Crisp and Spicy Onion Bhajis (naturally gluten free)

These are hand-on-heart the best onion bhajis I've ever tasted!

Crispy, with a moist fluffy middle and absolutely packed full of flavour, they are absolutely unbeatable when home-made!

We're fortunate to live not too far from a very multicultural city where there are some excellent Indian restaurants, and delis that you can buy wonderful treats from, so trying to nail a tasty, crispy onion bhaji was actually quite fun after many years of eating all kinds!

I rarely cook deep fried foods - in fact, I seem to buy a deep fat fryer maybe once a decade for a special occasion, and then it languishes unused for many years in a cupboard. However, since my daughter was diagnosed with coeliac disease, I have a new reason to develop recipes for things which

are difficult to acquire gluten free and/or free from cross contamination (so for example, onion bhajis are naturally gluten free, being made from gram flour, however they sometimes contain wheat flour, or even trickier to spot, if you buy them, they're often a 'may contain', or more often than not may have been fried in oil that has had other things fried in it containing wheat - so a bit of a no-no when you can't risk even a crumb of something containing gluten!).

Makes 16 to 20 - easily doubled. Warning - VERY more-ish! And no, we're not mentioning calories for this recipe...!

Stuffed Baby Peppers with Spinach and Ricotta

These little gems are a surprisingly healthy treat that are very more-ish and great for sharing (or NOT sharing if you want them all to yourself!).

I must firstly thank a friend, the lovely Audra, for the inspiration for this recipe. She shared a lovely recipe for roasted  piquillo peppers stuffed with goats cheese and spinach, which I changed around a bit (because that's what I do quite often) to suit my own purposes.

I think they're pretty easy to make - certainly not as fiddly as you might think! And they're definitely worth the effort for such a tasty morsel that's full of healthy yumminess - I ate half a quantity for my dinner last night!

The filling makes enough for two batches (as I prefer to use up certain things when I open them where possible, such as ricotta, so that the remains don't waste away in the fridge!), and will keep in the fridge for a couple of days so you can make a second batch fresh when you've eaten the first one! (Or just double up on peppers and make two trays - they are nicest eaten freshly cooked though).

Also delicious served with a selection of mouthwatering antipasti!

This quantity of peppers serves two, if eating as a light lunch type of thing (nice with some dressed Italian leaves on the side) or as a large side dish. It's also great as party food, and compatible with calorie-counted diets, 5:2, LCHF (all green list food, and you can use extra parmesan and a good drizzle of EVOO to top it off if you like) as well as being Syn free for the Slimming World diet (if you use up your healthy extra A choice for the ricotta cheese and up to 9g finely grated parmesan cheese per portion (this is a lot more than you think, especially if you use a microplane grater!).

207 calories per serving (with weights as below, calories in square brackets).

If making one quantity (with 300g baby peppers and a half quantity of ricotta/spinach mix), then it is 414 calories for the quantity, hence if using 12 baby peppers it is approximately 17 calories per stuffed pepper half.

Mia's Luscious Little Lemon Cakes (includes Thermomix method)

It's not often I'm this naughty, but it was for a good cause so it's allowed, right?

My daughter wanted to make some little cakes to sell at school to raise money recently, and we wanted to make something simple, and universally appealing.

Fairly cakes seemed like a simple solution, so we made this lemony version, and iced them with a little lemon-flavoured buttercream, and they turned out absolutely delicious! If you want to make plain / vanilla fairy cakes, simply swap the lemon for 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Makes 24 cakes, and plenty of lemon buttercream to pipe on top! We only put a small amount on, which meant we had the same amount again left, so you could easily cover the cakes with it - whether you pipe it in with a small nozzle, or swirl on with the back of a spoon (much easier!).

Shrek Pie ! (Includes Thermomix instructions)

Or for the adults, Spinach, Mozzarella, Sun-dried Tomato and Olive Slice!

Although this is not just for kids, we all know that if it's green, it's 'unclean' as far as most of them are concerned, and in order to entice children to eat things which are green, we have to give them 'special' names relating to their favourite characters - be that Shrek, Hulk, Kermit or whoever else is flavour of the month! I think you can probably see why this one is "Shrek"...!

