Gluten free chocolate zucchini cupcakes

I make these quite often and they are super healthy as well as super yummy. They also freeze well for lunch boxes, if you can sneak a batch into the freezer before they get eaten that is!

Here is the link: http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/chocolate-zucchini-cake/87668

My first ever sponge cake attempt!

So the other day I decided that aged 36, it was high time I attempted to make my first sponge cake. Thanks to "Trixie's lighter than air sponge cake" recipe in The Devil of a Cookbook and channeling my inner Nana it was a great success! I spread my strawberry vanilla jam between the layers, yum!

Baking with the thermie is made so easy with the inbuilt scales that can be re-tared as each ingredient is added, and the mixing time is so quick and efficient.

BBQ sauce

OK so I'm a little obsessed with making condiments in my thermie! This is my latest batch of the "Quirky Cooking" BBQ sauce. It is especially delicious on a homemade "meatlover's" pizza!

Here is the link:
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/this-is-my-barbeque-sauce-recipe-which.html

Strawberry vanilla jam

This jam is delicious and sets perfectly every time with just the pectin from the skin of the green apple. Best of all it only takes 30 minutes to make, no stirring required!

Here is the link: http://tenina.com/2011/08/strawberry-vanilla-jam/

CADA, try it!

CADA stands for coconut, apple, dates and almonds and is a quick and delicious fresh muesli to have for breakfast (or I have it for lunch quite often as well!) The recipe is in the new EDC, but is basically 1 apple quartered, 40g almonds, 40g dates and 40g fresh or dessicated coconut. Pulse on turbo 3-4 times, serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt and you're done!

Menu plan #1

Impossible Quiche & Raw Beetroot Salad

You can make 1 large quiche or mini quiches using a muffin tray

The "Impossible Quiche" from the Devil of  Cookbook is a favourite in my house. I sometimes double to recipe and make one for a friend as well. So quick, easy and delicious!

Ingredients:
50g Parmesan, cubed
150g Cheddar, cubed
1 small onion, halved (I sometimes use red onion or spring onions)
120g ham, roughly chopped (I often use chorizo, yum!)
50g plain flour
4 eggs
370g milk

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180C and grease a 25cm pie tin (or 2 x 6 muffin trays) and set aside.
Place Parmesan and cheddar in mixing bowl and grate 10 sec/speed 9. Set aside
Place onion and ham (or chorizo) into mixing bowl and chop 5 sec/sp4.
Add reserved cheeses and flour and blend for 5 sec/sp4. Distribute evenly over base of tin/muffin trays.
Without washing mixing bowl, place in eggs and milk and mix for 3 sec/sp3.
Pour over base and cook for 40 minutes (about 20-30 for mini quiches) or until puffed and golden.
Cool slightly before slicing.

I served it with the Raw Beetroot salad from the Everyday Cookbook.
The mini quiches are also good for lunch boxes!

Aussie Meat Pies

The Aussie meat pie recipe has been another fave for us for a long time. The recipe can be found in both the Meat on the Menu cookbook and the new Everyday Cookbook. My kids love an individual pie in a ramekin with their initial on it. I served it with sweet potato chips (cut into chip sized pieces, coat in olive oil and sea salt and roast in the oven while cooking the pies) and salad. I must confess I was in a rush that night, so used frozen puff pastry, but I'm eager to try out the iced puff pastry recipe next time.

My version of Eggs in Ramekins

Assembling the varoma

Egg cupcakes with toast soldiers, peas and corn

This recipe is based on Louise Fulton Keats' recipe eggs in ramekins in her new Baby and Toddler cookbook. My ramekins are too large for the varoma, so I had the idea of using my silicon cupcake molds. The boys love "egg cupcakes" at the moment, and it is one of the very rare meals that all three of them will finish completely, the elusive "trifecta"!

The recipe is so simple! Put the desired number of ramekins/silicon molds on the varoma tray, place a small amount of chopped bacon in the bottom of each silicon mold and crack an egg on top. In the varoma dish put the required amount of frozen peas and corn (or other vegetables of your choice). Place 500g of water in the bowl and put the varoma in position. Cook for 15-17 min/varoma/sp7. Serve with toast soldiers :)

Nico's butter chicken with naan bread

The marinating chicken

What can be better than butter chicken and naan bread on a cold winter's night?!

We do eat as a family most evenings, but about once to twice a week we feed the kids a quick and basic meal like the egg cupcakes and treat ourselves to an adult meal that is a little spicier than the kids enjoy, and we enjoy eating without getting indigestion! This week I made Nico's Butter Chicken from the new cookbook by Nico Moretti "Cooking Passions: Delicious Journeys". I used the naan recipe from the Indian cookbook. It was definitely delicious, and not too time consuming. I just planned this meal for a day when I had time to make the marinade during the middle of the day for dinner that evening.

