Superfast superfood supper

Some times I look in the fridge and think, "Oh, there's nothing for dinner".  At first glance that may have been how the fridge seemed tonight but when I thought about it I realised there was any number of delicious and nutritious combinations just waiting to be created.

I had my usual trusty stock of humus, various fresh veggies, sweet potatoes and salady bits.

So, I did the following:

Slice 1 red pepper
cook 1 sweet potato
Cut 1 avocado in half
chop up 2 carrots in the hand blender
lightly saute some kale with garlic
open a jar of almonds!
Dolloped on some humus.
Drizzled over some tamari sauce (like soy but wheat free and tastier)

Everything was raw bar the sweet potato and the kale making it super easy.  The sweet potato I pricked, wrapped in kitchen roll and whacked it in the microwave for 6 minutes.  The Kale took less time in a big saute pan.

Then all I had to do was divide it all between 2 plates and we were ready to go.

It was really lovely and very satisfying thanks to all the different textures and colours.  Filling but light and guilt free.

It was a good reminder that good food doesn't have to be created from a 'recipe' as such, or combined together to make it into something else.  Sometimes the raw (and literally raw in some cases) ingredients do as good a, or a better, job just as they are on the plate.

Brussels and pancetta pasta

I've written about my love of Brussel sprouts before and here I am doing it again.  Tonight they were supposed to go into a salad but the carb monster paid a visit after yoga and so they found their way into a bowl of pasta instead.  You'll note this is not exactly a vegetarian or fat free recipe, but it was delicious.

It went like this:

Small packet brussel sprouts, trimmed and sliced up
packet pancetta bits
lemon wedge
few flakes parmesan
Some kind of brown pasta (I used brown rice pasta, it's lovely.)
garlic infused olive oil because I was also trying to watch Broadchurch and didn't want to faff about chopping garlic in the break!

It  was easy peasy.

Cook pasta as per packet and while that's doing fry the pancetta.  As they start to brown, add the sliced sprouts and drizzle over some of the garlic olive oil - if you're actually using real garlic just chop that up and add it with the pancetta.

When the sprouts have softened and everything is all mingling together nicely and the pasta has cooked, drain the pasta and add it to the bacony sprouty pan (not the other way round or you lose all the lovely flavours and stuff).

Squeeze over the juice from one wedge of lemon, crack over some black pepper, crumble on some parmesan and enjoy!

A super yum way to get your sprouts!