Roasted Green Beans with Panko and Lemon

Lovely vegetarian dish of roasted green beans topped with crisp panko and drizzled with lemon juice.

Hello and Happy Wednesday!

We are in the middle of yet another week and the end of July. How time flies! I am really enjoying and have been making the most of it by going for bike rides and lazy barbecues.

Today I am going to be sharing a vegetable and vegetarian recipe. I chanced upon this recipe from Oh My Veggies while on my daily Pinterest sprees. This is such a lovely side it is one veggie dish that will have you asking for more.

I like that the green beans are simply roasted. While the beans are roasting away, you fry the Panko with some olive oil and garlic to brown and crisp it up. Once the green beans are done, toss the panko over and finish with some lemon zest and juice. The panko really adds a wonderful crunchy texture to the green beans and the fresh lemon zest and juice just lifts the flavours and makes this one delicious dish. I have not seen green beans disappear off the plate so quickly before!

Aglio Olio Pasta (with Cherry Tomatoes and Spinach)

This is the easiest pasta dish you can ever make. A firm lunch time favourite at Nomsies Kitchen!

Hello, how are you?

I hope everything is going well for you. I have been busy in the kitchen experimenting with some bread recipes. I hope to have the post done and up by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, I am sharing this recipe for Aglio Olio Pasta. I added in some cherry tomatoes and spinach, just because I like my veggies. Purists will say it is not true aglio olio pasta but hey, it works for me. Gives good colour too!

I know I just shared a recipe for sausage and bacon pasta last week. Don’t quite know why I am in such a mood for pasta.

A good (and also non-purist) twist to this dish is to add some tuna in just after you have sauté the garlic. Good for all you runners out there who need your protein!

Of course I added more basil in as well. Just to show off and make use of my little basil plant that is still alive!

Mustard Roast Potatoes

Super savoury roast potatoes that you will not be able to stop eating! Crisp and fluffy, you don’t even need to par-boil them first. Superb side dish!

Hello!

How are we doing today? Who is up for some tasty roasted potatoes with mustard?

These roasted fluffy beauties are so delicious. I first made them a couple of days back and since then have not been able to stop craving them. So I just had to make them again. They are sensational and just take regular roasted potatoes up another level.

No need for par-boiling the potatoes here. Well, you can if you want but I skipped this step and the potatoes were still fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside. Potato heaven.

I used two types of mustards here, English mustard and wholegrain mustard. I love English mustard here for the zing and bite it adds to the flavours. If you can’t take it, just wholegrain or regular mustard will work too.

Stir Fried Broccoli with Goji Berries

Super quick broccoli stir fry with super food goji berries!

Hello and happy Meatless Monday!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend. I had a rather quiet Sunday as dearest husband has gone away on a business trip for a week. Boo hoo. As such, I spent my Sunday doing house chores. The benefit of that is that I didn’t have to do many chores today and could potter about in my little garden.

Since I am cooking for one today, I decided to do something ridiculously easy and made stir fried broccoli with goji berries. It’s quite common in Chinese cooking to stir fry veggies with goji berries. If you haven’t tried it, do give it a go as the goji berries make the dish so sweet.

Brown Rice with Peas

A twist on cooking normal boiled rice, the added peas make this a clever way to sneak in more vegetables to your diet. 

Hello and happy Meatless Monday!

I overindulged in dim sum once again yesterday, as such, I need to be a good girl diet-wise today. I have a super healthy and easy recipe for you, that is, brown rice with green peas. It is a clever way to jazz up normal boiled rice. It is also great to sneak in more vegetables to your diet!  

You cook the rice as you normally would, just add in some seasoning and the peas. The seasoning used here is mirin, light soy sauce and salt. If you are not vegetarian you can use some chicken stock.

I usually have this with stir fried vegetables. Veggies on top of more veggies. Go for it, it’s good for you!

Chickpea Salad

Super healthy salad that requires hardly any time to make. Fantastic as a side salad or light meal. 

