Ha! I’m trying to offset my rather abundant cake making, and tasting, these last few weeks, with a healthy and simple salad.  It is tasty and really quick to make and goes great in work and school lunches.

What You Need:

• 1 x 95g can chunk tuna
• 1/4 cup red kidney beans
• 1/4 cup sliced cucumber
• 1/4 cup tomato chopped
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1/4 cup celery
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red capsicum
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon baby capers
• Iceburg lettuce
• salt and pepper

What You Need To Do:

Firstly open the can of red kidney beans and drain and rinse them.  Leave them for a minute so all the liquid has drained away.  Slice all of the salad stuff so they are about the same smallish, bite size pieces.  No need to chop the capers, just leave them whole.

Gently flake the drained tuna into the bowl of salad.  I prefer to use the tuna that is packed in brine, for the extra flavour, but you can use the oil or springwater type too.  Just try to get the chunk style because the sandwich style can sometimes be a little mushy!

To make the dressing just stir together the oil and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.  Pour over the salad and gently toss, being careful not to break up the tuna too much.  You probably won’t need all of the dressing so you can store it in the fridge to use on other salads or you might be inspired to make this again!

If you have a small, whole lettuce, you can slice it into quarters and just put a whole quarter on the plate.  Otherwise a good sized chink will do as long as it is nice and crunchy.  Pile up the salad next to the lettuce and if you like, drizzle a little of the dressing over the lettuce as well.

You can also add some flat leaf parsley for extra zing but, sadly,I left my fabulous herb garden behind at my old house and this new one isn’t happening yet so I didn’t have any to put in!

My kids have been asking me for ages to make this cake. They are young enough to think it is both weird and cool that carrots can be in cake! Oh to be young again with all the mystery of the world still to discover! And yes, obviously, we don’t get out much! I will say, the recipe I used ( was given to me by an old, dear friend I used to work with) makes for alot of cake so you could always make a half batch or as I did, make little cupcakes and freeze them and one large cake.

What You Need:

For the cake:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons bi-carb soda
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 cup walnut pieces
• 3 cups grated carrot
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the icing:

• 250g cream cheese
• 250g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces

What You Need To Do:

Cake:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and grease and line your prefered baking tins. The larger cake tin is a 25cm square number.

Get the kids lined up along the bench and hand out the vegetable peelers and put them to work, peeling the carrots. Grate them into a large bowl, or, if you have one of those fancy food processors that make life easy, you could use that.

While they are toiling away, you can sift the flour, sugar, bi-carb, cinnamon and salt into a very large bowl. Add the walnuts and give this a good mix.

Whisk the eggs lightly and add to the oil and vanilla. Pour this on top of the flour mix and add the grated carrot. See, I said you would need a very large bowl!

Mix it all up and pour the batter into your chosen tins.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Icing:
Leave the cream cheese out overnight so it is nice and soft. All you have to do is whisk the cream cheese and the butter together until it is really smooth and then gradually add the icing sugar and lemon juice until you get your desired balance of sweet and sour. Spread the delicious creaminess over the top of the cooled cake, sprinkle with a few of the walnuts and you have made a decadent treat!

Do you ever have those lazy, drizzling with rain, Saturdays when not much is happening, even the dog is asleep on its bed and it is 2pm before you know it, and you want to eat something warm and comforting.  This is it!

What You Need:

• Bread
• Bacon
• Baked Beans
• Cheese

What You Need To Do:

Step one is to extract yourself from the lounge, open your tired, half asleep eyes, unwrap yourself from the blanket and shuffle toward the kitchen.  Turn on the grill and let it heat up while you cook the bacon.

Put the bread in the toaster and cook to your desired burnt-ness and then top with the baked beans.  Drain the bacon for a bit and then put it on top of the beans.

Lastly place slices of your fave cheese on top and grill it until golden and bubbly!

When all done, go and find that lovely spot on the lounge again and finish watching the tv show/movie you were watching before, with half asleep eyes, so now you can totally rest those eyes!  Oh, and of course later you will be going for that 5km run so don’t worry about the calories!!

I make this a lot because it makes enough for dinner for four, and then sandwiches for 3 for a few days, so it goes a long way! It’s very simple to put together and is one of those recipes where you can use just about anything you have in the fridge.

What You Need:

• 1kg beef mince
• 200g pork mince (optional)
• 1 small carrot
• 1 onion
• 1/2 zucchini
• 2tbsp tomato sauce
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 2tbsp worcestershire sauce

• 2 eggs
• 10 bacon rashers
• salt & pepper

What You Need To Do:

First of all grate the carrot, onion and the zucchini into a bowl. If you dont have zucchini, you can use squash or sweet potato or you can leave it out. It just adds a bit more flavour to the mix. As I said, you can substitute with whatever you have.

Add all the sauces and the beaten egg to the bowl and give it a little stir. Put all of the meat in and season with the salt and pepper. Now, using your hands, mix all of the meat and veges together. Yes, it will be freezing to your fingers, so I use one hand at a time, just so the other can thaw out!!

It will seem a bit sloppy at first but if you keep mixing it will come together and be able to be shaped into a loaf to fit into your baking pan. I use my bread tin because it is non stick and about the right size.

Now for the fancy bit! Trim the bacon slices so they are neat long rectangles and lay them over the top of the loaf. Using a weaving pattern, criss cross the slices so they cover the whole loaf. I brushed a little seeded mustard on top, again for more flavour and a little glaze for the bacon.

Bake at 170 degrees, for about 45 minutes, until the bacon is brown and sizzling and the juices of the meatloaf should run clear. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before you cut it otherwise it will just break up. We have it with mashed potatoes and honey carrots for a filling dinner.

This is a very impressive looking cake for not much effort.  You can serve it with a cup of tea or go the whole hog and have it with icecream when it is warm out of the oven!  It’s one of those recipes you can make when you don’t have alot of ingredients in the cupboard.

What You Need:

• 185g butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of self raising flour
• 2/3 cup of caster sugar
• 1/2 cup of plain flour
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 2 medium apples
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
• 1/3 cup marmalade warmed

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and grease a 23cm round cake tin.  I used a springform tin just to make it a bit easier to get it out and lined the bottom with some baking paper.

First of all cream the butter and the sugar and when all light and fluffy, beat the eggs in, one at a time, until just combined.  Its a really quick and simple recipe,  all you have to do now is sift half of the flour and pour half of the milk into the butter mix and stir with a wooden spoon.  When it is smooth, add the remaining sifted flour and the rest of the milk and stir until that is smooth too.  Spread this mixture evenly into the prepared baking tin.

Now for the impressive part!  Peel, core and quarter the apples. You need make cuts into the rounded side of the apple, slicing about three quarters of the way through.  Now, before you give up (because that is way too hard when you are trying to quickly make a cake before the visitors arrive!) there is a easy trick to getting this right.

Grab a wooden skewer and pierce through the apple piece, about 3/4 of the way down the cut face, so you have the rounded side of the apple (that you will be cutting) facing up.  Then carefully slice through the apple so the knife hits on the skewer and doesn’t go all the way through to the bottom. If you make lots of these cuts close together you end up with a lovely decorative apple slice that will impress everybody with your expert knife skillz!!

Now, place these beautiful quarters, round side up, around the edge of the cake.  Cook for about 1 hour until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Stand the cake for about 5 minutes before turning onto a rack, right way up!

Brush the warm marmalade over the hot cake and let cool.  To serve, dust with some icing sugar and a big dollop of cream!