Raspberry and Cardamon Buns

I got the inspiration for these delightful little cardamon buns while watching a Jamie Oliver show. My honey straight away said that I should make something like his recipe for blueberry buns so that's exactly what a did.

The result was amazing.

Chili Chicken Pita Bread Pizzas

Individual pita bread pizzas make a fun and easy meal, while making pizza a tiny bit healthier, too.

I was really going for a super quick Friday night dinner with this one. Because I was feeling especially lazy and I couldn't even be bothered cooking some chicken, I just grabbed a smoked chicken breast from the supermarket. I was really surprised by how well this worked with the other flavors of this pizza.

Buttermilk Waffles

Since the weekend is almost upon us, I think a brunch recipe is in order. Here is my super simple recipe for buttermilk waffles.

I don't make waffles very often at all. When I do I always think "we really need to do these more often because they are amazing!" I think I need to remember that.

Waffles are not a common thing in New Zealand. Cafes here are very big on breakfast menus. Most of these menus, however, don't include waffles. Thankfully, a decent waffle iron can be brought at most electronic and department stores for a very reasonable price.

Strawberries are finally becoming available in supermarkets here now and I am going crazy with them. I topped these buttermilk waffles with strawberries and maple syrup. Delicious.

Buttermilk Waffles

Serves 6

1 1/2 Cups plain flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

120 g (4.2 oz) butter, melted

1/3 Cup sugar

1 1/2 Cup buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

To serve:

Chopped fresh strawberries (or any in season fruit)
Maple Syrup

1. Turn your waffle iron on to heat and also preheat your oven to the lowest setting.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, butter, buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix this gently into the dry ingredients.

3. Make each waffle using about 1/3 cup of batter. Once done, transfer to the oven to keep warm while you cook the rest. 

4. Serve topped with fruit and maple syrup. 

Raspberry Slice

Raspberry slice is a New Zealand classic. A raspberry layer sandwiched between layers of shortbread and topped with lashings of raspberry icing.

You'll find this little delight in almost every bakery, cafe, and supermarket in New Zealand. It has always been one of my favorites and I was amazed when I realised that I'd never attempted it myself.

Beef Cannelloni

Cannelloni is an Italian dish of a pasta cylinders filled with meat and sauce and baked in the oven. They are not only a fun dish to make but also super taste and packed full of vegetables. This makes it a great way to sneak extra veges to the kids dinner.

Using fresh lasagna sheets as opposed to dried cannelloni tubes makes this easier to make, and much more delicious (if you're like me and greatly prefer fresh pasta to dried).

Aunt Bee's Three Meat Chili

I recently saw a post Aunt Bee's Recipes put together for Rocket City Mom: Tailgating Recipes with Aunt Bee. This is a fantastic collection of football season foods, and definitely worth a read. Everything she included looked fantastic, but the thing that immediately caught my eye was Three Meat Chili. Even just the name sounds amazing.

I clicked through to Aunt Bee's blog straight away and checked out the recipe. It seemed straightforward to make, and had a great combination of ingredients. So with a few minor alterations (based on the ingredients I had) I got right to making this chili.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

I'm just going to start off by saying that I think this might actually be the most delicious thing that I have created so far. Probably quite bias coming from the this chocoholic, but my honey said the same thing!

This cheesecake has not one but THREE types of chocolate, layered into one no-bake cheesecake. What more could we ask for in a dessert?

Today marks the one year anniversary of my blog. It amazes me to see how far I have come in recipe development and (especially) photography in just one short year. 

Peri Peri Chicken and Quinoa Wraps

Quinoa makes a great base for such a range of recipes and I love trying it in new ways - These peri peri chicken and quinoa wraps were so simple to make (taking around half an hour total time) and they tasted fantastic!

The filling also reheated really well, as I discovered having the left overs for lunch the next day. The peri peri coating the chicken gives the wraps a perfect little hint of heat. Feel free to increase or decrease the amount you use to suit your tastes. 

Blackberry Slice

Every weekend before we do our weekly grocery shopping, I ask my honey "what kind of thing would you like me to make you for breakfast this week?" This time, the answer was "something with blackberries."

Here's my something with blackberries: A simple blackberry slice.

As well as being easy to make, this slice makes a fantastic snack (especially to go with a cup of tea!) and a easy, on the go breakfast. It contains fruit as a main ingredient, so I say we can call it breakfast. This would also make a lovely dessert, served warm with cream or ice cream.

Hazelnut Tartlets

We were looking around a home ware store the other weekend and they had mini tart cases on sale at 60% off - I brought them (of course). I also HAD to use them straight away and these cute little hazelnut tartlets are the result.

I adored these tarts. The pastry was deliciously short and reminded me of the pastry in the tarts from a specialist bakery (I was pretty impressed with myself actually!!)  and the simple, no bake filling was light and bursting with delicious flavor. This tarts make a fantastic, simple dessert. They also keep very well in the fridge for about 3 days.

Beef Meatball Noodle Soup

Asian-inspired cuisine is one of my favorite things to make. An afternoon a while back I had a craving for some sort of beef and noodle soup. Here's the result.

This Asian-style beef noodle soup was so simple to make, with simple ingredients and it tasted amazing. I absolutely loved the combination of the subtle ginger in the meatballs with the slightly spicy beef broth. And just to make it even better - it reheated so well! 

Lemon and Ricotta Pancakes

In my opinion, nothing beats a big breakfast of pancakes on a Sunday morning. Since I want to make pancakes all the time, I also always want to try out new ways of making them. This time it was lemon and ricotta with raspberries. My new favorite.

These pancakes had the perfect balance between the sweetness of the pancake and the sour lemon. They were light and fluffy, and I just wish I had more!

Butter Chicken

Every time we get Indian takeout I always order butter chicken, no matter how good my intention on getting something different. I always just assumed that it would be difficult to reproduce the delicious, creamy flavors of an Indian restaurant butter chicken. I have now reconsidered my previous assumptions. This butter chicken is quick, easy, and ridiculously tasty!

Of course you can't have an Indian curry without a beautiful garlic naan bread, and thankfully these are really easy to make from scratch at home too!

Chicken and Jalapeno Quesadillas

I'm all for super quick dinners during the week when, let's face it, no one really wants to come home only to have to cook a long and complicated meal. We all still want to have a meal that is packed full of fresh, tasty ingredients and quesadillas really fit this bill nicely.

This entire meal, from quesadilla to rice, took around 30 minutes to get on the table. I paired my chicken and jalapeno quesadilla with Jalapeno Rice from Kecias Flavor Breakthrough. Kecia is the master at all things rice and this dish was simple, took very little hands on time, and was the perfect complement to the quesadilla.