Crafty Meals – easy recipes for healthy meals

Cannellini Bean and Vegetable Soup
Serves 6 to 8
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
For conversions, click here to use our handy guide.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 medium brown onions, rough chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 celery sticks, trimmed and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 sebago (or other waxy potato) peeled and diced
2 zuchinni, unpeeled and diced
800 grams tinned diced tomato
1.5 litres of salt reduced beef stock
half a savoy cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup of frozen peas
800 grams canned cannellini beans, well drained and very well rinsed
half a cup of chopped italian parsley

Method
Dice all the vegetables except the cabbage into (roughly) equal sized pieces.
Heat the oil in large saucepan over a medium heat.
Add the onions, cook occasionally stirring until softened.
Add the crushed garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add the diced vegetables to the saucepan, and cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to low, add the tinned tomatoes and their juice and the stock to the pan.
Cover and simmer for another 20 minutes, or until carrots are soft. Skim the scum that forms from the top of the saucepan occasionally.
Shred the cabbage finely.
Once carrots are soft, add the cabbage, beans, peas and half the parsley.
Simmer for another 5 minutes, or until peas are cooked.
Season to taste.

Serving 
Serve immediately in generous bowls, sprinkling remaining parsley over the soup perhaps some fine slices of parmesan. A toasted and garlic rubbed slice of crusty bread is a perfect side.

Notes
Avoid colouring the garlic as it can become bitter.
Do not season until ready to serve. Tinned beans and tomatoes can be salty, allow dish to cook and test before adjusting seasoning.
Canned beans are stored in brine and really need a thorough rinse.
Freezes very well.

Options
If you like more mouth heat in your food, a teaspoon of chilli flakes fried off in the oil before adding the onions will give a nice warming sensation in the finished soup.
More strict vegetarians can of course use a vegetable stock instead of beef.

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Healthy Potato and Leek Soup
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
For conversions, click here to use our handy guide.

Ingredients
20 grams of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 large leeks, white part only, well washed and finely sliced
500 grams of potatoes, peeled and diced
1.25 litres of chicken stock
Quarter teaspoon of salt
Quarter teaspoon of white pepper
15 millilitres of worcestershire sauce
Pinch of nutmeg
150 millilitres of milk
Bunch of chopped chives.

Method
Heat the oil in a deep sided pan, melt the butter into the oil.
Halve the leeks and then finely slice them.
Add leeks to pan and sweat them down until soft and translucent.
Add the potatoes and stir while frying for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Cover and leave for 25 minutes.
Add the worcestershire sauce, nutmeg, pepper and check for seasoning before adding the salt.
Cook for a further 5 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool for an hour.
Blend with your stab mixer or blender until soup is free of lumps and silky.
To serve, reheat until nearly boiling, stir in the milk and remove from heat.
Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with the chopped chives and serve immediately

Notes
Caramelising the leeks adds a sweet touch to the soup, but don’t burn them.
Adding the oil is necessary to prevent the butter from burning.
WILL NOT freeze well once the milk has been added.

Options
Strict vegetarians can substitute the chicken for vegetable stock.
For a rich soup, add 150 millilitres of cream just before serving.
Can be served as a cold soup, you may need to adjust the seasonings as cold foods generally require at least some extra salt.

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Smoked Salmon and Pasta
Serves 3 to 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
For conversions, click here to use our handy guide.

Ingredients
300 grams dried fettucine.
400 grams smoked salmon (cold smoked cured, not cooked) thinly sliced into strips.
20 grams butter.
1 medium leek, outer layers removed, retain white part only, slice in halves lengthways then finely sliced.
1 medium brown onion, finely diced.
1 clove garlic, crushed.
300 ml cream.
salt and pepper to taste.
1 cup dry styled white wine.
1 tablespoon fresh chopped dill. Can use dried as well.
2 tablespoons finely shredded chives for serving.

Method
Bring a pot of salted water to a rapid boil, add pasta and cook to al dente (10-12 minutes or as per instructions).
Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat, do not burn.
Add onion, leek and garlic and cook while stirring until leeks collapsed and onions are soft (5 to 6 minutes).
Add wine and bring to boil to cook off alcohol (1 minute).
Add cream and bring to the boil, stirring until thickened.
Add dill and stir through.
As the pasta is near ready, add salmon and stir in to heat it through.
Test for taste, add salt and pepper as necessary.
Drain pasta, reserve 1/2 cup and use if needed to thin out cream sauce.

