Month completed: June 2010

After a busy day at work, it is very easy to just pop something into the microwave for dinner, or even just order takeaway in (Indian and Thai are personal favourites).

While these are the quick, easy options, and are OK in moderation, it is important to have proper meals at least a few times a week.

So this year, Nat and I have been trying hard to do more home cooking. To help, my Grandma mailed me five pages of recipes to try out, which covered starters, mains and desserts.

And here are a few of the things I have made so far:

- Banana cake

- Porcupine meatballs (image below)

- Sweetcorn and pepper frittata

- Spinach and potato gratin

- Ratatouille

- Bobotie

- Zucchini Slice

Despite the extra effort involved (I guess around 45 minutes, rather than 10 minutes, preparation and cooking time), the result and the satisfaction is much better. In particular, the porcupine meatballs recipe is fantastic, and I genuinely look forward to coming home and cooking this because it is so tasty.

As well as eating better, and having more satisfaction with the meal, by cooking a proper meal there is also the chance to cook enough for leftovers the next day, so I can eat a great lunch instead of a dry, boring sandwich.

I will definitely continue to home cook as much as possible. I doubt whether or not it gets me out of dishes duty though!

For anyone inspired to give home cooking a try, give this a try. And if you want the recipe for any of the other dishes I mentioned above, leave me a comment and I am happy to email it to you.

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Grandma Tully’s recipe for porcupine meatballs (which I have amended slightly)

Ingredients

For the meatballs

• 500g of mince meat
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice (I use basmati)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• Salt and pepper
• Pinch of thyme (optional)

For the sauce

• 2 tins of tomato soup (about 800g)
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1.5 cups of water

1. Put the sauce ingredients in a big pot and bring to boil.

2. Mix the meatball ingredients together, press firmly into golf ball sized pieces with wet hands.

3. Put meatballs into boiling sauce, cover and simmer for about 1 hour.

4. Take out and enjoy (and add tomato sauce on top – I don’t do this, but Nat seems to like it)