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Twenty minute meals can be made to suit all tastes. If you like Asian food then a stir fry is for you. The biggest time component in making a stir fry is the preparation, so cheat! Buy pre-prepared packs of stir fry vegetables in your supermarket, add a sauce of your choice and meat or tofu.

If you want to follow a step by step recipe, try this Vietnamese Mushroom and Cashew Stir Fry:-

2 tbsp oil

1 red onion, sliced

1 red capsicum, sliced

200g mixed mushrooms sliced

2 baby buk choy cut into quarters

cup raw cashews

1 garlic clove crushed

soy sauce

Firstly heat the oil in a wok on high. Stir fry the onion for 1-2 minutes before adding the capsicum and mushroom cook for a further 2-3 minutes or until tender. Add the buk choy, cashews and garlic and continue to stir fry for 1-2 minutes or until the buk choy starts to wilt. Drizzle some soy sauce on the dish once it's served up.

Having a tin of tuna in the house helps in making a quick and easy meal, you can cook up some pasta and toss through a flavored tuna and some cherry tomatoes (cut in half) and you have a delicious taste of Italy. Here are a couple of other quick tuna recipes.

Cannellini Bean & Tuna Salad

400g cannelloni beans

2 x 185g can of tuna in spring water, drained

200g green beans, trimmed halved, blanched

100g cherry tomatoes, halved

50g baby rocket leaves

1 cucumber, chopped

small red onion, finely sliced

cup pitted olives

1/3 cup basil leaves, torn

Dressing

olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp sweet chili sauce

First combine all of the salad ingredients in a bowl. Next whisk together the oil, vinegar and sweet chili sauce. Just before serving pour the dressing on the salad and gently toss.

Tuna & Cottage Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

4 med flat mushrooms, stems removed

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 x 95g cans of tomato and capsicum flavored tuna

250g low fat cottage cheese

2 tbsp chopped chives

2 tbsp grated cheddar

First preheat oven to 180C. Now place mushrooms, cup side up on tray and drizzle with vinegar. In a bowl combine the tuna, cottage cheese and chives, spoon this mixture into the mushroom caps and top with the cheddar. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is golden. While it is baking open a packet of salad to serve with the mushrooms.

Another thing that I always have in my pantry is a packet of tortillas. Tortillas can be the basis of a range of quick and easy meals. Here is a pizza that you can whip up quicker than phoning the local pizza joint and waiting for them to deliver.

Tortilla pizzas

1 flour tortilla

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tablespoon finely sliced onion

cup grated pizza cheese

toppings of choice (ham and pineapple, chicken and avocado etc)

First preheat oven to 220C. Next place a tortilla on a baking tray, spread the tortilla with the tomato paste, sprinkle on the onion and then the toppings of choice, followed by the cheese. The pizza needs to be baked for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese is golden.

Another quick and easy meal using tortillas is quesadillas. Take two tortillas and spread cream cheese onto both of them. Chop up some rotisserie chicken and pop on to one of the tortillas and then top with grated cheese. Add some salsa to the other tortilla and place it on top of the first tortilla. Place your tortilla sandwich' onto a sandwich press for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and showing through the sides. Let it start to cool while you open a bag of salad, then cut into quarters to serve. I usually make a couple of these at a time.

Now I hope you can see how easy twenty minute meals can be and hopefully you will like at least one of these meal ideas if not all of them bon appetite!

Learn more about this author, Louanne Cox.
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