New year, new look
2-2-2026 What's Cooking This Week
Can we all just collectively agree that in terms of new years goals, January didn’t count? Still having my kids home on school holidays and doing that juggle between working and mumming meant that January goals kind of fell by the wayside. Now that it’s February and the kids are back at school I feel like I can really dig in. Starting with a new look newsletter.
Firstly, I’m bringing back Our Nourishing Week - first a Substack, then a book and now both! I was really back and forth with Substack as a platform, mainly because I felt that I had bitten off more than I could chew. But I realised that I can make it work for me and my lovely readers, rather than the other way around.
Most of my emails, including my weekly newsletter, will now be sent through Substack and my newsletter will be more, well just that. A newsletter. Each week it will cover 4 main topics:
Latest recipes - all of the recipes from the blog for the week
Prep It - recipes to prep for the week to help you get ahead
Wellness - bringing more of my nutrition knowledge to this space, let me know if you have nutrition questions that you’d like me to cover!
I’m Loving… - my latest list of recommendations from books to places to eat to kitchen gadgets.
Typically this newsletter will come out every Monday, but on the odd occasion (like today) it might be a little later. *as someone with ADHD, I have a love/hate relationship with consistency. I’m mostly consistent & occasionally often overwhelmed, whelp.
Let’s dig in!
Latest Recipes
This week I posted these two recipes that I am very obsessed with.
These Brisket Bowls are very quick to prep and if you need dinner on the table quicker, then you can swap the brown rice for white rice. I do really love using brown rice though, even if it takes much longer to cook. Make these for dinner or prep ahead for weekday lunches.
This is the Pulled Beef Brisket that’s used in the brisket bowls. It takes literally 10 minutes to prep, pop it in the oven and the oven does the rest of the work for you. There’s a secret ingredient in this recipe that really balances the heavy flavours of the brisket out.
Prep It
I do feel like I haven’t spoken about these Breakfast Burrito Bowls enough. They’re the perfect prep ahead breakfast, divide everything between four airtight containers and reheat the morning of eating. Just add the avocado on the day of eating.
Our kids go to a school where they can’t have nuts or eggs in their lunchbox. Which works well for me as my daughter has a peanut allergy, but it can make it a little tricky at times as I bake all gluten-free, which means I’m using almond flour a lot of the time. I came up with this Chocolate Banana Bread (Vegan & Gluten Free) that is also nut free, which makes it perfect for the school lunchbox if that’s what you’re needing. But it’s also just a really delicious chocolate banana bread regardless of if you’re nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free etc.
Wellness
I realised recently that there are so many small health & wellness habits that I have introduced to my life over time that I’ve forgotten that I actually didn’t always live this way.
I studied nutrition in my early 20’s and it was around this time that I started learning about holistic health and different products that we use from day to day that can impact our health.
The first wellness swap that I made was switching my toiletries for low-tox brands. When it comes to shampoo, conditioner and body wash, I always look for brands that use natural ingredients and avoid chemicals like phthalates, parabens, petrolatum, PEG’s and synthetic fragrances, which are all known endocrine disruptors. We’re exposed to so many environmental toxins on a daily basis, so reducing your toxic load by switching out your skincare for low-tox skincare is such a benefit to your health.
Low-tox skincare brands that I love:
I found this really great article, which explains it all in more depth.
I’m Loving
Glasslock containers have been my ride or die for more than 10 years. They are made using tempered glass, meaning they are ridiculously strong. I have never broken one! I always prefer to store my food in glass airtight containers to reduce the amount of microplastics that end up in our system. Also, they make the food taste way better because it doesn’t take on that plastic-y kind of taste.
This is the slow cooker that I’ve had for about 4 years and I love it so much. It is the best slow cooker that I’ve used and has so much capacity (6L!!), perfect for large meals. It also has a ceramic non-stick coating that is free from PFAS (much better for you). I use it to make this Slow Cooker Beef Short Rib Ragu and it is insanely good.
Lastly, I’ve just finished reading After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid and as usual, she knocked it out of the park. I haven’t read a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel that I haven’t loved yet, I’m fast becoming her #1 fan!
That’s all from me, have a great week and let me know in the comments below what you think of the new look newsletter.
Sarah