Recipes

By Warren Smart (husband, cook and No 1 supporter)
Virginia is NOT on a diet. She is changing her lifestyle.  It's about making good choices about what we eat. So here are some recipes that we have enjoyed and we think you might like to try as well.
Reipes will be added when I have time and we have enjoyed something.
Have a go at some of them  and hope you find them delicious too.
Fish Parcels
Here is a healthy way to cook fish; good for the brain too.
Ingredients
Enough fish for the number of people you have. We had 2 fillets of gurnard each.
Slices of eggplant
Slices of red onion
Slices of tomato
Fresh herbs. We used corriander, parsley, thyme, and mint.
Morrocoan Spice mix
Lime or lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Aluminum Foil

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Have all the ingredients chopped and ready.
3. Cut a piece of foil large enough to hold your fish and vegetables. We make individual parcels for each person so they can have the things they like.
4. Start by putting some eggplant on the foil, followed by the fish, a shake of Morroccan Spices, tomato, onions, herbs, a squeeze of lime juice, and salt and pepper if you want.
5. Wrap the foil tightly around the food so that the juices and steam will stay in.
6.Put on an oven tray, put in the oven and cook for 20 minutes until the fish is done.
7. Serve with a salad though our kids like to wrap them in a tortilla, or put them in a taco with a bit of salad.
Feel free to use other vegetables that you might have or like. Some suggestions courgettes, capsicum, asparagus in season. You can also use different seasonings, I like to use cumin seeds, or ground tumeric or cumin. Feel free to be inventive.



Barbequed Lamb with Chickpea and Spinnach Salad
Ingredients
Boned leg of lamb
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
Rub the lamb witht the olive oil and then rub in the salt and pepper.
Once the BBQ is hot place the rosemary branches down and put the lamb on top. Cook and turn. To cook the middle to your liking either cover on BBQ once it is browned and turn the heat down, or finish it off in a preheated oven.
Salad Ingredients
Tin chick peas
Red onion
Olive oil
Red Capsicum
Cummin seeds (about a teaspoon or so)
Garlic
Vinegarette
In an oven proof dish put in the chopped up onion (eigths or sixteenths depending on how big the onion is), some chopped up garlic (or whole cloves if you prefer) and a little olive oil. Roast in preheated oven for about 20 minutes and then add drained tin of chick peas. Roast for another 10 miuntes or so as the lamb is finishing off.
Char the capsicum to blacken the skin over a flame. Place it in a plastic bag to let it sweat for 10 minutes and then peel off the blackened skin. Deseed and chop ready to add to salad.
Meanwhile toast the cummin seeds in a pan and allow to cool.
Make the vinegarette. Put the spinnach leaves in a bowl and add other ingredients and toss. You can let the roasted things cool if you would prefer.
Vinegarette
Whisk equal parts of oil (we use flax seed as it is high in Omega 3's, our French girl used sunflower, olive is fine, you choose) and vinegar (we use either red wine vinegar or cider vinegar, though raspberry vinegar is great too) with salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of French mustard. Whisk until well blended.
In the photo we served the meal with falafels, babaganoush, fetta in garlic and olive oil, and a yoghurt mint dressing. hummus is nice with as well.
Serve the salad and pile meat and dressings on top.
Fajitas
We had these for tea last night. While I made beef fajitas chicken are equally as nice if you prefer. Feel free to add other things to your marinade for the meat, but try to keep it Mexican influenced. This is a nice quick dinner and it can be all made in just over half an hour, and remember you can cook it in a frying pan inside. It is also important to add chilli sauce at the end, our favourite is any chipotle sauce. Have a go and try these.