Based on the recipe on eb, but with a few major differences due to lack of ingredients lol the Lamb Shanks really ended up way too fatty for us despite being baked on a rack first, cooked the day before and all fat skimmed off tonight, so if anyone has any less fatty suggestions for a replacement please let me know :)

Special thanks to Lana who gave me the delicious plum sauce that saved me when i didn't have enough cranberry sauce! (we swapped for lemon butter & nectarine & peach jam ;))

Lamb Shanks in Plum, Cranberry & Red Wine Sauce

6 lamb shanks, fat trimmed as desired
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon chicken stock powder ( i use GF massel brand)
1 cup red wine (i just use an aldi cheapie)
1/2 jar cranberry sauce
around 2/3 cup plum sauce
1 tablespoon thyme or rosemary leaves
1/3 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1-2 cups water as required
* check all ingredient lists to ensure they are gluten free

bake lamb shanks for about 20-30 mins in a 200+'c oven - i bake mine on a rack over a tray full of water, helps make them more tender as well as making cleanup easier!

place all other ingredients except water in slow cooker (crock pot) and mix well. add shanks and turn cooker onto high. cook for 2 hours then turn down to low. at this time take lid off and stir sauce to mix flour through. add as much water as you need (i had to add about 1 1/2 cups, i didn't seem to get much extra liquid from the shanks, probably because they were baked)

cook for about 5 hours until shanks are practically falling apart.

serve if desired or if you'd like to get rid of still more fat...

place shanks in a microwavable container and place in fridge. pour the sauce into a smaller container. the next night remove the solid fat from the top of the sauce. spoon it over the shanks and heat for about 20 minutes at half / medium / 50% power.

serve with mashed potatoes and steamed veg, including a green veg

inspired by a thread on EB

put water in the thermomix and place in varoma on top around 6 medium potatoes and half a large sweet potatoes quartered. cook for ummm i think it was 5 minutes but could have been 10 (oops) on varoma temp, speed 1

remove the varoma and lid and add the basket and 3 eggs (actually i did 6 but kept the others for the girls. it's best if you use room temp eggs so they don't break with the hot water lol)

cook for 15 minutes on varoma temp, speed 1

in the meantime finely dice some lean bacon (4 shortcut pieces) and fry til crispy
finely chop some garlic (1-2 cloves)

let eggs and potatoes cool to peel & dice - 2cm pieces for the potatoes and 3/4cm pieces of egg (quarter & dice)

in a large bowl mix around 2/3 cup mayo (can make your own in tmx of course, i used a low fat praise one that is also GF) and a little less of plain or greek yoghurt. also add in some S&P, some fresh shredded mint leaves, and the rest of the ingredients.

toss to coat and serve or chill and serve

Last night's dinner was a big (italian style lol) salad with Nem Nuong

i didn't have any pork - i though the recipe needed pork and veal mince but spaced it and bought double amounts of veal and no pork lol. it made them a little dry but they were still yum. I made a double batch and there was not one left after feeding 3 adults and 3 kids (SIL was here for dinner).

i won't worry about C&P this recipe across as the one i have in my vietnamese recipe book is almost identical :) this recipe was a CINCH in the thermomix though - i just roasted then ground the rice in it first, then chopped the garlic and chives (i'd run out of shallots / green onions) and then added in everything else (i actually had a coarse ground mince so didn't need to make my own)

i love these made quite small and put in the rice paper rolls, or served with rice vermicelli and salad, and nuoc mam.

I finally had a go at making my own gluten free bread today, after a friend loaned me her breadmaker to try with the possibility of keeping it. I'm not sure that i actually need it, given I had to mix the dough in the thermomix anyway lol the only advantage would be using the time delay setting which I'm assuming you could do with GF dough despite it being all mixed together the night before, because the book doesn't say otherwise, anyone had any experience with this?

the breadmaker is the Breville Bread Master Big Loaf, which is no longer available.

(i should mention here that i do actually have my own bread maker - which hasn't been used since buying the thermomix of course ;) - a sunbeam - but it doens't have a removable blade so is not suitable to use for rora's bread. i must get around to selling it in fact!! i much prefer being able to make my bread quickly when i need it, or making breads such as foccacias, plaited loaves etc, plus i think it tastes better than breadmaker bread)

anyway, this bread was very nice. it smelled and tasted very similar to "real" bread. the texture looked similar, though it did get soggy pretty quickly as a sandwich bread.

