FINYS FABULOUS FOODS AND FINDS

This is a family meal, and a good way to get children to eat vegetables, as they are hidden!  If need be, cut them up very small so they do not actually see them.  This is healthy, as it has tuna in it which is rich in Omega 3's. The taste of this meal is extra delicious, and quite easy to make with only 30 minutes of cooking time.  It can also be heated up easily in the microwave if you are making it for less people than five - I generally only cook for about 2 people but had visitors when I made this meal. I generally use John West large tins of tuna in spring-water, however tuna in brine will also be OK - I do not use much salt in cooking due to high cholesterol problem! Preparation Time: 25 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Makes: 5 servings Ingredients 50 g butter 1 medium onion, sliced thinly ¼ cup plain flour 2 cups milk 150 g baby spinach leaves 425 g can tuna in spring-water, drained 2 tbsp lemon juice Mushrooms (optional) POTATO AND CELE...

These are healthy spring rolls which are not fried, and therefore have no oil.  Rice paper rolls are easy to work with, and are an Asian speciality and available in the Asian isle of most supermarkets. The prawns have been roasted in the oven, and the quinoa boiled, plus the recipe has raw vegetables in it.  It therefore has many healthy elements to it and saves you making a salad.  They are great either hot or cold, on a buffet table, and I also made a dipping sauce with them. They are also good for lunch boxes, and are very versatile, and most importantly, my lovelies, they are very delicious!  I am often tempted to buy these, however even though they are a bit fiddly, they are quite easy to make, and you can virtually put in whatever filling you want.  If you don't eat prawns, substitute - anything goes with this recipe.  I also love cooking with Hoisin sauce as love both the smell and the taste of this Asian sauce. I ate them on their own with ...

I made this loaf of bread in my bread-maker, and adapted it with things that I like in bread!  You could add whatever you wanted, or just have it plain. It is a 1 kg size, and I generally slice it and then put the slices individually in the freezer.  This way there is no wastage, and I just take out one piece at a time, and it is always fresh. I used Laucke bread mix as they have the European style bread, and I can add other things to many of their mixes, and get an excellent result. Preparation Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: Varies Makes: About 15 slices Ingredients I packet Laucke sourdough rye bread mix Handful of walnuts Sunflower and/or Pumpkin seeds Instructions Follow your bread-maker instructions to make rye bread. Add the nuts and seeds as per instructions - I put small seeds in with the mixture and larger ones.  I also put walnuts in the special holder that my bread-maker has for larger items. You could also add other things as w...

This is quite a hot (spicy) dish, so if you do not like hot and spicy, just use less curry paste and/or less fresh chili. Potatoes and prawns go very well together, so my lovelies, this is quite an easy recipe even for the beginner.  Remember however, never over cook prawns as they then become tough. I have added broccoli which I partly microwaved first, to make it a one pot meal, and therefore less washing up.  You could serve this with any vegetables, or even a salad if you prefer.   You could also substitute chicken or any meat if you do not like or eat prawns.   I often now use coconut powder in recipes, as this is handy to keep.  This is especially so if you need small quantities, this is a great way to go as you do not waste half a tin, which I used to always do. Preparation Time: 25 minutes Cooking Time: 20 minutes Makes: 3 servings Ingredients: ½ tbsp oil ½ onion, thinly sliced 1 clove garlic, chopped ½ red chilli, seeds...

This fish pie is unusual in that it has a crunchy Filo pastry baked on the top. I have served it with broccoli and a salad of carrots and fresh green peas, and I soaked the broccoli in the gravy from the fish pie! I try to eat fish once a week, as it is healthy however fish is not quite as versatile as chicken!  This is an easy pie to make and is just that little bit different. Serve it with a salad or even baked or boiled vegetables. Preparation Time: 25 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Makes: 3 servings Ingredients Bit of oil ½ leek, sliced 1 clove garlic 3 tbsp flour ¾ cup fish or chicken stock 70 g Philadelphia cream cheese (could use small tubs) 400 g white fish, cut into thick strips Grated rind of lemon Salt and pepper 3 sheets Filo pastry Olive oil spray Instructions Heat a bit of oil in a fry pan or small wok, and add the leek and garlic.  Saute this for about 2 minutes until it has softened. Add the flour and cook 1-2 minutes more. T...

