Date, Bran and Spice Muffins.

Easy to make- Guilt free ( if you stop at 1)
Handy as lunch box items. Freeze them singly or in twos or threes. Just grab on the way to work.
Makes 15 standard size or 9 Texan ( very large )

Set oven to 180C or 350F
20 minutes to cook.
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom powder if you have it or use 2 of cinnamon.
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup stevia/ Natvia or other sweetener. Honey if you like.
2 cups unprocessed bran.
250g chopped dates, scissors make the easiest work of this.
1 cup of rice bran oil
2 beaten eggs
2 cups of milk.

1. Sift flours, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom.
2. Add sugars
3. Stir in bran and chopped dates.
4. Make a well in the centre, stir in oil, milk and beaten eggs
5. Mix until just combined.
6. Spoon into oiled muffin tins. Fill them almost to the top.
7. Bake 20 minutes at 180C or 350F
8. They should spring back a little if cooked.
9. Cool a little, then encircle with a knife to remove. Icing sugar them before serving. 97% guilt free ha.

Flourless Choc-Nut Squares

Light and tender, handy to have with a coffee, not too sweet or sickly and no flour!
Moist in the middle.
Makes 12.

Ingredients:

vegetable oil spray
100g dark chocolate, broken into chunks.
3 medium eggs, separated.
35g Natvia/ stevia
35g caster sugar ( if you have no stevia use 70g sugar )
75g ground almonds ( meal )
1 teaspoon coffee instant or ground.
25g smashed hazelnuts, nicest if they are roasted, or walnuts-chopped.

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C or 350F/ 160C fan or 320F.
Spray and line a 20cm square cake tin, for square pieces of cake.
Put the chocolate in a bowl and microwave on low 1 min, stir and continue 1 minute apart stirs until it has melted. Don't over cook. You could use the traditional method, put the choc in a bowl over simmering water to melt.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar/natvia until pale and creamy.
Stir in the ground almonds, melted choc, coffee and nuts.
With clean beaters and a clean bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the mix.
Pour the mix into the tin, push to fill the edges.
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until the surface is slightly springy to touch. Fan bake is quicker, check at 15 minutes.
Leave to cool
Cut into squares and douse with icing sugar.
Make coffee or tea, ha.

Pasta alla Norma ( eggplant and tomato pasta)

Aubergine or eggplant has a delicious smoky flavour and can substitute, in texture, for meat.
This is vegetarian fare but you can easily add a lovely fried chicken fillet, especially with lemon, as a complement.
Easily made and budget friendly, with a touch of difference. Guest-worthy but wholesome.

Serves 4 for lunch or 4 for dinner with accompaniments like a meat, a salad and a crusty loaf.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, cut into 2 or 3 cm cubes
6 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
400 g passata or 1/2 can of tomatoes and 1/2 a jar of pasta sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 teaspoon chilli paste or 1 red chilli, seeds removed
300-350 g wholewheat spaghetti or rigatoni
small bunch of basil. ( you could add 1 teaspoon of dried basil if you can't get fresh )
cherry tomatoes (optional)
salt
1/2 cup grated romano or parmesan cheese.

Fry the garlic gently in a little oil then add the passata or alternatives, the paste and chilli and a few chopped basil leaves.

Simmer gently for about 30 minutes, add a little water if it gets too thick

Meanwhile, chop the aubergine/eggplant and fry in the olive oil  until golden. You will need to do this in 2 batches.
Add the second batch of fried eggplant to the first and simmer slowly until it is soft, use a lid to help this process.
When cooked, about 25 minutes, add the eggplant to the tomato sauce.

At the same time as the 2 previous steps, put on a large pot of boiling water, add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Add the pasta when boiling, it will take about 13 minutes for wholewheat.
Time this to be ready when the sauce and eggplant are cooked.

You can make the sauce ahead of time and reheat it.

Add the eggplant to the tomato sauce.
Drain pasta and add a little of the pasta water to the sauce.
Combine with the pasta, basil leaves, cherry tomatoes (halved)

Plate up or place in a serving dish.
Top with the cheese.
Put salt and ground black pepper on the table for people who like it.

Serve with a  gutsy white like a sauvignon blanc.