All purpose Satay recipe

I love Satay.  Really. Really. Really. 

Do you think tastes are genetic? ?
My brother (hi Luke!!!) and I  have very similar tastes. We hate tomatoes, love chocolate pudding and love love love satay (There's a whole bunch of other tastes that are the same too)
It strikes me as strange that we can be so alike, what's a weeny bit stranger is that our partners have the same gross tastes, like oysters and cups of tea! 

Anyway,  a lack of cooking mojo today led me to cook my favorite.  Announcing loudly ' I am cooking Satay,  it's my favorite and I don't care of anyone doesn't like it!  '  you know how it goes...sometimes you need to make a stand.

This is a great recipe that I have been cooking for about 20 years,  another of my simple and practical standard dishes.

I have always done it on the stove top,  but I did it in thermie today with no problems. 

Add to your saucepan or thermie all of the following ingredients

2 tbsp honey
1 cup of chicken stock
1 tsp of coriander (the dry variety not the green!)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 tsp of crushed ginger
Splash of soy
Squeeze of lemon

Cook up until it's thick and simmering.
In thermie I winged it a little and used varoma temp, sp 2 for 5 or so minutes I think.

It comes up quite thick,  great for dipping or spreading on kebabs. I normally thin it a little with water and mix in some cooked chicken and veg and serve over rice.  

I love rice.  Really. Really... so does my brother! 

Happy Cooking!

Jamies meatballs & Thermomix fudge

I do love having like minded friends and I am feeling particularly grateful for them today.  I am dedicating today's post to Andrea and Donna.  Andrea gave me very helpful polenta advice and Donna said ' Hey Jacq,  you gotta try this fudge!' Ladies, thank you xx

Today I chose to try Jamie Oliver's Meatballs Alla Norma recipe here, mostly done without the thermomix, although Thermie made making the polenta that went with it a breeze.
I tried to stick to the recipe.  I promise I tried.  But it wasn't going to happen..... 

• Firstly I doubled the whole recipe to feed 5 of us, theres meatballs left over but no polenta ( I used the recipe from the EDC for the polenta!) 
• Next he suggested to roll the meatballs in fennel seeds, I just knew this would offend my children's palettes so I chose to just add them into the meatballs and I didn't use double.
• I also added an egg white to the meatballs to make sure they stayed together (and I didn't use my hands I used the kitchen aide to mix it) 

I trundled along with the rest of the recipe as per the instructions.  My other thoughts are. . Eggplant, surely something that needs to be de-yuckified with salt etc can be replaced for the sake of simplicity,  it's not that yummy anyway (I picked most of it out) perhaps zucchini would be a good replacement. 
I liked the saucy bit a lot,  I think it could be awesome with just mince (or all veg) like a spag bog type of arrangement on top of the polenta.  Those meatballs took too long...

Keeping it real for you.....yes this is how I ate my dinner. Holiday chaos has taken over!

Oooooh and I made fudge!! Danger, danger Will Robinson! 

I was way too easy and it wayyyyyy too yummy! 

Thermie makes everything that you have to stir constantly so damn easy. This is no exception.

So you need condensed milk for the recipe, I make my own  using my fav recipe here.

The fudge recipe you will find here

The hardest part is waiting for it to set in the fridge.... 

Best you give some away as a gift, otherwise you'll eat it all yourself! 

'Happy Cooking!' 

Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken with Rice (DAIRY FREE)

 Having a dairy free lad poses its challenges, as you either know or can imagine. 

The thing I miss the most is creamy sauces for pasta or rice but I have been trying to solve that problem.

I guess even if your ok with dairy, heavy cream sauces can leave you feeling yucky and if your watching your weight cream is probably something you would avoid! So this could be for you too.

But before we get to that recipe lets talk about garlic.

My lovely friend Gen (Hi Gen!) dropped in yesterday with a bag of some home grown garlic. I remembered having seen somewhere that Thermie does a great job of peeling garlic...so I went in search...and found this guide.  I went ahead and gave it a go with Gens Garlic and it worked a treat! I popped all the cloves in a jar and covered them with olive oil. Now they are ready to go whenever I need them. My only suggestion would be to put the timer on, I got a little distracted so my cloves got a little bashed up, but hey, they're still great!

Ok, so heres my recipe for Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken with Rice. Which I must say I am most pleased with! Another cheap and healthy meal to add to our list.

Ok Ok here it is...

Weigh 400gms of some rice you like into the rice basket (I like Medium grain) and give it a wash.

Add 900gms of water to the bowl, add the rice basket and give it a quick wizz on sp 5.

Cook 20min/varoma/sp2 with the Varoma in position

While thats cooking chop and add 4 chicken thighs to the top layer of the varoma, then chop your veg and put them on the bottom layer. Today I used carrot, zucchini and broccoli, you can use whatever takes your fancy or tortures your kids the best ;)

So when thats done, just check the chicken is cooked to be on the safe side, if its not give it another couple of minutes.

