Lately, as our farmer’s market is gearing up again, I’ve been on a roasting kick. Once a week, I roast a whole chicken (I use up leftover chicken in stuff like enchiladas), and on other pans in the oven, I roast vegetables to go with the meal. The chicken is stuffed with a lemon or two and herbs. The vegetables are tossed with fresh or dried herbs (chives, rosemary, garlic, etc.–whatever makes sense) and oil. I can use up nearly whatever vegetables I get from the market this way—from radishes to carrots to onions to squash to tomatoes (okay, I think you get the idea ). Because the roasting caramelizes the vegetables’ outsides, they get sweeter and mellower. It’s a delicious and easy meal to throw those together; if I want an extra green vegetable, I just make a salad.

Grilling is another easy idea, as Rachel said. Besides the obvious things, one of our favorite things to grill is a side dish of sliced yellow squash and zucchini (which, by mid-sumemr, any farmer will be nearly giving away for the abundance of them then). We dust the squash with seasoning salt, brush on olive oil to keep it from sticking, and roast it alongside whatever else we’ve stuck on the grill. Makes for a fabulous, reasonable-calorie side dish that’s inexpensive.

I can think of a bunch of other suggestions but don’t want to hijack the post. I should probably just write a blog post about it!

Sally Parrott Ashbrook´s last blog post..The Moments