Garlicky (Low-Fat!) Roasted Mushrooms

With Herbs & a Splash of Olive Oil

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

Orson Welles

Ugh. I hate dieting. It seems stupid, counter intuitive, and just goes against everything I actually know about biology, psychology, and the human body in general. Plus I don't want to be skinny. That goal has always seemed bizarre to me - isn't skinny by definition a bad thing? To me it has negative connotations. It means... malnourished. Bony. Unhealthy. Weak. I want to be none of those things. I have realized as of late however that while I do not want to be skinny, I do want to be skinnier. There's a difference, trust me. 

I have never been a vain person, so I am ashamed of what I have decided to do. I always thought that as long as I ate well and exercised, and was healthy, what does it matter what I look like? I have never nitpicked over that last five pounds (what is that supposed to mean?) but rather went by how I felt. I have never had a supermodel body, but to be honest I have never really cared. Like, at all. The type of people I spend time with don't focus on that sort of thing, and even if I was ninety pounds (which would be gross... at my height) I wouldn't be prancing around in cut off shorts and belly tops. That's just not who I am. Nope, not even close. 

Next week is the eight month anniversary of my car accident (RIP, beautiful Jetta) and I am really not a whole lot better. I can't exercise more than basic walking and even then my hips cramp up and it hurts like hell. I can't lift weights, or go running, or even sit on a horse and let the horse do the running. So yeah, it kind of sucks. I have been in denial about it all year, thinking that soon I will be better, and I don't need to worry about gaining a few pounds because I really eat quite well and I will back up and at 'em, running or hiking or what have you, sometime really soon. I have come to accept this for the pipe dream that it is. 

Truth is that I have no idea how long it will be until my hips stop being super lame. Or my back stops hurting, or my headaches go away. It would be great to have a little timer on my wrist that told me how long I have to go until I magically feel normal again (sorry, we watched Timer last night) but this is reality and I just can't know that sort of thing. So I have decided to - gulp - go on a diet. 

Well, sort of. I have starting calorie counting and I have cut out a lot of foods that I love. I love butter and cheese, but those are pretty out of my life now. I'm still grieving. But I won't let that stop me from cooking delicious buttery tasting things. Like these amazing roasted mushrooms. 

You know those mushrooms sauteed in butter, white wine, and garlic that you sometimes get in restaurants, or poured atop your steak? I am obsessed with those. They are so freakin' good. They're meaty, rich, salty, buttery, garlicky, just...gah, why?? Surely I can't eat those anymore, right?

Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. 

I have discovered a new secret way to make mushrooms taste like that. Its super simple, easy, and uses only the tiniest drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. The herbs and garlic don't add any substantial calories, and according to this site five mushrooms have only twenty calories. Could that even be possible? I don't know, I will have to do more research. Seems too good to be true. 

For now I am going to choose to believe that though because that means I can eat as many of these things as I like. They make an awesome topping for red meat, a great side dish, or even great cold the next day drizzled with a bit of vinegar as a cold roasted mushroom and garlic salad. I used cremini and white mushrooms for this particular recipe but you can use absolutely any variety you like. Seriously, try oyster, portobella, cremini, shitake, and chanterelle all together. That would be incredible, just a bit more expensive. 

So yeah, if you - like me - are trying to watch those calories and love yourself a good old fashioned buttery mushroom, give these a shot. You will not regret it. 

NOTE: All the amounts in this recipe are approximate. I used this many mushrooms because thats how many I had, and there were only two of us. If you want to make more or less, just add a bit more garlic or herbs, and there you have it. Seriously, it's really hard to screw this recipe up. Borderline impossible, really. 

You will need...

About 20 large mushrooms, cleaned and halved

8 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 tbs dried (or fresh) italian blend herbs 

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs white wine (optional)

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and layer across a baking sheet or the bottom of a casserole dish. Space them out evenly, and place in middle rack of oven uncovered. 

Allow to bake for about thirty minutes, or until mushrooms are reduced and aromatic. Use a spoon to scrape the bottom of the dish to get every last piece of garlic and mushroom off. Scrape up all that oil/wine too, thats full of flavour and mushroomy goodness now. 

Serve hot on a fresh grilled steak, with chicken, other roasted veggies, on a sandwich, cold in a salad, with scrambled eggs... the possibilities are endless. Go nuts, they're low-fat and low-cal. How could you possibly go wrong?

As usual, let me know what you think!