Archive for the ‘Quick Healthy Meals’ Category
Easy Pasta Dishes
Author: admin
Quick, simple and easy ideas for serving your home made pasta from our Italian friends. You will notice there are no amounts as our friends just add more things as and when people turn up for a meal and don’t get hung up on the actual amounts - it makes cooking a lot more casual and enjoyable.
Serve with your own delicious home made spaghetti, pasta or fettucini to make a quick healthy and delicious meal.
- Saute breadcrumbs with olive oil, garlic, chilli ( small amount of chilli - always easy to add a bit more later !) saute until crisp then add parsley when cooled as well as fresh tomato, add seasonings, salt and pepper and serve with pasta. Some great fresh herbs to use are oregan0, basil and sage - not all at once of course !
- Bacon, mushroom, tomato and onion sauteed in olive oil with garlic and chilli
- Saute onion, chilli, garlic in olive oil, add one tin of tomatoes or fresh if you prefer and a tin of tuna ( in oil)
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I have had a lot of comments and many of you are curious how I got interested in pasta making again so I thought I’d share with you a funny tale of how I came to haul out the long forgotten pasta machine from my pantry!
Our Italian friends came to visit today.
We live in the country and they are from the city and we talked about missing fresh pasta here in the country.
“How many eggs do they lay ?” he asked as he watched our free range hens scratching in the garden. Suddenly he sat up straight.
” You gotta pasta machine ?”
I disappeared into the pantry and emerged dusting off a long forgotten box with an Italian made Imperia pasta maker.
“It’s an excellent machine” he stared at me in amazement.
“Its almost new, you’ve barely used it” he said in disbelief, “pasta making is so easy !” …..and ……
“You have a goldmine here” . Barely able to contain his excitement, he talked non-stop of how to make home made fresh pasta and how simple it was to make and how we could have a never ending supply of freshly made, economical pasta. Then followed an animated discussion of the different ways to serve pasta and what you could do with it.
I was almost sorry I’d hauled out the box but my mouth was watering at the descriptions
But what is the recipe I asked. “Recipe, recipe ? You don’t need a recipe” he scoffed, ” just make one small pile of flour with a “dent” in the middle and put in two eggs and then, slowly, slowly, bring the flour into the egg” and leaning back thinking he added “you might need some water”
When I pressed him for the amount, he said it depended…… then seeing the look on my face added “about two fingers worth !!! Bearing in mind that my friend has been a chef, restauranteur and previously a baker, I think maybe he made pasta on autopilot !
“Anyone can make it - you have eggs, you have flour and you have the machine. You have a goldmine” he said again, looking puzzled as to why we hadn’t thought of it before and shrugged.
We all sat down to eat lunch and discuss food (of course, what else) followed by him making a beeline for the armchair “to take a short rest” and promptly went to sleep ! His job was done it seems.
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Sweet Potato (Kumara) and Semolina Patties
- Cook together 1 Kumara ( sweet potato)and 1 Potato - medium size and mash
- Chop a bunch of parsley and several spring onions finely cut or chopped
- 3 - 5 capfuls of Shoyu or Tamari
- Semolina to mix
- Mashed Tofu (couple of slices - optional but nice if you have some on hand - otherwise its almost as good without)
- Mix and mold into patties. Roll in Semolina and cook in frypan
We make this often and it is always delicious and quick and easy to make - even my husband has been know to make it !
Photo shows without parsley and spring onions as we had some great kumaras and no parsley or spring onions that had not gone to seed !
If you enjoyed this recipe go here for more Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy
Tree tomato/ Tamarillo Salsa to go with it will be posted soon …
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Delicious Broccoli Salad
Author: admin
Many of us are so busy that we don’t have the time to prepare fresh and delicious meals anymore. The recipe I am sharing in this article is very simple and time saving. I got this from a friend of mine who served this broccoli salad in one of our work-related-potlucks. Everyone loved it that it was gone in minutes! I am not a very good cook but every time I attend a gathering that involves food, I always bring my broccoli salad. Amazingly, it is always one of the first dishes to disappear!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED:
2 bundles of fresh broccoli, 1 onion, 1/2 cup of raisins, 12 slices of (cooked) bacon.
