Banana and Chocolate Chip Biscuits

These biscuits are great if you have some bananas to use and are sick of making the usual cakes, loafs and fritter recipes (haha!).  They have a slight crunch to the outside but softer on inside making them great for kiddies (You can miss the banana chips for the real little ones if you find them too hard)  I have only made them without the banana essence and used vanilla instead as I had no banana and they still turned out fine (They might have more strong flavour with banana)  You don’t use alot of condensed milk so make sure you have something else to make with the rest of the tin (I will be putting up some caramel recipes at later stage which you could get away with using slightly less condensed milk in so you could do that 🙂

250g butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (About medium-large banana)
1 tsp banana essence
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or drops
1/2 cup dried banana chips, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Line oven trays with baking paper.  Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add condensed milk and beat again.  Mix in mashed banana and banana essence.

Sift flour and baking powder into mixture and fold together with spatula until combined (Add more flour if mixture is too soft (I had to add about 1 more cup))

Fold in chocolate chips and banana chips.

Using floured hands roll large tablespoons of mixture into balls and place onto trays.  Slightly Flatten each ball with hands then using a fork dipped into flour, mark the top of each ball by pressing down .  Bake for 20-25 mins (Depending on how golden/crunchy you want them)  Store in airtight container  (You can flatten them more than what I have done, it will probably make a more crunchy biscuit, but cook them for less time (About 15-20 mins))

Chow Mein

Another recipe I picked up from school.  It is another one that freezes well too.  The original recipe has it so that the veges are still quite firm when served but we don’t like it like that so I partally steam them before adding to wok so that they are semi soft to soft once cooked (As I make up 3 times the amount so it is too hard and takes to long to cook them properly just in wok).  Otherwise cooking them for slightly longer will do the same if you are keeping to just 2 servings. This is another good one for students that are flatting as it is cheap, and so simple to do.  I also tend to add more veges than suggested to make it go futher.

Serves 2

2 cups of fresh veges (Cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, capsicum etc)
2 small onions
1 cup of cooked meat (At school we just used cold, shredded chicken picked up from the deli at supermarket which makes it super easy)
1 packet instant noodles
1-2 tsp stock (Choose stock depending on what flavour noodles you have and what will go well with meat)
2 tsp soy sauce
1 cup water
2 tsp cornflour

In a small sauce pan stir together cornflour, stock, soysauce and water.  Heat until boiling, then stir while boiling for 1-2 mins.  Stir in noodles and flavouring then set aside to let noodles soften.  Wash and prepare veges.  Heat oil in wok.  Cook onion 2-3 mins.  Add carrots and cook 2-3 mins.  Add rest of veges and stirfry 2 mins (Or to your liking)  Add cooked meat and noodles with the sauce.  This can be served by itself or with some cooked rice

Stirfry Rice

Another recipe my mum gave me when I got married.  This freezes extremely well so you can make heaps of it and take it out when you are having “one of those days” (Especially good for busy mums!)  It is also another recipe that you can add more of things to adjust to your liking.

 

2 cups of cooked rice, rinsed and cooled
2 eggs
Soya Sauce
Crushed Garlic
Frozen Mixed Veges or Stir Fry Vege Mix (Defrosted.  The easiest way to do this is to put them into a bowl of hot water then put them in microwave for 2-3 mins)
Meat of choice, chopped (I have also used mince a few times which makes it go futher)
Oil

 

Heat small amount of oil in wok.  Beat eggs, soya sauce and garlic together.  Add to wok and cook.  Remove from wok into a bowl and set aside.  Add some more oil and cook meat.  Remove from wok and set aside.  Add another small amount of oil and heat through rice.  Add egg and cooked meat and mix through.  Lastly add veges and heat them through.

Note: Only use a small amount of oil at a time.

Bacon Wrapped Pork with Apple

This was a recipe I learnt at school and it is a favorite with my hubby and I.  It is so easy to make, and can be cheap when the meat is on special.  Would be perfect for something different for flatting students who don’t want to cook a whole lot of meat up, and have a mini grill oven.  It is also one of those recipes where when you have done it a few times you can start adjusting amounts to your liking depending on how sweet you would like it.

Serves 1

1 Pork steak or sirloin
2 Rashers of Middle Bacon
1/4 Cooking apple sliced (Granny smith)  OR a couple of spoonfuls of stewed apple
1 sage leaf (Optional)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp Golden Syrup

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Wrap pork steak with apple placed inside with the bacon.  Sprinkle brown sugar over.  Place in a lightly greased dish.  Cook for 20-30 mins, basting once or twice with juices (There is more juices when using stewed apple)  Baste with golden syrup in last 5-10 mins.  Is yummy Served with baked/roasted potatoes and steamed veges or a salad.

The brown sugar and golden syrup are defiantly just a guideline!!  We love ours having that very sweet, crisp flavour so i actually do about 2 TBSP of brown sugar, then I have golden syrup in a bottle which I lightly pour over.

Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake

This cake is not only incredibly easy to make it is also so beautiful and moist and lasts for a few days.  It is a recipe that my mum gave me and I have made it so often I actually know the recipe off by heart!  You can use your own favorite icing on it (I use to do a mock cream icing but found it too sweet so now just use my own simple recipe which I will include)  It is also an awesome cake to make for birthdays!

1 cup water
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 TBSP cocoa
100g butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups Self raising flour

In a medium-large saucepan put in water, sugar, baking soda, cocoa and butter.  Bring to boil until butter melts (I usually give it a wee bit of a whisk to break up any cocoa lumps in there)  Take off heat then leave to completely cool (Takes 1-1 1/2 hours.  If you are in a rush you can put in fridge and it will still turn out okay, but it is better for your fridge if you can leave it out haha!)  IF YOU DON”T LEAVE TO COOL THE EGGS WILL COOK IN IT WHEN YOU ADD THEM

Once mixture is cool preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Beat/whisk the eggs well then add them to cooled mixture and mix in.  Add flour and mix well.

Pour mixture into a well greased cake tin (or a silicone tin)  Make sure it is very well greased otherwise cake will stick (I usually use a spray oil and pour mixture in just as I am about to put into over so the oil doesn’t mix into cake which works perfectly, it hasn’t stuck since!!)

Bake for 35 mins.  Leave to cool in tin otherwise it will break up.  Ice when cool

Icing Recipe:

50g butter
2+ cups icing sugar
Capful vanilla essence.
2 TBSP cocoa (You can add more if you would like)
Boiling water

Melt butter in microwave.  Add 2 cups icing sugar, vanilla and cocoa and mix well.  The icing will be lumpy/dry.  Add some boiling water (About a TBSp at a time) and mix well until it is smooth and glossy, then start adding more icing sugar to make it at the constancy you want.  If you add too much icing sugar, add more boiling water to it.

You can make different flavours by taking out cocoa and vanilla and adding your own essences or even unconcertared liquid cordial.  Just make sure you taste test!! 😀  (My favorite icing to put on this cake is chocolate and raspberry!!  I let the raspberry take over a wee bit and it is devine!)