Gourmet dinner for one... in just 30 minutes!

Oh if only I'd thought to take a picture of my dinner before I was half finished. I would love to have shown you it's beautiful deliciousness. Well, chances are I'll be having it again soon, so if I do, I'll add a picture.

So here's what I had:

• a starter of fresh figs with goat cheese
• Sesame baked chicken breast - juicy and flavourful
• a side of beets on beet greens with pine nuts and fresh parmesan
• oh and since I had started out my cooking this evening making the Spicy Carrot & Lentil Curry that I posted a few days ago, I had a 1/2 a cup of that to try it out too and it was delicious!

Yep, all just for me. Would have been really lovely with a glass of red wine. What brought on this occasion? Absolutely nothing remarkable. I found some recipes that sounded good, and had the ingredients that I needed to use before they started to spoil. It was such a treat! And, yes, it really only took 30 minutes, 25 of which was the chicken baking in the oven while the beet boiled on the stove. I prepared the other ingredients while those parts were cooking, then took a few minutes to put it all together on a plate.

My point in telling you about my meal is to demonstrate, for all those who say that healthy eating takes too much work, too much time, and there's no point when it's all just for yourself (I often hear singles saying that they can't be bothered to cook just for themselves). It doesn't have to take a lot of time at all. And aren't you worth the effort and the nutrition? If you could have super nutritious and super delicious food like that every night while still spending less than an hour in the kitchen, isn't that a heck of a lot better than any fast food burgers, chinese food, pizza, or whatever other delivery place you have on your speed dial? Those foods only leave you feeling greasy, gassy, and gaining weight.... not to mention triggering your brain and biochemistry to drive you to want more and more, insatiably.

If you're under the impression that healthy eating has to be a time consuming chore, I challenge you to give it a try. Certainly as you're building new habits you have to be more conscious about what you're doing, but practice enough, and before you know it, you're whipping up nutritilicious meals in less time than Pizza Pizza can get to your door!

To get you started, here's the recipes for what I had tonight:

Fresh figs - cut in half and sprinkle with feta/goat cheese
Beet Carpaccio on Sauteed Greens
Simple Sesame Grilled Chicken

Enjoy!