Remove the Varoma and put to the side to stay warm, remove the rice basket and pop the rice into your thermoserver.

Tip out the water in the bowl into another container to be used later.

Put an onion and a clove or 2 of garlic into your bowl and chop sp 5. Add a glug of oil and 1/2 a tsp of tumeric. Cook on 100 degrees for 3 minutes.

Add, 50gms of honey, 40gms of mustard, 60gms of cashews, 1 tbsp of stock paste and the reserved water. 

Wizz altogether on sp9 for 1 minute. Done.

Put rice, chicken and veg in your bowl and pour over some creamy sauce.

Thats it! 

Happy Cooking!

Steak Pie

Meet Mr Steak Pie, I met him through the EDC (Everyday Cookbook) where he goes under the name Aussie Meat Pie. Sadly, he is no longer with us.....

A bit silly I know! I gave my children 2 googly eyes each and they ran around the house making everyday things come alive! Sometimes when your a non TV watching family you have to get a bit creative ;)  

So, I gave this recipe a try again using rump steak I had found on special. 

I was feeding 7 so I doubled the recipe in a round about fashion...not quite twice the meat and I added extra tablespoon of cornflour because I wanted it thicker. I didn't use the 2 TABLESPOONS??? of Vegemite I used about 1/4 of a teaspoon instead which was much better for our tastebuds.I also put in a big blob of tomato sauce, thats not in the recipe but I think its a great addition. I used thermie shortcrust pastry for the base and a bought sheet of puff for the lid because I had no ice to make my own!

I served it with scalloped potatoes (Mr Dairy Free had his own baked potato) baked the regular way..Sliced potato, onion, sprinkle with good chicken stock, black pepper and pour over 600ml of cream, cover with foil, bake at 180 for at least an hour......and of course some regular steamed veg.

It scored a 7/7 (7 people ate it, 7 people liked it!) 

I don't know why...but I love a good pie!

Happy Cooking!

Spag Bog and our menu.

It doesn't look that great.....but it was delicious!

We don't often make Spag Bog here. The kids don't really like it?? But tonight, it was quick, easy and I didn't have to think to much about it!  I checked out Quirkys recipe and mostly followed it.
I made these changes..

• I used minced beef
• no zucchini, used green capsicum and dried herbs
• I added the semi dried tomatoes in the same step as the veg so they got all chopped up. 
• no olives, no red wine
• I added extra water because it all seemed to thick to stir about and cook properly, and I still stopped it and gave it a mix with my trusty spatula a couple of times
• I also cooked it for an extra 15 minutes and threw in some baby spinach that needed to be used.

 The verdict was that we should defiantly have it again!! Lucky because it made the full 2 litres, which left about half for another meal!!



I was asked recently to share how I do my meal planning. It has made a big difference to the way I shop and makes things run much smoother! It also makes it easier to think in bulk when buying.

Firstly we all decide what we would like to eat for the next 2 weeks. Everyone gets a say and I make sure the kids all get at least one thing they have suggested. I also ask for suggestions for their lunch boxes too.
As I write the meals down I also write what I need to buy to make that meal. I have one column for Aldi, one for Safeway. By keeping it all in the one notebook I can use it to look back on when I need some inspiration and carry it to the supermarket with me. Sounds a big daggy, but it works a treat! 
The notebook hangs about in the kitchen so when we are deciding whats for tea, we look at the book and see what the options are and I can plan ahead if need be.......
Here's this fortnights menu plan

• Meatloaf with mash and veg                                              
• Steak Pie and Scalloped Potatoes and veg
• Pumpkin Soup and bread
• Veg Curry and Rice
• Honey Mustard Chicken with rice
• Chicken Soup and bread
• Beef and Blackbean Stirfry
• Risotto
• Pasta of some sort
• Mexican beans with poached eggs on toast
• Muesli Bars
• Lemon Slice
• Apricot Balls
• Fruit Loaf
• Sausage rolls

Are you the meal planning type? or the winging it type??

Roast Chicken Dinner Pie and the always delicious Chocolate Pudding

I first made the Roast Chicken Dinner Pie after making a huge roast dinner and everyone coming down with a bug and going to bed early leaving me with a heap of yummy food and no one to eat it!  Re-heating food is never appealing to me for some reason, but wrapping it in pastry is perfectly acceptable! 

This time when I made the roast dinner I cooked heaps of extra vegies just so I could make this pie again, its scrumptious! I used baked carrot, parsnip, sweet potato, onion, 4 cloves of garlic, left over peas, cauliflower and cheese ( this part in the most important!) leftover chicken and gravy.  You could add potato ( I don't like it much!) pumpkin ( my sis in law doesn't like it!) corn, broccoli, beans..... whatever!

