Tuesday Recipe post 2 - veg and lots of it!

The recipes I've made today really couldn't be classified into my 'Manky Veg' series. There was still too much life and stiffness in them! They were a good 'week and a bit 'away from throwing out and therefore Manky.

I made a Vegetable and Bean stew from the Hairy Bikers .
An easy recipe using Auvergne, courgette,  ( of which i have LOTS thanks to generous allotment owning neighbours ) 

pepper, sweet potato, tinned tomatoes, tinned cannilini beans and paprika, chilli, coriander and thickened with a slake of corn flour. I've just to portion it up, some for the freezer as it makes LOADS!

At the same time, I roasted off a huge tray of :courgette, leek, tomato, banana shallot, carrot, yellow, red and green pepper, mushrooms and whole garlic cloves. They were all peeled and roughly chopped where applicable. And placed on the unwashed ( gasp) baking tray using the parchment ( it was like new ) from the ginger warning these can break your teeth biscuits. 10 squirts of that one cal sunflower spray. Sprinkling of salt, lemon pepper, parsley and black pepper and into a hot oven they went for ten minutes. I removed the tray and using the handy parchment
 I could toss the veg with no mess! Next I turned the oven down 20 for twenty minutes. Then I turned the oven off and left them to cool in there on the tray.

I'll be honest here. I'd been over to Pam's blog http://agoodlifeintydd.blogspot.co.ukand liked her idea of Veg hash. But by now I'd made biscuits and the stew, I simply CNBA to do anything else! It's in a Tupperware box in the fridge till tomorrow!

Ideas for my delicious tumble of roast veg ( calorie counted to 221 for the lot ) include
Soup, filling for a pie or a quiche, blending together and freezing as the hash until the depths of  Winter or simply mixing with some mayo and salad cream and leaves and having as a delicious salad tomorrow lunchtime!

What would you do?

The world and his wife are....

Juicing. Or it seems so. EEEVERYone at work is at it. Eeeeevveryone on fb is at it and I've seen a few bloggers at it too. Me? Not on your nelly! Even if you lose 14 stone in a fortnight!

Have you SEEN the mess that a juicer makes? I have. We have a juicer, bought by my son on a whim a few years ago. We bought carrots, oranges and apples etc. He was so excited with his purchase and was so eager to make one.... The world  me and the HG held our breath. This boy had lived off plain crisps, beans, mashed potato and wafer thin ham for months - bloody kids - I'm sure they all go through a fussy eater phase; ergo I was FRANTIC with worry he wasn't getting enough vitamins etc. I bought vitamin supplements and he did eat weetabix but I still admit to being neurotic mama.
( I was v grown up during this phase of his, I simply and calmly served up the family meal every night, quietly removing his plate with no fuss all nonchalantly like - even though I was BURNING WITH RAGE AND ANGER BECAUSE MY FOOD WAS BEING REJECTED AND HE WAS BEING SO NAUGHTY AND JUST EAT YOUR FLIPPING TEA ON THIS INSIDE, and eventually he did start eating properly again! Although he still won't eat pasta or scrambled egg. WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?????!!!!!!

Anyway, we held our breath, he sipped the first one - orange, it was acceptable. The apple was ok, but the minute a carrot went in hailed death to the juicer! He didn't like it. I tried it. It was rank. I tried a recipe I'd found online, with ginger, lime and cucumber. It was frigging revolting. It was wrong on so many levels. Firstly electricity to make it is KILLING the planet; NOT healthy. A billion quids worth of oranges a week, NOT healthy....for my purse. A fruitillion hours spent dismantling the juicer and scraping pulp from nooks and crannies, NOT healthy for my temper. What a mess. It gets under your fingernails. The outside of a juiced courgette stinks and feels like nothing pleasant on this earth.

So, as you can probably guess, I WILL NOT be hopping aboard this latest juice band wagon. I'd rather have my 5 a day as main and pudding, not as a down it in one because its trendy. Oh my word, how uncool of me, using the word trendy!

In other news, my purple chillies are now fruiting! The do look like they have gone bad, but the label says they are purple, so I believe it! I have some juicy tomatoes coming along nicely too!

I spend most of my day outside in the garden on 'death to all butterflies watch'. I watch, incredulous, as they fill up on nectar from my lavender plants at one end of the garden, gathering energy for fluttering up the other end of the garden to where my beloved vegetable plot is. I am currently defending several Cavelo Nero plants, sweet potatoes, beetroot, turnip and basil. I have netting. I have a tennis racket! Butterflies don't make a satisfying thwack sound though! They are not even pretty butterflies. Just bog standard Cabbage Whites, this year there are tons of them. What is a natural predator of these pests because they can come to my house and naturally predate to their hearts content!

So, if you are juicing, good luck! How are you spending these sunny days? What are your top butterfly tips? Do let me know xx
Rachel x