I’ve realised with spring nearly here my weekends of enjoying comforting winter soup are numbered! One thing to do: Get cooking! This soup is my spin on a classic. It’s really economical, easy to make, low(ish) in fat, but best of all – it’s absolutely delicious. I can’t get enough of it. Whilst I love soup, especially a creamy soup but I hate the calories, I’m forever fighting the battle of the shrinking jeans. Luckily I learnt a great tip on Weight Watchers years ago: Replace cream in soups with low fat Carnation evaporated milk! Genius: This scrimps on calories, but not taste. If you aren’t in a hurry, make this ahead of time as the flavour develops overnight… Guess what’s on the lunch menu for work this week?
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Foodie
Handmade Easy Chocolate Balls!
My buddy Caroline and her family came over for Friday Takeaway night and we whipped these up (literally for dessert). We didn’t do it quite right, but that’s OK, they tasted amazeballs (get it?!) and in any case, you can learn from our mistakes! These are so easy – and so good. So bad. But so good. I usually don’t know the meaning of the word ‘rich’ – but these are so rich, I ate three and was happily content.
Orange Syrup Pound Cake Recipe
This is orange syrup pound cake recipe isn’t mine – let’s get that out of the way! Nope, not mine, it’s from NZ Masterchef judge Ray McVinnie and it’s a recipe I’ve made regularly for close to 15 years. It’s a proper ‘grown ups’ cake, although a 13 month old came for lunch recently and he scoffed it. So I guess it’s really a cake for all ages!
Ray’s base recipe uses lemons, but my orange tree is still going bananas, so I substituted the lemons for oranges and in the syrup I reduced the sugar content as the orange juice brings additional sweetness. I’ve made this using limes too: YUM. I wrote a post a recipe a few months back that was quite similar to this one (I guess I like oranges!) but this recipe is much simpler and quicker, especially if you are lucky enough to own a cake mixer. Katie (My-Kitchen-Aid-Cake-Mixer) does a beautiful job of this for me, it’s a doddle and the cake itself only takes about 6 minutes to make. Besides, you’ve gotta love a cake that has batter requiring five ingredients (keeps the purists happy). (more…)
Winter Quinoa Salad with Roast Pumpkin
This recipe is inspired by Taste Cornucopia in Hastings, an organic cafe which never ceases to wow me with their food. They always have an incredible array of salads, packed with stuff that’s only good for you – and my favourite is their quinoa salad. I’ve had this salad for lunch at least once a fortnight for the last three and a half years and I think I’ve finally figured out how to make it almost as good as theirs! This is a fantastic winter salad.
Chicken Teriyaki recipe
We had this for dinner tonight and Hot Hubby said ‘you’ve gotta blog that’ – it’s been one of his favourite meals for at least the last decade! This meal is so easy to make, utterly scrummy and easily rivals any teriyaki dish I’ve had in an authentic Japanese restaurant. If you’ve purchased store-made teriyaki sauce in the past, you won’t anymore when you see how easy this is! On that note, I do recommend you double the recipe for the sauce and store the remaining half in a jar the fridge – it keeps well for months and bonus: You’ve got some on hand ready to go next time (or use as a stirfry sauce… Yum).
Muesli (for Hot Husbands)
I wouldn’t exactly say I’m the most domesticated wife in the world, but I do, without fail, make this muesli for Hubby every second Sunday. I’ve tried lots of muesli recipes over the years, but this our favourite based on taste and nutrition: It’s low in oil and sugar. (more…)
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Spatchcocking a chook!
Love cooking a roast chook? Dislike the cooking time? Spatchcock it!
Orange and Almond Syrup Cake – with Candied Oranges
What do you do when you live on a former citrus orchard and your orange tree goes, um, bananas? Invite friends around for lunch so you have an excuse to bake – this cake is amazing. If this recipe has a few too many steps for you, cull the candied oranges. But if you can be bothered… it turns this cake into something extra special. It would be easy to turn this into a gluten free recipe by replacing the flour with more almond meal, or using a gluten free flour substitute.
