Ok here’s something I don’t tell many people.

I am an utter salad lover.

Like, really. I’m a total salad nut.

I have a secret love affair with spinach and avocado.

Add some tomatoes, a handful of seeds, a squeeze of lemon juice, pepper, and I’m in heaven.

People look at me eating salad and sneer “eat some real food”… but I don’t care.

Nothing gets me excited than… sprouts.

With feta. And sundried tomatoes, chorizo, snow peas, bocconcini, mango, red onions, coriander and parmesan. Not all at once, but you get my drift.

Many months ago, I went to a café and I ate a pear, walnut and maple muffin – which turned out to be the most amazing muffin I had ever tasted. It was so good that I felt, in that moment, that if I died right then, my life would still have been complete.

So of course, I went home and googled for a similar muffin recipe.

I managed to find and test 2 recipes – but they just weren’t great. I have since tried 4 more times, changing the recipes slightly, in order to perfect the PERFECT Pear, Walnut and Maple Muffin.

The different thing about this recipe below is, it uses maple syrup instead of sugar. I did try different variations, half maple, half brown sugar. I even tried with an extra egg, less flour, less milk, more butter.

I think I’ve got it right! Hope you enjoy it!

Pear, Walnut and Maple Muffins

1 ½ cups self raising flour

½ teaspoon of baking power

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

60g butter, melted

½ cup of pure maple syrup

1 egg, beaten

½ cup milk

2 small pears, cored and diced

½ cup walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Line a muffin pan with 10 paper cases.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Add maple syrup, butter, egg and milk, and stir until just combined.

3. Mix pear and walnuts into the mixture.

4. Spoon into prepared pans and bake in a moderate oven 180C for 25 minutes or until cooked when tested.

(Pure maple syrup is a bit expensive, but it really does taste amazing!)

Paella is a Spanish rice dish that mixes meats, fish, beans, rice and all sorts of other things. But best of all, it all cooks in ONE PAN.

It’s also a lot like risotto, but you just don’t have to stir it as much – so it’s really easy. It is one of my favourite dishes to make, and my family love it!

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into thick strips (I used salmon instead)
1 onion, chopped
1 1/3 cups of short grain rice (uncooked)
3 tomatoes, chopped
pinch of saffron
400g can of chickpeas
150g green beans
1 red capsicum, sliced
750ml chicken stock
500g of prawns, peeled
2 tablespoons of parsley
1 lemon wedges (very important!)
Optional – 8 mussels, 1 calamari, cut into rings.

1. Heat oil in a large, deep fry pan, add chicken or salmon. Cook until just browned, remove and drain

2. Add onion to the pan and cook until soft and golden. Add rice, tomatoes, saffron. Stir for 1 minute on a medium heat.

3. If using chicken, put it into the pan. Stir in chickpeas, green beans, capsicum and stock. Cook for 15 minutes uncovered. Don’t stir!

4. Stir in salmon, prawns, and other seafood. Leave it to cook uncovered for 10 minutes, or until the rice and seafood is cooked. I like to leave it for a bit longer to get the base crisp and caramelised. Don’t stir!

5. Serve up, Sprinkle with parsley, squeeze lemon on top.

Note: One time, I ran out of saffron, and I used ½ teaspoon of turmeric instead. Then I thought, what the heck, and also added ½ teaspoon of cumin, and a pinch of cinnamon and paprika. Not very authentic, but damn it tasted good.

(This recipe is based on a recipe published by the Heart Foundation Australia)

Sometimes I am shocked, and slightly embarrassed, by how little time I have to prepare dinner.

In between dropping off one child here, running errands, picking up one child from there, zipping to the shops to pick up something, meet up with someone else for a chat, then coming home for a grand total of 30 minutes of web work, only to have to leave again to pick up the first child from school.

There is hardly any time for me to prepare a meal.

And the ironic thing is, that I really like to cook!

So I have become the master of the Throw-In-The-Oven Recipe!

This week was roast chicken and roast vegetables, eaten with bread rolls.

It’s not exactly my finest culinary accomplishment, but with three children, cooking a roast chicken in time for dinner is worthy of a ticker tape parade, if you ask me.

And the best bit is… everyone loves a simple roast chicken!

How to Cook the Perfect Roast Chicken

Season with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon, parsley and rub all over. No measurements – just throw some on! Toss with mixed potatoes, carrots and pumpkin.

And throw into a 180C oven –  20 minutes for every 500g of chicken.

