Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

I REALLY love chocolate! (Have you noticed?) I love chocolate drinks, and chocolate cakes, and chocolate cookies, and chocolate-banana-macadamia ice-cream, and chocolate sauce... I even love chocolate chicken!! (My dh and I went to a Mexican restaurant last night, and of course I had to order Mole Poblana - chocolate chilli chicken - yum!)

I've been meaning to post my recipe for hazelnut chocolate spread for a while... It's much healthier than Nutella, and to make it dairy free you can use dairy free chocolate and coconut oil - works beautifully! You could even use this amazing coconut butter (made in minutes in the Thermomix from dried coconut) instead of the coconut oil, although it doesn't turn out quite as smooth, and has a slight coconutty flavour. Otherwise, use ghee (recipe below) or just good old butter (if you can have it).

Hide this delicious spread in the back of the fridge, and then when you feel the need for some chocolate, you can spread it thickly on a hot bread roll, or some toast, or onto strawberries, and sneak off to your room to eat it! Just don't tell the kids and hubby it's there, or it won't last long! ;) 


Note: First you should toast your hazelnuts in the oven and rub off the skins with a tea towel. If you don't have time or can't be bothered, you can use the raw hazelnuts, the flavour will just be a bit less nutty.

1. Grind in Thermomix on speed 9 for 10 seconds:

- 90g Rapadura

2. Add and grind on speed 9 for 10 seconds:

- 60g hazelnuts (toasted or raw)

3. Then add and grind again for 10 seconds:
- 50g good quality, dairy free dark chocolate (70-85% cocoa organic chocolate, or my recipe), broken into pieces

4. Add remaining ingredients and heat for 6 minutes, 60 degrees, speed 3:

- 20g cacao powder (or good quality cocoa)

- 100g rice/almond milk

- 70g coconut oil, coconut butter, ghee (recipe below) or butter

5. Place in a sterilized jar and keep in fridge for up to 21 days (not that it will last that long!!!)

To make your own ghee, just cook butter for 7-10 mins at 60 degrees, speed 1; cool, scrape off milk solids and discard, and carefully scoop ghee into another container, discarding any milk solids at the bottom of the container.

Menu Plan Monday - 26th October

Well, I 've started this week off with lots of cooking... today I've made homemade muesli bars, honey roasted nuts, spelt bread rolls and spelt bread, dairy-free choc-hazelnut spread, bean pasta, meatballs, creamy asparagus soup, a few batches of butter and some ghee! Phew! My dh and ds have gone camping (hence the need to make some homemade muesli bars and roasted nuts for them to take), and I need to get lots of cooking done early in the week, as we're going away for a couple of nights later in the week - just me and my dh, alone!!! Yeehah! Off to a posh motel in Cairns to have a break, and belatedly celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary while the kids enjoy some time with G'ma and G'pa. So there'll be a gap in the menu where I won't be cooking dinner - just eating out at some great restaurants, I hope!

I didn't completely stick to last week's menu - still a bit crazy here with unpacking, and visitors dropping by to see the new house. On Saturday night we had an impromptu 'dinner party' with friends - I had no meat, it was 5pm, and our friends are coeliac so we had to have something suitable for them... We ended up making two batches of tuna mornay, one with gf pasta and dairy white sauce, and one with spelt pasta and df white sauce! (Thank goodness for the Thermomix!) The veges were stir fried and served on the side, (along with baked veges), as someone doesn't like his veges mixed in with his tuna mornay (not mentioning any names, Chris)! Anyway, it may not have been a fancy meal, but as the saying goes, "It's not what's on the table that counts, but who's on the chairs!"

Hope you have a great week - check out Menu Plan Monday for some more menu planning ideas!

[TMX = prepared and/or cooked in the Thermomix]

Monday:
(lunch) Leftover chicken curry (TMX) and rice
(dinner) Creamy asparagus soup (dairy free - TMX) and Pasta e Fagioli (TMX) with meatballs

Tuesday:
(lunch) Sandwiches & leftovers
(dinner) Baked potatoes & salad

Wednesday:
(lunch) Crockpot BBQ beef ribs, baked potatoes, salad (for family, while I do a demo)
(dinner) Tuna pasta (TMX) & salad

Thursday & Friday:
Away!

Saturday:
(dinner) Crockpot sweet 'n' sour beans with rice (didn't get this done last week - putting this in the crockpot for the family as I'll be at a demo)

Sunday:
(lunch) Crockpot chicken & veges
(dinner) Spelt bread rolls & pumpkin soup (TMX)

We'll be taking the Thermomix with us on our getaway, as I like to have it for making porridge, custard, salad, smoothies, juices, etc...

Will be using Thermomix early in the week to make bread, tortillas, cakes and cookies, for us and kids to have for days not at home.

Menu Plan Monday - 19th October

Hi everyone - I'm finally back! After weeks of upheaval (and sickness), we are finally settling into our new house... although we still have lots of cleaning to do at the old one, and lots of boxes to unpack at the new. But I definitely think it's time for a menu plan, even if it is very basic! I'll try to post some of the recipes later this week.

We still don't have an oven here, so I'm using the Thermomix and crockpot a lot. I'm also keeping meals simple, as there's still so much to do. My new kitchen is really tiny (but cute!) so I'm very thankful for my space-saving Thermomix - there really isn't any room for any other appliances except the electric frypan and the crockpot!

Check out Menu Plan Monday at 'I'm an Organizing Junkie' for more menu planning ideas. Hope you all have a great week.

[TMX = prepared and/or cooked in Thermomix]

Monday: Creamy chicken & veges (dairy free sauce made in TMX, all cooked in crockpot) with broccoli and zucchini.

Tuesday: Chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes (TMX), steamed veges (TMX).

Wednesday: Tuna mornay (dairy-free, TMX) with gf noodles; salad.

Thursday: Sweet & sour beans (crockpot) on brown rice (TMX); salad.

Friday: Fish (coated in cornmeal & shallow fried), baked potatoes (crockpot) & salad (TMX).

Saturday: Spaghetti bolognaise (sauce made in TMX) with spelt fettucine; salad.

Sunday: Nachos with kidney bean sauce (TMX) and gaucomole (no cheese - dairy-free sour cream).