On the Side: Roasted Cabbage Rounds & Garlic Stuffed Roasted Artichoke

During our 30 day VegOut experience, I did a lot of roasting. Two things were absolutely new and so amazing. They generated a lot of interest and question on the instagram account, so I wanted to feature the full recipes here. Short and sweet. Here we go.

Roasted Cabbage Rounds

Every time we got a produce delivery this winter, there was a cabbage. We would sautee it, put it in soup, smother it, and then we were just kind of like.... what else can we do with all this stupid cabbage? I went to my trusty friend, the internet, and searched for a recipe. My gal Martha gave me this little gem. Her recipe called for caraway or fennel seeds. I had neither so I did the rounds simply with salt and pepper.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 more tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium head green cabbage, cut into 1-inch-thick rounds (we used purple cabbage)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon caraway or fennel seeds (we did not have, so we did not use)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush a rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. Place 1 medium head green cabbage, cut into 1-inch-thick rounds, in a single layer on sheet and brush with 2 tablespoons oil. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon caraway or fennel seeds. Roast until cabbage is tender and edges are golden, 40 to 45 minutes.

The end result.

 They looked SO amazing plated. You would think I could have gotten a pic of that, but nope.

Garlic Stuffed Roasted Artichoke

I was SO excited we got more artichokes in our last delivery because I am going to keep making this until there are no artichokes left on the earth. That is not an exaggeration. 

I found this recipe at Pinch My Salt. She goes through the entire process step by step with great photos and even a video. Clearly she is more more thorough than I am. Enjoy my rendition below. For the real thing, click here. 

Ingredients:

• Artichokes
• EVOO
• Salt
• Lemon, about a half per artichoke
• Garlic, 2-3 cloves per artichoke
• Heavy Duty Foil, one large square per artichoke

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Here are my amazing artichokes from Farmhouse Delivery:

First you want to slice off the top third of the artichoke. It's not wasteful, it's all rough stuff you wouldn't eat anyway. Don't tell that to my friend K though, who came to our house one time and was eating whole artichoke leaves, wondering why they were so chewy. We like to tell that story a lot. Then, cut off the stem at the base of the artichoke. After you have done these things they look happy and fancy, like this:

Next you are going to get out your foil and cut off a square large enough to wrap the artichoke in. Drizzle some EVOO on the foil and place your artichoke in there. Take 2-3 garlic cloves and SHOVE them into that artichoke. Next time I do this I am going to try opening it up a little more and seeing exactly how much garlic can fit in there. 

Squeeze the juice from half a lemon on top of the artichoke and into all the little nooks. Sprinkle with salt, drizzle a little more EVOO and you have this:

Repeat for each artichoke. Then wrap them up like little foil covered artichoke presents and put them on a baking sheet. Pop them into the oven like so:

Small artichokes (ours were) are done in an hour, medium in an hour and fifteen minutes, and supersize are done in an hour and a half. When your timer goes off you open up this little gift:

And how gorgeous is the side view?

While I was not so patiently waiting for the artichokes to cool I popped out the garlic and some Finn Crisps and this happened:

This was so amazing. Both of them were a hit with our 3 year old. Cabbage has a great sweet undertone when you roast it, and L loves the artichoke hearts. We had it as a side, but you could easily do this as an appetizer or all on it's own. My former go to artichoke recipe was steaming and then dipping in a butter garlic sauce. THIS is a whole new world. No sauce needed. 

Enjoy!!

RT

PS - I know I am over preaching instagram here, but if you want to join in on some daily Raising Texas, instagram is the place to be. Follow us @RaisingTexas!

The Great Halloween Candy Switch - Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let's get this out of the way first... I love candy. I love candy too much. I have probably tried it all, I still have my guilty candy pleasures and I also have about four filled cavities that back me up. For me, this is kind of a "do as I say, not as I do" type of thing. With all of the things you read about artificial color and your child's brain, corn syrup made with genetically modified corn, and all that other fun junk, I would prefer for my kid to not eat 4 lbs of candy. She can keep a few things to enjoy, but I made a plan for the rest. 

I REALLY love the Switch Witch. It's on almost every mom blog I follow and the whole premise is that your kids pick about 10 pieces of candy to keep and then put the rest on the front porch before they go to bed. During the night the "Switch Witch" visits, taking their candy and leaving behind a present for them. I think next year this will be genius, but this year I don't know if Landon can fully grasp the concept to be ok with the fact that her candy is on the front porch and someone is coming to get it. I guess what I am doing is maybe a simple version of this.

I picked something L loves and it was a toss up between chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. In the end, I found a great recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies on 100 Days of Real Food and the horrible weather was a great opportunity to make cookies together this morning in anticipation of all the junk tonight.

cookie monster

I made a few changes to the recipe after reading the comments and they turned out DELICIOUS. I don't know if I have ever made cookies this good. The Whole Wheat Flour really gives the cookie a bit of a nutty flavor. There's more to it. They are a little bit cakey, but in a fluffy way, not a dense way. At the end of the night, Landon can trade her candy for some cookies. Still a great treat, I just know exactly what went into them!

100 Days of Real Food's Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 16-20 cookies (just enough to not “over-indulge”

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup whole-wheat flour, pastry or white winter wheat recommended
• ½ cup white flour (or can use all whole-wheat instead) *I used all whole wheat
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt *I used a bit more salt to sprinkle on top of the dough before it went in the oven
• 1 stick butter (8 tablespoons), slightly colder than room temperature
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup chocolate chips *I used a cup of milk chocolate chips

Instructions (From 100 Days of Real Food)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a hand-held whisk including the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large, separate bowl use an electric mixer to cream the butter. The butter is the KEY ingredient in this recipe and for best results it must be “slightly” colder than room temperature. I usually take my stick of butter out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a half hour or so before making the cookies. If your butter gets too soft/warm you can alternatively chill the cookie batter after mixing everything together.
4. Add the egg, both sugars, and vanilla to butter until well mixed. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.
5. With the electric mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in batches) to the butter mixture.
6. With a large spatula stir in the chocolate chips.
7. If you have time, and for the very best results, it is recommended that you chill the batter for 10 – 15 minutes before putting the cookies in the oven (even if your butter was the perfect temperature!).
8. Put spoonfuls of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7 – 9 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. *I noticed my cookies took at least 9 minutes, two of the three batches took 10 minute.

I know some of you reading this are like LAME and I get it. But this works for us and L is a much better kid on a regular diet of actual fruits, vegetables, dairy and proteins with an occasional treat. Halloween is just OVERLOAD. That being said we are handing out every kind of treat you could imagine, chemicals and all. I don't want to get egged. 

Happy Halloween!

RT