This recipe is from a cookbook I received as a gift, cookbooks are the way to my heart, but that’s another story. The cookbook is called; The South Coast Cookbook 2, its a food journey from Kiama to Eden, the recipe is from The Rivermouth General Store @ Tomakin, I’ve only included the pattie part of the recipe and I’ve only made a few minor changes to the recipe.

You’ll need;

1/2 cup basmati rice, cooked (this means 1/2 cup uncooked rice)

1 cup quinoa, cooked (this means 1 cup uncooked quinoa)

3/4 cup roasted pumpkin

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 handful of fresh mixed herbs, I used flat leafed parsley, chives, rosemary and thyme.

75 grams of goat or sheep feta crumbled

1/4 cup of pepitas

1/4 cup of sesame seeds

200 grams of creamed corn

1 tablespoon of chia seeds

1 teaspoon of red curry paste

juice of one lemon

1 handful of baby spinach

2 eggs

1/2 cup of spelt flour

salt and pepper to season

You’ll need to;

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, mix everything together, make into patties, the recipe makes seven good sized ones, put in the oven and cook for 15 minutes, turn over and cook for another 5 minutes and the patties are done.

You can have them with salad or veggies, or on their own, or you could have them for lunch on a spelt bread sandwich as well.

Try this delicious salad I have adapted from one of Elena Duggan’s recipes.

For the dressing you’ll need;

6 x dates pitted and finely chopped

2 x eschallots finely chopped

50 grams of red wine vinegar

75grams of extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon of white pepper.

For the salad you’ll need;

1 cup of small green lentils

the arils/seeds of one pomegranate

50 grams of pistachios chopped

150 grams of goat fetta crumbled

1/4 bunch of mint chopped

1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley chopped.

You’ll need to;

Cook the lentils as per directions on packet, let them cool.

Mix together all of the dressing ingredients, let marinate for fifteen minutes.

Mix together all of the salad ingredients and cooked lentils, pour dressing over the salad, toss together and serve.

Have you ever wondered what’s going on in your gut? Testing can be a great way to find out. I like to test, as it gives both myself and my patients information and direction as to what foods to remove, as well as which herbs and supplements to prescribe for their individual results.

Which test/s to run will depend on what symptoms my patients present with, if a patient has symptoms such as constipation, we may test for food intolerances, SIBO/Fructose and or run a microbiome mapping stool test. We may do one test at a time, or we may test everything at once, financially its easier on the pocket if we test one at a time. The beauty of doing it this way is that if it’s a food intolerance and that’s the first thing we test, we then remove the problematic foods as indicated by the test, if we get total resolution of the problem, yay that’s the only test we run.

If we remove the problematic foods as indicated by the test and we see no change, we can then make the call, that, even though the test showed you have an intolerance to a particular food, that food is not causing your problem, so we can rule it out as a contributing factor. We can then organise the next test, which may be SIBO/Fructose or microbiome mapping.

The beauty of testing everything at once, food intolerances, SIBO/Fructose and microbiome mapping, is that we have all of the information in front of us. We can immediately implement dietary changes and accurately prescribe herbal medicines and supplements according to the results. Testing everything at once also saves time and allows for the problematic foods to be reintroduced in a more timely fashion.

There are many different signs and symptoms of poor gut health. You may have one, or many of those signs and symptoms. Your symptoms can give us an excellent indication as to what to test for. The great thing about testing is you get results, you can then make the call to remove the particular foods or not, but at least you will know what’s going on. Sometimes it’s just about knowing what causing the gut distress, isn’t it.

One year ago today, I faced one of the most stressful events of my life. The Currowan fire was headed towards our humble little holiday shack at Yatte Yattah. The Currowan fire started on the 26^th November 2019 and slowly made its way towards us, on the way it went through my Dad’s property Lazier Acres at Brooman on the 13^th December 2019, which is a story for another time. We had been waiting for the fire to arrive for about a week, tracking it on multiple fire apps, listening out for it on multiple radio frequencies, watching it on the Budawang ranges. One night we even took turns staying up as we thought it may come through that night. We were very well prepared, the fire brigade had visited us in the days before the fire, asked us what our plans were, gave us some invaluable tips and said call triple zero when the ember attack starts. It was hot and windy a year ago today, perfect conditions for a fire that was only a few kilometres from us. My Dad phoned about 9am and said I’m on my way over, I don’t like the look of the conditions. The fire arrived not long after that, we all had our jobs to do, and we did them, we stuck to our plan. It was hot, windy, uncomfortable and embers were landing everywhere. We saved our little shack and one shed, lost a shipping container, ride on mower, and lots of building materials. A few weeks after this I was struggling with gut symptoms, I knew what was going on, I had a stomach ulcer. The stress of the fire going through Dad’s, the leadup and the fire at our place were the contributing factors. Luckily for me I know what to do and how to heal it so did, and within a few weeks I was fine. Major stressful events such as this do play havoc with your gut health. You may not get a stomach ulcer like I did, but on some level your gut is always affected. You also do not need a big stressful event, like mine. We all live with a certain amount of stress, and on some level our gut is always being affected, every single day.

