Menu Plan, Party Food, Camp Cooking and more...

My little Princess (left) having fun at her party!

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've managed to get a menu plan posted - this has been a really busy month! We've had a birthday party, sick kids, camp (where I was one of the cooks, mostly cooking the special diet meals)... plus I've been really, really busy with Thermomix demos... so I haven't had much time for blogging!!!  But thankfully it's school holidays now, camp's over and the kids are almost recovered from the flu, so it's time to catch up.

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First, here's my basic menu plan for this week... 
[tmx = prepared and/or cooked in my Thermomix]


Monday:
(lunch) Tuna pasta (tmx) & spelt bread (tmx)
(dinner) Pizza pies with filling made from leftover roast beef... (tmx)


Tuesday:
(lunch) Spelt pasta with pasta sauce made from leftover filling for pizza pies! (tmx) 
(dinner) Butter chicken (tmx), rice & pappadums


Wednesday:
(lunch) * Varoma demo here - berry fruity dream, cashew & sun-dried tomato pesto, pizza bianca, chickpea & spinach soup, warm chicken-pumpkin-couscous salad, and steamed lemon puddings (all tmx)
(dinner) Leftovers - from demo & butter chicken


Thursday:
(lunch) Baked potatoes, salad & homemade mayonnaise (tmx)
(dinner) Fish, potatoes, broccoli & tomato sauce (cooked all at once in layers in the tmx)


Friday:
(lunch) Fried rice (tmx)
(dinner) Steak, leftover rice (warmed up in tmx), beetroot salad (tmx)


Saturday:
(lunch) Hamburgers with spelt buns (tmx)
(dinner) Roast chicken and veges (gravy in tmx)


Sunday: 
(lunch) Chicken a la King (made with leftovers from roast dinner, on spelt toast) (tmx)
(dinner) Potato wedges with dairy free 'sour cream' (tmx) & raw vege sticks


* If you'd like to see a Thermomix demo for yourself (and you live in Australia), let me know and I'll put you in contact with a consultant in your area.  If you're wondering how often I use my Thermomix and how it saves me time and money, keep reading...

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I promised to also post the menu for my daughter's Princess Party, as I know other mums out there are also looking for ideas for healthier kids' party food... I don't go overboard with parties, so it's pretty simple.  This is what we made:

- Chicken & vege sausage rolls - I ground up bread crumbs and minced the chicken and veges in the Thermomix, added herbs, seasonings, tamari, sweet chilli sauce, etc, and made lots of mini sausage rolls using ready-made butter puff pastry.  (Yes, I'm afraid I didn't make the pastry, as there was just too much to do, and I didn't actually have time to cook for the party until 10 pm the night before! But I did make sure I got the puff pastry made with butter, not the one with heaps of unintelligible ingredients.)  For a spicier version of these sausage rolls with homemade spelt rough puff pastry, see Spicy Chicken & Vege Sausage Rolls.

- Parmesan popcorn - hot popcorn sprinkled with fresh parmesan (grated finely in Thermomix).

- Chocolate cupcakes - I used my wheat free, dairy free variation of Cyndi O'Meara's chocolate cake, as it's so quick and easy, is moist and delicious, and uses macadamia oil instead of butter.  (Recipe is in Cyndi's book "Changing Habits, Changing Lives Cookbook").  The cupcakes were stacked up instead of a birthday cake, undecorated, and the kids decorated their own with chocolate chips, mini marshmallows (my concession to daughter's plea for some lollies), strawberries, and...

- Strawberry cream - I mushed up fresh strawberries in the Thermomix and whipped them into cream to make it pink, for the kids to put on their cupcakes (for those who could have cream).

- Raspberry lemonade - yum yum!  Homemade lemonade is the best; add raspberries and it's even better!!

- Strawberry Fruity Dream - fresh, pink and delicious - the girls loved it!

- Party bags - I didn't want to fill the party bags with lollies, although I did give them each a chocolate frog and a naturally sweetened lollipop, so I added balloons, bubbles, party blowers, bracelets, and heart-shaped pink and purple play-dough (made in the Thermomix of course!)

