Menu Plan Monday - 30th August

Hi everyone - how did you go with your menu plan last week?  We really enjoyed last Monday's spaghetti and meatballs, cooked completely in the Thermomix (made heaps, there was enough for six plus leftovers!) and I'll try and get that recipe posted soon.  (It's similar to this one, but without the beans, and with spaghetti added to the sauce towards the end.) We ended up having a pizza night on Friday night, as we had extra kids - everyone made their own pizza with toppings of their choice, eight pizzas in all.  I found a recipe for satay chicken pizza, and made a batch of the satay chicken in the Thermomix to use as a topping - it was really delicious!  Pizza is such an easy meal with the Thermomix.

I'm really pleased because my 13 year old daughter is now baking our bread for us!  And she's doing a great job.  She's mastered spelt and spelt & rye breads, and today she made hot cross buns (without the cross) which were delicious!!  It's so important to teach kids to cook, and very rewarding too - for the whole family!

A couple of times a week, I try and cook some meals that can be doubled and frozen, so I have extras for when I'm going to be out at demos or am just really busy.  A frozen casserole can be placed into the oven and thawed and cooked at the same time, usually taking about an hour and a half on moderate heat.  (Make sure you cover with a lid or foil so it doesn't dry out.)  I don't use a microwave, for health reasons, so this is a good way to cook up leftovers.  Here's another tip for those of you who have a Thermomix - you can heat up your leftovers in the Varoma!  If you're in a hurry, half fill the bowl with boiling water from the kettle, then steam on Varoma temperature until the food is hot.  If it's something a bit sloppy, take a piece of baking paper that's big enough to cover the bottom of the Varoma tray, wet it and scrunch it up under the tap, then smooth it out in the bottom of the tray and place the food to be warmed on top.  The food won't drip through, but the steam will still come up.

There's some great recipes over at the Thermomix forum - make sure you have a look!  And if you go to Menu Plan Monday at "I'm an Organizing Junkie", you'll get plenty of ideas for planning your weekly menu.  Have a great week!

[tmx = prepared and/or cooked in my Thermomix]

Monday:

(lunch) Pasta e Fagioli (tmx)

(dinner) Chicken tikka curry (made from leftover roast chicken & tmx tikka paste) with basmati rice (tmx) and stir fried veges (tmx)

Tuesday:

(lunch) Lunch at Grandma's - dd is making spelt bread rolls from this recipe (tmx)

(dinner) Beef & vegetable pie with spelt pastry (tmx) (pie filling prepared in morning and slow cooked in crockpot)

Spelt rolls

Wednesday:

(lunch) Baked potatoes, dairy free sour cream (tmx), orange-carrot-pecan salad (tmx)

(dinner) Smoky sausage & lima bean stew (crockpot)

Thursday:

(lunch) Leftovers/sandwiches

(dinner) Tuna pie with mashed potato topping (tmx) (x 2 - freezing one for Saturday)

Friday:

(lunch) Eggs a la Goldenrod (tmx) on spelt scones (tmx)

(dinner) Sweet 'n' sour beef & noodles (tmx) (x 2)

Saturday:

(lunch) Leftovers & vege sticks

(dinner) Tuna-potato pie (thawed & cooked in oven)

Sunday:

(lunch) Steak, baked potatoes (crockpot) & salad

(dinner) Cauliflower soup & sesame snack sticks (no cheese)

Snack Sticks

Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

The boys made pasta salads for lunch today (with a bit of help from me).  We had some chicken thighs in the fridge that needed using up, as well as some homemade pesto, and some tuna, so we decided to make two pasta salads, a tuna one, and a chicken pesto one. The tuna pasta salad is the same as the recipe below, except you just add tuna, sliced black olives and chopped boiled egg instead of the chicken and pesto, and dress it with some homemade mayonnaise, or balsamic vinegar.  
Pasta salad is something I don't really use specific amounts for, so excuse my vague measurements - and the ingredients always vary with whatever I have in the fridge, so use your imagination :)

1.  Cook up a batch of pasta - I usually use shells or spirals - as much you think will feed your family:
- 250g (or more) pasta (I use gluten free Orgran pasta)

If you're adding broccoli to your salad, cook it with the pasta, adding it during the last few minutes of cooking time:
- one head of broccoli, cut into florets

Tip the pasta (and broccoli) into a colander in the sink, and rinse well with cold water.  Tip into a big salad bowl (or two).