My son (who is 12) told me that whenever he finds this in his packed lunch at school, he pumps his fist in the air and shouts "Shrek Pieeeeee!" to his friends - I'm not really sure what to make of this, but apparently some of his friends have tried it and liked it too, and it's kind of funny!

I use buckwheat flour in this but there's no reason you can't use plain gluten free flour, or even just plain (or wholemeal) wheat flour if you're not cooking gluten / grain free.

I baked this specifically to be gluten free and lunchbox friendly - and it will make a good 20 portions at 80 calories each (in case you're tempted!) as a side / with other savoury things to eat (I cut 10 rectangles from each dish - but then cut some of these in half to fit into lunchboxes, two a portion). If you're making this for dinner, it's more likely to serve 6-8 people with sides.

Easy Cheesey Vegetable Slice with Buckwheat (includes Thermomix instructions)

Put together in minutes, a tasty versatile dish which is good hot or cold, for dinners or snacks

This is essentially a crustless quiche, with the flour in the egg mixture instead of in a pastry base making it extremely simple to put together, healthier, and easier to hold if you're having it as a snack - perfect for snacks, lunchboxes and picnics!

Courgettes, peppers and spring onions are favourites in this household which I always have to hand, and there's always a tin or three of sweetcorn in the cupboard so this is very convenient for us and it's meat free too. Using a food processor means the whole thing is ready to go into the oven in just a few minutes, making it incredibly convenient. It was inspired by Jo Whitton's mini impossible quiches which were suggested to me when I was wracking my brains for nutritious snacks to put into my daughter's packed lunches (found in 'Quirky Cooking' which is an excellent Thermomix cookbook, particularly for those with food allergies - and you can find her fantastic blog here), but this is a quicker (read lazier and more in a rush?!), more budget-friendly, vegetarian version without grains. I use buckwheat in mine but there's no reason you can't use plain gluten free flour, or even just plain (or wholemeal) wheat flour if you're not cooking gluten / grain free.

I baked this specifically to be gluten free and lunchbox friendly - and it will make a good 20 portions at 77 calories each (in case you're tempted!) as a side / with other savoury things to eat (I cut 10 rectangles from each dish - but then cut some of these in half to fit into lunchboxes, two a portion). If you're making this for dinner, it's more likely to serve 6-8 people with sides.

Canapés, Party Food and Lunchbox Treats the Healthier Way (includes Thermomix instructions)

Do you despair of party food being a sea of bloat-inducing pastry and breadcrumbed, bread-based foods, and yearn for delicious treats and nibbles that aren't going to induce an attack of indigestion?

Well, here are some of my favourite recipes for entertaining, including some completely grain-free tasty nibbles, plus additional links to more of my recipes which make great party food and canapés, and ideas for even more!

And the best thing of all - most of them can be made the day before, so no need for last minute panic - you can spend the day pampering yourself, then throwing a few fresh bits together and setting it all out for your guests to enjoy.

So, pictured above are (from left to right, in traditional fashion) smoked salmon and cucumber cups, crab and tarragon stuffed baby tomatoes, celery and blue cheese barquettes with walnuts and red pepper canapés with a Greek salad topping - recipes below, and more!

Scroll down below the first four canape recipes for a whole host of ideas that won't upset your stomach, including skewers with salads, lettuce cups, gluten free finger foods and even sushi!

Skinny Spring Rolls

Crispy and delicious vegetable spring rolls for a fraction of the calories they'd be if you bought them, and simple to make too...

Easily doubled for a crowd, and not at all difficult to make - my children helped me rolling these up! Feel free to play around with the fillings and flavours - I've put some suggestions at the bottom of this post - whether you add cooked prawns or chicken with sweet and sour, or maybe some duck and hoisin sauce, there are all kinds of different flavours you could add!

          

And if you want something to dip them in, you can make my five simple Chinese dips in under five minutes! The recipes are here. If you want to make my gluten free version (which are even skinnier at only 35 calories each), the recipe is here.

Makes 20 spring rolls, 43.5 calories per roll, 218 calories for 5 rolls.

Crispy Vegetable Spring Rolls - Gluten Free

Not only is this recipe gluten free, it's also a healthier version of crispy spring rolls, which doesn't involve deep-frying (and it's easy to make, too!) - what's not to love?

