• Creamy Nacho Pasta Salad
    DINNER INSPIRATION,  RECIPES,  SUMMER BBQ

    Creamy Nacho Pasta Salad

    ​When it comes to food, I love experimenting! Thankfully, DH & the kids are normally quite adventurous too – just as well, as most of the cooking is done by moi 😀 Most of the time we do stick to the “normal” fare as it’s easier not to experiment when there’s a 5 year old & a 2 year ready to eat anything by the time dinner rolls around 😛  Sometimes though, especially during the weekends, I get to try out some of the things I’ve found in stores or have been sent.  So every so often on the blog, you’ll find a recipe for something not quite “the norm”…

  • Beetroot Jelly Red Velvet Trifle
    CHRISTMAS TREATS,  RECIPES,  THE WEEKEND BAKER

    Beetroot Jelly Red Velvet Trifle

    I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of traditional dark Christmas cake.  After a full on lunch & dinner, the last thing I want to partake in is a huge slice of Christmas Cake full of dried fruit.  Plus all that dried fruit can have rather .. ummm… interesting affects on one’s stomach 😛 I prefer the lighter Christmas dessert of trifle, which is usually made with jelly, custard, sponge cake and a bit of booze :P, but this is my version for this year.  I’ve used a ready made red velvet cake, which cut down on my prep time, and made a beetroot jelly out of prepackaged beetroot…

  • Slow Cooker Dal Gosht
    SLOW COOKER MEALS

    Slow Cooker Dal Gosht Recipe

    Whilst I’m not a big fan of winter, I LOVE winter comfort foods.  Mention pasta bakes, hotpots, puddings & I’m there 😛 For me, the number one comfort food is a good old pot of dal gosht.  A South African Indian recipe that includes lamb, lentils & spices (turmeric, chilli, coriander, cumin, cloves, cinnamon) merged into a melting pot of warmth & comfort.  This was one of the best thing to come home to after a long day at school 🙂   This recipe I adapted from my mother’s recipe, handed down from her mother, into a slow cooker recipe.  I’ve cooked it in the Russell Hobbs Searing Slow Cooker, which…

  • Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Pasta Bake
    DINNER INSPIRATION

    Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Pasta Bake

    Like many mums I am very time poor during the week, so a lot of the time dinners can be very basic & thrown together in 15 minutes (if that!).  Sometimes it’s oven baked nuggets & chips 😛 Sometimes it’s leftovers in another form.  I try not to cook different meals for each person but sometimes it comes down to what’s easiest to feed them (feeding a toddler mash potato without an absolute mess is something I have not quite mastered yet :P). With this throw together pasta bake dinner, it always amazes me that despite hating broccoli, my kids love it.  No idea how that happened, but if it…

  • RECIPES,  THE WEEKEND BAKER

    Dairy Free, Egg Free Lemon Cake

    So if you’ve been on the internet long enough, you’ve probably come across more than a few recipes for “Crazy Cake” or “Depression Cake” – a recipe for a cake without dairy or eggs!  Originally, these recipes came about because eggs and dairy products were expensive or rationed, but these days they’re perfect for those of us with food allergies.    Usually, the recipe calls for white vinegar, but since I couldn’t find any in the house on the day I tried this cake out, I substituted with some lemon juice I had in the fridge.  I figured the vinegar was needed as an acid, so why not try it with…

  • Banana Jam Recipe
    LUNCHBOX TREATS

    Banana Jam Recipe

    I’ll be honest; before I had kids, I hated bananas. Despite having banana trees in my parent’s garden as a child, the only way I’d ever eat one was just as it turned yellow so it was still hard. And it wasn’t even the actual fruit, it was anything banana flavoured as well! Whilst I’m still not a big fan of artificial banana flavouring, ever since I had master 4 I don’t hate bananas anymore. Weird aye?  I still dislike them very soft though, so any softer bananas end up as banana bread or better yet, banana cake.  After a while though, banana cake gets a tad boring, so new…