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I often have people ask me how often I use my Thermomix, as they worry they wouldn't use it enough to justify buying one... so yesterday I decided to write down everything I did in the Thermomix to see how much I used it.  Here's what I did, including the mixing or cooking times:

- ground up two lots of spelt grain to make spelt flour (1 min per batch)

- made nut butter (2 mins)

- made raw almond milk (2 mins)

- made banana & nut butter protein shakes (2 mins)

- made a double batch of spelt bread dough (2.5 mins)

- made rice-almond milk (7.5 mins)

- made tuna pasta for lunch, all in one bowl (20 mins)

- made pizza dough for pizza pies (2.5 mins)

- cooked pizza pie filling (30 mins)

- steamed veges for dinner (12 mins)

- made choc-orange sorbet for dessert (3 mins)

The Thermomix replaces so many kitchen appliances that you'll find you use it constantly - don't be scared off by the price (in Australia they cost $1939, plus up to $40 postage)- they are so worth it!!!  (And there are payment options that make it affordable for most households.)  I've had one since 2004 (a TM21 which is still going fine - I sold it to my sister last year), and would never be without one again!  


Before I had a Thermomix there was so much I couldn't do, and because I make so much from scratch, I was in the kitchen A LOT!  Being able to walk away while the machine does the work for you saves so much time.  It may sound like I spend all day in the kitchen, but I really don't - I also homeschool four kids, am a Thermomix consultant (so I cook for other people at home demonstrations and classes), write articles for a couple of magazines, blog, draw and paint (when I can), help with a homeschool group and a youth club, do a little bit of graphic artwork from home, teach a parenting class off and on... the list goes on.  So without my Thermomix, I'd be REALLY struggling to keep up with healthy, homemade food for our family.  If you're considering buying a Thermomix, I'd say "Go for it!"  You won't regret it.  Email me for more info about Thermomix in Australia,  and if you are in Australia and decide to buy one after seeing it here on my blog, please mention my blog as your referral :)

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For those who doubt a Thermomix is big enough for your family, let me just say that I wouldn't want to have to cook for a large family without one!  I use my Thermomix to cook for large groups of people, such as cooking at our church's youth camp, and it really makes food preparation a lot quicker and easier.  Here's some of the things I use Thermy for at camp - there are usually about 60 to 100 people to cook for:


- grating blocks of cheese (only takes seconds to grate, it's cheaper to buy the whole blocks and grate them yourself, and it's healthier too, as pre-grated cheese is coated in anti-caking agents to stop it lumping together)
- chopping onions (we filled the bowl with halved onions and chopped them all in about 5 seconds! No tears!)
- grating carrots, apples, etc for salads
- grating chocolate and grinding coconut (for flourless cakes)
- mixing batter for cakes
- grinding grains (for bread dough)
- making bread dough for cinnamon scrolls and cheesey-mite scrolls (for snacks)
- making rice milk and other special diet foods (dairy free white sauce, custards, etc)
- making butter from cream
- making custards & gravies (we did 2 litre batches, and emptied them into a pot on the stove to keep warm - it was quicker than cooking them completely on the stove, and there were no lumps!)
- making sorbet or fruity dream (a couple of batches each afternoon for afternoon tea)
- making cappuccinos, lattes and iced coffees for tired kitchen workers!


...Obviously we eat well at our camps!

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Holidays are a great time to spend time with the kids, cooking up some treats.  The other day my boys were looking for something to do, and decided to make baked apples.  They begged me to put a photo of their creation on my blog, so here it is...

As you can see they were very creative - instead of just coring the apple and slitting the skin around it, they used the apple slinky machine, making it a very fun version of baked apples!

So there you are - it's been a busy month, but I feel a bit more 'caught up' now!


Hope you all have a great week,
Jo :)

Nut Butter

 

Making your own nut butter is very simple and quick in the Thermomix, and best of all, it doesn't contain any hydrogenated fat like popular peanut butter brands do.  


Here's my basic recipe - you can change which nuts you use, and they can be either roasted or raw (or a mixture), depending on what you prefer.  You can also add roasted or raw seeds, like pepitas, sesame and sunflower seeds.  I usually use at least a handful of raw macadamias in my nut butter, as they are so oily that you often don't need to add any extra oil.  I also add a little salt and Rapadura, which is optional.  (I don't usually measure, but I've written down approximate measurements for those who want them.)

1. Place all the ingredients in the bowl and grind on speed 9 for 1 to 1.5 minutes, until it reaches the desired consistency.  (You may need to use the spatula to push the mixture onto the blades.)
- 250g raw almonds
- 150g roasted cashews (unsalted)
- 50g raw macadamias
- 2 tsp Rapadura
- 1 tsp sea salt (or to taste)

If mixture is still too stiff, add some macadamia oil - about 15g should do.

