As noted last week, I am undertaking a challenge at the gym I attend which is encompasses exercise and nutrition. For the nutrition component we are using the Zone model.
At two weeks into the challenge, I have never eaten so many veggies in all my life! I have never been a great veggie eater, particularly of the green variety, so I have found this quite challenging.
Thankfully a friend Alison sent me an email recently with a recipe which was a winner for her and for the neighbours’ kids. It was based on a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s world vegetarian book. Alison is not only a good cook, but an expert in children’s literacy and runs an amazing blog which I have linked to many times – Spelfabet. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t done so already.
So from the rough details Alison gave me, I can up with a green veggie recipe, which saw me happily eating broccoli. My kids unfortunately didn’t go for it, but it is a winner taste wise and is filling – I have cooked it a number of times again already.
- 280 grams broccoli (2 blocks carbs) or broccolini
- 60 grams baby spinach (0.5 block carbs)
- 50 grams onions which is about half an onion (0.5 block carbs)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1.38 tsp macadamia oil (3 blocks fat) or olive oil
- Optional - 85 grams chicken cooked (3 blocks protein) - I served mine up with chicken but you could serve it with anything you like or eat it on its own!
- Steam broccoli for about 3 - 5 minutes.
- While broccoli is cooking, finely chop onion and prepare garlic for mincing.
- Run broccoli under cold water to refresh and chop roughly.
- Add oil to a medium sized frying pan and fry onion on low heat. If you are using a small amount of oil, cooking on a low heat helps prevent sticking and over cooking.
- Mince the garlic into the pan and fry for another minute or so.
- Add broccoli and spinach to the pan and stir.
- Serve as a side dish with your meat or on its own.

Our Family Menu Plan For This Week
I am going away for over a week, so this is the menu plan for the family while I am away. I have already cooked a number of these dishes, so for many of them it will be heat and serve!
Day | Week Commencing 29th June |
|
---|---|---|
Sat | ![]() | Pasta with chicken and baby spinach |
Sun | ![]() | Slow cooker roast beef |
Mon | ![]() | Souvlaki |
Tue | ![]() | Sausage and veg |
Wed | ![]() | Mexibake |
Thu | ![]() | Slow cooker spaghetti bolognese |
Fri | ![]() | Fried rice |
Shopping List | Weekly menu plan shopping list for 29th June 2013 |
If you are looking for further recipe inspiration, check out my complete list of Family Friendly Recipes.
Do you have a favourite way of jazzing up veggies?