3 October

Yesterday dd1 baked a cake for her sisters birthday
Using this recipe http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9598/basic+sponge+cake (dairy free)

Decorated with icing sugar (of course also made in the TMX, strawberries and a fondant heart.

Served with strawberry sauce (EDC recipe, slightly less sugar).

A couple of batches of rice have also been made the last couple of days.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)