I never want you to sit at my table and find nothing you can eat. ~ Nicole Cody Hey, Lovelies. Throughout my life I have been on many restricted diets because of my health. There have been times when I have turned up to parties or dinners with my own food in tupperware containers. […]
Simple Savoury Dishes and Dessert for a Fabulous Easter Feast
Simple soup, meal, sides and dessert ideas for you and your family this Easter. Vegan and vegetarian options too!
Easy White Bean Stuffed Zucchini
This quick and easy zucchini dish is great as a vegetarian or vegan main course, or as tasty side. Enjoy!
Stupidly Adoring Cauliflower
I must have flowers, always, and always. Claude Monet Hey, Lovelies. I know, I know. Cauliflower is not what most people consider worthy of a blog post. And it’s certainly something most people don’t get particularly excited about. Except me. I have a wonderful local fruit and vegetable shop where I can order online and […]
Franc’s Tasty Beans And Rice One Pot Meal Recipe
When you’re down on your luck and you’ve lost all your dreams there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans. Tom Waits Hey, Lovelies! Early last year I found myself in Arizona – first in Scottsdale, and then in and around Sedona. As an Australian, one of the things that wowed me was […]
Cheesy Vegetable and Walnut Bake (Can be Vegan too!)
Some foods are so comforting, so nourishing of body and soul, that to eat them is to be home again after a long journey. To eat such a meal is to remember that, though the world is full of knives and storms, the body is built for kindness. Eli Brown Hey, Lovelies. I was tired […]
The Blessings of My Neglected Garden
I wanted to rest my eyes on green meadows. I wanted to sit on green grass under the shade of a green tree. I wanted to eat cool green salads. I longed for arugula tossed with olive oil and parmesan, for asparagus tips dripping with melted butter, for a salad of sweet and bitter green […]
Easy Two Egg Omelette Recipe
You can eat an omelet at midnight, at lunchtime, all day long. It’s perfect for every occasion. Wolfgang Puck Hey, Lovelies!One of my favourite breakfasts is a quick omelette. But just like the quote says, it’s an easy meal at any time of day, and I’ve been known to whip one up for dinner when […]
Ten Easy Vegetables To Grow At Home with Limited Space
“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. ” […]
Stir-Fried Mushroom, Asparagus, Zucchini and Tomato Recipe
“We should all be eating fruits and vegetables as if our lives depend on it – because they do.” ~ Michael Greger Hello, Lovelies!Last week my husband Ben and I sat at out kitchen table with Trish Lyons, my wonderful PA, and our neighbours, Richard Jones and Jo Immig. We spent the night talking about […]
Pov Pie – A Cheesy Beany Comfort-Food Cheap Eat!
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Saying Hello, Lovelies! Back in my student days, I lived in share-houses. We pooled our money to pay the rent, to buy food, and to pay for expenses. Share houses guaranteed you a social life, and household duties could be shared. Hooray! Or […]
Easy Fried Plantains Recipe
‘Plantains? Cook ’em up and you can’t go wrong. We’ll tell you how. They go with everything, love.’ Neville Singh Hello, Lovelies, You’ll probably know that one of my favourite places on a Friday is the Mullumbimby Farmers Markets, and it was here that I was first convinced to give Plantains a go, thanks to […]
Easy Oven Baked Whole Potatoes
“Not everyone can be a truffle. Most of us are potatoes. And a potato is a very good thing to be.” ~ Massimo Bottura I love baked potatoes. They go well as a side dish for barbeques and salads, but you can also load them up with toppings and have them as a meal on their own. […]
Easy Stuffed Capsicum Bell Pepper Recipe
I’m crazy for leftovers. There is something completely satisfying about cooking a large batch of something and then being able to make easy meals for days. One of our favourite easy meals is leftovers stuffed into capsicum (bell peppers) and baked, with cheese added near the end for some satisfying melty goodness. When you bake red capsicums they end up so sweet and tender. Yum!
Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potato Salad with Lime and Garlic Dressing #Vegan
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?” ~ A. A. Milne It’s a known fact that historically Ben won’t eat two things – Brussels Sprouts and Cottage Pie (which he calls Poo Pie!) after bad experiences at boarding school back in […]
Five Dishes to Cook for a Fabulous Easter Feast
“ Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love. ” ~ Craig Claiborne If you’re looking for inspiration for a tasty and easy meal to share with your family this Easter I have some simple suggestions for you. There’s a creamy Celery Soup for starters, […]
Easy Sweet Potato and Apple Bake – Savoury
“I’m eating’ it quick… but I’ll remember it a long time.” ~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings I would love to say that I had a picture of this awesomely delicious little bake intact and looking as amazing as it did when it was still in one piece. But I don’t because we gobbled it up for […]
Easy Kale and Orange Salad with Miso Dressing
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates This is a super-scrummy salad that is easy to prepare and chock full of goodness. It’s satisfying enough that you could eat a bowl on its own, but it’s also a great side for roasts and barbeques. I use kale leaves as […]
Ruby Grapefruit and Asparagus Salad
‘Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?’ ~ Curly Howard This is such a simple salad, and it’s easy to throw together, but it tastes like a celebration! It might seem like a little work to segment the grapefruit, but it makes for a pretty result, and no chewy pith or seeds! Serve this […]
Mango Salsa Recipe
“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything […]
Hasselback Potatoes? Opera House Potatoes? Best Ever Baked Potato Recipe!
“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” ~ Alan Watts When I was little my grandmother used to cook these potatoes when we visited for Sunday Roast, only she didn’t call them Hasselback potatoes. Marga called them Opera House Potatoes, because […]
Easy Green Sauce for Potatoes, Pasta or Meats
“She pulls on her heavy boots and carries the water bucket past the rose bushes, past the herb garden, and back to the barn behind the house. Her steps kick up the scents of herbs: thyme, mint, and lemon balm. The plants send up new stems each year from the roots that survived the […]
Simple Tomato Salad
“Like all magnificent things, it’s very simple.” ~ Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting One of my favourite salads involves ripe tomatoes, a little oil and a handful of herbs picked fresh from the garden. Right now my Spring vegetable garden is still in its infancy, and my tomatoes are not yet ripe. But I found […]
Easy Tomato and Onion Gravy
Q. Why is a tomato round and red? A. Because if it was long, skinny, and green, it would be a bean. My grandmother used to cook a batch of this sauce every week, and use it for a variety of purposes. I learned to make this recipe by avidly watching her and, bit by […]
Roast Cauliflower and Pomegranate Salad
Fun fact #1 about pomegranates: Pomegranates are awesome. Fun fact #2: Pomegranates are like little explosions of awesome in your mouth. Fun fact #3: A lot of people think you’re not supposed to eat the seeds of a pomegranate – but that’s not true, people who tell you that are liars, and they don’t know […]
Tasty Green Bean Salad Recipe with Miso Dressing
“What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.” ~ Augustus Saint-Gaudens I love salads any time of year – as a main event, or as a side for anything from soup to roasts. I made this one to go with a roast lamb dinner. The crunchy beans paired with the salt of the cheese, the […]
Easy Cheese and Herb Scones
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” ~ Henry David Thoreau A friend came over for dinner last night. Or rather, I should say that a friend dropped by our little farmhouse at dinner time. These […]
Spicy Roast Carrot and Apple Warm Salad Recipe
Now Hare This ~ McKimson-1958 Oh the carrots that bloom in the spring time I’d rather have carrots than fish Or pheasants or fowl or even an owl In fact they are my favorite dish. This delicious warm salad is a tasty accompaniment to most meats and fish, and is equally satisfying when eaten cold. The buttery […]
Roasted Pear and Root Vegetable Salad Recipe
“It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption.” ~ Edward Bunyard, The Anatomy of Dessert I love my salads, but winter is a time better suited to warm foods and slow foods. The solution? A […]
Tasty Asian Flavours Quinoa – Virtual Vegan Potluck 2013
“Eating superfoods won’t turn you into a superhero, but it might help you look better in Lycra.” ~ Nicole Cody Quinoa (pronounced keen- wah) is touted as one of the latest ‘superfoods’ and apparently all the cool and beautiful people have recently discovered it. As you well know, I’m not in the ‘cool and beautiful’ […]
Stir Fried Sweet Potato, Mushroom and Broccoli Recipe
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ~ Virginia Woolf Food isn’t just food. Food is also a healing tool. A spiritual tool. A way to give love and care to self and others. If you want to think about this recipe as just food then this is what […]
Rustic Potato Bake Recipe
“Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure.” ~ Thornton Wilder, Our Town I love cooking, and not surprisingly most of our visitors seem to end up dropping in around meal times. This creamy potato bake is easy to make (like all my recipes!) and I whipped this one up to feed the extra hungry mouths that […]