Gluten Free Rice Bread
400g white rice
180g brown rice
1.5 tbs guar gum
3 tabs sugar (hmmm i think i put 3 tspns instead!)
1.5 tspns salt
3 tabs milk powder
2 tspns dried yeast (i use lowan brand which is GF)
450g water
3 tabs oil
3 x 60g eggs
1 tspn apple cider vinegar

mill the rices in the thermomix at speed 10 for 2 minutes until smooth flour. (you might want to stop half way through, scrape down and check consistency)
add the other dried ingredients and mix on speed 6 for 2-4 seconds to sift and mix.

place a 1L bowl on top of the lid and measure out the water, add the other wet ingredients and mix together.

turn the thermomix onto closed lid, knead setting and pour the wet ingredients through the lid. continue on knead setting until mixed. you might find it useful to stop and scrape down the sides part way through.

using a spatula place dough into the breadtin and cook according to directions.
(for this machine it is basic bread setting, 1kg size, i did a light crust and it took 3 hours and 10 minutes)

Lamb shanks in cranberry sauce (cooking today to eat tomorrow) with whatever vegies i can find
Dhansak (Lamb with lentils and tamarind, from Curry)
Bean & Vegie Tacos
pizzas (prepare bases ahead & freeze)
Chicken Breasts Parmesan & Nuggets (from Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy) with salad
pasta and pesto with broccoli



Need to buy:
pumpkin
eggplant
mustard greens
mint?
onions
sweet potato?
capsicum
salad stuff
broccoli

just a very very rough recipe, more for myself than to share ;)

50g jasmine rice
50g brown rice
4 shortcut pieces of bacon, cut into large chunks
1 onion, peeled and quartered
maybe around 1.5 cups? gluten free self raising flour (i used white wings)
a 400g+ tin of creamed corn (i used half but would use the whole thing next time with less milk)
2 eggs
milk as required
around 1 cup of olive or other oil
optional: spices such as curry powder, thai spices etc, herbs of your choice

put rice in bowl and mill at speed 10 for about 50-60 seconds, until smooth flour. remove and place in another bowl

place bacon and onion in bowl and chop on speed 6, maybe around 10 secs?

add in rice flour, creamed corn, eggs, and milk if using (or you can add this later if your mix is too dry) and spices. mix on reverse speed 2 and add flour through the lid one scoop at a time until you get a thick batter

heat oil until it starts to bubble a little (medium high heat i think) and put spoonfuls of batter in to cook. you want the top a little more solid and the bottom brown before turning.

next time i will try this style http://thaifood.about.com/od/vegetarianthairecipes/r/thacornfritters.htm

this is ryan's favourite slice, which i haven't made for a while. i just went to find the recipe to discover it nowhere on the blog, nowhere on paper and nowhere on the original website (taste grrrr). luckily googling found a copy of it - at least i'm pretty sure this is exactly it!

i will now be copying all recipes which are keepers to this blog, that's happened once too often...


SWEET SPICED OATY SLICE
Makes 16 pieces

1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup coconut
125g [ 4 1/2 oz ] butter, chopped
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup pure icing sugar [ Confectioners sugar ]

Preheat oven to 180C.....Grease and line base and sides of a 3cm [1 1/4 inch ]
deep 16.5cm x26cm [ 6 1/2 x 10 1/4 inch ] slab pan, allowing a 2cm [ 3/4 inch
]
overhang at both long ends.

Sift flour, nutmeg ,ginger, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into bowl.
Stir in oats, caster sugar and coconut. Combine butter and honey
in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Heat for 3 minutes or until butter
is melted. Remove from heat.
Combine water and soda in a small bowl. Stir into hot butter mixture.
Mix well. Press into slab pan. Bake for 15- 18 minutes or until a
skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
Combine icing sugar [ Confectioners sugar ] and remaining cinnamon.
Sift over warm slice. Allow to cool completely.
Cut into squares and serve.

this cake was delicious! i was asked if i'd bought it ;p (thanks girls, your cheque is in the mail ;)) but it was lovely and moist like a cafe cake. it didn't rise a lot and i think that helped. it doesn't have a really strong banana flavour and the blueberries were a delicious extra touch.

next time i'll try a gluten free version (even though rory's not much interested in cake)

originally from taste, and with non-thermomix instructions there :)

125g butter or margarine
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas
200g plain yoghurt
200g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 - 1 punnet fresh blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 22cm springform pan and then line the base with non-stick baking paper.

