It's been awhile!

Thought I'd pop in to do a quick update.

The thermomix is still a mainstay in my kitchen, had to replace the seal but still going strong. Oh and, lol, I also need to replace the measuring cup at some point soon as the cup part came off the top - it's now a very short measuring cup! Silly thing was it was about to break into two and I was being super careful with it and then I left it sitting in place whilst kneading pizza dough! LOL, yep of course the top bit flew off as soon as things got bumpy!

OK last couple of days.

Made strawberry jam on Thursday - can't remember anything else, but it's still the easiest way to make jam.

Friday, made stock and wontons. (I still prefer my wontons boiled not steamed so did that but ground/grated all the ingredients in the thermomix - garlic, ginger, carrot, celery, mixed in mince, soy sauce, fish sauce).
And then added garlic, ginger and veg to the stock for the broth to go with the wontons.

Saturday - boiled eggs. Anyone else think the thermomix is the best egg boiler?! I'm not a big fan but it's one of my girls favourite eggs and the thermomix makes it so easy and they don't crack!

Chocolate cake - left the older girls making a couple of the Too Easy chocolate cake's from the EDC and yep even my kids found them too easy - well after they'd found the flour! (how many texts can that take!)

Sunday - Having family over for dinner.
Not sure if I used thermi in the morning but for the dinner I did a curry night.
Desert - firstly whilst clean I whipped cream for the cake (baked yesterday)
Dish 1 - a slow cooked beef and potato curry. I milled a bunch of spices, garlic and ginger in the tmx, (didn't clean out properly as the daal was going in next) added this to beef, onions and potatoes slow cooked on the stove. All put on before guests arrived.
Dish 2 - a chinese chicken curry. (so had all the ingredients cut up and ready to throw in except the frozen peas)  This I used a bought sauce from the chinese supermarket that my kids just adore - adding chicken, peas, onions, celery and mushrooms.
Dish 3 - Daal, my eldest's favourite is the EDC tomato Dahl so that's what I made.
I prepped everything up until the cooking of the lentils, tomatoes etc bit, all sitting in the tmx and then just turned it on when ready to cook)
So all cooking at once, rice in the rice cooker (which grr as always didn't do quite as good a job as the tmx, but at least it was minimal work from me and everything cooking at once so I could enjoy the company) and a lovely big meal served easily. Added in a greek yoghurt side and tomato and cucumber salad (lemon and vinegar dressing similar to the Indian cookbook one) and everyone loved it.

So easy and I have to say cheap to provide a great Indian feast - and we have so many leftovers, fed us today and tomorrow for lunch as well!!
Really all for under $30!

Today  - Monday - leftover day, lol!!

Tomorrow I need to do some baking for school starting back on Wednesday - planning some banana muffins, muesli bar of some sort, maybe some fruit balls. Or if I have some even some rice bubble bars as a starting back at school treat.

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.

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.

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.)

Friday 29th July - porridge, rice, ganache for truffles

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - rice

Also made ganache for chocolate truffles, mmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Tuesday 22nd March - hot chocolate, soup

This afternoon I fancied a hot chocolate (my child free day and I've been thinking for a few weeks I'd love to go and have one but was too busy and doing some dyeing for my store and was suddenly after 2pm and nearly school run time so I made a quick hot chocolate in the tmx). Yum.

Dinner was the girls favourite - chicken, vegetable and udon soup. (am hoping one day they'll let me make a diff soup!!! But it's tasty, healthy and filling and if I say it's soup for dinner they all plead for it (and yes dd2 and 3 both had a bowl of the frozen vegies whilst it was cooking).

Monday 14th March - sausage, mash, veg and onion gravy, cashew chocolate pudding.

Dinner - made Sausage, mash and onion gravy with veg using the forum recipe. Haven't had this in ages but dh had bought some sausages for the bbq on the weekend but we all had steak instead. It was really yummy, forgot how nice it was.

And for dessert Jabba's chocolate cashew cream

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=4579.0

Made it before dinner and popped in the fridge to chill, so super super easy and tasty. Next time I'll add a little more cocoa, wondering even if you could melt some chocolate but still chill it quite quickly.

