23rd December 2011 - chocolate pudding

Highlights this week.
Mince for nacho's was super yummy this week, usual pizza dough, sauce, boiled eggs, rice, steamed veg.

Made the honey mustard chicken from the forum - dd1 suggested it, I'd forgotten how yummy it was!! http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=5129.0

And biggest highlight - these steamed chocolate puddings! Yum, they were so light and yummy. Much nicer than they look in the picture.
So I chopped some chocolate then followed this recipe -
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1243.0
Were a major hit with the kids so will def make them again.

This week - spaghetti and meatballs

Usual rice, veg, dough, chopping etc for the tmx.
Made the spaghetti and meatballs from the Meat on the Menu cookbook.
thought it was going to make an extraordinarily large amount of sauce and I was right! Will halve the sauce as I thought. Did freeze loads of sauce to use in other meals.

The thermomix is really increasing dd1's confidence levels in the kitchen too and I really think we can find the time over the holidays (she is very slow) for her to cook a meal.

Friday 2nd December

Well as I said my Thermomix usage is just too boring to blog about, the usual couple of boring things a day. I dream of the day when I will have time to pour over recipe books and try lots of new things (maybe over the school holidays???).

But wanted to blog about dd1 today.
She is very interested in cooking, loves cooking shows, magazines and cookbooks and even regularly borrows them from the library.
But she is quite timid in the kitchen and usually her cooking something involves me cooking it and her watching, lol.
But she has made shortbread a few times in the tmx on her own. So this afternoon she asked to make some and with no input made the shortbread (including making her own rice flour), baked it, made a ganache and put the chocolate coating on.
She was very proud of herself as was I. She'd never made ganache before and really used her initiative.
But there is no way in the world even with a recipe she would have felt confident using the stove top to melt the chocolate etc, so once again loving my tmx.

Have nearly convinced her that she would get such a great sense of achievement if she cooked dinner one night, told her to try something simple like stroganoff.

Oh and the highlight of my cooking week - would have to have been the wonton soup on Wednesday night. Just a plain chicken stock (of course made in the tmx) with lots of garlic and some chili, with yummy wontons (mixture made in the tmx). super quick and easy (I premade the stock and wontons) as we had to be out early for the girls evening school concert performance. Wonton soup has always been my favourite.

Wednesday 30th November

So sorry I've gotten a bit slack.
I just feel that I am blogging the same old, same old.
I feel that reading through the last year and half's posts you can see that I still use the tmx all the time. It's been such a great investment and saved me time and money and we also eat better.
I feel that maybe it's time to move the blog to a more interesting recipe base. ie yes everyone knows we eat a lot of porridge, lol.
So am thinking to just blog more on the main meals we cook and recipe links, and when I have time more of a general overview.

And highlight of this week has to have been the enchilada recipe from the forum. Once again a total winner, dd2's absolutely favourite meal still.
For me I think the wontons, stock and wonton soup we had tonight. I love how easy it is to chop, mix, stir and make the wonton mixture. As I've said so many times re the chicken stock, ooooh so simple, I just love the leave it, no need to strain due to the basket etc, well I must do as I make it every week, lol.
Haven't had wonton soup in awhile and forgotten how much I love it (last few times we've had wontons done them with rice and stir fry veg.

Wednesday 23rd November

Tuesday - no uses :-(
the kids have gone off porridge for a bit (darn! how easy was that, but I did expect it as they've had it every day for months and months, hopefully next winter it'll be popular again) and we were out the rest of the day and evening.

Wednesday - dinner I made a chicken, veg and tomato sauce to go with pasta (no real recipe, chopped and sauted garlic, herbs, sauteed chicken, added veg and 1/2 tin of tomatoes, worcester sauce and cooked 15 mins.

Monday 21st November - choc orange muffins, chicken and veg fried rice

Made orange muffins with choc chips (forum recipe) so love this one as I love orange but hate peeling them, so the throw the whole thing in so appeals to me. Haven't had them in ages as dd2 doesn't like them, so I tend to avoid but as I'm making heaps this week it wasn't a problem.

Dinner had a chicken and veg 'fried' rice. I've taken to doing stir fry's on the stove top but I so love the ease of using the tmx, rice in the basket, chicken (marinated) and vegies in the varoma, cook for 16 mins, pop the chicken and vegies with some soy sauce, sweet chili sauce and sesame oil and cook for a minute, mix all together. Yum! And so easy. I prepped (10 mins before going to collect dd, home) then cooked for less than 20 mins and all ready to serve. Whilst it was cooking I did the lunch box washing up and general tidying. Love how the tmx frees you up for other things.

Sunday 29th November - muffins, gravy

Made two batches of muffins - cheese and zucchini and 4 berry. Working on a recipe and will post it when I'm happy with it.
Roast for dinner - made the gravy in the tmx.

Saturday 19th November

Breakfast - boiled eggs, still loving how easy boiled eggs are with still never a broken one, and no need to worry about timing.

Afternoon - made orange and pineapple juice, with lots of ice as it was hot and we'd been out.

Dinner - made a bbq marinade (garlic, little soy, worcester sauce, tomato sauce, - sure there was something else) to marinate chicken for dinner.

Thursday 17th November - porridge, stock, cauliflower soup, rice

Sorry really finding it hard to get this updated daily. Also our eating at the moment really isn't very inspiring, lol. A lot of the same easy quick to make meals.
So Mon-Thurs this week.
Several batches of porridge (what a surprise, lol).
Chicken stock. (another not a surprise, lol)
Tonight we had cauliflower soup. (oh how I love the ease of soup making in the tmx, esp with yummy homemade stock, so economical too).
Also made rice yesterday.
It was really hot at the beginning of the week so we were just eating cold meats and salad type meals. So think that might be it.


Sunday 13th November - pancake mix, butter, stock, cream of chicken and mushroom soup, gravy

Breakfast - pancake mix.
Lunch - chicken stock, then cream of chicken and mushroom soup (so garlic, herbs, stock, chili flakes, heated, added mushrooms and cooked 10 mins, blitzed, added milk and cream and cooked chicken and mixed and heated for 2 mins on reverse.)

Made spreadable butter (usual recipe)

Dinner - roast, made gravy in the tmx.

Friday/Saturday 13th - Your favourite salad?

Think just porridge for breakfast both days.
We really need to have more home time for cooking!!
But salads/rolls/cold meats seem to be the main thing esp with all the end of year extra activites.

As the summer season is here I'd love to know what your favourite salads are - thermomix of not!!

Wed/Thur 11th November

Wed - porridge and steamed veg
Thursday - porridge.

And just to add that the charity auctions I'm hosting for Loving Hand Fundraiser for Cancer Research are still running but finish Saturday at 9pm (AEDST) so if you haven't already please pop on over to ArtEZan and see the gorgeous items that have been donated for this great cause. Thanks, Zan.

Monday/ Tuesday 8th November - porridge, mashed potato and veg, 4 berry sorbet

Monday - breakfast - porridge
Dinner - mashed potatoes and steamed veg to go with a roast turkey joint that I'd cooked earlier (so all the timings could fit in with afternoon activities).

Tuesday - 4 berry sorbet, hot here today so a cooling sorbet was needed for after school treat.

Sunday 6th November - shortbread

We were out for pretty much all the day and had eggs for breakfast but dd1 did manage to fit in making some shortbread.

Friday/Saturday 5th November - porridge, indian beef, custard

Friday - porridge for breakfast.
Rice for lunch.

Saturday - porridge for breakfast
Dinner - made an Indian beef dish.
No recipe, milled various spices (cumin, coriander seed, little fenugreek, cloves), chopped garlic, ginger, little chili, onion, sauteed all 8 mins. Added meat, tin of tomatoes, cream, little water, cooked an hour at 90 on reverse, added chopped mushrooms and cooked 7 mins. Served with rice.

Dessert - custard. Haven't made custard in ages, forgot how yum it was. Made choc vanilla. So great pop it in when you dish up and there is lovely hot custard ready for when you've eaten.

Thursday 3rd November - porridge, rice, stock, chicken udon soup

Breakfast - porridge.

Lunch - made rice to go with leftover enchilada sauce from last night.

Dinner - made chicken stock and then made soup. Chopped garlic and ginger, sauteed, added stock, chili flakes, little soy sauce, chinese 5 spice, heated, added mixed veg and cooked shredded chicken, cooked 8 mins added shelf fresh udon noodles. dd3's favourite soup so she was happy.

Not Thermomix related at all. But I am hosting some charity auctions starting this weekend over at my store ArtEZan.

