Eating, it’s one of life’s simple pleasures.

We eat to give our bodies sustenance, but we also eat for pleasure, or we should do anyway! The pleasure of tasting foods we love. The pleasure of texture – the crunch from an apple, the crumble of a cookie as you bite into it, or the melting softness of ice cream that melts on the warmth of your tongue. There’s so much pleasure to be derived from food, not just eating, but cooking too!

Growing up in Tasmania, the little island at the bottom of Australia referred to as the Apple Isle, it was easy to have an obsession with food because we were surrounded with so much delicious produce. I have so many memories of visiting the local strawberry farm to pick strawberries, which we’d eat straight from the plant. Memories of earning money during the school holidays blueberry picking with my cousins – incidentally we didn’t end up picking too many blueberries as we had more fun throwing them at each other, needless to say I didn’t earn much money in my picking day! And memories of visiting Hillwood orchards to pick up crates of delicious apples. I have to say Tasmanian apples taste the best.

While I love to eat, I love to cook more. I love experimenting in the kitchen. I love the magic of combining ingredients and flavours. I love the sense of satisfaction it gives me when I pull a loaf of freshly baked bread out of the oven. I love showing my husband I love him by baking him his favourite cakes – which incidentally are this Apple Cider Cake and this Gluten Free Banana Cake.

I love learning what I call Granny skills. Going back to days gone by where all our food didn’t come from packets. Where we had to put a bit of effort into what we ate. I love taking milk and turning it into ricotta or yoghurt. I love baking bread. In fact I set myself a challenge at the start of 2012 not to buy bread again, and I’ve succeeded, and absolutely love baking my own bread. In fact I’ve become a little addicted!

I’m not sure why, but somewhere along the line there came about the perception that cooking was difficult and time consuming. Maybe it was due to the wizardry of marketing companies looking to sell convenience foods, but somewhere we did begin to believe we didn’t have time to cook. It was easier to open a jar of pasta sauce to add to pasta than make our own. I know, I fell into that trap for a while.

But cooking isn’t difficult and it’s not time consuming unless you want it to be. Of course there are dishes that can take hours to prepare, but if you don’t have hours, there are so many other delicious things you can make, and you can be eating real food! Not some chemically concocted thing that slithers out of a jar.

So, if you’re stuck in a rut, not sure what to make for dinner or just need a kick start to get back into the kitchen, then you’ve come to the right place. Let me share with you recipes that are both quick, easy and delicious, and recipes that are a bit more of a labour of love for those days where you feel like making something a little bit special!

My aim is to inspire you, with fresh, simple and delicious vegetarian recipes, and hopefully breakdown some of the stigma usually associated with vegetarian cooking. I love getting in the kitchen and creating, and I love nothing more than taking a traditional meat dish and giving it a vegetarian make over. Even meat eaters will love them. I promise! Because they’ve been tested on my meat eating husband!

We can’t be good all the time so you will also find lots of recipes for delicious treats.  I mean, come on, who doesn’t love cakes, cupcakes and desserts! I’m sure you do, or at least you know someone who does. What could be better than surprising them with a delicious treat?

About Jennifer

Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I’m the author of this blog, Delicieux!

I live in Brisbane, Australia, with my husband, Troy, who is the love of my life, and chief taste tester. He’s my guide as to whether something is good enough to share here on Delicieux!

Apart from blogging here at Delicieux, I am also the author of e-cookbook Delicious everyday, and work as a freelance food writer, food photographer and recipe developer.

I love hearing from my readers, so if you have a question, some feedback or just want to say hello, then get in touch. I’ve listed below a couple of different ways you can follow me online.

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Jennifer Schmidt
PO Box 243
Banyo QLD Australia 4014