Serving
Serve cream sauce over the fettucine in pasta bowls. Sprinkle with finely shredded fresh chives.

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Spicy Mince
Serves 3 to 4

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
For conversions, click here to use our handy guide.

Ingredients
500 grams of lean beef mince.
1 brown onion, large, finely diced.
1 red capsicum, cut into small pieces.
1 green capsicum, cut into small pieces.
2 cloves garlic, crushed.
2 red chilies, thinly sliced (remove seeds and membrane to reduce heat).
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger.
2 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander (cilantro) roots and leaves OK. Reserve some chopped leaf to serve.
1 tablespoon mild curry powder.
1 tablspoon soy sauce.
1/2 cup of beef stock.
1 tablespoon peanut oil.

Method
Heat oil over medium heat.
Add garlic, chili, ginger, coriander (cilantro) and curry powder and fry for 1 minute or until aromatic.
Add onion, fry until soft.
Add beef and brown well, stirring and breaking any big clumps as it cooks.
Once beef is browned, add soy and beef stock, turn heat down and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Add capsicums 1 minute before serving to heat through.

Serving
Serves well over rice, instant noodles or toast once liquid is reduced. Sprinkle remaining chopped coriander over the top.

Options
Super healthy option would be to cook beef seperately and pour off any fat rendered before adding to spice mix.
Chicken and pork also work well but use chicken stock for both. Leftover barbecued chicken is sensational shredded into the spice mix
If you are not fond of heat, omit chilies altogether.
Other vegetables such as zuchinni, brocolli and carrot work well in this dish.

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Tasty Fish Patties
Serves 4

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes
For conversions, click here to use our handy guide.

Ingredients
500 grams of fish flesh (use cheap strong flavoured fresh fish, brined canned salmon or tuna is OK)
250 grams floury potatoes
1 tablespoon dried dill (2 tablespoons fresh)
1 medium onion, grated
salt and pepper to taste – discard salt if using brined tinned fish
1 egg, beaten
breadcrumbs to coat
olive oil to fry

Method
For fresh fish – boil the fish in unsalted water until cooked through. When cool enough to handle, flake with a fork, discarding bones, skin and scales.
For tinned fish – squeeze as much excess brine from the flesh as you can.
Peel, dice and cook potatoes seperately, allow to cool.
Grate the onion into a mixing bowl. Onion is grated to release its flavor, and to prevent large raw pieces in the mix.
Add the fish and potatoes to the bowl. With a  fork in a mashing action, work the fish into the potatoes and onion. Once the potato is well mixed into the fish, add the dill, pepper and beaten egg and mix well to combine.
If the mix appears too wet, or falls apart during the next step, add some breadcrumbs to stiffen the mix.
Use a tablespoon to gather 1/2 cup sized balls of the mix, roll in hands until smooth then place in breadcrumbs and flatten to no more than 2 cm thick. Coat well and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Heat oil in pan over medium heat, add patties and cook until golden on both sides. Drain before serving.

Serving
Excellent eating with flavoured rice and fresh salad, equally as good with baked vegetables.

Notes
Brined fish is salty and the patties will not require extra salt in the mix. Cheap strong flavoured fish is ideal for this recipe as the dill tames the flavor.
For an extra crunchy patty, mix equal parts of breadcrumbs and grated parmesan to use for the coating.
Can be prepared in bulk and frozen until needed.

Options
We have used all kinds of herbs and spices in these patties. A generous pinch of hot paprika is good with milder flavored fish, however we have not found a herb that does as well as dill in this recipe.

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Hot and Spicy Chicken Wings
Serves 4

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
For conversions, click here to use our handy guide

Ingredients
1.25 kilograms of chicken wings, jointed, discard wing tip
¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of chicken salt
2 teaspoons of ground coriander (cilantro)
3 teaspoons of ground smoked paprika
5 tablespoons of flour (plain/self raising or cornflour)

Method
Preheat an oven to 200C non fan forced.
Joint the chicken wings and discard the tips. Pat dry the remaining 2 joints and set aside.
Sift the spices and flour into a bowl and mix well to combine them thoroughly.
Add the chicken wings to the mixture and toss well to coat them generously.
On a baking tray, arrange the wings so that they have some room around them for the heat to penetrate evenly.
Bake for 25 minutes, then switch your oven to fan forced (or raise the temp to 210C or so for non fan forced).
Bake for another 20 minutes, or until the skin is crisp.

