Eating More Vegetables

One of our goals this year has been to eat more veg. We eat a reasonable amount already, plenty of salad and vegetable sides with most meals. But we want to try eating vegetables in different ways to make it more interesting.

We've swapped our regular potato mash for sweet potato mash for a change. We've made more of some old favourites we don't have that often like cauliflower cheese and broccoli casserole. We've made soups, stews and curries mainly out of vegetables. So far we've eaten more veg than usual but I'd still like more ideas of unusual ways to eat them.

Here are a few things we've tried recently:

Beetroot chocolate cake - recipe!

Adding beetroot makes for a moister chocolate cake with a lovely depth of flavour. Cooking anything with beetroot is hazardous though because of the risk of staining everything red. :D It's not really a great way to eat more vegetables but I've always wanted to give it a try anyway!

Pea fritters - recipe!

We're already fans of sweetcorn fritters so I decided to give peas a chance. They're pretty tasty, especially dipped in mayo. I wonder what other veg can be frittered? Watch this space!

Mushroom Quesadillas - recipe!

Now, I hate mushrooms but JD really wanted to try these so we made them and I womaned up to give them a try! As we sauteed the huge pile of mushrooms they gave off a not horrible smell, so I felt optimistic that they might not be awful. Turns out, they're OK. Not delicious but not completely un-delicious either. The cheese helped but it was still the texture of mushrooms that put me off. I feel good about giving mushrooms a try, though I doubt it'll be a regular thing for me.

I've got more recipes to try but I still need more ideas. What's your favourite way to eat vegetables?

Saturday Sandwich 100: Broodje Haring

Another sandwich we've been putting off. JD once bought some rollmops in Lidl and declared them one of the most disgusting things he'd ever eaten. Now here we are years later having to eat more pickled herrings in a Saturday Sandwich, life is cruel.

We scoured Harrogate for some different pickled herrings and found some in Waitrose. We reluctantly bought them and took this picture of them looking malevolent.

Ingredients: bread buns, pickled herrings, dill pickles and onion.

Put 2 herring fillets in a bread bun with sliced dill pickles and chopped raw onion.

Suprisingly not disgusting! The herrings combined with the strong flavours of raw onion and the pickles made for a sour tasting, sharp sandwich. It was hard to identify the herrings in amongst the other flavours. It's not a sandwich we'll ever eat again but it wasn't as bad as we thought it'd be. What a relief, we've eaten it at last and now there's only one sandwich to go. :D

Ratings: JD - 1, Emma - 2

Not sure when we'll be making the last sandwich. JD is currently in America spending time with his family. So you're left with an exciting cliffhanger wondering what the last sandwich will be. Tantalising, eh? ;)

Which Fast Food Fries Are The Best?

My daughter Erin LOVES fries! And no, we haven't been Americanized. I consider fries to be thin cut fried potatoes as opposed to thicker cut fried potatoes which are chips.

Anyway, Erin and I set off to Leeds to test 5 different fast food fries and find out which are the best. Reasonable people might have tried fries over several weeks at different places, but not us.

We decided to test the fries on cost, temperature, crunch, saltiness and size of portion.

First up was Burger King.

Cost: (99p) 4, Temperature: 4, Crunch: 3, Saltiness: 3, Size: 3

These fries were pretty good, served quickly and had a nice saltiness to them. Plus they were the first fries we ate, yay fries!

Overall score:  17/25

Next came McDonalds fries.

Cost: (£1.09) 3, Temperature: 3, Crunch: 3, Saltiness: 1, Size: 4

These fries were also served quickly but lacked the crunch and temperature we'd experienced at BK. They come unsalted but you can add salt from a sachet, we decided to rate them as served. Still quite enthusiastic about eating fries.

Overall score: 14/25

Time for Five Guys fries.

Cost: (£2.75) 3, Temperature: 4, Crunch: 4, Saltiness: 4, Size: 5

A bit shocked at how pricey these fries were but when they came the quantity made up for it. We had a longer wait for our fries than most other places but they do fry them to order. The freshness gives the fries a great temperature and crunch. The fries have some skin left on and together with the seasoning makes for fries you can't stop eating. Also the server came over to talk to us while we ate and gave us what felt like Five Guys life history, she was friendly though and gave Erin some peanuts to take away with her. The fries came in a plain brown paper bag which was nice, JD will approve! Left the restaurant feeling a bit full.

Overall score: 20/25

Chicko's (Independent chicken fast food place)

Cost: (£1.30) 3, Temperature: 2, Crunch: 2, Saltiness: 1, Size: 4

These fries weren't that great, they didn't seem as fresh as others we'd had plus they had little crunch. They weren't salted and there was no salt available to use either. Pretty tired of eating fries now, even Erin didn't want to finish these ones.

Overall score: 12/25

KFC

Cost: (99p) 4, Temperature: 3, Crunch: 2, Saltiness: 1, Size: 3

These are usually Erin's favourite but after sampling other, fresher fries she wasn't as impressed. The price and quantity are quite good but again saltiness and crunch were a let down. Bleurgh, fries :(

Overall score: 13/25

So, Five Guys lives up to it's hype. It's worth paying more for your fries if you agree that freshness, saltiness and crunchiness are the best characteristics of the fast food fry. I'm usually not a lover of fast food fries, I can take them of leave them but Five Guys fries seem to have some kind of suspicious addictive quality to them. I should have saved one for chemical testing. :D

Eating 5 half-portions of fries in a day is a terrible idea, don't try this at home! Or at least if you do, have plenty water at hand.

Final Scores:

Five Guys - 20
Burger King - 17
McDonalds - 14
KFC - 13
Chicko's - 12

P.S. Great news! Five Guys is opening a restaurant in Harrogate (where we live), hurrah :)

Saturday Sandwich 99: Student's Zapiekanka

This Polish open-faced sandwich is usually made up of mushrooms, cheese and meats on bread, served toasted. This student version has no restrictions and is much like the refridgerator buffet sandwich we already had.

Ingredients: baguette, cheese and whatever is available in your fridge.

 The suitable foods of our fridge laid out.

Half the baguette and then layer up with a sauce, some meats and vegetables then cheese on top. Grill until the cheese is melted on top.

It's tasty, there's no denying that but is it a sandwich? It's more like a pizza to be honest. We enjoyed the Zapiekanka anyway, it's great to tailor it to your own tastes after months of eating other people's sandwich combinations. Also not pictured we put tomato ketchup on the top as the recipe suggests which was nice. I don't know what else to say, this sandwich was a confusing time. It's behind us now at least. :D

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 3

Next Saturday - Broodje Haring