Thermomixing: Chilli Jam

I love adding a little chilli to my dishes.  I often pick up a huge bag of chillies for next to nothing at the farmer’s market every fortnight or so.  While I can get through quite a few, there is inevitably a few limpish, unused ones left at the end of the fortnight.  I didn’t really know what to do with these until I came across this recipe.

Chilli Jam (adapted from Steph Berg recipe)

Ingredients

6 long fresh red chillies

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 tsp salt

4 cloves garlic

2 tsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp agar agar

Method:

Trim the stems off the chillies

For a mild chilli flavour, deseeded the chillies.

You can make the jam milder again by soaking the chillies for 15 minutes in hot water then draining.

Put all the ingredients, except the agar agar in the Thermomix and process 10 seconds on speed 7.

Heat for 11 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.

Add the agar agar and cook for 4 minutes at 100 degrees at speed 1.

Pour into a sterilized jar.

I love chilli Jam heated and poured over Philly cheese as a quick and easy dip. Otherwise, it is great addition to a gourmet style hamburger.

That’s it….my mouth is watering. I’m off to try my creation now.

Dabbling in Freezer Cooking

After a visit to my favourite butcher who sells bulk meat, I dreaded the prospect of breaking the meat up into batches and vacuum sealing  it to be frozen.  I did however, feel slightly more enthusiastic about cooking.  So I set out to make some freezer meals.

I have at various times dabbled in freezer cooking.  I certainly loved the convenience of having ready-made meals when I was busy at work or when I was a new mum.  I didn’t hate the cooking days, in fact I quite liked them. So I wondered why I never really stuck to it and made an art of it.

I think in my case it came down to not having enough of a freezer meal catalogue.  In the old days I made the same things ….spaghetti sauce, lasagne, cottage pie, a curry or two and soups. Boring. If only I had looked to the internet for inspiration!

There are hundred of sites and bloggers out there praising freezer cooking.  Many have it down to a fine art – menu plans, recipes, shopping lists, cooking days, even providing sticker templates to print and  attach to your made meal.  There are thousands of amazing recipes out there to suit every taste and even cooking preference.  It really is an eye opener.

As it is coming into winter here in the Southern hemisphere, I am keen to get the slow cooker working.  I found whole sites devoted to creating frozen baggies of ingredients, that you defrost and pop into the crock pot to cook.  Really, who thought you could make crock pot cooking even easier than it already was?

The more I traversed the sites, the more I was beginning to be sold on the idea of freezer cooking.  I don’t know that I would have the majority of meals out of the freezer as I like to eat a fresh, clean and raw as possible, but it definitely has benefits.  It undoubtably saves money as you can shop the sale items and use seasonal produce.  You are less likely to resort to expensive take out on the days when you don’t feel like cooking.  I can see there would be less washing up and probably less food waste.

So if you are keen to dabble in freezer cooking like me, here are some sites that are worth a visit.

Money Saving Mom - Huge recipe selection and some great printables for those organising freaks, like me.

One a Month Mom – Everything you need to be a freezer cooking genius.  Menu plans for all sorts of dietary needs including paleo, vegetarian and baby. Heaps available for free on the site or become a member to receive ongoing menus and recipes.

Who Needs a Cape? – Make 40 meals in 4 hours! Lots of crock pot freezer recipes here.

Life as Mom – Lots of tips on how to freezer cook and every month a new cooking plan to follow.

I have also started to pin some of my favourite freezer meals.  You are welcome to follow along here.

So what did I cook and freeze the other day, you ask?

Healthy Butter Chicken – I used a fantastic spice mix from this company

lasagne

Chicken enchiladas

Slow cooker braised lamb

Pear and raspberry coconut bread.  Yummo! I will share this recipe with you soon.

If you are interested in freezer cooking, be sure to follow along.  I intend to do a lot more freezer cooking and I will share what I make on here.

Have a great day.

 

Weekend Cooking

It is not often that we are about the house on the weekend so I don’t do a lot of cooking.  However, this weekend I made a bit of an effort and ended up making some lovely things.  When I say ‘effort’, it wasn’t that great as most of the recipes were done in the Thermomix. I really can’t explain just how much of a marvel the Thermomix is.  If you don’t have one, don’t let that put you off clicking on the links to the recipes as most could be done without it, or perhaps completed with another appliance that you have.

