Compliment any meal with this quick and simple side dish of Italian and Garlic Seasoned Oven Roasted Broccoli. My kiddos eat them by the bunches!
Oh, today is one of those days where I feel like I’m wearing a sign saying, “Kick me. I’m a terrible parent.”
Also, my throat is tender.
Also, the fact that I’m a terrible parent and my throat is tender go completely hand in hand.
Yes, I am that loving mother that sent my child off to school this morning with tears streaming down her face after enduring her mother screaming in her face. Literally, I screamed. No, I did not “raise my voice” or “speak very sternly” or even yell. Yelling would have been world’s better than the screaming fit I had this morning.
I guess I just broke.
I love Braelyn to death. She has a contagious personality filled with wonder and awe and amazement at all things around her; probably the reason she has such a hard time focusing. She is just too darn engrossed in the happenings of her surroundings that she can’t complete a task you’ve asked her to do 5 seconds ago.
Heck, complete it???! She can’t even start it, that’s how distracted she gets.
It baffles me that she can stay on task and do so well in school and then come home and bounce from one activity and thought to the next like a ball in a pinball machine…on hyper overdrive, nonetheless. What am I doing wrong???!
This morning’s episode started with a simple, “Braelyn, wake up.” It all went downhill from there, as it does most mornings.
I probably asked her to get dressed 10 times, eat her breakfast 15 times, clear her dishes 5 times, brush her teeth 10 times, and put her shoes on somewhere between 5-10 times. I know I can’t expect her to complete all these tasks one after the other without intervening or giving some guided direction along the way. I fully understand this, so I ask her to do things one at a time before moving on to the next request.
However, this morning all she had left to do was brush her teeth and put on shoes. Brushing teeth = check. As I’m rushing to finish getting Emry ready for a play date, I hear rustling in Braelyn’s bedroom. I assume she is putting on shoes. I holler to her that we’re leaving in 2 minutes and to grab her water (which I already asked her to do multiple times). She frantically rushes out to the kitchen and somehow I immediately knew she hadn’t been doing what I thought she was doing in her room.
Sure enough Braelyn is standing barefooted in the kitchen fumbling for a water bottle. Because playing with stuffed animals 2 minutes before you have to walk out the door is a much better idea than putting on shoes. Makes perfect sense.
And then I blew. Yep, I’m talking about a full blown Mount St. Helen’s eruption over here. I yelled and screamed and huffed and puffed until I was all out of ineffective, immature, guilt ridden, hurtful things to say that broke my daughter’s spirit and made me feel better for just a fraction of a second. Then I sent her off to school without even telling her I loved her.
I spent the rest of the morning wondering how I could be so cruel.
Long story short, I surprised her for lunch, looked her in the eyes, and told her I loved her. I gave her a big hug and we spent the rest of lunch in good spirits.
And it was a good thing that she was eating a lunch that she enjoyed, otherwise I probably would have regressed and starting screaming at her again to focus and eat her food. Just kidding. That would not have happened…I don’t think.
But really, when my kids like food they eat. If it’s something they don’t love, they get easily distracted. This happens most often with veggies, especially with Braelyn. It could take her all of dinner time to finish a minuscule side salad just because it’s not her favorite thing to eat.
However, broccoli…broccoli always gets my kids attention. They LOVE broccoli, and they especially love roasted broccoli. I can always guarantee a clean plate when I make this Italian and Garlic Seasoned Oven Roasted Broccoli. And that makes me a happy mama. A much happier mama.
This side dish is so simple to make, it’s almost ridiculous to even post a recipe. But, my girls love this broccoli so much that I figured it was my duty to share the secret.
All you have to do is chop up some bite sized broccoli florets, drizzle some olive oil, and season them with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic seasoning. Toss them and throw them in the oven. You’ll have perfectly flavored tender crisp broccoli in less than 20 minutes.
I didn’t even know that broccoli could be so flavorful. I grew up with my mom steaming all our veggies. That’s all I ever knew. Boil your veggies until tender and season with butter and salt. Oh how there is a world of veggie variations out there! My eyes have been opened.
Roasting veggies is one of my favorite things to do to bring out the natural flavor of the vegetable. I’ll roast veggies before adding them to soups, sauces, chilis, you name it. Roasting is heaven.
Which heaven is definitely not where I’m ending up if I don’t start developing some extra patience for my children. Seriously, any and all suggestions are welcome here. How do I deal with my child who just can’t seem to listen, except when it comes to eating her broccoli???
Hmmm…at least she eats broccoli. Her life isn’t completely doomed, right?
What are your favorite veggies to roast?
- 4 cups bite sized broccoli florets
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Spread broccoli florets evenly on pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, Italian seasoning, pepper, and garlic powder. Toss to coat evenly. Spread broccoli out on pan.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until crisp tender or done to your liking. Test doneness by piercing with a fork.
