Saturday 31st July - ice cream

Well the yoghurt was a success - the warmer environment worked.

I also made vanilla choc chip ice cream. Froze the milk and cream in icecube trays and blended up with sugar and vanilla, adding the choc chips 10 sec before the end.

Whilst it's fine I prefer icecream made in my ice cream maker. There was a bit of an icy edge to the ice cream from freezing the ingredients.

Did love the choc chips slightly blended and will chop them before adding next time I make choc chip icecream but as I expected I'll go back to the ice cream maker for this.

Otherwise a quiet day for the thermomix though the girls did have leftover white sauce and previously grated parmesan on their pasta and veg for dinner.

Friday 30th July - yoghurt, pastry, sauce, pie

Friday 30th July

Yoghurt - Let's see if it works this time. Put it in the airing cupboard (with the hot water tank) to see if the warmer environment helps.

Dinner - Chicken and vegie pie.

1. Made puff pastry as per the edc and popped in the fridge to rest.

2. Made Bechamel (white) sauce as per EDC - this is sooooo quick and easy, very very impressed by the quality and ease.

3. chopped garlic and herbs (parsley, oregano, coriander) added carrot, courgette, mushrooms, chopped for a couple of seconds on speed 4.

4. in a bowl mixed shredded cooked chicken, bechamel sauce, vegie mix, 2 tbsp vegie stock concentrate and pepper.

5. rolled out and lined baking dish with pastry, added filling and covered with rest of pastry.

6. Baked in the oven till cooked and golden

Thursday 29th July - Feta and olive dip

Feta and olive dip

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

50g black olives

bunch of parsley

bunch of thyme

250g feta cheese

100g natural yoghurt

2 tbsp olive oil

juice of one small lemon

pepper

place onion and garlic in bowl - 5 seconds speed 7

add olives (I used already chopped and pitted olives, if unpitted need to remove pits), parsley, thyme and scrape down bowl and blend - 10 seconds speed 7

Add feta, yoghurt, olive oil, lemon juice and pepper and blend for 20 seconds speed 5 (scrape down once if required).

To serve garnish with reserved herbs and olives.

(adapted from Recipes from Around the World - Dips, Sauces and Marinades)

Wed 28th July - Lemon Pie, bread, wonton soup

Wednesday 28th July

Impossible Lemon Pie for afternoon tea/dessert.

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=628.0

used all flour as don't eat coconut (allergies).

Was nice, interesting texture, but tasted good and the kids liked it.

Made some bread

Basic bread recipe with 1/2 wheat, 1/2 rye milled first

Dinner - wonton soup - pretty much the same recipe as last time - used spring roll pastry rather than rice paper this time but all very much the same and still a big favourite.

Served with bok choy (added to the varoma 5 mins before the end of cooking) and the girls also had some of the bread (baked a little more with garlic butter).

Tuesday 27th July - juice

Been a busy day and not been at home much but the Thermomix still made us a lovely orange and kiwi fruit juice.

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Mon 26th July - smoothie, loaf of bread, sausages, mash, veg and gravy

Monday 26th July

Breakfast - banana smoothie

Then made a loaf of bread (milled wheat and plain bakers flour)

Dinner was Sausages, mash, steamed veg and onion gravy.

Recipe here - http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3821.0;topicseen

I was a bit sceptical but it was brilliant. Used a mix of bisto (how English of me) and cornflour to thicken the gravy and had added some mushrooms to the sauce at the beginning.

Lovely organic sausages so there was hardly any fat and everything tasted great!!

Sun 25th July - chilli con carne

Sunday 25th July

Just dinner tonight - chilli con carne from the EDC - including mincing the meat. Yum yum yum. And so so easy.

Sat 24th July - juice, tartare sauce, batter

Saturday 24th July

Breakfast - juice - orange and apple

Dinner - we had homemade fish and chips (dh's once a year use of his fryer, lol). The thermomix made:

Tartare sauce (EDC) - so quick and easier than going to the shops for some.

Batter - http://www.fishex.com/recipes/batters/all-purpose-batter.html put all the ingredients in and blended for 20 sec on speed 4.

The fish was battered and then crumbed.

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After 2 weeks - Verdict loving it

So two weeks in, and I'm really loving my Thermomix. I find it so easy and clean to use. There are a few things I prefer to make the traditional way and a lot of things I think it does better. I can't imagine not using it. I am really getting into and enjoying making things from scratch more of the time. It's so quick and easy to make things that I would often go for the easy option on.

In the 2 weeks I've had the Thermomix I've used it 49 times! So around 3.5 times a day.

It's a great blender for juices and smoothies. So quick and easy to grate and grind. Makes great dough (and I always laugh at it bouncing around whilst kneading). And loving the simplicity of the main meals I've cooked.