Have a look at my creations, I am more than a little proud of some of them…..

Apple Porridge made in the Thermomix while I got ready for the morning.  It can’t get much easier than that!  The boys LOVED it.  Recipe is here.

Banana and Coconut Bread.  We all loved this.  The recipe is one for the Thermomix but easy and well worth adapting if you don’t have one.  I also had my first attempt at scrolls.  These were spinach and feta.  Yummo. A fantastic brunch or lunchbox food.  You can find the recipe here.

Healthy Banana Ice Cream.  This is made with just a little sugar (or in our case dextrose), frozen skim milk and frozen banana.  It is just like soft serve ice cream without the guilt. I will post more about easy ice creams made in the Thermomix soon.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Mocha.  This recipe calls for cocoa, but I have been right into using raw cacao and I am convinced of  the health benefits.  Hubby and I love this rich drink.

Mango, Banana and Apple Green Smoothie.  This was my own concoction but you can read about my green smoothies here. This one was demolished by my boys in seconds, despite them watching two big handfuls of spinach going into the mix.

Chinese Combination Short Long Soup.  I did freestyle with this recipe and added things I knew we would like.  It was a hit all round.  Master C loved the dumplings.

Another dish that I stupidly didn’t photograph, despite the fact it was the stand out dish of the weekend, was Singapore Noodles.  Oh. So. Yummy. Instead of making it with vermicelli noodles, I used angel hair slim noodles which have less than 7 calories per serve.  The meal had next to no calories and was so filling.  I can see this appearing regularly on my meal plans.

I’d love to hear whether you get up to cooking or baking on the weekends or is that your ‘time off’?  Have a great week.

Thermomixing: Naturally Sweetened Jam

Like most kiddies, my children love jam.  I mean, why wouldn’t they?  It is sticky and beautifully sweet and there in lies the problem.  Jam is a no-no when you are trying to cut down on sugar and eliminate refined sugar.

Since the addition of the Thermomix into the household, I have wanted to have a go a making my own healthy jam.  So when I picked up two huge punnets of strawberries, the mission to find the right recipe was underway.

One of my favourite blogs for healthy Thermomix recipes is Quirky Cooking.  Not surprisingly, Jo had the perfect recipe for a naturally sweetened jam recipe.  To my great joy, it was super easy (isn’t everything with a Thermomix anyway?) and within seconds I was in the kitchen making jam.

Naturally Sweetened Jam

Ingredients

• 500 g of your chosen fruit (I used strawberries)
• 150 g rapadura sugar (or use another sweetener like honey,  stevia etc)
• 1 level teaspoon agar-agar

Method

1. Place a saucer, for testing the jam, in the freezer to cool.
2. Place fruit in the Thermomix and chop for 3-5 seconds on speed 4, depending on how chunky you like your jam
3. Add sugar and agar-agar and cook for 8 minutes/100 degrees/ reverse/ Speed 2.  If you prefer a smooth jam like we do, don’t put the machine in reverse and give the whole mix a blitz at speed 8 for a few seconds once the cooking is done.
4.  To test the jam, take 1/2 teaspoon of jam and place it on the chilled saucer.  Once the jam has cooled, push it with your finger.  If the mixture ‘wrinkles’ it is ready.  If your jam requires a little more setting, add a pinch more agar-agar, cook for a further 2 minutes and test again.
5. Pour the jam into sterilised jars and keep in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Everyone loved this jam. Unlike the store-bought jams, it was not sickly sweet and tasted like strawberries.

It is possible to omit all sweeteners from this recipe and I am keen to try that when strawberries are at their sweetest.

I definitely recommend giving this recipe a go.

Easter Gifts

A few weeks back I found these great Easter cupcake boxes and wrappers at Big W. I thought that they were so cute that I had to buy a stash to use for neighbour’s and friend’s Easter gifts.

I made a batch of  vanilla cupcakes ( I thought it might be a nice change from chocolate at Easter) and decorated the tops with the cutest mini candy-shelled eggs.

