Quick Meal - Taco Trays!

Tacos done in a tray shape by Discovery foods. They're yummy, but don't be fooled - they make just as much mess as ordinary tacos!

http://www.discoveryfoods.co.uk/products/all/taco-tray-kit.aspx

I probably overfilled mine though, but I like a decent amount of filling, otherwise I could just eat nachos. Each packet has 14 trays.

I did 3 trays each loaded with veggie mince (cooked in a Discovery foods cajun sauce) on a bed of lettuce covered with cheese and guacamole. I then served this all with plain rice and a tin of refried beans (again, Discovery - they have the monopoly on Mexican foods here!)

Veggie Brunch

The idea is brunch-like, but proprotioned to be dinner sized. All of it is cooked in one roasting tin, so it's pretty easy. It served it with nice crusty rolls and butter, but other ideas can be with vegetarian sausages or add some roasted onions or round it off afterwards with a bowl of sweet porridge.


Veggie Brunch

Serves 4

Takes around 45 minutes in all


700g potatoes

Small tub of cherry tomatoes (around 200g)

400g button mushrooms

Eggs according to how many each person wants

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

Olive oil for roasting, salt and pepper for seasoning

Preheat oven to 220C


* Chop the potaoes into roughly 2cm chunks and put into a medium-sized roasting tin

* Drizzle some olive oil over and toss or stir to make sure they are well covered. Season as desired with salt and pepper and place the thyme on top

* Bake for 10 minutes, then stir the potatoes and add the mushrooms

* Bake for a further 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes

* Bake for 10 more minutes, then remove, create hollows between the veg, then crack the eggs into the hollows.

* Bake for a last 5 minutes

Coconut Rice

Do it. DO EEET! If you have even a passing liking for coconut, then this rich, creamy rice is well worth trying. It can be served with curries, stir fries, pretty much anything from the eastern countries that calls for rice. I served it with oriental style pancakes with spicy ficken stripes, thinly slice spring onion, cucumber and banana to stuff them with.


Coconut rice

Serves 4


Approx 160ml coconut cream (I think you can convert this to grams if only the solid variety is available)

220g rice

500ml water


* Put the rice, water and coconut cream in a pan.

* Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer gently until all the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. It should still look quite moist and creamy. This should take 10-15 minutes.

* I didn't have these, but if you do, I thought some flakes of dessicated coconut stirred through might make a nice addition.

Simple mushroom soup

A delicious, creamy soup (without any cream!)that's simple and easy to make. The best mushrooms to use are portobella for a nice strong flavour, but any will do. I used chestnut. There are plenty of variations you can add, so I'll list the basic recipes, then the options I added.


Mushroom soup

Serves 4

Cooking time...erm...there's a lot of mushrooms, so that's a lot of chopping. Cooking itself only takes about 30 minutes.


500g mushrooms

600ml milk (your choice, but I used semi-skimmed)

Butter for frying

1 tbsp flour for thickening

Optional:

1 large onion

1 generous tsp of dried thyme

A clove or 2 of garlic

100ml strong stock


* Chop the mushrooms (and onions) finely. Heat some butter in a saucepan that will carry your soup.

* Fry onions and garlic for 5 minutes until soft, then add the mushrooms and thyme and fry for a further 5 minutes, or until soft.

* Lower the heat and stir in the flour.

* Add the milk and stock, bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes

* Whiz in a food processor or use a hand blender.