Good Easy Recipes

First off, thanks to Noakes and Co for this recipe, which I’ve adapted from their Raising Superheroes cookbook. The recipe in the book is actually a stew for toddlers which I came across when searching for some new recipes for my baby boy. And you know when you make stuff for your little people you have to do quality control, right? Well, I did serious quality control with this recipe – one spoon for you, one spoon for me, one spoon…until I just decided it would be better to just make a family-sized version of the stew with a few tweaks. Like, a non-pureed version.Secondly, you do not need a pressure cooker for this stew, you just need 90-120 minutes for cooking time. Hoooooray for you if you don’t have a pressure cooker this recipe is for you! (But I mean, you still need to get yourself one, at some point, you are not completely off the hook, see!)The actual preparation time is quick so you can quite easily prepare it early in the afternoon and still have it ready for an early dinner if need be. The great thing about stews is that they are difficult to mess up. You’ll usually score an A+ with whateverrrrr you add. They are often my go-to meals for weekends because I can finish up any lonely looking veggies in my fridge before I re-stock with fresh goods.Having said that, you need to adhere to a few basics! Here are my top tips for an AMAZING stew: Always brown the meat. Add in garlic or spices or herbs when browning the meat as it releases and imparts all sorts of rich flavours to your stew. If you don’t have beef or chicken stock, use wine. Red wine for beef stews and white for chicken stews. Tomato paste or tomato puree can also add an incredible flavour to stews. Long slow cooking times equal tender and tasty stews. There you go!!

Source: Easy Beef Stew Recipe for the Stove

4 SERVINGS

Salt

500-gram spaghetti

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 slices smoked bacon, chopped

500-gram  mince

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves (crushed)

3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 can (410 gram) chopped, peeled tomatoes

205-gram tomato puree

2 cups Cheddar cheese (grated)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and add the spaghetti. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the spaghetti. Heat a deep pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and bacon. Brown and crisp the bacon for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Drain off a little excess fat from the pan if necessary, leaving just enough to coat the bottom.

Add the mince and crumble it as it browns (3 to 4 minutes).

Add the onions and garlic and stir into the meat. Season the meat with salt and pepper, sweet chili sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes more, then stir in the tomatoes and tomato puree.

Add the hot spaghetti to the meat and sauce and combine. Serve up the pasta in bowls and grate some cheese over the top of each serving.

Ingredients:

250 g (500 ml) Macaroni

15 ml cooking oil

600 ml milk

1 Packet (62g) thick white onion soup powder

Pinch of pepper

500 ml grated Cheddar cheese.

Method:

Boil Macaroni in salt water till soft. Mix with cooking oil and keep on hand.

Whisk milk, soup powder and pepper together and add half of the cheese. Mix.

Pour into a fireproof dish of about 20x10x5 cm. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese

on top and bake for 30 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180°C. Serve warm.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I know a lot of people who are. I also love easy vegetarian recipes. Normally I don’t think about it as vegetarian per sé. I mean, pasta can be vegetarian according to the sauce and other ingredients you put in. Veggies are vegetarian, you just leave out meat as your protein source. Any bread is vegetarian.

Usually when I hear about someone who is vegetarian I don’t really know what they mean. Some vegetarians don’t eat any kind of meat or even milk or eggs. They must be Vegans I presume, because as far as I can find out Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. Some people who call themselves vegetarians eat fish, some don’t eat eggs, some do. A friend of mine says he eats nothing with a face, which resulted in some wisecrack saying “go and paint some faces on the eggs in his fridge”. Be that as it may, there are lots of vegetarian dishes that don’t take a lot of time and taste wonderful. I hate food that’s not tasty. I even have this easy recipe for a vegetarian burger where you just substitute the meat patty with a big mushroom. The mushroom can be fried or barbequed.

I would like to help you find some easy vegetarian recipes. Why do I want to find easy vegetarian recipes? Not because I want to become a vegetarian, but because I love good food and don’t always feel like eating meat. There are lots of vegetarian recipes that are both quick and easy and not bland at all. Many Indian recipes are veggie based and I have yet to taste an Indian recipe where the dish tastes like sawdust.

