balsamic roasted veggies

I've been lucky so far since I  moved to New York that I haven't had to spend any important holidays alone. Last year, I spent Thanksgiving with my sister and her family, and I got to fly home for Christmas. I even had Valentine's day covered!

This year I was able to go all the way home for Thanksgiving, which was really exciting for me because it's my favorite holiday!

The only downer was that I wasn't able to help cook, as it ended up being an eleven-hour journey this time so I got home just in time to eat. 

Next year I'm hoping to be able to coordinate more time off so I can be integral in the cooking process. I'm starting to think early about what I might like to make. My family agrees that we need some more color on our table, so I was thinking balsamic roasted brussels sprouts, maybe?

For this experimental recipe I used a bunch of different veggies. Here's how I did it (as always, measurements are approximate):

2 cups brussels sprouts, quartered
2 red bell peppers, cut into strips
4 garlic cloves
1 yellow onion (I cut my onion in half, sliced up each half and pulled it apart. I don't know what thats called)
4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 375.

Place all your cut veggies in a large mixing bowl, pour over the vinegar and oil, use a spoon (or, as I did, your hands), to turn the veggies until evenly coated. Turn your coated veggies out into a roasting pan.

Roast for 20 minutes, then stir up your veggies, turning them over, and roast another 15 minutes, or until all veggies are beginning to brown. I think I got impatient here and turned my oven up to 425 for the second leg. It worked out fine but I can't recommend that method. It feels wrong.

These were really delicious (and healthy!). I'm not sure if I loved the brussels sprouts quite enough to incorporate into our most important dinner of the year, but they're definitely a great side for standard meals. I've seen some recipes that include herbs and Dijon mustard in their balsamic roasted veggies, maybe I'll have to explore that more in the future. I'll let you know how that turns out!

-A.