This recipe is super sticky, tasty and overall scrummy. It has a middle eastern flavour to it, thanks to the spice mix and is pretty hard to mess up! The flavour base is rich and sticky thanks to the tomatoes, dates and onions and pairs beautifully with your favourite carb to soak up all the juices and possibly some steamed veggies and side salad to freshen up the richness.

Building a delicious flavour base from whole food ingredients is completely possible, rendering pre-made packet flavour mixes and gravy quite average. You can use these similar flavours or change the spices when slow cooking other animal proteins such as pork or chicken.

I highly recommend cooking this on a weekend when you have some extra time in the day and storing left overs for mid week, go-to meals when you are stranded for time. Throwing together some rice and salad to go with it will leave you nourished and satisfied on those days you are pressed for time. I hope you enjoy!

Without mucking about, I honestly am in love with this breakfast. The beauty of bircher muesli is that it is really open to adjusting the quantities of milk, water and yoghurt as you prefer. I like mine a little more milky versus my husband who prefers half the milk substituted with more yoghurt. Obviously, the topping options you can choose are endless and any seasonal fruits, compotes and nuts will make for an ever changing and interesting flavour combination.

My most favourite thing about Bircher Muesli is that it is mostly made the night before you need it and keeps for at least three days! This has no doubt saved me, in my morning frenzy, getting the troops ready for school drop off, so many times! Just a couple of big spoonfuls of bircher, a drizzle of raw honey and a scattering of mixed berries, and breakfast is ready! I love knowing that my family is heading out the door with a healthy, wholesome and sustaining breakfast. It will most certainly keep small and bigger tummies full till lunch time without spiking sugar levels throughout the morning.

Oats are a brilliant and concentrated source of fibre and nutrients with an endless list of health benefits for all ages. I urge you to put down that cereal box and make it your resolution to starting your day with a much more wholesome breakfast, I promise, you wont look back!

BIRCHER MUESLI

A nourishing bowl of goodness ready and waiting for you every morning. A family favourite breakfast whether you are in a rush or enjoying a lazy weekend breakfast. This Bircher Muesli recipe is quick, easy and wonderfully healthy. It will keep you full for hours and will not doubt become your ‘go to’ recipe for a wholesome, delicious breakfast.

Bircher Ingredients

• 2 cups jumbo or steel cut oats
• ¼ cup dessicated coconut
• ⅓ cup raisins (without veg oil coating)
• ¼ cup flaked almonds
• 1 cup coconut water
• 1¼ cup whole organic milk or nut milk (no additives)
• ½ cup organic natural yoghurt
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 small apples (grated)
• 1 orange (zest & juice)

Cooked Pears – optional

• 2 pears (peeled, cored, cut into ¼'s)
• 1 orange (juice only (can use zest in the muesli mixture))
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 vanilla pod (seeds scraped out)
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar

For the Bircher

1. In a medium bowl, combine all the Muesli ingredients and give it a good mix till well combined. Make sure all the ingredients are well hydrated in the liquid, leaving no dry bits.

2. Cover the bowl and leave in the fridge over night to soak.

3. Top with your favourite fruity and/or nutty ingredients in the morning, including these cooked pears which you can also make the night before too.

For the Cooked Pears

1. Place all the ingredients for the cooked pears into a small pot and heat on the stove on a medium heat. Cover with a lid so the steam helps to cook the pears. If it seems a bit dry, add a little more water at intervals to keep the steam going and to create a syrup. Cook for 10 mins or soft to your liking.

2. Allow the pears to cool before storing in the fridge. Use both the cooked pears and the syrup over the top of your muesli once you’re ready to eat it.

Bircher muesli and the cooked pears keep well in the fridge for about 4 days. Its worth making a good sized batch for a handy, nutritious breakfast, ready to eat in minutes.

Dairy Free? – Replace dairy with coconut milk or coconut water. Avoiding commercial nut milks and coconut yoghurt which are filled with questionable ingredients.

