With back to school upon us for another year I thought I’d share some of the lunchbox treats I make for the kiddos (or the kiddos make themselves/with some help)
Apricot Scones. Have tried this with fresh & dried apricots, fresh wins hands down.
Cinnamon Scrolls (Thermomix version)
Apricot balls (Thermomix version)
A quieter month for the new recipes and we stuck to a lot of tried and true favourites. Lots of French Onion soup additions this month.
Creamy French Onion Chicken Salad. This was so good. Think I was the only one who actually enjoyed it but oh well, more for me.
Beef Satay. We all enjoyed this one. I think I was the only one who liked the sauce. Think next time we’ll try a different cut of steak though.
French Onion Honeycomb pasta. Big thumbs up from everyone on this one. Really nice the next day too.
Creamy French chicken. Good. Something I’d cook again. Want to try it thickened up a bit and in a pie.
We love a good steak meal and decided instead of our usual chips & egg side we’d go with some veg. This time we tried Hassleback potatoes with garlic & herb butter and Honey garlic butter roasted carrots. YUMMO! So much garlic.
Creamed tomato soup in the Thermomix. Nope. Not a fan. Can’t put my finger on it but this was a big no from everyone.
Hi all,
Welcome if you are new and welcome back for my long time readers.
My foodie series – From the Den Kitchen continues in 2022. I’ll be continuing our monthly What We Ate posts, sharing our lunchbox snacks, updating the old posts that are missing recipes, updating the master index.
I’m also planning to do a few recipe challenges that I really hope you’ll join me.
Anyways, just a quick update today. I’ll be back later with the first of our lunchbox snacks.
Have a great day <3
A busy month with a few new recipes, some picked by the kiddos as they are still on holidays and picked some new recipes for us.
We love sloppy Joes so were keen to try a chicken version. These were good. Think I prefer them to the beef version. And silly me didn’t save the recipe.
Chicken rissoles were next up and these are pretty good. great the next day too.
Slow cooking is a favourite of mine when we’ve got a busy day. just chuck it all in and turn it on. Slow Cooked Honey Mustard Chicken is a new family favourite.
We often have Taco Tuesday but this time we mixed it up and had Enchiladas. These are so good.
I often buy Chicken Kiev but due to covid related food shortages they haven’t been available, so when it was just hubby & me for tea one night I searched on Cookidoo and found a recipe. It made a few so could make it when the kiddos are home too.
Something not chicken – Glazed honey balsamic pork chops. Hubby actually enjoyed these even though he’s not a fan of balsamic vinegar. I could have eaten 2.
Baked Riti was a recipe picked by the eldest. She loves spag bol but the rest of us a so sick of it. This is a yummy compromise.
Nachos was next on out list of something else apart from Tacos. These were spicy and I only used half the chilli. Will make again, maybe with even less chilli or bought taco seasoning.
and finally I decided to try a new meatloaf recipe as our usual has mince & sausage mince but I only had mince. This was nice but think I’ll stick with our usual.
What have you been cooking this month? Until next time….
Not much is really changing this year in my planner (you can read my 2021 setup post here). I’ll still be using my combo of the Planners Anonymous Note to Self B6 Melody for Spring/Summer and Northern Lights B6 Melody for Autumn/Winter…… unless I get a new cover for my birthday at the end of January, or through the year *fingers crossed*
Inside I’ve got my B6 pocket in Water droplets (blue) from DesleyJane Plans to house my most used weekly stickers. At the moment they are stickers from Luscious Labels, KHD Stickers, Moby & Co and Kmart monthly planner stickers (sadly these are no longer available)
Page lifters at each end of the planner made by me using the Planners Anon Note to Self digital kit. Printed on 200gsm paper and glued to some cardstock.
Dashboards by DesleyJane Plans. I currently have Pink Petals and Water Droplets (blue). Dark Romance is in my Northern Lights planner.
and finally – Planners Anon luxe B6 inserts. January is Masquerade. I’m hoping Planner Love will be available soon so I can use that for February.
Want to check out Planners Anonymous AND get 10% off your first subscription order? Click on this link and sign up 🙂
To start off December we had leftovers from another cooking of the brisket recipe we first did in October. This time we decided to try the leftovers in tacos. Such a great idea. Brisket is turning out to be a super versatile roast to do leftovers with. I just heated up the meat and shredded it then heated some tortillas. Usual taco fillings and you’re done. Quick and easy and everyone can serve themselves.