The auctions, Loving Hands for Australian Cancer Research Foundation, include lots of gorgeous hand made items from WAHM's. There are gorgeous shawls, children's clothing, knits, bookmarks, stitch markers and a blanket. All donated to raise money for Cancer Research.
I would really appreciate it if you had a look and spread the word to your friends to support these auctions for this very worthwhile cause.
If you are on facebook please like the facebook page and spread the word that way. Please help us makes these auctions a success.
Thank you.
Zan


Wed 2 November - porridge, chicken enchilada's

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - chicken enchilada's.
Using the forum beef enchilada recipe (linked here previously or search on the forum). Though just added some cooked chicken (from last night's roast) to the 3/4 of the tomato mixture and cooked for 1 min on reverse. I also use two tins of chopped tomatoes and blitz.
This was once again dd2's absolute favourite meal.


Mon/Tues 31st/1 November - porridge, gravy

Monday - just breakfast porridge.
Tuesday - porridge and gravy to go with roast chicken dinner.

We are just so busy at the moment they we seem to be sticking with the same few meals, really need to find the time to get stuck into some cookbooks and come up with some different meals.
Though it's hard to find things that cook super quick and can be easily reheated/kept warm.

Thurs-Sunday 30th Oct - porridge, boiled eggs, wontons, rice and veg.

Not blogged for a few days and can't really remember. We've not been home much so not sure.

I know today has just been boiled eggs for lunches tomorrow.
Had hoped to replenish lunch box snacks but have only been home for a short time all weekend.

Yesterday, Saturday was just porridge for breakfast as we weren't home after that.

Thursday and Friday - not sure. Def porridge at least one if not both of the days. Friday pretty sure that was it as pan fried prawns and scallops for dinner.
Thursday night had wontons for dinner - made the wonton mixture in the tmx and also rice and steamed veg.

Wed 26th October - chicken and sweetcorn soup

Dinner - chicken and sweetcorn soup.
Using yesterday's stock. chop garlic and herbs, sautee, add stock, little chili flakes, can of creamed corn, chicken.
LOL, so did well out of Sunday's roast and the chicken was on special. Got Sunday roast, Monday night chicken curry, Wed night soup as well as some lunches (some was used on puff pastry rolls for the kids lunches and also sandwiches).

Tues 25th October - avocado drink, chicken stock, pizza dough and sauce

Breakfast made the avocado drink, Alpukat Beating, from the night before's Junior MasterChef - http://www.masterchef.com.au/french-brioche-with-rhubarb-coulis-and-choc-orange-ricotta-and-alpukat-beating.htm

I did
1 cup of milk,
1 small avocado,
1 tablespoon caster sugar (could mill this first if you don't have any on hand)
1 tablespoon of cream
per person, mixed for 30seconds on speed 5
Topped with some ground cinnamon.
Really yum and very filling!
Next time I'd do less sugar though.

Made some chicken stock from Sunday nights roast. (usual recipe)

Dinner was pizza, so the dough (edc) and tomato sauce (chopped onion and garlic, sauteed, added tin tomatoes, tomato puree and mixed herbs and cooked) were made in the tmx.




24th October

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - quick chicken and veg curry and rice.
Cooked the rice whilst preparing the rest. (though should have done it in the rice cooker to save 8 or so minutes but I love tmx rice and less washing up, lol)
then chopped onion and garlic and sauteed 2 teaspoons of curry powder,
Added mushrooms and green beans, tin of tomatoes and a little water, cooked 6-7 minutes (reverse sp 1 100 degrees)
Then added cooked leftover chicken in as big a lumps as I could as knew it would shred.
Heated 2 mins reverse sp spoon and 100 degrees.

Was really yum and a great use of left overs.


21st/22nd October - porridge, stock, minestrone soup, boiled eggs, strawberry jam, lemon chicken and noodles.

Friday 21st -
Breakfast - porridge
Then made chicken stock.
Dinner made Minestrone soup (forum recipe, linked previously on here) at dd1's request. It's also dh's favourite.

Saturday 22nd
Breakfast - boiled eggs
Made strawberry jam. (pretty much edc recipe with 5 mins on varoma at the end and a little jamsetta)
Dinner made a lemon chicken and noodle dish. Usually I prefer to stir fry on the stovetop but was flat out so chopped garlic and onion and sauteed, added chicken and sauteed, added juice of 2 lemons, white wine, water, chinese five spice, mushrooms, broccoli, celery, cooked 7 mins, added noodles (shelf fresh singapore style) and cooked 3 mins. (all the cooking on reverse 100)

I love how the tmx frees you up to do other things during the cooking.

Wednesday 19th October - porridge and rice and veg

Just the usual porridge for breakfast and then rice and veg for dinner (added to stirfried mushrooms and spicy sausage.)

Mon/Tues 17/18th October - porridge, rice

Monday - breakfast porridge and made rice to go with lunch.

Tuesday - just porridge for breakfast.

Sunday 16th October - birthday cake and icing, vegie sausage rolls

Made my vegie sausage roll filling (recipe on here) as it was dd2's birthday party at gym today.

And here is the birthday cake - the two cakes from yesterday.

Made butter icing in the tmx and here is the finished red and white cake.



Saturday 15th October - porridge, spreadable butter, red and white 8 cake, mince for nachos

Breakfast - porridge.

Then made some spreadable butter (as per Quirky Jo's recipe - I used 150g butter, 150g ricebran oil, 150g water).

Made this Highlight cake from the forum.
Did half plain and half red, put in the white then the red and cooked in round donut tins, these will be put together to make an 8 for dd2's 8th birthday party tomorrow.

Dinner - cooked up mince for nachos in the tmx. (no recipe, lol)

Thurs/Fri 14th October - porridge, stock, broccoli soup, naan bread

Thursday - just porridge for breakfast. Was dd2's birthday so did her chosen dinner of prawns, cous cous and stir fry veg which I did on the stove top.

Friday - porridge.
Chicken stock.
Dinner - broccoli soup (garlic chopped, chili flakes, garam masala, sauteed, added 3 potatoes, head of broccoli and stock, pepper, cooked 25 mins and then blended).
And naan bread (dough of course made in the tmx).

Wednesday 12th October - porridge, rice

Breakfast - porridge.
Dinner - rice (to go with leftovers including leftover mince from the dumplings that I stir fried with courgette, spinach and broccoli and an egg (as I'd brought the eggs in from the chickens and when cleaning them one slightly broke so had to use it but went great, lol!! Sort of fried rice in the end)

Tuesday 11th October - porridge, wonton mixture, stir fry veg

Breakfast - porridge,

dinner - made dumplings (wonton mix but in gow gee wrappers), made the mixture in the tmx, (recipe on here numerous times, though I'm never exact with ingredients) then boiled them on the stove top whilst cooking stir fry veg in the tmx.

Sunday/Monday 9/10th October - boiled eggs, gravy, cheese and zucchini muffins,, porridge

Sunday - breakfast - boiled eggs.
Made cheese and zucchini muffins for lunch boxes (forum recipe)
Dinner was roast lamb - made the gravy in the tmx.

Monday - back to school after the holidays!
Breakfast - porridge

Fri /Sat 7/8th October - porridge, pasta sauce, pancakes, enchilada's, yellow rice

Friday - breakfast - porridge
Dinner for the kids - made a tomato, mushroom and spinach pasta sauce in the Thermomix.

Saturday - breakfast - pancakes
Dinner - made JulieO's Enchilada's http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1645.0
Wow this is so tasty!!!! Will def do again.
Whilst the enchilada's were baking I also made Turmeric rice in the thermomix.

Wed/Thur 6/7 October - porridge, pizza, rice

Wed - porridge for breakfast.
dinner - Pizza, so made garlic and herb topping (garlic, parsley, butter, olive oil) and Tomato topping (chopped garlic and herbs and small onion, sauteed 5 mins, added 2 tomatoes, tomato paste and cooked 6 mins).
Also made the pizza dough.

Thursday - Just rice. Out all day.

Tuesday 4th October - porridge, garlic and ginger, pizza

To add to yesterday's list dh made pizza dough to make calzone for work.

Today, porridge for breakfast
And we had salad and asian chicken for dinner - grated the garlic and ginger for the chicken which I pan fried.

Monday 3rd October - caesar dressing, butter

Lunch made a 'caesar' dressing for salad. Used already made mayo that I had, blitzed anchovies and garlic, added mayo, mustard, lemon juice.

Also made some butter.

Other meals were made by dh on his new bbq again.

Sunday 2nd October - cream of vegetable soup, spanakopita, Nigella's flourless choc brownies.

Lunch - cream of vegetable soup - chopped garlic, added chicken stock (made yesterday), 2 potatoes, cauliflower and mushrooms, cooked 20 mins, whizzed up and added some cream.

