This Week's Produce Box and Quick Lemon Garlic Herb Mayonnaise

There were a few more sweet potatoes and strawberries in this box when it arrived. My youngest got the strawberries, and I shared the purple sweet potatoes with my MIL. The woman is a saint. She took the kids on a day when I couldn't lift my head off the pillow. If I didn't have a stomach bug I would have encased them in solid gold first. I also bought a pound of lovely asparagus, but since I paid extra for them I didn't include them in the photo.

Now that I'm starting to feel better I suppose I should do something more than watch He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not on Netflix and nibble on granola. And so last night I worked up enough energy to roast some of the asparagus and sweet potatoes and make a simple mayo on the side. At first I wanted to try a homemade mayonnaise from Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio (more on that later), but the idea of eating raw egg yolks after so close a bought of illness made me change my mind. I'm also not keen on feeding the little ones raw egg just yet. I'll wait until we start our mommy-and-me muscle building classes in the fall. Joking.

Mayonnaise turned out to be the perfect side to turn healthy roasted vegetables and leftover grilled chicken kebobs into a heavenly, calorie-rich meal. I suppose you could also use low-fat mayonnaise or a light version but my husband can smell it a mile away. He loved this mayo, however, and so did my youngest. My oldest boy sniffed it and rotated his plate until it was on the side opposite of him. You win some, you give some his favorite Italian dressing and call it a victory when he licks a sweet potato.

Quick Lemon Garlic Herb Mayonnaise w/ Roasted Vegetables

3/4 cup favorite mayonnaise

1 Tb lemon juice

1 clove garlic

7 large basil leaves

7 large oregano leaves

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces

1/2 pound asparagus

olive oil

salt

pepper

1.) Place Mayo, lemon juice, garlic and herbs in a food processor and blend until semi-smooth or at least until there aren't any chunks of garlic. If you don't have a little food processor like this one, then finely chop the garlic and herbs and blend together by hand.

2.) Let sit in the fridge while the veggies cook.

3.) Heat the oven to 400'. Line a pan with parchment paper or with foil and a light coat of oil.

4.) Rinse your asparagus and pat them dry. Lay them out on the pan and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

5.) Place your sweet potato pieces in a zip-locked bag with 1 Tb olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Shake until coated. Pour the sweet potatoes out on the pan next to the asparagus.

6.) Place the vegetables into the oven and bake until done, 20-25 minutes. The asparagus will finish first around 15 minutes. Take them out with a pair of tongs and set them aside while the sweet potatoes finish cooking. The sweet potatoes are done when you can pierce them easily with a fork or they're tender to bite into.

7.) Arrange the veggies on a plate with your main dish and a dollop of the mayonnaise. This is the savory version of strawberries and whipped cream, so enjoy!