My favourite would be either the chicken wonton soup or the stroganoff. The kids would be the creamy tomato and salami pasta. dd1 is a big fan of the wonton soup though and keeps asking for it. We are all enjoying the juices, smoothies, sorbet and custard.

Fri 23 July - smoothie, vegie drink, butter chicken

Friday 23rd July

Breakfast - smoothie - banana, frozen berries, yoghurt, milk

Morning tea- Vegetable crush.

1 red capsicum

2 small tomatoes

2 sticks of celery

1 small garlic clove

6 ice cubes

bunch of parsley

pepper.

dropped the garlic onto the blades at speed 7 for a few seconds, then added all ingredients and whizzed up - added pepper to taste.

Yummy and so good for you.

Dinner - butter chicken (from EDC)

With rice done in the microwave rice cooker, and carrots and beans.

This was very very yummy, not at all spicy but lovely flavours. dd3 (big curry fan) didn't like it???!! though.

I love how clean it is cooking in the thermomix. So quick to prepare everything and rather than having hundreds of bowls and pots and blenders and stuff to clean all there is is the thermomix (and in this case one bowl to reserve the toasted fennel and cumin seeds) I have time to put the raw ingredients back where they belong whilst the thermomix is doing the next bit and then set it to cook for 20 mins and go off and do something else.

Thur 22nd July - smoothie, cheese, dips, rice, custard

Thursday 22nd

Breakfast made a smoothie - oats, frozen mixed berries, banana, failed yoghurt, milk - yum yum! Everyone loved this one.

Made up some grated cheese (we go through quite a lot as you may have noticed, the girls have a lot of wraps and salads with it. Though the last two days dd2 has taken leftovers (soup and pasta) to school in a thermos for lunch (got really cute little thermos' from K-Mart) which she has loved.

I then made two dips to take to a friends - garlic and herb and beetroot. All ready and still time to take the kids to school! Loving how quick and easy things are with the Thermomix.

Dinner I made fried rice using this recipe.

http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/08/thermomix-fried-rice.html

I must of messed up the rice/water quantities a bit though as it boiled dry and some of the rice was a bit crunchy - dd1 loved it, lol, but not the rest of us, it was ok but not great.

Dessert was chocolate custard - I used 20g cornflour, 2 eggs, 550g milk, 50g sugar and some cocoa (about 2 tablespoons???) - was very yummy though still quite thick (not a bad texture but the girls like it very runny, though did mean less mess for dd3), will go down to 10g of cornflour or maybe none next time to see.

So even though I wasn't home from 9-3.15 the Thermomix got a good work out today.

Wed 21st July - eggs, cake, pasta

Wednesday 21st July

Breakfast - boiled eggs. Even though this doesn't take any less time than the stove top method I do love it. I don't have to think about it at all, check that the water isn't boiling too much etc, just put in and forget till the timer sounds.

Made a chocolate cake (using the EDC Too Easy Chocolate Cake - very similar to the Delia recipe I use now), so quick and easy to mix. Thought it would be a nice treat for the girls for after school and dessert.

Was a really nice cake, def on the list. We don't get through a lot of cake so this was a good size for us - there is a recipe on the forum for a larger cake if that's what you prefer (about double the size of this one).

Yesterday's yoghurt didn't thicken, not sure what went wrong. Wondering if it was just too cold here over night. Still tastes good so will use it for smoothies and will try again soon.

Dinner was the EDC creamy tomato and salami fettucine (this time with fettucine, usually do easier to eat pasta for the girls, lol).

So it's been quite a busy day esp as I have gotten back into work after the school holidays and did some dyeing and my store ArtEZan was accepted as a sponsor for the 9th semi annual Great Down Under Nappy hunt so have been working on that.

Tues 20th July - smoothie, soup, yoghurt

Tuesday 20th July

Made a lovely banana and yoghurt smoothie for breakfast.

Dinner was potato, parsnip and cabbage soup. So easy to make soups in the Thermomix. And only one very easy thing to clean up at the end.

And now I have yoghurt cooking - will let you know how it turns out tomorrow!!

Mon 19th July - rolls, juice, stroganoff, rice

Made bread rolls for lunch

Juice for afternoon tea - orange, mandarin and apple.

For dinner the EDC stroganoff again. Added the worcester sauce and garlic as per last weeks tweaks, also had to substitute the sour cream for yoghurt as we had run out of sour cream.

Yum again!

Dessert was leftover strawberry sorbet from the other night.

And then dh came home and had leftover stroganoff and cooked the rice in the thermomix.

Very easy, though the tupperware microwave rice cooker is also very easy, ever so slightly less washing up.

