Banana Cake w/ Lemon Icing

Serves: 12
Preparation: 20 min
Cooking: 60 mins
Calories: __cal (__cal per serve as per recipe)

Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1.5 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup buttermilk

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time then add banana and vanilla. Mix together flour, bicarb, salt and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk gradually, alternating both.

Makes 1 cake or 12 muffins. Bake for 1 hour (cake) or 30 minutes (muffins) or until fine skewer comes out clean. Cool in cake tin for a few minutes before turning out. Cool completely before icing.

Lemon Icing
70g butter
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
1.5 cups pure icing sugar

Mix all together.

Nachos

Serves: 2-3
Preparation: 30 min
Cooking: 40 mins
Calories: __cal (__cal per serve as per recipe)

Ingredients
1 Onion
1 Carrot
1 Capsicum
6-7 Mushrooms
1 can Tomatos
1 can Red Kidney Beans (or 4 bean mix)
3/4 cup Frozen Corn
1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Cumin

Natural Corn Chips (lightly salted is best, not the cheesy ones)
Grated Cheese to serve

Brown onion in oil and add chilli powder. Add carrot, capsicum and mushrooms, cook until carrot begins to soften. Add tomatos, kidney beans and all the herbs/spices. Simmer for about 40 minutes, then add the corn. Serve when corn is hot.

Roast Vegetables and Rice

Serves: 2
Preparation: 15 min
Cooking: 60 min
Calories*: 750cal (325cal per serve)

Ingredients
Pumpkin
1 Carrot
1 Potato
6 Mushrooms
3 Cloves of Garlic
Salt, Pepper
Oregano

Rice
Tumeric
Cummin

Roughly chop pumpkin, carrot and potato and place on an oven tray lined with aluminium foil (for easy clean-up). You want enough to roughly cover the tray. Add a splash of oil, garlic cloves (quartered) and season with salt, pepper and oregano. Place in a moderate oven.

At the 30 minute mark, peel mushrooms and add a tiny amount of margarine to the gills then add these to the oven. You only need a tiny amount of margarine per mushroom!!

Put on your rice as normal adding tumeric and cummin - approximately 1/2 teaspoon of tumeric and 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, or to your taste.

Vegetables should be done after an hour or when inside is soft. Be careful as you remove them from the foil as some vegetables are more prone to sticking than others. Serve with a small amount of grated cheese.

Note: You can do lots of different vegetables. I love to do eggplant when we have it. Capsicum is also delicious roasted.

Easiest Chocolate Cake

Serves: 16-20 (2 cakes), 24 muffins, 100 mini muffins
Preparation: 20 minutes + 10 mins icing
Cooking: 35 minutes
Calories*: 3200cal (cakes) + 250cal (icing) (215cal per serve)

Ingredients
2 1/4 Cup SR Flour
1 3/4 Cup Castor Sugar (can substitute for other sugar)
3/4 tspn Bicarb Soda
2/3 Cup Cocoa
140g Margarine
1 Cup Water
1 tspn Vanilla Essence
3 Eggs

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour into 2 greased 9" pans and cook in moderate oven (200C) for 35-40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool before icing.

My Simple Icing
6 Tablespoons of Pure Icing Sugar
1 Tablespoon of Cocoa
Warm water to make a paste
Dessicated Coconut to garnish

Note: To make muffins or mini muffins cook at 180C for 12-15 minutes

Mushroom Moussaka

Serves:  4
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking : 35 minutes (+10 minutes standing time)
Calories*: 1050cal total (260cal per serve)

Ingredients
1 Eggplant
1 large Potato
1 Onion
2 cloves of Garlic
500g Mushrooms
1 tin chopped Tomatoes

40g Margarine
1/3 Cup Plain Flour
2 Cups Milk
1 Egg
40g Cheese

Preheat Oven to 220C. Cut eggplant and potato into slices and lay on baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes (or 30-40 if you didn't preheat the oven)

Meanwhile, finely chop ontion and brown in pan. Add crushed garlic and thinly sliced mushrooms. When mushrooms begin to cook add tomato and simmer rapidly for about 8 minutes.

While the mushrooms cook make your bechamel sauce*. Melt margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add in milk stirring slowly and consistently until all milk is added and the mixture is combined and thickened. Add cheese and beaten egg.

All three components are now ready to assemble. Remove eggplant from oven and reduce heat to 180C.

In a greased oven dish spoon 1/3 of mushroom mixture. Layer potatoes then add 1/3 mushroom mixture. Layer eggplant then add remaining mushrooms. Cover with bechamel sauce and bake in oven for 35 minutes. Leave for 10 minutes before serving.

* Note: There are many opinions on how to make a good bechamel. If you get stuck and the mixture is lumpy and not combining you can save it by using an electric hand blender. This may leave the mixture too runny so allow to gently simmer on low heat until thickened, stirring gently and regularly.

Spinach and Fetta Pie

Serves: 2, or more with a side dish.
Preparation: 40 mins
Cooking: 40 mins
Calories*:  1900cal total (475-950cal per serve)

Pastry
1 Cup Plain Flour
60g Margarine
Warm water as required

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Place flour and margarine in a food processor and add several dessert spoons of water. Mix and add water as required until the flour comes together in clumps. Turn out onto bench and knead, then roll out until slightly larger than pie dish.

Gently lift pastry over greased dish and ease into the corners. Trim excess and place a sheet of greaseproof paper and pie weights or substitute (split peas work well) to cover base of pie. Bake for 15 minutes then remove pie weights and fill.

Filling
Fresh Chopped Spinach to cover base of pie
Mushrooms - precook in a splash of port
200g Australian Fetta
4-5 Eggs, beaten
Pepper to season
A little grated Tasty Cheese

Arrange the spinach, mushrooms and fetta in the pie dish. Beat eggs, season with pepper then pour eggs into the pie to cover ingredients. Sprinkle a little grated cheese and place pie back in the oven.

Cook until the egg is set.