Before oil is added . . . 

After oil is added.

Raspberry Lemonade

My 'baby' just had her seventh birthday today, and she had a great time with her friends, dressing up as princesses and generally having a princessey time!  This is the special party drink I came up with for her, instead of sugary softdrink - the girls loved it!

1. Grind up in Thermomix bowl on speed 9 for 30 seconds:
- 100g Rapadura (or raw sugar)

2.  Add raspberries and ice, and grind up on speed 9 for 30 seconds or so until you get a bright red paste, using the spatula to push the ice onto the blades:
- 180g frozen raspberries
- a couple of handfuls of ice cubes
- a pinch of powdered stevia (optional)

3. Add lemons and water, lock lid, and press the Turbo button a few times to chop roughly:
- 2 lemons (scrub the skins, cut off thick ends & discard, and quarter - no need to peel!)
- 500g water

4. Unlock and open lid, and push the strainer basket down (carefully) into the juice.  Using the spatula to hold the basket in the Thermomix bowl, tip the juice into a large jug.  Leaving strainer basket in bowl, pour in half the soda water, swish around and strain out again into the jug, then add the rest of the soda water to the jug and stir gently:
- 1.25 litres soda water

Bliss!

Nut Butter Chocolate Swirl Brownies

Mmmmmm... Feel like something decadent and delicious?  I did, and this is what I came up with - rich, moist, chocolatey-nutty brownies, that are dairy-free, wheat-free and naturally sweetened.  The only problem with them is that they disappear too quickly!  Hope you like them :)

Note:  This recipe uses half unbleached plain spelt flour, half wholemeal spelt flour - you can use all wholemeal if you like, but it may end up a little less moist.  You can also use butter instead of the oils if you prefer.

1.  Prepare wholemeal spelt flour first - grind in dry Thermomix bowl on speed 9 for 1 minute:

- 100g spelt grain

     Remove to a bowl and set aside.  (You won't need all of it.)

2.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 F).  Line an 8-inch square baking pan with baking paper, and grease the paper with a little coconut oil (or butter).

3.  Nut batter: in Thermomix bowl, mix together on speed 5 for 10 seconds, or until well-mixed:

- 50g macadamia oil (or grapeseed oil)

- 75g Rapadura

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 egg

- 20g spelt flour (part wholemeal spelt flour, part white)

- 1/8 tsp baking powder

- 1/8 tsp salt

- 150g nut butter (I make my own in the Thermomix using this recipe)

- 1 Tbspn rice/nut milk

    Tip batter into a bowl and set aside.

4.  Chocolate batter: without washing bowl, add following ingredients and mix on speed 6 for 20 seconds:

- 60g macadamia oil (or grapeseed oil)

- 90g coconut oil (no need to soften if hard)

- 100g Rapadura

- 1/4 tsp stevia powder

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 eggs

5.  Add and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds, or just until mixed in:

- 70g spelt flour (part wholemeal, part white)

- 30g cacao powder (or organic cocoa powder)

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp salt

6.  Pour half the chocolate batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with spatula.  Place nine dollops of nut batter (a heaped tablespoon each) in three rows on top of the batter (see photo).  

With a skewer, (or long sharp knife), gently swirl the two batters together, running skewer lengthwise and crosswise through the batter.  

Pour remaining chocolate batter on top of the nut batter layer, add another nine dollops of nut batter using the rest of the batter, and repeat swirling.

7.  Bake until a skewer inserted in brownies comes out clean (just a few crumbs, not wet), about 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then lift out brownies with the paper and cool completely on wire rack before cutting.  (I know it's hard to wait, but it will be a bit too gooey if cut while warm.)

Don't eat it all at once!

Menu Plan Monday - 6th September

Here's my menu plan for this week - if you'd like some help organizing yours, check out Menu Plan Monday at "I'm an Organizing Junkie", and also my article here.  And if you're looking for some new Thermomix recipes, have a look on the Thermomix Forum and you'll find some real beauties!!

