Hazelnut Chocolate Strawberries

Strawberries are back in season - YAY!!  Try this for a yummy treat...

Wash and trim strawberries (saving the leaves), and slice in half.  Dollop one half with some homemade chocolate hazelnut spread, and sandwich together with the other half.  Place leaves on plate and top with strawberries.

Easy and delicious!

Creamy Citrus Smoothie

Sorry I've been out of touch for a couple of weeks - been moving house, and I was sick for a week too!  I can still barely see the floor for boxes, but we're getting there :)  Here's a quick recipe that I hope you'll enjoy...

In winter there's plenty of citrus fruit around - isn't it great when friends give you great big bags of oranges and mandarins off their trees!  Here's a delicious alternative to the usual orange juice - the nuts turn it into a calcium-rich fruit 'milk'!  Sometimes I call it 'orange milk', or 'orange smoothie', but you can really use any citrus fruits in it - mix and match: grapefruit, mandarin, lemonade fruit, and bush lemons - and I often add some kiwi fruit too.  As you can see from the photo, I leave a bit of skin on the fruit, as the bioflavinoids in the skin help you to better absorb the vitamin C - and the Thermomix does such a good job of blending it, your kids will never know it's there!  (Use organic fruit if possible, especially if you're including peel.)  See below for some more great variations and tips.

I don't measure amounts, so just make it to taste...

Place in Thermomix bowl and blend on speed 9 for 1 minute, or until smooth:

- a mixture of 3 or 4 oranges/mandarins/grapefruit/bush lemons/lemonade fruit/kiwi fruit (get most of the seeds out, and most of the peel off - just leave a little bit of peel in there)

- a spoonful or two of raw honey (to taste)

- ice cubes, to about the 1.5 litre mark

- a good handful each of raw almonds and raw cashews

- water to barely cover (add more if needed to thin it out)

Here's a few more tips and variations from my friend Barbara...

"As a little extra – if you want to ‘mellow’ the stronger citrus taste because of the lemon and or grapefruit, include a washed and quartered apple. Depending on the relative quantity of citrus, one or two apples will do. Leave the skin on and the core in – more bioflavonoids in them. If you want to make it creamier and a little thicker, drop in one or two bananas. A handful of mint if you have it and/or 2cm of washed fresh ginger – sliced roughly - makes it extra refreshing and healthful for coughs, colds etc. Finally – the most daring is a chilli added at the beginning of the blending or a good shake of cayenne pepper in each glass then a quick stir. It is very warming when slightly under the weather! "

Thanks Barbara!

Menu Plan Monday - June 14

I know, I know - it's not Monday!  But I'm running a bit late with the menu planning... I thought I should post something since I haven't gotten around to it for nearly two weeks.  (Although I did play around with the look of my blog the other day - what do you think of it?)

We're busy packing up to move - again!  It's only been about eight months since our last move, so at least this time it won't be such an upheaval (maybe).  It was all a bit unexpected, and we've only had a week and a half to pack, so meals are pretty basic around here at the moment.  I'm trying to use up what I've got in the fridge and freezer, frozen chicken stock and things like that, and mostly making do with what we've got.  The Thermomix really comes into it's own when you need quick meals - my dd (12) made some buckwheat pancakes for us for breaky, and now she is making some tuna pasta for lunch, and later I'll get the kids to put on a vegetable & barley soup with meatballs steaming on top.  (We're fighting colds here, so having lots of soups!)  I love that I can keep packing while the kids make dinner - the Thermomix is so easy to use, and I don't have to worry about them chopping their fingers!

On another note - I got to help out at a cooking class with Chef Laurent Vancam last week, and got lots of great ideas for cooking with the Thermomix for large groups of people.  Chef Laurent is trying to get the word out to tuckshops and canteens about how to get rid of the pre-processed junk 'foods' that are often served to kids, replacing them with healthy, homemade alternatives... at the same time saving time and money.  He uses the Thermomix for quick, healthy food preparation, and his recipes are really yummy - I wish he ran my school tuckshop when I was a kid!!  If you get the opportunity to go to one of his cooking classes, you'll really enjoy it - and his cookbooks are great too - I bought them both.  There's one for families, and one for larger groups, which will be very helpful when we're cooking for youth camp - can't wait to try it out :)  I made his 'Snails' recipe for a bunch of people the other day, and they were a great hit.  The kids were a bit worried when I told them the French chef had taught me to cook snails, and I was going to make some for them... hee hee.  (They are actually made with brioche dough, rolled out and filled with a thick custard, chopped apple, and sultanas, cut into scrolls and baked - YUM!!  I used Rapadura and rice-almond milk for the custard, and it was delicious and caramelly, plus apples, berries and almonds, and spelt brioche dough.)  Here's a video of Chef Laurent making mini Lemon Tarts... enjoy!  (P.S. I would use ground up Rapadura instead of castor sugar.)

Anyway, I'd better hurry up here and get back to my packing.  So here's my belated and very basic menu this week...  If you need some menu planning ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday at "I'm an Organising Junkie"; and you may like to read my post on how I plan my menu, and why.  Leave a comment and let me know what you're enjoying cooking in your Thermomix - I'd love to hear from you!  Have a great week :)

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

Monday:
(lunch) Chicken & vegetable soup (TMX) with spelt bread rolls (TMX)
(dinner) Chicken & vegetable soup with a big blob of mashed potato (TMX) in the middle!

Tuesday:
(lunch) Tuna gf pasta (TMX)
(dinner) Barley, vegetable & meatball soup (TMX)

Wednesday:
(lunch) Homemade hamburgers on spelt rolls (TMX)
(dinner) Lamb chops & rice salad (TMX)

Thursday:
(lunch) out for lunch
(dinner) Tacos & Spelt Tortillas (TMX) & Mexican Quinoa (TMX)

Friday - Moving Day!:
(lunch) Spelt tortillas (TMX) with leftovers
(dinner) hmmm.... maybe dinner at G'mas! :D

Saturday - more moving...
(lunch) Sausages in bread
(dinner) Crockpot spaghetti sauce (with lots of veges - TMX) on spelt pasta

The Family Gets Creative!

Here's an idea for your next Thermomix soup - while it's cooking, steam some 'choko flowers' in the Varoma on top!  These cute little flowers are thin slices off the end of a choko - aren't they pretty?  (Discovered by my dh!)  (This soup is a kind of Irish Stew with pumpkin, variation on the one in the 'Meat on the Menu' cookbook - yum!)

My 6 year old daughter also wanted me to post the photo of her mashed potato and carrot dish... very creative, I thought ;)  (I'm not one of those 'don't play with your food' type of mums - I'm afraid my daughter quite often makes food sculptures before eating!  Chefs are always playing with their food, so why can't we??? lol)

“Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.”

- Julia Child -