Now that I think about it, it’d probably be much easier to BUY a roast chicken, but then that would spoil all the fun.

Good brownie recipes are so hard to find! And I love a good quality, well made chunk of brownie!

Jamie Oliver’s Bloomin’ Brilliant Brownie is my absolute recipe favourite to make. And eat!

Original recipe is here. I’ve halved the portions, so it filled a 18cm square pan. I also left out the cherries and just used walnuts.

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
50g chopped walnuts
40g cocoa powder, sifted
35g plain flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking powder
140g caster sugar
2 large eggs

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.

2. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.

3. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add nuts and stir together.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate and nut mixture. Stir together well.

5. Beat in the eggs until you have a silky consistency.

6. Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes.

7. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle.

8. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.

My mother gives me a dozen eggs every week, freshly laid by her chickens.

I team them up with a few baby roma tomatoes from my garden, a handful of basil, spring onions, chives and parsley.

Seasoned with a good portion of salt and pepper.

And we have the most delicious omelettes to start the weekend!

For Christmas I received an amazing cookbook: Delicious: Quick Smart Cook, and this was one of the recipes I HAD to try out.

I basically woke up one Sunday morning at 5am (as you do, when you have a baby) and I decided to make it. Of course I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I made a few changes on the fly (like using 2 eggs instead of 4).

The flavour of the pancakes on their own, are quite plain. So the fresh bananas and the caramel sauce is ESSENTIAL. If you’re lazy you could just use honey or maple syrup.

Banana and Coconut Pancakes with Caramel Sauce and Yoghurt

1 banana
2 eggs, separated
1 cup (250ml) of coconut milk
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
Melted butter for greasing.

Toppings (optional)
2 bananas
desiccated coconut
natural yoghurt

Caramel sauce
50g of butter
½ cup of brown sugar
3 tbs of golden syrup
150ml thickened cream (I didn’t have cream, so I used a splash of milk)

Method

1. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, set aside.

2. Mash the banana, set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together egg yolks, coconut milk and salt until combined.

4. Mix in sifted flour, baking powder and banana.

5. Fold in egg whites.

6. Brush a non-stick pan with butter, and use a few tablespoons of batter for each pancake.

7. Heap with fresh bananas, yoghurt, caramel sauce and coconut.

I made about 16 small pancakes.

For the Caramel Sauce
Warm together and melt butter, sugar, syrup and cream in a pan over low heat. Simmer and stir for about 5 minutes until thickened.

PS. The Delicious: Quick Smart Cook Cookbook is really good!

At a recent dinner party, I ate this delicious, unusual dessert, and I was amazed at how easy it is to make.

6 pears
a standard bottle of red wine
100gms of sugar
a cinnamon stick

Peel the pears – but leave the stalks on!
Cut a little away from the bottom of the pear, to help it sit up by itself.
Place the pears stalks up in a snug fitting pot or slow cooker.
Cove the pears with red wine, add the sugar and cinnamon.

Slow, slow cook for at least an hour, until the pears are so soft that you can carve the flesh with a spoon.

Serve with plenty of the sweet juices, and top with a dob of cream, or as above, with some yogurt.

Alternatives are that after the pears are cooked, you can marinate the pears in the cooling wine sauce overnight to increase the red colour, before re-warming to serve. To add more zing to the wine, you can also add orange rind, cloves, and /or vanilla.

(The alcohol in the wine is all dissipated by the heat of the cooking.)

Yum-EEE!

I’m preparing for some very hot days over the weekend. I’m also doing a bit of entertaining, so I made these ice cream and berry parfaits as a last minute dessert for kids and adults!

Bottom layer - Crumbled shortbread and mixed-nut toasted muesli.

First middle layer – Scoops of homemade ice cream

Second middle layer – Homemade strawberry yoghurt (from Easiyo)

Top layer – Mixed frozen berries

Pop them in the freezer and serve icy cold!

I was a little bored last weekend, and I happened to find an easy ice cream recipe.

Ice cream has always been in my “I’m too lazy to try it” category.

I don’t have a fancy ice cream maker. I’m not particularly interested in separating eggs, or shaking zip lock bags of ice or splitting vanilla beans. It all sounds like hard work. And I’d rather just pay $5 for a tub in the supermarket.

But this one was SO EASY! And the texture was amazingly the same as normal ice cream.

The funny thing is that I don’t usually give ice cream to my children. They probably only eat it once a fortnight, when they go out with the grandparents. They might have it when we are at a party or have it for a very special treat when we go out. So the portion I made was probably a little too much for us.