I am always on the lookout for things that my grandson likes to eat, as he eats little! One of the things he likes is pineapple, and as he loves the bought pineapple rings, I decided to make my own as they would then have less sugar and oil. I baked them instead of deep frying as they do when you buy them, and I always buy these when we get fish and chips. I have read that fish and chips and Coke Cola are the two most unhealthy foods we can eat, so, much as we love my fish and chips, we only have them every few months, and generally only when my grandson stays the weekend. He is such a bad eater, however, that he only eats chips - if we order something like Red Rooster, he still only has chips. So I thought this pineapple idea was a good one. When buying pineapples, you need to be very careful.  I have found that the ones in the supermarket generally have little taste or are even sour. I therefore always buy a pineapple from an expensive fruit store, where I know the ...

I just love salmon or tuna patties.  I do not however like bought ones generally, as they usually have too much potato in them. I often make these little morsels of goodness as they are easy to make, always turn out, and can be teamed with just about any other food. I have read a lot about quinoa over the last few years, and quite honestly, do not really believe in all these new super foods which seem to be popping up almost every month!  There are just so many, and I feel a lot of them are "gimmicky", and while they may well be healthy, they are not the "be all and end all" which the media seem to turn them into. Nor do I believe in all the different diets - the only diet I have gone on is eating less quantity at each meal, cutting out in between snacks, and the 5/2 diet.  This one I did, not to lose weight, but for the other healthy benefits, as I have mentioned before in my recipes. So, back to quinoa - I bought a packet as I wanted to see what it tastes ...

Rice paper rolls are a bit fiddly but I think they are SO worth it.  With vegetables (or meat) wrapped in a wafer thin pancake type of rolls, there is no limit to your imagination when creating different versions of these! They are generally with Asian inspired vegetables, however you could really making anything inside these tiny paper thin pancakes.  I have even made a dessert using them, and they were delicious as the pancake is not sweet and the sweet of a dessert balances it out to give a great sweet! They can also be vegetarian or not!  They are often made with prawns, which is a recipe I often make, however in this instance I decided to be "vegetarian" for the night!  My partner is a meat and veggies person, and was not impressed that I left out the meat part, however he even admitted that they tasted very good. If you do not eat fish, simply leave the tuna out of this recipe, however the tuna makes it extra healthy as it is packed with Omega3 which ha...

Curries are a great idea for those cold chilly nights which we are having in Australia at the moment. There are many different variations of a curry, and curry is a term used to describe a dish that has spices in it, and especially used in Indian/Asian recipes, but also used in Mexico. Some of the distinctive spices that often get used in a curry include turmeric, cumin, chili, ginger and coriander. The good thing about curries is that you can vary the amount of spices you put in them and therefore make it as hot and spicy as you like it.  Some people will put a lot of chili in it to give it a hotter flavour, whereas other people cannot tolerate a very "hot" dish, so would put less spices in it. It is very difficult to fail when making a curry as it can be varied so much by using different, and more or less spices. There are green and red curries, amongst others, and this recipe is a "green" curry.  Another good thing about curries is that if you are in ...

I am not a vegan, and I am no longer even a vegetarian - I eat little red meat, and have a lot of milk and cheese. However, now, as I have often said, my lovelies, I have had to cut down on the amount of sugar I eat, so am always trying new low fat, no added sugar desserts and snacks. This is actually a vegan recipe, I believe, however that was co-incidence.  Often these raw desserts are vegan, and nearly always they are delicious. It is another recipe that needed to be made several times to get the consistency correct, but hey, I love creating and experimenting.  This one I had tasted a similar one at a friend's place, however she had bought it and did not quite know what was in it! This recipe does have some maple syrup in it, and I always buy the pure maple syrup as the cheaper one is more processed.  Even though "sugar is sugar" regardless of how it is presented, I really believe that using a natural sugar like maple syrup, or coconut sugar, is far healthier....