Monday 31st January - smoothie, maple citrus chicken

Yah - all three girls were back at school today. dd3 loved her first day at preschool so here's hoping that continues. I loved having some time by myself - and doing the shopping without a little one in tow was so much quicker and easier!

Breakfast - smoothie.

Dinner - Maple Glazed Chicken.

This is from the IntelliSteam website and I converted it to Thermomix.

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts - sliced

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 small orange

2 tbsp maple syrup

¼ tsp dried chilli flakes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Rice and vegetables.

Method:

1. Place orange juice and zest, maple syrup, chilli flakes and salt and pepper in tmx bowl and mix for 5 secs on speed 4.

2. Place chicken in a bowl and pour the marinade over and place in fridge for at least 30 mins. Don't clean the bowl out.

3. Place rice in basket, 800ml water in bowl and chicken in foil boats with the marinade poured over in the Varoma.

4. Cook for 20 mins on Varoma temp speed 4.

5. With 5-10 mins left add vegetables on top varoma tray (depending on veg used, time needed to cook and personal preference).

The original recipe was for 4 chicken breasts but that's far more than we eat. If you were doing that amount I imagine you may need to cook longer as they would be layered a lot.

I also poured the juices into the bowl, added cornflour and cooked for 3 mins to make a sauce, but found it didn't have much flavour. If wanting to make a sauce I'd add the juice from 1/2 an orange as well.

This was a really nice chicken dish, it had a lovely citrusy taste and all the kids gave it a thumbs up.

Sunday 30th January - hash browns, smoothie, cheese and zucchini muffins, guenter's crackers, chicken kebabs, potatoes and veg

Breakfast

Hash browns - did the removing 1/2 the mixture after 3 seconds and then blitzing the rest and think it went well.

Smoothie

Guenter's Crisp Crackers

Found these hard work to roll out, but then read a new tip to put the dough through a pasta machine! Would have made it much easier. I also left them in the oven as it cooled as the recipe said but they ended up a little overcooked.

Made the herb ones and they were very tasty so will try again.

Cheese and zucchini muffins - Yes school goes back tomorrow so more fridge/freezer lunchbox foods made, these were always a favourite.

Honey, lime and soy marinade for chicken kebabs.

Then cooked baby new potatoes and steamed veg in the Thermomix to go with the meats for dinner.

Saturday 29th January - ricebubble bars, dried fruit balls, scones, whipped cream, nut butter, mongolian beef

Quite a work out for the Thermomix today and didn't even use it for breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast) or lunch (salads and wraps).

Made snacks for the kids for school (yah school goes back on Monday!!!! I can't wait to get back into dyeing and everything else for my store. So excited about some me time, doing things I love and Lara being at preschool two days so I can!!!!! Also lots of house sorting - read toy throwing out - planned. There is a toy box that is so rarely opened that I'm sure most of what is in it can go and I can put all of Lara's play kitchen stuff in it, but I know if I open it with the kids around they will all claim that every toy is the best and has to be kept.)

The unhealthy ones -Marshmallow Rice bubble Bars

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=528.msg14802#msg14802

These are very sticky so unless they set even more I don't think I'll put them in their lunch boxes they can have them as an after school snack. But they certainly loved them!!

Tip - when I make the ltm's I put them in a shallow tray lined with baking paper, then put another piece of baking paper on top for squishing them down. This gives a good dense bar that holds together. Refridgerate for a few hours until set and then place on a chopping board (no need to remove the bottom piece of paper - it's easy to move on the paper, and cut to size.)

And the healthy ones - Dried Fruit Balls

Working to this 'recipe' I'd worked out in the Apricot Ball thread http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=247.msg57826#msg57826 - using dried apricots, couple of dates and raisins, and oats, coconut, sesame seeds and milk powder for the dry ingredients.

After lunch made scones using Nay Nay's Family recipe

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=2344.0

Really lovely light and yummy scones. Very impressed.

Also whipped the cream to go on them (and the jam was tmx jam as well)

Made nut butter from Quirky Jo's blog

http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2010/09/nut-butter.html

Didn't really follow quantities (and made less than her recipe as wanted to see how it came out and if it will be eaten) just put in handfuls of each of the nuts (raw macadamias, raw almonds, roasted cashews) and a teaspoon of honey and blitzed, then added some rice bran oil until the right consistency.

So impressed by this!!!! Been meaning to make some for ages as dh loves peanut butter but never got round to it. Super quick and easy.

I can't eat peanut butter (allergies) but have actually been craving it lately and funnily was looking at a sate recipe the other day. This tasted just what I think peanut butter tastes like (dd1 thought it tasted more like cashews).

