In today's Bite: 2015 - The year of better eating

Kathy Paterson's Lamb Tenderloin. Photo / Bite magazine

Find all your favourite bits from today's Bite magazine online. Follow the hyperlinks in Jo Elwin's editor's letter and lose yourself in bite.co.nz.

The Bite team is back this week and we're easing our way in to the workaday routine: Kathy Paterson sorts out the weeknight menu with recipes that make the most of the beans, tomatoes, eggplants, apricots and blueberries that are in store at good prices. Keep an eye out for the Coastal Spring Lamb Kathy used for her shortloin of lamb with roasted eggplant and green bean, radish and cherry tomato salad - they process some of the first spring lambs born in the country each year - and I know her shredded chicken with green beans and dill and walnut dressing will be popular.

Shredded chicken and green bean salad. Photo / Bite magazine

For dessert load those apricots and blueberries in to a fresh summer pudding (which is actually more of a cake). Stir-fries are on the list of Aaron Brunet's healthy habits and he's bringing together fennel, pear and chicken this week.

Fennel, pear and chicken stir-fry. Photo / Bite magazine

Our Win a Trip to New York thanks to Silver Fern Farms' competition was the second major contest promoting Bite's new reader recipe section. We asked readers to submit their original red meat recipe (beef, lamb or venison), and then we chose the top 10 of these - the ones favourited most by readers. The top 10 were reviewed by a panel of judges, including myself and Mat McLean (chef/owner of Hamilton's Palate restaurant). A shortlist was cooked up and taste-tested and our winner is Shaharn Rushton's empire steak grill which is a bourbon marinade that allowed the quality of the Silver Fern Farms porterhouse steak to shine through.

Reader Shaharn Rushton's empire steak grill. Photo / Bite magazine

For those who resolved to make 2015 the year of better eating, Mikki WIlliden is helping you to cut out some of the "junk" with a pantry clear out and our resident life coach, Louise Thompson, says close your ears to all this "New Year, New You" nonsense, you are not broken and life is an ongoing project. Read more here.

Fresh summer cake. Photo / Bite magazine

We believe Bite helps everyone eat better every day and that doesn't mean dieting, it means we are here to provide inspiration to cook more from scratch, using what's in season or in the pantry, and to inform you on all things food-related, hopefully entertaining you a little along the way. So celebrate the New Year with a wee slice of this blueberry cranberry cake and stay tuned, we have some exciting new ventures planned this year that will ensure 2015 will indeed be the year of better eating.