2.  In Thermomix bowl, cook at 100 degrees, 8 mins, reverse, speed soft:
- a couple of handfuls of cubed chicken thighs/breasts
- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
(You may need to stop halfway through and push chicken off blades with spatula.)

3.  Now, this is where all the little helping hands come in useful...  Prepare whichever of the following additions you like, and mix them into the pasta and broccoli, along with the cooked chicken and pesto:
- a few big blobs of fresh basil & cashew pesto (with or without parmesan, just add salt if not adding parmesan)
- a drizzle of olive oil
- grated carrot
- thinly sliced celery 
- torn lettuce leaves
- baby spinach leaves
- semi-dried tomato strips
- halved cherry tomatos
- cucumber pieces
- sliced black olives
- thinly sliced Spanish onion
- sliced shallots
etcetera...

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and enjoy!

P.S.  This would also be really nice with sun-dried tomato and red capsicum pesto - my favourite! You can find the recipes for both these pestos in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook.

Menu Plan Monday - 23rd August

If you're needing some inspiration for this week's meals, here's a few ideas, and there's plenty more at Menu Plan Monday (for those who don't have a Thermomix) and the Thermomix Forum (for those who do)...  Hope you have a great week!

Thanks to all of you who leave comments, and have a chat... it's always nice to hear how you're going with your Thermomixing, and what you're cooking!  Some have contacted me wanting to know more about the Thermomix, and where they can see a demo - if you'd like info about this, please send me an email with your details and I can refer you to a consultant in your area.  (If the lady from Emerald who contacted me a couple of weeks ago is reading this, could you please send me an email, as your details were accidentally deleted!!  Thanks :) )

[tmx = prepared and/or cooked in my Thermomix]

Monday:

(lunch) Grilled fish, baked potatoes, salad & spelt & rye bread (made with tmx by my daughter all by herself!)

(dinner) Spaghetti & meatballs (sauce cooking in tmx bowl, meatballs steaming on top in Varoma, spelt spaghetti added and cooked in sauce in bowl)

Tuesday:
(lunch) Chicken & vege soup (veges prepared in tmx) - making a big batch to clean out the fridge!
(dinner) Leftover soup with spelt dumplings (tmx)

Wednesday:
(lunch) Tuna salad sandwiches with spelt bread (tmx)
(dinner) Steak and Bron's garlic rice  & steamed veges (cooked at same time in tmx - rice in bowl, veges in Varoma)

Thursday:
(lunch) Mexican quinoa (tmx) with homemade spelt tortillas (tmx) & salad
(dinner) Leftover quinoa & salad with turkey-sausage patties (tmx)

Friday:
(lunch) Wraps or sandwiches
(dinner) Fried rice (tmx)

Saturday:
(lunch) Pasta salad (tmx) - kid's cooking
(dinner) Taco salad (tmx) - kid's cooking

Sunday:
(lunch) Roast honey mustard chicken & veges (this was on last week's menu, but wasn't needed)
(dinner) Spelt bread (tmx) & leftovers

Chocolate Orange Sorbet

Here's a quick and refreshing dessert (or snack!) that I invented for our Master Thermy Chef competition at our last Thermomix cooking class... It's been quite a hit around here!  I think I've made it about six times in the last two weeks :)  I used less dark chocolate than my original Chocolate Sorbet recipe, so this one's a bit more economical - but still very chocolatey, as I added more cacao powder.  Hope you like it :)

1.  Grind in Thermomix on speed 9 for 30 seconds:

- 100g - 140g Rapadura (depending how sweet you like it)

- peel of 1 navel orange (wash & dry orange first, then peel in the zest with a potato peeler, no white)

- 40g raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

2. Scrape down sides, add chocolate, and grind on speed 9 for 15 seconds:

- 50g - 100g dark 70% cocoa chocolate (make your own with this recipe, or use Lindt chocolate)

3. Remove chocolate mixture to a bowl.  (I take the chocolate mixture out and add it back on top after the ice is ground up, otherwise it freezes to the bottom of the bowl once the ice hits it.)

