I wanted something quick and easy to cook, that was full of flavour and easy to take to work for lunch. Something that was going to keep me full, but was also nutritious and delicious and preferably vegetarian. I’m not a vegetarian, but try to only eat meat once a day, and try to have a few meat-free days a week. So most days I have a meatless lunch and have meat at dinner. I decided to attempt a chickpea and pumpkin curry.

I’ve made curries before, but they’ve never turned out very well. I’m not even sure what went wrong. Perhaps it’s that I’m not really that crash hot on curries to start with and that they didn’t taste the way I had envisioned. Majorly disappointing! Anyhow, I decided to give one a go…again. I didn’t follow a recipe, just kind of knew what I wanted it to taste like and just went with my taste buds. Lucky for me, this time it worked out and was super delicious! It was creamy and thick and full of flavour. It’s better on the second and third day, the flavours seem to intensify and get better with age.

It’s a quick and easy recipe to make and is a great way to use up leftover roasted veggies. You can substitute lentils for the chickpeas if you prefer. You can also use either regular potatoes or sweet potato, either works and is yum! Even though it’s a vegetarian recipe I think meat lovers would find this a satisfying and hearty lunch or dinner meal. If you’re a vegan use a vegan stock and leave out the yoghurt.

Ingredients:

1/4 Jap or kent pumpkin
3 medium potatoes/1 medium sweet potato
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 x 400g tin coconut milk
1 large brown onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 thumb size piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 heaped tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 cup chicken/vegetable stock
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
Salt and pepper
Coriander and Greek yoghurt to serve

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Cut pumpkin and potato into 1 cm diced pieces and toss in 1 tbsp of olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake in oven for 30 mins or until golden and tender.
2. Heat a large saucepan and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onions and cook on low for 5 minutes until soft. Add garlic, ginger, spices and curry powder and cook for a minute until fragrant. Add tomato paste and cook for another minute.
3. Add chickpeas and stir to combine. Stir in the coconut milk, stock and roasted vegetables and simmer on a low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve over rice, quinoa, couscous or steamed greens, or by itself with a big scoop of yoghurt and a heap of chopped fresh coriander. This is also delicious with flat bread or pappadums.

I love cooking a roast chicken – or any roast for that matter – especially with homemade gravy. I get a little perplexed that a lot of people my age are completely ignorant when it comes to proper gravy. Gravox or powdered gravy isn’t gravy. It’s gross. Plus, after you’ve put in hours of care to make the perfect roast why wouldn’t you put all those delicious pan juices to good use?! I think a roast chicken is one of the easiest things in the world to make, and this method ensures that the meat stays super tender and juicy every single time. Yes, I’ve cooked probably close to a hundred chickens like this (or so it feels) and I’ve never had one turn out anything but perfect. So all you young people who can’t make gravy – here is your chance. It’s easy. It’s delicious. You’ll never eat any other kind of gravy other than home made again. Promise!

I often cook this recipe on a weekend and can get about 8 portions from a whole chicken. I usually freeze the leftover shredded meat in single-serve portions in zip-lock bags…this way I have shredded roast chicken on hand for other recipes or leftovers.

Ingredients:

Roast chicken:

– 1 large raw chicken (about 2kg)

– 1 cup chicken stock

– 2 medium brown onions

– Olive oil

– Salt & pepper to taste

– 8 sprigs of rosemary

– 4 – 5 cloves garlic

– vegetables to serve

Gravy:

2 tbsp plain flour

2 tbsp butter or fat skimmed off top of roasting juices

Roasting juices

Hot water

Method:

Chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Wash chicken in cold water (to remove any juices/bits that stick in package). Make sure you thoroughly wash the inside cavity.

3. Pat down with paper towel to dry and stuff the inside cavity with rosemary and garlic.

4. Chop onions into 1cm thick slabs and lay in a roasting dish.

5. Rub whole bird with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

6. Lay chicken BREAST SIDE DOWN on the layer of onions and pour in the chicken stock.

7. Place roasting dish in oven and cook for required time, turning the chicken over halfway through – so the chicken is now the right way up. (Cooking time – I allow 30 mins/500g – seems to work out every time as long as you allow enough resting time once cooked).

8. Once chicken is cooked remove from tray and rest BREAST SIDE DOWN – this allows all the juices to run into the breast, making it super moist and juicy – and covered in foil. Rest for approximately half an hour prior to serving.

Gravy

9. Tip all roasting tray juices into a tall mug/bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. You’ll be able to see all the fat sitting on top of the juices. Skim fat off top and discard (I usually place some paper towel into a bowl and tip the fat in there and then put in bin – much better than tipping it down the sink!).