makes 22

ingredients;

100 grams macadamia nuts chopped coarsely

125 grams dried apricots cut up finely

180 grams dairy free while chocolate (sweet william)

250 grams of nuttelex

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup castor sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

2 eggs

2 cups of spelt flour

1/2 teaspoon of bicarb soda

1 cup craisins

2 1/2 cups oats

preparation;

Preheat oven to 180 degrees, line two oven trays with baking paper. Mix together macadamias, apricots and white chocolate in a bowl. Put Nuttelex in a mixing bowl with the brown and castor sugars, beat with an electric mixer until soft and creamy, continue to mix until the mixture has increased in volume and the sugar has dissolved. Add vanilla essence and eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.Add flour and bicarb to Nuttelex & sugar mixture and stir with a spoon lightly, add chocolate and nut mixture and oats and craisins, combine until mixed well, sometimes I do this with my fingers as it is easier. Measure 2 tablespoons of mixture into a ball, put ion tray and slightly flatten, repeat with remaining mixture, cook for approximately 12 minutes or until golden.

makes 20

ingredients;

1 cup ground almonds

1 cup spelt flour

4 eggs lightly beaten

2 cups a2 milk

125 grams nuttelex

1/4 cup of castor sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon zest

1 tablespoon of orange zest

1 cup of orange juice

1/4 cup of lemon juice

1/2 cup Grand Marnier

2 oranges segmented

preparation;

Combine almonds and flour in a bowl, gradually stir in eggs and milk and beat until smooth, stand for 30 minutes. Heat pan and pour in 2 to 3tablespoons of mixture and cook crepe on both sides until done, you may need to heat some nuttelex to cook the crepe in, just depends on your pan, repeat until all crepes are made. Heat Nuttelex in a pan, add sugar and cook stirring until sugar melts and begins to brown, add combined zests and juices, and stir over a high heat until caramalised sugar dissolves, add Grand Marnier and orange segments and heat gently, pour sauce over crepes and serve. Both of these items can be precooked and reheated, it is more of an adult than children desert.

This is a delicious recipe that’s ideal for your Christmas table, I usually make it in an assortment of different sized glasses

ingredients;

250ml coconut cream

250ml full-cream a2 milk

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

125g castor sugar

2 1/2 gelatine leaves (titanium strength)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

100ml brandy or cognac

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

raspberries for garnish

preparation

Gently heat cream, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in a saucepan,stirring until sugar has dissolved. Soak gelatine leaves in cold water for five minutes. Drain gelatine, squeezing leaves lightly to get rid of excess water. Whisk gelatine into cream until dissolved and allow to cool for one hour. Whisk eggs, brandy and vanilla extract into cooled cream and pour into glasses. Refrigerate overnight, garnish with raspberries before serving. This is an adult dessert as well, if you are serving children omit the brandy.

serves 8

ingredients

 1 kg potatoes – preferably pontiac or desiree

2 eggs

1/2 cup mayonnaise

pinch sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 green shallots finely slliced

2 x celery stalks finely sliced

10 chives chopped

1/4 cup mint leaves chopped finely

preparation

Cut potatoes into 4 cm cubes, put potatoes and eggs in cold water, cover and bring to boil, when water has been boiling for ten minutes remove eggs and check if potatoes are cooked, if not continue cooking uncovered until potato is just tender, drain potato, peel eggs and grate eggs into a serving bowl, add the still warm potato, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, shallots, celery, chives and mint, gently stir to mix and serve, this is fine if made the day before.

this recipe has been adapted from Naked Foods by Jane Grover

These fish cakes are super simple and taste great.

You’ll need for approximately 25;

1kg small white fish fillets coarsely chopped

1 egg

2 teaspoons coarsely chopped fresh coriander

3 teaspoons sugar

1/3 cup red curry paste – I used the Mae Ploy brand

100 grams of green beans sliced thinly

olive oil for frying

For the dipping sauce;

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 chilli finely chopped

1/2 Lebanese cucumber chopped into fine squares

You need to;

Boil together the sugar and white vinegar for the dipping sauce until the sugar melts, put it to the side and add the cucumber and chilli to it just before serving.

Put fish into a strong food processor with egg, coriander, sugar and paste and blend until a paste forms. Combine fish and beans in a bowl and mix up with your hands, roll into balls about the size of a golf ball, pop into a heated pan with some olive oil, flatten a little and fry on both sides until golden. Serve with dipping sauce.