Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

This week make it your mission to step outside your culinary comfort zone. It can really open up a whole new world. Yesterday Mr V and I had such a wholesome day, Doris Day would have been proud. We went for a lovely bikeride and stopped at my favourite farm shop of all time; Riverside Organics, Whatcroft Farm, Cheshire for Sunday roast bits n bobs. I'll blog about that lovely little place soon but I realised that with a Sunday roast I've been playing it safe by having the same veg as I always do and the beauty about eating seasonally is that you're forced to eat what is provided.

This is why I always get a tingle of joy when I visit R.O because I never know what I'm faced with and I do love a challenge. My eyes twinkled upon the sight of beautiful pumpkins and squashes and I would have bought them to sit on my windowsill as they looked so delightful. However there was only so much room in Mr V's rucksack so we had to get the essentials.

Bow your head in respect of the mighty Romanesco Brock

So to avoid being a bore, I chose 2 new vegetables to tantalise my tastebuds and revive them from complacency. One was a Romanesco broccoli looking mighty and regal and I also chose the real funky kohlrabi. I hadn't a clue what we would do with it but that's half of the fun and really when it comes to cooking the options are mainly to roast, boil, steam, grill, fry or poach. Either choice can't be so bad so after selecting a juicy looking organic beef joint and some soily carrots and spuds we cycled home and whacked on the oven whilst I consulted google for kohlrabi advice. I was none the wiser post research exercise in terms if decision making but thought I'd roast it and see what happened.

Funky or what?

It was really delicious and tasted a bit like a sweet fragrant parsnip. The broccoli looked so pleasant on the plate and the experience made the whole Sunday roast feel like a first date of the meal kind. So this made me realise how abundant our planet is in all of these wonderful offerings and that we should take full advantage of it.

Look at her luscious lips - reminds me of the Munchbunch!

Now I'm not saying you can only achieve this by visiting a farm shop; all supermarkets have cottoned onto the fact we're seeking out more variety and when I lived in a multicultural city in the North I had even more choice as there were some mental looking veggies which made shopping and cooking so much fun.

Sunday Roast - total heaven

So make it your promise you will step outside of your comfort zone, pick something you've never had before and see where it takes you.

Vivi.x

Healthy Convenience

So the week continues to be very busy which is again reflected in a once a week blog. This isn't usually how I roll as a twice to thrice a week blog makes my heart happy ideally. Nonetheless I wanted to share with you another speedy meal idea.

I just love mussels and seafood and found a cheat meal for tonight but jujed it to make it an acceptable standard. I bought Sainsbury's Scottish cooked mussels in garlic butter sauce and the beauty of this is that you just boil the pouches in a pan for 5 minutes and sling them in a bowl and dip bread in the sauce. However I fancied a mussel and pasta combo so linguine was the carb of choice.

This retro lady puts me to shame collecting mussels - no  Sainsbo's for her!

I gently cooked finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil while the pasta was cooking and had a couple of proscuitto ham slices crisping on the grill. I added mushrooms with the onions and 1 tbsp cornflour and stirred until the flour had cooked off then poured the sauce from the mussel pouches into it. The cornflour thickened it a treat and then I added the drained linguine and made sure the sauce coated it all. I chucked in some spinach and  topped with the mussels and crisped up ham. Bit of black pepper and it was a true delight. The mussels are on offer at the moment - 2 for a fiver - get on it!

Vivi.x