Dinner was Mongolian Beef.

So pretty much the Mongolian Lamb recipe in MOTM. But saute garlic and onions 5 mins. Add 1/2 a MC of water to the initial ingredients and cook for 15 mins. Added green capsicum and green beans (so a green rather than red mongolian, lol) and cooked a further 8 mins (100°, reverse, spd 1) This is still a favourite.

Friday 28th January - smoothie, chicken udon soup, lime yoghurt cake, honey soy chicken drumettes

Breakfast was a smoothie.

Lunch I made chicken udon soup (garlic and ginger blitzed, chicken stock from yesterday added, then with 10 mins to go some frozen mixed veg, and then 3 mins from end some chopped up udon noodles). This is the girls current favourite soup and ever so easy.

Dinner - a real favourite here - the honey soy chicken drumettes from the forum.

Served with rice (rice cooker at the same time) and steamed (varoma) vegetables. Bottom tray had loads of brocolli, carrot and beans, top tray I did a couple of large mushrooms with a bit of garlic salt and a knob of butter.

Think I'm addicted to these chicken wingettes, lol!!

Dessert was Lime and Yoghurt Cake from this recipe.

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1073.0

I used lime instead of lemon (and added a bit of the juice, but for me could have still been a bit more citrusy)

A really lovely light moist cake.

I slightly over cooked it (didn't read the loaf pan and did it in a cake pan) so the outside was quite crispy (dd1's favourite bit of the cake though, lol) but it was still so light and lovely.

Will add this cake to my favourites folder.

Thursday 27th January - smoothie, porridge, stock

Breakfast made smoothie and as promised to dd3 whilst away some porridge.

Lunch was chicken and salads (and dinner leftovers on the run) but made stock from the chicken carcass.

Review on Super Kitchen Machine

Somehow I missed Helene's lovely and kind review of my blog on her Super Kitchen Machine Blog.

http://www.superkitchenmachine.com/2010/9313/thermomix-meals-blog.html

I love her blog and somehow missed seeing my name in her new posts until the other day.

She has also just posted a couple of very interesting posts comparing the Thermomix with the Cuisinart Soup Maker, well worth a read if you haven't already.

Thanks for the review Helene, it's so lovely to hear that people are enjoying my blog.

Wednesday 26th January

Well we've been away for a few days sans Thermomix!

Last use was smoothie for breakfast on Sunday morning.

We've had bbq for breakfast, salads for lunch and eating out for dinner so not missed tmx as much as I would have if I'd had to cook, though dd3 asked if I'd bought the Thermomix and then cried that she wanted some porridge!

Saturday 22nd January - curry

For dinner made a quick curry using some diced pork, leftover Butter Chicken sauce (from the freezer) and extra tikka paste (for a stronger curry flavour), very easy and yummy.

As you can tell we were out for most of the day and dinner had to be a super quick and easy one. I was shattered so being able to throw the three ingredients into the TMX, some rice into the rice cooker and come back 20 mins later to a really yummy (I so love the flavours of indian meals cooked with freshly ground whole spices) meal was just so great.

We will be off line for a few days but will be back on Thursday with all our Thermomix creations.

Hope everyone is enjoying my blog.

Friday 21st January - smoothie, garlic and herb dip, pizza and toppings

Breakfast - smoothie.

Then made garlic and herb (parsley and chives) dip to take to friends.

Dinner we had pizza.

The TMX made the dough, a garlic and herb blend (for a garlic pizza with a little olive oil and a little cheese), tomato pizza sauce, grated cheese.

And for those that love my children's idiosyncrasies, here is dd3 hugging the dough. She spent the whole pizza making experience patting and cuddling the dough. Apparently she loves dough, lol. (remember these are the kids that have been known to eat flour, and she does actually quite like eating bits of raw dough.)

Thursday 20th January - smoothie, stock, udon soup, yorkshire puddings, quick strawberry 'icecream'

Breakfast - smoothie

Dinner - Made stock from lunches chicken carcass. And then made an udon soup with it.

chopped garlic, ginger, chili, added stock, little soy sauce, frozen peas, corn and carrot mix, cooked for 15 mins 100° reverse speed 1, adding a packet of udon noodles 3 mins before the end.

This was the planned dinner with some bread from yesterday.

But I got Jamie Oliver's 30 min meals in the post today and was reading through and his super quick and easy yorkshire pudding started a craving.

So dinner became as dd1 said 'a multicultural meal' as the soup was served with Yorkies, lol.

