Warm chicken, sweet potato, carrot and chickpea Moroccan salad

After roughly four and a half months of beautiful Perth summer days the weather is gradually cooling down. Despite this, I'm holding onto summer as long as I can. This salad is an attempt to hold onto summer whilst at the same time transitioning to heartier cooler weather dinners. Boo (but yay!). So while wanting something light but warming and needing to get rid of some ingredients I came up with this recipe. This salad is filling, healthy and flavourful without being bland and too starchy. Perfect for transitioning weather. The red onion retains its crunch and bite but because it is briefly softened in the oven it starts taking on a slight caramelised flavour. The seasoned and roasted chickpeas provide the perfect balance to the sweet potato and carrot without overpowering the sweet al dente vegetables. 

Preparation: 20 minutes (plus marinade time), cooking time 40 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients: 

For the roasted vegetables:
small sweet potato, peeled and diced
carrot, peeled and diced
small red onion, thickly sliced
2 garlic cloves minced

For the salad:
6 baby Roma/cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 spring onion, sliced
small handful flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

For the roasted chickpeas:
1 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil (garlic infused olive oil if you have it)
1 tsp each ground coriander/cumin, smoked paprika/cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
squeeze lemon
salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing:
3 tablespoons yogurt
Lebanese cucumber, halved length ways and sliced thinly
teaspoon crushed garlic
salt and Pepper to taste
squeeze of lemon

For the chicken:
1 chicken breast halved length ways
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 bunch fresh parsley
1/2 bench fresh coriander 

To make the marinade, combine olive oil, garlic and spices in a food processor or blender. Blitz until combined and add fresh herbs. Blend until herbs are minced. Combine the marinade and chicken in a snap lock plastic bag (or container) for at least 4 hours or overnight.

About forty minutes before serving, prepare dressing and salad base, set aside.

Combine olive oil (or garlic oil if you have it), sweet potato, carrot in an oven proof tray, season with salt and pepper and roast at 180dc for 30 minutes or until softened. Stirring every five minutes. 10 minutes before serving add garlic and red onion, return to oven.

About half way through cooking the sweet potato mixture prepare the roasted chickpeas. Combine all ingredients in a hot oven proof dish and bake for 15 minutes stirring every few minutes. Just before serving add chickpeas to roasted vegetables.

Top salad base with roasted vegetable mix and set aside until ready to serve.

To prepare the chicken you can bake, grill or BBQ. We BBQ'd ours on our pre-heated Weber for five minutes each side with the lid down. Pile sliced chicken breast onto finished salad and serve immediately with yogurt dressing.

Welcome to the most boring post in the world

I've been putting off writing this boring post because it is pretty basic and makes me seem like a boring lawyer's non-wife who gets excited about shopping lists and planning meals, when it is actually the opposite. So after three years of living in Perth I have our weekly shopping down to a fine art. To make this post a little bit more interesting here are some photos of unlikely animal best friends: 

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mothernature/20-unlikely-animal-friendships-5adf

Ahhhh so cute! Now back to the boring: 

To make things easier (and to make way for all the super fun things I have planned every weekend) we always buy the same vegies and generally just rotate recipes when we get bored (who wants to write a new shopping list each week?). New recipes are not acts of genius but stem from my need to use up ingredients. This week we had a spare sweet potato, carrot and red onion, chicken breast in the freezer, pine nuts and chickpeas in the pantry, and so had a warm chicken, sweet potato, carrot and chickpea morrocan salad for dinner last night.

If you've read my previous posts you'll know that my aim is to only go to the supermarket once a week (out of laziness - cos supermarket shopping sucks balls) and you might have noticed a trend in ingredients (can't be bothered changing it up*). Because of this I'm going to be boring and share my weekly, fortnightly and monthly shopping lists with you. 

*Actually, I think that what I'm actually trying to do is ensure that I don't spend time planning meals and asking Boyfriend what he feels like for dinner when I need to be focusing on my own work- especially when Boyfriend works long and inconsistent hours and might not even be home for dinner! Sometimes working from home and essentially working for yourself can really suck and requires a lot of self discipline, which I don't always have. So choosing from several recipes which all require the same basic ingredients eliminates time spent planning and shopping. So really being a non-wife is all about putting your own needs first and making life as a partner a little bit easier. 

