Tasty Thursday - Easy to prepare

Yummy yummy.. its time for another Tasty Thursday. This weeks edition is focussed on low-prep, easy to prepare food that go easy on your tummy. As someone who works eight hours a day, the last thing I want to do on some days is go home and cook. This doesn't mean I don't want to EAT! and if I am eating I would generally prefer tasty food to plain old fill-your-stomach food.

Necessity often breeds invention and this has certainly been the case for me recently. Trying to get in balanced nutritious food while still keeping prep time to a minimum has become a daily battle. Being vegetarian means that I can't just pop a piece of meat/fish/chicken on the grill as a solution. So, here is another quick meal for the list. The potatoes provide the carbs, margerine and olive oil provide the fats and the cottage cheese is a protein and dairy. Serve with a green salad for the veg component and the stewed clementines as fruit. This was a hearty winters evening meal that satisfies and warms you to your bones. The warm cinnamon flavour of the dessert mellowed by the burst of fresh citrus was the perfect ending to a rough day.

Garlic Baked Potatoes

-Serves 2

4 medium thin skinned potatoes

1 bulb garlic / a scallion bulb

Olive oil

Low fat chunky cottage cheese (flavoured if desired)

Wash potatoes thoroughly

Pour approx a teaspoon of olive oil into your palm and coat each potato completely

Using a sharp knife, pierce the potatoes randomly ensuring that each side has a few cuts

Coat garlic with olive oil

Pour a little oil into a baking try for good measure

Arrange potatoes and garlic so that each potato rests near the garlic

Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 45 mins or until cooked through and skins are golden

Remove from oven, and cut open

add margerine and salt to taste (optional)

Squeeze roasted garlic onto potatoes (optional)

Top GENEROUSLY with chunky low fat cottage cheese

If you used the scallion bulb, chop finely as a topping for the cottage cheese (optional)

Enjoy

Caramel Stewed Clementines

half a cup brown sugar

1 cup water

2 seedless clementines (mandarins)

1 to 2 sticks of cassia bark (cinnamon)

place sugar in a non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of the water and cassia bark

cook on low to medium heat stirring all the while

when the sugar darkens to a rich colour, add peeled and segmented clementines

coat the clementines with the syrup as they cook

while cooking, add water a tablespoon at a time as the mixture thickens to keep it at the right consistency

gently turn the clementine segments regularly to ensure cooking on both sides but try to keep the juices from squeezing out completely

Add a little more water at the end to thin the syrup

Serve warm

The leftover syrup is a great topping for ice-cream

Almost Time

It is almost time to share. Will it make this more real? Or less special?

I've already shared with some. But not all.

The tingles dance along my nerves at the thought of sharing here.

And if, after all this, something happens?

Maybe I should wait a little longer?

Yes, maybe just a little.