They were very yum though!! Kids had 3 each and I only managed 2!

Dessert made Jamie's 'Berry Icecream' (1/2 portion)

250g frozen berries (I used strawberries)

250g yoghurt

2 tablespoons of honey

All mixed together

This was nice and healthy though next time I would do a bit more on the fruit and less on the yoghurt as it was still a bit tangy/sour. But am wondering if this batch of strawberries aren't quite as full of flavour as thought that with my smoothie this morning as well.

One thing he'd mentioned was putting the bowls/cups in the freezer and think that would be a great idea for this or Strawberry Dream (edc) etc as it was fine in the girls plastic ikea bowls but in my bowl I've noticed it starts to melt around the edges as soon as it touches the bowl.

Wednesday 19th January - smoothie, bread, choc chip cookies, fried rice.

Breakfast: smoothie

Made a loaf of bread (white with black chia))

Made dede's choc chip cookies http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=5405.0 to take to a friend's in the afternoon.

And dinner was Jo's easy fried rice (without the coconut milk)

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

Used some chicken breast chopped up (tossed in a little soya sauce - didn't have time to marinade it), mushroom, cashews, corn/pea/carrot mix, and eggs.

Mixed with soy sauce and sweet chili sauce.

Yum!

Tuesday 18th January - smoothie, beef kofta's, mashed potato, vegetables

Breakfast - smoothie

Dinner - Beef Kofta's (from the Junior Masterchef recipe I converted last year) with mash and veg.

I made the mince mixture in the Thermomix (including grinding the spices etc), then whilst they cooked in the oven, cooked mashed potato in the TMX and steamed carrots, broccoli and mushrooms in the varoma (the mushrooms I put a spoonful of butter and some garlic salt in them - really yum!)

The girls who don't like mash had leftover tortilla's from last night.

Monday 17th January - smoothie, porridge, boiled eggs, tortillas

Breakfast - smoothie and porridge. Used up the last of the frozen strawberries - been eeking them out the last few days as the big girls are at gymnastics today and the frozen berry place is across the road so I can go without making a trip up there.

Dinner. Was hot today and we were going to have beef kofta's, but in the end decided to have 'lunch for dinner' as dd1 calls it, probably her favourite dinner is lunch, lol.

So made tortilla's (did try to get away with shop bought ones as was tired, but dd2 pleaded with me to make some. And boiled eggs (earlier and chilled) to go with other salad bits.

Sunday 16th January - smoothie, porridge, rolls, salt and pepper chicken, rice, thai dipping sauce

Breakfast - made smoothie and porridge.

Lunch - made rolls - to go with sausages on the bbq and salads (so we could try out the tomato sauce from yesterday, lol, everyone loved it).

Dinner - Salt and Pepper Chicken http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=5326.0 served with rice (TMX) and salad.

This was really nice and everyone ate heaps (in my case too much!), dh got to use his deep fat fryer! The kids really loved the Thai dipping sauce with this and drank what remained in their bowls. dh thinks we should do a salt and chili chicken next time.

For dessert the girls had a piece of the vanilla slice (properly set tonight). Yum.

Saturday 15th January - tomato sauce/ketchup, vanilla slice, chicken in yoghurt

We have had a bumper crop of tomatoes so far this year. Have frozen some in 400g lots for use in cooking but decided today to make tomato sauce/ketchup - very exciting!!!

Super easy to do in the Thermomix and really tasty. Very impressed.

Kids all had a taste and loved it. Will have to have some sausages or something now so we can use it, lol.

Then made this vanilla slice http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=4599.0 substituting corn flour for the custard powder, and adding a little more vanilla. I did a half amount of the vanilla filling and it's really lovely. Girls had to have some for dessert even though it wasn't quite set yet.

Dinner was chicken in yoghurt. I added some mushrooms for the last 10 mins of cooking (just to make my rather grumpy 3 year old happy) and served with carrots and rice.

Once again a hit.

Friday 14th January - mayonnaise, coleslaw, guacamole

Made mayonnaise - so happy with the recipe I'm using now (from the forum) 1 egg - 2 mins 37°, then programme 5 mins 37° and add the 250ml of grapeseed oil, at the end add vinegar/lemon/mustard etc to taste, can chop garlic at the beginning as well. Made it quite a few times now with no fails!

Then as usual a coleslaw without cleaning the bowl.

Dinner was dd1's choice of nachos and made guacamole to go with them in the TMX.

Dinners this week have been different to usual and missing my TMX meals, will have to make up for it next week.

