I get stuck in a rut with food sometimes, and feel certain that I could lose weight if I was a bit more imaginative and adventurous with my cooking. I certainly rely too heavily on carbs, so am starting January off by drastically cutting down on bread, pasta and white rice. Giving up potatoes is a step too far for me, but I am going to cut down on portion sizes with those.
Anyway, I do have some healthy meals up my sleeve and thought it would be nice if we could share - maybe give each other inspiration to try new things.
This evening I made an improvised minestrone which was yum if I say so myself:
Large onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 sticks celery
medium courgette
3 carrots
1 large potato - all veg cut into smallish pieces
tin chopped tomatoes
1 and 1/2 pints chicken stock
seasonings
1 tsp sugar
bayleaves
couple of handfuls small pasta shapes eg. macaroni
about 6 large broccoli florets (you should use shredded dark green cabbage to be authentic but I had broccoli in the fridge to use up).
Gently fry the onion in a little butter and olive oil. Give them a good 10 minutes. Add the celery, then the courgettes, then the garlic, then the carrots, then the potato and sautee gently. All this should take at least 20 minutes to get the vegetables properly softened. Add tomatoes and all their juice, stock, salt, pepper, 3 or 4 bayleaves and a level tsp of sugar. Simmer until the potatoes are becoming tender (about 30-40 minutes). Add the pasta and a little more boiling water if it is becoming too thick, but it should be a thick soup. When the pasta has been cooking for a few minutes add the broccoli or cabbage and cook for about another 5 minutes until the pasta and greens are tender.
Serve sprinkled with parmesan.