Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Beetroot

My husband wanted to have a pizza in front of the TV tonight, so I made two things that he doesn't like. Brussels Sprouts and Beets.

I've never roasted either of these things. I found this recipe for roasted beets that also used the beet greens. it it suggested roasting the beets in olive oil for 45 - 60 minutes. The beet greens are not roasted but are sauteed with onion, olive oil and garlic. There were not many beet greens on my beets, so the beet greens part wasn't much to talk about, but the beets themselves were good. Once the beets were cooked enough that I could comfortably put a knife through them, they were peeled, sliced, and seasoned and drizzled with red wine vinegar. They weren't amazingly delicious, but they were pretty good.

I bought a bag of Brussels sprouts on impulse. It said on the back of the bag to roast them for 40 mins, so I put them in the baking tray with the beets. When they were good and crispy on the outer leaves, I took them out of the oven. I added bits of bacon and Parmesan. These were really good. I would certainly make these again. I got my husband to try one and he said "It's not the worst thing in the world", which isn't a glowing endorsement, but I'll take it.

Baked Pasta with Kale and Butternut Squash

I wrote a really long post but my phone battery died. The re-do is going to be short and to the point.

I made this meal. People liked it.  I used sour cream and a scoop of Philadelphia cream cheese in place of the creme fraiche. I used Parmesan instead of Gruyere. The website "cooking light' might be a misnomer because I don't reckon this was a light meal, it included, bacon, cheese, fried onions, flour and a lot of pasta. It was, however, pretty darned tasty. (Edit: Cooking light thinks that this meal serves 8. In our house it served four! oops!).

When I'm busy, I like baked pasta dishes because I can stick them in the oven while I have spare time between getting home from work and going to get my son from whichever club/activity he's doing that day. Then, when the boy comes home, all the hard work is done and we have a hearty, home-cooked meal waiting for us.

Here are the pictures.

Chicken Fried Rice and Sweet Chili Vegetables

I made this meal because I wanted to use up some left over white rice from the chili I made on the weekend. I know that white rice is not especially healthy at the best of times, and is made even less healthy when fried, but I really don't like throwing away good food. I found an excellent recipe for fried rice, I followed it pretty exactly, but used more vegetables. I included one onion, two carrots, two cups of peas, five spring onions, and half a bag of beansprouts, and chicken for protein.

I served the rice with some stir fried vegetables that I made in a sweet chili sauce. I decided to make this sauce on the fly. In the supermarket I saw some sweet chili sauce and read the ingredients on the side. They were all things that I have in my house already: red chilis, rice vinegar, sugar, water, garlic, ginger, cornflour. I decided to skip the store-made sauce and make my own. When I got home, I googled this recipe and was pretty amazed and the quantity of sugar that this meal requested. A whole cup of sugar! I couldn't possibly serve that much sugar on the vegetables that I was serving with fried rice!  I cut the sugar by about half, and the meal tasted fine! Jesus wept people, chill out on the sugar! I poured he sauce over 3 sliced courgettes (two green, one yellow), one red pepper, a punnet of mushrooms, 5 spring onions, sugar snap peas and the left over beansprouts. It might have contained our five a day, but it also contained an absurd amount of sugar.

Pesto Chicken and Roasted Vegetables

I took my son to soccer practice at 7:30, then went to work for about 12 hours with no time to stop for lunch or a tea break. Driving home, I was in the mood for some satisfying home-cooked family food but I wanted to be on my butt wearing my elasticated pants as soon as possible. I threw this thing together, with very little forward planning, but it turned out to be a perfectly good after work meal. It only took about 30mins to make and was very healthy and satisfying.

First, I started the roasted vegetables. I preheated the oven to 425F. I sliced two leeks, a punnet of button mushrooms and chopped the florets of two broccoli. I spread the vegetables out onto two oven proof trays. I drizzled with olive oil and generous helpings of salt and pepper. I put them in the oven and set the timer for 20mins. You can tell they're cooked when they're sizzling.

