Beef Goulash (serves 4-6 people)

Ingredients

• 500gm Beef Mince (or you can use chicken or turkey)
• 1 x diced onion
• Mild Curry Powder (approx. 2-3 teaspoons. Note: the more you use, the more flavor and heat. Some curry powders are very hot. I use Keens Curry for this, but others are OK)
• 1 x packet Chicken Noodle soup (the dried stuff in a small foil/paper pack)
• 1 x packet 2 minute noodles
• ¼ Cabbage – finely shredded

Optional Extras

Don’t add it if you don’t like it, or don’t have it! However, these add a little more flavor; introduce more cheap and healthy vegies into your diet; and make the dish feed more people.

• 2 x Garlic Cloves crushed, or 2 x teaspoons garlic granules/powder.
• 1 teaspoon Mixed Herbs
• 1 cup Sliced Mushrooms
• 1 cup Frozen Peas

Instructions

1. Brown the mince, diced onion, curry powder and garlic in a frypan with a small amount of oil.
2. Add the ALL other ingredients you wish to use, but NOT the cabbage (this gets added just before serving.) Stir and combine.
3. Pour 1-2 cups of water into the frypan over all the ingredients, and stir. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer on a low heat. The noodles will start to absorb the water, and a nice gravy will start to form. Stir every few minutes. This step should only take about 5 minutes for most of the water to be absorbed.
4. When the noodles are cooked (taste them…. If they are still a bit hard, and there is very little water left in the pan, add another half cup of water, and continue to cook).
5. About 2 minutes before serving, toss in the shredded cabbage and stir this through. You want the cabbage to warm through, but still stay a little crunchy.
6. This meal can be frozen and thawed in a microwave. It even tastes good cold, if you cant heat it up.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup (serves 4-5)

Great value using left overs, and those veggies that are past their use by date. You can freeze this, have for dinner with a crusty loaf, take it for lunch and reheat in the microwave.

Ingredients:

• Chicken – can be left over roast chook, skinless chicken thighs or drumsticks
• Chopped up veggies. Whatever’s in the fridge will work! (onions, potato, carrot, celery, pumpkin, tomatoes, cabbage etc)
• 2-4 Chicken Stock cubes
• ¼ packet dried soup mix

Optional:

• Minced Garlic
• Minced Ginger
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• Herbs to taste

So, I had some left over roast chook that I cooked at home a few days ago, and there was nothing wrong with it, but just wasn’t looking that appetizing on the plate. But…I have made this using some leftover cooked chook from Coles or Red Rooster. It is a great economical way to use up that left over chicken, and stretch that food item a bit further. Take out your big pot or saucepan. Everything goes into the all at once, cover it in water, and boil it up. Just bung it all in! This is not a Master Chef recipe….just a Master Mum recipe.

1. Take the left over chicken off the bone.  OR, if you are using fresh chicken, cut up some skinless chicken thighs, or use chicken drumsticks. You only want the cheapest chicken you can buy, as you are going to boil it up. So use left over cooked chook from Coles, Red Rooster or previously cooked meal, or use some fresh uncooked chicken…it just doesn’t matter. Dice it and shove it in the pot!
2. Dice an onion, carrot, potato, pumpkin, celery, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, cabbage…. in fact this recipe is perfect for using those left over veggies that are in the coffin in the bottom of your fridge, or using left over pre cooked veggies …those dodgy slightly wrinkled, not so fresh veggies… MOST veggies can be used. You can add a tin of tomatoes if you want, some frozen peas, corn etc. …just use the veggies you have and like to eat. Dice them up, chuck them in the pot. Just chop them…they don’t even have to be an even size, and you can leave the skin on the spuds and carrots etc if you want.
3. Add 2-4 chicken stock cubes, or teaspoons of powdered stock. This is what gives the soup that hit of flavor. Stock cubes are cheaper than buying liquid stock in a carton, and it does the same job.
4. Add 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and mined ginger, mixed herbs or your favorite herbs like basil, oregano, thyme (Optional, but I think this gives it more flavor – just going easy on the herbs if using dried ones).
5. 1 small teaspoon of curry powder (Optional – but somehow this just gets this soup going.)
6. Add some dried Soup Mix – This is a mix of lentils, beans, split peas, Pearl Barley. These can be found in plastic packets in the spices area or soup area of the supermarket. They are really, really dirt cheap, and you really only want no more than a 1/4 of a packet per pot of soup, so they go a long way. They add a bit more substance and flavor to the soup, and make it more filling. Don’t cook them beforehand, just chuck them into the pot.
7. Cover everything with with water, give it a stir, and bring it to the boil. Then once boiling, turn the heat down low and put the lid on. Simmer on low heat for about an hour, giving it a stir a few times, when you remember, between assignments (once in the pot, this stuff cooks itself). I get my potato masher out and just break up the veggies in the pot, but still leave it a bit lumpy. The smell will be amazing, and if you are not hungry when you started, you will be when its done!
8. ..taste it. If it lacks flavor, add some salt and pepper, or even another stock cube. Add a slosh of soy sauce if you have it. All these things will improve the flavor.

