— Nancy Calkins

So, before we even turn the oven on, I suggest to everyone, and if you have ever received a comment from a, you know, I always suggest to get an oven thermometer because the readout on, on what the temperature is on your stove might be different than what the actual oven temperature is. And there might be some incongruities. I'll give you an example. My own stove, it says to cook something at 3 75, I've gotta cook it at 400 so that it cooks as it's supposed to. So an oven thermometer, a good baking sheet, parchment paper, or a sill pad are very good because it prevents sticking and it keeps everything together. And, uh, you always hear me talk about, uh, equal pan placement, that you would put the smaller pieces of a carrot in the middle of the pan and the larger pieces around the edge. And with that, you wanna make sure that the vegetables do not overlap, because when they do, they can steam rather than roast changing the texture and the color of the vegetables. So I'm thinking of carrots out loud that you, they have a lot of sweetness to them and you want them to caramelize beautifully and get a really beautiful brown to them, um, turn them when they're supposed to be turned. And so what I, what I see and what I remember from my first encounter of cooking Brussels sprouts without oil is that, um, I think sometimes we miss the tending of things, whether it be putting on a, a, a marinade or whatever. But you can create an oil free marinade. And if you want to base those vegetables while they are roasting in the oven, you can do that. And it can certainly be oil free. You can take a look at the oil free dressings that we have. The di jean, uh, vinaigrette that we have is a wonderful, wonderful basting tool, especially for roasting vegetables. So, uh, those would be my tips, Nancy, to start out baking, uh, the vegetables. And I also think, you know, it takes 21 days for us to change, um, a habit and our flavor buds. So I think the first bite that we all have taken of a no oil roasted vegetable or anything is almost a shock to the system because we've been eating this way for so many years. But give yourself some time. Play around with flavors, find vegetables that you love the best I love. Um, and the roasted vegetable, the, um, Brussels sprouts unit is just wonderful for learning how to roast. And also at the top of my papers, I always would put made without oil. So, um, I just think it's something that you have to become accustomed to. And once you become accustomed to it, if you go out to a restaurant and you eat vegetables that have been roasted or sauteed with oil, they won't taste that good to you, trust me.