It has been years since I cooked this last. It was a long forgotten recipe from when I was a uni student that I rediscovered the other day when flipping through my personal recipe book. I can’t remember where I got this recipe, but the vegetables are my contribution, the original recipe had no veggies in it.

This recipe is very cheap, and quick and easy to make.

Method

1. Boil noodles for a couple of minutes or until cooked (don’t add the flavour sachet). Drain.
2. If you’re using vegetables that need to be cooked (frozen peas or chopped fresh zucchini or carrot for instance), boil these first and then add the noodles at the end of the cooking time.
3. Heat a frying pan and sauté the leeks in a little oil or butter until just tender. Add the mushrooms and capsicum and fry for another minute or two until cooked.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the curry powder, tuna, cheese and noodles.
5. Place in a baking dish, sprinkle top with extra cheese and paprika and grill until cheese is melted and golden (alternatively, heat in the oven at 180°C). Serve hot.

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I actually make these as a quick re-heat meal for the little fella. I just defrost one and reheat it under the grill and serve with vegetables. I admit, that they aren’t as good after being frozen as they are fresh, but the little fella doesn’t seem to mind. These would make good picnic food, or if you prefer, cook as one frittata, just leave in the oven a little longer until cooked through. Put a piece of pastry on the bottom, and you have a quiche instead. Makes six mini frittatas.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a six hole muffin tray.
2. Sauté onion over medium heat in a little oil until softened. Add the zucchini, carrots and corn and continue to sauté for an extra 3 – 5 minutes.
3. Beat eggs, milk and cheese. Add the salmon and vegetables to the egg mixture and pour into muffin holes.
4. Bake for 15 – 25 minutes or until cooked through.
5. To freeze, remove from muffin tray and ‘open freeze’ on an oven tray or board. Once frozen, the frittatas can be stored in a container or a zip lock bag for easy storage and for individual defrosting.

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These fish and chips are delicious, simple and much healthier and cheaper than fish and chips from the local chippy. This meal was about $3 per serve with salad. I like to keep the skin on the chips for a better flavour, but if you prefer, peel the spuds.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Heat an oven tray with a couple of tablespoons of oil until very hot.
2. Par boil the potatoes until just tender. Drain and return the potatoes to the pot and sit over the heat for a few seconds to ensure they are quite dry. If you prefer, give the chips a good shake to roughen then up and give them texture.
3. Sprinkle the potatoes with a tablespoon or two of flour (to give a very light coating), a little paprika and salt and pepper. If you would prefer spicy wedges, sprinkle the spuds with Cajun spice at this time too. Toss to coat.
4. Spread the potatoes onto the hot tray, tossing in the oil to coat (the oil will be very hot, so be sure not to splash it on your skin). Bake for 20 – 40 minutes or until golden and crisp, turning once.
5. Heat a little oil in a fry pan.
6. Meanwhile, combine the 1/4 cup of flour, teaspoon of paprika and salt and pepper on a plate. Coat the fish lightly in the flour mixture, shaking off any excess.
7. Fry the fish over high heat for a minute or two on each side until crisp and golden and cooked through. Serve with the chips and salad.

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We used to buy bags of plain, frozen fish fillets. It wasn’t the best fish, but it was cheap and convenient to have in the freezer. Covered in parmesan, however, and this is a pretty nice fish dish.

The garlic in this dish adds a subtle flavour, but can be left out if you prefer. Use real parmesan, not the stuff in the jar, the taste is light years better and a little goes a long way so is worth the extra expense. The other thing that makes the fish is real butter, melted and drizzled over the fish rather than oil, but if you’re diet conscious then spray oil will work just as well, it just won’t be quite the same tasty awesomeness .

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F) and grease an oven tray with oil or butter.
2. Mix the milk and garlic in a bowl and soak the fish fillets for 10 minutes or so, turning to coat. Drain, leaving some of the garlic on if you like for extra taste.
3. Coat the fish fillets in combined mixture of breadcrumbs, parmesan, parsley and salt and pepper, pressing the coating onto the fish.
4. Place the fish on the baking tray and spray with oil or drizzle with oil or butter. Cook in a hot oven for 20 minutes or until golden. You may need less cooking time depending on the thickness of the fillets, over cook them and the fish will dry out.