Hello!

Today is Monday and it is definitely a salad day for me. I made one of my favourites – chickpea salad.

It’s a salad day because I had a huge Sunday Roast yesterday. Just look at that! Crisp crackling as well.

Now you know why I have to “detox” a little today.

This little salad does just the trick. It is super easy and does not require much chopping and dicing. I love this kind of salad.

I added chopped tomatoes and whole cherry tomatoes as I like how the cherry tomatoes go with the rest of the salad so I highly recommend that you add them in. This salad keeps so well in the fridge, just pack it into little containers and you are good to go!

Vegetarian Pasta Bake

An absolutely easy vegetarian pasta bake that is packed full of chunky vegetables to fill you up.

Hello and happy Monday!

I hope you are having a lovely Monday and that you had a great weekend. It seems that my prayers for good sunny weather were answered and I managed to go for an adventurous bike ride on Saturday. It was kind of tough for me as it was rather hilly. I am not ashamed to admit that I had to push my bike up several hills as I was already feeling like that – (see photo below)

We didn’t go for dim sum this weekend though. Went to our new favourite Chinese restaurant (Blue Moon) instead. Ended the weekend by watching the new movie by Seth McFarland – A Million Ways to Die in the West. Such a wonderfully silly and fun movie!

Enough of my weekend recap and back to Meatless Monday. Today is time for a vegetarian pasta bake. Easy to make, tasty and so filling – especially for a vegetarian dish.

I cooked the vegetables and pasta together first before baking. I find that it just gives the pasta more flavour.

The melted, golden cheese on top really just caps off this delicious dish beautifully. Leftovers keep really well too. What’s not to love?

Aubergine with Sambal

Try this mouth-watering vegetarian dish with a spicy kick for your Meatless Mondays!

Hello and happy Monday to you.

How was your weekend? I went for an epic bike ride and can say that I am quite thoroughly in love with cycling now. One thing I really like about where I am living in Newcastle is that it is near the River Tyne and about 13 miles from the beach. So, last Saturday we decided to cycle to the beach in South Shields and back. The weather was sunny and we even managed to have a pit stop for fish and chips in South Shields. The fish and chips in Colmans is just mind blowing and a must try if you are ever in South Shields. From South Shields, we took a 5 minute ferry ride to North Shields, which is just stunning - as seen in the photo below.

Purple Minion mode "on" at Colmans

I am really new to the cycling game so after that bike ride I decided to buy some cycling gear. While we are on the subject of cycling gear, I just need to say that padded cycling trousers are such a god sent! Why have I not tried them before?!? Anyway, I managed to spend more on cycling gear than I did on my bike, which I bought second hand for £40. Well, you need to look stylish on the bike right??

Coming back to food this Meatless Monday, I made aubergine with sambal. Sambal is a Malaysian spicy chilli paste which tastes great with just about anything. I have previously shared my recipe for sambal in my post on okra with sambal.

In that version, I steamed the okra and just ladled the sambal on top. Today’s recipe however is more of a stir fry.

Vegetarian Yellow Split Pea Curry

High in fiber and vegetable protein, this yellow split pea curry is delicious, budget friendly and freezes really well. Get ready to make a big batch and freeze up leftovers for when you need them.

Hello! How was your weekend? Did you get up to anything active? Whatever you did, I hope you had a good time. The weather here was pretty sunny although there were strong gusts of winds. I am proud to report that my long run on Sunday went much better than last week’s run. I think it helped that I brought some water with me to sip on every 15 minutes throughout the 165 minutes that I was out pounding the pavement. Well I say pounding but it was more like plodding.

Anyway, for today’s Meatless Monday series I have a fantastic curry recipe!

Sundried Tomatoes & Mozzarella Bread

This bread has a delicious Mediterranean taste of sundried tomatoes and herbs. It is just as tasty eaten on its own or with some soup.

Hello everyone! How was your weekend? I hope you had a great weekend and that you are all ready to start this week with vigour.

