Creamy Tuna Bake

You will need…
1½ cups dried macaroni pasta
2 x 425g cans tuna in spring water drained
cooking spray
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
2 cups mushrooms sliced
½ cup shallots or onion sliced
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 x 310g can creamed corn
2 teaspoons salt reduced chicken style stock powder (Massel®)
2 x 30g sachets 4 cheese sauce (Continental®)
1½ cups boiling water
½ cup grated tasty cheese

Method…
Preheat oven 180ºC fan forced.
Cook pasta as instructed on packet, leave to one side. Drain tuna and roughly break up, leave to one side. Coat a large non-stick frypan with cooking spray, sauté garlic and mushrooms, cook 2 minutes. Add tuna, shallots, corn kernels, cream corn and stock powder and combine. In a small bowl combine 4 cheese sauce with boiling water until blended. Add cheese sauce to pan, fold together. Add pasta and stir well. Pour into a casserole dish. Sprinkle cheese over top and bake 30 minutes or until cheese has melted and browned on top.

You can also substitute the tuna for 500g of cooked diced chicken pieces.

For an extra yummy topping, I like to sprinkle with bread crumbs and and halve whole baby beetroots and place them on top before cooking.

Serves: 6

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

10-pieces of chicken-…thighs, legs, wings.
2-large onions slices thinly
5-large potatoes-cut in quarters
4 mushrooms sliced
1-can crushed tomatoes
4-tsp. salt
4-tsp. black pepper
4-tsp. oregano
1 TBSP olive oil
1 cup water
Olives to serve

Mix all these ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Pour into
crockpot and cook 6 hours on low
Before serving add a handful of tasty olives. Serve with some nice crusty Italian
bread and a tossed salad.

See our other Slow Cooker Recipes

Beef and Potato Stew

1kg. beef cubed
4 peeled and diced potatoes
1red onion diced (large dice)
2 sliced carrots
2 beef cubes dissolved in half cup of hot water
1 cup red wine
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste
crushed rosemary to taste

Throw it all in the crockpot and cook on high about 4-5 hours then
mix about 1/4 cup of corn flour with 1/4 cup cold water, mix well and add
to stew. Let cook and thicken about 20 minutes. Serve with fresh hot bread and salad.

See our other Slow Cooker Recipes

Slow cooker recipes

With the cooler weather arriving soon, it might be time to pull the good old slow cooker (sometimes called Crockpot) out of the cupboard and make some delicious winter warming favourites. A new and tasty recipe (all taste tested by my family!) will be added every week.

Slow Cooker Sweet & Sour Chicken

1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, peeled, sliced
1 medium celery stalk, sliced
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (around a kilogram or so.), cut into bite-size pieces
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup KRAFT Italian Dressing
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 can pineapple pieces, drained, (juice reserved)
1 Tbsp. corn flour
1 medium green capsicum, sliced
1 medium red capsicum, sliced
4-1/2 cups hot cooked rice

PLACE onions, carrots and celery in slow cooker; top with chicken.

ADD combined brown sugar, dressing, soy sauce and ginger. Cover with lid.

COOK on LOW for 7 to 8 hours (or on HIGH for 3-1/2 to 4 hours). During last 30 min. of cooking time, increase to HIGH. Stir corn flour into reserved pineapple juice; add to slow cooker along with the pineapple and capsicums.

Then cook further 30 min. or until capsicums are tender and sauce is thickened. Serve over the steaming hot rice.

Enjoy!

See our other Slow Cooker Recipes

Hot cross buns

• Melted butter, to grease
• 250ml (1 cup) warm milk
• 55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 2 tsp (14g/2 sachets) dried yeast
• 60g melted butter, extra
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 600g (4 cups) plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 170g (1 cup) sultanas
• 80g (1/2 cup) currants
• 95g (1/2 cup) mixed peel
• Plain flour, extra, to dust
• Butter, to serve

• Cross paste

• 75g (1/2 cup) plain flour
• 80ml (1/3 cup) cold water

• Glaze

• 2 tbs caster sugar
• 2 tbs cold water
• 1 tsp powdered gelatine

Method

1. Brush cake pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Combine the milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl. Place in a warmplace for 10 minutes or until foamy.
2. Combine the yeast mixture, extra melted butter and egg in a jug. Sift the combined flour, salt and mixed spice in a large bowl. Add the sultanas, currants and mixed peel. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.
3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding more flour to the dough if required. Brush a large bowl with a little melted butter to grease. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat in butter. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and place in a warm, place to prove for 1-1 1/2 hours or until dough doubles in size.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C. Punch down the centre of the dough with your fist. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic and has returned to its original size. Divide dough into 16 equal portions and shape each portion into a ball. Place side by side in prepared pan. Stand in a warm place for 20-30 minutes or until dough has risen 1-2cm.
5. To make the cross, combine the flour and water in a small bowl to create a smooth paste. Place in a small plastic bag and snip a corner. Pipe the flour paste in a continuous line down the centre of each row of buns. Repeat in the opposite direction to make crosses. Bake buns in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until buns are golden and cooked through. When they’re ready, the buns will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
6. To make the glaze, combine sugar, water and gelatine in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens slightly Remove buns from oven and turn onto a wire rack. Brush tops with glaze. Serve hot with butter.

Caramel Easter-egg muffins

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups self-raising flour
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 125g butter, melted, cooled
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 12 small caramel-filled Easter eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Sift flour into a large bowl. Stir in sugar. Whisk butter, milk, eggs and vanilla essence together.
3. Add butter mixture to dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to mix until just combined (don’t over-mix or your muffins will be tough). Spoon batter into cases so each is half filled. Place an unwrapped Easter egg into the middle of each muffin. Spoon over remaining muffin batter.
4. Bake muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until light golden and cooked through. Stand in pan for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. Be very careful as the easter egg inside is very hot when first out of the oven…so be patient and wait for them to cool before doing a taste test!

Makes 12

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