Today I made a batch of nut butter for our toast at breakfast time (from cashews, almonds & macadamia nuts), and some almond milk, then for lunch we had a nut butter & banana protein shake (very rich and filling!), and I also made some nut butter and chocolate swirl brownies (see photo below)... YUM!!  So we've had a really nutty day :D  (Recipes coming!)  I really enjoy taking a decadent and unhealthy recipe, and converting it to a healthier version that still tastes just as decadent.  Of course, you still shouldn't have too much of it, but it's nice to have a treat now and then :)

Nut Butter Chocolate Swirl Brownies

We'll be having a 'princess party' on Saturday for our little princess, so if you'd like some party food ideas that are healthy and kid-friendly, check back here later in the week to see the menu and recipes.  And if you have any healthy party foods that your kids love, let me know!

Have a great week :)

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

Monday:

(lunch) Tuna & salad sandwiches & banana-nut butter protein shakes (tmx)

(dinner) Lentil bolognese on leftover brown rice (warmed up in the Varoma while bolognese is cooking) (tmx)

Tuesday:

(lunch) Leftover bolognese & salad in spelt tortillas (tmx)

(dinner) Corn & potato chowder with chorizo sausage (tmx & crockpot)

Wednesday:

(lunch) Leftover soup with spelt tortillas

(dinner) Steak (with homemade bbq sauce), baked potatoes & carrot salad (tmx)

Thursday:

(lunch) Fried rice (tmx)

(dinner) Mushroom carbonara (tmx) on spelt spaghetti

Friday:

(lunch) Sandwiches & leftovers

(dinner) Thai chicken burgers (tmx - from Chef Laurent's cookbook) on spelt rolls (tmx)

Saturday:
(lunch) Birthday party (kids) / Thermomix party (mums) - menu still being sorted!
(dinner) Tuna-tomato calzone with spelt pizza dough (tmx)

Sunday:
(lunch) Roast (beef or lamb) & veges
(dinner) Soup with leftovers (tmx) & spelt rolls (tmx)

Barbeque Sauce

Homemade barbeque sauce has so much more flavour than bought sauce. And I love that it doesn't have to be full of sugar and additives. I often use the cherry tomatoes that grow wild in our backyard - a cheaper and healthier alternative to bought barbeque sauce!

This recipe is delicious on steak or chicken, or poured over meat and slow-cooked.  If you like it spicier, just add some more fresh chilli, or cayenne pepper.  If it's the wrong season for plums, I just use some tinned ones; about four or five since they're small.

Makes approx. 1 litre of sauce.

1. Weigh the veges and plums into the Thermomix bowl and blend for 30 seconds on speed 9:
- 950g fresh tomatoes (very ripe), halved
- 2-3 dark red plums, deseeded
- 150g red onion
- 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded
- 2 or 3 garlic cloves 
- 1 red capsicum, halved
- 50g dates, pitted

2. Add remaining ingredients, mix on speed 6 for a few seconds, then cook at Varoma temperature for 45 minutes, speed 3, with the rice basket on the lid instead of the MC. (This lets the steam out so that the sauce reduces, without letting it spit everywhere.)
- 4-5 heaped tablespoons tomato paste
- 100g balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp green stevia powder OR 50g Rapadura or coconut sugar
- 2 tsp worchestershire sauce or tamari sauce
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp ground smoky paprika
- 2 tsp liquid smoke seasoning (opt.)
- 2 tsp sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper

3. Blend for 30 seconds on speed 9.

4. Pour into sterilized bottles or jars and keep in the fridge. Use within a month. For longer storage time, you can use the waterbath canning method to ensure removal of bacteria, then keep in the pantry for up to a year.

Raw Creamy Strawberry Pudding

This is the most DELICIOUS pudding ever - and it's so healthy!  Ruth over at the Thermomix Forum converted it from a recipe in the book Baby Greens: A Live-Food Approach for Children of All Ages.  Thanks Ruth!!  It's kind of like a mixture between a pudding, and strawberry yoghurt.  You can freeze the strawberries to make it thicker and colder if you like, or just use them fresh.  If your kids don't like avocado, just don't tell them it's in there, and they'll never notice - mine didn't ;) 

1.  Soak dates overnight in water, or at least for a few hours until soft:
- 1/2 cup pitted dates
- 1/2 cup water

2.  Place in Thermomix:
- soaked dates with soaking water
- 1 cup of avocado (about 2 avocados)
- 1 1/2 cups of strawberries (I just used 1 punnet) - either frozen or fresh

3.  If using fresh strawberries, blend on speed 5 for 30 - 50 seconds.
     If using frozen strawberries, blend on speed 9 for 30 - 50 seconds.

Enjoy!