Sun 18th July - lemonade

A very quiet day for the thermomix today as we've been out a lot and also using up leftovers but did make lovely lemonade (edc recipe, bit less sugar). Takes seconds. Had leftover chinese takeaway for lunch and was thirsty afterwards so this was perfect.

Out for dinner though so missed out on TMX stroganoff which was the plan.

Sat 17th July - cheese, pasta sauce

Lunch time - grated some cheese.

Dinner - dh and I are having takeaway for dinner for my birthday but did a pasta sauce for the girls.

1 clove garlic, 1/2 small chilli

chop 5 sec on speed7

add 20g oil and saute 2mins, 100° speed 1

Add

one stick of celery

small can of 4 bean mix

1/2 tin tomatoes

small piece of red capsicum

small piece of yellow capsicum

tomato paste

1/2 tsp stock concentrate

little water

blend 20 sec on speed 6

then cook 10 min 100° speed 1

Fri 16th July - juice, chicken seasoning paste, sorbet

Juice with breakfast - 2 oranges, mandarin and apple

Later I made a paste of garlic, deseeded green chili, spring onion, salt and pepper, paprika and oil - this is to go on the chicken strips that were crumbed and baked for dinner (along with wedges and veg).

And because it's my birthday I made strawberry sorbet for dessert - yum yum yum!

Thurs 15th July - creamy tomato and salami pasta

We were out most of the day but got home in time to cook dinner. Made the creamy tomato and salami fettucine from the EDC - though with spiral pasta.

A big hit here, girls had seconds and thirds and all loved it equally. A definite for the menu. Will use spicier salami next time.

Oh and took the left over of the herb and garlic dip to friends house and everyone loved it esp my friend's one year old boy - going to make him some next week.

Wed 14th July - porridge, dip, cream, sugar

Breakfast - porridge

Morning - Herb and garlic dip - from the edc recipe - very yummy!! Really love this quick and easy dip and everyone who came round for lunch loved it.

Whipped cream to go with scones a friend brought round.

Then in the afternoon a friend came round to make icing sugar for her dd's birthday party on Friday.

Oh and tonight we finally had the last of the chocolate mousse (with leftover whipped cream - extra decadent!) so can make a different dessert tomorrow.

Tues 13th July - cheese, wonton soup

Lunch - grated cheese.

Dinner

Name of Recipe: Wonton Soup

Ingredients for wontons:

Pork cubed (for mince)

Carrot

Garlic – 3 cloves

Spring onion – 2

½ “ ginger

little bit of the chilli - rest used in stock.

chop on speed 6 and mix well.

Soak rice paper wrappers in hot water, corner up to middle and put spoonful of mix in centre. Place in sprayed varoma.

Broth:

Chicken liquid stock/Water to 1 l

1 tsp of tmx vegie stock (more if using water not liquid stock)

½” ginger

2 garlic cloves

Black peppercorns

Celery

Onion

chilli (1 small chilli)

No need to rinse bowl from wonton mix. Place all broth ingredients in bowl.

Place basket in and cook for 20 minutes on varoma speed 3/4, with varoma (with wontons) on top.

I served with garlic bread as had some needed eating and the girls love it but not very asian – would be great with noodles and asian veg or rice.

Adapted from this recipe: http://failsafethermomix.blogspot.com/2009/05/chicken-wonton-noodle-soup-failsafe.html

Love, love, loved this soup. That's two nights in a row with quick and easy dinners that I loved. Saved loads of time over making them without the thermomix and tasted great. Would go easier on the chilli next time - probably completely deseed as although the girls liked it, it was close to being a bit hot for them.

Oh and we are still getting through the chocolate mousse, lol, but it is yummy.

Mon 12th July - juice, cookies, stroganoff

Monday 12th July

Breakfast - juice - orange, mandarin and celery.

Afternoon - the girls made cookies. Used this basic cookie dough

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3773.0 and they rolled them out and decorated with choc chips. Kept them occupied for ages, lol.

Very quick and easy to make the dough, and so much less mess than using a food processor.

Dinner - beef stroganoff.

I did this as per the EDC recipe but added

1. Garlic - 2 cloves, dropped these onto the blades at speed 7 at the beginning before adding the onion.

2. Added 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce and thyme

3. I also added carrot - due to dd2's two least favourite vegetables being mushrooms and onions.

I served it with rice (I cooked this separately in the Tupperware rice cooker in the microwave (I love this) so it was all ready at the same time and so quick.)

Really really loved this. So easy, super easy to clean, really tasty. Will definitely make it again.

Sun 11th July - porridge, choc mousse, rolls, salad

Another busy day for the thermomix.

We tried one of the burgers last night and they were really nice. Great flavour though would have preferred a chunkier texture. So was looking forward to those with fresh rolls for dinner.