Mix butter or margarine and sugar in thermomix until pale and creamy - i used speed 4, scraping down a few times and it took maybe a minute, probably less.

turn speed down to 2 and add eggs one at time through the lid.

Remove lid and add in yoghurt, flour and baking powder, mix on speed 4-6 for 10-20 seconds (until the flour is well mixed through).

Add (whole peeled) bananas and mix reverse speed 4 for approx 10 seconds until they stop sounding "chunky"

remove bowl from thermomix and use a spatula to mix the blueberries through. Pour into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven. Stand for 5-10 minutes then remove cake from pan and place it on a wire rack to cool.

just before eating sift some icing sugar over it. serve on its own or with a dollop of double thick cream

photo tomorrow :)

well, the family got home yesterday and life is back to normal already of course ;)

i did an extended and early meal plan because i went to choku bai jo this morning to get all our F&V.

chicken cacciatore with pasta - tonight
lamb & veg curry (slow cooker)
grilled GF sausages, mashed potatoes and bean salad
enchiladas
chicken salad
bacon & chicken fried rice (need to buy a whole chook & 'bake' in slow cooker)
eggs, baked beans, grilled tomatoes & bacon
sweet potato fritatta

i have some people coming over tonight so i have made a marscapone & passionfruit fruit dip (if it gets any compliments i will post the recipe) and this banana & yoghurt cake with blueberries in it.

if you've been wanting a thermomix and been putting it off can i suggest you order it NOW?! I've just been told that the price is going up to over $1900 as of Feb 1.

(seems a little crazy to me, given the economic state and the price being the biggest turn off, but anyway....)

just DO IT! i promise you absolutely won't regret it! after all, who raves about their food processor and how much they love it? no one i know LOL and if you need the details for the other karen in canberra (ie: not me) who sells them just leave me a message or send me an email :)

at the moment i am child free!!! (and husband free lol) Geoff has taken the kids to visit his family for the week. i have to work so had to stay home alone. oh what a shame ;)

what IS a shame is that i simply can't be bothered to cook LOL so please feel free to ignore this blog until next week when your normal program should be resumed :D

YUM!!

with some help from geoff and ryan we made gado gado for lunch - i love gado gado!

I used this recipe from Taste to make the sauce though i made a few changes for the sake of the kids such as halving the curry paste and not including the chillis. I also halved the sugar and let me tell you it was still obscenely sweet... i had to use raw sugar so i'm not sure if that's the reason though i can't imagine it is. i did feel the sauce was missing something but maybe it was jsut the bits i left out (including ketjap manis which contains gluten).

i am also shocked at how hard it is to buy peanuts these days. i wanted raw peanuts but had to settle for a pack of unsalted roasted as coles had no other brands or packs that i could find - i checked the health section (i was there to buy GF for rora), the fresh F&V section and the baking / nut section but no other peanuts of any kind. crazy.

we served the sauce with:

• chicken marinaded in tamari & sesame oil, grilled and sliced up
• raw and steamed green beans
• raw and steamed carrot sticks
• raw and steamed pumpkin
• steamed baby potatoes
• cucumber sticks
• capsicum strips
  

i'm not sure if i wrote all my thermomix notes down but if i did i'll post a gluten free conversion later :)

yesterday geoff and i set out with the kids on an expedition to buy Ryan's first school shoes. first stop DFO and the food court for some morning tea (we now take our own GF snacks everywhere, and just buy drinks.

as emelia and i were waiting for our 'cinos a lady with 2 young boys came up and asked if i was Karen, then checked if i was brazen and said "Hi I'm Zoe". i didn't hear what she said next so i was racking my brain trying to work out which zoe i know from where LOL the only one i could think of has one little girl so it wasn't her. I asked where she knew me from and she said here, she recognised rora! (yes, i don't think i've blogged here about poor emelia's haircut lol)

how very cool :) so hello Zoe, it was lovely to meet you! thanks for saying hello :)

my friend irene first made this bean salad for us when we were camping with her at kangaroo valley last year. rory loved it! now ryan loves it too. i've tried to replicate it with a non-commercial dressing and they won't touch it LOL so now i've given up and i just make it like she does :)

Irene's bean salad
1 tin mixed beans (4 or 5 bean mix), rinsed and drained
french or italian dressing (low fat and / or gluten free)

mix and serve, chilling optional lol

another from a friend ;)

The punch I make is a *SNAP*

1 - 2 ltr bottle of lemonade
1 - large tin tropical mixed fruits - I sometimes add extra pineapple too
1 - contaner of concentrated fruit juice (I use tropical)
Chuck in some ice to keep cool
and stir