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Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Sauté onion in oil in a fry pan over medium heat until translucent
3. Add the tuna and tomatoes. Season with the salt pepper, cumin and chilli to taste
4. Bring to the boil and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated
5. Divide the mixture between the burritos, spooning it down the centre and wrapping the burritos
6. Place in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle cheese on top and bake until the cheese is melted and golden.
7. Serve with the sour cream and a side salad.

I make this for two and leave out the smaller tin of tuna. This make six burritos, which is more than enough for the two of us. You could probably substitute the tomatoes and seasonings with a jar of salsa, but this will make it more expensive.

I priced it out. The tuna, burritos, cheese and sour cream are home brand. The tomatoes aren’t. A home brand tin is $0.75, but the quality is dreadful. For 6 burritos:

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This is an easy, tasty inexpensive recipe using tinned tuna. As all the vegetables are in the dish so it isn’t necessary for to have a side, although you could serve it with a salad or bread. This dish is one of our favourites. Use whatever vegetables you have on hand and substitute the cooked pasta with rice if you prefer.

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease an oven proof casserole dish

• Heat butter in a large saucepan and sauté onion, celery, carrot and zucchini for about 5 minutes until onion is soft.

• Add flour and stir for 1 minute until mixture is bubbly.

• Remove from heat and gradually stir in combined tuna liquid and milk. Return to the heat, add peas and corn and simmer for 5 minutes stirring, or until thickened.

• Add tuna, cream, nutmeg, parsley, pasta and 1/2 the cheese. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

• Spoon into casserole dish. Sprinkle top with combined breadcrumbs, cheese and paprika.

• Bake for 15 minutes then place under a hot rill to brown top.

Variations

• Leave out the pasta and the breadcrumb top and use the mornay to fill pancakes, pies or pastry cases
• In the picture above, I used brown rice instead of pasta
• This is a good “base” dish. Pretty much every ingredient in this recipe can be substituted for something else. Substitute the tuna for salmon, leftover chicken, roast beef etc. or leave out the meat to make it vegetarian. Substitute the vegetables for any that you have on hand. Instead of milk and tuna liquid, use stock or tinned tomatoes for the sauce and add flavour with a dash of wine; Depending on the combination, you may want to leave the cheese out, but could replace it with sundried tomatoes or olives – whatever takes your fancy.

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Easter is coming up so today’s recipe is a fish recipe. Fish is a bit expensive here where we live, so our fish for the week is more often than not a tin of tuna.

A tin of tuna is $1.99, add the vegies and egg and this dish is around $4.00 (maximum, I’m being generous here) plus salad for a family of four.

I love my tuna rissoles, we make enough to have on sandwiches during the week. The recipe has been adapted from the Family Circle Cooking, A Commonsense Guide (salmon patties), although my version is quite different from what you will read in the book. I like to hide vegetables in my cooking to add to the nutritional value and bulk up the recipe to make it go further. Serves 4.

Method

1. Cook rice until tender. Drain. (Can use leftover rice).
2. Combine the tuna, rice, onion, vegetables, parsley and egg in a bowl. Squeeze in the juice from 1/2 a lemon and add salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to combine, breaking up the tuna chunks. Use your hands to mix it really well, smushing it all together.
3. If the mixture is too wet, add some breadcrumbs to get a consistency that holds together. Roll golf ball size amounts into patties or rissoles, press lightly to flatten.
4. Roll the rissoles in breadcrumbs until well coated. Place the rissoles in the fridge for 1/2 hour to firm up.
5. Heat oil in a fry pan to moderately high heat and cook rissoles until golden. Drain on paper towel.
6. Serve with salad or vegetables and mayonnaise.

Variations

• Use brown rice rather than white for extra fibre. The brown rice will need longer to cook.
• Instead of rice, try mash potato, about two medium spuds, or three small ones.
• Substitute salmon for the tuna or some gently steamed white fish.
• For a more lemony flavour, add more juice or grate some of the lemon rind into the mix.
• Add other types of vegetables such as corn kernels to the mix to bulk it up and make it go further.
• For an adult flavour, add some chopped capers and serve with a garlic aioli.
• I like to cook with macadamia nut oil as I have an inexpensive supply of freshly cold pressed oil (not chemically extracted). Macadamia nut oil has a lovely nutty flavour, is 85% monounsaturated (olive oil is about 75%), good for lowering cholesterol, has a high smoke point (210°C) so is good for frying (oh, and is native to Australia and is grown here where I live!) I also like to add a little butter for flavour.

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