10th May 2012

Sorry for being so absent and really will try to start doing some more spotlight days.

Tuesday this week I took a couple of photos. 

Dinner I made the pea and ham soup from the Robogourmet app (used chicken stock made in the tmx instead of water). You really do need a small hock to fit in the steaming basket though. Those that liked it really did, but 2 out of the 5 of us didn't like it, included the two biggest soup eaters dd2 and dd3. So not going to make it onto our regular menu, but a nice ham and pea soup. 

Also made cheese topped bread rolls to go with it. 

Dessert was custard tarts. 

Made a thickish custard in the tmx. Meanwhile take a packet of wonton wrappers. Place one wrapper, lightly wet, sprinkle on some castor or icing sugar, place a second wrapper on top so it makes a star type shape. Place in a muffin tin and bake 10-15mins. Allow the cases and the custard to cool. Then pour a bit of the custard in each case and put in the fridge to chill. 

Lovely served with berries!

Spotlight day

Thought I'd also start doing some Spotlight days. In the theme of why this blog was created, which was to show how often and on what I use my Thermomix for.

So today was a normal day in my kitchen. A weekend day so the chance of some baking (we aren't big baking family but usually make something on the weekend for lunch boxes etc).

Breakfast - pancake batter.

Made spreadable butter - as it's hot I've changed the recipe a bit so it doesn't melt so easily - 150g butter, 100g water, 100g rice bran oil.

Lunch made rice (to go with left over beef stroganoff, cooked in the tmx last night).

Afternoon made banana bread (forum recipe linked a few posts ago, still a winner!)

Dinner we had roast and made the gravy in the tmx.

So you can see how the tmx has integrated it's way into our lives and cooking and even after all this time is still being used multiple times a day.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Made Cookies using this http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1278.0

$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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!

Monday 21st March - smoothie, pork and fried rice

Breakfast - smoothie.

Dinner - Pork and fried rice.

Blitzed garlic and ginger, added 700g water, put rice in basket, pork in foil parcel with soy sauce. Cooked 10 mins, varoma temp. Added vegies to top varoma tray and cooked another 10 mins.

Added sherry, soy sauce and corn flour to the bowl and cooked 4 minutes to make the sauce.

Also added a scrambled egg - had brought the eggs in from the chickens and one had a soft shell so quickly fried it up in a pan I already had out.

B

Monday 28th February - smoothie, beef and noodles

Breakfast - smoothie

Dinner - marinated some beef strips in a combination of garlic, soy sauce, kecap manis and sherry.

Then cooked them with carrots and broccoli for 15mins, 100°, reverse, speed 1.

Served with some rice noodles - popped in the thermoserver and poured boiling water over to cook.