Baked Asparagus

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I did pretty well this year and did not feel like I wanted to burst after it was all said and done.  This year my husband and I went over to his moms house and for the first time in the 4 years we have been married she called and asked me to bring something.  It was a big deal for me and I wanted to make sure to bring something super YUMMY.  So I browsed through my Pinterest boards and was inspired by...baked asparagus  I thought that would be the perfect thing and that it would look vibrant next to all the orange and brown foods.. you know carrots, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes stuffing's.

Unfortunately I was in such a hurry Thanksgiving morning and so strapped for time that I TOTALLY spaced taking pictures and everything.  So I am SO sorry but you will just have to take my word for it. The pictures used are not my own here but still they are exactly what I did.

Before getting started I looked at a few different versions of this recipe.  The one I have posted on Pinterest says bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.  I ended up doing 425 degrees for 6 minutes. Like I said I was on a time crunch and every minute counted!

I bought the thinnest bunch that I could find because I personally do not like thick asparagus.  I washed it then chopped off the bottoms and then placed them in a Ziploc bag.

Some of the recipes say to just drizzle but I wanted to coat mine in my seasonings.  I used a gallon size bag and I prefer the slider bag like this picture is of.  I just feel it is more secure.  I placed the asparagus inside then I poured in some olive oil, minced garlic then salt and pepper.  I sealed the bag and then placed it on my counter and rolled my hand over it, making the asparagus roll around in the seasonings.  

Then I unzipped my bag and spread the asparagus evenly on my cookie sheet with parchment paper ( this is a must , it made clean up so much easier).  Then of course I popped it in the oven.

at minute 5 I opened my over pulled out the tray and sprinkled parmesan cheese over the asparagus then popped it back in for another minute. 

And even though this is not my picture I can honestly say that they really did look this green and delicious! 

Actually mine looked yummier than this.. they were a very bright green.  And when I took it over to my mother in laws it was a hit with almost every spear eaten and people were wanting to know the recipe.

Usually making asparagus is hard for me, I always over cook it so it is droopy and soggy but this recipe was amazing because I finally cooked a perfect textured asparagus.  They still had a nice crunch but were not raw and they tasted great! I would recommend this to everybody!