Recipes

I love having a batch of this home made muesli in the cupboard to eat. You know exactly what is going into it, and you can miss out or swap things you don't like. One batch generally lasts me a good couple of weeks when I don't have it every day. I've tried other flavours but I just keep coming back to this one. It's soooooo good :)

Apricot and Almond Muesli

Makes 8 serves

Ingredients

2 C oats
1Tbsp LSA
1/2 C sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp maple syrup
½ C pumpkin seeds
½ C sliced almonds
¼ C chia seeds
¼ C dried apricots

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Mix the oats, seeds, nuts and LSA in a bowl. Drizzle over the maple syrup and mix well. Spread the mixture out on a lined baking tray and toast until lightly brown (approximately 10 minutes).
Add all the toasted ingredients into a bowl plus the chia seeds and chopped dried apricots and mix well.
Place into an airtight jar and keep in a cool, dry place.
Serve with milk or your favourite alternative and enjoy!

When the cat's away, the mice will play... or in this case, while my dairy intolerant husband was away, I feasted on some cheesy home cooked Italian.

A few years back I lived in England and did a bit of travelling through Europe. One of my favourite places was Italy, probably in big part because of the amazing food there. I so want to go back and explore some more, and possibly even live there at some stage.

This is probably not one of the healthiest recipes around (cheese galore!), but life is for enjoying, and I definitely enjoyed this!!

I sometimes find passata hard to find so I just use tinned chopped pealed tomatoes most of the time. Try to get ones with the least number of ingredients. I love the convenience of frozen spinach. Keep some in the freezer, thaw it out and you're ready to go. If you have fresh herbs thats definitely the best way to go but I was running short so just used dried herbs, although i'm not sure on the proportions if you use fresh ones - definitely taste it as you go and see what you like!!! If you're feeling totally lazy or pushed for time feel free to use substitute this sauce for pre-made sauces, although I reckon home made is definitely best!

Serve with a big salad, some crusty bread (with lashings of olive oil), and maybe a glass of sparkling water or your favourite vino.

Cannelloni

Serves: 6 people
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

500 g spinach
250 g cottage cheese
200 g feta
1 packet fresh lasagne sheets
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
2 tins chopped pealed tomatos or passata
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried basil
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt & pepper to taste

Method

Spinach filling

If using frozen spinach, thaw out then squeeze the water out. If using fresh spinach, wilt in a frying pan then squeeze out the moisture.
In a blender mix the spinach, feta and cottage cheese (this gives it a nicer texture).
Add salt and pepper to taste

Tomato sauce

In a frying pan sauté the onion and garlic.
Add the tinned tomato or passata, the herbs and tomato paste. Heat through then add salt and pepper to taste.

Construction

Add a small amount of the sauce to the base of the dish (this stops the tubes from sticking to the bottom).
Put some of the spinach filling along the width of the lasagne sheets. Roll the lasagne sheet over into a tube shape.
Cut the lasagne sheet to cut the tube off. Place this in the dish (you can use cannelloni tubes if you like, I find this is much easier though!!).
Repeat the construction of the tubes until all the filling or pasta is used up, placing the tubes side by side in the dish.
Cover with the pasta sauce, ensuring the pasta sauce gets between the tubes.
Cover with cheese.
Bake at 180degrees for 40 minutes or until the pasta is soft. If the cheese is getting too brown cover with tin foil.
Serve and enjoy!