There are various things you can do, and I'd recommend do something easy like you've said. Having said that, now, you can do almost anything you want! Why not try a German style lager, a classic Australian ale, or whatever you feel like really.
3 kilos of extract will be a good start. Mix it together with your water [at least 5 litres worth, up to 8 if you can manage] and put on the stove, keeping a close watch as it will bubble and foam up dramatically once boil is reached. Coopers malt is exellent stuff, just check the use by date on the can to make sure its fairly fresh and hasnt been sitting around for a year.
The Aussie ale I'd bitter with Pride of Ringwood. Use a calculator to find out how many grams you need, which will depend on the AA% of the hops you're using. You can find a good one at grumpys.com.au, then click on the 'calculators link. You'll be boiling for an hour and shooting for around 20 IBU's [mid-range bitterness, the flavouring addition will add to this slightly as well]. Once the water/malt mix starts boiling let it back to a gentle, rolling boil and throw your bittering hops in.
Next thing you'll need are flavour hops. I'd go Cluster as mates who like Tooheys and other commercial beers seem to like the flavour of them - they're a generally unoffensive hop in my opinion. Throw in around 20g worth somewhere around 40 to 45 minutes after you've added the POR.
15 minutes after this you'll need to chuck in your aroma hops - another 20g of Cluster will be fine for this. Take the pot off the boil at this point and put it in a sink full of cold water to cool it. Ice cubes or frozen water bottles will be good for crash cooling the pot.
When cool throw the lot into a fermenter and top with water to 22-23L. Take an SG reading if you are so inclined and add your yeast [which you should have rehydrated in a glass of water with a bit of malt while you were doing your boil]. Top the thing and wait for a few weeks, and BINGO! You're done.
Cheers - boingk
EDIT: You'll be at around 1.045 for your SG, and the FG should be around 1.012ish. This will give you a 5% for the brew as out of the fermenter, and around 5.3% once carbonation sugar taken into account.
