Spicy BBQ Chicken All-in-One Dinner

 



One of the things I love most about my Thermomix is that it makes super-delicious and super-easy 'all-in-one' meals! (You may have noticed that. There's quite a few on my blog.)

Who doesn't love a meal that's quick to put together, doesn't use up every pot in the cupboard, saves electricity by cooking everything at once, and tastes delicious to boot? Not to mention the fact that steamed veges are much better for you than veges boiled to death in a pot of water. So I tend to make a lot of these 'all-in-one' meals, just varying the layers to use whatever I have. When the cooking time is finished, if there's liquid in the bowl, I often use it to make a sauce to pour over the top so nothing is wasted.

Here's one I made up the other night - chicken thighs cooking in a spicy BBQ sauce, with veges and either rice, potatoes or quinoa cooking in the basket in the bowl, and a sauce made with the juices that are left in the bowl at the end. Very simple, a great mid-week meal. It's a little bit spicy, so adjust the chilli powder to taste!

Spicy BBQ Chicken All-in-One Dinner

1. Mince garlic in Thermomix bowl on speed 7 for 3 seconds:

- 2 cloves garlic

 

2. Add remaining sauce ingredients and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds:

- 80g tomato sauce

- 60g apple cider vinegar

- 30g butter, ghee or oil

- 2 tsp seeded or Dijon mustard

- 2 Tbspns Tamari

- 2 Tbspns lemon juice

- 20g Rapadura or 15g honey

- 1 tsp herb salt

- 1-2 tsp chilli powder

- 2 tsp smoked paprika

 

3. Pour over chicken thighs in a bowl and marinate for half an hour. (If you don't have time you can just go ahead and cook them.)

- 1 kg chicken thighs, fat removed

 

4. Pour water into bowl, insert rice basket, and weigh in rice/quinoa/potatoes.

- 900g water

- 400g basmati rice

    OR

  350g quinoa (rinsed)

    OR   

  fill basket with thickly sliced potatoes (skin on)

5. Put lid on bowl, with Varoma on top. Add veges to lower Varoma tray, and place the upper Varoma tray on top. Line with wet baking paper, and arrange chicken on paper, drizzling with some of the sauce. Set remaining sauce aside for later.
- sliced veges: carrots, broccoli, green beans, red capsicum... or even just frozen peas and corn if you're in a hurry
- chicken in BBQ sauce

 

6. Start cooking for 20 minutes at Varoma temp, speed 4 for rice or quinoa, or 25 minutes for potatoes. When cooking time is finished, remove Varoma (set it on it's lid to catch drips) and remove rice/quinoa/potatoes and cooked veges to a Thermoserver or covered serving dish to keep warm. The chicken will need a little more time to cook.

7. If you cooked rice/quinoa, there won't be much 'juice' left in the bowl. Add some more liquid by carefully draining the juices off the chicken into the bowl. Also, add the reserved BBQ sauce to the bowl (from marinating the chicken). Replace lid and Varoma (bottom tray will be empty), and cook for another 10 minutes at Varoma temperature, speed 2. Chicken should be done - cut a thigh in half to check.

    If you cooked potatoes in the basket, there'll be lots of water left in the bowl. Tip all but about 2 inches of water out. Add juices from chicken and reserved sauce, replace chicken in Varoma tray, and cook as above.

 

The juices left in the bowl - BBQ marinade is added and it is thickened to make sauce.

8. Remove cooked chicken to another Thermoserver or covered serving dish. Make the sauce by adding cornstarch/arrowroot mixture to bowl and cooking at 100C for 4 minutes, speed 4.
- 2 Tbspns cornstarch or arrowroot, mixed with 2 Tbspns water in a cup

 

 

9. Serve chicken, veges and rice/quinoa/potatoes together, drizzled with the sauce.

 

As you can see, it's very handy to have more than one *Thermoserver!

They'll keep your food hot for up to three hours, so you can make dinner ahead of time and keep it in the servers until everyone's ready to eat. No more cold dinners.

 

* A Thermoserver is a double insulated stainless steel serving dish valued at $60, available only through Thermomix home demonstrations in Australia. 

