Food – Page 8 – Nightwolf's Den

14 days of cooking with the Thermo #2

The current challenge (9/6-22/6) is

Who has an enormous “TO DO ” list – or a folder of recipes you have printed off to try one day …….or heaps saved to the computer somewhere ?

Your next 14 day challenge is to work through that list !!! Go on …. give some new recipes a try – and don’t forget to share a pic – and where the recipe was from .

For all of our very new owners – just keep working your way through your EDC ( everyday cookbook)

I have a huge list saved of recipes to try and my Thermo Pinterest board is growing daily AND this fortnight falls during the ThermoFun Week Cook Along so there are some new recipes to try there too.
I will be totally honest, I’ve had my Thermo nearly a year and I still haven’t made everything in the EDC cause a lot of it we wouldn’t eat so therefore not cooking it 😉

Monday 9/6 – Lemon butter tea cakes – converted from this recipe & using ECD Lemon Butter (p47)*
Tuesday 10/6 – Confetti Cookies
Wednesday 11/06 – Shepherd’s Pie
Thursday 12/06 – cinnamon scrolls
Friday 13/06 – yoghurt (this is my second time trying yoghurt, last time was a failure)
Saturday 14/06 – best ever chocolate milkshake (so rich but soooo yummy)
Sunday 15/06 – mayo from EDC (p40) + curried eggs

Monday 16/6 – Pikelets (for the Thermomfun Cook Along)
Tuesday 17/6 – Chocolate-Orange Shortbread Pinwheels (forgot to take a pic but where yum)
Wednesday 18/06 – Sweet & Sour chicken with vegies (Thermofun Cook Along recipe)
Thursday 19/06 – Honey Lime Prawns & noodles (done with chicken) (Thermofun Cook Along recipe)
Friday 20/06 – Mars Bar Brownie (Thermofun Cook Along)
Saturday 21/06 – Passionfruit cheesecake (except I made mine with raspberries)
Sunday 22/06 – Choc-chip cookies (Thermofun Cook Along)

Really enjoyed the Thermofun Cook along and am looking forward to the next one in July. I’ve also enjoyed trying some new recipes – there are a few that will go in our favourites book, some need to be tweaked to our tastes and others, not so much for us. That’s the joy of trying recipes out.

*I’ve blogged this recipe if anyone is interested 🙂

Lemon Butter Teacakes

I’m doing the next 14 days of cooking with the Thermomix challenge and on Monday I converted this Lemon Butter Teacake recipe.

Here is my conversion if you want to give it a go 🙂

65g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
140g self-raising flour
80g milk
4 1/2 tablespoons lemon butter (I used the recipe from the EDC on p47)

Topping

10g butter, melted
2 teaspoons caster sugar

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan forced. Line a 12 cup cupcake tray with paper cases.
Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla together on speed 4, 20 seconds or until combined.
Add flour, milk and 2 tablespoons of lemon butter. Mix speed 4, 10 seconds or until combined. Give a stir with the spatula to ensure flour is incorporated.
Spoon into cases and top each with 1 teaspoon of remaining lemon butter.
Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden.
Brush hot cakes with butter and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Allow to cool and enjoy!

14 days of cooking with the Thermo

I joined a group on Facebook that challenges you to cook something new with your Thermomix for 14 days. The latest challenge for 26/5 to 8/6 was…

1. – “I’ve had my tmx a yr and I still haven’t made…..” that thing everyone raves about that you keep meaning to try, something that’s so simple but you haven’t got round to it yet, that thing that’s been on the to do list for ages or something you thought you would make in the first week that you just never got round to!!!

2. – winter warmers – hearty nourishing winter meals

With that challenge I decided to make a list of things I’d like to make and thought I’d blog about it.