Spring rolls are often a guilty pleasure for many of us - or worse still, a greasy disappointment, heavy on the stodge, seeping out oil with every bite, and low on flavour - worse still if you buy the supermarket efforts. And if you're eating gluten free, even worse - you probably can't get hold of any!

        

However, salvation is here - a fresh and crispy tasty vegetable filling (and you can use this as a spring board, and add cooked prawns, shredded chicken or duck, char siu pork [watch out for gluten - my recipe to make your own is here] or whatever else you fancy to it - see the Notes for further suggestions!), with rice wrappers, quickly baked with a mere brushing of oil and egg, until crispy on the outside and hot and juicy on the inside! With a whole variety of very simple dips to serve them with (see here for five very simple Chinese dips you can whip up in under 5 minutes, as in the photo, that compliment them beautifully!), you can't go wrong, and they're very easy to make - no pre-cooking necessary for the filling!

Easily doubled for a crowd, and not at all difficult to make (the photo above is of rolls made by my children, aged 9 and 11 at the time - as in the photo on the left!) - tasty, crispy, gluten free spring rolls at a fraction of the calories you’d get in those from a restaurant or shop!

Makes 20 small spring rolls, 35 calories per roll, 172 calories for 5 rolls. I don't recommend making fewer, larger rolls, as you're more likely to get 'soggy bottoms' or splits in the rolls. You can shallow or deep fry the rolls if you prefer, instead of oven cooking - but obviously they will be considerably more calorific! If you don't need to go gluten free, you can make my Skinny Spring Rolls with filo pastry instead, another low calorie healthy option.

Harry's Ultimate Vegetarian Sausage Rolls - Nut Free, Gluten Free and Wheat Free (includes Thermomix method)

Delicious, tasty, meat-free sausage rolls - with all the flavourings of traditional English sausages (with options for regional variations!) and none of the pork - which have even fooled some meat eaters!

Named after my son, as I made them for his birthday! From 55 calories per party-size roll. If you or your children (or fellow grown-ups!) love sausage rolls and you want to make them meat-free without doing the usual claggy cheese and onion filling (that becomes rather rubbery and unpleasant once cool); or you haven't been able to eat sausage rolls for years, because you can't eat wheat, or gluten; or you haven't found a decent vegetarian filling you can make, because you're allergic to nuts and other options have seemed bland or mushy...

...or even if you're none of those things, but fancy making some lovely, healthier, home-made sausage rolls without any of the additives or chemicals in bought ones and you prefer to know exactly what you're eating - then these are for you and yours!!

You might, just *might* even find that you prefer these to regular sausage rolls (well, you certainly won't be chewing on any suspect gristly bits, which my son hates)!

I was initially inspired to have a play with textures and flavours for a vegetarian filling by Cyndi O' Meara's vegetarian sausage rolls recipe (which I confess I haven't ever made) but I liked her idea of using oats as a base, with feta cheese as one of the protein and flavour elements. After that, I wanted to make it nut free, and wheat free, and use traditional English pork sausage flavourings in a mixture which I was able wrap in pastry, so it was all experimentation from thereon in, with seeds and spices and herbs and other aromatics and family members being given suspicious blobs of cooked mixture every now and then until the flavour and texture was right!

This quantity makes around 24 sausage rolls (about 4cm long each before cooking, if you're measuring!) with a generous ratio of filling to pastry compared with shop bought - if you use a 500g pack of bought pastry (or double my easy puff pastry recipe) you could easily stretch this to 36 plus rolls (double these quantities if you're cutting them like the mini sausage rolls you get at parties - I like to make mine more generously!).

Calorie wise, if you're counting (now come one, who eats sausage rolls on a day they're counting calories - but it's good to have an idea if you can't resist sneaking one and just need to know!) - they're 55 calories each for half-size mini party rolls, or 110 calories per my larger 4cm rolls, as in the photographs (if you make with my pastry, adjust calories accordingly if buying the pastry - my calories are split down per ingredient, so it should be pretty easy to add it all up, then divide by the number of sausage rolls you make. With this recipe, it's 2,641 for the total quantity of filling, pastry and egg wash - just divide it by how many rolls you make). [Calories in square brackets]