On days when G has an early start, or Oscar is a bit clingy, eating a healthy breakfast can be a bit tricky. Here’s my solution: breakfast made the night before! My inspiration came from cafes at Heathrow airport.

Take some frozen berries, fruit yogurt and muesli.

Layer the the ingredients in a regular glass. Cover and refrigerate overnight, so the berries can defrost. Voila! Breakfast can be eaten, one-handed, in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.

It’s super easy and tasty. And you can alter your berries and yogurt for some variety. I like Carmen’s muesli in the yellow pack, but G says it’s too cinnamon-y. Any suggestions for a new box would be welcome!

Woolworths recently had flan cases at half price so I just had to buy one (ahem, three). But since they had no purpose, it became a question of what to put in them. This lemon tart recipe from the back of the box came to the rescue. It uses only a few ingredients and can be made from start to finish in about 35 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 Woolworths Flan Case (probably best to use this one as the filling fills it perfectly)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup thickened cream

Enjoy! We certainly did! I was surprised that something so quick and easy could taste so good.

You may be thinking, if the recipe is on the box, why post it here? Well, this way I can find the recipe again if they change the packaging, or buy the complementary ingredients at the same time as the flan case when online shopping. See? I’m not nuts after all.

Just found my new fave pancake recipe. It’s tasty, but more importantly it’s simple. The pancakes are light and fluffy without spending time beating egg whites.

We experimented with the recipe because we were trying to use up leftover buttermilk from when Gerrod made a red velvet cake earlier in the week (yum!). You may not have buttermilk lying around, but it’s in the supermarket right by the milk and cream, and has a use by date a few weeks long, allowing you to buy it and then try the recipe when you get around to it.

It says it serves four people but I’d say three is more likely. We almost finished it between our two piggy appetites. Oops.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 egg
• olive oil cooking spray

Spaghetti puttanesca has become one of our favourite dishes, again because of how easy it is to keep the ingredients in stock and cook it up quickly. The most time consuming part is normally finding the recipe online to refresh my memory, but by posting it here I can overcome that hurdle!

I don’t bother measuring any of the ingredients, but it always comes out well. Lately I’ve taken to making a double batch. My reasons are two fold: 1) the leftovers make lunch or dinner the next day a breeze, 2) I recently ordered giant tins of tomatoes online by mistake and need to use them up.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 400g chopped tomatoes, tin
• 1 tbsp capers, chopped if large
• 2 anchovies, drained and chopped
• handful pitted kalamata olives, sliced
• large pinch dried chilli flakes
• 200g spaghetti
• small bunch flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• parmesan cheese

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Tip in the tomatoes, capers, anchovies, olives and chilli. Simmer for 10 minutes until thickened slightly.
2. Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions. Drain, toss with the sauce and the parsley and serve.
3. Enjoy with a sprinkling of parmesan!

Photo from jules:stonesoup‘s photostream on Flickr

I’ve recently discovered the Stonesoup blog, where a food scientist posts ideas on cheap eats, that take 10 minutes and have 5 ingredients.

Last night we tried the Broccoli with Tuna and White Bean Mash. Simple, tasty and genuinely ready in 10 minutes, without a sous chef and preheating/chopping etc. And if you use bottled lemon juice, it’s truly a pantry/freezer supper with no fresh ingredients required. Gold!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 medium can tuna in olive oil (185g / 6oz)
• 1 packet frozen broccoli (500g / 1lb)
• 1 can white beans such as cannellini (400g / 14oz)
• generous knob butter
• squeeze of lemon juice

Method

1. Heat a large frying pan over a very high heat.
2. Drain the oil from the tuna and add to the hot pan with the frozen broccoli. Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Stir broccoli, recover and cook for another 2 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, drain the white beans and place in a small bowl. Mash with a fork until you have a chunky paste. Season.
5. Test the broccoli. When it is tender and defrosted, add the tuna and butter and stir until butter is melted.
6. Turn off the heat. Add lemon juice and season the tuna broccoli mixture and serve on a bed of the white bean mash.

Even the name makes my mouth water.

I’ve tried out a bunch of brownie recipes over the years. There have been good ones, which I’ve promptly lost all record of. And there’ve been bad ones that haunt me. Like the one that just wouldn’t set, so I stayed up until something ridiculous like 2am trying to make it work. The ingredients were so expensive I couldn’t bear to pull the plug. But finally this week I’ve arrived at one that I love and think I can replicate! Therefore it is being saved for all eternity (presuming Gerrod backs this up) on gerrod.com.

Most weeks I try at least one new recipe, and lately I’ve been getting most of them from taste.com.au. The website is great, and the advanced search feature rocks. I tend to choose things that have a “freezer friendly” tick, so that I can make more than I need and fill the freezer with back up meals and snacks. This recipe is no exception.

Ingredients (serves 10)

• 125g butter, chopped
• 300g dark chocolate
• 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
• 3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 eggs
• Cocoa powder, to dust

One meal that we learned to make from Julian and Shelley was Vietnamese Rice Paper rolls, and boy am I glad we did! Actually, they’re not all that complex – simply broil some chicken, cut up whatever ingredients you want in them (our staples are carrot, avocado, and bean sprouts), then feast like kings!

We’ve made this meal now a number of times for guests, and each time I think it’s been an absolute winner. However, I must say that the real key to success is the dipping sauce, which again is very simple to make, and yet, I can never find the recipe in a timely fashion. Well, now, here it is, recorded for all time to be enjoyed by all.

(5 minutes preparation, 15 minutes standing time. Serves 2-3)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup (60ml) lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (60ml) fish sauce
• 2 fresh small red thai chillies, sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

I’ll admit that the croutons aren’t exactly a pillar of good health, but this easy Caesar salad is otherwise a total winner on the calorie front. Plus, romaine (or “cos”) lettuce is the best type of lettuce you can eat! And yes, you don’t really need a recipe in order to make a salad, but this one is really more about the dressing.

(Takes 15 minutes, Serves 2-3)

Ingredients

• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1-2 anchoives, chopped (for the dressing)
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 3 tbsp of plain greek yoghurt
• 2 hearts of romaine lettuce, chopped lengthways
• 2-3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced
• Anchoives (for the salad, optional)
• 1 chicken breast, fried and chopped (optional)
• 2 rashers bacon, fried and diced (optional)
• Croutons (optional)

Oh man, how I love me some good guac. I think the secret behind any guacamole is the garlic – not too much, but not too little!

(Takes 15 minutes, Serves 2-6)

Ingredients

• 2 medium to large avocados
• 1 lime
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 a red onion, finely diced
• A handful of coriander leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1 red chili (vary type and quantity by preference), finely diced
• Freshly ground rock salt (vary by preference)

OK, it may not really be Chellsie’s tart, but she’s the one who first made it for us, so as far as I’m concerned, she may as well have invented it. Kristy and I eat this one every few weeks and it never fails to satisfy!

(Takes 45 minutes, Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 25g butter
• 2 large red onions, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• flour, for dusting
• 450g puff pastry, thawed if frozen
• 100g feta, crumbled
• 175g black olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• shredded basil leaves, to garnish
• green salad, to serve