Three Easy Recipes Worthy of Celebrity Chef Status

You don't have to spend all day in the kitchen in order to put together tasty, nutritious meals.  Next time you find yourself entertaining at short notice, try one of these quick and easy recipes to impress your guests.
Roasted Vegetable Pasta
Pasta is an old favourite, and there are lots of ways to turn it into a quick and tasty meal.  If you're sick of cream or cheese based pasta meals and tuna pasta bakes, here's an appetizing and tasty alternative.
Ingredients

• Pasta
• Tinned tomatoes
• Onions
• Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Any other vegetables you have lying around
• Vegetable oil (or garlic oil if you prefer)

Chop up your vegetables into bite-sized chunks and put them in an oven dish.  Add a dash of vegetable oil (or garlic oil), and bake the vegetables until they're soft.  Boil some water (or fill a pan with boiling water from your zip tap if you have one), and add your pasta.  Heat the pasta until it's al-dente (firm to the bite, not crunchy).  Strain the pasta, add it to the oven dish with the vegetables and the tomatoes.  Put it in the oven for a few more minutes, and then you're done!
Coleslaw With a Kick
As a nice side-dish to go with your pasta, why not make up some fresh coleslaw with a twist.
Ingredients

• 1 Carrot
• 1/2 a Cabbage
• 1/2 an Onoin
• Mayonnaise
• Black Pepper
• Paprika

Grate the carrot, cabbage, and onion.  Put them all in a large mixing bowl and add a few generous tablespoons of mayonnaise.  Mix it all together, and then add a sprinkle of black pepper and a bit of paprika to give the coleslaw a nice bite.  You can experiment with other spices, but it's best to avoid salt as that tends to ruin the consistency of the coleslaw and makes it watery and unappetizing.
Banana Frittas
For desert, here's a quick, easy, recipe that includes both indulgent ice-cream, and the obligatory banana for one of your five a day!
Ingredients

• 1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 Egg
• 3/4 cup of water
• Bananas
• Ice Cream
• Maple Syrup
• Vegetable oil

Mix the egg and the bicarbonate of soda together.  Next, add the water, and then gradually stir in the flour. Slice the bananas into generous, chunky slices, and coat them in the batter.   Deep fry the battered bananas until they're golden brown (this should take no more than three or four minutes).
Serve with a generous scoop of ice-cream and a drizzle of maple syrup.
After the Event
Cleaning up after cooking can be annoying, but if you start things soaking in hot water from your zip tap as soon as possible, it shouldn't be too difficult a process.  Put a squirt of washing up liquid on anything greasy, and let it soak for a few minutes before washing it and you should find that everything goes far more smoothly than it would if you let things dry on to the plates.
If you have an insinkerator, scrape leftovers into it for quick and easy disposal.  If you don't have an insinkerator, bag things up, seal the bags, and throw them out ASAP.

This post was written by James Harper on behalf of the Kitchen Appliance Centre who stock all the latest gadgets for your kitchen such as the Insinkerator and Zip Taps. Photo: lejo