Bircher muesli

Makes 3 servings @ 370 calories each

I made a batch of this to last me for three breakfasts, just to make it all a bit easier. Basically , you need to soak the oats and dried fruit and nuts in the juice and milk, and then in the morning, add in the fresh fruit and yoghurt.

1 cup oats (I used instant oats)

½ cup apple juice

½ cup skim milk

1 tablespoon seeds – sunflower, pumpkin etc

12 walnuts or a tablespoon slithered almonds

2 tablespoons dried blueberries or cranberries

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon mixed spice

In each bowl:

1 apple, grated or finely chopped

(Could substitute for other fruit – sliced banana, chopped fresh pineapple, pear etc)

1 tablespoon natural, low fat yoghurt

 

Method: Combine oats, apple juice, milk, nuts, seeds and dried fruits in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, add in the fresh fruit and yoghurt and combine well.

Drizzle with some honey if you want a bit more sweetness.

Ginger pecan cake

This is one of the recipes I have stolen off my mum. She makes this one all the time, and it's one of the few cake recipes that she has made successfully several times (sorry mum!) 

You could also use walnuts or even almonds in this one, or a mix of nuts if you're not that keen on the pecans.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups self raising flour

1 tsp bicarb soda

1 tblspn ground ginger

1 tspn mixed spice

100 unsalted butter, chopped

1 large apple, cored and diced

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup treacle/maple syrup

1 cup milk

1 egg

¾ cup pecan, chopped

Glaze:

¼ cup water

2 tblspns caster sugar

½ tspn powdered gelatine

Method:

Grease a 22cm round cake tin, line with baking paper

In a food processor, place flour, bicarb soda, ginger, mixed spice and butter. Process until it resembles a fine crumble. Stir in the apple.

Ina  saucepan, mix the sugar, treacle and milk. Stir over a medium heat until warm and mixed through, but don’t bring to the boil.

Mix in the flour mixture, followed by the egg and half of the nuts.

Pout it all into a prepared pan, then sprinkle with the remaining nuts.

Bake in a 180C oven for about 50 minutes to an hour, or until cooked when tested.

For the glaze, mix the ingredients in a small saucepan, mixing well until the gelatine is dissolved.

Brush over cake.Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Apricot chicken

Sometimes, you just can’t be f**ked cooking anything exciting. This is one of my go-to recipes for when I’m just not inspired to cook but still want something substantial, and home cooked.

Ingredients:

About 8 pieces of chicken (drumsticks, wings breasts on the bone)

1 big can of apricot nectar

1 packet French onion mix

½ cup milk

Optional extras: (depending on what you’ve got in the cupboard)

Onion, chopped chunky

A couple of carrots, diced

Potatoes, diced

To serve -  steam some rice, mashed potatoes or just some bread or rolls.

Dissolve the French onion soup mix in the nectar, mixing it up well.

Chuck everything in a big casserole container, with a lid if possible, otherwise with some foil on top.

Put in the oven for about an hour, taking it our once or twice to stir it all together, then take off the lid/foil and continue cooking for another half hour or so.

Take it out of the oven and leave it to sit for about 10 minutes, and the sauce will thicken. 

 Meanwhile, prepare whatever sides you want – steamed rice, vegetables, bread rolls – whatever you’ve got.

My amazing potato salad

This potato salad is a massive hit on our bbq table, I make it all the time.  Also, I am pretty relaxed on the quantities here, because I never actually measure things but the key is the herbs and whole egg mayonnaise.

 

6-ish potatoes, cut into chunks, boiled and cooled

4 eggs, hard boiled and cut into chunks

½ big red capsicum, diced

¼ to ½ red onion or 3-4 spring onions diced/sliced

Bacon, diced and fried

¼ cup whole egg mayo – might need to add more, I don’t think I have ever actually measured out the mayo.

¼ cup fresh mint, chopped (or 1-2 teaspoons dried mint)

½ teaspoon dried dill

Decent crack of black peppercorns

When I’m feeling a bit crazy, I add in some wholegrain mustard, but you might prefer not to. Just a nice variation, especially when you don’t have mint.

Lemon raspberry cupcakes

These are delightfully light and fluffy, and aren't a heavy dessert at all. 

200g butter, softened

3 cups icing sugar

5 teaspoons grated lemon zest

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups self raising flour

¼ cup milk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Icing: 

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

125g butter

3 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cream together the butter and icing sugar until light in colour and smooth.

Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add in half the flour, mixing well, then half the milk and repeat.

Mix in the lemon rind and the lemon juice.

Spoon mixture into cupcake tins. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

Icing:

Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in the lemon juice and the raspberries, and continue beating until well combined.

When the cupcakes are cool, decorate them with the raspberries. Fresh whole berries could be used as decoration also.

Lemon curd cheesecake

I made this recipe for my boyfriend’s birthday. He doesn’t even like sweet food, but his family devoured the whole thing. It was pretty good.Adding berries on to the top just makes it look fancy, but it was quite delicious on its own as well.

Lemon curd

2 tspn lemon zest

½ cup lemon juice

½ cup sugar

3 eggs

125g butter, cut into pieces

For crust

2 cups gingernuts (or basic biscuits if preferred)

1/3 cup sugar

125g butter, melted

1 tspn mixed spice

Filling

3 x 250g packets of cream cheese

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

½ cup sour cream

1 tspn vanilla

Curd:

Make the lemon curd by mixing everything together in a saucepan. Bring it to boil over a low heat until the first bubbles appear, whisking frequently. The whisk should leave a slight mark on the thickened curd. Push it through a sieve, then place in a container in the fridge until cool.

Crust:

Line a springform cake tin. Preheat oven to 180C.

In a food processor, crush the biscuits first, then add the dry ingredient, then slowly add in the melted butter. You  might not need it all, just check on the consistency of the crust, you want it to be firm when pressed, but not overly greasy.

Push it into the tin, and bake it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Leave it to cool completely in the tin.

Filling:

Beat the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add in the sour cream and vanilla.

Putting it all together:

Reduce oven temperature to about 160C

Pour half of the filling into the baking tin over the crust. Pour over half the lemon curd, then repeat with remaining filling and top with the lemon curd.  

Bake the cheesecake for about 40-45 minutes. To test when it’s ready, gently shake the tin. The centre should still wobble (it will set later) but the outside filling should be a bit more solid. 

Decorations: Just about anything fresh. I used blueberries and raspberries with white chocolate. You could candy some lemon slices, or just serve with cream or icecream. It’s also great on its own.

Carrot hummus

I love hummus. I love dipping carrots in there, and putting it on my crackers.

And then I thought, what if I put the carrot IN the hummus? Carrot hummus. I wonder if this amazing invention has been thought of before (it has).

So I powered through the stupidity of realising I hadn’t googled this before, and just decided to make it up on my own. So here it is. 

1 can chickpeas, drained

4 carrots, chopped, boiled and drained

½ onion, chopped

2 tablespoons tahina

Salt and pepper

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Put it all in the food processor, and blend until smooth. 

This makes quite a lot of hummus, maybe 2 cups, so either get ready to eat it every day for like a week or two, or plan to use on a nibblies platter.

Pizza scrolls

This is another naughty recipe. Not healthy at all. But it’s such a simple thing, a bit of a tomato-herby paste pizza sauce, and then any kind of meat or vegetable, wrap it up and chuck it in the oven. 
 Honestly, I have cooked this is in so many variations, I can’t even be sure of what the best combination is. What I can say, is that adding in delightful things such as fresh basil, coriander, cheese or salami just makes this even better. Think of it like a pizza, but just keep in mind that you still need to roll it up, so don’t load it up too high. This recipe makes quite a few scrolls, each pastry sheet makes about 10 scrolls. It’s really just a matter of whatever vegetables or meats you have, chucking them in there together. As long as it’s not too dry (ie, you’ll need more sauce if there’s no cheese)it'll taste awesome. Just note that it's best to pre-cook bacon or raw meats first.

Ingredients:

Puff pastry sheets

Sauce – tomato paste, herbs like basil, coriander, chilli, chives, dill, rosemary or garlic mixed with a bit of black pepper

Vegetables – red onion, capsicum, mushrooms, olives, artichokes, capers, tomato, chilli,

Deli items – feta, sun dried tomatoes, ham, salami, bacon etc

Cheese – any kind will do, everyone likes cheese. You don’t need a lot, since you’ll be rolling it all up pretty tight anyway.

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line baking trays

Layer everything as you would do a pizza, just make sure to leave about 2-3 centimetres at both ends so that you can roll it up easily, and have something to stick it together with.

When rolling, don’t worry if things fall out the end – when you slice it up and lay it out on the trays, you can pop these ingredients on top anyway so they won’t be wasted.

