when you cook dinner? Do you put effort into every part of it? I tend to put effort into just one part.. like tonight I'm trying a new potato bake thing and just having it with sausages & steam veg. Normally tho I do something different with the meat and have plain steam veg with it. I can't really be bothered doing fancy veggies as well. This is when we do meat & veg of course.. there's other dishes like some stirfry with rice or something... but my stock standard meat & 3 veg needs jazzing up a bit. hehe.
What do you do? Any tips on jazzing up our veggies with little effort? I usually drown all the veggies in gravy LOL.
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
In most cases I make a lot of effort or at list a little. And then sometimes we have comfort food like shepherds pie, spag bog etc which takes zero effort.
Vegie recipes (I was going to suggest french peas as Ryn did), Any vegetables can be steamed and then if you melt some butter & garlic together you can drizzle it over the top. Baked cauliflower, Baked asparagus with truffle oil salt & pepper or baked asparagus with parmesan cheese. Braised peas, with anchovies, stock and olive oil (its a neil perry recipe will find the exact measurements).
Wow I'm loving reading all these ideas!
I must confess I resort to the froz veg (the ones in the steam packets) quite a bit... I used to love cooking but now that DH & I both work & there is more going on with the kids after school it's just too hard. And I feel guilty sometimes about how boring it all is.
If I'm not feeling too lazy... I do the honey carrots, or dress up the mashed potatoes with garlic & fresh herbs... also mixing mash potatoes with mashed pumpkin or sweet potato is good...I looove a bake with potato, sweet potato, pumpkin & cheese layered but I never make it cause it's a pita to have to peel & slice so much
My favourites though are the meals where it's kind of all in together, it's not an issue then.
I find more and more that I am making "one-dish wonders" just because I find the whole "meat and 3 veg" a bit boring and repeitive. I like to be creative in the kitchen, experiment with flavours, sauces and cooking methods and I feel quite limited when I just look at a piece of meat and 3 vegies lined up to be cooked...then I am usually stumped for ideas on how to make it interesting. I saw this post last night and have been loving some of the ideas and thought I would put a couple of mine down for when I do brave the "meat and 3 veg" meals. These are primarily traditionally South African in origin and therefore tend to encompass some less than healthy additions LOL. But if you are looking for tasty, you have come to the right place!
Mashed butternut pumpkin with honey and all-spice:
Steam 1/2 butternut pumpkin in the microwave as boiling tends to make it very watery. Then mash it, add a 1/2 tsp all spice (or cinnamon), a large knob of butter and 2tsp honey (or however much you like).
Caramalised sweet potatoes
Melt 1/4 cup of sugar in a pot and watch it doesn't burn! Add two medium sweet potatoes, sliced, to the syrup. Add 2 Tbsp butter. Add just enough water to cover. Add a stick of cinnamon. Boil until soft.
Braised green beans
Pleace green beans, 1/2 small, chopped, onion and one small potato (cut in quarters) and a few rashers of chopped bacon in a pot and boil until tender. Then drain and serve. The potato goes a bit mushy, but really absorbs the flavours.
Braised cabbage
Saute one large onion, chopped and 2 rashers of bacon, chopped. Add half a cabbage, finely chopped. When soft add one small can of mushrooms.
How much effort do you put in...
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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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