Sunny Dinners for Healthy Families

Sunday lunch for my mother, Moira, and Les - Sweet Potato Casserole and Banana Boat Dessert. The photo accompanying the first of these two delightful dishes in the Golden Circle Tropical Recipe book showed the pork chops topped with gravy. As it didn’t miraculously occur during the cooking I suggest you make and add one in. Although the meal wasn’t dry I think gravy would be a tasty addition. The amount of salt in Ruby’s recipe seems excessive (!) so I suggest you use your own judgement there . . . I chose to use whole grained mustard as that’s my favourite. Anne.

Sweet Potato Casserole

440g can of Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces, 6 medium sized sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and mustard, ½ cup brown sugar, 4 pork chops.

Scrub sweet potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Cool and skin them, cut into 1cm slices. Drain pineapple pieces. Put a layer of sweet potato in buttered casserole. Sprinkle a spoonful of pineapple pieces over layer and sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and brown sugar. Repeat layers til ingredients are used. Brown the pork chops in a little melted butter, seasoning with salt, pepper and mustard when you turn them. Arrange chops in casserole over the sweet potatoes and pineapple. Cover and bake in moderate oven 1 hour, or until chops are very tender. Serve hot.

Banana Boat Dessert

4 bananas, ½ cup Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces, chopped small, ¼ cup chopped walnuts, 1 cup whipped cream, 8 Maraschino cherries.

Make 2 lengthwise slits in the bananas, curl strip back and secure with toothpicks. Scoop out fruit and mash. Add pineapple and walnuts. Fold in the whipped cream and put back into banana boats. Granish with cherries. For attractive appearance, have ingredients ready and prepare at the table.

I have hunted high and low for maraschino cherries but was unable to find any so I used glace cherries instead.