Home grown goodness!

This year, with us having a much bigger garden than before, we decided to make a project of growing our own vegetables in containers in our garden.

Ian’s brother Neil bought us as a family many containers, grow bags, seeds and other bits and pieces for Christmas in order to get us started. We were excited for the kids to be able to grow and eat their own produce, it’s been an excellent and fun way to teach them where their food grows.

Also with the credit crunch in action, it has been so rewarding to do this and save some money!

Plus, with veggies like these, you wonder why you didn’t do it before! They are magnificent!

This year, we grew our own potatoes (three different varieties), mange tout, beans, onions, and courgettes, and have tomatoes and chilli peppers on their way!

Next year, we have ambitious expansion plans 😀 and will definitely be doing more!

Here are some of what we grew- looks good enough to eat, huh?!! 😀

Chicken with Roasted Vegetables- Low Fat!

Bizarrely, it was my skinny husband who came up with this recipe. It’s dead easy, made in one pan and tastes amazing.

If you’re on a diet but noone else in your house is- like me- this is a winner, because you could simply cook some potatoes or rice for the other guys, and give them some cheese to go over it, whilst keeping everything low fat and low calorie for yourself.

The smell of this cooking is enough to send anyone to distraction! It’s gorgeous, full of colour and flavour, and you get a lot of food for the calorie count!

Also, I’ve given recipe amounts so that it will serve two, but it will easily adjust up or down as you wish.

Chicken With Roasted Vegetables- serves 2

2 chicken breasts

1 large red pepper

1 large yellow pepper

250g/punnet of closed cap mushrooms

2 medium sized courgettes (zucchini)

1 red onion

3-4 garlic cloves, left whole in their skins

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fresh herbs (or 1-2 tsp dried if that’s all you have)- eg rosemary, thyme, coriander etc

salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Place chicken breasts in an ovenproof casserole or pyrex dish

2. Cut the peppers and red onion into 1-2 inch chunks. If the mushrooms are large, halve or quarter them. Cut the courgettes into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Put in a bowl with the oil and herbs, plus some seasoning if you want it. Mix together well so that the oil coats the mixture. It’s amazing how far such a small amount of oil will go!

3. Arrange the vegetable mix over the chicken, preferably so that it is completely covered. Tuck the garlic cloves in around the dish.

4. Bake in oven for approx. 30-35 minutes, until the edges of the peppers are looking a little charred.

Calorie count per serving- only 255! 🙂

That’s it- dead easy! Enjoy!