We’re trying to eat dinners that can be easily shared with Little Man and this dish fits the bill perfectly. Not only does it have fish in it (something we need to eat more of in this house!), it has a good mix of vegetables.

The dish goes together really quickly and makes enough for lunch the next day.

I feel like I’ve become a brand representative for Coles, but I swear I’m not it just happens that the Coles Feed Your Family application makes it easy to pick meals, order the groceries online and then make them with Curtis Stone’s help.  I have enough on my plate that I need the help this application offers and for that I’m going to sing it’s praises whenever I get a chance!

So here’s another great recipe from Coles Feed Your Family…

Tuna Fusilli

200 g Fresh Green Beans, trimmed, cut crossways into 5cm-long pieces

350 g Fusilli

1/2 cup Olive Oil

1 medium Brown Onion, finely chopped

4 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped

2 medium Tomatoes, cored, cut into small dice

4 large Sprigs of Fresh Thyme leaves removed

1/2 tsp Dried Chilli Flakes

2 x 185 g cans Tuna, drained

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil over high heat. Add beans and cook for 4 mins, or until just tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove beans and transfer to a bowl of iced water to cool completely. Drain beans well. Return water to boil.

2. Cook fusilli in boiling water according to packet directions, stirring often. Drain pasta, reserving 2⁄3 cup of the water.

3. Meanwhile, heat half the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. Add onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt to pan and cook for 1 min, or until tender. Add tomatoes, thyme and chilli flakes and cook for 3 mins, or until tomatoes soften. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper.

4. Add reserved pasta water, beans and remaining oil to tomato mixture. Add pasta and tuna and toss to coat, gently breaking up tuna with a spoon into large bite-size pieces. Serve immediately.

Source: Coles Feed Your Family

I’m not a big fan of seafood but our GP recommended we get a little more fish in our diets to try and help with my joint pain. So I decided I’d check out some seafood recipes and I came across this Prawn Fried Rice on the Coles website and decided to give it a bash.

There’s a few things that I learned while making this:

1. It’s better if you make the rice the day before,

2. kecap manis sweet soy is better than soy, and

3. sweet chilli sauce added to the end product makes a wonderful addition.

It’s a fairly easy dish to make and it makes heaps (especially if you double up on the egg and use oversized buk choy like we did).

Prawn Fried Rice

350 ml Water

1 cup Coles Brand Long Grain White Rice (200g), rinsed

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 large Coles Brand Free Range Eggs, beaten

1 medium Carrot, peeled and finely diced

2 Spring Onions, thinly sliced on an angle, white and green sections separated

430 g fresh Banana Prawns, peeled, deveined, tails removed

1 tsp Yeo’s Sesame Oil

2 tbsp Coles Brand Soy Sauce

2 small bunches Buk Choy, ends trimmed

1 Combine water, rice and a pinch of salt in a medium-sized, heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, over a low heat for 15-20 mins, or until water is absorbed and rice is cooked. Alternatively, you could use a rice cooker.

2. Transfer rice to a baking tray, spreading to a flat layer, and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hr, or until cold. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Season eggs with salt and pepper and add to wok, stirring with a wooden spoon for about 30 secs, or until just cooked. Remove eggs from wok and set aside on a plate.

3. Return wok to heat and add another tbsp of oil, cook carrot and spring onion whites together for 2 mins, or until carrot has softened. Move carrot mixture to the side of wok and add another tbsp of oil and prawns. Stir-fry for 1-2 mins, until prawns are just pink.

4. Add rice, then sesame oil and stir-fry for 2 mins until rice is heated through. Stir in soy sauce. Add buk choy and stir-fry for 1-2 mins until just wilted.

