Meals with vegetables: Veg stir-fry

A little while ago, I tried tracking my vegetable intake after news articles that suggested we should be eating 10 portion of Fruit and Veg a day. Not once did I manage this although I did manage around 7 on average. A few people worried that they did not eat enough fruit and veg as a result of reading.

I figured it would be nice to share some meals in which I feel you can boost your veg intake.  Now a disclaimer here. I am NOT a good cook or any sort of expert and I hesitated to post this as it seems rather like teaching Grandma to suck eggs.  However, it is my blog and why not just post it regardless even if people think 'So what?'

 This was tonight's dinner which I cooked for CBC and I.
It was a vegetable stir-fry.
It contained 1.5 blocks of noodles

• 1 whole courgette, 
• 3 large carrots 
• double portion of frozen sweetcorn
• 2 whole Pak choi,
• 1 red chilli.
• crispy dried onion
• 1 free range egg.
• Coriander
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Toasted Sesame oil,
• Teriyaki sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Coconut oil

Usually, I would add a whole onion sliced thinly but I forgot.  Here alone in one meal, even without the onion, we had 4 portions of vegetables which is a good start. We might add prawns or tofu on another occasion but this was what was in the house. I think the key to it being simple and tasty
is the addition of the oils and sauces and the egg. I break the egg into the vegetable mixture before adding the noodles and sweet corn and stir it around and all the little eggy morsels are delicious! You could even serve a fried egg on top like they did in Bali or add chick peas. I might also include peppers!

I always have a bag of frozen sweetcorn and peas on hand and simply added the corn to the noodles boiling. You've added an extra portion of veg (or two if you added the peas) without any addition saucepans or trouble.  I think one veg stir-fry a week minimum is a great way to eat extra veg if you have been lacking on other days.  Aldi is nice and cheap for veg so that's not a problem!

What about you?  Do you cook a Vegetable Stir-fry regularly? What veg might yours include?

xx

An unexpected day of Indian cooking

Isn't it true that the best plans and things that happen to you are often unexpected.  Friday night, CBC and I were sitting upstairs watching Doctor Who on my laptop when his brother texted saying he had a spare ticket for a place on an Indian Vegetarian cooking day.  Both intrigued, we found out more, and after some booking online, ending up booking an extra ticket for us both to go.  Knowing nothing and having no time to look it up, we headed off to Putney on Saturday afternoon Sivananda Yoga Vendanta centre.   We arrived a bit late due to CBC's Saturday morning teaching just as the theory had been covered talking about different foods and how they are good for us or what they do.  This followed with demonstrations of cooking several dishes: Lentil soup, bulgar wheat and an amazing carrot and coconut chutney; amazing tahini salad dressing, curried vegetables and a sweet rice pudding.  This was a great course for us to do right now at this time because CBC has turned vegetarian in the new year so whilst as you may know, we eat a lot of veggie food anyway, this meant we wanted to get some more ideas of how to make lots of dinners.  The thing that stood out for me was the spices and how to get them to make your food taste amazing.  Toasting seeds makes a difference; chancing your dish at the end (adding in the herbs and spices), all the different ingredients and how you put items together.  At the end of the workshop we had a group Ommm (was unexpected but made sense because of the place) and a song which we'd missed at the beginning and then we ate: we were all served up on these metal trays and the quantity was perfect. I was pleasantly satisfied and yet not at all  full. Nourishing your body with the right things in the right quantities was achieved with the portion.   It was utterly fascinating and we're really glad we took the chance to attend. There were some real ayuvedic and yogic food people there who knew a lot! We all (me, CBC, his brother and friends) felt rather a fraud!

The dahl lentil soup will be the first thing I try as Dahl is my favourite Indian dish!

Have you been on any cookery course? How did you find them?

xxx

Foody food food of late

I'm a complete and utter voyeur when it comes to looking and being nosy about what other people eat! I always love Sophie's "Food of Late"posts and Fat Dormouse's Food diaries.  I do really love food and looking at the everyday items that people eat!  I decided to try and keep a track of some of the things that CBC and I end up cooking and have a look at it. Well, because I quite like doing that.  If you write any food posts, let me know!  Also, I've been shopping at Lidl a few times, Romford market a bit and at Waitrose and the COOP once or twice too.

I confess a few things in regard to cooking- often we just make random concoctions, not any particular recipe or theme at all. You will also notice a lot of the same ingredients. We are creatures of habit with a little variety but not loads.



1.  Peppered mackrell fillet with broccili, spinach, kale in sheep's yoghurt, left-over Indian takeaway basmati rice and patty-pan squashes, red pepper and sweet potato roasted in Olive oil with coriander garnish.
The key ingredient was the patty-pan squashes from my Mum's garden. They were so delicious and sweet. The sheep's yoghurt made the green veg all tangy.  Luckily we ended up with virtually a whole container of rice left from the previous night's takeaway.

2.  Spanish-style omelette- CBC made this with eggs, pointed red peppers, courgette, potatoes and coriander on top.
CBC really fancied doing a Spanish-style omelette. He's always one for presentation. Me, not so. It was very tasty. I like my omelette overdone!

