Author: Meatballs and Muffins
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Greek Chicken & Chickpea Stew
If you’re craving delicious, hot comfort food on a cold winter’s night, this Greek Chicken and Chickpea Stew is just what you need. A key ingredient in Mediterranean cooking, chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) are incredibly versatile—they feature in everything from stews and soups to salads and snacks. They’re also packed with fibre, protein, vitamins,…
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Deeply Grateful
Every single day, I’m reminded of how incredibly grateful I am to be a survivor of cancer. Since my diagnosis and successful treatment for breast cancer, gratitude has taken on a deeper, more powerful meaning. The small moments I once took for granted — my husband’s warm hug in the morning, Sunday dinners with my…
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Silverbeet & Parmesan Fritters
This is a super-easy recipe made with the most underrated leafy vegetable that will delight your taste buds and leave you wanting more. Silverbeet (swiss chard) is a nutrient-rich vegetable widely used in Mediterranean cooking. It’s used in all kinds of dishes, much the same way as spinach. As a child, silverbeet was one of…
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Zucchini and Sun-dried tomatoes slice
This light moreish healthy slice is super easy to make and is equally good served warm or cold. This slice is versatile and easily enjoyed as a snack, lunch, or even a light dinner by adding your favourite salad. It’s also great to pack for a picnic lunch. Take it from my little grandson, it’s…
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Horta Salad
You don’t see this much anymore, but have you ever spotted a Greek yiayia collecting what seems like weeds off the side of the road? Those so-called weeds are actually wild leafy greens that Greeks call horta. Horta are a staple in Greek cuisine usually prepared by boiling and served as a salad with fresh…
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Do it for your family.
Even though we hear time and time again that breast cancer is on the rise and early detection is key, we come up with many reasons why we put off booking breast cancer screenings: I was one of these women who thought I was “too busy and didn’t have time” to get a breast screen,…
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Breast Screening saved my life.
It’s been a year since my last post on Meatballs and Muffins and it’s not due to a lack of enjoyment or desire. The truth is I spent the year either in hospital getting treatment for breast cancer or at home recovering from the effects of it. As I am a private person, I find…
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Fennel, orange & radicchio salad
Orange and fennel salad is a traditional Sicilian salad known in Italian as insalata di arance. Common variations of this fresh zesty salad include orange slices with a few additional ingredients such as sliced fennel bulbs, onions, and black olives. This salad has been adapted from one I was served in a restaurant and the first…
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Date, Nut & Seed Bars
If you’re looking for a healthy snack that tastes great and is guilt-free, then you must try these Date, Nut and Seed Bars. Not only are these bars morishly delicious, they would have to be the easiest recipe for anyone of any age to bake. The hardest part is waiting for them the cool down…
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Mediterranean Pasta Salad
I love a good pasta salad and this one is not only delicious, it’s easy to make. The first time I made this was for a family Sunday dinner. If you follow my blog, you will know I only cook gluten free on Sundays so my biggest dilemma in making this salad was finding good…
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Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Soup
A deliciously creamy and comforting winter soup you can easily make mid-week. What you need What to do Preheat oven to 200°C (450°F). Place cauliflower in a large bowl; drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil, and add the cumin, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat. Place in a baking dish in a moderate oven…
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Pedro’s Scones
These aren’t just any old scones, they are extra special scones made with the helping little hands of my grandson Pedro. Scones are delicious served the traditional way with jam and cream or, as Pedro likes, with jam and peanut butter. Scones are easy to make and only need a few ingredients but, it seems…
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Raspberry Chocolate Flourless Cake
This is one of those desserts that will leave your family and friends wanting more. The combination of sweet tangy raspberries and dark chocolate is a match made in heaven. The great thing about this cake is that it is easy to make and it is gluten free. What you need 200g good quality dark…
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Hummus
Hummus not only tastes great, it’s good for you. It’s fast and easy to make and once you have made it at home, you will never go back to eating store-bought hummus again. What you need 1 x 400g jar or tin of chickpeas 3 tablespoons tahini 1-2 garlic cloves crushed ½ tsp sea salt 5…
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Greek Eggplant Dip
Known as Melitzanolsalata, this is a rustic Greek eggplant dip made with charred smokey eggplants, garlic, lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil. There are many variations to this recipe but this is one my mother has made ever since I can recall. This is an easy dip to make for any occasion that everyone will love.…
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Mexican Bowl
You know you’ve done something right as a parent when your son and daughter-in-law invite you to their home for a mid-week dinner and cook you a sensational meal! Apart from experiencing delicious food, it was so great watching how well my son and his wife worked as a team – one prepping while the…
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Spring Potato Salad
I came across this delicious Spring salad recipe in the October ’21 edition of a Coles magazine. It’s a nice change to the standard potato salad. You can easily switch it up by replacing the radish with soft-boiled eggs, which makes it a delicious lunch or light dinner. What you need 1kg kipler or baby…
