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.

Fried Rice

Serves: 2
Preparation: 10 min
Cooking: 20 mins
Calories*: 750cal (375cal per serve)

Ingredients
Rice
1 Carrot
5-6 Mushrooms
Frozen Peas
Frozen Corn
Cayenne Pepper
Moroccan Seasoning
2 Eggs

Cook 1.5 cups of rice in the rice cooker. While this is going finely chop carrot and mushroom and cook them through in a wok, lightly frying. Add the peas and corn when you're almost ready to add the rice.

When the rice is finished cooking remove it and rinse with cold water. Beat 2 eggs and then add rice and stir through. This allows the egg to coat the rice and helps stop the rice from clumping which allows you to cook it evenly. Add the spices. I added a small amount of cayenne and a good amount of Moroccan seasoning - probably about 1tsp and 3-4tsp approximate.

Add the rice to the wok and stir through the vegetables. Flip the rice occassionally until all the egg is cooked through.

Vegetable Stew

Serves: 6+
Preparation: 20 min + 10 mins to add seasoning
Cooking: 4 hours (slow cooker)
Calories*: 2000cal (330cal per serve)

Ingredients
1/2 Butternut Pumpkin
1 Large Potato
1 Small Sweet Potato
1 Carrot
Mushrooms
1 L Vegetable Stock
1 cup Yellow Split Peas
3 tbspn Corn Flour
2 Bay Leaves
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Thyme
2 tsp Harissa (Middle Eastern Spices)
1/2 cup Port
1/2 cup Brown Rice*
1/2 cup Frozen Peas
1/2 cup Frozen Corn
Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop vegetables and place in slow cooker with 1L of stock. Place split peas in a bowl with hot water to soak. After 1-2 hours drain the split peas and add to the slow cooker.

After about 3 hours add the corn flour, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper, port and rice. Continue cooking and when you have about 10 minutes to go add the peas and corn. Ensure rice is cooked through before serving.

Note: If you are using white rice add when you have 30 minutes left of cooking instead of 1 hour.

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.

Thai Red Curry

Serves: 4
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Calories*: 1200cal (300cal per serve)

Ingredients
Any vegetables that take your fancy. Here I've used:
1/4 Pumpkin
1/2 Broccoli
1 Carrot
6-7 Mushroom
1 Capsicum
2 table spoons "Thai Gourmet" Red Curry Paste
1 lite coconut milk

Add pumpkin and carrot to pressure cooker and begin cooking. Chop the rest of the vegetables and add to the pot. Add curry paste, coconut milk and 100ml of water, stir. Pressurise cooker to first line and cook for 7-10 minutes. Depressurise cooker and serve with rice.

Minestrone Soup

Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Calories*: 1200cal total (400cal per serve)

Ingredients
3 rashers of Bacon (optional)
2 Carrots
2 sticks of Celery
1 Potato
2 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1L Vegetable Stock
1 tin Red Kidney Beans
1 can Chopped Tomatoes
1/2-1 cup of Pasta
Parsley (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste (you won't need salt if you added bacon)

Add bacon, vegetables and garlic to pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes and stock, bring to boil and cook until vegetables stoft. If you have a pressure cooker you can speed up the cooking time here to about 30 minutes and the result is amazing!

Once vegetables are soft add pasta (I used 1 cup) and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until pasta is al dente. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with crusty bread.

Notes on Pressure Cookers:
A pressure cooker really speeds up the process with these types of meals and they're actually really easy to use. You must have a good amount of liquid for it to work properly which makes soups ideal.

Bring the ingredients to a boil, secure the pressure cooker lid and turn stove to medium. Wait until the indicators show the cooker is pressurised (refer your cookers instructions, mine is to the second line), then turn stove to low and cook for required time. The longer you cook the food the more likely the vegetables will turn to mush, so 30 minutes is good for a soup like this, but you can go longer if you want a pasta sauce for example.

Be careful when releasing the pressure from the cooker. Don't remove the lid straight away - allow the cooker to cool or run under cold water. Open the release and let all the steam escape. If you try to take off the lid too soon you may end up with the soup exploding over the counter (which happened to me lol) or worse, over you, so be patient getting that lid off!