For the dressing:
1 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons of vinegar
MAKING THE SALAD:
1. Wash the broccoli thoroughly and chop them into bite sizes, and place them on a clean dish/salad bowl.
2. Wash the onions thoroughly and slice or chop it into small pieces, then mix it with the broccoli.
3. Add the raisins and mix it with the rest.
4. Break the 12 slices of bacon into small pieces and them mix it with the rest.
5. Mix the dressing ingredients thoroughly in a separate bowl to make a dressing. Pour and mix the dressing evenly with the broccoli and the rest.
6. Cover your new broccoli salad with a plastic wrap and keep it refrigerated until ready to serve.
7. Enjoy your new delicious broccoli salad (by yourself or with friends and loved ones!)
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Sicilian Pumpkin Main
Author: admin
Today we harvested a very large and bright orange pumpkin and our thoughts turned to one of our favorite recipes Sicilian Pumpkin and here it is, quick, healthy and deliciously sustaining. This can be served with rice, salad, bread or in this case, hummus and silver beet with Capsicum Jelly sauce.
4TBS olive oil
2 TBS pine nuts
1 Lge clove garlic (finely chopped)
2 tiny dried birds eye chillies (crushed)
1/4 tsp salt
75 ml white wine vinegar
75 ml water
2 TBS Sultanas
1/4 cup tiny mint leaves
- Chop pumpkin in wedges, cut out seeds and chop off skin
- Heat oil, add pumpkin pieces once it is hot
- Fry pumpkin, add pine nuts, add garlic, and chilli, sprinkle pumpkin
- with salt and cook 1 min or 2 more
- Pour in the vinegar and water - add sultanas and immediately cover with a lid
- Turn heat to low and cook very gently for 5 minutes or until tender
- Remove lid, transfer pumpkin to a dish with all the juices
- Scatter over the mint
- Serve piping hot in winter or at room temperature when weather heats up
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Do you whip down to the takeaway and buy some heavy, greasy and indigestible food that you later wish you’d not eaten ?
Here is a delicious easy to prepare meal that can be made quickly and is adaptable enough to switch ingredients depending on what is in the cupboard at the time.
This Butter Chicken dish that will melt in your mouth and is so delicious it will have even takeaway fans begging for more so make plenty.
- Butter Chicken Recipe
- 4 teaspoons butter ( or use low fat spread if you prefer)
- 480 grams chicken cut into small pieces
- 1 large onion, chopped finely
- 1 clove crushed garlic
- 2 teaspoons grated root ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon each of chili powder, tumeric, cinnamon, garam masala
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced (or switch to something else like slice peppers)
- 1/2 cup water
- salt and ground black pepper
Method
- Melt butter and saute the chicken, onion and garlic until the chicken is cooked.
- Add ginger, chili, tumeric, cinnamon and garam masala
- Cook gently for 5 minutes
- Add tomato paste, mushrooms, water, salt and pepper and simmer another 5 minutes until sauce has thickened.
Variations: add beans, or spring onions, switch the mushrooms for something else like asparagus, peas. Stir through some yogurt just before serving or sprinkle some herbs or parsley over - your choice.
This is a recipe we make often and it tastes deliciously different every time we make it according to what is in the pantry at the time and as you see from the photo, we have used peas not mushrooms this time.
The aroma of this dish cooking is enough to tempt the most die hard takeaway addict !
For more recipes and lifestyle ideas for vibrant health and fat loss click here
Vegetarian recipes and treats for afters click here
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Did you know that most of the food we eat is vegan? You probably never thought of it that way, but plant based foods are everywhere. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks, there are plenty of vegan choices out there. Here are a few very easy vegan recipes and snacks to help you choose smart, vegan-friendly food choices for your next meal.
