26th September 2014

I'm going to try to post more often. I think it's really interesting to see how the Thermomix has settled into life here a few years down the track.
I no longer feel I have to use it every day but it's a much loved part of the kitchen.

The last few days the Thermomix has helped make:

Sunday - being a Sunday and at home I made a few staples.

Chicken stock. Still such a regular in our house as we love soup (and other things made with quality stock). I also find store bought stock too salty. (eldest loves it, lol).
So chicken bones, onion, garlic, celery, peppercorns, bay leaf, (maybe a carrot? but don't think so) all in the basket, water in the bowl.
Cooked for 45 mins .

Pancakes for breakfast. Basically use the crepe recipe in the EDC but I make 1.5 + times the mixture, we go through a lot of pancakes and any leftovers go into school lunches.

Strawberry jam and banana muffins. Jam I use 500g strawberries, a lemon (peeled and some of the rind added), 200g sugar and 1/2 a packet of jamsetta.

Monday 25th I made chicken and sweetcorn soup using the stock made on Sunday. With garlic, chili, leftover chicken and a tin of creamed corn. Such a simple and quick soup.  

And today I made this caramel slice. Reading SFI's whilst on the treadmill at the gym this morning and saw this recipe. So simple. Packet of milk arrowroot biscuits, 295g tin of sweetened condensed milk, 125 g butter and choc chips. 

Pop the butter in the tmx and cook at 50 degrees for 1 min till melted, add the biscuits and whizz at speed 9 till crumbed, add condensed milk and mix. Then added some dark chocolate drops and mixed with the spatula and popped into a lined slice tray. Bake 45 mins, 150 degrees. Very sweet and rich and yummy!!!

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.

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!

Thursday 17th November - porridge, stock, cauliflower soup, rice

Sorry really finding it hard to get this updated daily. Also our eating at the moment really isn't very inspiring, lol. A lot of the same easy quick to make meals.

So Mon-Thurs this week.

Several batches of porridge (what a surprise, lol).

Chicken stock. (another not a surprise, lol)

Tonight we had cauliflower soup. (oh how I love the ease of soup making in the tmx, esp with yummy homemade stock, so economical too).

Also made rice yesterday.

It was really hot at the beginning of the week so we were just eating cold meats and salad type meals. So think that might be it.

Sunday 13th November - pancake mix, butter, stock, cream of chicken and mushroom soup, gravy

Breakfast - pancake mix.

Lunch - chicken stock, then cream of chicken and mushroom soup (so garlic, herbs, stock, chili flakes, heated, added mushrooms and cooked 10 mins, blitzed, added milk and cream and cooked chicken and mixed and heated for 2 mins on reverse.)

Made spreadable butter (usual recipe)

Dinner - roast, made gravy in the tmx.

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.

21st/22nd October - porridge, stock, minestrone soup, boiled eggs, strawberry jam, lemon chicken and noodles.

Friday 21st -

Breakfast - porridge

Then made chicken stock.

Dinner made Minestrone soup (forum recipe, linked previously on here) at dd1's request. It's also dh's favourite.

Saturday 22nd

Breakfast - boiled eggs

Made strawberry jam. (pretty much edc recipe with 5 mins on varoma at the end and a little jamsetta)

Dinner made a lemon chicken and noodle dish. Usually I prefer to stir fry on the stovetop but was flat out so chopped garlic and onion and sauteed, added chicken and sauteed, added juice of 2 lemons, white wine, water, chinese five spice, mushrooms, broccoli, celery, cooked 7 mins, added noodles (shelf fresh singapore style) and cooked 3 mins. (all the cooking on reverse 100)

I love how the tmx frees you up to do other things during the cooking.

Thurs/Fri 14th October - porridge, stock, broccoli soup, naan bread

Thursday - just porridge for breakfast. Was dd2's birthday so did her chosen dinner of prawns, cous cous and stir fry veg which I did on the stove top.

Friday - porridge.

Chicken stock.

Dinner - broccoli soup (garlic chopped, chili flakes, garam masala, sauteed, added 3 potatoes, head of broccoli and stock, pepper, cooked 25 mins and then blended).

And naan bread (dough of course made in the tmx).