Dinner - Chicken in Lemon sauce, Spanakopita and Brocolli.
Made the Spanakopita mix in the tmx based on a Gordon Ramsay recipe in his World Kitchens cookbook.
I used diff quantites depending on what I had but
- chopped an onion, added olive oil and sauteed 5 mins
- Meanwhile wilted the spinach leaves (200g, could easily use more, recipe calls for 500g)
- Added spinach and tsp of nutmeg to the onion in the bowl and 200g feta, chopped
- Added 2 large eggs and 180ml thickened cream and mixed.
(could now add pine nuts)
- Placed 10 sheets of filo pastry in the bottom of a baking dish, basting with melted butter in between, added mixture, folded over edges, topped with 4 more sheets crumpled on top and cooked 50 mins at 170° in the oven.

The chicken I did on the stove top - flattened chicken breast pieces, coated in seasoned flour, cooked a couple of mins each side and set aside. Made the sauce, couple of cubes chicken stock, splash white wine, lemon zest, garlic (sauted first), lemon juice and a little cream to the juices in the pan. When thickening added the chicken back to warm through and served.

Also made Nigella's flourless choc brownies http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/flourless-chocolate-brownies-with-hot-chocolate-sauce-22 for dessert.
Used chopped macadamia/cashew/almond instead of walnuts.
OMG this is so rich!! No way would I go the choc sauce too. Really yum and I guess the nuts are healthy, lol.
Was still warm and very gooey but reading the comments should harden up in the fridge, though I liked it as a gooey dessert.

So a really yummy dinner, the kids all loved it as well as the adults, dd2 asked for it every day, lol. As I've mentioned before I so love veal/chicken in lemon sauce and it's so quick and easy should do it more often. The flattened chicken is so tender too.

Saturday 1st October - pancakes, chicken stock, rice

Breakfast - pancake batter (edc)
Made - chicken stock (as always, lol)
And made rice to go with leftovers for lunch.
Dinner was bbq (so dh can get a fix with his new bbq)

Friday 30th September - porridge, shortbread, garlic and herb dip

Wow can't believe it's the end of September already!!

Made porridge for breakfast.
dd1 made shortbread.
And made garlic and herb dip.

Thursday 29th September - boiled eggs

I thought with school holidays I'd be doing so much more cooking but still super busy.
Made boiled eggs to go with salads and cold meats for lunch and dinner.
I just love how easy boiled eggs are and no breakages! (edc recipe)

Tues/Wed 27/8th September - porridge, chicken in yoghurt

Being school holidays we've been flat out, sorry for not keeping up to date, not that we've made anything exciting.

Tuesday - porridge for breakfast, then that was it as was out all day and had leftovers for dinner.
Wednesday - porridge for breakfast. Dinner - chicken in yoghurt (indian book), though didn't have enough yoghurt, so used some milk. Still a family favourite. Added vegetables whilst cooking it as well.

Monday 26th September - naan, gravy

Lunch - made naan bread (Indian cookbook recipe) for lunch.

Dinner we had roast (loving the school holidays and no afternoon activities!!) and made the gravy in the tmx.

Sunday 25th September - smoothie

Just smoothie for breakfast today.
We were out for lunch and had bbq for dinner.

Saturday 24th September - chicken and mushroom in white sauce, pizza - dough, garlic and tomato sauces

Lunch - chicken and mushrooms in white sauce served with pasta.
Still loving how easy this, chop and saute garlic, make the white sauce (edc but less time) add sliced mushrooms and cooked chicken and cook another 6 mins, meanwhile cooking some pasta on the stove. My old favourite but so much quicker and easier and of course perfect sauce every time.

Dinner - pizza. So pizza dough, garlic butter/oil, tomato sauce all made in the tmx.

Friday 23rd September - porridge, slushie, stock. chicken and sweetcorn soup

Breakfast - porridge.

Another hot one and the pineapple slushie from yesterday was again requested, am thinking we'll need shares in a pineapple canning factory to get through the summer!!

Chicken stock, and chicken and sweetcorn soup for dinner.

Thursday 22nd September - porridge, boiled eggs, strawberry jam, pineapple slushie

Breakfast - porridge.

Made boiled eggs to go with salads and cold roast chicken for dinner. Still just love how easy it is to boil eggs in the tmx and how they never break.

And made strawberry jam. (I use jamsetta and cook for 10 mins at the end on varoma to thicken it up)

Afternoon tea was pineapple 'slushie', basically pineapple sorbet but used tinned pineapple and juice (not frozen) so it was more a slushie. Kids all loved it.

Tuesday/Wednesday 20th/21st September

Tuesday
eeek I can't remember.
There was rice, not sure if that was all?
(and the reason I know there was rice was I forgot to clean out the bowl!! And popped the oats into the leftover water this morning!! Lucky I noticed just as I started adding the milk or would have been rather runny yucky porridge)

Wednesday
Breakfast - porridge.
Dinner - wonton mixture (usual recipe on here a number of times) (served with wok stir fried veg and noodles)

Monday 19th September - porridge, cheese and zucchini muffins

Breakfast - porridge (recipe on here)

Also made cheese and zucchini muffins (forum recipe) for lunch boxes. The girls favourite.

Sunday 18th September - boiled eggs, butter, garlic and herb dip, choc icecream

Breakfast - boiled eggs (edc)

Made butter (as usual Quirky Jo's recipe)

Made a garlic and herb dip (similar to edc) to take to a party.

Made a chocolate ice cream mixture, to make up in the ice cream maker (300ml cream, 300ml milk, 1/3 cup of sugar, chopped chocolate, cooked 10mins 50 degrees speed 3)
Yum, I love chocolate icecream!!

Saturday 17th September - strawberry sorbet, teriyaki beef

Lovely weather here today, feels like summer!!
So after being in and out all day we had Strawberry Sorbet (edc recipe) for afternoon snack, YUM!
The kids all love sorbet and a great cooling afternoon snack and of course so easy in the thermomix.

Dinner - Teriyaki beef and noodles (meat on the menu recipe), added mushrooms and brocolli when cooking to make it a full meal.
Haven't had this in ages but was always a favourite and still is yum. dd3 asked if we could have it again tomorrow.

Friday 16th - porridge, stock, cauliflower soup

Breakfast - porridge,
Made chicken stock.
Then made cauliflower soup for dinner (garlic, chili, stock, potato, cauliflower and a dash of cream at the end).

Monday 12th September -porridge, chicken sauce, cake, rice

Breakfast - porridge

Made a slow cooked chicken dish but cooked up the sauce in the tmx.

Also made a cake (will admit to a Betty Crocker mix, they were on special, lol) for a morning tea tomorrow. Mixed up the cake mixture in the tmx.

Made rice to go with the chicken for dinner.

September 10/ 11 - porridge

Been a super busy weekend and only porridge for Saturday breakfast.

Friday 9th September - porridge, smoothie, stock, chicken and vegetable soup

Breakfast - porridge and smoothie.

Made chicken stock and then chicken and vegetable soup (garlic, stock, pepper, prepared soup mix, mixed vegetables and leftover chicken)


Thursday 8th September - porridge, pasta, butter, mayo, salad, dressing

Breakfast - porridge

Made: butter (Quirky Jo's recipe as usual)

pasta (heat water, add pasta, cook 14 mins - as per the pasta I was cooking recipe) for pasta salad.

mayo - usual recipe, so easy and successful as usual.

carrot, celery, capsicum - chopped for a salad and some in the pasta salad.

dressing for pasta salad (mayo, extra white wine vinegar, mustard, cream cheese)

So quite a lot of tmx uses today. Lunch and dinner were bought rolls and cold meats etc to go with the salads.

7 September - wontons

Made wonton mixture for dinner in the tmx. (recipe on the blog)

Tuesday 6th September - chicken kiev

Made chicken kiev's for dinner, so the bread crumbs, garlic butter and chicken mixture all made in the tmx. (forum recipe). Yum as always!

Monday 5th September - rice

Been away for a few days so not used the tmx.
When we got home tonight made rice (to go with a curry cooked on the stovetop).

Friday 2nd September - porridge, stock, cream of chicken soup

Sorry been really rubbish at posting this week.

Wed I'm not sure, at least porridge.
Thursday was just porridge.
Friday - porridge, chicken stock, cream of chicken soup (roux of 50g butter and 1/3 cup of flour cooked till blended, added stock, cream and cooked leftover chicken, pepper).

Monday/Tuesday August 29/30th - porridge, pork in beer

Monday was just porridge I think.

Tuesday was dinner - pork in beer casserole (recipe on here, though this time I just popped the veg in for the last 25 mins - don't imagine I cooked it for the whole hour like I wrote in the recipe; the recipe is also on the forum.

Sunday 28th August - stock, chicken and sweetcorn soup, butter, orange muffins, vanilla pudding, mashed potato, steamed veg

Made chicken stock, and from that made chicken and sweetcorn soup (stock, cooked chicken, creamed corn, corn, seasoning) for lunch.