Monday 26/5 – Yummy Chicken Pasta (recipe community)
Tuesday 27/5 – Pikelets (EDC p57) and lemon butter (EDC p47)
Wednesday 28/5 – Tomato Soup (EDC p 78)
Thursday 29/5 – Impossible quiche (Devil of a cookbook) – first time doing quiche in thermo
Friday 30/5 – Chicken Stroganoff (Devil of a Cookbook) – a family favourite
Saturday 31/5 – Raisin bread (from Thermo Affairs)
Sunday 1/6 – crumpets (recipe community) – a bit of a fail, not sure what went wrong 🙁 and I forgot to take a photo

Monday 2/6 – Super simple sausage rolls (recipe community)
Tuesday 3/6 – converted mum’s one egg meringue recipe – still working on tweaks
Wednesday 4/6 – Apricot Balls
Thursday 5/6 – taco mince (using the packet stuff)
Friday 6/6 – Parmesan Garlic Bread Wheel
Saturday 7/6 – i was out all day so didn’t make anything
Sunday 8/6 – Chicken Cashew Nut (EDC p111)

Overall I think it was a pretty good week. We’ve found some new recipes we’ll add to our family favourites, some that will need a bit of tweaking before we decide and a couple that won’t get made again. I’m looking forward to the next challenge 😀

In the Den Kitchen

Something I’ve decided to do from now on is make more for Miss K for her day care lunch boxes. This week we tried a new sandwich filling and I converted a favourite muffin recipe so I can do it in the Thermomix.

The sandwich filling was found at Kidspot – chicken carrot & celery. I shredded the chicken and chopped the carrot & celery in the Thermomix, making it even quicker and we left our the yoghurt, only cause we didn’t have any. Miss K enjoyed it and has asked for it again. Score one me!

This week’s snack was Apple Bran Muffins

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In the Den Kitchen – Leek & Potato Soup

One of the joys of owning a Thermomix is converting all your favourite recipes so you can do them in the Thermo.

I’ve given a few a go but didn’t write them down *doh* so I have started a notebook. Yes, old fashioned I know. Each recipe I convert I’ll be writing down as I go and making notes so I know what works and doesn’t work.

One of the first recipes I’ve converted is mum’s leek & potato soup recipe. I thought, with winter coming up here in Australia (not that you’d know it – it’s unseasonably dry & warm where I am) soup will become a staple on our menu plan each fortnight. I’m sharing the original recipe given to me by mum & my thermo conversion.

Enjoy!

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In the Den Kitchen

I missed posting this last week because I ended up having an amazing girl’s night out with my mum, mother-in-law and sister-in-law and we went and saw Phantom of the Opera at the Princess Theatre. It was stunning! I love the original production and this was just as good. Launceston has some wonderful, talented performers.

Anywho, onto this weeks sides – cauliflower cheese done in the Thermomix (TM) and a warm potato salad.

Cauliflower Cheese

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So there you go, two fairly quick and simple sides. Delicious in the colder months too

Thermomix Lasagne

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a foodie post and one of the things on my list of 100 things for 2014 is learn a new recipe each month and blog about it. So this month it’s Thermomix Lasagne.

Thermomix Lasagne

150 g cheese (a mix of Tasty & Parmesan)
lasagna sheets (your choice of fresh or dried)

Meat sauce

1 onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
30 g oil (olive oil or whatever oil you use)
500 g minced meat
400 g can chopped tomato
30 g tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1 cube beef stock
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried Italian spices

Béchamel Sauce

50 g Butter
80 g flour
600 g milk
1.5 tsp salt

Grate cheeses 10 sec on speed 8. Set aside. Rinse bowl

Meat sauce

Chop carrots, onion & garlic cloves 5 sec on speed 5, scrape down sides and chop another 5 sec on speed 5.
Add oil & sauté 2 min, Varoma setting on speed 1.
Preheat oven to 200° C.
Add meat & cook 5 min, Varoma setting, reverse and speed soft (the one that looks like a spoon).
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, stock cube, sugar & oregano and cook 12 min, 100°, reverse, speed 1-2.
Pour into a bowl & rinse out Thermo bowl.

Béchamel Sauce

Melt butter for 2 min, 100 °, speed 1.
Add flour & cook for 1 min, 100 °, speed 1.
Add milk & salt, scrape flour mixture from bottom through milk & mix for 2 sec, speed 5 to combine. Cook for 8 min, 100 °, speed 2. Check if all flour combined by scraping again with spatula, then briefly mix again for 2 sec, speed 5.