But first a few tips born out of frugality, laziness and thriftiness:

- Find a quality green grocer. It is hard to find a green grocer which stocks fresh and cheap vegetables, especially in WA where a lot of produce is imported from interstate or overseas. If you happen to live in Perth  and are South of the River I go to Swansea Street Markets in East Victoria Park. The produce is fresh, budget friendly and they have a great range of continental products, quality deli and butcher.
- Wrap vegetables in plastic bags, cotton bags or these Fresh & Crisp Fruit and Vegetable Bags (available at Coles and Woolworths) to keep them fresh for longer.
- Store fresh peeled garlic in a jar full of olive oil in the fridge (keeps it crunchy and the oil is delicious too!).
- Freeze nuts to keep them fresher for longer.
- Prepare cauliflower rice by blending in a food processor, and freeze into individual servings.
- Shred corn off the cobs and freeze into individual servings.
- Pre-slice chorizo and freeze.
- Freeze fresh ginger.


And now for my lame shopping lists: 

Weekly shop:
Punnet of strawberries
3 Bananas
Punnet cherry tomatoes
2 zucchinis
2 carrots (500g)
Sweet Potato
Red capsicum
4 lemons
Avocado
2 whole tomatoes
Bunch fresh coriander

Fortnightly shop:
Bunch flat leaf parsley
Bunch spring onions
1/4 each Green/Purple cabbage
Cos lettuce
Pine nuts
Eggs
Black olives
Yogurt powder
800g Lebanese cucumbers
Fresh dill

Monthly shop:
Bag fresh peeled garlic
Cauliflower
5 chicken breasts
Bag frozen peeled local prawns
Chorizo
Ginger
2 corn cobs 
500g salt
500g dried chickpeas
500g dried french lentils

Pantry supplies:
Ground cumin
Ground premium paprika
Ground smokey paprika
Ground coriander seeds
Ground fennel seeds
Ground white pepper
Whole black pepper corn
Whole cloves
Ground cinnamon
Ground chilli powder
Ground nutmeg
Cumin seeds
Ground turmeric
Mixed peppercorns
Cardamon pods

This week we've had a healthy-ish bacon Caesar salad, vegetarian indian Dahl with cauliflower rice, tomato, and a cucumber yogurt dressing and have made up my summer zucchini 'pasta' with roasted capsicum sauce for lunches as well as some cucumber pickles.  I ended up having dinner at my sisters house last night as the boyfriend was working late and on Fridays we have home made pizzas if we're home (more on these recipes later) 

As a side note most of the recipes featured on this blog are focused around digestive health, and foods with anti-inflammatory properties - so yeah they're pretty healthy but still delicious.
 
 Wow! So we did it - we got through the most boring post of all time! The next few posts will feature recipe ideas and weekly menu plans based on the shopping list from this post. Woo hoo! Let's all be lawyer non-wives together!

Cheers, Jess

March Lunches

Well. It finally happened, we've finally moved on from Vietnamese rice noodle salad. For how long I'm not so sure - when we find something that works we tend to keep it around for a long time. Last winter we had baked zucchini with almost every meal for months and now I can't stand the thought of eating it. I don't want that to happen to this lunch favourite so it's out of rotation for a while.

Boyfriend requested a quinoa salad for lunch this week, but we forgot to buy quinoa. And that my friends is the supremely interesting story behind this week's lunch recipe for summer lentil and zucchini 'pasta' with roasted capsicum and garlic sauce.

Summer lentil & zucchini 'pasta' with roasted capsicum and garlic sauce
Makes enough for 8 lunches

Ingredients
For the sauce

1 punnet cherry/baby roma tomatoes
1 bulb wild garlic, roasted
Whole red capsicum, roasted, peeled and de-seeded
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
teaspoon italian parsley
Juice of one lemon

For the lentils
Handful shredded Italian parsley
tablespoon lemon juice
rosemary
2 bayleafs
2 garlic cloves

2 spring onions sliced thinly
salt & pepper to taste

Plus...
1 large zucchini
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Roast whole capsicum and bulb of garlic in a heavy roasting pan until capsicum skin blackens on all sides. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

2. Prepare lentils according to The Kitchn's directions here. Combine with lemon, spring onion and parsley as well as salt and pepper to taste.

3, Using either an ordinary peeler, julienne peeler or the small attachment on your spiralizer prepare zucchini.

4. For the sauce: combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until combined. Season to taste. 

5. Divide seasoned lentils and zucchini amongst lunch containers, garnish with1 teaspoon pine nuts. Divide sauce between dressing containers.

