What are the perks of being unemployed you may ask? Well there are a few for sure... but one of the big ones is having time to cook "real meals" and try out new recipes. I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to try out a variety of new things for dinner. I've had three goals in minds when cooking new meals...
1. Keep it healthy
2. Keep it inexpensive
3. Keep it delicious :)
Here are just two of my recent creations!
Vegetable Tian
What is a "tian" you might ask? (I asked the same thing... thank goodness for Google!) Here's what About.com says: "A mixture of roasted vegetables cooking in a shallow
dish, usually with cheese or au gratin. This dish derives its name from
the large, round, earthenware cooking pot used in Provence, France." One day I'll go to France and eat some Vegetable Tian, which I'm sure will be a million times better than my own.
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| Pre-slicing |
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| There's something so pretty about the rainbow of color in these vegetables :) |
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| Sauteing up the onions and garlic |
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| The onions and garlic spread out on the bottom of the dish |
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| So much veggie goodness! |
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| Cheese makes everything better (Its possible I added more cheese than the recipe called for...) |
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| The end product |
This was incredibly easy (and enjoyable!) to make. There is a lot of slicing involved so I put on my Pandora and sliced away. The end result was enjoyed by both myself and my husband! (This is a great success!) We are both trying to eat more vegetables and (I'm not sure my husband is on board with this one) less meat so this recipe was a great and delicious find.
Then the Cauliflower Pizza happened...
This is something I've been wanting to try for awhile. It had been sitting on my Pinterest board for a long time so I was excited to finally try it out. It was another enjoyable recipe to make and that's partly because my hubby joined in to help on this one. If there's one thing we love to do together, its cooking meals. Here are a few snapshots...
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| I always love a reason to use the food processor! |
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| Post "food-processed" cauliflower |
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| Who's the handsome guy in the kitchen? :) |
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| End result! |
So how did it taste? Depends on who you ask.... :) I really liked it. Did it taste like the best New York style pizza you've ever had? No way. It was a unique twist on pizza and you don't get the same "crust flavor" because... well, its cauliflower. However, I thought it was yummy and very edible. Hubby on the other hand said, "it tastes too much like cauliflower" haha. Lets just say he didn't eat the leftovers ;) Someone told me to try it again with organic cauliflower because apparently it has a better taste. So I'll try it again and see if he likes it any better. I'll report back on that when I do.
Until next time... happy eating!