Saturday 1st October - pancakes, chicken stock, rice

Breakfast - pancake batter (edc)

Made - chicken stock (as always, lol)

And made rice to go with leftovers for lunch.

Dinner was bbq (so dh can get a fix with his new bbq)

Friday 23rd September - porridge, slushie, stock. chicken and sweetcorn soup

Breakfast - porridge.

Another hot one and the pineapple slushie from yesterday was again requested, am thinking we'll need shares in a pineapple canning factory to get through the summer!!

Chicken stock, and chicken and sweetcorn soup for dinner.

Friday 16th - porridge, stock, cauliflower soup

Breakfast - porridge,

Made chicken stock.

Then made cauliflower soup for dinner (garlic, chili, stock, potato, cauliflower and a dash of cream at the end).

Friday 9th September - porridge, smoothie, stock, chicken and vegetable soup

Breakfast - porridge and smoothie.

Made chicken stock and then chicken and vegetable soup (garlic, stock, pepper, prepared soup mix, mixed vegetables and leftover chicken)

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).

Sunday 28th August - stock, chicken and sweetcorn soup, butter, orange muffins, vanilla pudding, mashed potato, steamed veg

Made chicken stock, and from that made chicken and sweetcorn soup (stock, cooked chicken, creamed corn, corn, seasoning) for lunch.

Made spreadable butter (recipe linked on here somewhere from Quirky Jo's recipe).

Made orange muffins (forum recipe using the whole orange) for this weeks lunch boxes.

Made vanilla pudding (recipe on here/linked, from the forum vanilla slice recipe but without the biscuits.

Dinner made mashed potato and steamed veg to go with schnitzel.

Friday 19th August - porridge, chicken stock, honey soy chicken drumettes, steamed vegetables, pate

Breakfast - porridge.

Made chicken stock.

Lunch made honey soy chicken drumettes, haven't had these favourites in ages!!! Didn't pre marinate them, so just cooked in the sauce, yum. Steamed veg in the varoma to go with them and rice (done separately to save time). The recipe is from the forum and linked from here somewhere.

Then made some pate. (edc recipe)

Saturday 13th August - boiled eggs, stock, yorkies, gravy

Breakfast - boiled eggs. Still love how easy it is to boil eggs in the tmx (edc recipe), though today I also did poached eggs to make everyone happy.

Made chicken stock. I worked out on the fact that I make liquid chicken stock on average once a week I save over $150 a year on stock alone (compared to using the packaged liquid stocks I used to use). Stock is just so easy to make using the tmx and using the basket means it's already strained and ready to store/use when it finished cooking.

Dinner - we had roast lamb - Yorkshire pudding batter (recipe from Jamie's 30 minute meals and on here somewhere - 1 cup flour, 1 cup of milk, 1 egg, blend. heat muffin tin for 15 mins, pour in oil and batter mixture quickly and pop back in oven and cook 14 mins) and gravy done in the tmx.

Saturday 6th August - stock, stuffing, gravy

Made chicken stock.

Had roast chicken for dinner.

The tmx was used to make the stuffing (made breadcrumbs with fresh parsley, thyme and rosemary and set aside. Chopped garlic, onion, celery, a little bacon, added butter and oil and sautéed for 5 mins. Mixed with the breadcrumbs and an egg and stuffed the chicken (a lovely corn fed chicken I got on 1/2 price special this morning! bargain!)

Made yorkshire pudding batter (same recipe as usual as per Jamie Oliver's 30 min meals)

And then made gravy with the pan juices, some of todays chicken stock etc.

Saturday 30th July - butter, tortilla's, stock, beef stroganoff

Made a couple of lots of spreadable butter (one for dh to take to work and one for home).

Made two batches of tortilla's. One plain, the other with garlic and rosemary for lunch.

Made chicken stock.

And then for dinner made beef stroganoff.

Tuesday 26th July - porridge,stock, rice, wonton soup

Breakfast - porridge

Made chicken stock for tonight.

Lunch - rice to go with leftover curry

Dinner - wonton mixture (chopped garlic and ginger, sauteed, chopped carrot, mushroom and celery, added pork mince, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil)

Then made chicken broth (garlic and ginger, chicken stock, thinly sliced carrot and celery.

Think this is our new favourite meal.

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.