6. Can be served warm or cold. 

Perfectly Pulled Pork

Excuse the alliteration but honestly, this really is the best pulled pork recipe I've come across. I can only take credit for persevering in my quest for perfect pulled pork and not for the recipe, that honour goes to Kevin and Amanda.

There are a number of good and much simpler pulled pork recipes out there that take far less time to prepare. It seemed to me though, that the less time preparing the rub/marinade the more artificial flavors or store-bought sauces were used. That to me is not cooking. That is assembly. Which is fine and obviously delicious but just not for me, nor my sensitive belly.

I could re-post the recipe here but instead I'd say head over to Kevin and Amanda's website and thoroughly read through the recipe before commencing. The most important piece of advice I can provide for you is this: DON'T cut corners! Cook until it reaches the correct temperature and avoid upping the temperature on your oven.

Here are a couple of other tips that will help you:

- Get a meat thermometer and a cheap set of electric scales for portioning.
- Boston butt is the upper cut of the pork shoulder.
- Kosher salt is different to normal table salt - I tend to use a lake salt or sea salt flakes as it has a milder flavor which is similar to kosher salt.
- Buy the biggest pork shoulder you can (around 3 - 3.5kg) with a good layer of fat/skin to protect the pork while cooking and preferably boneless - you don't want all that weight going into purchasing the bone! It might seem excessive to make such a large amount, but preparation is the same regardless of the size and pulled pork is so versatile and not all that bad for you either!

- The pulled pork freezes well so you can portion it up for tacos, salads, sandwiches and burritos for months to come!  

- This pulled pork is so full of flavor it should be the star of the show and is great in a fresh roll with an undressed slaw, hot English mustard and Japanese mayo or in a soft shell taco, but as prescribed in the mission statement for this blog (from this post) here is my recipe for one of our fresh, healthy and quick weekly meals.

Pulled Pork Taco chopped salad
Makes two generous servings

Ingredients
Two portions (150g each) pulled pork
corn kernels off the cob
1/2 avocado - diced
Cherry tomatoes - quartered
2 generous handfuls shredded and diced cos lettuce
2 tbsp sliced black olives
2 spring onions - sliced
Shredded and chopped red/white cabbage

Optional extras: pine nuts, feta, red onion, radish

Combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl and mix thoroughly. Top with pulled pork portions. Serve immediately!

Chorizo, Sweet Potato and Lentil Salad

I like payday. I particularly enjoy going food shopping on payday, it's a nice break from my usual frugal ways. Cashed up and optimistic with possibilities. One time I bought mint choc chip gelato, another time it was $15 worth of proscuitto, but this time? This time it was chorizo and halo uni. Usually by the time I've unpacked the shopping, my euphoria has worn off and I realise I've planned all the meals out for the week and don't actually have anything to use my splurge in. This time, half a sausage went into a sunday afternoon platter shared between BF and myself, while the haloumi was added to a sweet potato salad to accomplay a lamb road dinner to welcome my brother-in-law (BIL) to the West Coast. The rest of the chorizo was sliced up and divided into sensible servings and frozen. And THAT is how this sensible week night recipe came about.

Makes: Dinner for 2

Ingredients: 

Small - Medium Sweet Potato

1/2 cup cooked and dressed french lentils (see note)

salt and pepper to taste

Mixed lettuce 

Chorizo sausage

8 cherry tomatoes

greek feta

lemon juice

parsley

3 cloves garlic

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons toasted pinenuts

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 200dc. Peal and slice sweet potato into 1/3 centimetre thickness. Place in single layer on lined (but not oiled) baking tray. Season with salt and pepper and cook on top shelf. Check after 10 minutes and flip potato over. Bake another 10 minutes or until golden brown and puffy and flip over once more. Bake further 10 minutes (or until slightly darkened and puffy). Remove from oven and let cool.

2. Pan fry chorizo in 1/2 tbsp olive oil until crispy and red oil begins to form. Remove chorizo, and on low heat sautee minced garlic in remaining flavoured oil until fragrant. Take off heat and add juice of1/2 lemon. Set aside.

3. To assemble, scatter lettuce evenly across plate, top with lentils, pinenuts, tomato, spring onion and feta. Pile chorizo and baked sweet potato on top and dress with garlic lemon oil. Serve immediately 

Note: The first time I made this I servied it with poached eggs to up the protein, but this time I decided to try it out with lentils and I have to say the lentils won out! Feel free to use tinned french lentils and dress them with salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. I follow The Kitchn's direction to make perfectly flavoured french lentils. They recommend using bay leaf, but after making a round of lasagnes I was all out so used fresh rosemary sprigs in place which was euqally as aromatic and flavoursome. 