Add alcohol as required - ours is usually a PG punch

Voila punch

The other thing I do is put all the ingredients into the freezer for 1/2 hour or so and they stay colder for a lot longer!

another from a friend ;)

The punch I make is a *SNAP*

1 - 2 ltr bottle of lemonade
1 - large tin tropical mixed fruits - I sometimes add extra pineapple too
1 - contaner of concentrated fruit juice (I use tropical)
Chuck in some ice to keep cool
and stir

Add alcohol as required - ours is usually a PG punch

Voila punch

The other thing I do is put all the ingredients into the freezer for 1/2 hour or so and they stay colder for a lot longer!

from a friend...

Lucus Cake

600mls thicken cream
1 packet of “morning coffee Biscuits”
I mug of water/ warm or cold
1tbl heaped of coffee
Cocoa
Flake
3 Sheets of foil
1 Packet of “white wings” Vanilla Instant Pudding

Put your 3 sheets foil down onto a tray ( make sure its long enough to put 7 biscuits across).

Mix with a mix master cream and pudding until its nice and fluffy and thick, while that is mixing dip your biscuits in the water and coffee, and place them down on foil 7across and 3 down so you should have 21 biscuits.
(that is 3 biscuits long, and 7 biscuits wide, so its a squarish shape)

Then spread half your pudding mix out on top of the biscuits.

Then repeat it all over again.

When you have the 2 layers get the sides of the foil and bring them together, to make a triangle.

Put in the fridge to set for 2 hrs.

Then with the left over coffee/ water use it for chocolate icing (however you would make your own chocolate icing), then sprinkle the top with a flake.

snickerdoodles

thanks to the friend who shared this :)

~~~~~~~
I do one if I have any left over chicken from a roast chicken dinner (or you can cook up some chicken thigh fillets)

all you need:
fry one large or two med onions (you can also add chciken here if you are cooking chicken from scratch)
mix in 1/2 a jar of sundried tomato pesto
add some cream (I usually add 1/2 jar)
mix and simmer for a couple of minutes

add to cooked pasta in oven proof dish
add shredded chicken from roast chicken (or thigh fillets)
top with cheese

put in oven for about 20 min

easy and yummy
~~~~~~

Gingerbread
250g butter (can use unsalted)
2/3 cup (125g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (175mL) golden syrup
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups (500g) plain flour
1/2 cup (60g) self raising flour
2T ground ginger
2t bicarbonate of soda

Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking trays with baking paper.
Beat butter, sugar and syrup until light and creamy.
Add eggs gradually, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Sift dry ingredients into the bowl and stir to combine.
Bring the dough together with your hands, and turn out onto a well floured worksurface. Knead until smooth.*
Roll out to 5mm thickness on well floured surface, and cut shapes.**
Bake for 12 minutes, then cool.

Protein 1g, Fat 7g, carbohydrate 19.5g, dietary fibre 0g, cholesterol 33mg, 595kJ (142cal) for 1 gingerbread man (makes 30)

* recipe says refrigerate for 30 minutes.
** recipe says refrigerate for 20 minutes. I didn't bother with either refrigeration, and they turned out ok wink.gif

From The Tastes of Christmas, Family Circle step-by-step cookbook.

Coffee choc Friands
the ingredients

250g icing sugar
100g plain flour
125g ground almonds
180g butter, melted and cooled
6 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules, dissolved in 1 tablespoons hot water
100g dark chocolate, finely chopped


the fun
§ Preheat the oven to 180ºc
§ In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, almonds, butter & egg whites. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
§ Pour dissolved coffee into mixture and mix well.
§ Spoon mixture into Flexibake Pan and top each friand with chopped chocolate.
§ Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked.
§ Remove from oven and let cool in Flexibake Pan

CHEF'S TIP
Gluten free flour can be used


Pistachio and Lime Friands

125g Pistachios
6 egg whites
185 g butter, melted
1 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1 tblspn lime juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lime rind

1 preheat oven to 200c/180 fan forces. Grease your tin

2. Process nuts until finely ground

3. Place egg whites in large bowl; whisk until frothy. Stir in butter, sifted sugar and flour, juice, rind, and ground pistachios. Spoon mixture into pans.

