Mmm, Purple Carrots

Stopped by Whole Paycheck (er, Whole Foods) on my way home from work and decided to pick up some fresh produce and look for whole wheat bread flour (a big fat no on this one but they did have an unbleached King Arthur bread flour that I picked up). Inspired by Sarah's roasted beets on Sunday, I decided to swing by the root veggie section and found some beautiful organic beets with their greens still attached (which are also delicious in their own right) and some multi-colored organic carrots. Okay, question. Does my organic purchase get nullified by the fact that these buggers were shipped from California? Either way, there wasn't a local version of either of these, so into my shopping basket they went. I had picked up a small winter squash at the farmer's market on Sunday and no ideas for it until that moment -- a Slow Roasted Winter Veggie mix. Maybe this was so exciting at the time because you know, the carrots were purple.

This recipe is rated A for nutrition and makes two veggie lovers portions at 174 calories per serving, 1.7g fat, 0 cholesterol, 130mg sodium, 7.9g dietary fiber, 10.3g sugars, 3.9g protein, 424% vitamin A (holy crap!), 56% vitamin C, 12% calcium, and 13% iron. Oh, and and in 14% of the population, eating beets will turn #1 reddish, either because its genetic or because you have an iron deficiency. Either way, don't freak out. And for most people, it also turns #2 purplish, too. Again, don't freak out.


This is quick and simple and makes for great leftovers for lunch at work. I cut everything into big chunks. Be careful with the beets as they can stain your countertop and cutting board. I just washed everything right away. The winter squash was a pain in the butt, but if you cut it in half vertically, scoop out the seeds, then cut it along each natural indentation, its pretty easy to use a paring knife on each section. I also threw in half a leftover vidalia onion because, well, roasted vidalias are awesome. Throw it all in a big bowl, and toss with a garlic infused olive oil (I keep some ready made in the fridge in a little jar with some rosemary -- you cannot store infused oils out of the fridge or they go rancid) and throw in a little rosemary and thyme. Then line a baking sheet with heavy duty aluminium foil (for easy clean up) and dump the veggies on there. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I like to go even a little longer to get a nice brown crusty effect on the bottom.

I also became motivated to make some pizza/calzone dough last night which seems to be just the right consistency and is 90% whole grain. Extra gluten seems to do the trick for pizza dough. I let it do the first rise overnight in the fridge and punched it down this morning to get it ready for the second rise in the fridge while I am at work. I am going to do an italian stuffed bread where you roll the dough out like pizza, put the toppings on, and then roll the whole thing up, pinch the seams, and let rise and bake. We'll see how it goes tonight.