As for me, I ran for nearly 3 hours on Sunday. This is all part of my training for the Berlin Marathon. Even though I have been doing that for most Sundays now, yesterday was a real ordeal. I think I was not looking forward to the run and was mentally defeated before I even began. Never mind, I am sure this Sunday’s run will be better.

Two Ingredient Pancakes (Gluten Free)

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I have to tell you, I went for a total change in hair style and chopped off my long hair. I took more than 4 inches off. I think I posted a photo on my Instagram account. I will need to update all my profile photos in due course. For now, I am loving my new short hair. I have had long hair for over eight years now so it is high time for a change!

Coming back to food, as today is Meatless Monday here on Nomsies Kitchen and it is Pancake Day tomorrow here in Britain, I thought it will be timely to share a recipe for two ingredient pancakes with you!

Butternut Squash, Courgette and Chickpea Hash (vegetarian)

Hello everyone, how is your week going so far? Since I missed my Meatless Monday post yesterday, I thought I would do Meatless Tuesday instead and show you what I cooked yesterday. How about that to justify missing my own deadline?

Last Friday I shared a recipe for Thai Butternut Squash Soup which is a perfect winter warmer. You might have noted that I used only half a medium butternut squash in that recipe. Obviously that left me with half a butternut squash to use up. I decided to use it with some courgettes to make a simple hash. I added some of my homemade tomato based pasta sauce into the mix for a very satisfying vegetarian meal. The butternut squash is a nice substitute for potatoes and I added a can of chickpeas for a protein boost to the dish. I can’t actually call it a one pan meal though as I used a roasting pan to roast the butternut squash first. Barring that, it is still as simple as can be and most importantly, it is delicious and satisfying!

Thai Butternut Squash Soup (vegetarian)

I am very excited to share this fantastic soup recipe with you. I am so excited I want to go straight to the recipe. Seriously, this soup has such a sophisticated taste you will receive many praises.

It’s a great addition to a dinner party menu too – especially if you are hosting an Asian themed one. It’s not difficult to do either. I roasted the butternut squash as I feel that it enhances the taste of the soup just that much more. As for the consistency of the soup, you can leave it chunky but I blended mine as I prefer my soups to have a smoother consistency. I think it looks better too.

One Pot Spicy Tofu Stew

Healthy, easy and all in one pot

One Pot Spicy Tofu Stew

Hello folks! How was everyone’s weekend? I sure hope you had a good one whatever it is you got up to.

As for me, I had my first encounter with hill sprints. It is part of my training plan for the Berlin Marathon in September this year. Man, was it tough. You essentially have to sprint up a hill 4 times. This is done after you have just completed a 45 minute run. At the end of the first sprint I felt ready to roll down the hill and stay down.

Since I need to incorporate more protein into my diet with all this running, I decided that for Meatless Monday I am going to make a protein packed stew. This recipe was inspired by a Korean dish – soondubu jjigae, that is, soft tofu stew. The traditional stew uses dried anchovies and kelp to make a stock and the stew commonly has meat or seafood in it as well as the addition of fish sauce. Since all of those ingredients are not viable options for a meat free Monday dish, I had to get creative. I was also lazy to wash too many pots so I made this into a one pot stew.

Homemade Tomato Based Pasta Sauce

Delicious Homemade Tomato Based Pasta Sauce, full of vegetable goodness

Hello and a very happy Meatless Monday!

I hope you had a great weekend and got your batteries all recharged to face this week. It was an eventful weekend for me. If you read my previous post you would know that I have decided to start selling my cookies. I have always hesitated to do so but have finally decided to go for it. I have been unemployed for more than a year now. I have lost count of how many rejections I have received from countless job applications. No wait, I do know how many as I have a special folder just for them. Anyway, as times are bad, I decided to start helping myself and I am hopeful that this negative can be turned into a positive! I figured I have nothing to lose. If you have any tips for me or if you have encountered such an experience before, do share them with me, I would love to hear from you.

