Gluten-free bread that tastes like real bread. No cardboard allowed

I have a friend who is gluten-free. An inherited genetic immune disorder that hits when she reached her early 20s. She said to me that she'd never tried Vietnamese banh mi when she visited Vietnam because she couldn't find gluten-free baguettes there. I told her I'd experiment with some gluten-free baguette recipes and make her banh mi. For those of you who don't know, Banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich on a crisp baguette filled with savory ingredients like pâté, meats, pickled vegetables, and fresh herbs. It's delicious.

Focaccia charcuterie board with baked Brie

I was influenced by social media for this recipe. I saw a quick video suggesting that I use focaccia as the board for a charcuterie board and then piling the charcuterie ingredients on top. Then tear and eat. The focaccia was amazing.

Sous vide steak with chimmichurri sauce and healthy crispy fries

Hello there! As you can see, I am making an effort to post recipes more frequently. Not the easiest to do as I am not at home very often these days and I only get to cook occasionally on the weekends and I am not trying new recipes as regularly either.

This one is a regular in our home. The Boy seems to enjoy it a great deal.

We discovered this fantastic butcher called Springbok Deli along our travels and have been picking up some steaks from them whenever we are able to get to them. We usually pick up about 4 steaks and get them vacuum packed and frozen when we get home.

Vacuum packing and freezing is fantastic because (1) the steaks last a long time and (2) a vacuum packed steak is perfect for the sous vide. Just defrost and into the sous vide.

Review of the Philips XL Air Fryer

So, I've been using my air fryer a lot lately and of course, have been raving about it. Nifty little gadget that thing.

I have been hemming and hawing about an air fryer for well over a year now, maybe more.

The first time I saw it was in a video, someone I was watching was raving about making chips in the air fryer with little to no oil and that appealed to me a great deal.

The reason I had been hesitant was because I did not know what else I would cook in the air fryer other than chips. Turns out it's quite a lot of stuff.

On a side note, I'm progressively putting my air fryer recipes on the blog. The first one was for crispy chips. They turned out great.

Back to the air fryer ... then more recently, we visited a friend and she had an air fryer. She's had hers for many, many years and loves it. I asked what she cooked in it and she said chips, dim sims, spring rolls, chicken schnitzel and sausages.

Grilled garlic and chili baby octopus and prawn salad with chimmichurri dressing ... in the air fryer

So, I'm in a bloggity mood right now and we're home for a long weekend, which means a bit more cooking coming out of me. I'm giving the air fryer a good work out. Tonight I decided to combine some leftover chimmichurri sauce with some grilled baby octopus and prawns in a salad.

This is one of those super easy meals I like to throw together when we want something light and tasty. The seafood adds protein and makes the salad substantial which gives us a proper meal.

Here's what I had going on:

Healthy, crispy air fryer French Fries with very little oil ... can be done in the oven too

So here's the thing. We love fries. We particularly love fries with steak, or rather The Boy does and I love sweet potato fries. Just love fries, but deep frying is not always the healthiest thing to do with food, is it? All that oil. Although, I've been told by my cheffy friends that if you lift the food out of the oil immediately, drain the oil well and not let it sit in the oil, it's actually not too bad for you. Point taken, but I think where I can, I'll go for the less oil option, just to be a tad bit healthier. Lord knows, I'm not the healthiest when it comes to my eating habits!

We've been experimenting with our fries a lot lately because we have not been wanting to buy frozen fries from the grocery store, again healthier, less additives!

Recently, we also bought an air fryer and I've been loving it. I had hesitated over it for a very, very long time, hemming and hawing about it, not sure if I'd use it enough. Turns out, I use it lots. It's excellent for not only fries and spring rolls, but all sorts of cooking too, but more on that later.

Here's what I did with my air fryer to make probably the best fries I've ever made. Bear in mind, this can be done in the oven too but that might take a little bit longer.