Made spreadable butter (recipe linked on here somewhere from Quirky Jo's recipe).

Made orange muffins (forum recipe using the whole orange) for this weeks lunch boxes.

Made vanilla pudding (recipe on here/linked, from the forum vanilla slice recipe but without the biscuits.

Dinner made mashed potato and steamed veg to go with schnitzel.

Saturday 27th August - pizza

I personally didn't use the tmx today as did bacon and eggs for breakfast and salad and rolls for lunch and then was out, but dh made pizza for dinner for the kids.
So at least the pizza dough was made in the tmx.

Friday 26th August - porridge

Just porridge in the thermomix today.
As the weather improves and with all the kids activities 'lunch as dinner' (as dd1 calls it) cold meats, salad type meals will become even more common.

Wednesday 24th August - porridge, gourmet beef

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - Robyn's gourmet beef from the forum with carrots and mushrooms. Yum as always!!!

Tuesday 23rd August - porridge

Only porridge for breakfast today as did chicken and vegie kebabs and potatoes dauphinoise in the oven for dinner.

Sunday/Monday 22nd/23rd August - porridge, wontons, chicken kiev

Sorry not updated the blog for a couple of days.

Sunday not sure what I made during the day but made wonton mixture for dinner.

Monday - porridge for breakfast (recipe I use on here), dinner - chicken kiev - recipe from the forum, still an absolute favourite here.

Saturday 20th August - smoothie, vanilla macaron's, minestrone soup

Breakfast - smoothie

Made Vanilla macaron's with dd1. So made the almond meal and icing sugar in the tmx. Then beat the egg whites.
Then in the afternoon after they'd been left to set, then baked and cooled made the vanilla butter filling in the tmx.
(this was a recipe from a cookbook dd1 had borrowed from the library).



Lunch - minestrone soup - this is once again the Minestrone Soup and Pasta recipe from the forum. Really yummy as usual. Used chicken stock instead of water and vegie stock concentrate.

Friday 19th August - porridge, chicken stock, honey soy chicken drumettes, steamed vegetables, pate

Breakfast - porridge.

Made chicken stock.

Lunch made honey soy chicken drumettes, haven't had these favourites in ages!!! Didn't pre marinate them, so just cooked in the sauce, yum. Steamed veg in the varoma to go with them and rice (done separately to save time). The recipe is from the forum and linked from here somewhere.

Then made some pate. (edc recipe)

Thursday 18th August - porridge

Think it was just porridge.
Had salads and leftovers for lunch and omelette's and salad for dinner.

Wednesday 17th August - porridge, chicken and mushrooms in white sauce

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - Made super quick chicken and mushrooms in white sauce to go with pasta, have cooked this a few times and probably explained better but basically white sauce (1/2 amount, only cook 5 mins) then added sliced mushrooms, shredded cooked chicken and pepper and cook for another 5 mins (but on reverse, speed1) Such a quick and easy dinner, super tasty. dd1 particularly loved tonights and had lots of seconds and has asked for the leftovers for morning tea at school tomorrow and she has never taken in a hot meal to school.

Mon 15th/Tues 16th August - porridge, coleslaw, butter

Monday 15th - just porridge for breakfast I think. Lunch was leftovers and dinner was oven baked fish and chips.

Tuesday 16th -
Breakfast - porridge.

Made a couple of salads for lunch/dinner - made coleslaw in the tmx (and a cous cous salad on the stovetop).
Made a batch of spreadable butter (Quirky Jo's recipe see several entries on here).

Sunday 14th August - pikelets, ltm's, curry, naan, daal

Breakfast - pikelet batter (using Naynay's recipe from the tmx forum)

Made LTM's (rice bubble bars) for the kids lunch boxes (recipe on the forum)

Dinner - Indian.
Made the slow cooked beef curry - used the other half of the curry powder I made a couple of weeks ago in the tmx, recipe link will be there, it's from the forum.
Made naan bread - the onion and cumin naan from the Indian cookbook.
Made daal - edc recipe mostly.
I also made rice but used the rice cooker whilst the rest was cooking away.

Saturday 13th August - boiled eggs, stock, yorkies, gravy

Breakfast - boiled eggs. Still love how easy it is to boil eggs in the tmx (edc recipe), though today I also did poached eggs to make everyone happy.

Made chicken stock. I worked out on the fact that I make liquid chicken stock on average once a week I save over $150 a year on stock alone (compared to using the packaged liquid stocks I used to use). Stock is just so easy to make using the tmx and using the basket means it's already strained and ready to store/use when it finished cooking.

Dinner - we had roast lamb - Yorkshire pudding batter (recipe from Jamie's 30 minute meals and on here somewhere - 1 cup flour, 1 cup of milk, 1 egg, blend. heat muffin tin for 15 mins, pour in oil and batter mixture quickly and pop back in oven and cook 14 mins) and gravy done in the tmx.

Thur/Fri 11/12th August - porridge, rice, potato/cauliflower/brocolli soup

Thursday - the only cooking was porridge for breakfast.

Friday - guess what porridge for breakfast, lol.
Lunch tmx made rice to go with chicken curry.

Dinner - potato, cauliflower and brocolli soup.
Garlic chopped, homemade chicken stock, potato, cauliflower and broccoli, mixed herbs and chilli flakes cooked 20 mins, then blended and some cream added. (served with bread and oven baked corn on the cob).


Tuesday 9th August - porridge, stock, mashed potato and veg

Breakfast - porridge (how boring!)

Made some chicken stock.
Dinner - we had lamb steaks served with mashed potato and veg cooked in the tmx.

Monday August 8th - porridge, wonton mixture, rice, veg

Breakfast the usual porridge.

Dinner - wonton mixture - made a double batch of wontons to have some to take preschool for a morning tea function.
Served with rice and steamed veg cooked in the tmx.

Sunday 7th August - pancakes, chicken and sweetcorn soup, truffles, pizza dough, sauces, butter

Quite a lot of tmx cooking today.

Breakfast was pancakes with the batter made in the tmx.

Lunch was chicken and sweetcorn soup - the stock was made in the tmx yesterday, then grated ginger and garlic, added, stock, tin of creamed corn and cooked 10 mins, then added a small tin of sweetcorn kernals, shredded cooked chicken and pepper and cooked another 10 mins.
Really yummy, super quick and easy soup.

Made ganache for truffles.

Dinner was pizza.
Made two lots of pizza dough (dinner tonight and also for calzones for school/work lunches)
Then made a tomato sauce (garlic, herbs, tin of tomatoes)
Also made a garlic butter sauce (garlic, herbs, butter, olive oil) as the kids love a garlic pizza to start with.
Also made a lot of spreadable butter for the fridge (see recipe earlier as per Quirky Jo - but 100g butter, 100g rice bran oil, 100g filtered water, blended.)

Saturday 6th August - stock, stuffing, gravy

Made chicken stock.

Had roast chicken for dinner.
The tmx was used to make the stuffing (made breadcrumbs with fresh parsley, thyme and rosemary and set aside. Chopped garlic, onion, celery, a little bacon, added butter and oil and sautéed for 5 mins. Mixed with the breadcrumbs and an egg and stuffed the chicken (a lovely corn fed chicken I got on 1/2 price special this morning! bargain!)
Made yorkshire pudding batter (same recipe as usual as per Jamie Oliver's 30 min meals)
And then made gravy with the pan juices, some of todays chicken stock etc.

Friday 5th August - porridge, chicken and mushroom in white sauce

Breakfast - porridge (recipe on here)

Lunch made chicken and mushroom in white sauce. (white sauce with 300/30/30 - only for me and dd3 - cooked a couple of minutes then added sliced mushrooms and cooked chicken, cooked another 8 mins. ) to go with pasta.

Dinner was oven based - potato, courgette and mince (bolognaise type from the other night - cooked in tmx) bake (with cream and cheese) served with oven baked corn on the cob (this is a great easy dinner for a picking the kids up night - pop in the oven, cook, turn the oven off but leave it all in there so when you get back it's all still piping hot.

Thursday 4th August - porridge

Porridge for breakfast. And think that was it for cooking.
Salad and bbq chicken for lunch and leftovers for dinner.

Wednesday 3rd August - porridge, rice, mince for taco's

Breakfast porridge (recipe as on here)

Lunch - rice to go with leftovers from last nights curried sausages (edc rice recipe)

Dinner - taco's, made a mince in the tmx (recipe from my head, lol)

Tuesday 2nd August - porridge, curried sausages and rice

Breakfast - porridge.

Dinner - Curried Sausages. Been wanting to try this recipe for ages and it's as reported really delicious!! Forgot the photo again we all just dug in.
Makes heaps! Enough for two meals for the girls and I. I left out the sultana's as I really don't like them but was lovely. Everyone loved the apple in particular.