Looks like tomato soup? Just thought it looks better here than in a jar!

Ok, enough of this self-help guru philosophising. Back to this Monday’s meatless recipe. This time, I am sharing a recipe for homemade tomato based pasta sauce. Have you ever made your own pasta sauce before? If you haven’t you should really give this a go as it tastes so much better than store bought jars with the added bonus that you know exactly what is going in it. Definitely more healthful and it is packed full of vegetables. You see, I really am trying to help you stick to your healthy/healthier resolutions this year. We all want to be better right?

Use this sauce for anything from adding into lasagnes or as a base for marinara pasta. It’s so easy to make and have on hand for quick weeknight pasta dishes. Remember, a good tasting pasta sauce is the foundation of a great tasting pasta dish. 

French Bean Omelette

French Bean Omelette

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely festive season and I wish you and your loved ones a very happy 2014.As this is my first post in 2014 and it is a Monday, you guessed it, time for a Meatless Monday post.

One of my closest friends came over from Malaysia to visit me during the festive season. We had so much fun entertaining him and we went to York and Edinburgh. It was my first time in Edinburgh and it must be one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. The streets just ooze history and character. They also have very good steak and ale pies. Apart from that we also had friends over a couple of nights at home too and all that translates to more glorious food! With all the travelling, cooking and eating, I managed to gain 2kg in the last 3 weeks. I must now begin my quest to work of that excess weight and make my fat cry. Although, I do believe that I will end up crying before my fat does.

Vegetarian Japanese Egg Tofu for Meatless Monday

Vegetarian Japanese Egg Tofu

Happy Meatless Monday everyone! I hope you are as excited about Meatless Monday as I am.

This Monday, I am going to share a recipe for Japanese Egg Tofu with you. This tofu has egg in it and can be easily bought from most Oriental grocers.  This is what it looks like in its packaging.

Japanese Egg Tofu

As with most tofu or beancurd, it is a very versatile protein in that it goes well with almost anything. For this dish, the tofu is sliced, dusted with corn flour and then fried until it is golden and crispy. You then braise the vegetables in a thick sauce before adding an egg in the sauce to thicken it and to bulk up the dish. I also added a lot of vegetables to bulk it up further. Here, I used mushrooms, sugar snap peas, baby corn and carrots.

Vegetarian Couscous with Pine Nuts

Vegetarian Couscous with Pine Nuts

Hello and how are you doing on this Meatless Monday?

Tell me what you did over the weekend! As for me, I went to watch the second installation of the Hunger Games movie – Catching Fire. I must say that I have read the books and the movie stays true to the book. It was more grown up then the first so it appealed more to me however there were no fireworks or clincher for me to be wowed. But, I digress as this is not a blog for movie reviews but one about food. So, to recover from the excesses of the weekend, here is a simple and satisfying vegetarian couscous recipe for you to try. If not for today, then bookmark it for next week!

Vegetarian Chinese Egg Fried Rice

Vegetarian Chinese Egg Fried Rice

Happy Meatless Monday everyone! Can you believe that it is time for another Meatless Monday? I do hope you had a lovely weekend. If it involved a lot of feasting, do not fret, have more vegetables and fruits today to bring some balance back into your body.

I have some leftover rice so once again it is time for fried rice. I am sure I have mentioned that I am not a fan of washing the rice cooker so I always cook up a big batch of rice to save on washing up. I know that the leftovers can be quickly microwaved when needed (just add some water to keep it fluffy and soft) or turn it into a favourite dish – fried rice!

This time it is a vegetarian egg fried rice, an excellent way of using up any leftover vegetables. In this version, I use chestnut mushrooms, sugar snap peas and baby corn. The sugar snap peas and baby corn add a lovely crisp texture to the fried rice – much better than any frozen vegetables. If you need to use up any leftover rice – give this a go, you will have a meal on the table in less than 30 minutes.