Stir Fry

My daughter wanted to take this photo because she thought it would look good on my blog - I think she is right! I quite often make stir fry with some of the veg from my bag but looking back I don't seem to have posted it before. This is from a couple of weeks ago so the contents of the bag have changed slightly since then. 

The carrots, cucumber and green pepper came from the veg bag, I think the red pepper probably came from Greenshoots - a charity using gardening to work with vulnerable adults, one of True Food Co-op's local suppliers.  Cucumber works really well in a stir fry and I always include it when I have some.

The tofu is 'Taifun' brand, smoked with almonds and sesame seeds. If I can be bothered I fry it up separately to get it nice a crisp. If not  it just goes in with the veg! I usually serve this with rice with thinly sliced pieces of omelet mixed in, something I learnt in Singapore when we briefly lived there when I was young. Boil/steam the rice as normal leave it to go completely cold before frying it up with the sliced omelet and chopped green part of spring onions if available. 

Pizza

Home-made pizza is a great way of getting kids (and adults!) to eat some more veg. This one had some green pepper and cherry tomatoes from the veg bag as well as some sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil for a bit of added luxury. 

The salad is also from the veg bag and is great full of peppery leaves. 

We make our own pizza bases in a bread maker which is a really easy way of doing it but still takes about 45 minutes plus 20 minutes proving time so not one for when you rush home late from work and need something quick.

Veggie options

I haven' t posted this week but I have still been using the contents of my veg bag. Inspired by my guest on the radio show last week from Thames Valley Vegan & Vegetarians I decided to have a vegan Sunday dinner. I got the recipe for Mushroom Bourguignon from the Simple Vegan Recipes website here. It was very tasty but I made the mistake of taking them at their word that it served 2 so doubled the quantities and now have a freezer full of leftovers - maybe vegans have bigger appetites?

My other vegetarian meal this week was a very simple mid week pasta dish. I cooked some pasta stirred in a couple of tablespoons of pesto and some fresh tomatoes and sliced runner beans (raw) and cooked for a couple of minutes  to heat through - easy and delicious.

Simon's Saffron Potatoes

We went to the grand opening of Fielder's Farm shop on the Pangbourne Road near Theale on Saturday. It was very busy, lots of seasonal UK veg and meat, pies, cakes chutney etc from local and regional producers - I hope they do well. We picked up some partridges for our evening meal. They were delicious pot roasted with a honey, lemon juice and thyme baste.

To go with them we had Simon's Saffron Potatoes - I say they are Simon's but we can't remember where we got the recipe  so apologies to any celebrity chef we may have ripped off. To make them, scrub but don't peel the potatoes, thinly slice  and arrange in baking tray trying to keep in shape of the potatoes. (see photo). Add a good pinch of saffron, a crushed garlic clove and veg stock up to about 2/3 the height of the potatoes. sprinkle with olive oil and put in oven. They seem to work in whatever temperature oven you are using for the rest of your dinner, yesterday 200 in a fan oven and they took about half an hour - just keep an eye on them.

We also had green and purple beans from the veg bag. Boiled with a small amount of water and a knob of butter they were delicious. Sadly the purple ones go green when you cook them!

 

Spaghetti Frittata

Spaghetti frittata is a good quick mid-week meal. Very useful on a Tuesday night when I have to rush out to take my daughter to ice-hockey training. Start by putting the spaghetti on and while it is cooking make a garlicky tomato sauce with whatever veg you want to add. For this one I added sliced courgette and a handful of chopped chard leaves. The chard went in for the last 5 minutes cooking time. The sauce should be quite thick so let it bubble to boil of any excess liquid.

When the spaghetti is cooked add some olive oil and leave it to cool before adding some beaten eggs and cheese to taste. We used 6 eggs for four people. Then put half the spaghetti mixture in a pan, the tomato sauce and then the rest of the spaghetti on top. Then comes the fun bit! When is brown on the bottom you need to turn it over. The best way is to put a plate on top, turn it over so that the frittata is on the plate and then slide it back into the pan. If you've got a heavy pan you may need an assistant at this stage.

We ate the leftovers last night with a collection of other things from the fridge that needed eating up. After going on a lovefoodhatewaste workshop I've learnt to call this meal 'Tapas' rather than 'bits', sounds so much more appealing!

Sorry about the lack of photos - I've mislaid my camera.

Simple but still delicious

One of the things I love about getting a veg bag is the excitement of opening it on a Thursday to see what goodies I've got - it's like a mini Christmas every week. Of course the flip side to this is that it can make planning Thursday tea difficult. This week a stuck my neck out and bought some Mozzarella cheese and basil - surely I would get some tomatoes in the veg bag.

I opened the bag with some trepidation....of course I had a bag of lovely cherry tomatoes so I could make my salad. Very simple, slice cheese and tomatoes, throw basil leaves on top, sprinkle with olive oil and eat.

We also had three sweet corn cobs. These are fantastic. I always try and cook them on the day we get them, just boiled and smothered in butter. So there you have it the perfect tea, quick, easy, delicious and healthy (well apart from the butter!)

Runner Bean Puree Bruschetta

Just got back from a few days with my Dad on his small holding in Anglesey. We have been eating very well including a huge brunch before we set off home so really didn't feel like much this evening. While we were away I saw a recipe for runner bean puree in the Times. We had a bag of runner beans in the fridge from last week's veg bag but I couldn't remember the recipe and am too mean to pay to go on the Times on-line so we made it up.

We steamed the beans until tender and then whizzed to a puree with a blender. I think we would have added garlic at this stage but we didn't have any. We sliced some red onions and fried them until soft in some olive oil. The bruschetta was a thick slice of bread toasted on both sides and then brushed with oil from a jar of anchovies piled with the bean puree, onions, halved cherry tomatoes, a couple of anchovies and put back until the grill.

Yum - just want we needed after a few days of excess.