Beef, Vegetable and Feta Medley

This week we were aiming for low carb healthy dinners to help us fight the rising waistline situation we have going on around here. I was planning to make my old favourite side salad which I haven't had in yonks with various meats for the week. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy all the ingredients. Then I couldn't face a cold side salad on a Winter's night.  This meal eventuated out of slowly changing my mind about what I wanted to make (multiple times along the way), and oh my gosh it ended up so yum.  I've made it twice now, and found it is equally tasty making it a simpler way in the second attempt. First go I had two nights worth of cheap steaks and had decided to cook up a veggie side stew. Then I chopped the meat, sealed and stirred it through toward the end. Second time around I just bought a 500g pack of diced beef and added it just after the onions and garlic. Of course the steak meat was a little tastier (and medium rare) but it was much simpler to just throw everything  in early on and leave it go.  Plus the meat is tender and slow cooked this way.  As much as this sounds like a hodge-podge meal from how I am describing it, let me assure you that this meal made on instinct is absolutely fabulous. It is totally healthy - just meat and veg and seasonings. Plus it is low cal, high protein, low fat and low carb. What else could you hope for? Of course you can serve it on rice which will add carbs and make it last six rather than four serves, but we were more than happy with this as a stand alone dish. This is a new regular!

Rice and Quinoa Mix

There is this cute little cafe near my work which serves healthy and yummy meals put together by a nutritionist.  Their healthy curries are always served on a bed of quinoa and rice, with some veggies stirred in.  I've taken a liking to it.  Adding quinoa to your rice adds fibre and protein, both of which I am always keen to increase in my diet.  I'll be making this regularly, and thought it would be convenient to have a post demonstrating how to easily cook them in one pot using the absorption method.  Happy cooking!

Greek Chicken Rissoles

Rissoles are such an easy old timey favourite dish.  Sometimes you get bored of the same-old-same-old, and need to spice them up a bit.  A while ago I posted my favourite lamb rissoles which always go down a treat.  In our kitchen, we had some chicken mince, a few veggies and some Greek Yiros seasoning which were itching to be used, so I came up with a new spin on an old favourite.  It was SO GOOD! I shouldn't be surprised.  Lately I've been just rolling chicken breasts in Greek Yiros seasoning and cooking them and they have been De.Licious.

We served the rissoles with quinoa tabouleh because our parsley, mint and spring onions were ready for harvesting from our balcony garden, and it is one of my all time favourite sides.  We made these rissoles earlier in the week without the feta and tomato paste, then immediately made it again with the additions once we finished the first batch.  We loved the original recipe, but knew that those couple of additions would take it to the next level.  Love. These. Rissoles. We will have them again!

Hunter's Stew (Chicken Cacciatore)

When I was a kid, chicken cacciatore was a common family dinner and I loved it.  It consisted of cooked chicken in a jar of pre-made sauce on rice.  It was an easy meal for my busy Mum to throw together mid-week for her picky kids (well to be honest I was the picky one, my brother was the easy kid).  Recently I started craving it again after many years, but I wanted to make a more authentic version of this Italian nomfest.  After cooking from scratch for the past few years, I just can't go back to sauce from a jar - it just tastes like preservatives, sugar and salt to me.  I've gone and spoiled myself.

Traditionally, Cacciatore means Hunters Stew.  It can be made from chicken, bunny (eep!), pork, pheasant or any other white meat and refers to cooking how a hunter would.  Traditionally the whole carcass would be chopped up and used, however while I wanted to do this semi traditionally, I couldn't be bothered going to quite that level of authenticity.  I have just used four large lean chicken breasts.  It has been argued that Cacciatore is the Italian version of the French Poulet Chasseur, but I personally love the Italian style.  

The base ingredients are: white meat, onion, capsicum, garlic, white wine (Northern Italian style) or red wine (Southern Italian Style) and herbs. In my opinion most Italian and French food is better when started with a mirepoix, so I have added celery and carrots to the onion base. A lot of recipes will include mushrooms (which a hunter could easily gather from the forest) but I hate them  so you won't find any mushrooms here.  Rosemary and other woodsy herbs are also more traditional, but I was keen to harvest some of our basil so I opted for this instead.  The other non traditional addition was asparagus, just because I love it so much and couldn't help myself.  Omit it if you want to stick to a more authentic recipe. I also threw in some leftover cherry tomatoes, but did not include this in the recipe because they are not necessary. This meal is traditionally served on pasta or polenta, but we chose to serve it on brown rice.  It adds a nutty flavour and doesn't bloat me up like a balloon like pasta does.

I made this in big batch style on a Sunday night to serve both of us for three to four week nights (depending on serving size), but just halve the recipe if you don't want to make such a big batch.  Alternatively just freeze the leftovers.