French Bean Omelette

French Bean Omelette

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely festive season and I wish you and your loved ones a very happy 2014.As this is my first post in 2014 and it is a Monday, you guessed it, time for a Meatless Monday post.

One of my closest friends came over from Malaysia to visit me during the festive season. We had so much fun entertaining him and we went to York and Edinburgh. It was my first time in Edinburgh and it must be one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. The streets just ooze history and character. They also have very good steak and ale pies. Apart from that we also had friends over a couple of nights at home too and all that translates to more glorious food! With all the travelling, cooking and eating, I managed to gain 2kg in the last 3 weeks. I must now begin my quest to work of that excess weight and make my fat cry. Although, I do believe that I will end up crying before my fat does.

Christmas Fruit Cake

Christmas Fruit Cake with Walnuts

Hello everyone! With the festive season upon us, I know I have been sharing a lot of sweet recipes due to all the holiday baking I have been doing. I will try to post more savouries soon, meanwhile I hope you are embracing the festivities and enjoying your holiday baking.

Today, I want to share this very dear and special recipe for Christmas Fruit Cake with you. This is going to be a somewhat lengthy post, but I hope you bear with me as I wish to set out as many tips and tricks that I have learnt from my own hard and sometimes tearful experience with you so that you will be able to achieve the perfect bake.

Moist Banana Walnut Chocolate Bread

Moist Banana Walnut Chocolate Bread with desiccated coconut for a soft texture and intense flavour

Hello and how have we all been keeping?

Well, my schedule has been a bit out of whack. I had it all planned but then an unscheduled road trip for 2 days seems to have side tracked my best laid plans. In any event, I am looking forward to the road trip! Will rather work extra harder these few days and enjoy! Hey, I am learning how to embrace change better and not get so cranky if things don’t go as planned. That is one of my goals for 2014 and beyond, learning to embrace things. Of course I reserve the right to be cranky every now and then. There, caveat entered!

So, where was I, ah – yes, I wanted to share a recipe for a moist banana walnut chocolate bread. Oh I know there are thousands of banana bread recipes, but I really did enjoy this recipe and it takes 2 minutes to make. Well, you got me there, it takes 10 minutes of prep time, but that is short and easy enough. This banana bread is really quite filling and it worked really well for several brunches and lunches for me. The desiccated coconut gives body to the texture. As for the chocolate chips, well, most things are better with chocolate and this is definitely the case here. As a side note, I have reduced the sugar content so if you want it sweeter, go ahead and increase the amount of sugar by 50gm.