Monday 1st August - porridge, chicken vegetable udon soup.

Wow August already!!!
Summer is coming, lol. Dreaming of sorbets.

Today, porridge for breakfast.

And dinner made soup (from chicken stock from yesterday), dd3 shouted out that she wanted her favourite vegetable udon soup and as we've not had it in ages I agreed. (I'm sure the recipe is on here several times, also added some fish sauce and because I added extra water to make a bigger batch a tbs of vegie stock concentrate - which dd1 picked up on immediately as it was saltier than my normal soups, but packed full of flavour).


Sunday 31st July - porridge, cheese and zucchini muffins, pork rib marinade

Breakfast - porridge (the recipe we use is posted about a week or so ago, otherwise there is one on the forum)

Made cheese and zucchini muffins (forum recipe) - hopefully will make dd3 happy as she was rather insistent that I had to make wontons for her preschool lunch tomorrow and I didn't. But these are still her favourites.

Dinner - pork ribs (sorry about the photo the top rib looks burnt, but they weren't).
Used this recipe by JD - but made the marinade in the tmx. (grating the garlic and ginger, then adding the rest of the ingredients and mixing)
Really yummy. Everyone loved these ribs.

What this blog is about and update over a year on.

Had a query from a reader and just wanted to clarify for those that haven't read from the beginning what this blog is about.


My intention when starting this blog was to provide a daily diary of how often I used the thermomix and for what. When I was researching the tmx I found lots of blogs with lovely recipes but still had no idea if the owner used it once a week, once a day, or one in a blue moon. Hence, thermomix meals was born.


I do write up recipes when I convert or make up something new. And when I cook a new recipe from the Thermomix Forum or a blog I provide a link to it. However, on subsequent cooks usually I don't as it's very time consuming to find the recipes. (I print off recipes I like and use those). Also I cook quite a few things just off the top of my head. Though I often try to at least leave notes on how it was cooked.


This reader wasn't sure how to find the recipes I was talking about so thought I'd post to clarify.

I will also try to make a note next to recipes where they are from (eg cookbook and name, blog, forum, my head, lol) as I do think I've got a bit slack at doing that in the last few weeks.


Oh and whilst I'm posting. Just have to say I've had my thermomix for over a year now and I'm still loving it. It's well paid for itself and is used early every day and quite often numerous times.

I use the tmx more than I use other cooking methods, eg. oven, stove, though I do like a variety.

Saturday 30th July - butter, tortilla's, stock, beef stroganoff

Made a couple of lots of spreadable butter (one for dh to take to work and one for home).

Made two batches of tortilla's. One plain, the other with garlic and rosemary for lunch.

Made chicken stock.

And then for dinner made beef stroganoff.

Wednesday 27th July - porridge, potatoes

Breakfast - porridge

Not actually using the tmx but I made up another batch of yesterday's (tmx) wonton mix - was going to freeze the other half but instead made them up to be used for school lunch boxes/snacks.
Dinner - roast beef. Due to afternoon activities I cooked it during the day and also steamed some cubed potatoes (in the tmx). These I sauteed to make little 'roast' potatoes and added veg and gravy I'd made earlier for a super quick roast dinner.

Tuesday 26th July - porridge,stock, rice, wonton soup

Breakfast - porridge

Made chicken stock for tonight.

Lunch - rice to go with leftover curry

Dinner - wonton mixture (chopped garlic and ginger, sauteed, chopped carrot, mushroom and celery, added pork mince, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil)
Then made chicken broth (garlic and ginger, chicken stock, thinly sliced carrot and celery.
Think this is our new favourite meal.

Monday 25th July - porridge

Pretty sure breakfast porridge was the only tmx meal today as I'm not well and bought a bbq chicken and rolls (and salad bits) for my lunch and dinner.
And loads of leftovers!

Sunday 24th July - pancakes, curry powder, rice, naan, juice

Breakfast - pancakes

Dinner made this Beef Curry recipe. So made the curry powder in the tmx and then slow cooked the curry on the stovetop.
Meanwhile made an orange, mandarin and pineapple juice, yum!
To go with the curry I made naan bread (using the cumin and onion naan recipe in the Indian book) and also rice in the tmx.
The naan came out brilliantly, everyone was so impressed, restaurant quality.
Really loved the curry recipe, a great blend of flavours, absolutely packed with spices but not too spicy. Being slowcooked over a couple of hours it was so so so tender.
I used yoghurt instead of the coconut cream. Will definitely make this whole meal again.
Forgot to take a photo though!

Saturday 23rd July - porridge, gravy

Breakfast - porridge.
All the girls are happy with this recipe:
130g oats, 250g milk, 200g water.
8min, 90°, reverse.

Dinner was roast lamb and made the gravy in the tmx.

Friday 22nd July - porridge, rice, nachos

Breakfast - porridge.

Lunch - rice (to go with lamb and mushroom curry I made on the hob).

Dinner - mince - for nachos.

Thursday 21st July - porridge, garlic, grated cheese

Breakfast - porridge.

Dinner we had potato and courgette bake. I minced the garlic and grated the cheese in the tmx.

Wednesday 20th July - porridge, mashed potato, sweet corn

Breakfast - porridge.

Dinner - made mashed potato and steamed veg in the TMX to go with sausages.

19 July - porridge, gravy

Been fairly quiet in tmx land here, yesterday was leftovers and stuff.

Made porridge in the tmx. We alternate a bit between the tmx and the microwave as dd3 prefers microwave, dd2 tmx. But think I've about got the tmx porridge so that dd3 likes it.

Dinner - had roast pork, roast potatoes, carrots and mushrooms. Made gravy in the tmx.



Sunday 17th July - cheese and zucchini muffins, chicken marinade

School goes back this week so made some cheese and zucchini muffins.
Also made a soy sauce, honey, garlic and ginger marinade for chicken that I stir-fried.

Saturday 16th July - butter

Very little cooking from me as it was my birthday.
Did make some spreadable butter, this time using rice bran oil.

Friday 15th July - jam, mince, stock, gravy, ice cream, veg

Made a few things today, not sure if I can remember them all.

Made strawberry jam.

Made savoury mince - this was used on wraps for lunch (burrito's sort of) and also leftovers for tomorrow. It's my birthday so not planning on doing any cooking.

Made chicken stock.

Made gravy for chicken and mushroom pot pie for dinner (whilst browning mushrooms in a frying pan, then added the sauce and chicken to the mushrooms ready to go in the pies).

Made mixture for strawberry icecream.

Steamed veg for dinner.

Wednesday 13th July - garlic and herb dip, smoothie

Breakfast - strawberry smoothie

Made garlic and herb dip to take to a friends. Out for the rest of the day.

Tuesday 12th July - mayonnaise, wonton soup

Made mayonnaise.
Dinner - wonton soup, wontons and dipping sauce.
Made wonton mixture - chopped garlic and ginger, minced chicken and some bacon fat, added sesame oil, oyster sauce, fish sauce (think that was it)
Soup - chopped ginger, garlic and deseeded chili, added duck stock, cooked 10 mins, added finely sliced carrot, celery, bok choy and cooked 10 mins. Meanwhile cooked the wontons in a saucepan.
And made a dipping sauce - soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, lemon juice (think there was something else?)
Put two of the wontons in a bowl and poured the soup over. The rest we ate with dipping sauce.
This was just the best dinner. These wontons were perfect and everyone loved them. (I think dd1 and dd2 having 11 each said something, lol.

Monday 11th July - strawberry sauce, pasta sauce

Strawberry sauce (served with yoghurt for dessert) yum!!!
Dinner - tomato pasta sauce.

Sunday 10th July - butter, duck and noodles in oyster sauce, duck stock, cookies, pizza dough, pizza sauces

Made spreadable butter. Using Quirky Jo's recipe. (ETA the link to her blog as couldn't get on last night spreadable butter )
I didn't make the butter as cream is so expensive here (anyone know of a reasonable cream supplier?) even though I loooooove homemade butter so much, but followed her same amount of oil and water recipe.
Used 100g of butter, 100g of grapeseed oil, 100g of water. Worked great. Checked it this evening and have lovely spreadable and great tasting butter in the fridge. Been so fed up with normal butter as even left at room temperature it's so cold at the moment it's completely solid. Summer is fine as I have a lovely butter crock that keeps it firm but winter is a pain.



Lunch was duck and noodle in oyster sauce.
chopped garlic and ginger, sauted, added veg (carrots, beans, hard ends of bok choy and mushrooms), oyster sauce, chicken stock, cooked 5 mins. Added cooked duck (leftovers from last nights roast duck) and the leafy bits of the bok choy, a little cornflour paste (after checking the consistency), noodles (singapore style, soaked for 2 mins in hot water) and cooked another 5 mins. Yum!!!!!