 

* Special Deal for January 2013 *

You can receive TWO Thermoservers for free by purchasing a Thermomix in January,

and holding your home demonstration before the end of February!

Visit the Thermomix website for more details.

Raw Chocolate Truffles

 

Raw Chocolate Truffles with Dried Cranberries

Lately I've been craving these. I'm working hard this month to keep off sugars as much as possible, for my January Body Springclean Challenge! I'm only having a very small amount of natural sweeteners like fruit, dates, raw honey, pure maple syrup, yacon syrup, green stevia, and coconut sugar. That's not so hard, but it's the chocolate I miss most. So now and then I like to have a couple of these raw chocolate truffles to satisfy that sweet, chocolate craving... usually in the late afternoon when my energy levels are getting low.



 I love the silky, smooth, chocolate texture of these truffles, which is achieved by using cacao wafers (or raw cacao licor as it's also known) instead of just raw cacao powder. The cacao wafers are made from raw cacao nibs ground up into a very smooth paste, then set into wafers. The cacao butter hasn't been removed, so it gives just the right creamy texture for raw chocolates and bliss balls. They don't contain any sweeteners or additives, so they are perfect for making all sorts of delicious, healthy chocolate treats!

 You can buy Changing Habits cacao wafers here.

I made up this recipe a couple of months ago and have been meaning to get it on the blog ever since, but time has gotten away. At Christmas time, I divided the mixture in two, and mixed one half with naturally sweetened dried cranberries (deeeeeelicious!), and the other half with some naked ginger and dried apricots. So so good.

I use these organic, naturally sweetened dried cranberries - ingredients are: organic dried cranberries sweetened with organic concentrated apple juice, organic Sunflower Oil (less than 0.5%). I prefer these to the sickly sweet sugary supermarket ones. And I love that they have no preservatives.

You could mix in some roughly chopped nuts instead of dried fruit, or some raw cacao nibs for extra crunch. Or just leave it smooth and plain, and press it into a square dish and cut into small squares like fudge.

Raw Chocolate Fudge

Don't be scared of the 'secret ingredient' - banana! It doesn't taste like banana - that just helps with the texture. The chocolate is so powerful it overtakes the banana. ;) Yes, this is definitely a recipe for hard-core chocolate lovers... so beware if you're one of those strange 'milk chocolate' kinda people. (Ha ha!) For me, the darker the chocolate, the better. And the good thing about dark chocolate is you only need a tiny bit to feel satisfied. So try this recipe for a deliciously healthy, naturally sweetened chocolate hit - mmmmm...


Raw Chocolate Truffles

1. Grind almonds on speed 8 for 8 seconds to make flour, and set aside.
- 150g blanched almonds

2. Grind cacao wafers and vanilla bean for 5 seconds on speed 9.
- 250g cacao wafers
- 1 vanilla bean, cut in thirds

3. Add dates and chop for 10 seconds on speed 9.
- 170g raw dates (or regular dates - chop 20 seconds)

4. Add syrup and cook for 7 minutes at 37C, speed 3.
- 50g pure maple syrup or yacon syrup

5. Add salt, reserved almond flour, and banana and mix on speed 8 until very smooth.
- pinch Himalayan salt
- reserved almond flour
- 1 ripe banana, peeled (not over-ripe, as the flavour will be too strong)

6. Either roll mixture into small balls for truffles, or press into a square dish for fudge. Place in the fridge to harden.

These truffles will last in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Unless you eat them first. ;)

January 'Body Springclean' Challenge!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year's, sharing delicious food and special times with your family and friends. We've enjoyed having family here for the holidays, it's been a fun time. (Well, except for the tummy bug that popped in for a visit for a couple of days, but let's not dwell on that...)

 

Mum preparing the gluten free cornbread stuffing for the turkey

 

Christmas dinner was lovely. We had a homegrown turkey (from our neighbour) stuffed with gf cornbread stuffing, gravy made with slow-cooked chicken stock, roasted crispy-skinned duck with orange-cherry sauce, homegrown ham (from a friend), and lots of veges. So blessed.