Another rolling tip, roll it tight, like sushi. Don’t be afraid to squeeze it all tightly together into a roll. It makes it easier to slice, and it won’t change the way that it looks at the end.

Once it’s rolled into a log, slice it up into 1 to 1.5 centimetre wide pieces. Lay them flat on a greased tray lined with baking paper. Don’t forget to put all those bits of veges that fell out on top of them.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. These can be frozen too.

Thai chicken sausage rolls

Another good one for entertaining. And for some reason people this is better for you than regular old beef sausage rolls. For the record, once there's pastry in there, it's not.

Ingredients:

6 sheets puff pastry

750g chicken mince

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed/diced

½ tspn ginger

½ tspn dried chilli 

3 tbspn coriander (dried or fresh)

3 tbspn sweet chilli sauce 

1 tbspn fish sauce

2 tbspn brown sugar

½ cup breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

1 egg

To glaze:

1 egg, beaten with 2 tbspn milk

 Sesame seeds or poppy seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line at least four baking trays with baking paper. (Depending on how many fit in your oven, you can always reuse them when each batch is done). 

Put all of the ingredients in a big bowl and mix well. Don’t be afraid to get there in there with your hands and mix it all in really well.

Cut each of the pastry sheets in half long ways, creating two rectangles, on each of the pastry sheets.

This is where I find it difficult to illustrate what to do. Using a fork, just serrate the edge of the pastry along three sides. Take about 2 heaped tablespoons of the mixture, even it along the length of the pastry, coming within about 1.5 to 2cm of the edge.

Using a pastry brush, brush the egg and milk mixture along the edge (to stick the pastry together) before closing it over into a little log parcel.

Using a sharp knife, cut each log into several pieces. Depending on what you fancy, anywhere from four to eight pieces.

Lay them all out on a baking tray, slightly spacing them all out.

Just before you put them in the oven, brush them with the egg and milk mixture all over, and then sprinkle them with sesame seeds. 

Pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Once cooked, they can be frozen and then just reheated when you want them. 

Sausage rolls

These sausage rolls are amazing. I make them for everything - barbecues, birthdays, any kind of event where people are drinking, I bust out these seemingly innocent sausage rolls and they are demolished. 

One of the good things about this recipe is that you can make like a billion of them, and just freeze them so they're sitting there, waiting for you when you need them.

And you'll want to eat them all. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Ingredients:

6 sheets puff pastry

500g sausage mince

400g beef mince

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, grated

2 garlic cloves

2 tspn worchestershire sauce

4 tbspn tomato sauce

Optional:

½ tspn ginger

½ tspn chilli

Herbs like Oregano, parsley or thyme

½ cup breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

1 egg

To glaze:

1 egg, beaten with 2 tbspn milk

 Sesame seeds or poppy seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line at least four baking trays with baking paper. (Depending on how many fit in your oven, you can always reuse them when each batch is done). 

Put all of the ingredients in a big bowl and mix well. Don’t be afraid to get there in there with your hands and mix it all in really well.

Cut each of the pastry sheets in half long ways, creating two rectangles out of each sheet.

This is where I find it difficult to illustrate what to do. Using a fork, just serrate the edge of the pastry along three sides. Take about 2 heaped tablespoons of the mixture, even it along the length of the pastry, coming within about 1.5 to 2cm of the edge.

Using a pastry brush, brush the egg and milk mixture along the edge (to stick the pastry together) before closing it over into a little log parcel.

Using a sharp knife, cut each log into several pieces. Depending on what you fancy, anywhere from four to eight pieces.

Lay them all out on a baking tray, slightly spacing them all out.

Just before you put them in the oven, brush them with the egg and milk mixture all over, and then sprinkle them with sesame seeds. 

Pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Once cooked, they can be frozen and then just reheated when you want them.

Quinoa salad with mango and chilli

 Ingredients:

½ cup uncooked quinoa

½ cup thai basil leaves

½ capsicum, diced

1 lebanese cucumber, diced

1 small chilli, deseeded and diced

½ purple onion or 4 spring onions, fried

1 mango, chopped into chunks

Zest/juice of 1 lemon or good squirt of lemon juice

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Good crack of black pepper

Optional extras:

Grilled prawns or chicken

Sunflower seeds

Pumpkin seeds

Diced tomato

Spinach

parsley

Cook the quinoa in 2 cups of water, with about half of the thai basil. Boil for about 10 minutes, or until al dente.

Meanwhile, fry up the onion in a small frypan.

Add everything into a big salad bowl!