First of all pre heat your oven to 180, then make a batch of puff pastry from the EDC and pop it in the fridge. Then make shortcrust pastry from the EDC, roll it out on glad wrap and line your beautiful pie dish (thanks Andrea!) Remove the gladwrap and cover with a sheet of baking paper, fill with rice or beans or pies weights! and blind bake at 180 for 10 minutes, remove paper and weights and bake for another 10.

 Mix all your chopped vegies and chicken and gravy together. 

It shouldn't be too dry, if it is make up some extra gravy or cheese sauce and add it in...here's what mine looked like...

This is just a regular bowl...I didn't chop it using the thermomix!

Pile it into your pie dish... I like to pile it up high!!

Roll out your puff pastry on glad wrap and cover up that yummyness!

I like to cut a big cross in the top to let the steam out. It helps the pastry cook better!

Bake it until its nice and brown and warm inside, approx 30 minutes.

One day you can have some Bonnie! 

Dessert tonight was good Ole' Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding! The same recipe I have always used but I Thermied it for the first time...

1. Pre Heat oven to 180
2. using the butterfly on sp 4 cream 1/4 cup of butter ( I just guess!) and 1/2 cup of sugar 
3. while its running add and egg and 1 tsp of vanilla, give it a scrape down and another quick mix
4. add 1 cup of SR Flour, 1/2 cup of milk and 2 dessert spoons of cocoa and mix for 1 minute on sp 4 giving it a scrape down if needed.
5. put mixture into a casserole dish
6. without cleaning out your jug add 2 cups of hot water, 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 dessertspoons of cocoa and mix on sp 4 for 30 sec. 
7. tip out onto cake mixture and bake in oven for 30 min or so
8. add a massive amount of cream and pat yourself on the back while you eat it for making something everyone will love that's wonderfully frugal.....

 Happy Cooking!

You'll never buy wraps again!

Ok,  Firstly I have to post from my phone because my computer won't turn on!!! So everything might be higgeldy piggeldy..sorry!

Now let me tell you a story.  I was cleaning our caravan recently and found an open packet of wraps that I had left in the cupboard from our January holiday.  Expecting the worst I pulled them out and guess what?  They were in perfect condition. Absolutely perfect.  I can only imagine what must be in them to keep them so fresh feeling for so long!  Yucko! 

Now that I have freaked you out I have a recipe so you can make you own and you won't need them to last forever because someone will eat them because they are GOOD! (And cheap! ) 

Wraps

620 gm flour ( plus extra for dusting the bench)
50gm of oil
1/2 tsp salt
600gm boiling water

Put it all in the TM process on sp7 for 6 sec the 2 min on wheat.

Dump it all on the bench and if it looks like play dough your on the right track.
It will be hot,  so give it a min to cool then separate into 12 pieces. 
Roll out one at a time to as thin as you can, then cook in a dry frypan on a med to high heat flipping over before it burns.  It's an easy process.  It takes about as long to cook add it does to roll out the next wrap for cooking.  As always its trial and error, but it's #6 on my stove top! 

I plan on trying it out with garlic oil one of these days. We use these for lunch wraps, Souvalki wraps,  with curry... By themselves with dip.. You could cut them and toast them in the oven to make a chip... You could sprinkle herbs and spiced on them...

Muesli Bars and Soup review

I tend to have a little cooking frenzy on a Sunday afternoon, preparing for the many school lunches in the week coming. I rarely find something that everyone is happy to have, but these muesli bars score a 2 out of 3 children's thumbs up, occasionally a 3 children thumbs up depending on how fussy Miss 9 is feeling. I give them a big thumbs up because it doesn't seem to matter what I put in them they always taste good! 

Muesli Bars

The mantra in my kitchen is 'A recipe is only a guide!' and it is so with these!

Here is your guide-

10 min, Sp 1, 100 deg in your Thermie

• 150 gm brown sugar
• 80gm tahini or 1/2 cup of Peanut Butter
•  150gm of honey
•  150 gm butter
• 2 handfuls of pitted dates  

 then give it a couple of quick turbos to makes sure the dates are mushed up

 In a separate big bowl mix together-

• 1 cup of oats
• 1 cup of puffed rice
• 1 cup of coconut
• 4 crushed vita brits
• 1/2 cup of dried fruit

Add the thermie mixture to the big bowl of dried stuff, mix together. Press into a 20 X 30 baking paper lined dish and refrigerate. When its mostly cooled down and firm enough lift out of the dish using the baking paper and cut into rectangles or squares, which ever you fancy!

So, thats the 'guide'

Do with it what you will!

I usually only put a big squeeze of honey in rather than the full 150gms, it makes them pretty sweet (and honey is expensive!)! Although sometimes I am left with some mixture that wont mix in because of it, but the chickens appreciate the treat!

