Salad!

I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment.... kind of have a whole lot of weight I need to lose. So I'm trying to make some healthier dinners. I usually avoid salad like the plague, I really don't care for it at all. But I knew if I went looking for healthy options I'd just get inundated with suggestions of "eat a salad". So tonight I bit the bullet, and tried to fashion a salad I might actually find edible.

Generally speaking the only salad I can stomach is ceasar; not exactly the healthiest of options, so I tried to up the health factor by changing the ingredients a bit. I used a grilled chicken breast which I chopped into pieces, some rindless bacon which I chopped and cooked until it was crispy, some croutons from a packet, half an iceberg lettuce which I shredded, a grated carrot, a lebanese cucumber cut into little cubes, and a fat free ceasar dressing.

Thoughts - not bad. The mixture of ingredients tasted alright, and because of the chicken and bacon it was nice and filling. My only complaint is that, like all salads, it takes ages to eat. There's just so much chewing involved, so you can't eat in a hurry. That became a problem tonight when the little princess got hungry and tired and began to whinge. But then, it's not like dinner was going to go cold while I fed and settled her, because it was cold to begin with. It's definitely something I'll eat again. I may sometimes substitute the chicken for hard boiled eggs for something different.

Macaroni and cheese

I was watching an episode of Bones recently, and all through it one of the characters says multiple times how much he loves mac and cheese. I'd made it from packets before, but that show inspired me to try making it from a recipe.

Like all new mums I'm a teensy bit time poor so I opted for Nigella Lawson's recipe for mac and cheese from her book Nigella Express. It's a very simplified version of mac and cheese, you don't have to make a roux and wait for a sauce to thicken, you just combine the ingredients and bake it.

The recipe asked for either mature cheddar or red leicester cheese, so I opted for a block of Mainland Vintage Cheddar, because it was the cheapest of the vintage cheddars at the supermarket (and conveniently comes in a 250g block, which is exactly what the recipe asked for). It turns out I don't have any nutmeg so I used mixed spice instead, and as always I left out the salt and pepper. I feel that if you want those in your food, you can add them yourslf when you eat it.

Thoughts - nothing special. I really don't get why Seeley Booth was so nuts about this dish. I'm glad I used the vintage cheese because without it the dish would have been so BORING, but even with the vintage it was a bit bland. I think it works as a side dish, but not as a meal in itself. So it's one I'll keep in mind for barbecues this summer.

Fettucine Carbonara

This recipe is from a Women's Weekly cookbook called 100 Pasta Favourites. I picked it up at a newsagent on friday with my Melbourne Cup winnings. This is the first recipe I've tried from it.

I used pre-sliced mushrooms, rindless bacon and pre-grated parmesan to speed up the cooking process a bit. This was really quick to cook - total 0f 15 minutes. Only catch is you have to eat it immediately after cooking it, so I can only cook it when the little princess is asleep. Luckily today she picked an early bed time, but it could lead to some late dinner times.

Thoughts - this was really yummy, but as with all creamy pasta dishes it was very rich, which meant I couldn't stomach a lot of it, but I did like it. Just meant there was a heap left over. Hopefully it reheats well for hubby's lunch tomorrow.

In future I'll chop the mushys myself - the mushroom chunks were too big for my taste. And I might add some garlic. Just because I love garlic.

Mince Chow Mein

This is another Maggi packet mix that hubby brought home. I'd never tried it before purely because I used to work as a waitress at a very swish Chinese restaurant, and it's turned me into a bit of a snob when it comes to Chinese food. Making a chow mein from mince just seemed really wrong. But hubby wanted me to try it, so I gave it a go.

As always I left out the onion. I used 500g of beef mince, a packet of 2-minute noodles, 1 cup of sliced cabbage and a heap of vegies (1 head of brocoli, a carrot, and 100g of snow peas, all chopped into small pieces). The pack actually asks for three cups of cabbage, but I've never been a huge cabbage fan so I traded it for extra stir fry vegies.

Thoughts - Have to be honest, I didn't care for it at all. The sauce was a bit too spicy for me, but at the same time I thought it was flavourless. I couldn't even finish a bowl full. But it was quick to cook. And hubby loved it. I'm sure I'll make it again because he liked it, but I'll avoid it if I can.