Oh my goodness, these little sweet treats are so delicious, especially with coffee or a cup of Earl Grey tea. This recipe is adapted from Bertoni’s – arguably the most popular coffee stop in Balmain.  Last weekend I spotted a local Balmain dad sipping his Bertoni coffee in Strathfield – a 20-30 minute drive from Balmain. That’s true devotion! Bertoni’s is authentically Italian and their cookbook has some fabulous recipes as well as a history of the Bertoni family and their love of good food.

“I don’t know what’s happened but all I want to eat each afternoon is peanut butter on a slice of grain bread,” my friend commented this week.

No, she’s not pregnant. But she has started a new job and hardly eats all day. No wonder her body is hanging out for a super combo of carbs, protein and healthy monounsaturated fat. That’s what you get in a peanut butter sandwich along with 1.5 grams of fibre per tablespoon of peanut butter. Spread it on wholemeal or grainy bread and the fibre could reach 5 or 6 grams – enough to tide a busy working mum through the hectic 4-6pm dinner rush.

It got me thinking about peanuts.

After years of unfair persecution nuts are finally back on the healthy shopping list and not just as an occasional treat but as a daily prescription for good health. Most health authorities now recommend that we eat a handful of nuts a day. Not the salt-laden roasted nuts loitering beside your beer or the sticky chocolate coated, honey roasted types. We’re talking about natural, straight from the shell walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, macadamias, almonds, cashews and Brazils.

How can eating a handful of nuts a day help keep us healthy?

“Would you like to go to a masquerade ball?” My good friend and fellow dietitian had a spare ticket for the Juvenile Diabetes fund-raising ball at the Sydney Town Hall.  Of course I wanted to go! Dressed in our sparkly frocks we teetered up the red carpet which rolled down the steps onto the pavement. I flashed my wedding ring around and gave an extra friendly smile to the waiter serving champagne, just to make sure everyone knew we weren’t THAT type of couple.

The Glycemic Index Foundation had kindly invited my friend ‘and partner’ to sit at their table. It was a bitter-sweet evening. The masks were fun, the bands great, the food delicious, the wine abundant and the conversation riveting. But we were there because of a terrible disease that has no cure. Every dietitian knows the diabetic diet. What we don’t know is how it feels to live with diabetes. I thought I