I'm in love...

...with broccoli.  I've always liked broccoli, but I never know what to do with it.  Eating frozen broccoli gets old after awhile.  My sisters and I stayed with my cousin last week, and my cousin mentioned how she'll buy a big bag of broccoli from Gordon's Food Service and have it steamed for lunch.  I found a huge bag at Sam's Club this weekend and got it.  It was only $5 afterall, and I like broccoli.

This is about 2/3 of the bag - it's a ton of broccoli!

So I brought some broccoli to work on Monday figuring I would just eat it raw.  With no dip.  That lasted for about one bite.  Then I put the broccoli back in my lunch bag and brought it back home.  Where it sat for 2 days.

Then I was looking on the Weight Watcher message boards for some ideas for broccoli when I saw that someone recommended roasting it.  I've roasted green beans before, but they were frozen and didn't really turn out like they were supposed to.  (Although I do plan to buy some fresh green beans soon!)  So I thought "why not"?  I didn't want to heat up the oven for a small batch so I used my toaster oven.  I sprayed the broccoli with Olive Oil spray and ground sea salt over the top.  Then I roasted at 450 for 15 minutes.  I was a little concerned about how close the oil was to the top of the toaster oven so I stopped it at 15 minutes.  It was really, really good.  But then I had a piece where the stalk was just a little tender, and it was excellent.

So I decided I needed to try roasting it in a regular oven.  This time I lined a cookie sheet with non-stick foil and poured a bunch of broccoli on it.  I drizzled some EVOO on top and ground sea salt over top.  Then I roasted it at 450 for 20 minutes - at which point it was smelling very, very good.  I stirred it all around and roasted for 10 more minutes.  

I think roasted broccoli may be my new favorite food.  And french fries were my old favorite so that tells you how good this is!  The tops get crispy, and the stalks get so tender and just melt in your mouth.  And the best parts are where the olive oil and salt are concentrated.  I cannot tell you how good this is!  And this picture just doesn't do it justice:

Not at all.  I love that this is a way to get my healthy oil and veggies in for very low points (possibly none, but I've never been clear on whether healthy oils count as points.  I figure you're supposed to eat them so I never count them.  But then I never really used them, either!).

So, so good.  I'm a little embarrassed at such a long post about broccoli; but when you're in love, I guess you just want to tell everyone!