Then made some duck stock using the carcass.

$250 cookie recipe. Really yummy. Look and taste better than the photo, lol.

Dinner was pizza. Made the dough in the tmx.
Made sauces - a garlic, butter, rosemary and little olive oil sauce.
This is my kids favourite pizza, lol. How easy is that, though not very healthy!
And a tomato sauce - garlic, tin of tomatoes to puree, herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley), little brown sugar.
A yummy food day.

Saturday 9th July - juice, stock, gravy

Made juice.

Dinner we had roast duck, I made some chicken stock and from some of that made the gravy.
Yum, we haven't had duck in such a long time, it's an absolute favourite of mine but always seems so expensive.

Thursday 7th July - beef madras

Dinner - beef madras (my conversion of the Curtis Stone recipe)
Once again an absolute favourite, all the kids had 2nds (or more).

Wednesday 6th July - porridge, honey mustard chicken

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - honey mustard chicken - http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=5129.0
Used wine instead of water and added mushrooms with 10 mins to go, oh and added some garlic with the onion (and served with cauliflower and rice).
Still love this. Really tasty.

Tuesday 5th July - pasta bake - cheese sauce

Dinner - using last nights mince I made a pasta bake.
Made a cheese sauce in the tmx, layered mince sauce and cheese sauce and added macaroni. Grated parmesan and cheddar on top and baked.
Last night and tonights meals were so easy and so cheap. A great combination to share a batch of savoury mince sauce.

Monday 4th July - savoury mince, pizza

Dinner - A bit of a deviation from the menu plan.
Had mince and was going to do lasagne, this became a pasta bake, that then became bolognaise pizza (so will have rethink the week, lol as pizza was also on the list for later in the week).
YUM!! Made pizza dough and then a slightly spicy mince and lots of vegies sauce in the TMX, popped the sauce onto the bases, with a few bits of leftover pepperoni and topped with mozzarella.
Loads of leftover sauce so will do a bake tomorrow night.
Really impressed by this as such a quick and easy pizza and could use leftover mince sauce and pita breads for a virtually instant dinner (we have to do some pretty quick meals during the week due to lots of afternoon activities)

Sunday 3rd July - pancakes, potatoes and veg

Breakfast - pancakes

Dinner - Had pan fried veal with lemon sauce (this is one of my all time favourites and haven't had it in years!!! Everyone loved it so will be a regular), cooked baby potatoes and steamed veg (carrots, cauliflower and broccoli) in the tmx.
Oh and can anyone come up with a method of working out what the 4 year olds favourite veg is - tonight it was broccoli but last week she didn't like it!!

Saturday 2nd July - cheesy bread rolls, Honey Beef and Beans

Bread rolls with cheese and pizza topper sprinkled on them. Yum
Dinner - Honey Beef and Beans
This is really yummy.
I cooked it for 40 mins, then added a can of rinsed chick peas and some sliced mushrooms and cooked for a further 10 mins.
A really lovely flavour, sweet and almost spicy, the kids all loved it and had seconds. I used chick peas as they are everyone's favourite beans and also added mushrooms, other veg could also be added. Served with rice.

Wed 29th/Thursday 30th June - porridge, porridge, rice, chocolate and strawberry brownies

Wed 29th, porridge for breakfast

Thursday 30th (surprise surprise) porridge for breakfast :-)
Rice for lunch.
Chocolate and strawberry brownies. (forum recipe chocolate and blueberry brownies??? Will have to try to find the recipe as a quick search didn't find it and I worked from a print out).
Really yum, initially thought they weren't chocolaty enough but yep it is and very yummy. The kids all loved the gooey strawberry surprise bits.

ETA: And yesterday's brownie recipe for Belinda or anyone else, pretty sure I've tracked it down to this one http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=4066.0

Tuesday 28th June - porridge

Breakfast - porridge.

Was so excited when making the girls spaghetti with tomato sauce as requested for dinner to open the freezer to find a previous tmx pasta tomato sauce all ready to be defrosted!! Should make bigger batches, lol.

Sunday 26th June- sushi rice, stock

Made sushi rice using Chookie's recipe from here http://achookwoman.blogspot.com/2010/12/rice-for-sushi-rolls.html
and chicken stock.

Saturday 25th June - teriyaki beef

Dinner - teriyaki beef. Served with rice noodles (cooked separately at the same time) and also added mushrooms and red capsicum whilst it was cooking.
I also fried up some spring onions to put over the top.


Friday 24th June - porridge, chicken, mushroom and spinach in white sauce

Breakfast - porridge (LOL no surprise there!!)

Lunch - chicken, mushroom and spinach in white sauce.

When I was younger this was always a favourite of mine but can never be bothered to make it.
Today I had leftover chicken from yesterday and wondered what to do with it.
Made some white sauce (300g milk, 30g flour, 30g butter - 5 mins, 90degrees speed 4 (I think)) then added cooked chicken (a couple of cups, maybe less??), sliced mushrooms (2 as that was all we had, lol) and spinach (couple of cups) and pepper (next time I'll add garlic at the beginning too) and cooked another 5 mins, 90 °, reverse sp 1.5
This made enough for 3-4 servings depending how much sauce you want.
Served with pasta.
Was a hit with dd3 and myself.
And so so so easy to do with the thermomix.

Thursday 23rd June - porridge, pearl couscous salad

Breakfast - porridge.

Lunch/dinner - made a 'couscous' salad.
Using Pearl couscous? I think it's called that. It's a large (well for couscous, tiny for anything else, lol) round couscous like pasta. (Found it at the Woolworths a few weeks ago) So chopped garlic and onion and sauted. Added 125g of the cous cous, 1 cup of water, 2 tsp of vegie stock concentrate, tsp of ground cumin and cooked for 10 mins (reverse, speed 1)
This tasted great but I think was a little overdone and next time I might steam it or cook on the stove as it only just held the pearls. I would also be interested in the frying it first technique mentioned on the packet.
Left to cool and mixed in chopped parsley and a little chopped coriander and a dressing made of limes, red wine vinegar and olive oil.
Really yum and will perfect this one.

Wednesday 22nd June - porridge, tortillas, orange choc chip muffins

I'm really going to try to find the time to get back into this blog and write more about what I've cooked and include photos. Our meals haven't been very exciting recently, we have so much on that everything has to be quick to make and I've fallen back on a lot of tried and tested favourites.
But took a couple of photos today to liven things up.

Breakfast was the usual porridge.

Lunch made tortilla's (Trudie's recipe from the forum). These really are so much nicer than bought and I must make them more often.
I also made some orange and choc chip muffins (recipe also from the forum). I love these but dd3 always wants me to make the cheese and zuchinni ones but I held my own today, lol. I love how you just throw the whole orange in and it tastes great.

Monday 20th/Tuesday 21st June - porridge, cheese, bread crumbs

Monday
Breakfast - porridge. (obviously a real winter staple for the kids, but it's cheap, filling and so easy to make in the tmx).

Was out for lunch (meeting some other lovely TMX owners from the Thermomix Forum!!)
and dinner was chicken kebabs and wedges in the oven.

Tuesday

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - During the day made crumbed chicken breast pieces and chicken drumettes.
Grated parmesan and made the bread crumb mixture in the TMX.

Sunday 19th June - porridge

Breakfast - porridge.

Just so busy at the moment that we are having a lot of salad type meals and dinner tonight was meatballs (previously made in the TMX) in the slow cooker.

Friday 17th June - porridge, stock, chicken and veg soup, chocolate custard

Breakfast - porridge
Then made chicken stock.

Dinner - using the chicken stock our Friday night soup - tonight was chicken and veg soup (similar to the last one I made) a favourite of mine!

Dessert - chocolate custard (with real chocolate as well as cocoa powder), yum. Not made custard in ages and this is real winter favourite!!! So easy with the tmx to set it going whilst eating dinner and yummy hot custard ready for dessert.

Monday 13th June - minestrone soup, chili sauce

Lunch - minestrone soup (forum recipe) dh still says this is the best minestrone he's ever had.

dh also made his chili sauce (tabasco like)

Sunday 12th June - stock

Made chicken stock.
(Breakfast was bacon and eggs, lunch out, and ate so much that we just had snacks/leftovers for dinner).

Thursday 9th June - smoothie, porridge

Breakfast - smoothie for me and porridge for the kids.
(lunch out, dinner the usual Thursday night, salad, rolls, chicken etc)

Wednesday 8th June - porridge, fried bee hoon

Breakfast - porridge (still!)