Thursday 13th January - smoothie, 'moussaka'

Breakfast - smoothie

Dinner - 'Moussaka'

Basically lasagne but with aubergines and potatoes instead of pasta.

I made mince and a basic bolognese type sauce whilst steaming the aubergines and potato in the varoma.

Then made a cheesy bechamel sauce whilst layering the ingredients in a baking dish, poured over, added some grated cheese and then baked in the oven for 40 mins. Cooked with lots of fresh oregano as well.

Yum!!

Had to laugh at dd3 who came over when I was dishing up and said "I don't like lasagne" so I told her it wasn't lasagne, it was moussaka to which she replied "well it smells like lasagne", she did eat most of it though. But yes lasagne isn't her favourite, but is one of dd2's 2 fav meals.

Wednesday 12th January - cherry cordial, tropical sorbet

Strangely enough didn't use the TMX for any of today's main meals (?? odd hey!!).

Breakfast was toast and stuff, lunch I made a pizza scroll with the last pizza dough yesterday, served with salads, and dinner was spinach and ricotta puff pastry rolls.

But did make some cherry cordial. Had heard good reviews of the EDC berry cordial recipe and it was hot and I fancied a drink with some flavour so thought I'd give it a go with some cherries. I did half the amount of sugar to the strained liquid and it was great. Kids loved it and dd1 was very impressed to find out there was a whole jar more in the fridge, lol. Did wonder if they knew what cordial was but asked dd2 when we were making it and she told me she'd had some at a friends house.

Dessert was Tropical Sorbet - using the tropical frozen fruit mix (pineapple, mango and papaya I think) from frozberries. I made half mixture, stopping and mixing with the spatula half way through as with the smaller quantities you can't mix as well through the top. This mix is really nice as a sorbet.

Tuesday 11th January - smoothie, vegie soup, pizza

Breakfast - smoothie

Lunch - vegie soup.

Chopped clove of garlic and piece of ginger. Added chicken stock and soup mix. Cooked 100° for 30 mins, added frozen veg, cooked for another 15 mins.

Dinner - pizza.

Leftover toppings and wanted something easy - sauce, mozzarella, feta, olives, tomato, oregano, capsicum and pepperoni.

Monday 10th January - coleslaw, babi pong tay

This morning made coleslaw for dh to take to work.

Dinner was Babi Pong Tay again as found some pork ribs on special. Was going to do the slow cooked one but ran out of time.

Sunday 9th January - rolls, bread, donuts, pasta, sauce

Made bread rolls for lunch (little half sized ones) and a loaf of bread (with black chia and multigrain mix).

Made donut mixture for the donut machine using this recipe of Isi's

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=2789.0

The girls really liked these donuts so must do them more often, dd3 is always asking for donuts (even though I'm not too sure when she's had them, lol)

Dinner for the girls was home made fettucine (dough made in tmx) with a basic tomato sauce (1 clove of garlic, 1/4 onion, handful of herbs - chopped on speed 7, added oil and sauted 3 mins, added 4 large tomatoes and chopped sp 5, added 1 measuring cup of water, some worcester sauce and pepper. Cooked 15 minutes on 100° speed 1.

Saturday 8th January - pancakes, pizza

Breakfast - pancakes.

Dinner - Pizza - dough made in the TMX of course.

Mustard

There has been some interest in the mustard recipe.

This is where I got it from:

http://www.joysthermomixexperiences.clancie.com.au/MustardRecipe.htm

Ingredients
1/3 cup mustard seeds
1/3 cup cider vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
1 clove of garlic - halved
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch ground cinnamon.

Method:
Combine mustard seeds, vinegar and garlic in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 36 hours.

Discard garlic (use in something else!! Full of extra flavour) and pour mustard mix into the bowl.
Add water and process till a coarse consistency. I did all up about 1 minute at speed 6-8. Stopped a few times to scrape down sides and check consistency.
Add honey, salt and cinnamon and mix 10 secs speed 4.

Really lovely mixed with TMX mayonnaise to make a seeded dijon mustard.

But been reading this very interesting information from Andie homemade mustard - and it's given me lots of thoughts of what to try next.

Will def try the microwaving it.

Friday 7th January - porridge, raw ranch dressing, coleslaw, ltm, choc icecream, honey soy drumettes and veg

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - made raw ranch dressing and coleslaw

Raw Ranch dressing

1 cup soaked raw cashews

¾ cup water

2 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp garlic powder

parsley and basil (small handful)

pinch of salt

(original recipe had onion powder, basil and dill)

Process the cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder and salt until smooth and creamy - 1 minute speed 6-7.