February Week 1 Lunches

BF likes healthy lunches. Don't get me wrong I appreciate this, but if it was up to me I'd be having ham and cheese toasties every day for lunch!

I started preparing lunches when we moved to Perth as a cheaper alternative to buying lunch out every day. You'd think that summer salads would be an easier option than winter but who wants to make up a fresh salad every night for the next day? Not me. It is so much easier to freeze a homemade chicken soup into lunch portions any pop one out each morning!

For summer I make up lunches on Sunday nights and Tuesday nights. The criteria for my lunch recipes is three-fold: little bit of carbs, protein and fresh salad/vegetables. This recipe has it all and was inspired by warm Vietnamese salads and rice paper rolls.

Vietnamese rice noodle salad

Makes 6 lunch servings or dinner for 3-4 people.

Tools and supplies:
One of the best things about this salad is the texture. I use a julienne peeler for the zucchini and carrot and shred the cabbage very finely.  I spread the salads across individual lunch containers and store the dressing in tablespoon sized containers which can be stored inside the lunch container. Just pop the frozen chicken portion in the morning before work to defrost while you work through at your desk till lunch.

Ingredients:
Salad
1 large (approx. 300g) chicken breast, poached and shredded.
Medium zucchini, julienne (just use the outer bits to avoid getting the soggy seeded middle)
2 medium carrots julienne
1/2 packet thin rice noodles or vermicelli noodles
Handful shredded cabbage
Handful mixed lettuce leaves
3 spring onions, sliced thinly
4 sprigs fresh mint, torn
1 cup whole/crushed unsalted toasted peanuts
1/4 cup fried shallots (optional)

Nuoc mam cham dressing (adapted from this recipe found here)
1 long red chilli
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup boiled water.

1. Poach the chicken, let cool before shredding. Divide into 6 equal servings (around 50g each) and place in freezer safe bags. Freeze.

2. Prepare rice noodles according to packet directions. Rinse thoroughly.

3. Divide rice noodles across each lunch container, top with handful of lettuce leaves, julienne carrots and zucchini and cabbage. Garnish with torn mint, spring onion, fried shallots and peanuts.

4. To make the dressing, use a mortar and passel to combine chilli and garlic (or blitz/mince). Combine with remaining ingredients (bigger bits of chilli and garlic are all part of the magic of this dressing) and divide equally across small dressing containers.

5. Before leaving for work, add the packet of frozen chicken to the salad. Store in refrigerator until ready to eat! I like to warm the chicken and noodles slightly before adding to the salad and dressing.

Yum Yum. Krumm and Scout love it when I make this, they sit by the kitchen waiting for their share of the carrot ends and zucchini middle. Silly dogs.

I like lunches with plenty of texture, crunch and flavour. Even though its a bit more effort combining all the ingredients I tend not to snack as much because I am so satisfied with the flavor! I wonder though, what kind of lunch options would you like to see on Plan, Shop, Cook, Repeat?

Cheers, Jess

Jess Granola and other important things

I've had a busy couple of weeks since deciding to relaunch this blog. I've been trying to figure out what I want to say and how best to say it. After talking to friends about what they would like to see on the blog I've decided that for the time being posts will revolve around one simple aim: how to go to the supermarket once a week and still eat fresh and healthy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course, I am not perfect - we all forget to get key ingredients for a special meal or something isn't available when we want it, but for the most part this is the aim even if it doesn't always work!

In setting out to write I've got a few other things I plan on doing - testing out recipes from some of my favorite bloggers and sharing budget conscious tips are just two of these.

So within the next couple of weeks you will start to see the format for the blog becoming clear. Specifically I will post my attempt at Collette from Cut Out The Crap's bacon (her original recipe can found here) as well as recipe plans for the week, shopping lists and the recipe for our 'packed lunch' this week. Most importantly, the shopping lists will correspond to healthy and delicious dinner recipes! 

Before I can do any of that though, the most sensible place to commence (considering that breakfast IS the most important meal of the day) is with my granola recipe! Bf wants me to sell this stuff at our local farmers market, but I'm not so sure that's gonna make us the big bucks so am giving the milk away for free.


