Hey there, my fit and healthy friends! We are just a week or two into January so many of you are probably trying to eat a little healthier--probably swapping out the Christmas cookies and fudge for things like brussel sprouts and kale.

Good for you! I’m right there with you ;) May our tummies all get used to the influx of fiber we are all eating lately, heaven help us.

So yes, we’ve been eating a lot more vegetables around here. I have to wonder what my kids are thinking this time of year. They just got done eating all sorts of goodies, not to mention all the goods that Santa brought them in their stockings and then suddenly mom is always saying no to sweets they are begging for and instead making them scarf down carrots and broccoli? What’s up with that, Mom?! Ha. Honestly, I think it’s just human nature to want to eat better after the holidays, whether you are a young sprite or an old one.

My favorite way to get my veggie intake in is roasted vegetables. Mmmmm mmmm! Nothing quite hits the spot in that way. That irresistible golden brown that the vegetables take on is hard to resist! However, I recently found out I was making a super simple mistake that makes a big difference in the way they turn out. Apparently, you should NOT use foil to line them.

I pretty much always use foil to line the sheet of any meal I am cooking, especially when it comes to something like roasted vegetables that leak lots of sticky juices. It’s much easier clean up and I never knew the end result was different. However, Dawn Perry from Real Simple magazine, proved this to be true to her Instagram followers (including myself) with a side by side test to prove her point: unlined versus lined.

She prepared two quarter size sheet pans of carrots all exactly the same way: peeled and cut into similar sizes and tossed with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and kosher salt. But of course the only difference between the two pans was that she lined one of them with foil. She roasted them at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes then checked them. Just as she suspected, the carrots on the unlined pan were already picking up some color. The carrots on the lined tray were not. She then rotated the sheets from left to right and back to front and closed the door.

After another 10 minutes, the evidence was officially in. The carrots on the unlined sheet were more deeply browned, slightly sweeter and more tender. The carrots on the unlined tray did take on some color, just not quite as much. They also weren’t quite as tender.

So, ultimately the decision is yours. You can’t deny a side-by-side scientific experiment like this one! While it’s a little more work for you at the end with the dishes and you could probably achieve the deeper brown color with a few extra minutes added to the timer, you should really consider not lining your roasted vegetables next time you make them (which is probably this week ;)