Simply Great Food                           ...by design 

I made these last week for a vegan workmate - a bit of an experiment (again). I made the fondant flowers first and left them to dry out overnight. I made the cake with applesauce (instead of eggs - go figure!) and the icing was the Aquafaba icing that I've posted about before. I have to say that they tasted lovely, but they didn't hold up as well as traditional butter icing - I need to work on that technique a bit more #cooking #food #photography #somethingsweet

We all know that it's far too easily to throw a slice of pizza or a doughnut down your throat at the desk when you're working late and suddenly realise that you are really hungry. One way to combat that nutritional disaster is to spend half hour the night before prepping a healthy, protein-rich lunch that will sustain you throughout the day. I love using jars for food on the go - it's a healthy way to store food (no worry of migration from plastic to food), it tastes better

So, last week I posted a photo of my version of a Protein rich pancake. but after reading up on it last week, I realised that I could make some amazing, tasty adjustments and hey viola - utterly delicious! Recipe for Protein Pancakes Mk 2 Serves 2 3 organic or free-range eggs 1/4 cup full-fat Greek Yogurt 1/4 cup water 1 tsp vanilla essence (not flavour!) 1 tbsp chia seeds 1/4 cup almond flour 2 tsp melted butter Mixed Berries & Pomegranate seeds 2 tbsp toasted flaked almonds

Here is another carb-light, yet pretty special, week-end dinner. I used some pork fillet for this dish - it's a real crowd pleaser when cooked with mushrooms, a bit of mustard, capers and cream. I fried some savoy cabbage with garlic, chilli, smokey bacon & red onion in some yummy Kalamata Olive Oil - the combination is dynamite! Recipe for Creamy Pork & Cabbage Serves 3 1/2 Savoy Cabbage - thinly sliced 2 tbsp olive oil 2 crushed garlic 1/2 a finely chopped chilli 2 stri

I'm trying to cut back on carbs just now - I have been reading so much recently about how diet can affect my miserable hypothyroid condition, so I'm thinking "Hey - it's worth a try". I aim to find a substitute for all the grains I cook for the family. How better to embrace the challenges than to share the "side by sides" here. Remember that epic soup that was made earlier on in the week? Well, traditionally, we follow a whole chicken with delicious broth and make risotto

I love pancakes. Growing up in Canada sort of made that de rigueur. Back in the '60's my Mom was quite ahead of her time as our pancakes were made from scratch (and not Aunt Jemima's mix - though, in truth, there's not a lot wrong with Aunt Jemima's!!) with buckwheat (instead of regular wheat), oil (instead of butter - of course, we now know that butter is best), the milk was skimmed, and of course, nothing substituted real Grade A Maple Syrup (and nothing ever should!). I

I love Tiramisu - it quite simply covers all the bases. It is easy enough to put together and serve at a casual lunch or you can take it up a notch and get a bit heavy-handed with the liqueur with fresh fruit and deliver a very special occasion dish - we have had it on Christmas as an alternative to the traditional pudding and at one very special Christmas, where we had 14 around the table, I made them in 250ml Mason jars (so pretty and so much easier to serve when its done

Sunday - a chill out day that I can really enjoy making an extra effort with our family meal. Today I really wanted to get away from our traditional slow-cooked beef ragu, pasta & salad - I got it into my head that I'd like to try a duck dish and, looking for inspiration, I checked out the back copies of the LCBO Food & Drink Magazine - now happily, available on-line. I came across a Thai-inspired recipe for Duck Curry and incredibly, we had all the ingredients in our store

A while ago I experimented with the "Cupcakes in a jar" craze that was around for a while. I had brought back some very pretty 250ml Mason jars that I had bought for pretty cheap in Canadian Tire and baked chocolate cupcakes in the jar, topped with a very nice "ombre" pink & white icing, labelled and decorated the jars - I think they looked amazing and thought they might work for weddings or girly parties .... Recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes 4 eggs 200g caster sugar 200g butte

I had some roasted aubergines and roast peppers left over from a wee dinner party earlier on in the week, so I made a simple sugo and added the roast veg to the cooked tomato sauce. Aubergines have an incredible meaty quality that works really well for the Carnivores among us who enjoy eating veggie once in a while. Portobello Mushrooms are the same - its possible to enjoy a great veggie burger made with roast mushroom, peppers & a crunchy onion ring with no sign of any soy