To make the pesto chicken, I warmed some olive oil in a pan to a medium-high heat. I sliced two large chicken breasts into small pieces and put them in a bowl with about 1/3 of a pot of pesto and stirred it all together until the chicken was coated. When the oil was hot, I fried the chicken breast slices for about 3-4 minutes on each side, so that they were golden on the outside and still juicy on the inside. I did this in two batches, keeping the pan very hot throughout.

I served with tomato and spinach cous cous and a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan. The cous cous was a little dry and as none of the food was particularly wet, some might say that it's a pretty dry meal. That didn't bother me or my family too much, but I might try to think of something other than cous cous to serve it with -next time.

I enjoy roasted vegetables more than most. I think they're delicious, especially the leeks. By the end I was bursting full and still trying to shovel the last remaining veggies into my face. The pesto chicken was also very flavorsome and juicy. It;s not a show stopper, but it was a very nice meal for a week night.

Flopping on the sofa, with a belly full of healthy home-cooked food after a busy day is very satisfying. A rare guilt-free moment where you don't worry that you shouldn't have eaten that, or should be doing something more productive right now. You just get to sit, and have a beer and feel satisfied. Good times.

Kung Pao Tofu!

I give vegan food a hard time, but it's actually pretty nice. I really like tofu, and the best nachos I ever had were vegan nachos from the spiral diner. I made this kung pao tofu without even realizing it was vegan until the end. It was really nice. I've got to stop giving vegan food a hard time.

I pretty much followed the recipe but I made a few substitutions. I couldn't get purple sprouting broccoli, so I replaced them with mushrooms. I didn't have rice wine vinegar so I used apple cider vinegar instead. I have no idea what Sichuan peppercorns are so I just used black peppercorns. I didn't make a separate stir fry, I put some thinly sliced bok choi in with the broccoli near the end. I severed with with a few egg noddles because my son is a growing boy who needs his carbs, so un-vegan-ified it, but I'm not a vegan, so that's fine.

I had to chop everything before I started cooking, which I have never in my life done before, because once you get going, it's a fast and furious recipe.  The crushing of peppercorns,  chopping of many vegetables, mixing of sauces and making of emulsions makes this a pretty labor intensive recipe for a mid-week supper, it was ready in about 30minutes, was very healthy, and very delicious.  I already owned the sherry and vinegar, so the total cost of ingredients for this meal was only $15!

Note: I burned the cashews - don't have the pan super hot when you throw them in. They were still good enough to eat but not ideal.

Sweet Potato and Kale Medley

My husband and I are trying again to exercise more and to weigh less. We have been going to the gym every week day, but our meals have not been great.  Yesterday,  our housemate and good friend took us out for hibachi dinner to celebrate a promotion in work. It was very exciting, I've never eaten Hibachi before. It was very delicious but it was a huge meal that contained a lot of fried rice, and it was followed by a tempura cheese cake which is really not a thing anyone needs to consume. I think if a starving survivor from the battle for Stalingrad ate a tempura cheesecake, they would immediately develop type two diabetes or die from shock.

The upshot of all of this is that we're not very good at taking care of ourselves and it makes me feel guilty.  I resolved to make a healthier meal this evening. I made a kale and sweet potato hash with chicken, cloves and lemon juice. I followed this recipe but doubled all the quantities so it would be enough food for four hungry people. I added a sliced chicken breast to make it more hearty for my growing boy. I used the juice of half a lemon and a few red pepper flakes in place of chilli powder.

It didn't look as green as the one in the recipe.  The kale wilted and shriveled but the sweet potatoes kept their volume so it was a very orange looking dish instead of a green one. I also had more liquid on my meal than the pictures in  the recipe. I was a little disappointed with the look of it. I was not disappointed with the taste. I've never used ground cloves for anything. It reminded me of putting cloves into oranges at christmas when i was a girl. The overall flavor was very interesting and rich with the lemon juice and the cloves. It was also a fast and easy after work meal that is very healthy. Everyone liked it. I would certainly make it again

Butternut Squash and Turkey Bake

The squash was a little too orangry, the turkey was a little too winey, and it didn't really fill us up. Everyone seemed to enjoy it but I thought it was weird.

I followed this recipe.