Marinade:

10g ginger, peeled

2 cloves of garlic

40g tandoori paste

60g plain yoghurt

20g lemon/lime juice

60g butter

1.5kg chicken thighs cut in half

Place ginger and garlic into TM bowl and chop 5 sec/sp7. 

Scrape down sides of the bowl and add butter and melt 2 min/70C/sp2.

Add tandoori paste, yoghurt and lemon juice and stir to combine 1:30min/sp3.

Butter chicken sauce:

20g oil

1 onion peeled and quartered

2 cloves of garlic

20g/1.5cm ginger peeled

1-2 green chillies (or to taste), roughly chopped

2 coriander root (incl. 5cm stalk), reserve leaves for garnish

1 tsp cardamon powder

60g butter

40g tomato puree/passata

40g toasted blanched almonds

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

140ml coconut cream

1/2 tsp garam masala

20g tamarind paste

20g palm or brown sugar

2 tsp salt

coriander leaves and chopped chilli for garnish

Toast blanched almonds in oven, then grind 8 sec/sp9.

Place butter, oil, onion, ginger, garlic, coriander roots, chillies and cardamon into TM bowl and chop 10 sec/sp5. Scrape down and repeat to achieve a wet paste.

Add cinnamon stick, bay leaf, ground almonds and pureed tomatoes and cook 8 min/varoma/sp2.

Insert BUTTERFLY, add marinated chicken pieces and cook 15min/100C/REVERSE/sp1, until chicken is cooked through.

Pour into large serving dish, taste for seasoning and garnish with a drizzle of coconut cream, coriander leaves and sliced chillies. Serve with rice and naan bread!

Nico's cookbook Delicious Journeys can be purchased online from his website:

 http://www.urbanprovider.com.au/index.cfm?Page_ID=32

Pizza night!

               Pear & Prosciutto

                    Prawn, brie & sweet chilli

Banana, walnut & maple syrup dessert pizza

 Kiwi explosion dessert pizza

We LOVE making pizza dough in the thermie. It works our perfectly every time and a couple of batches can be whipped up in no time. Best of all left over pizza dough freezes really well for use at a later date.

For our savoury pizzas we use passata as our pizza sauce for most things. Philly cream cheese is great to use for prawns and BBQ sauce (made in the thermie of course) is awesome on a meat lovers style pizza.

Some of our fave topping combos include prosciutto and sliced pear (the riper the better), topped with a little brown sugar, yum! Prawns, brie and sweet chilli sauce (I make Cyndi O'Meara's recipe) is another hit.

Dessert pizzas are amazing, and we like to get creative with whatever ingredients we have on hand. We generally use vanilla custard (from the Everyday Cookbook) as our sauce. Topped with banana, walnuts and maple syrup is so delicious. The kiwi with strawberry vanilla jam and dusted with icing sugar was also divine!

And so ends my first menu plan for you. I hope it at least given you some inspiration for the coming week in your kitchen :)

My thoughts on menu planning...

I started menu planning years before I got my Thermomix, basically to ensure I had to make minimal trips to the shops with my children in tow! I recently heard it said that "shopping with kids is like trying to take a maths test while being repeatedly hit over the head", I have to say, I agree!! Hats off to all the mothers out there who can serenely swan around the shops with their well behaved children in tow. My three boys are getting better to shop with, but if I have the choice of doing a weekly grocery shop without any of them I will!

Not only does menu planning save me time, money but also my sanity, as it makes my week run more smoothly when I'm not having to decide in the mayhem of my everyday life what is for dinner that night. I try to sit down on a Sunday night when all my little darlings are tucked up in bed and browse through my recipe books and decide on my weekly menu plan, taking into account how much time I will have for preparation each day and if anyone is planning to be out for dinner. Of course I also try to choose a variety of proteins and vegetables etc and make it as healthy and tasty as possible.

After raving like a loony one night about the starving children in Africa when all my boys declared their dinner was yucky, after I had calmed down I sat the boys down and we made "The List". "The List" was a list of all the dinners they did like to eat. When we wrote it down I was actually surprised at what a good range of meals they actually enjoyed, and that was a good starting point for my menu planning. That was a few years ago and now "The List" has grown a lot longer, as every so often I will tell the boys that I want them to try a new meal to see if it can be put on "The List", and more often than not it is approved by my panel of judges as on it goes! If you have fussy eaters I reckon it is worth starting your own list.

Menu planning is worth the effort and with the help of my thermie I feel that my family are pretty lucky with the variety and quality of the food I serve up to them. The point of my blog is to "share the love" of menu planning and thermomixing!

I am not a nutritionist and my family has no special dietary requirements so my ideas will not suit everybody. I just want to share some inspiration for down to earth weekly menu planning, especially for families with young children.

I am excited to share my first weekly menu plan with you. I will aim to put up a regular menu plan with photos and recipes for 5 weekly meals. I like to be a little more flexible and creative on the weekends when I have time (and can duck to the shops sans kids!)