Dinner tonight: Zucchini Slice

Tonight's dinner in our house was Zucchini Slice. An oldie but a goodie. This recipe was given to me by my Thermomix consultant. I think she originally posted it on her Facebook page and over the years it has become a family favourite. The TM makes this such a quick and easy meal and it is quite healthy and economical - especially when you are given home-grown zucchinis like I was this week! I think there would be many variations to this recipe, my tweak is adding a can of kidney beans. You could easily change the bacon to chorizo or smoked salmon, or add different types of cheese (Nina suggests halumi, I reckon this would be fantastic). You can also use normal plain flour, however the brown rice flour works so well and it is a great healthy option.

Ingredients:

100g brown rice or 100g plain flour

100g cheese, roughly cubed ('normal' tasty cheese is fine)

350g zucchini, roughly chopped into large pieces

1 onion, peeled and quartered 

1 clove garlic

Fresh herbs (I usually grab a small handful of whatever's in the garden - parsley, sage, oregano)

About 150g bacon, I usualy use shortcut 

5 large or 6 small eggs
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

50g olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method:

If using brown rice, place in TM bowl and grind on speed 9 for 1 minute. Set aside in seperate bowl. 

Place cheese in TM bowl, grate 3-5 seconds on speed 6. Set aside (can add to rice flour). 

Place zucchini in TM bowl, grate for 3 seconds on speed 5. Pulse on turbo once or twice to ensure zucchini is grated evenly. Set aside (add to other ingredients).
Place onion, garlic, bacon and herbs in TM bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 6. Sauté for 3 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.
Add all other ingredients and mix for about 10 seconds on reverse speed 3. This will chop your kidney beans up a bit, but personally I like this. Don't overmix or they will turn to mush. If you prefer your beans left whole add them after this step and then just slowly stir them in.

Pour mixture into a greased lamington tin or similar dish. Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees (until golden brown).

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a green salad. I particularly love this with some fresh chilli sprinkled on top!

Dinner tonight: Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken with Tortillas

Right so here is what I'm cooking for dinner tonight - home-made tortillas with Salsa Chicken. I make a variation of this recipe from the fantastic blog Additive Free Bites. The original recipe is actually called 'Creamy Salsa Chicken' and it is served with brown rice (it looks fantastic btw, I have just tweaked it). I don't add the sour cream at the end but instead add 2 cans of kidney beans and use it as a tortilla filling. I serve it in the slow-cooker bowl with shredded lettuce, grated cheese, avocado and sour cream. Yummo - and hardly any dishes. I make the tortillas using this recipe from Quirky Cooking. Make sure you click on the link for a fantastic how-to on how to make them. I don't always have spelt flour so I just use normal plain flour - they work fine, however you just need to make sure you have the right consistency. Spelt flour and normal flour require different amounts of water (just slightly) so if you want to use plain flour just pay attention to Jo's instructions regarding what the dough should look/feel like and adjust accordingly. I do love the fact that this meal is completely home-made from scratch. The Salsa Chicken recipe makes a huge batch so I always have left-overs, it freezes really well and I will often give the left-overs to the kids on top of some pasta or served with some baked pita bread.  

Ingredients:

600-700g chicken breast fillets, cut into 5-6cm 'chunks' 

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 large diced tomatoes or 400g can of diced tomatoes

1 small-medium red capsicum, diced

1 medium red chilli, diced

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp raw sugar

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground paprika

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup water 

1 tsp salt, a good grind of pepper

To serve:

Sliced avocado

Shredded iceberg lettuce

Grated cheese

Sour Cream

Method:

1.  Place onion, garlic and chilli into TMX bowl. Blitz for 1-2 seconds on speed 5 (you could chop the capsicum in the TMX along with these ingredients if you wanted, but I prefer to chop the capsicum by hand so it doesn't turn to mush). Add contents to slow-cooker bowl 

2.  Place all other ingredients into slow-cooker pot. Cook on 'high' for 3hrs

3.  After 3hrs, remove chicken chunks and use two forks to shred the chicken. Return shredded chicken to slow-cooker bowl and stir through. Taste to see if more salt is required. Return bowl to slow-cooker, keep on 'warm' setting while making the tortillas

Tortillas:

Check out Quirky Cooking's post on how to make the tortillas as she explains how to make them so perfectly. Like I said above, I make them with plain flour but if you want to do the same just pay extra attention to the consistency of your dough and adjust if necessary. Link is here.