Don't taste the chocolate mixture - 

you might not be able to stop eating it!! Lol!

4. Add to bowl and grind on speed 9 for 10 seconds, until ice is crushed:

- 400g ice cubes (about 2 trays of ice)

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful the Thermomix is!

Look at this - 400g of ice blitzed into snow in 10 seconds!

5. Add orange, chocolate mixture, and egg white to bowl and grind on speed 9 until mixture is fine, and whizzing around, creating a vortex in the bowl:

- flesh of orange (cut off and discard the pith)

- 1 large or two small egg whites

- chocolate mixture

6. As the mixture is whizzing around in the bowl on speed 9, drop ice cubes one by one into the vortex until you reach desired consistency. You don't need to use the spatula as much if you do it this way, although it might spit a bit so it can get messy! ;)

- 400g - 500g ice cubes (2 or 3 more trays)

A bit messy - but worth it!

Eat it quickly before it melts!  Or freeze for later.

Menu Plan Monday - 16th August

We are having the most beautiful weather here lately - it's so nice to have a break from the rain!  Here's some pictures from our recent beach holiday... with my beach bag I won from "Super Kitchen Machine"!!  If you haven't checked out this great website, you really should!  Helene's next give away is an amazing Benriner spiralizer - perfect for making raw vegetable spirals!  Post a comment there which includes the word "Thermomix" and you'll be in the draw to win!!


What interesting things have you been cooking lately?  Last week my friend Bel from Home Grown very kindly gave me Buddha's Hand (also known as citron) which she grows in her amazing garden, so I had fun experimenting with that! I steamed a whole chicken in the Thermomix Varoma, stuffed with Buddha's Hand and fresh ginger and shallots - it was deliciously tender, but needed more flavour... so back to the drawing board for that one.  The peel is a lot like lemon peel, and is often candied, made into marmalade, or used in gourmet dishes.  The inside is all pith - no flesh.  It smells delightful!

Buddha's Hand (Citron)

So, what's on your menu this week?  Have you got a plan?  Planning our meals saves me lots of time and money.  For more ideas on menu planning, check out Menu Plan Monday at "I'm an Organizing Junkie".  Here's my plan for this week...


[tmx = prepared and/or cooked in my Thermomix]


Monday:
(lunch) Home demo - lots of yummy Thermomix food!
(dinner) Beetroot salad (tmx), leftover Creole beans & corn (tmx), baked veges

Tuesday:
(lunch) Spelt bread rolls with leftover roast lamb & gravy
(dinner) Salmon fishcakes (tmx), homemade mayo (tmx) & salad

Wednesday:
(lunch) Pumpkin soup (tmx) and spelt damper (tmx)
(dinner) Tikka masala lamb chops (homemade tikka paste - tmx), steamed rice & veges (tmx)

Thursday:
(lunch) Spelt artisan bread (tmx) with tuna salad & homemade mayo (tmx)
(dinner) Spaghetti bolognese (double batch of sauce - tmx) with gf pasta & salad

Friday:
(lunch) Quick vege curry (tmx) on rice (tmx)
(dinner) Honey soy chicken wings with leftover fried rice

Saturday:
(lunch) Fried rice (tmx)
(dinner) Pasta bake (with leftover spag. bog. sauce) & salad

Sunday:
(lunch) Roast honey mustard chicken, baked potatoes & salad
(dinner) leftovers & spelt bread

Pink Fruit Cereal

Raw fruit 'cereals' are great for cutting down on grains in your diet, and are very quick and easy to make - perfect for a quick breakfast. And fruit is the perfect breakfast food, as it should really should be eaten on an empty stomach, so it can cleanse and energise your body and get everything moving. The nuts are an important addition as you should always have some protein for breakfast as well - it wakes you up, and keeps your blood sugar levels from dropping too quickly. (If you can't have nuts, add in some seeds instead.)

If you find fruit for breakfast doesn't fill you up enough, at least try and have some fruit before you have your toast and eggs, or whatever you like to eat for breaky. You can use any fruits really, with or without nuts, and add in some seeds and coconut if you like. The blueberries in this one make it a lovely pink colour.  (Should really be blue, don't you think?!)  