Breakfast

healthy, nourishing, wholefood

Sometimes, even those who love to cook and create in the kitchen feel less than inspired. At times I’m buzzing with ideas, and then other times, just completely blank when thinking of new ways to excite the family at dinner time. This is when my husband reassuringly reminds me, ‘just keep it simple…no need to reinvent the wheel.’ My Chicken Cacciatore dish is one of those simple, rustic, everyday meals that is packed with flavour but requires very little effort. The work is predominantly done with a closed lid, in the oven. I love those meals! Don’t you?! My children love it because of the olives, so I am quite generous with my quantity. Feel free to scale them as you prefer.

Traditionally and Italian meal and known as, ‘Hunters Chicken Stew’, this meal looks very much like a hunter would sit down to it after a day out in the fields along with a well-earned bottle of red wine. Rustic, earthy and simple, with the sauce begging to be mopped up with a chunky slice of Italian bread. Prepped and cooked in an hour and a half, however, I don’t see why you couldn’t leave it at a low temperature in a slow cooker throughout the day. The chicken will be wonderfully juicy and literally melt in your mouth. If you try it, let me know how it works! Feel free to substitute black olives for green, white wine for red, cherry tomatoes for a can of tomatoes. It’s really quite forgiving.

One thing I will always advise is to use the best quality stock you can, or homemade stock is even better. Keep an accumulation of chicken bones in your freezer from your roast chicken dinners along with some chicken feet from your local butcher. Boil the bones with some chopped carrots, celery, bay leaves and seasoning for a good few hours, till it’s wonderful and flavoursome. Allow the stock to cool before storing in ice-cube trays, silicone muffin moulds or baby food moulds. By making a big batch, you have an excellent flavour base for virtually any meal that requires braising, for soups and even for risotto’s. Just pop in a frozen cube or two and you will definitely thank yourself for the time you took to make it.

I hope this meal is helpful when you too have a day where reinventing the ‘dinner wheel’ is the furthest thing from your mind. Enjoy! xxx

Given my Italian background, I am kind of obsessed with polenta. Growing up in South Africa in an Italian family, I remember my mum using this wonderful ingredient to accompany meat dishes cooked in tomato based sauces. Polenta is a common dish in Northern Italy (where my mum’s family is from), thus coining Northern Italians the name ‘polentoni’ – big polenta’s. A nostalgic dish, which I remember in particular, was Italian sausages cooked in a tomato and onion based sauce, served over a bed of oozy, creamy, polenta and a good grating of parmesan cheese. This hearty meal is a fond memory of food that takes me back to my roots and my childhood. Hence, I am always keen to use it, like here where I fry the left over polenta to make polenta chips. If you haven’t tried these, you need to do so with the left overs from this dish! It’s a bit naughty but totally delightful! 😉

Inspired, last week, by the talented folk at Pinch of Yum, I was quick to act in making a similar dish that used my beloved polenta. What I love about this dish is that it can be easily eaten on its own as a vegetarian meal, packed with nutrient dense veggies OR, as a side dish to accompany a roast dinner or meat of any kind. I quite easily could have eaten it on its own, my husband however, being the meat-eating cave man he is, enjoyed it with some oven roasted, beef eye fillet.

By sautéeing such simple veggies in a little bit of butter and garlic, completely changes their flavour profile. Yes you can reduce the butter content in the entire dish, however, I think that’s what makes this dish so hearty and satisfying to eat on its own, not to mention totally yummy!

Please, what ever you do, do NOT buy the already made, packaged polenta. That stuff is, in nice terms, horrid! You can buy ‘quick cook’ polenta meal at any grocery store near the dried pulses, couscous etc… It is super easy and fast to make! Cooked in salted boiling water or stock, as per packet instructions and you have a great replica of traditional polenta in a matter of minutes.  Traditional polenta takes up to an hour of slow cooking to really release the starch. You can read a great article about the art of cooking polenta here if you’re interested. But for everyday cooking, the ‘quick cook’ stuff is just fine!