That is it…done. Serve it with some bread or garlic bread, pimp it up with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. The carnivores among us will love this. The herbivores among us just don’t use any chicken, and change chicken stock cubes/powder for vegetable stock/powder.

Easy Peasey Vegie Curry (services 3-5)

This is another one pot wonder. Prep time about 15 minutes, cooking time about 15 minutes. It is worth the effort to use fresh ginger and garlic. The spices as listed  can be a little expensive to buy all at once, so buy a nice Indian curry powder and substitute it . It is very aromatic and really tasty. Serve with boiled rice.

Ingredients

• 500ml Coconut Milk ( 2 cans)
• 2 onions diced
• 1 green chilli finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 cloves of Garlic, chopped finely
• 2 curry leaves or Bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon Garam masala (a spice – you will add this right at the end)
• 1 kg of mixed vegetables such as potato, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, mushrooms, beans, peas, egg plant, zucchini, squash. (Choose any that you like) Cut them into bite sized cubes.

1. In a saucepan, boil some water, and once boiling add the rice to cook.
2. In a frypan add the onion, garlic, ginger and the curry powder or the listed spices, and a little oil and brown gently on a medium heat. This releases the flavour of the spices.
3. Toss in your vegetables. The hard vegies such as potato, pumpkin and carrot, sweet potato will take longer to cook. So add them first, and allow them to cook a bit longer until they are starting to get soft. Then add the softer vegies such as the mushrooms, zucchini, squash, peas, egg plant etc.
4. Turn the heat down low, and add the coconut milk. On a low heat simmer the vegetables until they are cooked (poke the potato pieces with a fork – if they are soft, they are cooked.) Try not to boil the food at this stage, just a low slow heat is perfect.
5. Lastly, just before serving add the Garam Masala. (Garam Masala is a mixture of indian spices that can lose its flavour if it is over cooked. So, add it in the last minute or so of cooking, and stir it through.)
6. serve with rice and enjoy.

Bad Boys – serves 1

• 1 sheet Puff pastry – cut into 4 squares
• Tomato sauce
• Cheese (any sort, you can use cheese slices, or grated.)
• Salami (make it meat free if you want, to use up any left over meat cold chicken, cut up a cold sausage, chorizo, chicken, beef etc.)
• Tomato – sliced into rings
• Mushroom (sliced)

1. Put the pastry squares onto an oven tray – I cover my tray with baking paper or alfoil – makes it easy to clean.
2. squirt some tomato sauce onto each square, and top with cheese
3. add your salami or meat of choice
4. add your tomato and mushroom. (you could also use onion, pineapple, asparagus, capsicum – whatever you have in your fridge)
5. add a small amount of cheese on top – again, I used a bit of block cheese, but grated will work too, and salt and pepper.
6. Then fold and pinch up the edges of the pastry, to form a nest of sorts
7. Bake in the over at 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry looks a nice brown color.

Apple Tart

Apple Tart – made with gorgeous girls (pink lady apples.) Delish, quick, easy, and looks really impressive.

• 1 sheet of puff pastry
• 2 Apples (I used pink lady apples – but use any apple you have, and especially that apple that does not look the best in the bottom of the fridge – it will be perfect for cooking)
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon (optional)
• 2 dessertspoons Sugar (optional – the apples are sweet and you don’t really need sugar if you don’t want the extra calories)
• Butter or margarine.

1. Put some baking paper or alfoil on an oven tray (this makes the tray easy to clean afterwards)
2. Place the pastry sheet on the tray, and while the sheet of pastry is thawing, start to prepare your apples.
3. Cut the apple into quarters, and take out the core.Then slice each quarter into thin pieces. (I don’t peel my apples, but you can if you want. I like the rustic appearance, and why waste good food!)
4. Lay the slices straight onto the pastry sheet (you can arrange them in pretty patterns if you want to be artistic), but leave an edge on all sides where you do not put any apple.
5. Fold up and pinch the edges of the pastry to form a nest.
6. Sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon and sugar.
7. Dot the apples and pastry edges with small amounts of butter.
8. Put into the over at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the pastry edges look nicely golden and apples are soft.
9. Serve hot or cold with cream or ice cream.
10. Pimp it up – add some chopped walnuts and sultanas scattered over the top of the apples prior to cooking. Substitute the sugar for honey or maple syrup, and drizzle this over the apples prior to cooking(just don’t put too much on, or it will make the pastry wet and soggy on the bottom). If you don’t want to make one big tart, cut the pastry into quarters and make 4 smaller ones.

• 1 x tin Baked Beans – the middle size, big enough for two people
• 2 x spring onions – chopped up
• Approx. 1/2 cup of grated cheese (if you like cheese add more, if you are not that fond of it, add less.)
• Chorizo Sausage about 1/2 a sausage. (leave this out if you are vegan. Add other left over meat if you want, but personally I think chorizo makes this pop)
• Eggs (optional)
• Diced Tomato and capsicum (optional)