Diet Friendly Fast Food

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this recipe is one I'd love to make on the weekend so I'd have leftovers to eat for lunch of a quick dinner during the week.  If you're not a slow cooker fan, there are directions at the end for making this on the stove.)

On Halloween night you know the kids aren't going to want to eat anything but candy, so why not make this slow cooker beef stew with lots of adult flavors to keep the grown-ups happy?  You can start this mid morning and by dinner time it will be ready to go.  If you'll be gone all day, just do the advance prep the night before, refrigerate the ingredients in a plastic container, and put the cold ingredients in the slow cooker and let it cook all day while you're out.  I'd love this with a dollop of sour cream on top, but no matter how you eat it, this stew is loaded with flavor.  (There are also stove-top instructions if you don't have a slow cooker.)

Turnips don't get much respect, but these Roasted Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar and Thyme are delicious!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, April 2014.)  Kale has had it's place in the food spotlight, and now cauliflower seems to be the new trendy vegetable, but turnips don't get much respect.   I grew up eating raw turnips as a snack (thanks mom!) but I'd never cooked turnips until 2007.  Then one day I thought to myself, "I wonder how roasted turnips with a bit of balsamic vinegar would taste?"  And you guessed it; I loved these Roasted Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar and Thyme.

I wasn't sure where the idea came from (although I found Roasted Kohlrabi on A Veggie Venture, which might have inspired it.)  I peeled some turnips, tossed them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and decided they were very good indeed.  When I decided to update this recipe with better photos, I added a little dried thyme to the turnips (and a little Feta cheese sprinkled over the top would also be a nice addition.)   I cooked the turnips in my counter-top toaster oven, which makes them a good option when you don't want to turn on the oven.  If you've never thought of turnips as a side dish option, I hope you'll give them a try.

Inexpensive pork sirloin tip roast gets tender and delicious when it's cooked in the slow cooker with balsamic vinegar, rosemary, and red onions.

Food blogging can be pretty frustrating at times, but especially when you've made a recipe that tasted great, but the photos didn't really make the food look good.  I made this Slow Cooker Pork Sirloin Tip Roast with Balsamic Vinegar, Rosemary, and Red Onions for the second time and the final photos still weren't anything I was happy with, when I noticed this photo of the pork roast in the slow cooker.  I decided that although it's a pretty casual photo it did show how tasty the pork roast looked when it was done.  And since I still have a broken arm (two more weeks, fingers crossed) I decided to share this delicious slow cooker pork roast with the photo I had.  No worries, right?