Author: Maggie

Garlicky Rasher Baked Beans (on Toast)

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And hey, bacon made everything better. – Jennifer Estep Last weekend I was craving baked beans on toast. I didn’t have any tins of baked beans in the house and I kept forgetting that the nearest grocery shop doesn’t have any there. Sigh! (I should also admit that I was too lazy to walk the extra 2 minutes to the next nearest store where I KNOW they have them. Don’t judge me—it was the weekend!). By Monday evening I was desperate. So after work, armed with a semi-empty bag, I marched into Homeplus. And, of course, I purchased a tin of beans…or five. I decided to make what has become one of my favourite ways to make baked beans, after these scrumptious Kale Baked Beans. It’s really simple and so tasty. The smell of the bacon, onion and garlic together is already enticing enough, never mind adding those baked beans in. Served on warm, buttery toast or with a nice baked potato, here’s a nice little meal that you can make up in a jiffy on a busy week day night or …

Decadently Delicious Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

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Will looked horrified. ‘What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?’ – Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel. Back in July, my friend, Becky, who also edits for me, asked me to make my Chocolate Refrigerator Cake. This cake, which is scrumptious, is one of my favourite things to make both here in Korea and at home in Ireland. It’s decadently full of dark chocolate, shredded coconut and banana chips, and it’s packed to the brim with nuts and dried fruit. The first time I made it I used Usbourne’s Beginners Cookbook . It was for a Cake Bake that we used to host once a month, in my department, in my old company. It was a major success and many people asked for the recipe. When I made it here in Korea, I didn’t have that cookbook, so instead I relied on this BBC Good Food recipe instead for inspiration which, to be honest, I still use for some of the measurements in the chocolate mix. I don’t like apricots so instead I would substitute whatever other dried fruit …

Vegan Apple Chia Pudding

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away. A couple of months ago, I went on a smoothie bender. I made smoothies every evening so that I’d have a healthy breakfast the next morning. I created my own recipes and I eagerly tried out tons of recipes from tons of different blogs. One of the recipes that quickly became a firm favourite was this Apple Smoothie Recipe from Food Viva. It was simple, delicious and I was able to use up my apples in no time at all. Using up fruit is one of my biggest downfalls. While I like fruit, I am not a big fruit person. Even with it sitting on my counter staring at me, my brain rarely registers that I have it on hand, and, more often than not, it goes bad and I have to dump it. I hate this because I think wasting food is a terrible sin; there are so many people in the world who don’t get enough, and those of us that do waste far more than we …

Pesto, Tuna and Pea Pasta

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I’d much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0. – Sophia Bush Do you ever have really lazy days? Sometimes when I come home all I want to do is wallow in front of the TV or Netflix eating ice-cream and a packet of crisps. However, as I’ve already mentioned, I’ve found out I have a bit of a cholesterol problem; so being so self-serving is getting to be less and less of an attractive option. I’ve had to make some tough changes over the last 8-9 months. I no longer eat school lunches in one of my schools and I am gearing up to stop in the other so that I can bring healthier choices.Though they aren’t all the healthiest meals, I’ve eaten a lot less white rice in the last 4 months than I had been up to that point. I’m eating a lot more vegetables and I am generally eating smaller portions, or at least am getting full more quickly. Since coming back to Korea after my summer holidays, I’ve been …

Twix and Vanilla with Cookies and Cream Ice-Cream Cake

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Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos. – Don Kardong I love ice-cream. Chocolate, vanilla, macadamia, coconut, berry, melon, cookies and cream, cookie dough—you name it and I like it. All except for green tea ice-cream. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Nearly every time we buy an ice-cream cake here in Korea we get a multi-flavoured one so that everyone can enjoy it. There is always a green tea option, but because I can see it, I can avoid it. Well, two weekends ago, one of my friends hosted a barbeque and I opted to bring dessert. Originally, I was going to make something, but I didn’t have time because I was too busy watching Dr. Who (that is a valid excuse, right?). Instead, I went to the local convenience shop and bought a Häagen-Dazs® ice-cream cake as I was convinced that it would be filled with chocolate ice-cream. You can guess what happened, though, right? Man, I was so excited to eat it and so disappointed when I cut that first …