Just a few pics...

Ok Ok I am a terrible blogger!!

Here are some recent new stuff thermie has made!

Tomato Tart Tatin (from For Food's Sake). Home grown tomatoes. YUM. 

Pastry was a little undercooked, I think we made it too thick, but apart from that, this was awesome.

More Macarons (of course). I bought one of the silicone macaron baking sheets, makes it much easier to pipe on! Strawberry and Banana were the last 2 batches...

Pizza scrolls - kids love them!

EDC Creme Brulee. Average. Very average....

Raspberry and almond meringue cake (for R's birthday dinner), also from the For Food's SAke cookbook. Ths cake was divine. A special treat for a special guy.

More Thermomix Macarons!

Am loving making macarons in the thermomix. I have tried a new filling Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing. It was a definite winner!!!

Devil of a cookbook

I really enjoy this cookbook, I have made a few different things out of it. This is a link to the recipes included in the book, and here is where you can buy it from!

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Devil of a Cookbook demonstration class. It was amazing! I learnt heaps of handy tips, and got to see Fiona in action. I also got to try the Raw Green Pea and Mint Soup (not really my style, am not a fan of green food!), Watermelon and Feta Salad with Mint dressing (surprisingly delicious), Fragrant Curry Sauce with Chicken (yummo), Salmon with Yoghurt Dressing (beautiful), Mick's Ciabatta (a nice bread, must try this one!), Trixie's light as air Sponge Cake, Real Fruit Jellies, and Invigorating Juice.

I have cooked the Sweet Moroccan Curried Beef, Devil May Care Scones, 1,2,3,4 pancakes, Muesli Slice, Chocolate Brownies and  Martha's Melting Moments. My favourite so far has to be the caramelised onion, feta and pumpkin tart. It uses shortcrust pastry, which I have never made before. I actually think it is my most favourite thermie recipe so far!!!

This is the Sweet Moroccan curried beef - a new family favourite!

A typical Monday in my kitchen...

I cook most of my weekly dinners on a Monday when little miss is at school. The boys amuse themselves with cars or trucks or playing outdoors, and I get busy. In just over 2 hours I usually prepare and cook 5-6 meals. So quick and easy now, especially since my recent purchase of a 2nd thermomix bowl!
I usually make:

• Lasagne for the following night (cheese sauce and vege prep in thermie)
• Spaghetti Bolognaise (or meatballs) - goes into freezer (vege prep in thermie)
• Sweet and Sour chicken  - goes into freezer (all done in thermie)
• Satay chicken - goes into freezer (all done in thermie, or slow cooker depending on how I am going for time)
• Spicy chicken and sweet potato - for Monday nights

and today I added a new favourite:

• Curried Sausages - goes into freezer (all done in thermie)

6 meals in 2 hours. All made from scratch, all loaded with vegetables, all loved by the kids. 

I can't imagine life without a thermomix now!

CAKE!

Been busy making cakes lately...

This was a chocolate mud with dark chocolate ganache.

This was a vanilla mud with milk chocolate ganache.

A few new favourites to add to my recommend list of recipes:

Sweet and Sour Chicken - freezes well, easy and quick to make, can  pack full of hidden veges. Yummy taste!

Quirky Jo's 'fried' rice - mine looked exactly like Jo's picture. This was so quick and easy to make - 25 minutes from start to finish. Best of all my non-vegetable loving kids loved it - Miss 5 year old ate broccoli, leek, carrot, peas and corn, vegetables she has never willingly (or knowingly) eaten in her whole life! We just had bacon - no other meat - with it, so it was a really cheap meal too. We will try it next time without the coconut milk and just use stock, R thought the coconut flavour was a little too overwhelming.

Baked Doughnuts.

Quick, easy, and best of all YUM

Magic Bean Chocolate Cake (GF)

I have made this twice in the last fortnight - once as muffins and once as a birthday cake (see pics)

No-one could believe it had a can of red kidney beans in it! It was moist and rich and so easy to make (like everything else in my thermomix!)

Thermomix Macarons!

My latest fun with thermie has been making macarons. I have never even attempted to make something like this before, but I really do love to eat them!  Mara's Macaron Recipe is so easy to follow.

Here are some pictures:

First attempt

Not too bad!

 Dark Chocolate Ganache and White Chocolate and Raspberry Ganache

2nd attempt

3rd attempt - Chocolate with chocolate ganache (definitely not as good as first attempt!)