Gut-friendly Prebiotic Guacamole

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ll be happy to never see another Easter egg (and definitely happy for my kids not to!) for at least another 12 months. By Easter Sunday I generally can’t bear to see any more recipes for delicious chocolate fudge cakes, and I start craving anchovies on buttery garlic bread. This year, Easter Sunday also fell on my son’s 7th birthday, so we had the double-whammy of ice-cream cake too!

Anyway, this guacamole doesn’t have any anchovies (although I might give that a try sometime…), but it’s a good ‘re-set’ dip to keep in the fridge for meals and snacks, with lots of veggies, good fats, and prebiotic fibre.

We hear all about probiotics in health and wellness land, the good bacteria for our gut, which are found in yoghurt, kefir and other fermented products – and the food industry has jumped all over the marketing opportunities. But we rarely hear about prebiotics. In his book ‘The Clever Guts Diet’, Dr Michael Mosley discusses the importance of prebiotic fibre. This is plant fibre the body cannot digest, but which acts like ‘fertiliser for the gut’, laying the foundations so that the good bacteria can thrive.

Maybe gut fertiliser just isn’t as sexy to sell. 😉 Continue reading →

Family Favourite: Easy One-Pot Jambalaya

Oddly enough, I came across this post in my drafts folder – it was one I started writing three years ago and I recently rediscovered this family favourite recipe. This easy jambalaya used to be on regular rotation on our family dinner menu and then we suddenly stopped making it. On reflection, I think this coincided with the time we got food poisoning from chorizo (from a different dish) and we both went off it for a couple of years!

I have been making this jambalaya for so long, I have no idea where the original recipe came from. Over the years, it’s evolved as I’ve made various tweaks, amendments and additions, and will probably continue to.

We love to serve ours with a fried egg on top (in fact, I consider this mandatory), and it’s one of our favourite comfort food meals. If you have children, be sure to read the tips at the end for making it more family-friendly.  Continue reading →

Family-friendly meal: Cheesy Porcupine Meatballs

My family has eaten a LOT of meatballs lately, as I’ve made this recipe over and over to test out the ingredients. Luckily, they love it! My mother reminded me a while ago that she used to make these when I was a child, which prompted me to have a go at making them (with hidden vegetables, of course). My kids stick their forks into them whole and eat them like lollipops.

Although the meatballs take a little preparation, the dish is quite easy to cook. The meatballs cook in the sauce, so there’s no standing over the cook-top trying to ‘brown the meatballs on all sides’. I’m notoriously bad at frying meatballs, and usually end up with meat-cubes.

This dish also has a bolognese-style flavour, so if the kids love bolognese (and the adults, because who doesn’t?), but you want something a little different or less pasta-heavy, this might be a good one to try. The Thermomix recipe is also below the regular recipe. Continue reading →