Saturday 5th February - stock, choc alternative, soup

Made chicken stock and then for dinner made udon vegetable soup (again!!) this is the girls favourite food at the moment. Also it is still very hot here but they wanted something cooked and also dd3 has a sore throat.

I also made the chocolate alternative (think this is in the Vegetarian cookbook?) This is yummy, I had to make substitutions and think I over did the oil as I didn't think it had the right consistency (I also only made a half batch as didn't have enough dates) so it's not set right but still tastes great, lol!!!

Sunday 28th November - bread, Teriyaki Chicken, chocolate gelato

Made a loaf of bread for lunch.

Dinner - Teriyaki Chicken using the Teriyaki beef recipe from Meat on the Menu with a longer cooking time for the chicken.
Was really yummy. Next time will add a bit more liquid with the longer cooking time as I loooove sauce. But this was a massive hit with everyone. All three kids loved it and dd3 had seconds (dinner is not her big meal and she usually picks a bit) and dh and I also loved it. Will be a regular here. Also added carrots at the same time as the chicken to make it a more all in one meal. Served with rice noodles.



Dessert made a chocolate gelato recipe from the forum, this was ok. Couldn't get it to set in the icecream maker at all (the girls happily ate it as a soup/custard) so will see what it's like after freezing tomorrow.

Friday 19th November - chocolate pudding and steamed veg

Made chocolate pudding for dessert, yum!!

And steamed veg to go with the dinner which was left over chicken kievs (realised how heavy I'd gone on the garlic when I could smell it even before defrosting, lol) and fish nuggets from the freezer.

Sunday 19th September - chocolate pudding, pasta

Made chocolate puddings for dessert (recipe see previous post)

And dinner for the girls was creamy tomato pasta - their favourite.

Thursday 9th September - chocolate pudding, cheesy breadsticks, soy sauce chicken

Made the creamy chocolate puddings from the forum http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3914.0

This was so easy to make and looking great. And they are so yummy. Will definitely be a regular in our house.

Then made cheesy sticks http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/snack-sticks.html

Mine didn't look quite that good, lol, but very nice and the girls like them.

Dinner was the soy sauce chicken and veg I made last week Friday 3rd September - soy stir fry chicken - once again yummy.

Wednesday 25th August - porridge, choc balls, pastry filling, jam, Baf's chicken, Strawberry Dream

Lots of work for the Thermomix today.

Breakfast was porridge

In the morning I made choc balls again as the girls really liked them- double the recipe from before but it was a bit runny (think I added too much water) so add 100g of shredded coconut (so I can't have them but that's probably good, lol).

Then I minced up garlic, spring onion, chicken, zucchini, mixed herbs and paprika to make 'sausage rolls' for lunch.

Then I made strawberry jam - as per edc added 25 g jamsetta and then also cooked it for 10 mins on varoma at the end.

Brilliant - perfect consistency and really yummy.

Dinner was baf's chicken http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1063.0 - dd2 and I really liked this but the other two weren't keen on the cheesy sauce - no idea why?!! It was yum!!

Desert I made strawberry dream (1/2 portion of the Fruity dream recipe in the EDC) with frozen strawberries, sugar and egg white. Yum, girls asked for more! The pic of my portion is a bit defrosted by the time I got round to it.

So simple and yummy will definitely do that again with different fruits.

Thurs 12th August - chicken stock, choc chips

Made stock from the chicken bones from lunch.

Then ground up some choc chips to go into the ice cream I made for desert (I prefer the ice cream from the ice cream maker).

Thursday 5th August - dip, pork in yoghurt, cake

Made EDC Garlic and herb dip to take to a friend's. This is such a favourite dip.

Dinner was based on this recipe http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=26.0 - did pork and carrots in yoghurt, served with rice. I loved it. dd1 liked it, dd2 didn't like it, dd3 loved it.

Then made the Too Easy chocolate cake to take for a morning tea at school tomorrow.

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

Thursday 22nd

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

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

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

Dinner I made fried rice using this recipe.

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

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

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

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

Wed 21st July - eggs, cake, pasta

Wednesday 21st July

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another busy day for the thermomix.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 2 - Friday 9th

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

Breakfast

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

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

Lunch

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

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

.

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

Others

Bron's vegie stock concentrate

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

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

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

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

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

So the Thermomix has had a good work out today.

I've been happy with everything.