Baked breakfast: easy, healthy, and cheap!

A few months ago, a work colleague brought in extra apples from his garden for people who were interested. Free fruit?! Yes please! Me and another colleague were intrigued and we tried baked apples for breakfast. What an unbelievable breakfast.

We sliced the apples, added brown sugar, raisins and a few splashes of water. We cooked them in the microwave for 7-8 minutes until soft, and then added yoghurt, almonds, and a pinch of cinnamon at the end. 

Serve with a morning smile and a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon. It really is an amazing start to the day.

Only 2 weeks today until Australia!

ZP x

Mackerel fishcakes

There's only a few weeks left until I will be flying half way round the world to Australia. My cousin is getting married and asked me to be her bridesmaid. No-one could turn that opportunity to travel to a new country, especially with the heatwave that's souring out there at the moment. 46 degrees is a little too hot for a girl that's used to the mild English climate but I'm sure I'll get used to it. The bonus is we get to see these pretty awesome sunrises on frosty winter mornings:


So, as a result of pretty much being in a bikini for the next month, I'm on a healthy plan. I'm running more and eating better (I can't quite say no to wine though...but we all need our treats!)

I've done many healthy recipes (although I do love butter and cream) where it's great to feel refreshed and not stuffed after a meal.

These fishcakes are so easy and very cheap to make. I buy the smoked or peppered mackerel in the vacuumed packet from the supermarket. My Mum would be shocked to hear me using it as it used to make me feel sick when I was younger but now, knowing how healthy it is for you, my taste buds have changed and it's great.

So, break up the smoked/peppered mackerel into a large bowl then add mash potato. Fry diced onion and add in too once cooled a little. Add an egg, salt, pepper, dill, any other herbs you have, maybe some horseradish or mustard. Shape with hands into fat disc and coat in flour. Fry off until golden on all sides. They can be baked in the oven also if you don't want to fry. It's as easy as that!

Serve with broccoli and lemon.

Oh and one last thing, in my previous post about dinner parties, I mentioned that I was going to a big dinner party/get together and planned on doing chilli con carne. I chose well as it went down a storm. I also made a side of nachos using salsa, cheese and jalapenos and serving with guacamole and sour cream on the side:

ZP x

Dinner parties and eating in

Christmas, new year, and all the days around this festive period are, for me and my friends and family, about spending time with each other. We all tend to get together and bring a course each or we just gather and bring any leftovers to come together in one massive picnic/help yourself buffet.

For a dinner party before Christmas, I was asked to bring my famous New York cheesecake to finish a meal. I get bored making things in the same way twice, so I added raspberries into the mix and baked it off in the same way. It worked out a right treat. We loved it. Here's the recipe:

150g digestive biscuits, 75g butter. Crush biscuits into fine crumbs, add melted butter and bake in tin for 15 mins.

Beat 3 big tubs of full fat cream cheese (philly works well here but make sure everything is room temperature otherwise you'll have arms the size as Arni at the end) with 200g caster sugar then mix in 200ml of sour cream (I used crème fraiche because I had no sour cream) and 3 tbspn flour. Gradually add 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk and mix in with 2 tspn of vanilla extract.


Once all combined, stir through zest of 1 lemon and a punnet of raspberries. Pour on top of biscuit mix and then bake for a 45-50 mins on a lower temp (160).

It should be slightly wobbly in the middle when you take it out as it will continue to cook when you bring it out.

Serve with more raspberries and cream – or just out the tin if you can’t wait!

I'm meeting up with lots of friends this Friday so I'm thinking of how to cook for us all. I'm thinking of making a massive pot of rice and then serving two separate dishes with it. At the moment, I'm thinking of a veggie coconut curry and a chilli con carne with guacamole. I'll let you know what I cook and how it goes down.

ZP x

Staying in while the storm blows

So England is having a hard time fighting the storms with all the rain coming our way. Not to mention the cold freeze that has taken a hold of America. I hope you're all keeping warm over there! What a perfect time to stay in, wrap up warm, watch movies, read, write, and cook!

I used my new quill. Great way to write and hark back to old days when all they had would have been a quill and a candle to write with ( I do think sometimes that I would have loved to have been living like that - simple pleasures and all that!) Makes me appreciate what we have now and how lucky we are.

Going back to warming up on these blustery evenings, I find hearty soup one of my favourites. It fills you up and gives you a hug. 

I simply boiled up the chicken carcass with lots of water, onion, carrot, celery, leek, bit of bay leaf from the garden, and peppercorns, then strained after a few hours. It's best to roast off the bones first to get the most flavour out of them. Putting the strained golden liquid back on to boil, simmer with lentils and other pulses (I use the soup mix you can get from health food shops) and then finish off with left over torn chicken, finely diced carrot, and thin slices of leek. Bit of crushed garlic wouldn't go amiss either. Season to taste: 

Serve with crusty bread and an evening snuggled up with a book.

Have a great weekend readers.

ZP x

Neighbourly love: a friendship bonded through food

Happy new year to all my readers! I thought I'd dedicate this post to a good friend and my neighbour: Gabi. 

Gabi and I have a close thing in common: we love to eat but we probably love to cook even more. Every couple of weeks, we have dinner round each other's houses where we cook, gossip, watch movies, and of course, eat.

