BBQ Pork with Pineapple Salsa

This is lovely on a hot summer's day for lunch or dinner. It's refreshing and tangy, easy to make and pretty quick. This serves 4 and is nice with cous cous and snow peas on the side.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups diced pineapple
• 1 lebanese cucumber, diced
• 4 shallots, sliced
• 1 long red chilli, seeds removed and finely diced
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh coriander
• 60ml or quarter of a cup of lime juice
• 4 pork loin cutlets

Method:

1. Combine the pineapple, cucumber, shallots, chilli, coriander and lime juice in a bowl
2. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge until ready to serve
3. Cook the pork on a barbecue grill or char-grill for 4-5mins each side or until cooked
4. Serve pork either whole or sliced thinly with the salsa on top.

D-E-L-icious XD

Low-fat sugar-free banana cake

This is by far the healthiest cake I make. It has no oil, butter or sugar and is sweetened only by the pineapple. If it isn't sweet enough for you, it probably wouldn't hurt to add a little sugar to your liking, but I think I'm sweet enough XD

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
• 1 cup pineapple pieces and reserve about a tablespoon of the juice 
• 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• 3 tablespoons low fat natural Greek yoghurt
• 2 cups self raising flour (or 1 cup wholemeal and 1 cup white)
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method:

1. Place the mashed banana in a large bowl
2. Add beaten eggs and pineapple and stir with wooden spoon
3. Add yoghurt and walnuts and mix
4. Add flour and bicarb soda and mix through. Don't mix too much!
5. If too dry, add the pineapple juice, if too moist, add more flour
6. Bake in a pre-heated180 degree celsius oven for 30 mins. Poke with a skewer and if the skewer comes out wet, cook for a further 10mins.
7. This cake is naturally moist because of the fruit, so take it out of the oven before it gets too brown and let it cool and set.

If you want icing - mix icing sugar, boiled water and pineapple juice to make a light glaze. Drizzle over the top and serve. However I just sprinkle a light coating of icing sugar over mine. D-E-L-icious  XD

Sweet & Sour Pork

Wow! All I can say is...wow! This is the first time I've made sweet and sour sauce AND the first time I've cooked pork in such a way that has left me wanting more. This is by far the best way to have pork...most definitely. This recipe serves 4 with rice. Because my family love a lot of sauce - I doubled the sauce quantities.

Ingredients:

• 500-600g pork fillet, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 onion, peeled and cut into wedges
• 1 green capsicum, thinly sliced (I only had red so used it)
• 150g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 150g chopped fresh pineapple (I used tinned pieces)
• Steamed rice - enough for 4.

Method:

1. Place the pork and 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce in a bowl, toss until well coated, cover and refrigerate for 10mins
2. Place the remaining soy sauce in a bowl and combine with tomato sauce, vinegar and brown sugar. Set aside
3. Place a wok or large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat and spray with spray oil spray. Cook the pork in batches until browned, then remove and wipe out the wok with paper towel
4. Spray the wok with a little more spray oil. Add onion and capsicum and stir-fry for 4 minutes or until just tender. Return the pork to the wok, along with tomatoes, pineapple and soy sauce mixture and cook for a further 3 minutes
5. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Note: Brown rice is a wholegrain rice which means it has more fibre and a higher vitamin content that white rice varieties. Of the white rice varieties, basmati has the lowest GI so helps you fell fuller for longer.

Pineapple Muffins

This recipe is simple, sweet and moist. The perfect treat to have with a cup of tea. It's a quick recipe and it makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 450g crushed pineapple (I bought sliced pineapple and crushed it in the blender)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius fan-forced
2. Grease a muffin tray
3. Sift flour and sugar together
4. Add crushed pineapple and stir well
5. Pour mixture into muffin tray
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes
7. Muffins are cooked when a skewer comes out dry.

D-E-L-icious XD