This is a great winter breakfast when there's not a lot of different types of fruit around. I also love this one for snacks, when I'm feeling the need for something sweet - it has no added sweeteners, just the fruit, so it's a healthy substitute for cake or bikkies!

Place all the ingredients in the Thermomix bowl, and pulse 3 or 4 times with the Turbo button (with lid in locked position) until it reaches the desired texture:

- 3 apples, quartered (peeled if not organic)

- 1 or 2 bananas, quartered

- a handful or two of frozen blueberries

- a handful of sultanas

- a large handful of pecans

- a handful of shredded coconut

- a drizzle of vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

(If you want the bananas to be in nice little pieces, chop them by hand and stir them in at the end.  I can't be bothered in the morning!)

Salmon Salad Pizza

Salmon Salad Pizza

We had a great time at the 'Master Thermy Chef Challenge' last night - we had teams cooking against each other from a mystery box of ingredients, and we had 30 minutes (and two Thermomixes) to prepare/cook three dishes.  My team had in our box: a turnip, a piece of pumpkin, an orange, some soy sauce, some golden syrup, garlic, a tin of lemon salmon and a sprig of rosemary.  Our theme was 'Celebrate', and we had to make a sorbet, a bread and a main!  (Thankfully, we were allowed to add a few ingredients to the ones in our box!)  It was a lot of fun, and our team WON!!  Yay!  If any of you locals would like to have a go at the next cooking class, let me know.

It was a bit of a challenge making a bread, a main, and a sorbet, from scratch in 30 minutes, but we managed it - with 30 seconds to spare!  The quickest bread we could think of was a pizza bread, so we decided to use the salmon and garlic for that, and added raw salad greens to make it a kind of entree.  It turned out really yummy.  Here it is, a great, quick meal for when you're running out of time but want something healthy and delicious!

Note: Our other recipes were Meatballs in Turnip and Pumpkin Sauce, and Chocolate Orange Sorbet... you knew I had to get chocolate in there somewhere, didn't you!! :D  Recipes coming soon for those...

If you have them, place 2 pizza stones in oven and preheat oven to 250 degrees.  (If not, it will still work - pizza stones just help make a crisper crust.)

1. Base: Mix all ingredients in Thermomix, 6 seconds, speed 6:


- 500g spelt flour
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 60g oil
- 2 tsp of yeast
- 270g water

  Knead for 1 ½ mins on interval setting.  Wrap in thermomat (or in an oiled bowl and cover) and set aside until sauce is ready. OR, cook base on it's own and top with raw sauce & other toppings once it's done.

2. Sauce: Mix all ingredients in Thermomix, 4 seconds, speed 6:

- 2 Italian tomatoes (quartered)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- small handful of fresh basil
- small handful fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp dried)
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp rapadura
- Pinch of sea salt
- 80g tomato paste
- 1/2 a fresh chilli, deseeded (optional)

  Remove to a large bowl, set aside.

3. Divide dough in two, roll out into two circles and place on lined or oiled pizza trays. Drizzle with oil.

- 2 Tblspns extra virgin olive oil (optional)

4. Spread sauce over pizzas, leaving about 3 tablespoons in bowl for salad; flake salmon over, and sprinkle with grated mozzarella.  (Mozarella is optional - if you can't have dairy it tastes fine without it.)

- 2 x 95g tins of lemon salmon, drained & flaked
- 100g mozzarella cheese, grated roughly

5. Place pizzas in oven on pizza stones and bake until crisp, about 15 mins.

6. Salad Topping: While pizzas are baking, chop in Thermomix, 3 seconds, sp 5:

- ½ red onion
- Handful Italian parsley
- handful fresh basil
- 2 Tblspns extra virgin olive oil
- juice of half a lemon
- Salt and pepper

7. Toss salad topping ingredients together with olives & greens in bowl with reserved sauce:

- 100g of sliced Kalamata olives
- a few handfuls of salad greens (rocket, mizuna, tatsoi, baby spinach, etc)

8. Sprinkle salad topping over pizza, slice, and serve.