It was quite a rainy Saturday this today, so we decided to have lunch in. We normally frequent one of the local cafes opposite the beautiful Dee Why beach and generally split one of the amazing beef hamburgers. So it seemed appropriate for a hamburger to be on the menu.

Since it bucketing down with rain most of the morning, I baked the buns from scratch to put off heading out to the shops. I had to go eventually anyway to buy lean lamb mince, but that's besides the point...sometimes kitchen logic is more about a 'reason' for baking!

I had to pretty much make up the recipes for these burgers since most recipes are not for just two people. We actually only ended up serving half a burger each as I had made them so big. I normally like my burgers open topped (i.e. with only the bottom half of the bun,) as I find too much bread too filling. I also made a quick onion and tomato sauce, which is simply caramelised onions, cherry tomatoes, some parsley and a bit of honey. You could also use a tomato chutney.

Haha I know! I'm hilarious!

In all seriousness though, I was quite surprised that these were so easy to make. This was the first time I worked with yeast so I was a bit apprehensive. When I say apprehensive, I mean I couldn't wait til the morning I had planned to bake and started making the dough at 10pm at night and was subsequently up until 1:30am in the morning with a divine smell of cinnamon and sultanas and chocolate. So apprehensive but still can't wait!

On that note of sultana or chocolate - I just say why choose? Go both! I actually added in extra amounts to the recipe so these are packed full of sultanas AND chocolate chips. I also used half wholemeal flour, I was too scared to go the whole hog though. I thought this would make them too dense. Also replaced the butter with sunflower spread and the caster sugar with brown sugar. Added in allspice as well because, well just because I like my spices.

You need a good few hours though to allow for the proving and rising of the dough, but the ingredients are basic and the process is simple. The results are worth it; I will never buy hot cross buns again when I can make them fresh at home. (Except from my lovely friend Pip who makes the best hot cross buns at Baker's Delight of course...I can't beat a pro!)

*Excited to be featured on Glamour.com Health & Fitness blog by Sarah Jio; see it here!

After booking last minute flights down to Melbourne this weekend to visit my family and lovely girlfriends; I realised that I had quite a bit of perishable food that I wasn't going to be able to eat in the next 24hrs!

A delicious vegetable bolognaise sauce cooked in the slow cooker got rid of 5 tomatoes, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 4 carrots, some sage and 500g beef mince. (I might put the recipe up here later as well.) It is in the freezer for when I get back on Monday; can't wait to have it with some wholemeal spaghetti! But I still had apples and bananas...so I decided that since I love banana bread so much for breakfast that I would make some to freeze as well. I like to keep the added sugar low, and found a great new 'Low GI' sugar at the supermarket recently. The almond meal and walnuts add some good, healthy fats to keep you satiated throughout the morning too. Of course, whole meal spelt flour for extra nutrients and no butter or oils.

(I'll be honest though, it didn't all make it to the freezer; I had a piece this afternoon and put two in the fridge for a quick breakfast tomorrow morning!)

This is a very nice little recipe for corn bread that a work colleague gave to me (from his wife). I haven't had corn bread before, and didn't know what to expect but it was quite delicious. The recipe has quite a few ingredients, but the process is really very simple. My lovely friend Pip and I, who visited this past weekend from Melbourne,) enjoyed this on Saturday afternoon with some honey and apricot marmalade.

I have to say though, I would call this more of cake really...it is not overly sweet, but it is definitely more cake like in texture, melts in your mouth a bit. Yum!