1. Terrific Tofu Stir Fry
Tofu is a great source of soy protein, and you can use it in almost every recipe that calls for meat or eggs. My favorite lunch or dinner meal consists of cubing the firm tofu, fry with vegetable oil and raw soy sauce, and add all the organic veggies of your choice: carrots, eggplant, zucchini, cabbage, bean sprouts, pea pods, and onions. Serve over organically grown rice or brown rice and you have a super healthy, hearty meal to fill up even the hungriest appetite!
2. Cool Cold Cereals
Try a bowl of cheerios, 1 cup soy milk, and a handful of fresh strawberries or raspberries. Craving something sweet? Cocoa beans are organic so why not have a bowl of cocoa puffs or cocoa krispies with 1 cup vanilla soy milk? You can ultimately use any of your favorite cold cereals and fruit here, so use your imagination and go nuts!
3. Awesome Acai Smoothie
How about an awesome fruit smoothie for lunch or a snack? If you can find them, the Acai berry is native to Brazil but one of the super healthy foods we don’t find much of around here. You can also use blueberries if the Acai is not available. Blend together these, fresh or frozen, along with all the other fruit you want (pineapples, mangoes, bananas, strawberries, etc). Add some ice or soy sorbet and blend some more. Top it with some granola and fruit slices for a super cool energy boost! Yum, yum!
4. Cosmic Curried Kale
Everyone should eat more greens in their diet anyway, so this recipe is vegan-friendly and also all raw for those super health food fanatics like my good friend Jill from Minnesota! She calls it Cosmic Curried Kale. She de-stems and washes the curly kale, puts it in a bowl with a shredded carrot, then blends together 1 part Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce), 1 part lemon juice, 1 part olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, and adds cumin and coriander for the dressing. Super simple and totally organic!
5. Cookoo for Cocoa Pudding
We all love chocolate, and the classic chocolate pudding is no exception. Even vegans can enjoy this well known dessert. Mix 2 cups soy milk with 3 tablespoons organic cocoa, 5 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth. Cook it over medium heat until it becomes thick. Pour it into serving dishes and chill in the fridge! Now that’s super easy and should satisfy any chocolate lover’s cravings!
For 3 more quick and easy vegan recipes, tofu your way over to the number one source for health and fitness information at:
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brandon_Johnsonn
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Are you tired all the time ? Lacking in energy and feeling like you can hardly drag yourself around the day A lot of the foods we eat these days have harmful additives and foods are not as rich in nutrients as they once were so it makes sense to look for quick healthy recipes that you can make easily at home.
Discover for yourself how easy this tomato soup is to make and enjoy it whenever you have fresh tomatoes but you can also use canned. Obviously the freshest tomatoes are best !
Tomato Soup Recipe
Melt a large dollop of butter in a pot, slice up onions and garlic ( this is optional as you may wish to add spring onions at the end) and add a heap of tomatoes - as many as your hunger require.
( If you have a lot of spare tomatoes its a good idea to make extra to freeze) I normally don’t even skin mine as we like the texture.
Add stock - enough to make a thickish soup (or a stock cube if you must use packet ingredients !) but best to add fresh herbs - if you are in a rush just add the sprigs themselves or if you have extra time, chop finely That’s it !!
Serve with large chunks of toasted rustic bread buttered lavishly and congratulate yourself on a super fast and delicious meal that everyone will absolutely love.
Click here to find more quick and healthy easy recipes
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Who doesn’t want to eat quick healthy meals? I do, you do. But wanting to eat quick healthy meals is one thing; finding them is another.
You see, many recipes for healthy eating were developed long before soil depletion took its toll on the nutrient content of the fruits and vegetables that make their way to our tables. For instance, potatoes used to be very rich in Vitamin A. Today, you will find very little, if at all, Vitamin A in your potato. The nutrients you think you’re getting from certain plant sources may no longer be present.
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