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Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

600mL of pure fresh cream
200mL of condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1. Use an electric mixer and whip the cream until soft peaks form.

2. Slowly stir in condense milk and vanilla with a spoon.

3. Pour into an empty 2L ice cream container (or a lay baking tray lined with baking paper).

4. Freeze for 12 hours. Then ready to eat!

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Recipe Notes

The original recipe was for a 300mL can of condense milk, but I used 200mL instead. The result was still pretty sweet. I think I might use even less next time.

This recipe makes just under 2L of ice cream. I probably should have halved the portion to make a smaller batch of vanilla, as my first test. Next time I want to make smaller portions and experiment with fruit, berries, chocolate chips or nuts.

If anyone is going to experiment with this recipe, please let me know! I’d love to see the results!

I absolutely love the taste of Anzac Biscuits – especially when they come out of the oven! Ahh, the smell of oaty, buttery caramel is just incredible.

For those who don’t know what they are, Anzac biscuits are traditional Australian biscuits, made famous when they were sent to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers (so, ANZACs) who were serving in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War.

I grabbed this recipe off my son’s Kindergarten teacher. It’s a nice simple one, with quick and easy measurements and steps. And very, very tasty!

Anzac Biscuit Recipe

1 cup sifted plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar (I used ½ cup, and they still tasted great!)
½ cup dessicated coconut
125g butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1. Combine oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the golden syrup and water. Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the liquid mixture.

3. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

4. Place walnut-sized balls of mixture on a greased tray and bake at 175C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

5. Biscuits will harden when cool.

Note: I made my biscuits smaller than usual, and they were done in 12 minutes. It’s best to check in on them at 10 minutes and gauge how much longer they need.

I didn’t usually make super-sweet biscuits for my children. But the other day I thought, oh what the heck, I’ll bring out a family favourite.

I think the original recipe says to mix in LOTS of chocolate chips and M&M’s into the mixture – apparently the more the better. But I prefer to skip the choc chips altogether and have the M&M’s decorated on top. But that’s just me.

125g unsalted butter (at room temp)
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lightly beaten egg
1 ¾ cups of SR Flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup of M&M’s

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Use a electric mixer to beat butter, sugars, vanilla, until pale.

3. Add egg and beat well.

4. Sift in flour and salt, mix well with a spoon.

5. Use hands to press the dough together. Make into small balls and put on the tray with baking paper. Push them flat with your palm. Then decorate with M&M’s into the top.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

7. Cool for 5 minutes. And I like to eat my cookies warm!

(I found this recipe on a forum years ago and I have no idea who to credit!)

It’s the school holidays here in Perth, and thought I’d share a great little recipe you can make with the kids.

Usually, I never let the kids fill the cupcake cases, because they make SUCH A MESS! But this time I scooped the mixture into a clean zip-lock bag, snipped a corner off, and handed it to the kids. They had a great time pretending to be factory-working, cake-squirting robots. And they still made a mess. Oh well.

This recipe was so easy to make, it’s a wonder why I ever bought packet-mixtures!

Chocolate-Chip Cupcakes

2 cups SR Flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup castor sugar
125g softened butter
2 eggs
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup of choc chips (broken bits of chocolate)

1) Preheat oven at 200C.

2) Sift flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl.

3) Add butter, eggs, milk, vanilla essence and chocolate chips. Use an electric beater and mix for 1 minute on a SLOW speed.

4) Beat at MEDIUM speed for 2 minutes.

5) Fill cupcake cases. Bake for 10-15 minutes until centre springs back when gently touched.

I’m a very throw-it-together kind of cook.

No recipe. Just a bit of this and a bit of that.

Great for my family. Not so great for my website.

I made dinner in a crazy flurry – while making pureed pumpkin and steamed apple for my baby, helping my oldest child with his spelling and maths homework, and helping my middle child make a dinosaur diorama.

Sometimes I wonder, WHY don’t I just order CHINESE TAKEAWAY? MY LIFE WOULD BE SO MUCH SIMPLER.

Would you believe me if I said that cooking helps me relieve stress?

Anyway, I had a bunch of fresh silverbeet in my fridge. Shallots and garlic at the bottom of my cupboard. A few pieces of fish in my freezer. Bit of lemon, butter, pepper and lots of olive oil. Served with rice.

(Apologies, I initially posted that the fish was barracuda. But my dad (who bought the fish for me, said it was actually mackerel! Like I would know the difference anyway!)

