Bad blogger

Mmm. It has been a long time since posts.

However, we are still using the TM daily and still cooking mostly failsafe meals.

I need to get photographing and writing again.

new years' resolution maybe????

Princess cakes - not failsafe or dairy-free

It was Miss 3's birthday party on Monday and I made her cakes using the Thermomix.

Cakes: I used this recipe - only problem was they did not cook in 15 minutes - needed 30 minutes

Icing: I added all ingredients (120g butter, 240g icing sugar and 2 T milk) to TM bowl. Then added the colour. Too easy.

Decorations were using Orchard white icing which hubby coloured. He did most of the faces - I did the hair and some eyes :)

Next birthday cake will be for Kate and then we'll be doing the dairy-free cakes with failsafe icing (soak red cabbage in water to get colouring... stay tuned come September for photos :) )

TMX mashed potato - dairy-free version

The mashed potato recipe in the TM Every day book is easily altered to dairy-free.

I make it with rice milk and nuttelex and it is the best mashed potato I have ever had.

We all love it.

Apple crumble - dairy-free, failsafe

I have no idea how apple crumble is normally made, but I had some golden delicious apples that needed to be used and so I made this up the other night and it was delicious.

Ingredients

FILLING

5 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and cut in 8ths.

TOPPING

200g oats
100g brown sugar
80g nuttelex

Method

I cooked apple in the varoma for 20 minutes - they came out beautiful and soft and I placed them in bottom of dish.

Topping - added all ingredients to TM bowl and mixed on 4 for about 30 seconds till combined.

Spread topping over apple and bake for 15 minutes.

I served ours with custard made using the TM recipe.

Mine is shown with Bonsoy custard - bonsoy makes the best custard :)

Verdict

Absolutely delicious. So easy, so yummy.

Chicken & leek pie - Failsafe

Ingredients:

FILLING

1 whole chicken breast, chopped
2T canola oil
1 leek, chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 sticks celery, chopped
1/2 cup pear juice
1/2 cup rice milk
2 T flour
1 T salt

TOPPING

800g potato, chopped
210g rice milk
25g nuttelex

Method

Chop garlic in TM
Add oil and leek and saute for 3 minutes
Add chicken and cook on 100, reverse speed 1 for 5 minutes
Add celery and cook on 100, reverse speed 1 for 2 minutes
Add 1/2 cup rice milk, 1/2 cup pear juice and flour and salt and cook on 100, reverse speed 1 for 2 minutes

Pour topping into pie dish.

Make topping per mashed potato instructions in TM Everyday cook book and pour on top of filling.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes.

Verdict
This was yummy - we ate all of it.
Next time cook teh celery for longer (add it earlier) as it was crunchy

Credit
This is partly inspired from a recipe in Friendly Food for chicken and leek puffs.
I also make the same mixture and serve it with pancakes
I was inspired to make a pie from a recipe on the thermomix forum. I need some lard though in order to make the puff pastry.

Chicken wonton noodle soup - failsafe adapted

Tonight I cooked a wonton noodle soup using Karen's recipe and altering it (very minorly) to make it failsafe.

Ingredients:

wontons:
1/2 chicken breast, minced
1/2 leek
4 garlic cloves
1 small carrot
2 canned pear halves
1/8th cabbage, chopped

I followed Karen's instruction to chop on speed 6 and mix well.

Soak rice paper wrappers in hot water, corner up to middle and put spoonful of mix in centre. Place in sprayed varoma.

broth:
in basket place:
some celery leaves
1 small carrot, chopped diagonally
4 garlic cloves
leek (the green bits)

In bowl of tmx place 800g water and TM-31 (Failsafe adapted) veg stock concentrate. No need to rinse bowl from wonton mix.

Place basket in and cook for 20 minutes on varoma speed 3/4, with varoma (with wontons) on top. 5 minutes before end place chopped asian vegs (I used bok choy) in varoma with wontons.

Serve broth, with rice noodles (soaked in water per instructions) with wontons and Asian greens.
Verdict

This was yummy, though very mild. Hubby and Mr 6 added chilli sauce to theirs and I ended up adding soy sauce to mine (I've challenged soy and Kate is fine with it so I do use soy).

The wontons were gorgeous - Kate ate a very substantial amount of wontons!

Next time I will use small rice papers as my wontons were huge!

Also, next time, add salt to broth

Failsafe golden soy chicken wings

First - there is no photo - I had the 3 kids on my own and needed a quick dinner. I pulled these out of the freezer with some woolworths select chips which are failsafe and voila 30 minutes later we had a super easy, very yummy dinner. I will definitely make them again and will come back and post a photo.

13/5 - Raw photo added, cooked photo to follow :)

This recipe is modified from the Honey soy stir fry chicken winglets recipe contained on ForumThermomix.

Ingredients

MARINADE
2 cloves garlic
60ml japanese soy sauce (1/2 MC)
2 tbs golden syrup
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp canola oil.

1.2 kgs chicken wings

Method

Pretty much unaltered from original

To make marinade:

Place garlic in TM bowl on reverse speed 4 for 20 seconds. Remove skins from bowl and chop on speed 7 for 10 seconds (or until all chopped up). Add the rest of the marinade ingredients and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds.

Add chicken wings (in 2 batches) and stir in TM bowl on reverse for 1 minute at spoon speed.

Place all coated chicken and remaining marinade into a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight. Instead of putting them in the fridge I put them in the freezer.

To cook:

Place chicken pieces into TM bowl and cook on reverse, spoon speed on Varoma Temp for 30 minutes. Place Varoma on top.

Verdict

Wonderful! The marinade was subtle and did not overpower the chicken. The chicken was melt in your mouth - fall off the bone. My 3 year old who often doesn't eat much had thirds. Baby Kate loved the chicken and ate lots of it.

It is impossible to do takeaway when you eat Failsafe foods so this is as close to takeaway as we get. I intend on making up a couple of batches and always having a batch in the freezer for those nights when everything falls apart!

Failsafe note

I have read conflicting information on sesame seeds being low or moderate - my dietician says moderate, so just keep this in mind.

Also, soy sauce is high in msg/glutomates... I have challenged soy sauce and Kate is ok with it so I have some flavour in teh way of soy sauce back (yay) but this may not be appropriate for those who are particularly sensitive to MSG.