Home-made chips and sauce

When I crave hot chips I reach for the pantry, salt & pepper. Home-made chips are so easy and much healthier than fried and frozen chips. In most cases the frozen chips you buy at the supermarket have already been fried before freezing so the fat content is high. Because I can't eat any fried food - I much prefer these home-made chips made from....real potatoes.

Ingredients:
CHIPS:

• Potatoes - as many as you want and any kind. I buy whatever is on special
• Spray oil
• Salt & pepper

SAUCE:

• Either fresh tomatoes finely chopped, some tinned tomatoes or salsa
• Garlic to taste, finely chopped
• Chilli to taste, finely chopped
• Basil to taste, finely chopped

Method:

1. No need to peel the potatoes - just cut in half then slice into chips
2. Lay on an oven tray with baking paper
3. Spray with spray oil
4. Sprinkle with salt & pepper
5. Cook on 200 degrees celsius for 30-40mins turning half way
6. For the sauce combine the tomatoes, garlic, chilli and basil
7. Serve with sauce...D-E-L-icious  XD

Chips prior to cooking...see it's easy!

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.

Home-made Tomato Sauce

Hubby went shopping at a farmer's market for me and came home with a kilo of tomatoes. Because they were very ripe, I decided to make a tomato sauce for tonight's pasta. It's easy, tasty, low-fat and very healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo of very red ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped. I did NOT peel or de-seed them!
• 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• Small bunch basil, stalks removed and roughly chopped
• 4 small green capsicums, seeds removed and roughly chopped
• Freshly ground rock-salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Method:

1. Add 1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil to a large pan and cook the capsicums with the garlic, salt & pepper until semi-soft, stirring often, then set aside in a bowl
2. Put the tomatoes in the pan, add more salt & pepper, the tomato paste, and basil and cook for about 20mins stirring often
3. Return the capsicums to the tomatoes and cook for a further 10min
4. Serve over a bowl of steaming hot pasta garnished with shaved parmesan cheese.

Note: This recipe is suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans minus the cheese. It is quite versatile as it can be used as a pizza base, pasta sauce, relish, or a ratatouille base. It can also be frozen for later, blended to a smoother consistency or left chunky. We like it chunky...D-E-L-icious  XD

Mum's special meatballs

I love this recipe...I have since I was little. My mum used to make this for me and this is the first time I've cooked it. I followed the recipe nearly exactly - I replaced the breadcrumbs with rice crumbs because breadcrumbs upset my tummy! It's beautiful, however it's not the same as mum, because it doesn't have mum's love in it. But even so, it is delicious. It serves 6 generous helping with rice.

Ingredients:

• 1kg mince beef
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup soft breadcrumbs (I used Organ Rice Crumbs which are gluten-free)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 onion chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1 green capsicum, chopped
• 1 tin 375g tomato soup
• 1/2 cup stock, or water - I used chicken stock.

Method: 

1. Combine mince, apple sauce, eggs, breadcrumbs, salt & pepper and shape into meatballs
2. Brown meatballs on 2 sides and transfer to a large deep casserole dish
3. Saute vegetables in the pan drippings
4. Combine soup and water (stock) to the vegies and stir through
5. Pour the sauce and vegies over the meatballs in the large deep casserole dish
6. Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 180 degrees celsius fan-forced.
7. Serve with rice.

D-E-L-icious  XD