Very simple but I think they look gorgeous.  I just love how they look snuggled in their special carry box.

I hope everyone enjoys them.  I am off to deliver them now so they can be gobbled up for morning tea.

 

Easter Craft: Fingerprint Chicks Revisited

Today the blog has hit a time warp.  This is a post from last Easter, but it is such a fun craft, we will be doing it again.

The lead up to Easter is one of my favourite times of the year.  I think it has a lot ot do with the weather and the fact that the mornings are crisp but the days are warm with clear, blue skies (well, maybe not here at the moment).  It may also have to do with the fact that I am absolutely addicted to Hot Cross Buns.  I am NEVER the one who complains about the fact the grocery stores have packets of buns for sale on Boxing Day.  However, I always feel if you blink you will miss enjoying the lead up.  With the craziness of the Christmas/New Year season you seem to just get back into the ryhthm of life and Easter is at your doorstep.  So it was Friday just gone that it dawned on me that I had only 2 weeks until the Easter Weekend.  I had not even thought about Easter at all.  So I seized the day and created a craft project for Master O and I.

Last Christmas I fell in love with the Fingerprint reindeer  Bianca at A Little Delightful  completed with her son.  Taking inspiration from this and these cute little chicks you find everywhere at Easter time,

I created a fingerprint chick project.

With little time or effort, I designed and printed some placecards for our Easter table.  Then with some yellow paint, Master O fingerprinted the cards. 

When they were dry, I added the chick’s features with black and orange felts.  To make sure they were going to be sturdy and last if we wanted to use them next year, I laminated them.

I think they are super cute.  Tomorrow we plan to make some matching cards and present tags.

Under the Sea: Seaside Dessert

My two boys are obsessed with dinosaurs.  This obsession has been going strong for nearly 10 months now with my eldest and it is starting to wear thin.  While I love that my 4-year-old can rattle off hundreds of  dinosaurs facts and pronounce some dinosaur names better than I can, I would like to widen his interests.

He is a little documentary buff, so a lightbulb went off as I watched him engrossed in David Attenborough’s, The Blue Planet.  There is heaps of scope for ‘Under the Sea’ fun and a tonne of resources and ideas out there on the net.

So for the last few weeks I have been madly pinning ideas and gathering materials from about the home and the dollar stores to start some sealife fun.  Drop by and check out some of the fun stuff I have pinned here.

To kick off our ‘Under the Sea’ fun, I made a couple of seaside desserts for us to share.  It was a heap of fun, it looked great and Master O LOVED it.  Take a look…..

To make the sea, I poured some blue jelly into some deep-ish plastic plates.  As it was setting, I dropped a few fish lollies into the jelly.  For some reason I couldn’t find any fish-shaped lollies, so I resorted to cutting them out of sour straps.  The sand was made of crushed custard cream biscuits, blitzed in the Thermomix.  The striped sour straps made for colourful beach towels, Jelly Babies as beach goers and cocktail umbrellas as beach umbrellas.

If it were up to my 4-year-old, we would be having this as dessert every night.  I have seen some other great seaside desserts about the web which I will aim to try out for him in the near future.  I have pinned some to my Pinterest board if you to want to make your own seaside dessert fun.

Over the next few weeks I will post about some of our ‘Under the Sea’ adventures, so stay tuned.

Linking up with some of these fun parties
Monday: Singing Three Little Birdies, I should be Mopping the Floor, Polly Want a Crafter?, Cherished Bliss, The Gunny Sack, Skip to my Lou, Craftomaniac, It’s so Very Cheri, Keeping it Simple, Creating Really Awesome Free Things, Alderberry Hill, Its A Blog Party, A Pinch of Joy, Making the World Cuter, Mad in Crafts,  Sew Can Do, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, New Nostalgia, Ladybug Blessings,  How to Nest for Less, Watch Out Martha, Clairjustinexoxo,

Tuesday: Coastal Charm, Today’s Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons , DIY by Design, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, Hope Studios, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Organising Homelife,  Carolyn’s Homework, The Blackberry Vine, The Kurtz Corner,  A Little Tipsy, Gingersnap crafts, Time Warp Wife, These Creative Juices, The Thrifty Home, Its a Very Cherry World,  Cornerstone Confessions,   Rae Gun Ramblings, Northern Cottage, Clean and Scentsible, Creatively Living , Kathe with an E, Ivy and Elephants, Romance on a Dime,   The Real Housewives of Riverton, DIY Dreamer,  Primp, JAQS Studio, 

