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I imagine this week’s recipes will be the last of the soup recipes for this year as where I live we are slipping nicely into spring. It looks like I have saved the best soup for last.

It’s children’s recipe this week and the lovely Paula who is half way through the vegan chef training has once again developed a recipe for us. Paula’s last recipe was a winner and so is this one.

It’s a very breezy cool day where I live today so this week’s recipe is very fitting. I also think this soup would go well as a spring or early autumn soup. It’s book review week this week. I have this lovely book at home, once again not vegan but definitely vegetarian and the recipes are so easily adaptable when you know how (that’s one of the many things I teach in the 3 day course - how to adapt regular recipes and make them vegan). The book on review this month is At Home in the Wholefood Kitchen by Amy Chaplin. It has lots of lovely tips and some great information. Well worth borrowing it from your local library.

Wow what a week. Love sent to you all and especially those of you who once again find yourselves in lockdown. I hope you have the ingredients to cook up feasts for yourself during this time. Food is our saviour right now. Get cooking for yourself, your loved ones and your neighbours.

If you live in an area where green papaya is in season right now I suggest making the most of it as green papaya rocks not only in taste but in the nutrition and health benefits department.

This week’s blog comes with quite a story. I hope you love stories. I love stories, my grandmother always told us stories and I would relish in every word. Its book review week and I am reviewing a very special book this week that unfortunately isn’t for sale. It’s a family cookbook of my best friend from school’s grandmother. Penny Curtis and I have been friends since we were eleven. We both grew up in the Northern Territory. We loved our grandmothers and talked of them fondly. They both lived elsewhere mine in New York state and Penny’s in Herberton, Queensland.

It hadn’t dawned on me what was really missing for me personally during the COVID 19 lockdown and restrictions until last week when a friend sent a really cute video. The thing missing for me during the COVID lockdown was ……….. tahini. Yep you read right, tahini. Somewhere in the whole upheaval I forgot to use this in my meals.

It’s seasonal produce week so here I am with something that is in season, right in my garden, right now. We have three prolific guava trees growing in our garden. The majority of the fruit is feeding the bats, which I am so happy about as the bats had a tough time through the drought and fires. We love that we can share the fruit with them. Yesterday we picked 10 lovely ripe guavas that the bats hadn’t touched and we made the best jam I think I have ever tasted.

It’s kids recipe week and I am excited to tell you we have a guest blogger this week. Paula from Eat Cook Love who is half way through the Vegan Chef Training. One of our trainees in waiting has developed a scrumptious recipe that you children may love. The recipe does contain nuts so for any of you with nut allergies this recipe can easily be adapted. Instead of the cashews use sunflower seeds instead and if you don’t like sunflower seeds then use one cup of cooked potatoes and 1 cup of cooked cauliflower instead. All recipes in this blog are versatile to suit your dietary needs. So its over to Paula now.

After the naughty but decadent recipe I shared with you last week I thought a healthy recipe was in store for this week. It’s week one in my schedule of blog posts which means book review week and while this warm winter salad doesn’t feature in any particular book (my own creation) I feel I was inspired by Hetty Mckinnon’s book Family. It is not a vegan cook book but well worth a mention.