[~~~~!eternit...]

But it has to be easy to pull off...

[FiveAus]

I've made this a few times and it's absolutely delicious....serve with rice and a green vegetable and it also looks very pretty.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Casserole

If that's not the sort of thing you're after, what about a stir fry? I regularly make a very easy one with chicken, as assortment of vegetables, noodles and a sauce made of 1/3 cup plum sauce, 1/2 cup kecap manis, 2 tablespoons Vietnamese fish sauce (or to taste).

Toss the chopped chicken thigh pieces in seasoned cornflour, fry lightly in oil and set aside. Stir fry chopped garlic and ginger then add vegetables (spring onions, bok choy, carrots etc) and quickly stir fry until hot through.......add chicken pieces and sauce and stir fry until everything is cooked through and hot. Then add prepared noodles, mix and finish with a sprinkle of sesame oil.

You can easily adjust everything for quantities and taste. My favourite noodles to use are the fat hokkien ones but any egg or rice noodles will work well.

[Shanski]

Ok here goes

Chicken and chorizo paella

It's the continental one pan meal in a box. I just cooked it for dinner tonight and my hubby loved it as well as miss 2 and miss 4.

It cooks in one frypan with a lid and takes about 25min once the chicken and chorizo are browned. Best of all there is no stirring required once the rice goes in.

Quick, easy, delicious and hearty meal that looks like it came straight from a restaurant.

If you want super fancy you can add some prawns, calamari and mussels as well.

[Lokum]

Jamie Oliver's chicken pie (from 30 Minute meals) is pretty fool proof and comes up a treat. Don't bust your chops trying to do the whole meal in 30 minutes - aim for 45-60 mins, and the outcome will be excellent. Don't take the pie out of the oven until the pastry is seriously puffed and golden.

We also (for more casual affairs) love, love, love the steak sandwich recipe from this book, though we do a tomato/parsley salad instead of the beetroot one.

[Codswallop]

Easy and if you tell no-one you can pretend you're a great French cook!
Luv a Duck duck confit, its in crovac bags at the supermarket. Take out of packet, destroy evidene. Scrape off fat grill under hot hot grill untul crispy.
Serve with dauphinois potato (potatot bake!) and green beans with toastec almonds. Voila!
Make an orange sauce with orange juice a splash of grand marnier (if you have it) and orange zest. Thicken with a tiny bit of cornflour.

[2bundles]

Bill Granger's Chicken Tagine. All in one pot and cooks without help in less than an hour. Very simple.

[~~~~!eternit...]

Thanks for all the great replies.

Now what about dessert?

[tothebeach]

Great summer desert - macerated strawberries served with marscepone cheese. Serve in martini glasses and it looks great. Takes about 2 mins of prep.

[heffalumpsnwoozl...]

Cut peaches in half, remove the stone. Sprinkle with sugar, put under hot grill until sugar is slightly blistery and browned. Serve with good vanilla ice cream. Doesn't matter if the peaches are a bit under ripe, the heat will soften and sweeten them.

[Foogle]

My knock 'em dead dessert -

Camembert and Banana tower with Raspberry puree.

Easy Peasy but looks fab and tastes delicious.

Cut 2 whole camembert rounds into 3 smaller rounds (in thickness).

Flour and egg (2 eggs beaten) them and press each round into chopped almonds.

Put them in the fridge to set/harden up. (A couple of hours)

Then

Puree some raspberries - sweeten to taste (about 1/2 cup) - set that aside until you are ready.

When you are ready to put it together:

Slice two bananas and either heat them in the oven or the microwave.

Warm the raspberry puree through.

Pan-fry the camembert rounds quickly in a hot pan and then layer on a cold platter -

Camembert, banana, puree, camembert, banana, puree etc ending with a drizzle of puree.

Serve up with water crackers. YUMMO!