Dinner - fried bee hoon from the Asia cook book.
Basically a chicken, noodle and mushroom stir fry. Really lovely flavours. I didn't have the wood ear (forgot to get it and couldn't be bothered going back to the shops) but had loads of dried shitake so just did more of that. (mine are already chopped so just did a bowl full, no idea if it was 4+ but looked like it).
But I could barely fit it all in, when I tried putting the noodles and cabbage in they sort of sat on top and I had to keep squishing them down to get the lid on (took a while), I dont' think there was too much volume wise just it wouldn't pack down? Then got the lid on and turned around a minute later and the noodles were spinning around the butterfly and then poking out the top (it was quite hilarious actually), I tried to shove them in to no avail so just left it. Thought they wouldn't cook properly but all was perfect (mine were fine ones and did the 6 mins).

Loads of leftovers (maybe I just had too much of everything?!! Will admit to not weighing and sure there was a bit more chicken, but did 1/2 a 400g packet of noodles so assume that was the required 200g) and everyone loved it so will do again.
Forgot the photo!!! We were hungry.

Tuesday 7th June - porridge, bread, cheese sauce

Breakfast - porridge. With winter really setting in all the kids look forward to their porridge in the morning.

Made a loaf of bread.

Dinner - the tmx made cheese sauce for cauliflower cheese. (would it be wrong to send in a tub of cheese sauce for dd2 for lunch tomorrow, that's what she's asked for as she just loves this so much)

Monday 6th June - porridge, rice

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - rice (to go with freezer leftover curried mince)

Sunday 5th June - cheese and zuchinni muffins, tomato pasta sauce

Made cheese and zuchinni muffins for school lunches (forum recipe)
And a tomato pasta sauce (out of my head recipe, lol) for the kids for dinner.

Sat 4th June - smoothie, vanilla pudding, curry

Breakfast - smoothie

Made vanilla pudding (our usual recipe from the forum vanilla slice recipe)

Dinner - did a one pot chicken curry and rice.

Wed/Thur/Fri 1-3rd June - porridge (x3), stock, broccoli soup, spinach and feta dip, garlic and herb dip

Been really flat out the last few days.
Wednesday and Thursday the tmx was just used for porridge for breakfast.

Friday - Also porridge for breakfast.
Made chicken stock and then broccoli and potato soup for dinner.
Also made Spinach and Feta dip (recipe on the forum, this is a real favourite and haven't had it in ages) and also the usual favourite Garlic and Herb dip.

Tuesday 31st May - porridge, garlic/onions, rice

Breakfast - porridge.

Dinner - Made a beef stew in the pressure cooker. Chopped garlic and onions in the tmx and also cooked rice.

Monday 30th May - porridge, quick chicken and rice curry

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - made a quick chicken, mushroom and rice curry.

Heated oil,
Added 2 cubed chicken thigh fillets and sliced mushrooms. 2 tbsp of curry paste (I used madras so quite spicy but use whatever you like and to the amount/ heat you like), 1/2 tin of tomatoes (200g) and 100 mls water. 1/2 cup of rice (you could add more for a thicker and more rice-y dish).
Cooked 20mins, 100 ° speed 1 reverse.
Really loved this, an even quicker and easier version of my quick curry recipe with adding the rice to the dish.

Saturday/Sunday 28th/29th May - chicken and chorizo stew, pikelets, salad, creamy brown rice soup

Saturday

Dinner - chicken and chorizo stew - will post recipe later. This was really yummy. Despite being quite spicy dd2 loved it and she usually doesn't like a lot of sauce or too much spice.

Sunday

Breakfast - pikelets using nay-nays recipe off the forum - yum!!

Lunch - carrot, celery and capsicum salad (with a little mayo and sour cream)

Dinner - Quirky Jo's creamy brown rice soup - yummy as always.

Friday 27th May - rice, vegetables, gravy

Dinner - Dropped the kids at gym, then cooked a 'roast' chicken in the pressure cooker whilst cooking tmx rice and vegies in the varoma. (so less than 30 mins from starting to prep)
Popped them in the thermoserver, picked up the girls, then whilst dishing up made a gravy from the juices in the tmx.
Yummy and perfect for our busy afternoons.

Wednesday 25th May - porridge, rice

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - rice to go with leftovers of the chicken with soy and lime.

Tuesday May 24 - 4 berry porridge, chicken tempra

Breakfast - 4 berry porridge. Once again a thankyou to Quirky Jo for the idea of flavouring the porridge, add frozen 4 berry mix this morning, another yummy porridge alternative.

Dinner - Babi Tempra from the Asian cookbook. Pork with lime and soy.
But I made it with chicken thighs as suggested and only cooked for 30 mins.
Was really nice. I also added some veg 15 mins (next time will do 10 mins, not sure why I put them in early, we like our veg crispy, though wasn't overcooked at all) before the end. All cooked great.
A lovely slightly sweet taste the kids loved. Surprisingly loads of sauce which you could even thicken.
On the will make again list. We all love lime.

Monday 23rd May - apple and cinnamon porridge, haloumi patties

Breakfast - apple and cinnamon porridge - thanks to Quirky Jo for the recipe (I used my usual amounts for the porridge so less than Jo's so only used one apple, but think next time I'll try two anyway)

Dinner - Haloumi Patties.
Adapted from a recipe in this months masterchef magazine.

Make 100g breadcrumbs (the recipe called for panko breadcrumbs but I don't like the additives)

Place 400g rinsed chickpeas
1/2 small red onion
1 clove garlic (I did 2 small ones)
250 g haloumi
50g parmesan (I ran out so did 30g parmesan 25g cheddar)
parsley
I also added coriander.
Also the recipe had lemon zest and I missed that bit - would have been really lovely with it.
I also forgot to add the egg, but it bound fine without it.

Process speed 5-6 until a thick paste.
Form into 8 patties. coat in egg mixture and then breadcrumbs. Shallow fry for 3 mins each side.

Really yum. We served with an egg, mushroom and breadcrumb mix (leftovers, lol), carrots and the kids had some pasta too (dd3 really wanted pasta tonight).

These were so much easier to make in the tmx than their version.


Sunday 22nd May

Poor TMX!!! Though guess it deserves a day off.

One of the few days when I didn't use the tmx, and we were actually at home too, odd.
Breakfast had eggs.
Lunch - salads - (leftover) chicken and avocado - did use tmx mayo in the dressing, greek salad, lettuce, onion, pepperoni, cheeses etc.
Dinner - dh was inspired by river cottage last night so we had 'hotdogs' - bbq'd sausages and cooked apple slices, bbq onions, with salad and bought crusty rolls. Was really yum. Did have tmx made tomato sauce on the hotdogs though.

Saturday 21st May - pancakes, chicken slice, cheese and zucchini muffins beef curry

Breakfast - pancakes

Snacks - cheese and zucchini muffins. Must make some different ones but they are dd3's favourite and fairly healthy. Cooked in a mini muffin tin perfect for lunch boxes (and preschool don't even complain about them - sent her in with a bite size piece of the lemon yoghurt cake last week and it was sent home - but they feed them honey sandwiches for morning tea!!!!)

Lunch - made chicken pies/slice. Sautéed mushrooms, garlic and butter in the tmx and added to leftover chicken, a dollop of sour cream and pepper. Wrapped the mixture in puff pastry and baked. Everyone loves these.

Dinner - beef curry. Made a curry based on the rogan josh recipe in the Indian book. Was ok, tasted fine but was a bit watery and grey. Added mushrooms, capsicum and green beans for the last 15 minutes to make a complete meal with rice. (also used ground cinnamon etc not whole)

Friday 20th May - porridge, stock, chicken and vegetable soup

Breakfast - porridge.

Then made some chicken stock.

Dinner - used the stock to make soup.
Chopped a clove of garlic, added a small onion and chopped, sauted, added carrot, celery, zucchini, 1 potato and chopped. Added stock, chili flakes, parsley, coriander, soup mix, chicken. cooked 40 mins, speed 1, reverse, 100 degrees.

Thursday 19th May - porridge

Breakfast - porridge.
Chicken and salad stuff for the rest of the day.

Wednesday 18th May - porridge, curried mince

Breakfast - porridge.

Dinner - reheated some of the curried mince I made a couple of weeks ago in a big mince cook and freeze, adding some capsicum and green beans and cooked for 10 mins. Served with rice.

Tuesday 17th May - smoothie

Breakfast - smoothie.

Though I didn't use the tmx for the other meals, I had leftover stir fry for lunch and kievs from the freezer for dinner.

Monday 16th May - porridge, stir fried beef with red capsicum

Breakfast - porridge

Dinner - a new recipe, our first from the Taste's of Asia cookbook I got last week.
Stir fried beef with red capsicum.

This was a very easy and quick stir fry (as stir fries should be) with the recipe times the vegies were lovely and crisp and perfectly cooked. The sauce was nice. Nothing exciting but a lovely flavour and everyone enjoyed. I would definitely make it again.


Sunday 15th May - juice, apricot jam, pizza dough and sauces

Breakfast - juice

Made apricot jam.

