Ideas for Cooking Vegetables - from Laura La Gassa

1. Heat oven to 350.  Brush olive oil on a cookie sheet. Put green beans on cookie sheet, brush with a little more oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for about 20 minutes or until done (test for doneness by simply tasting one).  You end up with flavours that are different from just steaming/boiling/microwaving the beans, and the beans also sometimes get a crispy crust. For more variety, use garlic flavoured olive oil, or toss a couple of thinly sliced garlic cloves on the sheet with the green beans.  This method also works with Portobello mushroom slices, eggplant slices, and lengthways-slices of baby zucchini.
2. Stir-fry asparagus, and at the end put in a few drops of sesame oil.
3. Stir-fry broccoli with olive oil, basil, and a couple of sun-dried tomatoes that you've chopped up very small.
4. Sauté' sliced baby zucchini and/or crookneck squash with fresh basil or other herbs, butter, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Throw in some dried red pepper flakes for extra zip.

Defrost frozen chopped spinach, and squeeze out all the excess water that you can. Cook the spinach with either a little butter, cream, and nutmeg, or with olive oil, coriander, cumin, and black pepper.