Jewel Roasted Vegetables

Late this morning I pulled two pork roasts out of the freezer. They both fit in my Dutch oven (have I told you how much I adore mine?) perfectly, side by side. I poured a bit of leftover coffee from this morning into the bottom (why not?), added a bunch of garlic cloves and a little s&p, popped them into the heated oven and let the magic happen. Of course, meat is all well and good. For a low-carber, it's really all I need, right? 

However, I am also a new gardener. I've got lots of carrots, beets, a little broccoli and some onions still going on out there. While I was just going to harvest some today and make pickled beets and clean carrots to keep in the fridge for snacking, a picture flashed in my head of a recipe from a cookbook I'd borrowed from the library at one time. It was a cookbook by Ellie Krieger and her beautiful photo of roasted veggies still could be recalled. The link to her recipe on Food Network's site can be brought up by clicking on her name below the recipe title. You'll see that my version is quite different from hers. It was mostly a matter of what I had on hand. I had made her recipe as she originally intended when I'd had her cookbook. It was fantastic... and I am not a brussels sprouts fan. Point being, it's flexible. Because this was fantastic, too. Use what you've got. Use what you want. It's all good.

Jewel Roasted Vegetables

(adapted from Ellie Krieger of Food Network)
6 large beets, boiled until tender and peeled
2 T bacon grease
6 medium carrots, cut into 1" pieces
1-1/2c broccoli florets
8 large garlic cloves

4 small onions, cut into wedges
1/2 teaspoon pink salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1tsp thyme

1 branch/sprig rosemary

Trim then boil beets for 1hr or until tender enough to pierce with fork or knife. Drain and immerse in cold water. When cool enough to handle, slip off skins. Cut into 1" chunks and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Peel and cut the carrots into 1-inch pieces, trim the broccoli and peel the garlic cloves and onion. Put the carrots, garlic cloves and onion wedges onto a large baking sheet (not the broccoli yet) and toss with 2T of melted bacon grease. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. 

Place the pan of carrots/garlic/onion into the oven and cook everything for1hr, stirring once or twice. 

Stir the thyme and rosemary into the carrot mixture, add the broccoli and beets to the baking sheet. Let continue to cook for another 15 minutes or until broccoli is tender and it is heated throughout. Remove from oven, taste and add additional seasoning if desired.

Now, for an admission of guilt. I ate way too much at supper. It just simply tasted too good. (Oh, did I mention the mashed potatoes?) Although I felt uncomfortable as all heck for hours after eating... I still splurged on a Salted Caramel Pumpkin Spice concrete mixer at Culvers later. Why, oh why can't I remember how an overdose of sugar makes me feel?!? Yuck. I'm blaming this evening's loss of control on DMS (during). But I feel so horrible that it should keep me on the straight and narrow... for awhile anyway.