Dinner - pizza - made the pizza dough and the sauces (garlic butter, and a tomato base) in the Thermomix.

Saturday 14th May - boiled eggs, potato salad, mashed potatoes, chocolate icecream, lemon yoghurt cake, Gourmet beef,

Breakfast - boiled eggs

Lunch - cooked up cubed potatoes and made a potato salad
(cooked potatoes, cooked crispy bacon, parsley, red onion, mayonnaise and yoghurt)
Also used some of the potatoes to make mashed potato.

Afternoon - made Julie O's chocolate ice creambut added 150ml milk - this made the quantity up to the amount my ice cream maker needs and I think made it just right, still very rich but not as overpowering.
Also dd1 made Lemon Yoghurt cake, recipe also on the forum.

Dinner - Robyn's Gourmet Beef - added carrots and mushrooms to it and served with rice.
Dessert was the cake and icecream.

Thursday 12th, Friday 13th May - porridge, juice, cheese, stock, Cauliflower Soup

Blogger has been down for posting so here is the last couple of days posts


Thursday 12th May

Breakfast - porridge and orange and mandarin juice


Lunch - I went to a friend's Thermomix demo (and she is buying one yah!!!) so not made in my tmx but had a lovely sorbet with orange, lemon, lime, and a bit of pineapple, beetroot salad, mushroom risotto, rolls, hummus and vanilla custard (made with goat's milk)


For dinner we had burrito's. Grated the cheese in the tmx. The mince mixture was from the freezer but had previously been made in the tmx.


Friday 13th May


Made liquid chicken stock in the morning for Dinner - cauliflower soup.

Milled coriander, cumin, and chili flakes, then added garlic and onion and chopped, then sauted, then added stock, cauliflower and cooked 15 mins, added flour and cooked 5 mins. Then blitzed for 1 minute.

It thickened up nicely in the thermoserver but I would add a potato if eating straight away.

All three girls had 3 servings and really loved this soup. It was really creamy and lovely flavours (dd1 picked the indian spices) and didn't need any extra cream.


Wednesday 11th May - porridge

Breakfast - porridge.

Out the rest of the day and had bbq chicken and rolls and salad.

Quick update

Just a quick update on my thoughts about my thermomix.

Coming up to a year of having my tmx and still loving it.
I don't feel the need to use it for everything but most meals are cooked in it. We do have 'cold' meals and leftovers mostly for lunch and also for dinner a couple of times a week to fit in around the kids activities.
There are some things I prefer to do the traditional way and we have roasts and other oven cooked meals and I use the slow cooker occasionally. I prefer to cook eggs on the stove top and as we have chickens we have eggs regularly for breakfast. Though often part of the meal will still be made in the tmx - e.g. gravy with a roast - totally takes that end of cooking a roast meal stress away, no need to stir the gravy the tmx does it for you whilst you are dishing up and slicing.
Also I am very into as quick as possible cooking, so if I'm making a casserole, rice and steamed veg, I will cook the casserole in the tmx, the rice in the rice cooker and the veg steamed or microwaved. I prefer rice cooking in the tmx but until I could have 2 of them time is the biggest factor for me. I'd happily use the tmx more if I had 2!!!!!
I just did a quick count from the last two weeks and the tmx was used 40 times, so an average of 2.8 times a day - way more than any other appliance I can think of!!
I am also extremely time poor at the moment so not making bread very often and using a load of other short cuts.
My grocery bill is still way way less than it was pre TMX and most things are still home made (the kids are just eating a lot of rice crackers as I'm not making loads of snacks, though double quantities of muffins and freezing really helps).
Things like jam whereby I'd buy expensive ones are a great saving.
I have definitely saved far more money having the tmx than it cost and also we are eating a lot better with less preservatives and store bought snacks. I always thought we had hardly any but looking at the difference in size and cost of shopping, things have definitely changed.
Still loving how easy the tmx is to use and also to clean. It sits on the bench top and is used for lots of things I would put off doing because of the mess. The cleaning is a big thing for me.
I'm still very happy with my purchase and would recommend one to anyone. I think the Thermomix is a great tool that can and should have a major part in most households.

Tuesday 10th May - mayonnaise, rice, piri piri sauce, vegetables

Today I made some mayonnaise - dh wanted some to go with tuna for his lunches, I'm sure dd2 will be pleased to know I made a batch too.

Lunch - rice.

Dinner - we had Jamie Oliver's piri piri chicken (30 min meals book) with rice and steamed veg.
Made the piri piri sauce in the tmx (using homemade sweet paprika too) and then cooked the rice and vegetables in the tmx. (the chicken was pan fried and then oven baked).
This was really yummy and dd2 really loved the sauce.

Sunday 8th May - juice, shortbread, muffins, yorkies, gravy

Happy Mother's Day to those that are celebrating today. Hope you were spoilt!

Breakfast - orange and mandarin juice (to go with mother's day bacon and eggs).

This morning made (well dh helped dd1) shortbread. Then some cheese and zucchini muffins for lunchboxes this week.

Dinner was roast lamb - yorkshire pudding batter and gravy made in the tmx.

Friday 6th May - porridge, stock, soup

Breakfast - porridge.
Then made a chicken stock from yesterday's carcass to be used as soup for dinner.

Dinner - the girls favourite - chicken, vegetable and udon noodle soup.

Tuesday 3rd May -porridge, honey soy chicken drummettes

Breakfast - porridge.

Dinner - honey soy chicken drummettes (forum recipe) with rice and veg.

Monday 2nd May - rice, cheese sauce

Lunch - rice

Dinner we had roast leftovers but made cauliflower cheese with the cheese sauce being made in the tmx. So so easy. dd2, who normally isn't keen on sauces, really loved this cheese sauce (basically the edc recipe but with extra cheese) and had extra.

Sunday 1st May - porridge, smoothie, playdough, fruit balls, yorkies, gravy

Breakfast made porridge and smoothie.

Then made some playdough (red and white)
Then made some dried fruit balls for lunch box snacks for the week.

Dinner was roast lamb - made yorkshire pudding batter in the TMX and the gravy.

Saturday 30th April - pancakes, chicken stirfry

Breakfast - pancakes

Dinner - chicken stir fry. Using my recipe (sure it's somewhere on here) chicken and veg with noodles. A real favourite and so quick and easy.
Basically, chop garlic and ginger, add water.
pop chicken and cashews into the varoma with some sesame oil, start cooking for 20 mins.
chop veg and add to varoma and cook for last 10 mins (except the leafy bok choy/choy sum etc - just add these for the last couple of minutes) .
Meanwhile pop the noodles in the thermoserver and add boiling water to cook.
strain noodles, add chicken and veg.
With just a small amount of water (and garlic and ginger and flavour from steaming) in the bowl add soy sauce, sherry and 2 tbsp of cornflour and cook for 4 mins.

Under 30 mins with no pre prep and so tasty.



Friday 29th April - rice, pasta, meatball sauce

Lunch - made rice to go with the leftover stroganoff.
Dinner - Fettuccine with Meatballs.
The meatballs were made up yesterday (see recipe yesterday).
Made up the sauce :
Chopped onion and garlic, added tin of tomatoes, paprika, dash cayenne, mixed herbs.
Placed meatballs, carrots, courgette and the sauce in a baking dish and baked for 1/2 an hour.
Cooked the pasta in the tmx.

Thursday 28th April - porridge, curry mince, savoury mince, meatballs, pastry rolls

Breakfast - porridge

Bought a load of mince so made
Lunch - curried mince (with extras for the freezer).

1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 cloves of garlic, chop
Add one onion and chop
Add oil, saute 3 mins
Add 800g mince, 1 tbsp curry powder, 2 tbsp curry paste, 1 tin of tomatoes
Cook 20 mins, 100 degrees, reverse, sp 1.

(really impressed by this and will make a good few meals worth for us, the kids aren't big meat eaters, so happy to have rice and veg with a few tablespoons of the sauce).

Dinner - Savoury mince (bolognaise type)
2 cloves garlic, 1 chili deseeded and chop
Add one onion and one green capsicum and chop
Add oil and saute
Add 600g mince, tin tomatoes, paprika and mixed herbs.
Cook 20 mins, 100 °, reverse, speed 1.

So tonight had the mince with corn chips and salad (nachos). Also used some on puff pastry with cheese and capsicum to make savoury rolls for the girls for lunch tomorrow at school.
The rest went into the freezer.

And with the rest of the mince made meatballs.

chopped garlic and onion and bread.
Added mince, worcester sauce and tomato sauce and mixed.
Made into balls.
We will have one lot of these tomorrow night, the second lot went into the freezer.

So loads of easy meals in the freezer ready for busy nights.
Amazing how far you can make $14 worth of mince go!!!!