Easy Dinners » The Best Nest

Product Review | Maggi Extra Delicious Noodles

Jul 122012

July 12, 2012 1 Response »

Our family were sent The Maggi Extra Delicious Chicken Noodles with ‘Invisible Wholegrain’ to sample. Luckily Chicken is the ONLY flavour we would actually purchase so we felt somewhat qualified to comment! The problem we have with instant noodles in general is that they just taste SO unhealthy {maybe because they are?}, so despite the fact that we quite like them, we don’t eat them that often.
The new improved noodles scored high with all four of the testers in our house. The wholegrain makes a great improvement to the overall taste, the flavour was lighter, we found the noodles less salty and greasy. We could really taste the difference and were stoked with the improvement!

Instant noodles still won’t be a regular grocery item for us , but it’s great to see improvements in a convenience food that is a staple in many households.

Cook Eat | Smoked Kahawai Pie Recipe

Jul 012012

July 1, 2012 1 Response »

I got inspired by NZ Masterchef recently and decided we needed to add a fish pie to our meal rotation. Not a canned fish pie though, and in terms of dollars and cents, buying a smoked fish is pretty much the cheapest protein you could buy to add to a meal so I do declare this meal Super-Budget-Friendly!

Smoked Kahawai Pie

You will need;

approx 600g shredded smoked Kahawai {this cost me about $6 for the supermarket}
Potatoes and pumpkin for mashing
Milk/sour cream for mashing
Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste
Garlic
Onios
Celery
Mixed veges
Flour
Grated cheese
Rolled flaky pastry sheets, enough to line the bottom of your chosen pan

As per usual no units, we cook off the cuff sorry, this How-To also assumes some rudimentary cooking prowe!

Cook | Dave’s Turkey Meatballs

Apr 182012

April 18, 2012 1 Response »

We love turkey mince. It’s super tasty and low fat. It makes a yummy substitute for beef in tacos, lasagne etc.

So this is how Dave Jack makes turkey meatballs.

Combine 500gm turkey mince, 1 egg, approx half cup breadcrumbs, 1/3 onion diced, chopped garlic to taste, tomato sauce, mustard, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning in a bowl.
Mix. You may need to add more breadcrumbs after mixing
Roll into balls
Place on baking paper and pop into oven at 180-200° until golden and firm.

Serve with dipping sauce, or add to pasta or salad.

Sorry about the approximations, Dave measures nothing and makes everything different each time!

I Like a Good Marrow

Mar 032010

March 3, 2010 1 Response »

Who knew? It tastes just like zucchini except it has seeds and these can be removed so then you just have a GIANT zucchini with a concave middle. Sweet.

We returned from our camping trip to find two giant marrow chilling in the vege patch.

What to do, what to do? I have never cooked a marrow, or even investigated what to do with them. The time for marrow was upon us.

So, I cut it in half length-ways and scooped out the seeds, leaving lots of marrowy goodness. Then I emptied a drained can of chickpeas, a drained can of whole kernel corn, diced capsicum from the garden and a tonne of cherry toms from the garden into a pan with some EVOO and sauteed til goldenish.

Then I stirred in some feta, olives and jalapenos seasoned with ground pepper and rock salt and baked em.

This was sooooo good, I can’t wait to try it out on the next big boy!

BUT, I made a shitload of stuffing.

What to do, what to do?

The next night, I made fritters with the stuffing mix. I added some flour, egg and milk and I was off.

Let me tell you, chickpea, corn, capsicum, tomato, feta, olive and jalapeno fritters are just about the best things ever. Ethan can vouch for this I swear.

So, we have learnt from this exercise that 2 cans of vege plus some fresh can feed you many times over and that I MUST use leftovers. It’s a compulsion of mine. Enjoy!

Easy Dinner: Quick Chicken Tacos

Feb 062010

February 6, 2010 1 Response »

This is a bit of a jail-food dinner but it is very quick, healthy and super tasty. I find it hard to get inspired when I am only cooking for Ethan and I on certain nights of the week, the portions are hard to work with for one thing!

So, though this might not be the most beautiful dinner I have ever cooked, my small boy assured me that these were the BEST tacos ever (which is every taco he eats apparently).

So, lets cook;

Saute chicken breast in pan with a little EVOO, chop zucchini and add to pan when chicken is almost done.

Whip up some rice, heat some re-fried beans and garnish these with some cheese and the zucchini.

Scoop zucchini and chicken into taco shells, ad grated cheese and fresh tomatoes. And your done in about 12 minutes!