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Mandarin & White Chocolate Cake
Not only are mandarins delightfully sweet, versatile and easy to peel, they are also packed with the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that our body needs to stay healthy. Mandarins are the perfect on-the-go snack and a great addition to kids’ lunch boxes. They’re fabulous in fruit salads, compotes and added to baked treats such as…
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Honey Oats Blueberry Muffins
Before I get into the details of how to bake these deliciously moist and “just sweet enough” Honey Oats Blueberry Muffins, I’d like to share a little about 2020 and my family first. After many weeks of lockdown, my family was finally able to get together recently for a Sunday family dinner. The excitement and…
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Spring Green Salad with Peas and Broad Beans
This Spring Green Salad with Peas and Broad Beans not only looks like Spring, it also has the aroma, flavours and crispness of a Spring morning. It’s a light, fresh, tasty salad that goes perfectly with fish, chicken or meat. The hero of this salad for me, are the homegrown broad beans that I lovingIy…
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Baked jacket potato with spinach, bacon and a poached egg
If there’s one vegetable that I always have in my cupboard, it would have to be potatoes. And when I feel like some comfort food, baked jacket potatoes would have to be one of my favourites. The best thing about baked potatoes is that they’re so simple. Just pop them in the oven for an…
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There’s more to this meal than an empty plate
When a dinner plate ends up looking like this you know it was a delicious meal. And yes, it was very delicious indeed! This meal consisted of a very tasty fennel-crusted pork cutlet pan fried and finished in the oven, served with creamy potato mash and a crisp fennel, rocket and apple salad. I really…
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Date and Banana Loaf
This is the cake that I will always remember as the cake I made when I visited my son and daughter-in-law to welcome home my new granddaughter Alia two months ago. I wanted to celebrate the arrival of the new addition to my family by baking something sweet, tasty and deliciously satisfying, just like the…
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Simple Greek braised green beans
If I had to choose a vegetable dish as my favourite, it would undoubtedly be braised Greek style green beans with carrots and eggplant. This is a dish I grew up on that my mum used to make with home-grown green beans and sweet ripe tomatoes from our garden. It’s a simple dish with complex…
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Fig and Raspberry Crumble Cake
The original Fig and Raspberry Crumble Cake recipe by Diana Henry that this cake was adapted from, uses fresh figs and raspberries. But, as I often do, I decided to change the recipe and use dried figs and frozen raspberries instead because that’s all I had at the time. I must admit I was a…
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Butterfly Cupcakes
I made these cute Butterfly Cupcakes for my daughter-in-law’s surprise baby shower using a recipe from Gourmet Traveller. The cupcakes are a little fiddly to make, but they are so worth it because they look so lovely and taste great. As I was making these Butterfly Cupcakes, it suddenly struck me that I was about…
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Halloumi, chickpea and green bean salad
This salad is not only a great accompaniment to any meal, it’s delicious and hearty enough to eat on its own for lunch or a light dinner. There is such a great contrast of flavours and textures in this salad with the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes and capsicum, saltiness of the halloumi, crispiness of…
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Anzac Cookies
The last Anzac cookie recipe I shared was a healthy version that tastes delicious. But, as we are currently living in unusual times and can’t do our usual things, like celebrate special events with the ones we love, I felt the need to bake traditional Anzac cookies this year to remind myself of how life…
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Moist orange and chocolate cake
Not only is this cake moist, chocolatey and utterly delicious, it’s gluten free and really easy to bake. It’s also versatile, because you can bake it as a whole cake or as mini cakes* using paper muffin cases. What you need 2 oranges, washed 250g caster sugar 6 free range eggs 250g almond meal 1…
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Zucchini and Parmesan fritters
The first time I made these fritters, I used zucchini grown in my own garden that were picked by my grandson. Like most kids, my grandson is not keen on green vegetables. He has a habit of analysing food and picking out bits he doesn’t like before he takes a bite. This usually means at…
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Caprese Salad
Nothing screams summer louder than Caprese salad. The sweetness of sun ripened juicy tomatoes is enhanced by the aromatic basil and creaminess of the burrata mozzarella. This is such a simple salad and, it’s that simplicity, that makes it so delicious. This traditional Italian summer salad originates from the Isle of Capri in the Gulf…
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Zucchini salad with chilli, pinenuts and feta
It’s been such a long time since my last post and the more I thought about getting back into it, the harder it seemed. But, thanks to the encouragement from loyal followers, here I am again. This would have to be one of the easiest and most delicious summer salads I have made. I discovered…
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Grain Salad – healthy & delicious
This Cypriot Grain Salad by Hellenic Republic is really delicious and definitely healthy. As I do with most dishes, I’ve tweaked the recipe just a little by adding wild (black) rice for extra goodness, and the zest and juice of one orange for some extra zing! Oh…and this version is gluten free, making it lighter on…
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Greek Easter Sweet Bread