Wednesday: Oopsey Daisy, My Girlish Whims, Uncommonly Yours, Creations by Kara, Raising Homemakers, The Thrifty Home, Twin Dragonfly Designs, A Creative Princess, Sugar and Dots, Seven Thirty Three, Fabric Bows and More, Someday Crafts, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Trendy Treehouse, Women Living Well, We are that Family, The Mommy Club , Raising Homemakers, Sew Much Ado,t Simple,  Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Free Pretty Things for You, DIY by Design, Bloom Designs, Mom on Timeout, We Like to learn as we Go,  Family Home and Life, Savvy Southern Style, Fine Craft Guild, Embracing Change, HandyMan, Crafty Woman, Polkadots on Parade, No Minimalist Here

Thursday: House of Hepworths Delightful Order, Its a Keeper,  The Frugal Girls, The 36th Avenue,  Thrifty 101, A Glimpse Inside, Brambleberry Cottage, Bear Rabbit Bear, Michelle’s Tasty Creations and Crafty Ideas, Shabby Creek Cottage, Goings on in Texas, Happy Go Lucky,  Raising Oranges,  The Answer is Chocolate, The Taylor House, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Imparting Grace, Made in a Day, 52 Mantels, Loving This Crazy Life, Days of Chalk and Chocolate, Confessions of an ADD Housewife

Friday: The Shabby Nest, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, At the Picket Fence, Whipperberry, French Country Cottage, Thirty Handmade Days, Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Stuff and Nonsense, Fingerprints on the Fridge Naptime Crafters, While He Was Napping, My Romantic Home, Bacon Time With the Hungry, Hungry Hippo, Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons, Remodelaholic, Happy Hour Projects, Simply Designing, Simply Sweet Home, Tidy Mom,  Young and Crafty, Serenity Now , Life as Mom, At the Picket Fence, Tatertots and Jello, Craft Junkie Too, A Little Knick Knack, Blissful and Domestic, Maiden D’Shade, Petites Passions, Bubbly Nature Creations, Here Comes the Sun, Liz Marie Blog, THe Grant Life, Craftionary, Redoux Interior, Common Ground, Just Us Four, Delicate Construction, AKA Designs, Family Ever After,

Saturday:  Be Different Act Normal, The Girl Creative , Funky Junk Interiors , A Vision to Remember, Positively Splendid , Its Overflowing, Natasha in Oz, Shaken Together, Homemaker in Heels, Addicted to Decorating

Sunday: A Rosie Sweet Home, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table Dreaming, DIY Showoff, Nifty Thrift Things, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Homemaker on a Dime, DIY Home Sweet Home,  Cherished Treasures, My 1929 Charmer

Super Easy and Healthier Pancakes

Happy Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day!

A few weeks ago I wrote about some of the ways I organise myself for a streamlined breakfast time.  It was then that I promised that I would share with you a great pancake recipe.  Today seems like the perfect day to live up to that promise.

I love this recipe as it is super easy to remember, always produces fluffy pancakes, has only 3 ingredients and no sugar.

Basic Pancakes – Serves 2+ (from here)

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup milk (full cream, skim, soy)

1 egg

Method

1. Whisk egg into milk

2. Place flour into a bowl and incorporate the milk and egg mixture

3. Lightly grease a fry pan with butter or spray oil

4. Cook large spoonfuls of mixture until bubble appear on the surface and the edges firm

5. Turn pancakes and cook until the other side is golden brown

There is no need to add sugar to this recipe if you are serving with sweet toppings.  You could choose to add a few tablespoons of sugar if you prefer a sweeter cake.  Sometimes I add vanilla to this recipe for a change.

One tip I swear by is letting the batter rest for a little while before cooking.  If you are ravenous and must jump right in, you are still going to end up with fantastic pancakes, but if you can wait 10-20 minutes, the pancakes will be fluffier.