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View more of my recipes here!

I printed out this recipe late one Saturday night. I stuck it on the kitchen counter top, and behold, my husband woke up and made the boys pancakes on Sunday morning. But more importantly, he let me sleep in. Bless him.

Basic Pancake Recipe (adapted from the BBC Food website)

110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter

Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour.

2. Break eggs and whisk.

3. Gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking. Whisk until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream.

4. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in.

5. Pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wedge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.

6. Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium. Pour about 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan in one go.

7. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter.

It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be.

8. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife – the other side will need a few seconds only – then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.

9. To serve, sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up.

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View more of my recipes here!

I’ve had lots of people ask me what I cook for my family, particularly when I’m in a HUGE rush.

Yes, we eat home-made pizza once a week. My kids love it. And I LOVE IT that they gobble it all up. Fast.

The kids have tomato, ham and cheese pizzas, opting for the fresh salad on the side.

I’ll eat two of these without batting an eyelid. The one above is a vegetarian – I just love warm mushroom and avocado!

At the moment I use bought pita breads as the base. One day I’ll get around to making my own pizza bases!

Last night I wanted to spend a bit of time practising my food photography.

These last few weeks, my husband and I have had really busy schedules – so I have been making very hurried meals for dinner. But yesterday I had a bit of time up my sleeve, and I made vegetarian, slow-stewed eggplant and pumpkin curry.

It made my house smell incredible – and it was sooooo yummy.

I plated the food up nicely, and as my kids watched on from the other end of the table, I snapped away with my big camera.

As I was doing this, my husband came home from work, and he dished up his own serve of dinner. I looked over at his plate and I thought it was a very amusing contrast.

So I took a photo of his plate too, and wondered which actually looked yummier.

I love my husband.

Every morning our alarm clock buzzes at 6am. My husband will bounce out of bed, and start making breakfast for our two boys.

I will thump the SNOOZE button hoping to get 5 minutes extra sleep. After three 5 minute SNOOZES, I drag myself out of bed, to tend to my newborn.

After feeding, burping, cleaning, changing the nappy and clothes of my baby, it’s about 7am.

I plod sleepily into the kitchen to see both my boys munching away at their breakfast, and this is what I find at my place at the table:

Love.

And I am convinced that, for me, there is no place greener than my side of the fence.

From Monday to Friday, our mornings are stressful, busy and incredibly rushed. It’s like trying to run a military operation – 6AM GET OUT OF BED EAT YOUR BREAKFAST BRUSH YOUR TEETH GET YOUR CLOTHES ON – where our troops are most unwilling and unreasonable.

So our weekend mornings are very important to us. Relaxed, easy, no-fuss mornings – they are as precious as gold.

This weekend, I thought I’d try something a extra special.

I made a standard mix of yummy waffle batter. I turned the waffle maker ON and it was ready to go.

My two big kids stood up on stools beside me at the kitchen counter, and yelled out stuff to mix into the batter. I ran around the kitchen fetching the items, and we threw them into each set of waffles being pressed at that moment.

We had banana waffles! Waffles with blueberries! Strawberries! Walnuts! Jam! Chocolate!

Ooohh we ate so many waffles that morning. They were soooo good and our tummies were soooo full.

Pictured, the best combination we cooked up: bananas and grated coconut chocolate.

The other evening, I attended a Tupperware party with a large bunch girlfriends.

I already own quite a few food containers, so for me the evening was about chatting to the girls and playing with my new camera lens (which is actually 30 years old and borrowed from a friend. Thanks Mal!)

The party host made a chocolate brownie cake for us while we chatted. As I watched her put the ingredients together, it seemed so simple that I was quite uncertain whether it would taste any good.

But oh my, it was absolutely heavenly!

Brownie Cake Recipe

250 gms butter
1 ½ cups of sugar
¾ cup cocoa
3 eggs
1 ¼ cups plain flour
½ tsp vanilla optional
a handful of “Rollos”- a chocolate-coated caramel sweet/lolly/candy. I’m sure anything similar will do.

1. Slowly melt butter and sugar in a saucepan, on low heat, until sugar is dissolved.

2. Stir in cocoa, flour, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.

3. Pour into well greased pan. Throw in the “Rollos”.

4. Put into 180C (preheated) oven for 25 minutes.

5. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Cut up brownie while warm.

6. Dust with icing sugar. Serve while warm, with whipped cream.

This recipe was given to me by the delightful Tupperware demonstrator, Sharon Cherny. Thanks Sharon!