This recipe is inspired by the granola that comes with acai bowls. I've had a few hipsterfied versions in Melbourne and the pre-prepared one available everywhere in Brazil. I loved the crunch of the granola so set out to make a healthier version than those at the supermarket.
A lot of the supermarket varieties are packed with sugars, fats and unpronounceables and/or just didn't have enough seeds/nuts to satisfy me. I also wanted a low-gluten version and slow-release energy, so hunted down for some options on the web. I came across this recipe from The Wholesome Athlete and over time have adapted it according to my tastes and preferences. Because this is toasted over a low-heat it gets nice and toasty without all the extra butter and oil.

Jess Granola Recipe
Makes 7-8 cups 
Store in airtight container in pantry for up to two months (if it lasts that long!)

Ingredients

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons rice malt syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter (depending on your personal preference)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut syrup/molasses/pure maple syrup/honey
2 cups rolled oats/rolled rye or similar 
1 cup puffed quinoa/puffed wheat/puffed rice (found at health food shops)
1 cup almonds roughly chopped
1/2 cup cacao nibs (found at health food shops)
1/3 cup chia seeds
1/3 cup sunfower seeds
1/3 cup papitas
1/2 cup dried currents/cranberries/goji berries
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1 cup shaved coconut

(Note: my preference is for the first of each option - but this is purely because it's what I always have in the house. Cacao nibs and puffed quinoa are about $10 each for a bag, but I find it lasts through 4 batches of granola at least.)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 120 degrees Celsius.

2. In a small pot (or oven proof large crock pot) combine first five ingredients over low heat. Stir until bubbling.

3. Turn off the heat and (if using large crock pot) stir through rolled oats, puffed quinoa and chopped almonds, otherwise add syrup to oat mixture in large mixing bowl. Work the syrup through the oat mixture gently, being careful to scrape down the sides of the pot/bowl until clumps begin to form. (If you aren't particularly health conscious double the syrup mix for a quick/clumpier/crunchier mix!)

4. Spread mixture onto oven-proof tray (if using) and bake on lower shelf for 1 hour. Stir and scrape down sides every 15 minutes until mixture is golden all the way through.

5. Add remaining ingredients, stir through and bake for further 15 minutes or until the coconut begins to color.

6. Let cool before transferring to airtight container.

Serving suggestion:
When it's particularly hot or I want a healthier option for the weekend I make up acai bowls: Blend together a tablespoon of acai powder with 1/2 banana, frozen berries and two ice cubes. Top with 1/3 cup granola mix and fresh fruit.

My standard go to week day breakfasts is granola topped with some home-made yogurt (see note below),1/2 banana and 3-4 sliced strawberries. Delicious and low-GI with the quinoa, coconut, chia and other seeds - it's a winner every time!


Note: I got so sick of throwing out old yogurt and paying $5 for a little tub of sugar-free low-fat greek yogurt that I started making my own using the easiyo yogurt maker (available from IGA, Woolworths and Coles for about $20). It makes up 1L of yogurt which lasts up to 2 weeks! I now prefer the taste and texture and will often use it for marinades, dressings and sauces. If you'd like to try this option I'd recommend the Hansells sugarfree lite greek yogurt mix, which sells for about $3.5 a packet and is available at all big supermarkets.

I'm curious -what do you have for breakfast? Can you see yourself setting aside the time to make this? I must admit, I spend a lot of my spare time, lunch breaks and late nights in the kitchen but I find the payoff so worth the effort and now I can't imagine anything else!

Cheers, Jess
 

A lot has changed

Well well well. Here we are again. Same blog. Same 'blogger'. Same love of food. Different city. Different lifestyle. Different age.

I think I was maybe... 24/25 when I last contributed content on here. I stopped for a number of reasons, some of which I've outlined below.

I started writing the blog during a self-enforsed 'gap' year  (between my honours year and commencing my PhD). I felt it was important that I not solely define myself as a university student and wanted to explore other ways of identifying myself. I think that far too often we define ourselves by what we are doing rather than by things we enjoy doing. So I set out to cook food, garden and spend time doing DIY/crafty things!This proved a lot harder than you might think. Have you ever thought about how many times someone asks you, 'What do you do?'? It's a tough question to answer when you don't have a fall back answer like, 'Oh, I'm studying blah blah at blah blah'. It is for this reason that the year off was amazing and very much needed. I learnt about what I like doing, what I don't like doing and also to trust myself and my own decisions.