When I make extras to freeze for breakfasts or morning teas, I layer grease proof paper between the cakes before freezing in ziplock bags.  30 seconds in the microwave, they are warm and ready for topping.

I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Thermomix Passionfruit Curd

Last year I wrote about my parents bumper crop of passionfruit and shared with you a great microwave recipe for making passionfruit curd.  You can find this recipe here.

Well the crop looks to be just as bountiful this year and we are already overloaded with the purple gems.  This time round I thought I would try making the passionfruit curd in the Thermomix.

Thermomix Passionfruit Curd (from here)

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/3 cup castor sugar (more of less depending on your taste)
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ cup passionfruit pulp, (about 3 passionfruit )
60g butter, chopped coarsely

Method

1. Insert the butterfly and add the ingredients

2. Cook for 8 mins/80C/speed 3.  Use the steamer basket on top of lid instead of the measuring cup.

3. If the curd coats the back of a spoon it is ready, if not, continue cooking for a few more minutes.

4. Transfer into a sterilised container and store in the fridge.

This recipe worked quite well.  I did have to cook it for a couple more minutes to make it our preferred consistency.

This afternoon I enjoyed a generous dollop of this on some low-fat Greek yoghurt with a sprinkling of pistachios. YUM!

 

Organising Breakfast

Earlier this month I wrote about my New Year’s Resolution to make my days run more smoothly.  One aspect of my day that could be chaotic was breakfast.  Unlike everyone else in the house, I am not into the whole cereal and toast caper, a pain because they are about as easy and as quick to prepare as breakfasts come.  As I am a little fussier,  it was not unusual for me to miss breakfast, eat late or to end up scoffing my breakfast while completing some overdue task.

I decided that this year I really needed to sort the whole breakfast situation out for myself.  I needed to come up with quick, easy and healthy breakfasts.  After some consideration, here are some of my favourites:

Smoothies

A little while ago I thought it might be beneficial to try a smoothie for breakfast.  I like that it is something that can be taken with me if I am running late.  It is easy to carry around the house while I complete ‘must do’ tasks and is relatively quick to make.

To make the smoothie creation process faster, I went to the farmer’s market and stocked up on lovely fresh fruit.  I got this great box of mangoes for a steal…yum!

After cutting it all up, I popped 1/2 cup portions into little zip lock bags to pop in the freezer.  This way I always have fruit on hand, even out of season, and the frozen fruit makes my smoothies deliciously thick and cold.

I often add some LSA or 1/2 a Weetbix into the blender to help bulk it up and keep me full for longer.

Fruit Salad & Greek Yoghurt

It is not uncommon for us to put together a large fruit salad on the weekend and to pick at it over the course of the next two days . It is a great weekend breakfast, especially if you plan to eat out later in the day, as  it doesn’t keep you feeling as full as other breakfast choices.

Boiled eggs

On a Sunday evening I boil a bunch of eggs to keep in the fridge. If the shells aren’t cracked, they are safe to be stored 2-3 weeks. If I find I am really hungry in the morning, cutting one or two of these up and eating it on toast is a sure hunger-buster.

Keeping boiled eggs on hand is great idea.  They are a terrific snack on their own and a fantastic sandwich filler at lunchtime.  If your evening salad is looking a little ho-hum, pop some egg on top.

Pancakes

These aren’t the healthiest breakfast choice but sometimes they are just what you feel like.  There is no weekday morning when whipping up a batch of pancakes is possible for me.  So, when I make pancakes as an after dinner treat or weekend morning tea, I increase the mix and cook a few extra to freeze.  More often than not, they get consumed by the kids as a quick morning tea option, but they have proved once or twice to be a great ‘grab and go’ breakfast option for me.

To freeze your own pancakes, I suggest letting them cool completely before layering baking paper between each pancake.  I freeze these in individual potions in ziplock bags.

A little while back I found a fool-proof, easy to remember pancake recipe with just 3 ingredients.  It doesn’t add sugar and always yields amazingly fluffy pancakes.  I will share it with you soon.

So there are some quick and easy breakfast ideas that are really helping streamline my morning routine.  I’d love to hear your favourite breakfast ideas, tips, ticks and recipes.