I am always trying to spice up our side dishes a bit, trying to make them a bit more interesting than just boiled or steamed veg. Don't get me wrong, I adore boiled or steamed veg (so long as they are crispy tender and not cooked to death), but every now and then I like to shake things up a tiny bit and add some extra flavours.
Its very easy to do, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to add a lot of calories either. Today I added some fresh garden thyme, a bit of honey and some lime zest and juice to the carrots with fabulous taste results. Carrots and Thyme really go well together as does thyme. I was a bit dubious about adding the lime, but with the honey, it went really well. I also added chopped parsley to help pretty them up a bit more as the thyme and lime zest were not showing very well.
Yield: 4
Author: Marie Rayner
Carrots with Honey, Lime & Thyme
One of our favorite ways to enjoy carrots. These make a great side dish for the holidays. Recipe can be easily doubled.ingredients:
1 1/2 TBS butter1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into juilienne strips
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried
2 TBS water
1 TBS fresh lime juicethe finely grated zest of 1/2 lime1/2 tsp honey
instructions:
Meltthe butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots,
stirring well to coat. Saute, stirring often, for about 3 minutes. Add
the thyme, stock, lime juice, zest and honey. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 to 10
minutes until the carrots are nice and tender. Remove with a slotted
spoon and arrange in a serving dish. Delicious!Created using The Recipes Generator
These really are delicious and quite adaptable to other flavours as well!
This is a recipe which is very easily doubled or halved as well. I halved it as there are just the two of us, and it worked really well. We had plenty and I still had some to share with Mitzie. She love, LOVES carrots!
Recently I've been working hard on trying to control my portions and I got myself this Deluxe Meal Portion Control Tool. I find it is really doing a great job of helping me with this!!
I had moved to a sandwich sized plate for my meals a few years ago, which was a positive step in the right direction, but you know . . . you can pile things up as high as you like on a sandwich plate without really realising what you are actually doing.
This manage your diet tool helps to organize and control the amounts of fruits, vegetables, legumes or starches in your plate. Each circle is one portion, or one cup. I have found that this is perfect for helping me to ration my large meals before sitting down to enjoy them! I know you can try to eye-ball your portions, but this handy tool totally takes away any of the mystery and guessing.
Each section is clearly marked. There are two for fruits and vegetables. One for Starch, meaning potatoes, rice, pasta, etc.
It is surprising just how much 1 cup of vegetables amounts to! I have always tended to load up on the carbs and protein . . . but this helps to balance things out a lot better.
It is much easier to be accountable when you know exactly what you are putting on your plate.
The fourth section is perfectly sized for a portion of protein. As you can see, even a portion of meat with some gravy fits into the protein space, so that you are getting just the right amount, no more or no less.
Now that's what I call a well proportioned plate. As a Type Two Diabetic I really need to watch my portion controls, especially when it comes to carbohydrates. This Deluxe Meal Portion Control is really helping me to do that! I am really grateful for it! It is helping me to organize my nutrition, maintain a healthy diet and control my portion sizes, and it is dishwasher safe, which is great! Do check out the link. There is free shipping within the continental US, and there is only a small charge to ship it worldwide. I had mine within a week of ordering it. At the moment it is also available for $8.99 USD, which is lightly less than half of the normal price. You can't lose! Do check out the link to find out more! Thanks!