Breakfast - Porridge. Found it a bit hard to clean this time though.

Then I gave in and made Chocolate mousse (as per EDC recipe).

Dinner - made rolls for the burgers and a red cabbage coleslaw to go with it.

All very yummy. Great to be able to whip up a coleslaw in a couple of minutes when I realised dinner needed something more.

And for dessert had one of the chocolate mousse's - yum yum yum yum.

Sat 10th July - boiled egg, pizza, rolls, hamburger

Saturday 10th July

The Thermomix (maybe I need a name for it!!) had quite a busy day.

Breakfast - Boiled egg - very easy, perfect. The girls are always asking for boiled eggs but I rarely can be bothered but will definitely do them much more often now.

Lunch - pizza dough - using the edc recipe, so easy to knead in the thermomix, great tasting pizza dough

Dinner - bread rolls to go with salads. (was going to be hamburgers but I was too full from the pizza still when it got to the kid's dinner time). Just did the basic bread recipe with all baker's flour as don't have any wheat yet. Very yummy, perfect bread rolls.

Also made hamburger mix

- minced rump steak (12 sec speed 7)
- onion and garlic, added veg (parsnip, courgette, capsicum) and chopped
- teaspoon of vege concentrate mix, breadcrumbs (previously created in the thermomix - freeze slices of bread and mill 10 seconds speed 6) , tomato sauce and the meat.
Mixed on reverse.

dh was making this and I told him to put an egg in and he also ended up mixing it too long and over processing it! But hopefully still yummy just not the consistency originally planned.

Will report back on how these came out later.

Day 2 - 9 July - juice, salad, cheese, stock, hot chocolate

Day 2 - Friday 9th

Had lots of fun with the Thermomix today and feel much more confident that I know what I'm doing with it.

Breakfast

Orange and mandarin juice - really easy, so much better than using the juice extractor.

Porridge - just did the same quantities as I'd normally do the quick oats in the microwave and then cooked per the EDC instructions.

Lunch

Coleslaw type salad with - cabbage, carrot, apple, celery, green capsicum and mayonnaise. (so done like the EDC coleslaw but with the added vegies)

This is soooo much easier than chopping everything by hand, a real time saver. The older girls love salads and coleslaws so can imagine doing lots of these.

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Grated cheddar - dd1 loves the way the Thermomix crumbs cheese and has been eating all the parmesan from the demo last week so she was very happy with this. I like the cheese like this to go in the salad but will also grate cheese normally for other things.

Others

Bron's vegie stock concentrate

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=836.0

Ended up with loads of this! Should last us ages.

So much cheaper than buying decent stock and was easy to do.

Hot chocolate (was having a real chocolate craving but didn't want to make a cake or anything) - very yummy!

Nice and easy, throw it all in and come back when it beeps. A hit with the older two and me. (dd3 doesn't like milk).

So the Thermomix has had a good work out today.

I've been happy with everything.

First useage - mash, veg and custard.

So my Thermomix has already had it's first use. I already had crab cakes for dinner so I served them with mashed potato and steamed carrots.

I put 650g potatoes in the basket, 900ml water in the bowl, carrots in the varoma .

Cooked 20 mins - temperature Varoma - Speed 3.

Put the varoma aside, emptied the bowl and put the cooked potatoes, milk, butter and pepper in the bowl and mashed the potatoes for 10 seconds on speed 4.

Lovely.

For dessert I made vanilla custard. Another hit. Would use less flour next time for a runnier custard - dd2 in particular found it too thick and floury.

And it has arrived!!!

Yep here is my Thermomix. All washed and ready!

A new journey

After a lot of thought, deliberation and saving I have finally purchased a Thermomix.

Now I'm just impatiently waiting for delivery and planning lots of yummy things to cook.

If you don't know what the wonder machine, Thermomix, is then have a look at Thermomix Australia to see all about it.

It's an innovative kitchen appliance that mills, grinds, mixes, minces, kneads, cooks and steams, all in one great unit. A brilliant time saving tool that also allows you to make a lot of things easily from scratch.

I've decided to blog my journey with my Thermomix. In particular noting what I use it for daily. I know when I was researching I found lots of yummy recipes and great testimonials but wanted to see more of how people used it on a day to day basis and how often it was used.

So now to just await delivery and plan my first meals!

A little about me!

I'm Zan, Mum to 3 girls in Sydney, Australia. I am a fibre artist (dyer, spinner, knitter) and run a WAHM online business ArtEZan which stocks my products (Zanz hand dyed) as well as other talented WAHM products (including children's clothing, cards, beaded items, jewellery) and knitting accessories.

I'm really looking forward to experimenting with the Thermomix, making more foods from scratch and making some of the things I make now quicker and easier. My kids are looking forward to lots of custard!