco was beautiful, the baby traveled amazingly happily, and my friend was the best travel company! THANKS, MANON!! (also thanks to Manon for this weeks recipe!) :)

I hope everyone's not too sick of roasted vegetables...I feel like that is the basis of many of my meals lately, but this one is waaaay too good not to share. Sadly, no photos of this one because hubby took the new laptop to LA with him (we swapped coasts within 24 hours...I tried to convince him to take Lainey with him and let me meet up with him in LA, but the flights were too expensive. :( ). You'll have to go on description alone for this one. It sounds pretty simple and maybe even a little boring, but it's NOT. It's so good. I've made it now for dinner company three or four times, and it's a hit every time. And, Lainey gobbles up every veggie on her plate, without hesitation or convincing. Gotta love that.

I've served Rainbow Salad now over rice, over lo mein noodles, over ramen noodles, and as a stand-alone with bread. It's quick and easy and full of flavor. Hope you like it!

RAINBOW SALAD

7 C. root vegetables, chopped: (use any, all, or a few of the following)

turnips

red beets

yellow beets (they have these at Price Chopper on occasion!)

chioggia beets/candystripe (the farmer's market)

red carrots

yellow carrots

orange carrots

sweet potatoes

7 whole garlic cloves

2 c. chopped kale or spinach

1/2 c. cashews, chopped

Whisk these ingredients together for the dressing:

1/4 c. rice wine vinegar

1/2 c. sesame oil

1/4 c. vegetable oil

3/4 c. soy sauce

2 tbsp. honey

2 tsp. dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2" ginger, minced

Chop roots and add whole garlic cloves. Roast in oven at 425° for at least 45 minutes until fork tender. Add chopped kale/spinach to warm veggies; this slightly cooks the kale for a wilted texture. Add chopped cashews. Toss in about half the dressing, and save the rest to add to individual servings as desired.

I'm in Love...

With a blog. Let me explain. For days now I've been craving some roasted veggies...we stocked up on tons of root vegetables this weekend at the co-op, and this afternoon they were calling my name. I decided to hunt the internet for a new recipe using roasted veggies, and I found the best blog. Seriously. I emailed the blogger just to tell her how wonderful her blog is. So, we can thank Jan over at Mixing Bowl Kids for tonight's yumm-o dinner. Her blog is packed with awesome recipes, and she has tons of ideas for involving kids. She's my hero. :) Take a look and you'll see what I mean. (I had to stop looking because I got overwhelmed with how many of her recipes I wanted to try!!) Okay, on to the food. Directly from her blog...
Honey Roasted Root Vegetables with Pasta and Goat Cheese
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
6 large carrots, peeled and sliced 6 shallots, peeled and halved
1 beet, peeled and diced 2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Place all of the veggies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Combine the honey, oil and mustard and pour over vegetables. Toss to combine well.
Sprinkle with salt and thyme.
Roast for 30 minutes or until brown and fork tender.

** For a complete meal toss with your favourite cooked pasta and sprinkle with goat cheese.

I almost never follow a recipe as-is (unless I'm baking), so I did make a couple little changes. I had no shallots, so I just roasted three large cloves of garlic instead. I increased the beets to 3 because (as Lainey says), I love love love beets. I also doubled the sauce so that I had some extra to toss into the pasta (leftover whole wheat angel hair), along with a tiny bit of olive oil. Oh, and I threw in a few big handfuls of spinach to wilt at the end. Last change was a splash of lemon juice, just because (honey and lemon are good together?).

The photo I posted doesn't do the meal justice. I'm a terrible photographer with a crummy camera. But it gives you an idea, at least.

For dessert, we had these peanut butter cookies, from Jan's other blog, Family Bites--they were insanely easy and really good! Try 'em!