My kids love sushi – and so I thought, what’s easier then making sushi? A poke bowl! No fiddly rolling, just take all of the ingredients to the table – family style – and allow the children to top their bowl of rice with their choice of toppings.

When we moved to Sydney (over 5 years ago now) and opened Mr Perkins – there was a Poke bowl shop across the way from us. I wanted to try one so badly, but I was pregnant and therefore avoiding raw fish. Then life happened (I mean, we did have three children under the age of three and open a new business within a week of the birth of our third)… and I never got around to trying a poke bowl.

Now the poke bowl shop sits in our old shop front. Life is still a mad juggle, with three kids at primary school and our youngest starting preschool. I work full time and am filled with mum guilt that I am not spending as much time with my littlest ones as I did with my eldest when they were the same age. But I am capable of creating my own poke bowls and probably feeding my family of six for the cost of two poke bowls from the shop.

Recipe: Poke Bowl (the simple edition)

• 2 cups of sushi rice
• 1 kilo grated carrot
• 2 punnets of baby cucumbers
• 1 red onion
• 1/2 bunch of spring onions
• 2 cups of edamame
• salmon sashimi
• seaweed
• sesame furikake
• benito flakes
• pickled ginger
• kewpi mayo
• soy sauce
• wasabi
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp salt

Prepare the sushi rice as per the packet instructions. I also steam my edamame as I purchase them frozen, but I have also seen them in cans and fresh.

Pickle your red onion, by mixing together the vinegar, salt and sugar and then covering your thinly sliced red onion with the liquid and leaving for 15 minutes.

The rest of my prep is simple, grating carrots, slicing cucumbers and spring onions. Sometimes my little people want me to tear the seaweed and other times they want to have full sheets (you’ll want to use this snacking seaweed as opposed to the big sheets that you use to make sushi).

Allow family members to top their sushi rice with their favourite combinations – finishing with kewpi mayo and soy sauce.

Have you ever whipped up a recipe from my blog? I would love for you to let me know…So I don’t feel as if I am just writing all this stuff down for nothing… If you choose to whip up one of my recipes , then I would love for you to share it on social media, and don’t forget to use the hashtag #goodfoodweek.