3.  Friday night panic- penne pasta with tinned tomatoes, bacon lardons, pointed red peppers in profusion, sweet corn, served with cucumber and slices of avocado.
This was one of those, "Oh heck, random assortment of ingredients, what shall we do?" evenings so I threw this together! Luridly red but very tasty! The avocado and cucumber saved us from red overdose!
4.  Vegetarian sausage cassoulet: Red peppers, tinned tomatoes and Linda McCartney frozen soya sausages with Italian herb and dried accompaniment, Sweet potato, carrot and potato mash with coriander and creme fraiche and green lentils.
This came two days after the Friday night, "Oh heck!" episode and was even more of an "Oh heck!" what do we do! We came to blows over who was going to cook this and argued over who should be getting on with their school work and who should be cooking. Both wanted to be in the kitchen!
A bit random. I confess, I am not so keen on these sausages. I much prefer meat sausages but they are ok. We try not to eat too much meat.

5.  Pasta with asparagus, shallots, aubergine, tomatoes and rocket with goats cheese.
It's ages since this meal- I am longing for asparagus! The goats cheese was the crowning touch!

6.  Omelette with goats cheese, little gem lettuce, red peppers raw, rocket, chantenay carrots adn sliced salad tomatoes.
I'm a HUGE omelette fan but only if I am cooking it!

7.  Fresh free-range beef burger with curly kale (steamed), broccili, mixture of yellow peppers and cherry tomatoes with garlic.
I found an amazing free-range butchers when visiting Romford to go shopping when CBC was away at a Stag do in the market hall. Really nice items so I bought this and the following sausages there. VERY tasty! (P.S. you may get bored of seeing kale as I bought two HUGE bags of it in the market AND 9 pointed redpeppers!) 

8.  Free-range pork and chilli sausages with Broccoli, curly kale, leeks, shallots
 and corn on the cobs
The sausages were equally delicious and the sweet corns were from the market also.


9.  Brown wild rice with oven-roasted vegetables; pointed red peppers, sweet potato, potato, aubergine and kale.
I confess I don't like this rice. I mean, I'll eat it and it's ok and all that but I prefer white rice.  We like our aubergines!  I love the fact they are half the price in Lidl of our local COOP!

10.  Linda McCartney rosemary and herb soya sausages with white rice, kale and spinach and fried leeks and red peppers.
Ok, I really don't like THIS variety of sausages- horrid rosemary flavour!

11. Thai Green Chick pea curry (containing chick-peas, shallots, red peppers, broccili and aubergine) served with rice.
Been trying to use some things in the cupboard up and Fat Dormouse (Alison) posted about a nice pepper and chickpea recipe. Given that I had loads of peppers a few weeks ago, I wanted to try it but kept forgetting to soak the chickpeas. Finally did it last night (Sunday night) and made a veggie variety on my favourite Thai Green meal.  Also used some ancient creamed coconut in the cupboard.  I'm not saying how old it was in case CBC reads this...

12.  Filetted rainbow Trout with shallots and garlic, leeks, broccoli and cabbage served in Creme Fraiche.
This was right from the beginning of the month. In Waitrose, you can pick up whole trout quite cheaply and CBC is happy to prepare it! I don't like to associate with the dead fish I confess, I feel too guilty.  The MESS it makes though!

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DO you cook with any of these items. Any favourites? Any comments? Any times you want to say, "What on EARTH did you do that for?"
Leave me a comment too if you have done any food posts!

xx

The blues! Fetch me my hat good sir! LTEH 31 and some veggie-fare!

Hello there!  The darling kiddies returned to the throng today!  We, yesterday.  I must confess to feeling the January blues at this, however, needs must, and I am lucky to have a secure job in which I am valued!  I was also lucky to have some PPA (non-contact time) so it was fine!    The remedy for the blues must of course be a strict course of hat-wearing!  This particular beret was a sale-purchase, the same Primark model as my red one, for a paltry centipede's legs worth of pennies! Worn with a lovely new Christmas present Fairtrade blue-beaded necklace (in my Northumbrian stocking!), M&S cardie, Primark kids dress (well aged 12-13!), White-stuff heart socks and Gap turquoise slipper boots (my winter essential!)

 

Yay for turquoise!!! 

 Inspired by Nicole and Gwendolyn's tofu marinara and a burning need to rid my heaving cupboards of the mountain of tinned products that have been lurking in there for years, I decided to make a veggie feast!

I used 1 tin of butterbeans, 1 tin of plum tomatoes (from the cupboard of doom), 2 cloves of garlic crushed, 1/2 a bag of spinach and ricotta 'fresh' ravioli (I say fresh as opposed to dried, but in the inverted commas because the stuff has been in my fridge for months and was a month out of date!), frozen sweetcorn, and loads of steamed spinach plus seasoning and mild-chilli powder.

Basically, fried the garlic in oil, splatted the tins in (literally went all over me! Spitting saucepans and all that), added frozen sweetcorn, pepperdew peppers, chilli-powder.  Stirred it a bit, left it to do its thing- simmering.

Then I cooked the ravioli in the water, steaming the spinach over the top of it.

I probably put it in the bowl in the wrong order- spinach at the bottom, ravioli on top of that and the tomato mixture on top.

 Together with a glass of apple juice, it was very very nice!!!!!

Would you make butterbean slosh??????? 

How was your day?