My New Favourite Veggie Recipe

Mushrooms and Sweet Onions

I have been trying my best to eat healthier lately which means seriously increasing the amount of veggies I eat each day. At first this was fine, but to keep vegetables low cal and low fat really reduces the options when it comes to making them interesting. While, roasting carrots and parsnips is a super yummy option, it gets old.

I have been experimenting with different ways of cooking vegetables, and my current favourite recipe involves Mushrooms and sweet onions. Yum.

Here is the recipe. The quantities are not exact but really you just need to taste what you are making and adjust to your own taste buds.

1. Melt 2 tsps of butter in a large skillet (you don't need much butter and can even cut it down to 1 tsp)

2. Cut up 2 sweet onions (I wasn't kidding when I said I was upping the veggie content) and cook in melted butter for around 2-3 minutes. You want to slightly soften the onion but not too much as it will continue to cook when you add the mushrooms.

3. Cut up a bunch of mushrooms (I do around 4 cups) and these can be a mixture of white, portabello, cremini or any other type of mushroom that you want.

4. Put mushrooms in skillet and cook with onions. You want to cook the mushrooms until they have started to sweat. Add in 1 tsp of kosher salt. Continue cooking until the liquid is almost entirely evaporated. Depending on the type of mushrooms you use, this can take 5-10 minutes. The thicker the mushroom ie. portabello the longer it takes.

5. Just before all the liquid has evaporated, add in approximately 2 tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar. You can add more or less depending on your preference. Continue cooking until all the liquid has evaporated.

And then voila! Yummy veggies.

Bon Appetite!

The Start of a Healthier Lifestyle

I have been sick for way too long! I feel like as soon as I get over one illness, I get another. I have now been well for only 10 days during the past month. That is not a good ratio. To combat my seemingly sickly constitution, I have decided to make a conscious effort to eat better and to make time to get more excercise. I am also going to be meeting with a nutritionist next week to help me figure out what else I can do to boost my immune system.

My first step as I am finally feeling better from my recent Flu, was to menu plan for the following week and create my shopping list. I do have a number of healthy cooking cookbooks, as I love to cook and I do try to cook healthy meals. I just had gotten off track of late so need to refocus on this. I pulled out my Heart Smart cookbook by Bonnie Stern and started leafing through the recipes. I decided on the following recipes for this week (as we had a lot of the ingredients already in our freezer):

1. Sweet Chili Chicken
2. Moroccan Meatballs
3. Cod Baked in Tomato Sauce with Onions
4. Penne with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Bocconcini

Most of these recipes are fairly easy so are a good choice. I also want to introduce new flavours for the girls to expand their palate.

Wish me luck on my first week towards eating better. Next step: Join a Gym!!!