I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: "The Best Broccoli"

Taking a quick break from 30 Days 30 Dinners (catchup post is coming tonight) to do a recipe for broccoli.  Huh?  It's broccoli, you say...Grill it, steam it, bake it, whatever, it's just broccoli.  My mother can attest...I've never been a huge fan of broccoli.  If you put it in a casserole or something, it's fine, I can kind've "hide" it among the other foods.  But the stems on broccoli really don't light my tongue up, and hey, it's like eating a mini-tree!  But, it's a necessary annoyance and I deal.  But Shannon found this in her pinterest searches a month or so ago and it'd been sitting in the hopper, waiting for a time to try it.

I'm not the only one in my family displaying their cooking skills for the FB and Twitter world to see...My little brother and his fiancee have been trying stuff and showing the results as they cook in their apartment.  They don't have the cooking flexibility I do (Community grill, didn't have a crockpot until recently), but he also has a bit more "gourmet" than I do, since there are no kids there to appeal to with cooking.  So my mom sees us both doing this, and gets an idea....POTLUCK EASTER!  Which is good, since she usually cooks it all, and it's a good way to help her out, but it did kind've put us on the spot.  We drew the "side dish" straw...to lasagna.  Lasagna is practically it's own side dish!  But, Shannon said "why not try the broccoli recipe?"  And so we did....

It's called "The Best Broccoli of your Life", guaranteed to make you lick the broccoli off your plate, even if you don't like broccoli.  From someone who doesn't like broccoli...they are pretty close on that call.  So, here is my own little spin on the original recipe (Found here: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html)...


The Best Broccoli

3 crowns of broccoli, cut off most of the stems (Or about 5 cups broccoli)
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bulb of garlic, each clove peeled and cut into thin slices
0.5 cup of shredded parmesean cheese
salt
pepper
1 lemon (Will need some sort of grater too)

1. Pre-heat oven to 425
2. Cut up broccoli and garlic, then layer out on foil-lined cookie sheet(s)
3. Top with salt, pepper, and EVOO
4. Bake until broccoli is starting to get browned on the tips
5. Zest a lemon (I had to look this up, it means just run the lemon over a grater until the whole peel is down to the white fleshy part) over the broccoli, then squeeze out all the juice over the broccoli
6. Top with the cheese and some more salt and stick back in the oven (with the heat turned off, so just use the residual heat to melt the cheese)
7. Once the cheese is soft and melty, take it out and mix it all together


Per 0.5 cup:

98 calories
7.7 g fat
5 carbs
5 g protein

Notes:

• The fat content on this is a little high, but worth it, in my opinion.