Add basil and parsley and pulse 3 times to chop and mix.

Adapted from Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet.

In the afternooon made:

LTM's - run out of kids snack stuff!

chocolate icecream

using this http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=2066.0 Egg free recipe with condensed milk. I did 300ml milk/300ml cream as find the full cream icecreams a bit rich.

Dinner - honey soy drumettes and varoma veg with rice

Still a favourite of everyone's!!

Thursday 6th January - smoothie

Breakfast - smoothie.

And that was it for the TMX today!! Did have lots of cooking plans but had a busy day with visitors and out and had salads/chicken to eat. Maybe tomorrow will get some cooking done.

Wednesday 5th January - chicken kiev

Don't think the tmx got used until dinner time (though lots of tmx made foods consumed I'm sure).

Made chicken kievs (recipe on forum). I so love this recipe.

Processing the chicken makes for such a light easy to eat kiev compared to using whole chicken.

So the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic butter filling and the chicken mixture were all made in the tmx.

Tuesday 4th January - smoothie, mustard, pate, herb spread, vegie soup, bread

Breakfast - smoothie

Then made mustard - very impressed with this. Soaked the mustard seeds for a day and half in vinegar with a clove of garlic, then it took just a minute to make up the mustard today. The girls all had a taste (think I have odd children as they were all fighting over who got to lick the spatula - mustard at breakfast time, mmm) and declared it just like the other stuff (meaning shop bought). So another great money saver.

Then made a batch of pate.

Lunch - had some left over tortilla's in the fridge. So blended up some garlic and mixed herbs and put this with some mozarella on them and baked for a few minutes. Yummy!!! Served with salads.

Dinner - vegetable soup - chicken stock, garlic, ginger, some soup mix, mixed veg (I bought a big bag of frozen mixed veg - carrot, corn, peas - from the frozen berry place but as we never use frozen veg I hadn't used it. Went perfectly in the soup and the girls shared a bowl of the veg frozen whilst it was cooking - once again did I say my kids are a little odd?) - really nice soup.

Also served up leftovers - and that pork belly from last night was even better tonight!!

A loaf of bread.

Monday 3rd January - smoothie, Babi pong tay

Breakfast - smoothie

Out all day but home in time to make Babi pong tay for dinner.

This pork belly recipe is featured in the 2011 Thermomix calendar.

Yummy!!!!

Served with rice and steamed some veg (bok choy, red capsicum and brocolli) in the Varoma for the last 15 minutes.

Sunday 2nd January 2011 - potato cakes/hash browns, tortillas, smoothie, beef and beer casserole, bread

Breakfast - potato cakes and smoothie.

Made potato cakes - winged this a bit. Initially I chopped potatoes (3 largish ones) for 2secs on spd 5. Put into a bowl and added 2 eggs, salt, pepper and mixed. (had noted this recipe rather than the EDC one in my book) but it seemed to need some flour so added flour to get a good consistency.

These made the chunky hash brown (can see one on the right), wasn't sure about how these cooked so put the rest of the mixture back in and blitzed for 8 secs on sp 5 to make more of a batter.

Both tasted great, the batter ones were easier to cook.

Next time I'm going to try blitzing for 2-3 secs, removing half and then doing another 6 secs and mixing the two lots to give a batter with a bit more texture. Think that will work well.

Kids loved them, esp dd2 who managed 6!

Lunch - made tortilla's to go with salads etc.

Dinner - Beef and beer casserole (from my recipe - down as pork in beer on here) - really yummy.

Made a couple of changes. Added the vegies with 25 mins to go so they were crunchy (we like crunchy veg) and cooked at 90° (not 100). ETA I'm sure 25 mins is incorrect. I do veg under 10mins in the varoma and less in the bowl, may have meant 5 mins????

Everyone loved this again.

Made heaps.

And made a loaf of bread.

Saturday 1 January 2011! Porridge, rice

So here we are in 2011 - who would have thought it!!!

Time just goes too fast.

Another 'holiday' day so not much cooking done (nor other chores - think the real world might hit soon, lol!).

Breakfast the girls had porridge, mostly made by dd2 with a little help (she couldn't lift the water jug that high easily, should have given her a cup).

Dinner - rice to go with prawns and salad.

Just menu planning next week and have gone through my folder and found loads of things I want to try! And guess should throw some old favourites in there too.

Friday 31st December - Happy New Year! - smoothie

Happy New Year everyone. I am so looking forward to another year and the brilliant food that is so easy to make in the Thermomix.

Breakfast - smoothie

We were then out for the day and had BBQ for dinner.