Layering

Spread some béchamel sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, line with lasagne sheets, top with béchamel again, sprinkle some cheese and then start layering meat, lasagne sheets, béchamel, cheese until top of dish is reached. Generously sprinkle cheese on top layer.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Lasagne is done when a toothpick easily pierces through the layers and the cheese is nicely browned. Let rest before serving. Serve with garlic bread

Soft drinks while pregnant? You bet! {review}

Being pregnant means you should watch what you drink. I had gestational diabetes last pregnancy and really wanted to do whatever I could this time around to reduce my chances of getting GD again this pregnancy.
One of the things I did when I first found out I was pregnant was to stop drinking Coke, well to tell the truth I had to stop because it was making me sick – hello morning sickness!!

Thanks to the morning sickness I was a bit limited to what I could drink without feeling ill – water, sometimes juice, the occasional water cordial. No milk and nothing of the fizzy variety.

Enter the 2nd trimester and the end of morning sickness (yay!!) and I slowly introduced milk back into the diet and was ok. There was a definite craving for something fizzy but the amount of sugar in soft drinks is a bit frightening – 28g per 250ml in lemonade and 27g per 250ml of cola. Before you ask no I don’t do diet drinks or no sugar drinks, for one thing I’m not convinced that fake sugars are good for us and secondly I’m not a huge fan of the taste.

When I was offered the chance to try a low sugar, organic alternative I must say I was extremely curious. BIONADE (pronounced Bee-oh-nah-deh) is a range of organic fermented and carbonated beverages from Germany.

On first glance, you could be fooled into thinking it’s a trendy new post-mix alcoholic drink but no it’s a tasty low sugar drink that looks as good as it tastes.

So what is BIONADE and what makes it different from your average soft drink?

it’s 100% certified organic
it’s low in sugar (15.5g per 330ml serve)
Brewed like beer, but non-alcoholic
No colourants! No preservatives! No artificial flavours!
Gluten free. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

There are 4 flavours – ginger & orange, lychee, elderberry and herbs.

First up in my trial was the ginger & orange. Ginger is meant to be pretty good when you feel ill, be it from morning sickness, travel sickness or maybe just feeling a little seedy after a night out. I thought it might taste a little similar to IronBru (it’s a Scottish citrus, slightly gingery, soft drink, often described as “Scotland’s other national drink” (after Scotch whisky) and is the number 1 selling soft drink there closely followed by Coke) but it was more gingery with an nice orange aftertaste. Quite nice. I imagine it would make a good mixer.

I tried the Herb flavour and really wasn’t sure. Don’t think I would drink this one again.

Now I’m not a fan of lychees at all so was pretty hesitant about trying this flavour. Pleasantly surprised! It was sweet and a little tangy. Again it would probably make a good mixer.

I’ve left my favourite til last – Elderberry. It is super yum, sweet, fizzy and very moreish.

Hubby wasn’t taken with any of them but he’s pretty fussy. Miss K loved all of them and they are something I’d be happy to give BIONADE to her as a treat over lemonade or cola.

At this stage BIONADE is available online from http://www.drinks-logistics.com.au/ and selected retailers

And cause I love my readers I have a mixed case of 24 bottles of BIONADE to giveaway to one lucky Nightwolf’s Den reader. Leave us a comment with what you loved to drink when you were pregnant OR what you’d miss drinking if you were pregnant. Entry is open to Australian residents only. Winner will have 1 week to respond once the giveaway is drawn. Giveaway closes 26th March 2014

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From the Den Kitchen – Christmas goodies

One has to love Pinterest at this time of year. Food ideas galore!! I thought I’d share with you some of the foodie things I’ve pinned plus a few other foodie bit & pieces.


Christmas Pizza shapes	Christmas kabobs (mini marshmallows, slices of banana, strawberries, grapes)

Candy Cane Ice cream (Thermomix)	Christmas sugar cookies (Thermomix)

Christmas Choc chip cookies (Thermomix & non- Thermo)	Christmas cheese board

Mint Chocolate truffles	Peppermint fudge