Ever get in a dinner rut? If you’re an exhausted Mama like me, sometimes you find yourself making the same few meals over and over for sake of convenience. You are likely to have the ingredients you need laying around the house, and you can usually predict the kids will eat it, so it just works. But it gets boring. The other day I was trying to figure out a vegetable, and found broccoli in the fridge. I usually steam it, but my tot won’t eat it without cheese sauce, so that’s what we end up doing every time. I happened to have a little bit of brain activity left that afternoon (it was so bizarre), so I decided to play around with recipe ideas to transform it into something a little different.

I love fried veggies, I’ll admit. Fried okra, fried zucchini, fried pickles even, yuumm. Fortunately for us fried veggie lovers there is a way to enjoy the taste without all the excess fat – oven “frying”. You may have seen from the trend on this blog, I kinda like oven-fried stuff (see Oven-Fried Chicken, or A Fish Recipe for Everybody) . This seemed like a fantastic way to change it up a bit, and it turned out delicious! Matthew even helped me make it and willingly ate it. Win-win.

So, I used what I had on hand, which was broccoli, carrots, and onions…but the possibilities are endless. I think this would also be delicious with cauliflower, zucchini, yellow squash, you name it. I love that we could have a change from the norm yet it was so darn easy to throw together.

Parmesan Breaded Veggies                                                   Serves about 4-5

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Panko
4 Tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 eggs slightly beaten
2 T milk
1 large head of broccoli, cut into florets
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped

Aren’t the colors purty?

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Combine first 4 ingredients in a Ziploc bag, set aside. In a separate bowl mix milk and beaten egg.
3) Add chopped vegetables into the bowl, toss with milk and egg mixture until well coated.
4) Pour vegetables into Ziploc bag, seal it shut (important).
5) Shake bag until veggies are well coated.

                                                      My bag shaker did an excellent job.

6) Spread vegetables out onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, stirring once about half way through.
7) Serve immediately and enjoy!

They came out nice and crispy with an excellent flavor. Husband, toddler, and as far as I could tell, unborn little girl gave it all a big thumbs up. I got everyone to eat more vegetables, so I gave it a full blown victory dance.

Try it out and let me know what you think! 

In dietitian-ing news, I have some big developments coming up. Stay tuned for an upcoming shiny new website/blog under my brand, Food 4 Success, LLC and some exciting new services I will start offering–not just to locals around here, but to anyone in the whole wide world. I’m so excited!

Until next time!
~Elissa