 

I was very careful not to go 'overboard' with sweets and breads over the last week, but I still feel like I've had enough to last me for a fair while. Well, I guess I did have a few cinnamon scrolls over the last month (all in the name of recipe testing, you know!)...

 

 

Then there was my mum's cherry and pecan pies, with my cashew-vanilla ice cream...

 

 

 

And my decadent chocolate coconut cream ice cream...

 

 

 

Plus a little bit of Christmas cookie making at Grandma's house...

(I only ate one - I promise!)

 

 

 

And a few nibbles of maple syrup & rapadura butter toffee... Hmmm, I guess all those little 'bits' add up, don't they.

 

Well, enough is enough. My body is telling me it's time for a 'spring clean' and I think I'd better listen. We've been discussing this on my Facebook page today, and over 100 people have agreed to join me in a 'body springclean' challenge this month! What about you? Want to join in too?

January is a good time to re-focus on healthy eating and healthy living. Let's share our goals for a January 'Body Springclean', and throughout the month we can keep each other updated on how we're doing - encouraging and inspiring each other to stay motivated!

Here's how:

1. Write down your 'body springclean' goal/s for this month. What's the main thing (or couple of things) you want to focus on this month to change your habits for the better? Write your goals out, nice and big, and stick them up on the wall or the fridge where you will see them every day. Then share them with us, either in the comments on this post, or on my Facebook page. If you're on Twitter or Instagram, you can share them there, using the hashtag #bodyspringclean.

If you like, take a photo of your goals and share it on my FB wall; or you can just leave a comment, either on my FB page, or on this blog post. (And don't worry if you didn't manage to start on January the 1st - begin where you are. Every day makes a difference.)

Remember the K.I.S.S. principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid! I have a tendency to make great long lists of things I'm going to do, which makes me feel very pleased with myself for being so organised. Then I put my list away and forget about it because it's too overwhelming to do all at once. I'm not going to do that this month! So these are my goals...

They might not look like much, but I get so busy I forget to drink enough water and exercise... and it's time I kicked out the sugar again! Keep your goals simple and doable and they're more likely to happen. You can always add more next month. :)

2. Every day, take a photo or write a comment to demonstrate how you met your goal that day. For example, if your goal is to have a green juice each day, let us know what you're putting in your juices, which ones you like, which ones you don't, any benefits you're noticing, etc. And take a photo now and then and post it on my FB page, or Instagram, or Twitter.

I have started a special album on my FB page, called 'January Body Springclean Challenge'. I'll post my photos there each day, and if you post your photos on my page I'll share some of yours too! It'll be fun :D

3. At the end of the month, if you've stayed motivated and shared photos and/or comments, you'll go into the draw to win a prize! (YES, there's PRIZES!!) Here's what you can win (one prize per person):

- 1 of 3 vouchers from Organics on a Budget for $25 to spend in their online store

- 1 of 2 ebook bundles from Blue Sky Health & Fitness, valued at $89, which include:
* Healthy Lifestyle Guide
* 6 Week Clean Eating, Healthy Lifestyle Recipe & Meal Plan (dairy, wheat and sugar free)
* 6 Week Exercise Plan

- 1 x 28 Day Body & Mind Transformation Bootcamp, from Mummy Bootcamp @ Home, valued at $149

- 1 of 3 Regenerating Night Creams from Cosima Skincare (Certified Organic Cosmeceutical Skincare), valued at $49 each.

- 1 400g container of Organic Barley Spirulina Blend from Nutra Organics, valued at $49.95.

- 1 280g tin of Coconut Sugar from Loving Earth

- 1 250g packet of Lucuma powder from Loving Earth


Thank you for the donations, guys!!

 
So come on and join in the fun, and do your body a favour. Let's do this!! Who's in?

 

 P.S. If you need some ideas of where to start, here's a few - but don't try to do them all at once!
- substituting natural sweeteners for refined cane sugar
- getting rid of wheat
- bye bye dairy
- going grain free
- starting to menu plan
- 10 minute a day workout