The Best Laid Plans

Monday morning started well. We had lots of appointments scheduled for the week, but I was ready to take them on. As I finished my morning coffee, I watched a segment on the Today Show with the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. She was cooking a couple of things, but one in particular caught my eye. She was showing the crew how to make sheet pan-roasted veggies with gnocchi. It looked delicious, super easy and perfect for a speedy weeknight meal. I was so excited to try it, I got ready for the day and ran to Aldi to get the ingredients.

I had high hopes of making the new recipe that evening, after appointment #1. Alas, after the appointment, the allure of Chick-Fil-A was too great for us to escape. Sometimes that chicken sandwich is the only thing that will do. So, I pushed the new recipe to the next evening.

Tuesday’s appointment was for 3:20 p.m. Surely, we would be home in time for me to make the recipe. Nope. We didn’t leave the office until 5:30, then had to hit the pharmacy. Thankfully, my Mom rescued us that night, with a pot of homemade chili and cheesy biscuits.

Wednesday rolled around, and that day’s appointment was for 12:45 p.m. No problem. Wrong again. This appointment went pear-shaped, and the perinatal people had us freaking out and on our way to the hospital to monitor baby more closely.

Don’t worry. It turns out baby is fine, she just seems to hate the perinatal folks and will not cooperate for their particular ultrasounds. After an hour of monitoring baby’s healthy heart beat, we thought we were good to go. All we had left to do was wait for paperwork. An hour and 15 minutes later, we were finally free to go and we were STARVING. But I would not give in. We were going to try that recipe if it killed us.

What originally attracted me to this recipe was, well, everything. I love gnocchi, and I was intrigued to try it roasted, along with delicious fresh veggies. I also loved that all the ingredients can be found at Aldi. No, I am not paid to promote them (though I wouldn’t turn it down), but I love the convenience of one-stop shopping with low prices.

This particular brand of gnocchi is from Aldi and is shelf-stable. That means you can stash it away in your pantry and pull it out for a speedy, satisfying weeknight meal. Aldi also has amazing jarred pesto sauce, another key ingredient is this weeknight hero.

The Pioneer Woman uses red & orange peppers, red and yellow tomatoes, asparagus and red onion in her sheet pan recipe. I used a sweet onion instead of red and I also added green beans because we love them. Wash and cut your veggies and spread them out on the pan. Toss the gnocchi onto the pan as well, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

In a small pitcher or glass measuring cup, mix together 1/4 cup pesto sauce and 1/4 cup olive oil. Drizzle that over the veggies and gnocchi and toss to coat.

At this point, I had followed the directions perfectly, with the exception of adding the tomatoes too soon. I realized my mistake but didn’t have the energy to pick them out, so I left them in to see what happened. They turned out fine, just maybe a little softer than some might like.

I also wondered why she didn’t instruct you to throw the veggies and gnocchi in a bowl to coat with the pesto and olive oil. To me, it seems it might be a lot easier and less messy to mix them in a bowl and then transfer to the pan. In fact, I will do it that way next time I make this recipe.

You are supposed to roast it all for 10 minutes at 450ºF, then add the tomatoes and roast for another 8-10 minutes or until the gnocchi are beginning to crisp. Because I mixed all my veggies in at once, I roasted it for 10 minutes, removed the pan and gave it all a good toss again and continued to roast for 10 more minutes.

The smell that fills your kitchen as it all roasts together is amazing. Serve alone or along side some nice crusty bread. I will definitely be making this again. As always, my curiosity is piqued to try different veggie combinations, like maybe adding sweet potatoes and squash. It would also help to prep the veggies ahead of time by washing and chopping them and setting them in the fridge until it’s dinner time. That way, when your appointments go awry, you can throw it all together immediately when you get home.

You can find the full recipe here.

All of our baby excitement over the last 2 weeks has lead Katie’s medical team to decide to bump up her induction by a week. That means we will have a brand new baby in the house NEXT WEEK. Needless to say, there will likely not be a blog next week. All prayers are welcomed and I will post photos as soon as the new mom approves.