Tasty Tuesday

Last night, Natalie (my three year old) looked up from her dinner plate to exclaim, "This is the greatest dinner I've ever tasted."

I was so proud. Until I remembered that dinner last night was a Stouffer's "Grandma's Chicken & Vegetable Rice Bake." Stouffer's did not send any Grandma over to make it...Michaela Byrd and I picked it up in the frozen food aisle at Super-Target while Natalie was at preschool. The most effort I put into baking it was finding a knife to slit the plastic wrap around the frozen block of a casserole.

That's when I knew that maybe, just maybe it might be a good idea to pop over to Jen's at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam for an edition of Tasty Tuesday. T works late several nights a week, so the girls and I often eat together. This is a perfect opportunity for us to try some new recipes (possibly with cheese!), away from Sir Picky.

Today's recipe is a great side dish. I love asparagus when it's cooked to have some flavor, but I had never tried my hand at it before I found this recipe. I assumed that there would be some detailed process to creating an asparagus dish, but nope...this one is pretty straight-forward.

Broiled Asparagus
from Real Simple magazine: May, 2008

1 pound asparagus, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper

Heat broiler. On a baking sheet, toss the asparagus with oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to coat. Then arrange the asparagus in a single layer and broil, shaking the baking sheet occassionally, until tender and slightly charred. (About 6 to 8 minutes). Transfer to platter.

The most my teething sixteen month old has eaten in one sitting in a week has been half a green bean, some yogurt, and her milk, so I doubt this recipe would go over well with her. But the three year old could be bribed to try the asparagus, and then tricked into liking it. We're on our way to some healthy eating, huh?

{Bon Appetit!}