Australia’s recent Summer of drought, heat and bushfires has made global headlines. So imagine the relief this weekend with heavy rainfall finally dampening many long burning fires. It’s been such a non-stop downpour that forecasts are predicting the most rain in over 20 years and mass flooding. It truly feels like a case of ‘from one extreme to the other’ as I saw one news report put it. These extremes are keeping climate change firmly top of mind. It feels like finally we are all now seriously thinking about how we can do our bit to protect our planet. And it’s so true that every change we m ..read more

When it comes to dips there’s the easy, quick fix route – being supermarket bought dips. The downside? They’re often expensive and contain less than saintly added ingredients, like sugar and preservatives. Couple this with plastic packaging and you can see why most ready made dips aren’t nourishing for your body, your wallet or the environment. Which is why I love making home-made dips. Of course this route takes a little more preparation but the rewards are worth it. Usually you only a few ingredients are called for and you don’t need to rigidly adhere to a recipe.Home-made dips are good for ..read more

The big Australian supermarkets publish free monthly ‘recipe’ magazines and I always pick up a copy to browse. It’s rare for a recipe to catch my eye – because most of them are cleverly designed to promote packaged (and often processed) products. But in last month’s Coles magazine the ‘green shakshuka’ recipe looked like a winner and the page quickly made it’s way from the magazine to my kitchen notice board. Traditionally shakshuka combines eggs, tomatoes and spices. It has origins in the Middle East and North Africa and is a popular and hearty brunch staple at many cafe here in Sydney. This ..read more

Becoming a blogger is pretty easy. You decide on a topic, choose a blogging platform and before you know it you’re up and running posting content. But that feeling of excitement that comes with starting a shiny new blog can all too quickly fade. And the blog can fade with it. This means it’s crucial to set goals for your blog and find ways to stay motivated to achieve them. Here I’m sharing my top tips for setting and achieving blogging goals – things that have worked well for me over the last 5 years. Whether you’re embarking on, or continuing, a blogging journey these tips may help you! 1 ..read more

There’s nothing more satisfying than creating a vegetarian version of a meat based dish. Especially when it tastes as good as, or even better than, when meat is involved. This classic rogan josh curry is a great example. Having been raised a ‘Yorkshire las’ in the UK it’s perhaps not surprising that my favourite childhood feast was a Sunday roast with Yorkshire Puddings and other trimmings. But coming in a close second, even from an early age, was a good curry with rice and naan and poddadoms. I’m far from the only Brit who has a soft spot for Indian curries – in fact the Brits love curry so m ..read more

Save over $100 a week by smarter spending on groceries… Over the years I’ve learnt that saving money on groceries doesn’t have to mean making sacrifices, like giving up my favourite snacks and treats. That’s because there are easy ways to save on your regular grocery shop. Here I’m sharing my personal tips and tricks to smarter grocery spending. The possible weekly savings here of over $100 are based on my weekly spend of $100-$300. Of course not everyone will make the same savings but with smarter spending it is possible to spend way less.  Try a couple of my tips and see how much you could s ..read more

As I was moving to a vegetarian diet during 2016 one of the first veggie recipes I shared was ‘beans on toast’. A recipe that came thanks to Jamie Oliver’s Comfort Food book. ‘Beans trump pork’ At the time my most popular recipe was for slow roasted pork with crispy crackling – with over 10,000 views in 2016. Back then I’d never have thought baked beans would become my most viewed post. But that’s exactly what happened – since 2017 ‘Jamie’s comfort food beans on toast’ has been the most viewed Feast Wisely recipe. So far this year it’s has had over 6,000 views – double that of slow roasted por ..read more

Australia is in the midst of a crazy flu season – so much so that over 40,000 cases of the flu were reported during June – compared to less 2,000 for the same period in 2018. It’s a flu that’s hard to avoid – even if, like me,  you tell yourself “my strong immune system will protect me”. It didn’t. When a mild case of flu like symptoms struck myself and my husband during June we both turned immediately to natural remedies, like lemon and ginger tea and essential oils. One of those natural remedies, eucalyptus oil, prompted me to deviate from my usual foodie news to share this post. Essential ..read more

Growing up many a fond memory was made in Turkey. It was my mother’s destination of choice for family holidays in the 1990s – thanks to the guaranteed Summer sun (and bargain prices before Turkey started accepting the euro). I was recently reminded of the richness of Turkish culture and the diversity of its natural wonders thanks to ‘Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road Adventure’ – a must-watch four part travel documentary.But, despite spending many weeks in Turkey, I’ve never really got to know the country’s cuisine. And, even though I love anything Middle Eastern and edible, until a few weeks ago I di ..read more

On a recent trip back to Yorkshire for my sister’s wedding I was lucky enough to spend a day in the kitchen with one of the best Gujarati chefs in England. Or at least that’s what me and my husband think. Who was it? Not a celebrity chef nor even a professional chef, but my mother-in-law, Sudha Patel. I recently introduced Sudha alongside her recipe for Aloo Matar (potato and pea curry) – in that post I shared how Jamie Oliver’s show on Italian nonnas had inspire me to get some quality time in the kitchen with her. Sudha, like many of the Italian nonnas, has 50 years plus experience in the kit ..read more