Spoon the Salsa Chicken onto the tortillas and top with sliced avocado, shredded lettuce, grated cheese and sour cream. Roll up and enjoy the mess you make! 

Lunchbox filler: Oat and Raisin Cookies

OK so here is a great lunchbox filler. I'm not a huge biscuit-maker because they usually contain so much butter. But the amount of butter in these is quite reasonable and they are full of healthy oats. The recipe is from a fantastic blog, Thermomixin.com. Here here is the link to the original recipe. I actually reduce the butter and sugar slightly and increase the oats - this makes them a bit crumblier than what they probably should be but still totally yummy. I also use currents just because they're smaller and I always have them in the cupboard. Here's my slightly tweaked version!

Ingredients:

100g butter, softened
110g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
65g plain flour
30g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
120g rolled oats, I'm usually generous with those and usually put in around 140g
120g currents

Method:

1.  Preheat your oven to 175 degrees and line two trays with baking paper
2.  Put butter, sugar, egg and vanilla into TMX bowl and cream for 1min/speed 3
3.  Add flour, baking soda, cinammon and salt and knead for 40secs/interval speed
4.  Add oats and currents, mix for 40secs/reverse/speed 1. Check to see everything has mixed together properly, it may need another mix on the same settings or even just a mix by hand with the spatula
5.  Spoon mixture onto baking trays in blobs about the side of a walnut or golf-ball. Leave enough room between each blob for spreading
6.  Cook for 12 mins or until they turn golden brown.

I will add a photo once I play around with my photo settings…stand by!

I'm back in 2016! Check out my plans for this blog...

Hello hello, well my blogging plans a few years back didn't really come to anything, did they?? Oh well! I now have two kids, a 6yo and a 3yo and my husband and I also have number 3 on the way. My plan for 2016 is to be a bit more organised with cooking, meal planning and lunch boxes. Over the years I've collected so many great recipes on my phone which I've never even tried! I really want to try to work through them, so I thought getting back onto this blog would be a great way to keep a record of the good ones I find. Also, I have a habit of 'tweaking' recipes and when I come to make the dish again I can't remember my 'tweak'! So I will be sharing other people's recipes (credits will be included) with my comments and/or variations. So I hope you find this blog helpful - at the very least hopefully it will help me to remember what I've cooked!

Banana, Date and Hazelnut Pudding

Well since I posted a wintery soup recipe today, I thought I just had to post a wintery pudding recipe too. I found this recipe on www.homelife.com.au and converted it for the Thermomix. It is a great recipe if you are looking to use up a few ageing bananas sitting in the fruit bowl and it also doesn't contain too much butter.  The original recipe called for 155g sugar in the cake part of the pudding, but we found that it was a bit too sweet for us (even though I had actually cut the sugar down a bit).  I really don't think the pudding needs any more than 120g of sugar. Next time I make this I will cut the sugar right down to 100g and add a few more dates. The original recipe also called for 100g butter in the butterscotch sauce - I cut this right down to 50g and this was fine. This recipe makes enough for 6-8ppl, so we had heaps leftover. I put the rest in the fridge and took it to work for morning tea for the next few days - it's fantastic just slightly warmed in the microwave.

Ingredients

100g whole hazelnuts

20g butter

150g dates

1 tsp bicarb soda

310g boiling water

1 cup roughly chopped banana (I used 3 small bananas. I would recommend using more rather than less banana to get that yummy banana flavour)

120g brown sugar

60g butter, extra

190g self-raising flour

Cream or ice cream, to serve

Butterscotch sauce

200g brown sugar

300g cream

50g butter

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Spread the hazelnuts over an oven tray.  Roast in oven for 10 minutes or until lightly toasted.  Place hazelnuts in a clean tea-towel and rub to remove the skins.  

Place the hazelnuts in the Thermomix bowl and process on speed 7 for 5-10 seconds.  You are wanting a very course hazelnut meal.  

Line the base of a 20cm round springform pan with baking paper.  Using a pastry brush, paint the butter over the base and sides of the pan (you may need to soften/melt the butter in the microwave for a few seconds).  Sprinkle the pan with the processed hazelnuts.  Not all of it will stick, so ensure the rest is evenly distributed across the bottom of the pan.  

Place the dates in the Thermomix bowl.  Process on speed 7 for 5 seconds to chop finely.  Transfer the dates to a heatproof bowl and sprinkle the bicarb soda over the dates.  Place the bowl on top of the Thermomix and pour the boiling water over the dates, using the scales to measure the water.  Set aside to soak for at least 5 minutes.  