10. Heat pan on stove top and add butter/roasting fat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute.

11. Add remaining roasting juices to flour mix and whisk until smooth. Cook on low for 5-8 minutes, adding water until you get the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve – serve roasted chicken with preferred vegetables and top with gravy.

I love rolled oats…I have them for breakfast every morning and use them regularly in my baking. I’ll sometimes even cook up porridge for dessert in winter time…it’s warm, comforting and way healthier than pudding or cake. Having them cooked/prepared the same way every day can get a little boring though, so finding new ways of using oats is always awesome. I found a recipe for an apple peanut butter oat slice and decided to alter the recipe slightly and add some extra ingredients. (The original recipe is here: http://happyhealthymama.com/2012/11/apple-peanut-butter-snack-bars.html )

These are packed full of both fresh and dried fruit, and are moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I think you could vary the recipe in many ways and they would still turn out pretty well. The original recipe cooked them in a lamington tin and then cut up once cooked – I think making them in muffin tins is way easier, and they’re a little crumbly, so this seems to hold them together well. They’re super easy to mix up and don’t take long to cook. I made a batch of 12 and I’ve already eaten 2, so I don’t think they’ll last long!!

Healthy fruit & oat muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup dried fruit (I used sultanas, dried cranberries and diced dried apricots)

1 apple, cored and grated (leave the skin on!)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 egg, beaten

3 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter (or any nut butter of choice)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

2. Add oats, dried fruit, grated apple, cinnamon and vanilla to a large mixing bowl.

3. Heat the peanut butter and honey in the microwave for 40 seconds and add to oat mix. Add banana and egg and stir until combined. Spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until tops and edges are golden brown. Cool for half an hour before running a butter knife around the edge of each muffin to remove from tin.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Can be frozen and reheated in the microwave.

Serves 12.

You could always use less oats and substitute other ingredients like desiccated/shredded coconut, quinoa (cooked or puffed), chopped nuts, sunflower seeds etc or add LSA mix, flaxseed or chia seeds.

You can add whatever dried fruit you like – it would be delicious with dates, figs, prunes, currents, raisins or dried apple. I think you could also use other fruits in this dish – try pear instead of the apple, add cherries, chopped peach, apricot or plum. You could always add some extra antioxidants by adding dark chocolate chips…because antioxidants are important!!

Get experimental – there are a million possibilities – just have a go!

Let me know if you make these and any variations you try – I’l be interested to see what other people come up with! 🙂

I’m one of those people who starts to think about what I’m going to have for dinner at breakfast time. I drove my mother mad when I was a young kid, asking her at breakfast before school every morning what we were having for dinner. Cooking isn’t my mum’s favourite thing to do – far from it in fact…so needless to say I caused a whole lot of undue stress every morning with this simple question.

So yesterday I was racking my brain all day with what ingredients I had available in the fridge/cupboard, and what I was going to do with them. I’d seen several recipes for zucchini boats on Pinterest – so decided to experiment a little bit and make my own version. I had only intended on eating one half of my zucchini and save the other half for lunch the next day – but I couldn’t not eat it – it was truly that delicious. This was super easy to cook, minimal effort, cheap ingredients, and most importantly was amazingly tasty. Try it – you won’t regret it!!

Ingredients:

– 2 medium zucchini

– 1 x 400g tin lentils (I used brown lentils)

-1 medium brown onion, diced

– 1 large carrot, grated

– 5 cloves garlic, chopped finely

– 1 small hot chilli – seeds removed, chopped finely

– 2 tbsp tomato paste

– 1 tbsp olive oil

– 1 x 400g tin diced tomatoes

-1 teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander seeds, turmeric and smoked paprika

– salt and pepper to taste

– 1/2 cup tasty cheese (use hummus if you are making the vegan version)

– sour cream and fresh lime wedges to serve (leave out sour cream if vegan)
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Add olive oil to a saucepan and cook onion until soft. Add garlic, chilli, spices and salt & pepper and cook until aromatic. Add carrot and lentils and cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and cook for another minute. Add diced tomatoes and cook mixture for 10 minutes.

3. Cut zucchini in half lengthways and scoop out seeds and some flesh to make ‘boats’. Place boats onto a baking tray and fill with lentil taco mix. Top with cheese (or hummus for vegan version) and cook in the oven for about half an hour or until the cheese is melted and zucchini is tender.

4. Serve with a wedge of fresh lime and dollop of sour cream.

Serves 4.

Optional extras:

You could also add guacamole or a fresh salsa to serve with this.

Guacamole:

Mash 1 avocado, juice of half a lime, 1/2 clove of garlic – finely chopped, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper or chilli powder, and salt and pepper to taste.

Salsa:

Mix 1 small cucumber – diced, 2 medium tomatoes – diced, 1/4 red onion or 3 spring onions – diced, 1 tbsp olive oil, juice 1/2 lime and salt and pepper to taste.