Another reason I starting this specific blog was because people kept asking me for recipes. I was sick of writing them down and sending them to individual people so I figured I'd put them all up in the same space! What started out as a blog for family and friends turned in to a little tiny minuscule success. I plagiarised a photo and didn't realise until many months later, I received hate mail and mail in support. It was intimidating and hilarious. I became a part of the 'Melbourne Food Blogger' community. Well I was really on the periphery of it. Timid and wary of new situations I didn't put myself out there. Too many chefs in the kitchen!

So, after roughly 100 posts I decided that I didn't need the blog anymore. It had served its purpose. It was too much work. I knew it had the potential to be good but I didn't need it to be good. I was ready to commit to my PhD again and focus. So that's what I did. I transferred my PhD to RMIT from Melbourne Uni, found two amazing supervisors and got to work.

The BF and I were still happily co-habitating with our dog Krumm in Flemington. He was studying Law while I worked away on my research at RMIT. We had pretty separate social lives and were for the most part growing up, learning about ourselves and discovering what kind of a relationship we wanted to be in. Then came the big change.

BF decided to take a grad position at a law firm in Perth, WA. 'Shit', I thought, 'I've finally got my life together'. I was happy at RMIT, I was happy with my supervisors, had found exercise that I enjoyed and was good at and had a great group of friends who were becoming like family! I'd found a good pace, found my groove. I wasn't going to leave all of that for Perth! But, once it was final I couldn't not go. I knew that if he was on the other side of Australia I wouldn't be able to invest in my research, I'd be distracted and have my mind elsewhere. So I made a decision. I decided to follow him to Perth.

To cut a long and not very interesting story short - we sold everything off and moved to Perth. After a few weeks (at the height of the Perth rental boom) we found a little old house in Victoria Park, south of the river.

BF became good at his job. I joined a rowing club. We made friends. I got stuck right in to my research and worked on some great projects, got a scholarship and well, we basically grew up.

So now here we are four years later, three of them spent living in Perth, and hoping to submit my thesis by the end of the year. BF is a good lawyer and does boring work. He works long hours and makes okay money. We both got skinnier, I got fatter, we rescued a dog, we travel too much (and blow our would-be savings going to weddings in Brazil, China and the States) and have decided that it's time to grow up. We are budgeting. I am writing and reading and writing and reading aiming to have 90,000 words by November.

I need something else. I need to write because I enjoy it. Because at the age of 29 and in my 30th year I have found my voice. I need to enjoy writing again.

So that's it really. BF, me, Krumm and... SCOUT living in a house in Vic Park. We don't have a lot of money and on account of BF's long hours I've become a lawyer's non-wife (LNW) and he has become a lawyer.  Time-poor and money-poor I've been working on making healthy delicious meals with the aim of going to the supermarket once a week. This means my fruit and vege' has to last more than 7 days. A lot has changed about my cooking. With IBS (yuck) I now eat meat and following a bout of glandular fever and ensuing chronic fatigue, trying to eat preservative free, nutritious and ethically-sourced food is important to us. I've done paleo, I've done gluten-free, carb-free, sugar-free but that's not what this is. This is just good food.


You'll see some changes over the coming weeks, a new format, shopping lists, meal plans, and a good dose of honesty.  Yeah I want to lose 10 kg, yeah I am struggling to get fit after almost a year of battling various illnesses, yeah I am a LNW and a feminist rolled in to one. So be kind, be patient while I figure this out.

Cheers, Jess

Five years is a long time.

Hello? Is anyone out there? I've decided to rejoin the bloggersphere.

My circumstances have changed quite a lot since my last post in 2010 and as such I've decided to give the blog a facelift. Although cookbook is and was a good name I've decided to change the name to something a bit more reflective of the new direction that the blog is going in. I think that Plan, Shop, Cook, Repeat sums it up quite nicely!

I'll be explaining all of this in more detail in a new blog post, so come back soon!

Cheers, Jess

O Lord thems good fries!

Boyfriend and I had a date with Bell Shakespeare on Wednesday, we even bumped into Claire from
Melbourne Gastronome.

We were in such a rush, me coming from work and boyfriend - well actually he was just waiting around. But, he did pick us up one of Lord of the Fries special 'Big Marc' (sic) according to Boyfriend. With less than ten minutes till curtain, we had to rush through them. Don't know how the boy did it in less than half the time it took me! But, yeah awesome.