To me, this meal seemed to emulate a hearty roast dinner with a bit of a twist. It most certainly left us very content. I hope you enjoy my Polenta with Roasted Tomatoes and Sautéed Veggies. I would love to hear about a family meal you had as a child that triggers fond memories for you!

xxx

On my recent trip to London (which I am still in the process of writing about) I had the blissful experience of visiting the Borough markets. Among the countless stalls of heavenly artisan products, I came across a raw honey stall belonging to a friendly couple whose company is called From Field and Flower. Avid food lovers themselves, they source the most delicious raw honey from the UK, Tasmania, Italy and Sweden. Check out their honey selection online and a bit about their story.  After struggling to make a decision as to which honey I would purchase, I settled on two, the Apricot variety from the Italian Honey Creme range and the Swedish wildflower creamed Honey. I cannot explain the flavours! The bees making their honey must pollinate in the most luscious habitats. Seriously mind-blowing sweetness and flavours!

I’ve been waiting for the right time to use this treasured ingredient as I don’t want it to finish! I decided to team it with grilled peaches for dessert and flavour some mascarpone cream with the apricot infused honey. Plus of course a lovely drizzle of it over the top of the peaches too! OH MY! Was it delicious! Probably the easiest dessert I’ve ever made with such moorish flavours. Simple, tasty and oh so satisfying! Yes, I know the mascarpone adds a touch of decadence but hey, a dollop….or three…or four wont hurt! 😉 If you can find a farmers market and get your sticky fingers on a jar of gorgeous raw honey, please do so! Not only are the flavours so much tastier, the health benefits are well worth it! I have saved the Swedish wildflower creamed jar for when the family are run down. I find raw honey is the best medicine to ward off sore throats and colds due to its anti-inflammatory & antiseptic properties. Knowing the medicinal benefits of raw honey, makes eating it by the spoonful that much more difficult to stop. 😉

I hope you enjoy this dessert for all its beauty, decadence and health benefits! ;)xxx

They days are heating up in the UK, so it’s a perfect excuse to light up the barbecue, eat outdoors and soak up the late suns rays. After being in the UK for 8 months we still have not purchased a barbecue so a huge thanks to our lovely neighbours for lending us theirs for dinner! Being Aussie’s, we are well accustomed to and thoroughly enjoy our BBQ dinners. Cooking meat this way really can’t be matched on a grill pan indoors, so we were very excited to be barbecuing after such a long time away from Australia. This meal is a perfect marry of our BBQ lifestyle back in OZ, together with our mediterranean heritage, flavour combinations.

I have to be honest, my favourite thing about barbecuing is that I am not in the kitchen for very long preparing the side dishes while my husband cooks the meat. I look forward to these meals as they are quite relaxed and require very little time to put together, leaving more time to play outdoors with the kids after school.

If you’re looking for a great tasty side dish or a vegetable to add to an antipasto platter, these roasted peppers are sensational. The flavour combination is so mediterranean and authentic to my Italian heritage. It’s a recipe passed to me from my mum which makes it even more special. By slowly roasting them till their skin is charred, they become soft, velvety and super sweet. Dressed with the simplest of dressings, you are all set for your mediterranean BBQ. They might take a little bit of preparation, and you might scold your fingers while you impatiently peel off their roasted skins but they are well worth the effort and last for at least a week in the fridge. If you are having a dinner party, they are the perfect dish to make during the week and will keep beautifully till your party.

I used a delicious fresh rosemary rub for the meat to jazz up the flavour of plain steak. You can use this rub on so many meat dishes….you really can’t go wrong. Some char-grilled fresh asparagus on the side really ties in the meal beautifully.

For those of you experiencing a cooler climate right now, this meal might be the burst of sunshine you are looking for! 😉

Enjoy!

xxx