Here are some of my favourite delights we've cooked for each other since I moved next door in June. Some of the recipes are already published on my blog (linked with each title) and some are in the pipeline (come back soon for the recipes):

Beetroot and goats cheese salad

Mexican lettuce wraps

Fillet steak with mushrooms

Pork chops with pesto

                                   










Apple and blackberry pie

Banana cake with raspberries

Mackerel fishcakes

            Fresh Egg pasta

Chocolate and vanilla cakes

Homemade pizzas

Marinated BBQ steak with wedges

Looking forward to our next meal Gabi, and for many more foodie delights in the future!

Get knocking on your neighbour's doors and see what you have in common; you might find a great friend you never knew you could have.

ZP x

Using up the leftovers and keeping stock

I love to use leftovers where ever I can and having long lasting items in your cupboards/fridge is very important in getting easy dinners on the table. One of my favourites is a jar of charred red peppers. You can add them to soup, pasta sauces, pizzas, stews, the list is endless. Other things that last a long time are beetroots (either in jars or vacuum packs), butternut squashes (or other hardy root veg), and all your jars (mustard, redcurrant jelly, mint jelly etc.).

Salads are very quick to make and no washing up of big pans required. I love the mixture of beetroot and goats cheese. Pine nuts and roasted butternut squash would also go really well on top.

I've mixed one of the salads to the left with tomatoes and cucumber from my Mum's garden. She's just planted in her new vegetable plots meaning that come spring time, I'll be able to get my hands on some new vegetables ready to cook with (if she lets me have some!).


Talking of fresh veg, my lovely neighbour delivers all sorts of goodies from her father's allotment in London (see the assortment to the right). I remember making a curry with all the tomatoes. I had the figs drizzled with honey. I'm still using all of the garlic that she gave me, I actually used it last night in a sausage casserole. I'm missing all these fresh fruit and vegetables now that winter has drawn in. It's time for stews, soups, curries and hearty dishes that warm tootsies. But bring on the day when I can pick fresh strawberries from my Mum's garden again.

Also, I love roasting veg. Any veg; all veg. Here's some parsnip, the butternut squash (from the allotment shown above), and potatoes left over from a roast. I always find there's a small amount of potatoes left to grow little sprouts, so mix them up with some veg and roast them off. Here, I've put them with some fennel seeds, cumin seeds, onion seeds and a few more aromatic spices thrown in, as well as some oil to help them crisp up and get all tasty. When they've had about an hour in the oven, I eat them with mayo when I'm on my own but when guests are coming, I serve with roast chicken, steak or even blend them into soup.

Another good tip is never throw a chicken carcass away. This always hurts me a little bit to see that happen. Make some soup. Get your nose in the trails of soup steam. There is so much flavour (and probably meat) still left on the chicken so dry fry it (take off the skin and any congealed fat) to colour it all a bit and get some flavour onto it and then add water, onions, carrots, celery, leeks and any other veg. Once they've boiled for a few hours, sieve the stock. You could keep this stock as it is and take it out the freezer when you need to make a gravy but when it's winter, I like to make soup. So, to the stock, add a soup mix bag from your local health shop (usually filled with lentils and pearl barley) to give it a bit of body and also add a bit of the leftover chicken pieces. Boil until the lentils and barley are done and you can't quite resist it any longer. You're welcome to add peas, sweetcorn or anything you like in your chicken soup. Serve with bread and butter. It's the best cure for illness or homesickness in the world.

So, make the most of all your leftovers and don't throw anything away - there's always a use for something...you'll save money and create new things!

ZP x

Mini blackberry crumbles

Now is the time to bring out the berries from the freezer picked back in summer.


You could do all sorts with berries. Duck breast with blackberry sauce, raspberry pavlova, elderflower cordial, strawberry jam, and much more. This time, I've stuck to tradition and made mini blackberry crumbles. I've mixed them with whatever I could find leftover in the fruit bowl: here, it's apricots, plums, and peaches. For the crumble topping, it's easy: it's just butter and flour mixed together with your fingertips and then sugar added. There's more related recipes here.


Serve with custard in front of the fire on a bitterly cold evening. Beautiful.

ZP x

Sunday roast: topside of beef

Not a nice Monday morning at the dentist. Being sofa ridden with a numb eye and aching jaw after 4 fillings, I thought I would show the roast beef I made last night.

I was impressed by how little time it needed cooking - it's certainly an easy joint to roast but the expense of it means that my usual chicken roast is more affordable. But having friends over and enjoying great food together was worth all the fuss. 

The creamed leeks I made are also amazing for a roast - just fry 3 large leeks with 3 gloves of garlic until soft then add a small tub of cream with 2 handfuls of cheese (I chose one handful of Parmesan and one of cheddar). Reduce the cream slightly and then put into an oven proof dish, top with a bit more cheese, and then roast for 15-20 mins until golden. It's a good dish to go with a roast because you can get it ready for the oven beforehand and then put in with the Yorkshires at the end.

Also, this weekend, I've had stew at my mums house - it was just as good as I remember - but it tastes better than it looks!

So, while I'm on a Liquid diet until I can feel my face again, I will be thinking about all the lovely things I can cook. I'm thinking of making stuffed ravioli with mushrooms and beef from the leftover from yesterday's roast...watch this space...

ZP x