I do tend to keep veggie plain, as I don't like to over do the meal, especially if there is something really nice going on with the meat. Thing I have done for a change are:
Honey carrots - just cook carrots as per normal, heat up some honey in saucepan and toss through the carrots
Bean salad - cook off a decent serve of green beans per person. Chop up and cook some bacon till quite crispy, add some pinenuts to quickly brown. Put all in bowl with some lemon juice and toss.
Cook peas in a sauce of 1/2 glass white wine and 1/2 glass water, add a few lettuce leaves and maybe, if you're feeling daring, some cooked bacon too.
Sweetcorn is great with chopped red peppers.
Mashed potatoes - add cheese (grated or cream) and herbs.
White sauces go well with so many things and can have garlic and/or herbs and/or cooking wine added easily.
I usually do either a wonderful something with boring other things, or a recipe that requires everything cooked in the sauce, but that's boring food with a wonderful sauce really.
Cook green beans with a dash of sesame oil, mash potatos with HOT milk to make them really creamy (this actually works!), cabbage with butter and bacon...
We have been having a ball with experimenting with new meals. A lot of the time you don't need to just stick meat with 3 veggies next to it. Tonight we had Osso Bucco, which has vegies and tomato in the make up, and it was on Mashed Potato and pumpkin. Tomorrow is chicken cacciatore, which will be on pasta. Some nights we have giant bakes (fave here is Ham and Potato) that are a full meal in itself.
Generally we put a fair amount of effort into our dinners as we don't overdo any other meal.
DF makes a wickid meat and veg meal - lamb steaks on a bed of mashed potato and sweet potato with a balsamic sauce and green beans.
This makes enough for the 2 of us.
2 lamb steaks
rosemary
thyme
basil
4 spring onions sliced thinly
2/3 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
knob of butter
potato, sweet potato
Cook the potatoes until tender. Drain and mash with some milk and butter if you prefer.
Smash up the herbs in a mortar and pestle a bit and rub onto the lamb steaks.
Heat a little oil in a frypan and cook the lamb steaks to your liking. Remove and keep warm.
Fry the spring onions a few minutes until soft and then add the stock and vinegar. Bring to boil and reduce slightly. Add the knob of butter stirring in until melted and sauce has slightly thickened.
Serve the lamb steaks on a bed of mashed potatoes and pour the sauce over. Serve with green beans.
ETA: I forgot to answer your original question I tend to put in a fair bit of effort. I will try a new recipe at least once a week and try to make a nice meal out of it. I tend to cook alot of one pot dishes like casseroles, curries, stirfries, etc so all the veggies are in the with dish anyway.
I quite enjoy cooking... however I don't often get the luxury of being able to put in much effort these days... I mean I want to... but unless I start cooking dinner before i clean up the brekkie dishes (don't laugh, I have done this on many occasions to guarantee something decent to eat come dinner) I find it's impossible to put in a lot of effort when the kids are ripping though Witching Hour. Often I resort to 1 pot dishes... take 1 large saucepan: fry a diced onion... add vegies like capsicum, broccoli, mushroom... toss through some pesto... remove... rinse saucepan... fill with pre-boiled water from kettle... bring to boil... add pasta... cook then drain... return vegies... toss through... serve with grated cheese and a few lettuce leaves or rocket, semi dried tomatoes. This is one of our staples. Takes about half an hour.... one dirty pot to clean. All done. Very little effort. All eaten everytime.
On the other hand DH takes extraordinary degrees of effort on the weekends when i am there to look after the kids... so he ends up having all the fun and all the glory... he gets to experiment with new dishes... i mainly just keep churning out the same thing.... but I also get to enjoy the fruits of Dhs efforts... so it's not all woe-is-me
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I tend to put in a fair bit of effort. I will try a new recipe at least once a week and try to make a nice meal out of it. I tend to cook alot of one pot dishes like casseroles, curries, stirfries, etc so all the veggies are in the with dish anyway.
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