Apple & Peanut Butter Muffins

When I was little, I swore I wouldn’t be the kind of grown up who constantly remarked on how much a child had grown: it’s such a boring conversation opener. And yet here I am, parent to an almost five month old and constantly amazed by how he changes every day. The time since February feels both long and life-changing and simultaneously gone in an instant, those snuggly newborn days a thing of the past and this bright, beady, blue-eyed little boy now making himself and his personality known. Continue reading →

20Jun2016

Tuna Poke Bowls

Today we’re talking sleep. Or lack thereof. It’s grey and wet outside, I’m already on my third load of laundry after three hours sleep total, and since I don’t drink coffee, an injection of energy and sunshine in bowl food form is exactly what I need. These tuna poke bowls provide. Continue reading →

5Jun2016

White Chocolate Pistachio Butter Cups

Exactly one year ago to this day, I found out that I was pregnant with Nino. Of course we didn’t yet know exactly who that poppy seed-sized embryo inside me would turn out to be, but we were pretty sure he (yes he, somehow we knew from the start he’d be a boy) was going to change our lives. I still get goosebumps when I think about seeing those two blue lines for the very first time, Luke’s face when I crept back to the bedroom to tell him the news, his giant beam behind a pair of very bleary eyes . . . Continue reading →

30May2016

Fifteen Favourite Food Instagram Accounts

I’ve long been an Instagram fan, but becoming a breastfeeding mum turned me into a proper addict. When I wasn’t googling ‘why won’t my baby sleep in . . .’ and ‘is it normal for my newborn to . . .’ during those first few weeks, I spent our wakeful nights scrolling through my favourite accounts, imagining all the delicious treats I would make when I had a moment without a baby attached to my chest.

Now we’re nearly four months in and Nino is sleeping through the night, I’m not quite so scroll happy, but still love spending time during the day to catch up with my favourite Instagram feeds. Ok, that’s a lie, Nino still wakes up a couple of times to snack on a good night, but he now nurses quickly in complete dark, the two of us rolling over and back into sleep as quickly as possible without the distraction of technology.

Regardless of when you get your Insta-fix, I thought it would be fun to compile a list of my favourites – a mixture of beautiful photos, sugar-laced treats, mum and baby eats and more. Enjoy!

Continue reading →

23May2016

Milk Chocolate Tahini Blondies

Way back, before Ottolenghi opened his first deli in Notting Hill and when the general public still thought the anchovies that Delia Smith used on her BBC cooking show were exotic, my Mum was using tahini as an ingredient. On shopping trips out we’d frequent cafes like Food for Thought and Cranks for lunch, while at home the cupboards were stocked with packets of wholesome seeds and grains. While most wound their way into savoury dishes – ours was a household decidedly lacking in childhood sweet treats – my Mum had a wonderful recipe for tahini flapjacks studded with sesame seeds and peanuts which we’d eagerly await the appearance of as an after school snack. Continue reading →

16May2016

Malteser Ice Cream Bars

Like the Banoffee Pie I posted a few weeks back, I hadn’t planned to put this recipe up on the blog, but an enthusiastic response on Instagram (my most likes ever, where did all you people come from?) led me to believe I should share the details. In fact I’m thinking of starting an Insta-recipe series (Izy does something similar) of treats I haven’t had time to test multiple times or capture with anything other than my iPhone, but which I’d like to log recipe details of for a future me – and for you to try, of course. Continue reading →

9May2016

Pistachio & Apricot Granola

One night last week I rocked our baby boy to sleep singing ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’ on an infinite loop, standing next to the tumble dryer because its continuous grumble was the only thing (besides my twinkly twinkles) that seemed to soothe his tired cries. We might have got Nino out of hospital, but that doesn’t mean we’re not now faced with all the usual problems that being the parent of a brand new baby brings. And as any tired parent knows, when you’re sleeping less and singing (bouncing, shhh-ing, swinging . . . you name it) more, an energy boosting breakfast you can quickly sling into a bowl one-handed becomes a very important thing. Continue reading →

4May2016

How To Mend a Broken Heart: Nino’s Hospital Story

Blogging is a funny thing. In the five plus years since I first pressed publish, I’ve built up a community of not just contacts but friends, sharing life-changing events like getting engaged and married, writing a cookbook and getting pregnant. It’s a deeply personal place, yet simultaneously accessible to any stranger, which is why I had to think hard about how much of Nino’s story to share in this space. But after some deliberation I realised that it’s too important not to tell; for me as a journal and catharsis of sorts, for Nino when he’s older to see how far he’s come, for loved ones to understand what we’ve been through, and even for those strangers to raise awareness of the rare congenital heart conditions that can happen in any pregnancy. Continue reading →

27Apr2016

Croquetas de Sobrasada

On Friday, much sooner than anyone had expected, we returned home from hospital. I want to share some thoughts on those crazy ten days (plus the preceding weeks at home, in fact the months since we first found out about Nino’s condition) but my brain is still processing it all. Suffice to say that my faith in human nature has grown with every wonderful nurse, doctor and member of staff that we met and every friend or family member who has supported us so far, and that our tiny twelve week old boy is stronger and more resilient than I could ever have begun to imagine he could be. Continue reading →

11Apr2016

No Bake Banoffee Pie with Pecans

It feels like a lot of the food I’ve made over the last few weeks is something of a metaphor for the life we’re currently living. I hadn’t planned to post the recipe for this no bake banoffee pie – surely anyone can throw together the basic combination of biscuits, bananas, toffee and cream – but your enthusiastic response to this photo on Instagram got me thinking about what we all appreciate on a day-to-day basis. Not fancy tiered cakes and complicated techniques but the joy of simplicity – the recipe equivalent of slow days snuggling on the sofa rather than a glamorous evening out. Continue reading →