Asparagus casserole

"Wait, what are we eating tonight?" As the Mr (aka my husband) walks past me, I can feel the question through his disapproval glare. Asparagus! I say. "Oh... as the main thing?" He clearly sounded disappointed. Yes. If you are like him, or like me, or like most people, asparagus is not your go-to vegetable. They are the sort of thing that goes "well-ish" with some salmon since we decided that's the thing to do as grown-ups. They are the dislike-able spears of "greens" you get on your plate at a bbq but you eat it anyway as to be polite to the host. Or they appear when you are at some restaurant, now labelled a "must try" because it comes with truffles and reduction of fancy-shmancy sauce. But nope, Nope, you didn't and still don't like it. Well today, I'm about to change your mind.

First off, nutrition. Asparagus is low in calories and high in fiber - yes you knew that already. But also it's packed with folate, vitamin k, vitamin B6, zinc, and iron. So for this reason alone, eating asparagus beats eating a multi-vitamin pill already! Also, through out history, asparagus has been used as a diuretic and an aphrodisiac in 3000BC by the Egyptians. Who doesn't want to eat like Pharaohs?

What you need:
- a pack of (a rubber band) full of asparagus
- a pack of (box of 250g) brown cap mushroom
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp of cooking oil
- 2 tbsp of flour
- 1 tbp of butter - melted
- 1/4 cup of water
- 2 tsp of salt
- black pepper
- 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese - grated
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs

Recipe:
- wash and prep asparagus. I find the best way to get rid of the woody stem is literally break them with your fingers. usually start from about 1 cm to inch from the stem end and the woody bit will break off where the fresh asparagus will separate if you just use a bit of force. move up towards the spear by small increments (1cm or so) if it doesn't snap break easily. Every spear will be a bit different so the length of each asparagus will vary a bit.
- put half asparagus in glass baking tin with spears one direction, another half with spears the opposite direction so things will cook evenly.
- mix flour, water, butter, salt and pepper in a bowl until mixed. pour over the asparagus in glass tin.
- cook mushroom with onion and garlic with oil on stovetop pan until soft. pour onto flour mixture.
- sprinkle the cheese, then bread crumbs on top.
- 400F for 20 min, broil for 2 min on high at the end
- serve while hot!

Bonus: why does asparagus make my pee smell?

Well, our digestive system has a funny way to turn the asparagusic acid to a sulfur-containing by product. So if you smell rotten eggs, it's not abnormal. The good news? not everyone can smell it! I actually may be one of the lucky few that can't smell this too much - which doesn't turn me off of asparagus. But if you can't stand the smell afterwards, eat this anyway and turn on the bathroom fan while you go pee-pee! It's not poisonous, just slightly smelly.