Salty, Crispy, Roasted Asparagus & Making Ryan Gosling Smile.

There are a few things you should know about me:

1.  I like salt.  Actually i should say I love salt.  Salty foods make me smile.  I especially like sweet, salty combos.
2.  I like roasted veggies.  It brings out their natural sweetness (which of course i off-set with lots of sea salt) and I especially like the roasted bits with slightly burnt edge.  They make my toes curl.  mm mmm mmmm.
3.  I might be in love with ryan gosling.  He too makes my toes curl.  Lucky for me my boyfriend kind of looks like him :)

So what could be better, healthier, or saltier than having an afternoon snack of salted, slightly crispy, roasted veggies?  I dunno...a date with Ryan Gosling?  Yeah, perhaps that would be better, but roasted, salted, asparagus ain't so bad either.  It's definitely better than eating bread, and eating bread makes R.G sad, and we don't want to see him sad...or do we????

Not to mention asparagus is uber good for you and will help you get in your skinny jeans...and skinny jeans turn boys' heads.

asparagus pros:

- it's a rich source of glutathione, an antioxidant that is mega importante when detoxing
- it's a spectacular diuretic (makes you pee).  This helps get rid of excess salts and water retention (especially if you over salt like me), but it also helps relieve edema (swelling).
- it's flipping full of nutrients.  We're talking about folate, fiber, vitamins A, C, E, and K, and chromium which helps insulin work better (helps get sugar out of your blood stream and into your cells).
- one spear of asparagus is under 4 calories.  So you can eat a whole'lotta spears for very little caloric impact - and since it's full of fiber and water, it's pretty filling for a great afternoon snack.

asparagus cons:

- your pee will smell like asparagus.

I recommend carrying a match, incense, perfume, or some other divine fragrance to mist in la toilette after you pee.  Otherwise, others may too know you're eating asparagus, and others knowing your eating asparagus cuz they smell your pee ain't so sexy, friend.


Roasted, Salted Asparagus:

First look for the skinny spears and buy those if you can.  Sometimes the market only has fatties.  UGH, this bums me out.  Skinny spears cook quick, char quick, and get a little crispy.  nom nom.  If fatties is all they got, then fatties is what you'll be eating.  They are still good, but you'll have to cook them longer.....and this hungry girl hates waiting for her snacks.  

Set the oven to 375 or 400 (everyone's oven temps may vary a bit)
roll out parchment paper onto a baking sheet
cut the woody end off the asparagus
lay out on the baking sheet, prevent overlapping
mist with EVOO or coconut oil (trader joes now has one in the mister can)
crank of the sea salt
roast for about 18 minutes (checking for doneness at 15 - skinnies cook quick)

If you are digging on the char, let the last minute be under broil, but watch em' they'll burn quick!  Take them out, let them cool a few minutes, add more salt if you need to and snitch away.