~~I don’t know about you, but I love summer because of the vegetables that are available at the Farmers Market! It is so easy to reboot your body with plenty of fruits and vegetables no matter if you are a carnivore, omnivore, or vegan. We all love farm fresh veggies, right?

Well for some of us that may be a little intimidated on how to prepare our veggies in a heart health and easy way. Here are a few tongue tantalizing recipes that are quick and easy:

Veggie Sauté

Chop Zucchini, yellow squash, and/or eggplant into small squares. It’s important to chop them the same size to have them cook at the same speed. The smaller the quicker they will all cook. Chop 1 small onion and mince one clove of garlic. Set aside. Heat pan on medium to low temperature. Once pot is at desired temperature, place about 1 – 2 tablespoons of oil and slow cook onions until translucent. Then add the garlic. Stir for about 3 more minutes. Turn heat up to medium high and toss veggies with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté until veggies are to desired tenderness.

This is very simple, delicious, and healthy. If you wish to avoid oil, you can just use water to sauté.
You can do the above sauté with potatoes. A ceramic nonstick pot makes it easier to control sticking – but if you don’t have a nonstick pot, just use caution and stir more often. Once the potatoes are browned on all sides reduce heat to low cook, cover and steam the potatoes for about 20 minutes making sure if pot gets dry to use more water, or oil to hydrate. Enjoy!

Roasted Veggies

Preheat oven to 450. If you use more than one vegetable, make sure they are veggies that cook relatively in the same amount of time. Carrots take longer to cook than broccoli, so pairing these two veggies together would require you to cook the carrots until almost done then adding the broccoli. But if you use broccoli and cauliflower, they should be okay to cook at the same amount of time and at the same time.

Use favorite dressing or make your own; Juice of one lime or lemon, 2 tbl of oil, 1 minced garlic clove, salt and pepper to taste.

Chop broccoli and cauliflower to about 2 inch pieces, mix with dressing to coat, and place into oven to cook for 8 minutes; flip and cook another 5 minutes or until desired tenderness. Test by trying a piece.
These are a few of my favorite go to recipes. Please leave your favorite go to recipes. Enjoy your July 4th holiday!! Be safe out there.