Bacon Brussels Sprouts

I'm back!! It's been rather eventful....I became a Mom at the end of April! A beautiful and amazing experience...that is ongoing. Even through the endless diaper changes. My parents were with me for the first month and a bit for the first bit of the Chinese confinement period. And then my husband's parents were with us for the rest of the 100 days of rest, renourishment and replenishment of the body. So, I haven't cooked much. But....we're on our own as a family now and it's back to feeding ourselves. A slight challenge when you have to work around 3 hr feeding/nap schedules. I need quick and easy meals...so a quick starter is my favorite Brussels Sprouts recipe with an addition: bacon! 

Warm Brussels Sprouts & Kale Salad

I burned the last batch of brussel sprouts I made so this is a redemption effort. Still not the way I like it because it didn't char as much as I like this time. I used my favorite brussel sprouts recipe and then mixed it with sauteed kale in a kind of salad. It's served over quinoa rice and topped with the pre-seasoned New Zealand rack of lamb that you can quickly throw in the toaster oven and make.

Brussel Sprouts
Fish sauce
Sugar
Grapeseed oil
Kale
S&P

Beet & Brussels Sprouts Salad

There are SO MANY ways to do a good meal-worthy salad. I personally believe that raw nutrients are better than cooked stuff...even if the calories and vitamin/minerals are reportedly the same whether cooked or raw. Being Asian, I still eat a lot of COOKED vegetables....but I'm exploring the raw side now. I'm used to eating raw spinach salad....but beets and brussel sprouts were always consumed cooked. After seeing a few recipes for eating these items raw, I came up with this salad to see how it goes:

Beets - peeled and cut into matchsticks
Brussels sprouts - sliced very thinly, like slaw
Apple - thin slices
Spinach
Pine nuts
 
Dressing:
Mustard
Garlic
Tahini
Apple cider vinegar
Maple syrup

The dressing was completely eye-balled and adjusted to taste....but I really really liked the dressing. And when tossed with the salad...I thought it was a very tasty, earthy, hearty salad. My husband mostly agrees...until he realized I used raw brussel sprouts. "No wonder!! Something tasted off. I don't like that earthy bitter taste." Well, to each their own. Maybe next time I'll blanche the sprouts first?

Green & Purple

I had some lovely purple cabbage in the fridge drawer that needed attention...and some brussel sprouts though not quite enough for a few people to eat. So I had the thought of combining it all...because isn't brussel sprouts just like mini cabbages? And I used my trusted fish sauce brussel sprouts recipe.



It was super tasty as expected! And the rich dark colors looked amazing together! Oh, I do want to point out that I cooked the brussel sprouts separately as I was afraid the purple colour from the cabbage would make everything purple at the end. Enjoy!

Christmas Roasted Veggie Medley (fake)

Yes this is a "fake" roasted veggie medley because only one of the ingredients was actually roasted. I pan seared the brussel sprouts in my favorite way. Then I heated leftover roasted beets in a pot with some frozen corn niblets. Tossed everything together and voila! The perfect dish to bring to a Christmas potluck or for Christmas dinner. =)

Brussels Sprouts
Fish sauce
Olive Oil
Sugar

Roasted beets
Frozen corn

I accidently got some burn marks on the beets and corn in the unattended pot, but hey, now it looks convincingly roasted to match the brussel sprouts! It's the colours of Christmas, it's healthy...and delicious.

Brussels Sprouts

The number of times I've eaten Brussels sprouts in my entire life can be counted on one hand. Usually a bad stomach ache followed one of those unfortunate meals. Can't say I enjoyed it. So when I saw a recipe that called for the hearty sprouts with fish sauce (a seasoning I like), I thought maybe I could give it another chance.

Brussels sprouts
Olive Oil
Fish Sauce
Sugar

Key is to get a nice char on the cut side. And Omigoodness....it was so good! Definitely having this again. =)