Molten Chocolate Puddings

So today is our 6 month wedding anniversary...hard to believe it, the time has gone by so fast!! Now, I am sure that such trivialities will not be honored in years to come, but in our first year of marriage, we think it is a milestone worth at least a small celebration.

The only problem is Thursdays are class nights for Rich and he has to be at work late, so we will not have the time to have dinner together...very sad. I plan to make up for this two fold however. First, we will go out for a nice dinner on Saturday night...we both love to have date nights and having something to celebrate makes it even sweeter. Lastly, I decided to make these molten chocolate puddings that I stumbled across on vicious ange's blog. They worked perfectly because not only were they delicious, but I was able to prepare them before I hit the gym and then bake them when I got home so that they were nice and hot and we got to eat them together. Rich is a confessed chocoholic, so they went down a treat :) Not exactly health food, but I can justify it by saying that its a special occasion!! Here is the recipe I used.

Molten Chocolate Puddings
(serves 3)

175g (about 6oz) dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
25g (about 0.9oz) soft butter
75g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoons plain flour
Ice cream to serve
3 ramekins

Grease ramekins & place on a baking tray. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl & set over a saucepan of simmering water until it has melted. Beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy. With the mixer still going, gradually add the beaten eggs. Add the flour & ensure all ingredients are well combined. Add chocolate & beat to a smooth paste. Divide mixture between ramekins. You can set these aside at this point if leaving until later.

Preheat oven to 350F. Place tray with ramekins in the oven & cook fro 18-20 minutes. Check puddings by inserting a skewer: you want them to be gooey in the middle, but cooked at least 1 cm inside from the edge. Serve straight from the oven with ice cream.

A new Camera!!

I am very excited today as I finally got a new camera. I have been wanting one for a number of months, but never had the right motivation to lay down the cash. After trying to take some photo's of my dinner last night, I realized that our dinosaur finally needed to be put into at least semi-retirement. At only 2.0 mega pixels, it certainly is considered ancient in these days of the 10 mega pixel behemoths....and whilst I was not ready to fork over cash for one of those beauties, I did get a brand new Olympus FE-230 point and shoot of 7.1 mega pixels. The picture really doesn't do it justice...its tiny!! I can easily just throw it in my handbag and take it everywhere.

To be fair to the old dinosaur though, some of its issues I am sure are user related....I never professed to be a great photographer and I still have a lot to learn. However, it was not great at taking photo's in low light...which is exactly what my kitchen has! Hopefully we will remodel the kitchen later this year, but as of now, we are still doing th bathroom, so it will have to wait.

Ravioli Amatriciana

So this week may not have been the best time to start this blog! After making a ham and a lamb roast over the Easter weekend for Rich's family, I had loads of leftovers and have been trying to use them up before they go off. So far this week I have made lamb souvlaki's and last night I did a ham and asparagus risotto.

Tonight I decided to throw together an Amatriciana-esque sauce using the ham instead of bacon to go with some lovely goats cheese and basil ravioli I bought from Wholefoods on the weekend. I usually try not to eat too much pasta, as it is fairly high in calories....however, having said that, I must confess that it is one of my favourite foods!! When I stumbled upon this ravioli a few months ago, I was very happy as it only 190 calories per serving...fantastic!

This sauce recipe is something that changes every time I make it, depending on what I have on hand. Sometimes I add chicken, or veggies or olives etc. Here is the basic recipe I used tonight.








Ravioli Amatriciana
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove mince garlic
1tsp dried oregano
splash of red wine (if you have some, which I did tonight)
1tbs tomato paste
4-6oz of thinly chopped ham (or bacon)
1 14oz (425g) Can of crushed fireroasted tomatoes
1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1-2tbs chopped fresh basil
Shaved parmesan


1. Set pan to medium-high and spray with cooking spray. Saute onion for a couple of minutes until translucent. Add garlic and oregano and saute for a few minutes more. Add ham and continue to saute for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add in red wine, tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir and then turn down heat to simmer for approx 10 minutes (this can be longer if you have time, the longer it simmers, the better it will taste).

3. In the meantime, cook the ravioli according to package instructions.

4. In the last minute, stir in basil, then serve ravioli with sauce. Garnish with shaved parmesan and sprig of basil.

My First Post!

Welcome to my blog! I am ashamed to admit that not that long ago, I barely knew what a blog was, let alone contemplated creating one of my very own. Yet here I am!!

I recently stumbled upon a number of great food blogs that I have enjoyed reading immensely and I especially love looking at all of the great photos. I have always found that photo's of food inspire me to make certain dishes and that you really do eat with your eyes. I try never to buy cook books that don't have pictures!

My passion is trying find or create recipes that are healthy, low calorie, but still delicious. I think I succeed a good deal of the time, but every now and again I will certainly succumb to my comfort food cravings. I am a bit of a professional dieter, mainly because I enjoy feeling healthy and fit, so I thought I would try and share some of the recipes that I find with other people who are interested in healthy, delicious food.

You may be wondering about the inspiration for the name of this blog and credit must go to my dear husband. I asked him what he thought it should be called and he came up with "bear necessities" almost immediately. We affectionately call ourselves "the bears" due to some silly nicknames we have for one another and bears have to eat! I certainly look forward to sharing what we eat and what I cook with anyone who is interested :)