Gemma & Broccoli

I just need to weigh in on this. Hehe love to pun... Anyway, GEMMA WARD IS NOT FAT! Someone commented on BryanBoy's post that caused much of this uproar saying that she looked like a size ten. 

I'm sorry, I don't see it. To me she looks like a 4/6... Why are we labeling her plus-size? Can we change that phrase please? It has such a negative connotation in this industry, and if a 4/6 is plus size, then what are all the average sized women (American women wear an average dress size of 11-14, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services)???

Do me a favor readers, remove the word fat from your vocab. I believe in living happily by being confident in myself and others, using positive adjectives, and eating whatever the heck I want.

Which brings me to the second topic of this post, so blandly stated in the title. I tried a recipe for broccoli today that I've had my tastebuds set on since I first came across it a few days ago. The Purple Foodie posted a awesome recipe for Parmesan Roasted Broccoli, which I adapted a bit to fit my college student's pantry.

BTW I found a super cheap asian supermarket only like 3 blocks away. Sorry Essex Market, you're real great and all, but from now on I'm getting everything but meat and cheese at this new place. I'm a recessionista, baby.

Anyway, back to the awesome broccoli dish I had this afternoon. 

Well first of all TPF made enough for six, but it was just me so I reduced everything by eye.

So you take your broccoli and slice it up into bite-sized florets. I steamed it for a few minutes in a pot with about an inch of boiling water, until richly green and slightly tender. While that was doing work I tossed 3 cloves of garlic in a mini food processor and pulsed - because its so much quicker than chopping and I had to focus on how I was going to get lime zest with only a cheese grater.

*Note: It is really hard to get zest without a microplane zester. I ended up using a vegetable peeler to take off the green part - avoid white - and then chopped it up reeeeeally small. Thank god this was only for one... Def need to invest in a zester before I make this for the roommates.

Remove the semi-steamed broccoli from heat and drain. Because my apartment becomes 9000 degrees once the oven is put on, I decided to do the rest in a pan. In a skillet I added just enough olive oil to cover the pan, then tossed in the drained broccoli and chopped garlic. I then covered and let it do its thing on super low heat as to not burn the garlic. Tossed it around a few times, then added raw sliced almonds in leu of pine nuts because I had none. Let it do it's thing some more. I decide it was done when there was a nice value scale of roasted to green color, and there was a very chi balance of crispy and tender.

Turn off the flame son. Add that zest from before, about a quarter of a teaspoon of lemon juice, and a handful of parmesan cheese to the pan and mix it all together. I let it sit covered for a few more minutes so that the cheese could melt and the flavors could combine.

Pour into a bowl and eat up! I literally devoured this in minutes.

Hectic week ahead, I'll post again this weekend probably. Until then - be kind, be happy, spread peace.