“Chinese New Year” 5:2 Diet Fast Day Recipe: Chinese Chicken Egg Roll Wraps (225 calories) I remember cordite filled humid air, dragons and lions dancing through streets, little red packets filled with money, flowers and firecrackers, hot fried food eaten on the side of the road, red, the rattle of Mah Jong pieces, the “Beggar’s…
Formal Party
Getting Ready for Chinese New Year: Steamed Asian Fish Parcels Recipe for 5:2 Diet Fast Day
Getting Ready for Chinese New Year: Steamed Asian Fish Parcels Recipe for 5:2 Diet Fast Day There is a VERY good reason why so many low-calorie recipes tend to be Asian inspired, as when you are on a diet what you still need and crave is FLAVOUR, and the addition of spices and herbs, as…
Three Fruit Marmalade Recipe
In 2013 I decided that I was going to take the orange by the rind, (as opposed to the bull by the horns) and enter my marmalade into that year’s Marmalade Awards, or to give it the correct title, The World’s Original Marmalade Awards. I was bold and brave, not worrying about the awards I…
Rosy Roasted Roots, Random Recipes and Fresh Scottish Herrings in an Oatmeal Crumb
Rosy Roasted Roots, Random Recipes and Fresh Scottish Herrings in an Oatmeal Crumb Of all the root vegetables that are grown and available in the UK and France, Beetroot has to be one of my favourites; it’s a much maligned vegetable, probably due to being picked in harsh malt vinegar for months on end, but…
Luxury Low-Calorie Recipe for Fish on Friday: Smoked Salmon Pitta Pizza for 5:2 Diet Fast Day
Luxury Low-Calorie Recipe for Fish on Friday: Smoked Salmon Pitta Pizza for 5:2 Diet Fast Day My “Fish on Friday” post today is a luxury one, a special LOW-CALORIE snack, lunch or light supper recipe with more than a hint of gourmet about it, Smoked Salmon Pitta Pizza. This recipe is a remarkable 194 calories and VERY…
Scheherazade and Tea Time Treats: Cardamom Rose Cake with Orange Drizzle Recipe
Scheherazade and Tea Time Treats: Cardamom Rose Cake with Orange Drizzle Recipe There is something of Scheherazade and her tales from a Thousand and One Arabian Nights in my latest cake recipe, Cardamom Rose Cake with Orange Drizzle Recipe. Cardamom is a spice with an aroma that immediately transports me to the Middle East, probably on a magic…
Snow, Bread and Boule! An Easy Artisan Weekly Make and Bake Rustic Bread Recipe
Snow, Bread and Boule! An Easy Artisan Weekly Make and Bake Rustic Bread Recipe The snow arrived in soft fluttering flakes and settled as fast as an uninvited guest at the tea-table! The light was bright and the snow-bound garden had that eerie muffled silence that the snow always brings with it. The Aga and fire were lit,…
The Fast Diet, Meal Planning Monday and Tiger Prawn Curry with Basmati Rice (5:2 Diet) Recipe
The Fast Diet, Meal Planning Monday and Tiger Prawn Curry with Basmati Rice (5:2 Diet) Recipe I am back on my Monday Meal Plans……things all went awry in December and over the Festive period, but I have decided to more disciplined, as much as I can be disciplined, and attempt to plan ahead. My weekly meal plans…
Charles Dickens and London Particular: Ham and Pea Soup Recipe
Charles Dickens and London Particular: Ham and Pea Soup Recipe It has been foggy lately, the New Year opened with thick, swirling fog – the sort where drips of moisture are amplified by the close pressing presence of this most depressing of weather phenomena. Rain I can cope with, now and then that is, snow is initially magical before it becomes sludge or…
Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)
Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe) Regular Lavender and Lovage readers may remember that I entered a baking contest recently here: La Rosca de Reyes (King Cake) ~ For a Spanish Inspired Christmas & New Year, sadly I didn’t win, you can’t win them all, but I did come in as…
Think Pink! Real Bread: Beetroot and Walnut Bread Rolls Recipe
Think Pink! Real Bread: Beetroot and Walnut Bread Rolls Recipe Real bread……that most elemental of all foods, the smell is homely, comforting, enticing, warm and yeasty……it’s the staff of life, the essential vehicle for beans, cheese, ham as well as being the ideal accompaniment to soups, stews and casseroles. How is “real bread” defined? The…
5:2 Diet Fast Day Recipes: Coronation Potato Salad and Low-Fat Pan-Fried Garlic Hake Fillets
5:2 Diet Fast Day Recipes: Coronation Potato Salad and Low-Fat Pan-Fried Garlic Hake Fillets The time between Christmas and New Year is a strange one on the culinary front – there is a plethora of sweets, cakes, pies, biscuits and other rich pickings from the savoury buffet table, as well as piles of turkey no…
Historical Roast Turkey Recipe: Gilded Saffron & Butter Basted Turkey with Herb Garland
Historical Roast Turkey Recipe: Gilded Saffron & Butter Basted Turkey with Herb Garland Christmas arrived early last weekend when I received a lovely Seasonal Box from Knorr, with the makings of a wonderful Christmas dinner, including some handy Knorr gravy pots. One of my readers was lucky enough to win the same box, in a Giveaway I…
Recipes: Fabulous Festive Fish! Little Smoked Salmon Cucumber Cups With Peppered Crème Fraiche
Recipes: Fabulous Festive Fish! Little Smoked Salmon Cucumber Cups With Peppered Crème Fraiche For my last Fish on Friday post before Christmas, I bring you a simple and very elegant appetiser, Little Smoked Salmon Cucumber Cups With Peppered Crème Fraiche, as well as a list of some of my fish recipes over the last year…….most of…
Old Fashioned Sweet Delights: Spiced Mincemeat Meringue Pies (Recipe)
Old Fashioned Sweet Delights: Spiced Mincemeat Meringue Pies (Recipe) The humble mince pie needs little embellishments in my humble opinion – a crisp, crumbly and buttery shortcrust pastry base filled with fruity home-made mincemeat, with a dash of brandy, and a simple lid of more buttery pastry – a sprinkling of caster sugar maybe, or even a little…
