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.

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.

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

Breakfast - porridge

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

Whipped cream to go with scones a friend brought round.

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

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