If you are expecting to see a recipe for the most delicious, moist, light and oh-so ‘melt in your mouth’ buttery brioche-style Greek Easter sweet bread (called tsourekia), then I’m sorry to say you’ll be disappointed. It’s not because I don’t want to share the recipe. On the contrary, I love sharing recipes. It’s just that…
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Pedro’s Blueberry & Muesli Cookies
“Hurry up cookies!”, is what my little grandson said while he was waiting for his Blueberry & Muesli Cookies to bake. I can’t blame him for being impatient. The aroma wafting from the oven was enough to make anyone’s mouth water. These Blueberry and Muesli Cookies are buttery, crunchy and delicious, with a hint of honey…
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Greek Moussaka – the healthier way
Moussaka has always been a favourite Greek dish of mine, not only because it tastes so amazing, but because it reminds me of where I came from. For me, it’s a quintessentially Greek dish that, when I bake it, it fills my senses with the flavours and aromas of my mother’s kitchen. It’s one of…
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So, this was Christmas …
And now that it’s done, We are left with our memories, Of tears, joy or fun. The New Year is here now So leave the old one behind and look forward to good times with a fresh state of mind. Focus on what could be Don’t on dwell on the past Spend more time with…
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Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Mascarpone
This family favourite flourless chocolate cake becomes just a little more fancy when topped with creamy mascarpone and dusted with cacoa. It’s chocolatey, moist and light – a perfect dessert for Sunday family dinner … or any time really 🙂 What you need 200g dark chocolate – roughly chopped 120g unsalted butter – chopped 120g…
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Double Nutella Muffins
So here they are, my Double Nutella Muffins! These Double Nutella Muffins are definitely not for the faint hearted! But…I dare you to resist making them!! What makes these Double Nutella Muffins soooo amazing is that not only do they have nutella on the inside, they are also topped with a creamy nutella and mascarpone frosting.…
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Week’s End Salad
What do you do when you stagger in the door on a Friday night after a long week and can’t work out what to have for dinner because all you have in your fridge are some eggs and leftover pieces of vegetables and salad? I’d say most people would order takeaway. Personally, I prefer to…
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Banana & Nutella Muffins
Banana muffins filled with oozy Nutella is an indulgence worth the extra 20 minutes on the treadmill. They are truly delightful at any time, but they are even more amazing when the chocolate in the middle is still warm and gooey. There’s not much more to say really, other than, you NEED to try making…
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Lentils & Roasted Eggplant Salad
Hi Reader I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m not posting as frequently as I used to, so I thought I might explain why. It’s quite simple really – not enough time 😦 Six months ago I took on new employment (unrelated to food, unfortunately) which has kept me extremely busy and left very little time to…
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Do you really do this every Sunday?
This is a question I often get asked when I talk to friends about our Sunday family dinners. Well, the answer is YES! My family all come together every Sunday for dinner, unless there is a clashing event, and I cook a variety of wholesome food for us all to enjoy. I always try to…
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Cabbage & Brussel Sprouts with Tahini Dressing
Who would have thought that brussels sprouts could become a family favourite? Like many people, brussels sprouts have not been a vegetable that I would seek out intentionally, that is, until I discovered the way they taste when they are baked. Baking, rather than boiling brussels sprouts (which is how I was taught to cook them),…
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Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies
If you love peanut butter, but have never eaten it freshly ground, then you have no idea what you are missing out on. Fresh peanut butter is made of roasted peanuts ground to a paste – that’s it! Because nothing else is added, this is the healthiest way to eat peanut butter. Manufactured, store-bought peanut…
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Greek Bean Soup
“Mum, do I really have to eat this soup?”…was the question I would always ask, when my mum put a bowl of ‘fasolada‘ in front of me, which was pretty often 😦 Fasolada (or Bean Soup) is one Greek dish that my mother insisted on cooking on a regular basis and one that I would…
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The joy of a new grandchild
We’ve had to put Sunday family dinner on hold the last few weeks for a number of reasons and the most exciting one is the arrival of the newest addition to our family, grandson number two 👏 The first thought I had when I was told another grandchild was on the way was, will I…
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Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Pepitas
How do I describe this soup? It’s sweet, spicy, velvety, rich, flavoursome and hearty, with a touch of crunchiness – YUM! I don’t know about you, but this Roasted Pumpkin Soup has everything I need to warm up on a cold winter’s day. To be totally honest, I love this soup any time of the…
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Chicken and Leek Patties
Like most grandmothers, I am always worried that my grandson P has not had enough to eat when he spends the day with me, so I constantly try to create new recipes for him to try and these Chicken and Leek Patties are a recent addition. He is quite picky with his food, so when…
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Turkish Stuffed Eggplants (Imam Bayildi)
There are many great things about my family and the one I love most is that we are from different nationalities and cultures, which means our food and conversation has many great flavours, textures and colours.I like to mix it up and cook something unexpected for our family Sunday dinners and this Turkish Stuffed Eggplants…
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