Serving
We serve these wings with a fresh green salad and our favorite Crispy Baked Potato Wedges (To cook both at once, increase oven time to 1 hour)

Notes
Save and freeze the wing tips for making stock at a later date.
BEWARE OF THE CHILLI AND CAYENNE. You will be in pain if the powder drifts into your eyes or if you accidentally rub the skin around your eyes with the powder on your fingers.
Using ½ teaspoons of the chilli and cayenne gives a lip numbing heat to this dish. If this heat is not a favourite, leave out the cayenne pepper.

Options
Serve with a dipping sauce of sour cream with chopped fresh chives.
We prefer this meal with just the “drumstick” joint of the wings, as it has less fat than the second joint. You will need approximately 2.5 kilos of whole wings to get 1.25 kilos of “drumsticks”.

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Here are a couple of examples of helpful tools that every kitchen should have.

An electric spice grinder is by far the most handy tool we own in our house. In literally seconds it turns whole spices into fine powders. Buying whole spices means you can buy them in bulk, saving a lot of money, and then grind them fresh when you want to use them. There is no comparison when you use fresh ground versus pre packed pre ground spices.

The spice grinder is an excellent tool for dry ingredients. The mortar and pestle is fantastic for working up pastes when you want to use fresh garlic and fresh herbs for meat rubs, for salad dressings and making the most wonderful pestos.

The Krups Coffee/Spice Mill is a good value for the money. I use it primarily for grinding toasted seeds for Indian dishes (cardomman pods, cloves, cumin seed, peppercorns, coriander seed, mustard seed, chiles etc.). This grinder is a serious cooking tool. Where I used to spend 20 minutes with a hand-operated mill, the Krups does the same thing in about 5 seconds. It cleans up easily and is all self-contained.

I have always wanted a mortar and pestle but have hesitated buying one for several years. I wasn’t sure which kind I should buy or how much I should spend. This product has not only a giant capacity, it was affordable as well. It is great for any grinding you need done and for me a little exercise over a longer time frame as grinding in a food processor. It’s a great way to work out your aggresion. I’ve also used it for pestos and the like. Perfect mortar and pestle for me.

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As I was dicussing earlier, the easiest way to add great flavour to any meal is to use herbs and spices. When used properly, they add wonderful depth of flavor to any meal. These two books are great examples of how to use fresh herbs and spices to make a masterpiece out of any meal.

	This book has appeal for not only home and professional cooks, but also for gardeners and anyone who just wants to sit back and admire the lovely photographic illustrations. The sidebar for each herb/spice that lists what parts are used, where it can be bought, how to grow it and how it is harvested is invaluable. The book also goes into detail on the flavor profile of the herbs and spices, a little history, common cooking techniques, recipes, herb blends and food pairings, and features recipes at the end for herb/spice blends as well as salads, entrees, etc.
	Recipes are well-presented, clear and easy to follow. I cook a lot of Indian food, but in no way felt that these recipes were dumbed-down at all. Kahate wisely confines her recipes to simple, practical ones with accessible ingredients. Does Indian food offer complex biriyanis with 15 spices and many ingredients? Sure. But that’s not what is offered here.This is fresh home cooking, bursting with flavor, yet able to be cooked quickly. The flavors of the ingredients is prominent. And Kahate is a good guide to ingredients and techniques.

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Thanks for dropping by!

As I promised you in the article you were reading, below is a list of resources I found very useful with my own battle to get back into shape. They are not free, and for very good reason.

I wasted so much time in looking for good free resources, only to find that what always appeared to be free was either garbage made to look useful, or absolute rubbish trying to get me to buy something not even close to what I was looking for. Feel free to browse them, as I find more things that are really useful to help you plan your lifestyle change, including more resources for finding easy healthy meals I will add them under this category.

Fat Fighting Foods is a brilliant science backed ebook all about the foods we can consume that work with the body to prevent us accumulating fat. Click here to read more details.

Meal Plans 101 takes some of the mystery out of planning easy healthy meals for you and your family. It is simple to use software that will help you work out the meals you should be eating to get yourself back in shape. Click here for more information on this awesome product.

The Low GI Diet Breakthrough. I give the majority of the credit to this book for helping me get back in shape. Pity it has the word “diet” in the title, as it really is pushing a lifestyle change. Click here and get this ebook. If you do nothing else to help yourself but learn what this book has to tell you about the foods you eat, you will still be well on your way to winning the battle.

Don’t forget, failing is a learning experience. Take heart in the fact that the more you try and fail, the more you will learn.

Good luck with your journey, the reward is worth it.

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