4. Bake friands aboutt 20 mins. Stand in pan 5 mins, turn, top side up onto wire rack to cool


See they are super easy and very yummy

this week's menu plan is a little different. Weight watchers have brought in a new plan called the Satisfaction plan that supposedly combines the best of the core and points plans (it's about eating more of the foods that keep you satisfied, high fibre etc etc). the problem for is that i hate counting points! luckily they have kept the core plan (now called 'simply filling') so i can keep doing it, but i'm still going to give their "Fast Start" a try - sort of lol

fast start is a week of meals designed to give you a quick entry into what satisfaction is all about. some people have lost heaps of weight doing it apparently. i dont think i will lose anymore than normal (and i already lose quite a lot on the weeks i do lose, usually between 1-2kg at a time) as it's very similar to the sort of food we eat anyway. they do provide breakfasts and lunch ideas too, but the thought of having to buy for and prepare 7 different breakfasts and 7 different lunches just gives me heart palpitations lol so i'm just stickign with my usual thermomix banana porridge (though i'm gradually decreasing the quantity) and will make up 2 of their salad suggestions to have 2-3 days (the lentil salad we had at christmas is one)

there's quite a lot of chicken in this week because apart from it being geoff favourite meat, we don't really eat seafood so i had to replace two seafood meals. i also need to swap out some gluten food such as cous cous etc:

steak and (cous cous) probably amaranth or maybe mashed cannelini beans with cherry tomato sauce and avocado salad

spag bol (last night's)

crumbed chicken fingers with potato wedges

some sort of meat (originally fish but chicken makes it too similar to the meal above, maybe lamb or beef balls) and chips with greek salad

lemon chicken stir fry and rice

roasted vegie pizza

vegetarian noodle stir fry (with rice noodles)

lunches will be the lentil salad and also a salad nicoise for a few days each.

will let you know how the weigh in goes ;)

Geoff suggested that we come up with a list of our favourite meals so that we can pick from it each week / fortnight when we menu plan. i'm sure i've started doing exactly that a few times pre-blog but who knows where they are? at least the blog will make it easier to find ;) I'll start that later when i do the upcoming menu plan.

so far today i've made my usual porridge (did it with soy milk though which was even yummier than usual - we have a cupboard full of soy milk as we thought rory had a dairy intolerance prior to the CD diagnosis) and 2 batches of yoghurt - one low fat (for me) and one full fat (for the kids). i use the easiyo set up to set the yoghurt.

i plan to make some cakes later - probably this one as i have buttermilk to use up. i'll try making it GF and see how it goes. I will probably also make this as i promised geoff to make him a nice cake with chocolate and almonds in it :) i crushed up a kilo of almonds this morning before my porridge so i won't have pesky almond bits to stop the egg whites peaking today ;)

and a long overdue reply for Dani!

last night mum and dad came over for dinner so i went with Tacos to make sure everyone was kept happy :)

anyway, i had needed to make a new batch of taco spice for a while and of course needed to make a GF batch (though it turned out that the aldi taco kits are totally GF from what i can tell!). so then i saw dani's comment which i hadn't replied to and wanted to let dani know that yes, i really enjoyed it when i made the first batch! this time i'm feeling like it's lacking something and i'm not sure what it is... (i did change the recipe slightly)

Gluten-Free Taco Spice Mix
(i made up 5 times this mix which is a LOT lol)

1 tab dried garlic
1/2 tab dried onion
1 tspn oregano
1/4 tab paprika
3 tabs cumin seeds
1.5 tabs beef stock powder
1/4 tab black peppercorns
1 heaped tab GF maize cornflour
1 tab ground coriander

grind in thermomix, i think i did speed 10 for about 5 seconds maybe?

Our GF taco meal
taco shells are generally GF (check labels!) the old el paso and aldi ones we have are at least.
tortillas - rory has the diegos GF corn tortillas (from Coles bread section) and the rest of us have the regular wheat ones (heated and served separately of course)

meat - we made our own mince in the thermomix with some of the whole rump from the freezer. fried up with onions, kidney beans and taco spice. it seemed to be lacking something so i added a can of GF baked beans (heinz) and a large spoonful of tomato paste, plus some water.

served with diced tomato, cucumber (rory has discovered she likes it!), shredded lettuce and grated cheese

Cheddar Shortbread
from gluten free and easy by robyn russell

these are lovely! i doubled the recipe so will provide those amounts below. only thing is the cayenne is WAY too much - even geoff and i can hardly eat them, let alone rora LOL next time i'll make them without any i think.


