Manchego-Almond Brussels Sprouts

Get your tiny violin ready, because I'm about to get a pity party started. For the past 27 years, I've spent my absolute favorite holiday with my family, Thanksgiving! It's the one holiday that we all make it home for, it's filled with traditions and it's always such a good time. On Wednesday, I go with my Dad to pick up the race bibs, then bake all of the desserts for Thanksgiving, on Thursday, the whole family runs the Cincinnati T-day 10k race through downtown, then we have close family friends over for dinner, and watch football, Friday we go cut our Christmas tree, and I spend time with friends who are also in town for the holiday, Saturday we decorate the tree and watch the rivalry games - Ohio State vs. Michigan and FSU vs. Florida. It's probably my favorite week of the entire year. And this year, we won't be there. ::Tears::

Hopefully this will be our one and only immediate-family-only Thanksgiving ever. In order to make it a little less devastating, I am trying to focus on the positive, and recreate a Cincinnati T-day in Boise. For starters, we're going to run the Boise T-day 5k (but we might have to run an extra 5k to make it official), then we're going to Skype the family, watch football, and I'll be making my first ever total Thanksgiving dinner. One thing that has got me excited for that is the new Rachael Ray Everyday magazine issue. My awesome friend got a subscription for me, and this month's issue blew me away. I've been drooling over the Thanksgiving section, and plan to make a few of the sides in advance to help narrow down exactly what we'll be eating on November 28.

A few weeks ago, we took a fun trip that I'll post about soon, and I was able to get a stalk of Brussels sprouts on the stalk - I was ecstatic, no, seriously. I chose to make this dish out of the Nov. Everyday issue, checking to see if it would be a Thanksgiving Day contender. Sadly, it wasn't my favorite Brussels sprouts preparation ever, but they were interesting. I've never had lemon with Brussels sprouts, and I'm not totally sure I liked it, I'm more of a balsamic and blue cheese fan, something earthy rather than bright and acidic. But I did love the almonds and manchego, so it wasn't a total loss.

***Come back on Thursday, October 31 for a fun Halloween giveaway***

Manchego-Almond Brussels Sprouts

from November 2013 Everyday Magazine

 2 lbs. Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

1/3 c. sliced almonds

1 lemon, zested and 1 tbsp. juice

1 oz. shaved manchego (I think I used closer to 2 oz.)

Preheat oven to 450*

Toss Brussels sprouts with oil, salt and pepper on a cookie sheet.

Roast for 10-15 minutes, then toss in almonds and roast for another 5-10 minutes, until sprouts begin to crisp and are tender.

Remove from oven and transfer to a bowl, toss with lemon juice and zest, shave in cheese and gently toss, serve immediately.