5. Return eggs to wok, breaking up with a spoon or spatula.

6. Divide rice between 4 serving bowls, sprinkle over spring onion greens and serve.

Source: Coles Online

I order our groceries online – I’m a huge fan of it. (It’s quick, I can do it in my pajamas, I can check the cupboard to see what I have on hand and I don’t get tempted to buy stuff that isn’t on our list.) I’ve tried both Woolworths and Coles and I much prefer the Coles online experience over the Woolworths one. (Funny enough I prefer to shop in the Woolworths store over the Coles store…)

Anyways, long story short Coles have a great free magazine that they promote their products and share recipes in. This month I decided I’d step outside of my comfort zone and give Paella a bash.  I’ve always wanted to try it but I can’t stand seafood so it’s been off the list – but that was until I stumbled upon this chicken and chorizo version from Coles.

Now, in theory the recipe calls for the saucepan to be put into the oven, but bless our 1980′s house the oven isn’t wide enough to put a roasting pan in let-a-lone a saucepan.  So I improvised.

I cooked the paella on the stove instead and it probably technically is no longer a paella because I was too scared to let it sit on the hot plate for too long without stirring in case I burnt the rice.  But regardless, it was totally yummy and I’m already thinking about whether I can convert the recipe into a slow cooker version.

On last thing about Coles; if you have an iPad download their Feed Your Family application. It’s great – I watched Curtis Stone about 3 times while making this recipe. (Once for the recipe, twice to confirm the recipe and third because Curtis Stone is phwoar!)

Chicken and Chorizo Paella

4 cups Water

3 tsp Salt

Small pinch Saffron threads

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 RSPCA Approved Chicken Paella Pack

1/2 Brown onion, finely chopped

3 cloves Finely chopped

1 Red capsicum, thinly sliced

1/2 Chorizo, cut into thin strips

2 cups Medium grain rice

1/2 tsp Smoked paprika

1 Spring onion, thinly sliced

1/2 Lemon, cut into wedges, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan forced).

2. In large saucepan, heat water and salt, turn off heat and add saffron.

3. Place large oven-proof frying pan or paella pan over high heat and add oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Once oil is hot, add chicken and brown on all sides, for about 5 minutes. Remove chicken from pan, reduce heat to medium high and return pan to the heat.

4. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the onion, garlic and capsicum, for 2 minutes, or until softened.

5. Add the chorizo, cook for 1-2 minutes.

6. Stir in the rice then smoked paprika and cook for about 2 minutes or until pan is dry and rice is coated with oil.

7. Add warmed saffron water to the pan and stir to evenly combine. Add the chicken back to the pan, arranging in a single layer, evenly spaced and bring to a simmer over high heat.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Total time: 60 minutes

Serves: 4

Source: Coles Feed the Family

Last week I wrote about the wonderful bowls my Mum made for me in our Quarterly Challenge and I wrote about how this winter we’re going to be eating more soup.  Well, I made soup.  I made good soup; surprisingly good soup.

I don’t like bacon…

*pause while I wait for you to all get up off the floor*

It’s true, I don’t.  Occasionally I’ll pick some off HUBBY’s plate when I’m feeling like I need a salt hit, but that’s rare.

This recipe finally made me appreciate the salty that is bacon. It’s great to have crunchy little salt hits while you’re eating this soup.  I loved it.

I actually really enjoyed this soup when I didn’t think I would.  It was so satisfying and not at all heavy. We served it with fresh bread from the local bakery and it was so yum.

I’m totally adding this to the cooking rotation and now I’m on the lookout for some more yummy soup recipes.  Our summer was the summer of beetroot relish, this might just be the winter of soups!

Tomato & Red Capsicum Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 long red chili, chopped

400g x Whole Peeled Tomatoes

450g x Chargrilled Capsicum, drained

2 cup Chicken Stock

200g Diced Bacon

400g x Chickpeas, drained

½ cup Sour Cream

Coriander, to garnish

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion for 5 minutes, until soft. Add chili and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add tomato, capsicum, stock and 1 cup of water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook bacon in a non-stick fry pan over medium heat, stirring occaionally for 5 minutes, until crisp. Drain on paper towel.

3. Using a stick blender, blend soup until smooth. Add chickpeas and stir to combine. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with a dollop of sour cream, some bacon and coriander.

Serve with crusty bread.

Source: Coles Magazine