120g cheddar cheese (i used a piece of Ashgrove Cheddar)
220g commercial gluten free plain flour (i used white wings)
1 1/2 tspns salt
up to a half tspn cayenne pepper, optional
80g butter, chopped (i used unsalted)
1/2 bunch of chopped chives
approx 120ml milk (just a little over the MC full)

chop the cheese for 4-5 seconds on speed 6, or until it is crumbled, place in a bowl.

add the flour, salt and cayenne if using and mix/sift by setting on closed lid and pulsing with the turbo button 2-3 times

add the butter and mix on speed 6 for 4-5 seconds until it is crumbley and looks a bit like breadcrumbs

add the cheese and chives and drizzle the milk in slowly until it starts to form into a ball. i started with reverse speed 4 and then went down to 3 when that seemed a little fast. it took 70 seconds or 1 min 10 seconds for mine to come together.

remove from thermomix and lay on a piece of baking paper about 40cm long. wrap it and start to roll out into a long sausage shape. wrap in the paper then in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

preheat oven to 180'c
cut into 5mm rounds and place on a lined baking tray. bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown.

update: changes to the recipe here

thanks to Elana from Elana's Pantry for this one!

i made a half mix as i didn't have enough almonds to do the full mix. we found them a bit salty so I would only add half the salt next time. using a pizza cutter made them superfast to make!

320g almonds (note the original recipe called for blanched, i just used raw)
1/2-3/4 tspn vegemare salt
150g sesame seeds
2 eggs
30g grapeseed oil

place almonds in the tmx. chop on speed 6-8 until they are ground - around 30-40 seconds? (sorry, mine were already done lol)

add in all other ingredients. mix for 40-50 seconds on reverse, closed lid and the wheat/knead setting.



remove from thermomix and form into 4 balls. place the 3 balls aside and one on top of your baking sheet or a piece of baking paper. place a piece of baking paper flatten it out slightly with the heel of your hand, then roll it out until it is only 1-2mm thick.

cut into 3cm squares with a pizza cutter. remove any little side pieces of the first 3 balls / trays and add them to the next ball (less messy scrappy crackers that way!)

bake at around 180'c (my oven just gets worse and more unreliable so it may be a slightly lower temp you need) for 10 minutes until golden brown. cool and serve. nice on their own or with dips or cheeses :)

Lake Ginninderra
Originally uploaded by mollerenshaw

we decided to go for a picnic today (don't ask how it went). gluten free picnic food is not a matter of just popping to the store for a BBQ chook and some bread rolls!!! hmmm

so i ended up making:
chicken balls - chicken mince, onion, carrot, zucchini, GF breadcrumbs, egg and a large spoonful of thai red curry paste (mix was really really sloppy unfortunately but the balls still tasted good in the end)
rice paper rolls - wrapped around the leftover nasi goreng lol (a hit with rora)
frittatta - with corn, onion, a little buckwheat flour, dried parsley (i had no fresh) and some parmesan cheese
tomato wedges & cucumber sticks
and some sweet chilli sauce and tomato sauce for dipping

it was a nice meal even if the company (of the under 6's) was annoying to say the least ;p

for those who enjoy them like me :)

these come from google analytics

where do people go first up?
30% of all my hits come straight to the front page
5.4% of all my hits have gone to the white chocolate rocky road recipe (and another 1.9% went to the tupperware version i posted)
3.8% go to my thermomix review
2.5% are after the honey parsnip soup recipe (almost all of these searchers are from britain)
2.3% come in for my favourite choc chip cookie recipe!

of course there's lots more but most of the rest of the higher ones are either christmas ones (! i think christmas has really skewed the figures!) or they come from links i've posted on EB ;))

so how do people get here?
* 5.38% Direct Traffic

* 59.14% Referring Sites

* 35.48% Search Engines

the top traffic sources:
google (organic) : 420 34.26%
members.essentialbaby.com.au (referral) : 313 25.53%
blogger.com (referral) : 85 6.93%
(direct) ((none)) : 66 5.38%
forumthermomix.com (referral) : 52 4.24%

top keywords people use to get here:
brazen culinary adventures : 32 7.36% (that includes you Melbourne googler ;))
thermomix review : 20 4.60%
rocky road thermomix : 11 2.53%
honey roasted parsnip soup : 10 2.30%
white chocolate rocky road : 9 2.07%

fascinating huh. i wish i had proper stats on visits to my blog but i didn't start using any of the widgets to see where people were coming from, when and how many until the past 6 months. i love knowing that other people are coming in and hope they try and enjoy some of my recipes! that is what they are here for :)

i'd also like to thank everyone else whose recipes i have 'borrowed' and made my own :)