When we moved back to Newcastle I was by myself in our new house for the first few weeks while Luke finished up at his old job, and in that time I was forced to face my ongoing struggle with cooking decent meals for myself. Until recently I hated cooking dinner, and trying to think up something different each night that would require next to no cooking skills. So steamed vegetables are quite obviously a big staple in my dinner menu. I've always wanted to put in the effort to extend my cooking skills, but have never made the time to do so. Now, I am definitely not saying that I can now excel in dinner delights, but now I plan ahead during the day and have expanded on my steamed vegetable dinners. I'm the dinner sheriff a couple of evenings a week when Luke is working and for one night of the week I try and make something different and put a new go-to meal in the works, it might not happen every single week but I most certainly am putting in a hundred times more effort than I did four months ago. So I thought I would share my go-to dinner meals that are ridiculously simple, quick & easy to put together.
Veggie Plates
This is my first choice go-to meal, and something I have for dinner at least one night each week because above being quick & easy, it is delicious! I have chip sized cuts of sweet potato & white potato all ready to go in the fridge for steaming & baking for dinners & Romy's lunch during the week so this cuts down dinner prep time by a lot. I put a small handful in the oven to bake for 20 mins or so & season them with cracked pepper & sea salt. While the chips are baking I cut up a large silver beet leaf, a few large florets of cauliflower & broccoli and steam those. And when both of those are almost ready I sauté a couple of mushrooms and half a zucchini, and then you're done!
Steamed Veggies & Quinoa
Normally when Luke makes quinoa based dinners we always have a decent portion left over, & I found a great way to use it up in an easy dinner. I cut up whatever vegetables I want to have with it which is usually sweet potato, pumpkin, silver beet, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, mushroom & zucchini, and steam them. Once they've finished steaming I chuck them in a sauce pan with a little bit of olive oil & moroccan spice to flavour and then your dinner is ready! If you've got quinoa boiled & ready to go this meal takes no longer than ten minutes to put together.
'Meat' & Veg
This is a great option for last minute dinners, or for when you just don't care what you're eating so long as its half decent. Now while I don't include actual meat in my diet I do keep vegetarian bbq sausages in the freezer for these types of meals. Before you pass mashed vegetables off as 'baby food' consider just have many veggies you're having in this one serve - half a medium carrot, a large silver beet leaf, a handful of sweet potato & pumpkin, and four florets each of cauliflower & broccoli. Not a bad amount for baby food. Some nights I have just a bowl of mashed veggies. I also cut up half a zucchini & two mushrooms and sautéed them in a hot pan, these two ingredients together are the perfect side combination that I almost put with most things.