Next up this month was Plum Jelly Meatballs. A win, everybody liked them. Added to our book of recipes.
Honey chicken is a favourite in this house so we had to try the Recipe Tin Eats Crispy Honey Chicken. It lives up to it’s name. It stays super crispy.
I love fried rice and this Garlic Chicken Fried Rice was a winner.
Another brisket roast but this time it’s Slow Cooked Honey Soy Beef Brisket. So good. Also great the next night heated up and served in crepes.
Christmas and we were asked to cook a Turducken. This is the recipe we used. Ended up giving it a little bit longer but it was still moist and delicious. No picture for this one as I forgot.
The last new recipe for this year was cooked on New Year’s Eve and was Air Fryer Sticky Chicken Bites. Served with a cheesy potato bake.
Thanks for following along in 2021. I hope you tried something new and I look forward to sharing some new recipes with you all in 2022.
It’s Christmas time and I thought I’d share some of my favourites to cook during December. Seriously though these are good any time of year.
First on the list is Shortbread. This is the recipe my Mum used and I have a feeling this is the recipe that comes from my Grandmother so it’s a proper Scottish one. I can’t remember if I’ve shared this one before but if I have, oh well, here it is again.
My Mum's shortbread recipe
Preheat oven to 160C.
Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Set aside.
Add all ingredients into mixer bowl.
Mix until well combined. Mixture should form a smooth ball.
Roll out until desired thickness (between 5mm and 15mm) and cut circles.
Place on tray. Re-roll remain mixture and repeat until all dough is used.
Cook for 20-30 minutes, until lightly golden.
Let sit on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Optional: sprinkle with extra caster sugar once cooked.
Another quiet recipe month but here you go…
Creamy Chicken & bacon pie filling on the Thermomix recipe community. This is sooo good. Bonus points to as it makes a super yum pasta sauce.
Another Cookidoo recipe – Cider brined pork chops. They were ok. Hubby enjoyed them but he loves pork.
Chicken fajitas. Think these were a big hit with everyone as the whole lot went that night. No leftovers.
Bangers & Mash with Onion Gravy. Not so much. I think I’d just much prefer bangers and mash with onion, no gravy.
One pan chicken alfredo. Hit or miss. Not one the kiddos liked. Neither of the adults were really a fan either.
Back next time with all our December recipes, there will be a few. Lots of sweet treats.
and happy first day of Summer (& nearly Winter). The weather here is gorgeous today and I’m enjoying the cool breeze from the air con.
Lots going on here this month
That’s about it at this stage. Hope you all have a great month.
A quiet month on the new recipe front, well meal wise anyway. We were given a bunch of lemons so cooked a few sweet lemony treats too.
The Slow Cooked Beef Brisket with BBQ Sauce from Recipe Tin Eats was so good. Everyone wants it cooked again so that’s a win.
Remaining meals were Thermomix recipes from Cookidoo.
The Asian Chicken Noodle salad was delicious. Not everyone was a fan but I’d happily have it for a light summer meal or lunch. Would work pretty well for a bbq side too.
We usually do either beef or chicken for our go-to Mexican meal but decided to give Beef Fajitas a go for something different. All I can say is we now have a third option for Mexi meals. I think this would work well so look for that in a future post.
The only meal we made with our lemons was Hunter’s Lemon Chicken Rissoles. Really good. Too much basil for some but meh, not my problem. Made quite a few so I had some the next day for lunch and froze some for later.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a real fan of ‘fried’ rice done in the Thermomix but I think Chooky Rice might just change my mind. It does make HEAPS though (well heaps for our family) so there was leftovers.
Onto our lemon recipes……
I made a batch of Lemon Butter. I’ve got a few recipes but as I’m trying to use our new Thermomix more, I tried the one on Cookidoo. Pretty good.
We made Lemonade, which the big has decided is her current favourite drink, so I’ve made 3L. It’s nice on it’s own over ice but really nice with fizzy lemonade or sparkling water. We also tried Mint Lemonade. That was not so much of a hit. I liked it, and I’ve frozen it to see if it makes good ice cubes over summer.
One of the recipes I made for tea called for Lemon Olive Oil, so I made my own using this recipe (minus the thyme).
Finally I cooked up a batch of goodies for lunchboxes – Noughts & Crosses biscuits and Lemon cupcakes with Citrus syrup, These disappeared before I got pictures but the lemon cupcakes are so moist and very lemony. Will be making them again.
What have you been cooking lately?
