Barnabas Lane: Tasty Tuesday' "Fake-out" Grilled Veggies

Most people look forward to grilling season for the burgers and hot dogs.
Not me.
My favorite thing in the whole world on the grill are veggies. I like to grill a ton at once and eat off them for a week.

However, when the weather doesn't allow or I'm just looking for something quicker and easier than dragging out the grill this is my go to side dish. It is so delicious and easy, and you can serve it so many ways. Today I'm sharing not only the recipe (if you can really call it that??) but also one of my favorite ways to serve it. (You know, second to just eating it straight out of the pan of course.)

Here's what you'll need

Couldn't be easier right? Your favorite "grilling" veggies, garlic powder and extra virgin olive oil.

Begin by slicing your carrots.

Try to slice them fairly even so that they cook at about the same rate. Also, if you are entertaining with this dish and want it to make it look a little prettier, get regular size carrots, not baby, and slice them at an angle. We just gobble them up before we even have a chance to look at them. So making them pretty first would just be wasting time. Onward....

While you are chopping your carrots heat the olive oil, seasoned with garlic powder (amount depending on your preferences) in a large pan. Then add the carrots and stir to coat in the oil. I just put enough oil to lightly cover the surface of the pan, I don't want it "standing" in oil though or the veggies become greasy.

Let this cook for a few minutes on medium heat until you see a few brown spots on the carrots and they are getting tender with the back of your spoon. If you are in a hurry you can pop a lid on this and it will go a lot quicker. Keep an eye on it though so they don't stick and burn. We're looking for golden brown, not burned brown, almost black.

Next chop up your squash in slices and then in fourths. Something similar to this.

Add this to the pan and let it go about 10 minutes until they begin to soften as well. Again, keep an eye on it.

While this is going chop up your broccoli!

Add this to the pan as well and let everything get to your desired texture! If you like your veggies with more of a bite to it then don't leave it too long, I like them somewhere past that but before mushy. To each his own. However I will warn you-especially after you add the broccoli things can really start to stick, and sometimes I have to add another splash of olive oil, so keep an eye on it!

And then you have this....I could honestly eat a bowl of just this, with maybe a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top if I'm feeling crazy and unruly, at least once a day.

Cooking them in the garlic-powdered olive oil gives it such an incredible flavor, and because I don't use much oil I still feel pretty good about this dish!

This is one of my go-to favorite side dishes. Mainly because it means that on the rare chance there are leftovers the next day, I get it for lunch. However many days I will make this for my lunch and eat off it all week as it does reheat in the microwave really nicely. But another really fun way to serve it is in a "deluxe" salad bar.

I hardly ever plan these salad bar meals, so it's typically whatever I have on hand. For this day it was a iceberg lettuce, avocado cheese, baked breaded chicken, cherry tomatoes, and of course the veggies!