I’ve been bragging about that vegetarian burger, so here it is:

Before we begin just something about the mushroom you’re going to use. It is a Portabella mushroom. You don’t have to remove the gills, but some people like to.

Here are some pictures with and without the stem and gills removed:

Ingredients.

· 4 medium portabella mushrooms

· 1 medium to large onion (pealed)

· 3 tbsp olive oil

· 3 cloves minced garlic (you can use more or less to taste)

· ½ cup Mayo

· 1 tbsp chutney

· 4 hamburger buns, lightly toasted

Method.

· Remove mushroom stems and keep these separate.

· Brush mushrooms with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

· Heat large skillet or grill pan over medium heat until hot. Add mushrooms; cook until tender (8 to 10 minutes), turning once. Transfer mushrooms to plate, cavity side up; cover to keep warm.

· While mushrooms are cooking chop the mushroom stems and unions. Butter the buns and mix the mayo and chutney.

· When the mushrooms are done, sauté the onion and stems in the rest of the oil. When it is nearly done add the crushed garlic and stir well for a minute or two. Make sure you don’t burn the garlic, it turns bitter.

· Place the mushrooms on the bottoms of the buns. Spoon the stems, onion and garlic mixture into the mushroom cavities. Coat this with the mayo mixture. (I like to place some grated cheese or tomato slices on top.) Cover with top part of the bun.

Bon Appétit.

For more interesting info on Easy Vegetarian Recipes check out these blogs:

Here I go again about some good easy recipes. Last time I spoke about some terms. Some of the most common ones are:

Bake – To cook using dry heat, either covered or uncovered, in an oven;

Fry – To cook in hot fat; to pan fry in a small amount of fat or deep fry in a large amount of fat that covers the food

Grill – To cook on a rack over hot coals or other direct heat source that simulates coals.

Separate egg yolks/whites – separate the white and yolk of an egg;

Fold in – to combine ingredients with a spoon. Go down through the mixture on the far side of the bowl with a spoon or spatula. Bring the spoon across the bottom of the bowl and up the near side. Turn the bowl slightly and repeat. Keep doing this until the mixture is well blended.

Caramelize – to melt sugar, or foods containing or mixed with sugar, slowly over low heat without burning, until the sugars melt and become brown in color. Also used for browning onions etc.

Fillet – A piece of meat, poultry or fish with all bones removed. To fillet is to remove the bones.

Lean – Generally with a fat percentage of less than 10%.

Chop – To cut food into small pieces with a knife. OK, enough terms for today. Now for a good easy recipe. Some of the easiest recipes are for burgers. I have yet to meet someone that doesn’t like burgers. You can even make it in the microwave oven. And it tastes not bad at all. Here is a recipe for microwave burger patties. (Obviously you’re going to buy the Buns.)

Patties Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 500 grams (1 pound) of beef mince. (Use a moderately lean mince, it won’t shrink so much.)
• Two thick slices of bread.
• 100 ml of milk.
• One egg.
• One chopped onion.
• Salt (half a teaspoon).

Method:

1. Soak the bread in a bit of the milk. Add some milk until the bread is thoroughly soaked.
2. Place the mince in a mixing bowl, add the bread, that has been pulped, into the meat and mix well with a fork.
3. Add the egg and mix well. The egg is to bind the meat so it doesn’t fall apart when grilling.
4. Now add the chopped onion and salt. I also add about a teaspoon of dried thyme. You can also add some other spices to your liking. Mix everything well with a fork.
5. Now make little round balls with your hands  and flatten. The size of the balls will depend on how big you want the patties to be.
6. Place patties in a baking dish. To get it to look nice and brown you can brush it with a little bit of Worcestershire sauce or Ketchup (tomato sauce).
7. Cover loosely and microwave on high (100%) 5 minutes.
8. Turn patties over and brush again.
9. Microwave until done, 2 to 3 minutes.

The patties can also be done on the stove –

1. put some cooking oil (olive if you want) into a frying pan.
2. Heat the pan to a medium high heat and place the patties in the pan.
3. Grill for 7-8 minutes and then flip them over.
4. Grill for another 7-8 minutes or until done.

NB Never undercook hamburger patties! Unfortunately E. Coli can taint half raw ground beef. This is another of my good easy recipes. Enjoy! Next time some more terms and another recipe.

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