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.
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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