Place the dates (including water), banana, sugar, extra butter and flour in the Thermomix bowl and process on 5 for 5-10 seconds till almost smooth.  Pour into the prepared pan.  Do not rinse Thermomix bowl.  

Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Leave the pudding in the pan to cool slightly while you make the butterscotch sauce.  

Place the ingredients for the butterscotch sauce into the unrinsed Thermomix bowl.  Cook for 5 minutes at 90 degrees on speed 3.  

Remove the pudding from the pan and pour half the butterscotch sauce over.  Cut into slices and drizzle with the remaining sauce.  Serve with cream or ice cream.  

Chicken and Barley Soup

This is a great healthy recipe for Chicken and Barley Soup. The Thermomix makes this recipe really quick and easy, and even though I don't actually cook the soup in the Thermomix it really helps with the prep.

Ingredients
Olive oil
2 onions, peeled and quartered
3 cloves of garlic
250g carrots, peeled and roughly chopped into large pieces
180g celery, roughly chopped into large pieces
180g red capsicum, roughly chopped into large pieces
2L chicken stock
2 fresh bay leaves
220g pearl barley, rinsed well
520g skinless chicken breast, roughly chopped into large pieces
100g silverbeet or spinach, stalks removed and sliced

Method
Place a large saucepan on the stove.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and heat on high.

Add the onion and garlic to the Thermomix.  Chop on speed 5 for 3 seconds, then scrape down the sides of the bowl then pulse a couple of times on turbo.

Add the onion mix to the saucepan.  Sauté for at least 5 minutes till the onion is softened.

While the onion mix is cooking add the carrots, celery and red capsicum to the Thermomix bowl.  Pulse a couple of times on turbo till they reach the desired consistency (you are wanting the veggies to be roughly diced in small bits, not slush).

Add the vegetable mixture to the saucepan and cook for a further few minutes.

Add the stock, bay leaves and barley to the saucepan.  Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, add the chopped chicken to the Thermomix bowl (no need to rinse the bowl after chopping the veggies).  Pulse the chicken 3-4 times on turbo.  What you are aiming for is a course mince, so don't pulse it too many times.

Add the chicken to the saucepan and stir to break up the chicken.  Simmer for a further 45 minutes until the barley is soft.

Add the sliced silverbeet to the saucepan and cook or a few minutes to wilt.

Serve and enjoy!

Pumpkin and Pecan Cake

I cannot believe I have not shared a cake recipe on this blog yet!  I love my cakes, but do not love cakes that are bad for you.  I only cook cakes that are low-ish in butter/oil), low-ish in sugar and have at least some 'goodness' in them, i.e. some fruit/veg/nuts.  This one is just great and very yummy. I have 'tweaked' this recipe from a recipe I found on recipecommunity.com.au.  You can view the original recipe here.  I have cooked this cake before using wholemeal flour and it turned out great.  I would like to try cooking it using a different kind of flour (e.g. spelt) but have not done that as yet.  As it does not have much butter in it, it tends to be a bit crumbly and so I have found it works best in a ring cake tin rather than a rectangle cake tin.  My ring cake 'tin' is actually silicon and works perfectly.  Enjoy!


Ingredients:
250 g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
60g pecan pieces (I often add more that this coz I love nuts.  If you would like them to be chopped up a bit you can blitz them once on Turbo first, but I don't think it's necessary)
60g sultanas
60g butter
180g sugar
3 eggs
400g pumpkin cubed
600g water
¼ cup orange juice (you can use bottled juice or blitz up one peeled orange with some water)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  
Place cubed peeled pumpkin into rice basket, add 600g water to TM bowl.  Cook on Varoma, 15 mins speed 4.  When complete remove pumpkin and set aside, rinse TM bowl and towel dry. 

1. Place all dry ingredients except for sugar into TM bowl and stir for 10 seconds on reverse, speed 3.  Set aside.
2. Add butter and sugar to TM bowl, cream for 20 seconds on speed 5.
3. Add eggs, pumpkin, orange juice and vanilla to TM bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5 till well combined.
4. Return the dry ingredients to the TIM bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 3 until thoroughly combined. 
5. Pour mixture into a greased ring tin.
6. Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 45-55 minutes until lightly browned.  
7. Ice cake with a simple icing and enjoy!