My dairy free lad can handle the butter in the Muesli bars, I have accidently made them with out it, they were just crunchy! You could probably use coconut oil instead...let me know if you try it! 

The 1/2 a cup of dried fruit ( I never measure, I am sure its more like a cup and a half by the time I am done throwing things in!) is always a mixture of what I have in the cupboard. Today it was dried apple, apricot and cranberry. I also threw in some sunflower kernals, slivered almonds and wheatgerm (usually pepitas too but we are out!) Sultanas are good, so are choc chips!

 Reviews

I also made a couple of soups from the EDC today. The Pumpkin and the Minestrone.

The Pumpkin got a thumbs down from all of us except Miss Fussypants, go figure. It tasted too much like raw pumpkin? and it wouldn't have fed us all anyway (see picture below!) I will have to convert my long standing, family pleasing favourite instead...

Pumpkin Soup

Minestrone Soup

 The minestrone was a hit, (even with out the onion) it was a bit gluggy but I think that's because I used alphabet pasta instead of something larger, it was tasty enough that I could have added some more water. It definitely fed all 5 of us, with some leftovers for tomorrows lunch. 

I also made bread for the sangas .....

but I have nothing to put on it, so jam it will probably be!

 (and I also made hot cross buns...!)

all that in 3 hours, with plenty of interuptions and facebooking...I love my Thermie!

 

Recipe Review

I got to spend most of the day at home today which only means one thing.....cooking!!

I tested out the Coconut Butter Cake, Hot Cross Buns and the Aussie Meat Pie all from the EDC.

Coconut Butter Cake

I am not much of a cake fan (unless my friend Andrea bakes them) Anyway I was visiting my sis in law today and decided we needed cake to go with the tea. I had planned on making a sponge roll but to my horror I had run out of vanilla! So a quick flick through the book to find a vanilla-less cake led me to give this one a go. As I said I am not much of a cake fan, this one probably would have been better with icing, and if I ever bake it again I will cook it in 2 tins rather than one as I had to extend the cooking time, but it burnt around the edges...

Hot minus the Cross Buns

Make them. All. The. Time. They were awesome. ( I never put crosses on them BTW, I have better things to do!) 

Aussie Meat Pie

Golly, I love being able to make my own puff pastry...! 

Recipe was great except I would reduce the Vegemite to 1 tsp rather than 1 tbls....or we will have to rename it Vegemite Pie!!! I also chose to make one large pie (much quicker!) rather than in the muffin tins as per the recipe.

The winner today is definitely the Hot Cross Buns! mmm Yum!

My dairy free yummy Curry!

I forgot to take a photo. 

But you're all pretty smart and don't need a picture, right?

Curry is my favourite and one of the most difficult to find recipes that suit our family (no dairy, no coconut milk/cream) so I have developed this recipe from a bunch of other recipes.....and its good! 

Its very flexible...go with what you have in the fridge.

This feeds my family of 5 with leftovers for a 2 adult lunch ( or mix with rice and cornflour for a curry rice pie)

Jacqs Cheap As Chips No Dairy Curry

1. place all in Thermie and roast 3 min, varoma, sp 1 then mill 1 min/ sp 9

1/4 tsp chilli (or leave out)

3 tsp cumin seeds/ground

3 tsp coriander seeds/ground

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp turmeric

3 cardamon pods

6 whole black peppercorns

1 tbsp plain flour

2. Add and chop 3 sec, sp 5 scrape down sides then saute 3 min/varoma/sp 1

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

a glug of olive oil

3. add and cook 3min/100 degrees/spoon speed

6 dates or a small handful of sultanas

1 heaped tbsp of TM stock paste

4 tomatoes in 1/4's

4. Add and cook 25 minutes/100c/reverse, spoon speed.

4 chicken thigh fillets chopped into cubes ( or replace with extra veg) 

1 drained and rinsed can of chickpeas

2 or so cups of veg

(eg, carrot, beans, zucchini, sweet potato cubes, mushrooms...whatever!)

1 cup (250gm) water

Serve with rice and/or naan bread and enjoy!

Make it Mexican!

Last night we had Mexican. Everyone likes Mexican, right? Everyone except me.

I came across a recipe that I thought I could just about handle. Its a vegetarian meal so not quite so pleasing to the carnivores in the family, but it works for me! 

Quirky Cooking is a very well known Thermomix cooking website, she's an all natural type, a bit too much on the wild side for my liking...I like ordinary kinds of ingredients but I can mostly switcheroo to make it suit what I have.

Anyway check out her Mexican Beans here....

http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/huevos-rancheros-and-vegetarian-nacho.html

As she does in her recipe, we had it on nachos for dinner, but we had it with guacamole (mmm yum!) and sour cream. But my favourite part was with poached eggs on toast for lunch!!! The best mexican..ever!