Welcome to The Kitchen Playground. Cooking can bring great joy and great despair. I hope that the recipes you find here, many of which are very quick to make with the weeknight in mind, help you to experience more joy than despair. Many recipes have instructions for the Thermomix 31 as well as traditional instructions. The emphasis is on real, fresh food that combines flavour, texture and scent to delight the senses.
Back in 2007 when I started The Kitchen Playground, I was at home with a four year old and an eighteen month old. I was only working a few hours a week outside the home and wondering what I wanted to be when I grew up. Well I’m not sure that I’ve entirely grown up […]
This is such an easy meal to satisfy the whole family with. I ate mine from a bowl, the rest of the family stuffed theirs into Vietnamese rolls from our local bakery. Perfect for a hot night. Total calories 1604. 267 calories if split 6 ways, 201 calories if split 8 ways. This will vary […]
Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu (Summer has arrived, Sing loudly, Cuckoo!) And the fruits are starting to appear. A fast day meal this week was a delicious tribute to the season, marinated jerk chicken with a tropical fruit salsa. The leftover fruit made a fruit salad for dessert to satisfy the rest of […]
At this time of year the 5:2 lifestyle is an absolute lifesaver. There are so many social events on and they all involve extra food and drink. Having two fast days a week keeps it all under control. This lunch felt luxurious while still being within the fast day limits and leaving some room for […]
This lovely little salad serves 1 for lunch. Perfect for taking to work. I had some gorgeous tender young broad beans that didn’t need double skinning just to make it even easier. 197 calories Broad bean and fennel salad 1/2 cup cooked broad beans 1 cup shaved fennel 1/4 cup finely diced red onion 1/2 […]
Due to having an unusual number of social commitments plus a scheduled Blood Bank appointment, I was driven to do my two fast days consecutively. This is not something I would normally do and not something I had done before. I was a little concerned about the second day and getting through work without eating […]
These are a big hit in our house for old and young alike. There are so many recipes similar to this floating around these days. For good reason. I use 51% cocoa choc chips as a good compromise between the palates of the family and these are close to healthy treat. 56 calories each Chocolate […]
We go through a lot of fruit in this house. All that tends to be left in the fruit bowl by the end of the week is the odd item that is slightly bruised and the kids were too lazy to cut the bruise out of and eat. This week I had 2 apples, 2 […]
This is a ripper for a fast day that can be thrown together super quickly. You can vary the spices for a range of different flavours too. Microwave tomato and spinach ‘baked’ egg 1/2 can crushed tomatoes (57 calories) 2 cubes frozen spinach (or a couple of handfuls of fresh) (10 calories) 1 egg (75 […]
The 5:2 lifestyle comes in a range of varieties. The original was 500 calories for women and 600 calories for men on 2 non-consecutive fast days a week. Dr. Michael Mosley has recently revised this to 800 calories as almost as effective and more achievable for some people. There is also a potential split between […]