Finding an easy recipe can be quite a time consuming chore.  However with our help finding that perfect easy recipe has been made simple. 

An easy recipe to impress your friends

Picture the scene… you have moved into your new home… re-decorated… or maybe it´s just your turn to host the dinner party and suddenly you are in a panic.  What to cook? How to impress? How on earth is it all going to happen when you work full time!

Time is not on your side so what you need is an easy recipe to impress your friends that is quick to prepare, good to eat and most importantly presented to perfection.

Less is more when presenting the perfect meal.  Don´t over clutter your plate with mountains of food and instead provide them with the main dish delicately placed with only a slight garnish. Place your vegetables and other sides in dishes across the table in appropriately sized serving dishes.  These separate dishes avoid the embarrassment for your guests if they dislike certain accompaniments and also act as the perfect ice breaker into your dinner conversation!

 

An easy recipe for that professional looking desert

Presentation is not all limiting the about of time you need to spend delicately placing the green beans in a crisscross formation next to your roast beef; it´s about making the simplest of things appear exquisite. 

One of the easiest parts of a meal to do this with is the desert.  Whether you have bought a desert and wish to make it appear homemade or you wish to add the finishing touches to your own creation presentation is essential. 

First take the plate you wish to place your desert on and ensure that all are the same style for the same dish.  Choose a contrasting color to your desert. For example if you are having a chocolate tort or brownie, a raspberry coulis drizzled in lines on the plate first will accentuate the richness of the chocolate.

For more fruit based deserts where you don´t wish to over complicate with a coulis an alternative is a light dusting of icing sugar on a plate before or after adding your desert.  The simple fanning of a strawberry can often add that professional touch found in most restaurants.

 

An easy recipe to save money

In times line now money becomes an ever present worry for the majority of us.  Food has become one of the most expensive commodities within our country.  As prices constantly rise it is important for become thrifty with our pennies.

We like to think that we have moved on from our student days without the need to look back on those tougher times, but maybe we should take a leaf out of the student survival book and update it for ourselves.

Being a student wasn´t always about living on the cheapest non-branded goods to be found in our local supermarket, it was about making our own creations out of whatever was left in our cupboards or refrigerator!

When was the last time you lived life on the wild side, took a look that those things most likely to go off in the near future and cooked up a feast “Ready Steady Cook” style.  Go on, take a leap into your refrigerator and cupboards!

 

An easy recipe when you are home alone

When you are home alone again after a grueling day at work the last thing you want to do is spend hours in the kitchen trying to cook.  Unfortunately when you work long hours what you really need is a good home-cooked nutritional meal rather than a “ping dinner” straight from the ready-meal section and into the microwave full of added salts and preservatives.

Another problem is making too much for just one or making it just right but having a refrigerator full of halved vegetables quickly losing their freshness and most likely to become trash before they are eaten.

One solution is to make food how it was intended.  Cook that perfect recipe as if you were cooking for a family of six.  Use all of the vegetables and meat that you need and create a mouthwatering dish without trying to limit the amount you produce for fear of waste.  Next separate the sauce into portions and place into microwave proof, freezer appropriate dishes and place into the freezer when it has cooled.

The next time you get home from work and fancy a good nutritious meal for example a pasta sauce or chili, put the rice or pasta in a pan and by the time it is cooked your ready made sauce free of additives will be defrosted and heated.  It will taste just like you spent an hour cooking without any of the effort. 

One other benefit is that if you find you have company just open two portions of sauce and spend your time romancing or having great conversation without spending an hour in the kitchen.  Time and effort saved.  Enjoy!