Roasted Carrots and...Celery?

Do you ever have food that you don't really know what to do with? I bought 2 large stalks of celery for a soup I was going to make, but never ended up making the soup. I'm not a huge fan of celery, but I'm too cheap to just toss it and let it go to waste. I was really in the mood for some roasted carrots, so I thought I'd try roasting the celery right along side the carrots, why not?!

Roasted Carrots and Celery with Garlic and Curry

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds carrots
2 large stalks of celery
2 T garlic oil
2 tsp. curry powder

** If you want to make them sweet, take away one T olive oil and add 1-2 T maple syrup **
** If you want to use regular olive oil, that's fine, just use a few cloves of chopped fresh garlic instead **

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you want, shred the carrot's outer layer (this is not necessary but some people like their carrots shredded). Rinse the carrots and celery well, then chop them into somewhat equal sized pieces.

2. Add all veggies to a large ziplock bag and add the oil and curry (and garlic if you choose). 3. Zip the bag, allowing some air to get in the bag. Shake the bag and get the ingredients evenly distributed among the veggies. 4. Dump the veggies onto a large baking pan and evenly distribute them on the pan. 5. Roast for ~20-30 minutes.

Once they cool down a bit (like in the photo below) they get all shriveled up and ugly. So yeah, they aren't as good as when they are straight out of the oven. But if you just pop them into the oven at 350 for ten minutes, they are good as new! If you don't want to do that, just zap them in the microwave, I promise they are still delicious.

I probably won't be going out of my way to buy celery for roasting again any time soon, but I'm officially addicted to roasted carrots. Nick and I can't get enough. No more baby carrots for us! I'm sticking to the larger carrots that aren't as processed and are much cheaper.

QUESTION: Do you like roasted carrots? Or, do you prefer your carrots cold, dipped in Ranch dressing? :) What do you do with celery, if you do in fact eat it? I'm curious, other than celery and PB I just don't understand the appeal of celery.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!! Are you going to be dressing up for Halloween?!

The Anti-Bloat Garlic and Blue Cheese Turkey Burger!

I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover the joy of garlic oil. Over a year ago I actually made my own garlic oil, but after that I never really thought about it again. I've now gone two years making recipes for which I've had to find substitutes for garlic and onion (are there really any equal substitutes for garlic and onion? Not so much.) I finally got fed up with it and realized that rather than making my own garlic oil, which takes some time, I should buy it at the store.


You see, I can still get the garlic flavor if the garlic has been sitting in the oil and the flavors have been infused into the oil, just as long as I don't eat any of the actual garlic. Garlic contains something called fructans, which are short chains of fructose linked together. Our bodies do not produce the enzyme to break these down, and in some individuals (me!) it can cause upset stomach and bloating (read more about FODMAPs here).


Poor Nick, who used to sweat garlic, now eats most of his meals garlic-free. But alas, we can now both enjoy the taste of garlic!

The Garlic-Loaded, IBS-Friendly Turkey and Blue Cheese Burger

Ingredients
(Makes about 6-7 burgers)

1 pound ground turkey (94% lean)
2 T blue cheese crumbles
1 T garlic oil

Directions
1. Mix everything together in a medium bowl.
2. Form ~6 patties
3. Heat on medium for about 4 minutes on each side (or until cooked all the way through and internal temp. reaches 165)
4. Serve on your favorite bread, with your favorite toppings (**make sure it's gluten-free if you are low FODMAPs)

Both Nick and I agreed that these burgers were fabulous. Both the garlic and the blue cheese flavors came through and neither flavor overpowered the other. It was so nice to finally taste garlic in a burger again!

And what do you do with your leftover turkey burgers? How about add them to pasta sauce! I had some pasta and some pasta sauce, so I crumbled the turkey burgers into the sauce and made a meaty sauce for the pasta. I served the pasta over some vegetables so I could make half of my plate vegetables (yes, I do practice what I preach). Voila! For more tips and ideas on how to use leftovers, checkout Andrea's post.

QUESTION: What would you make with leftover burgers? Have you ever tried garlic oil?