Chocolate Balls (yummo!) (GF, TMX)

Based on this recipe...

150g almonds

place in thermomix and grind on speed 8 for 10 seconds

add the remaining ingredients and chop / mix on speed 6 for 30 seconds:

120g pitted dates
1 tspn vanilla
good sprinkle salt
25g cocoa *
35g shredded coconut
15 coconut oil

roll into balls - or you can flatten into a tray, refridgerate and cut into pieces.

* I've tried grinding cacao nibs and using them but they had very little taste - i'd suggest using more if you want to try them.

Creamy Chocolate & Strawberry Iceblocks

Just found this in mum's New Idea magazine and Ryan wants to make them...

Creamy chocolate:
1 cup thick vanilla custard
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup chocolate topping

Creamy strawberry:
250g punnet strawberries, stems removed
2/3 thick vanilla custard
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup Strawberry topping

mix each set of ingredients, whisking well in a food processor
pour into moulds and freeze until set.



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

Weekender Cookies

just discovered i hadn't posted this to my blog yet, this is one i used to make a bit when i was younger and living at home (and had dad's cornflakes at hand lol). i think it might be originally from a 1980's women's weekly biscuits and cookies book...



125g (4oz) butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup sultanas (seedless / golden raisins)
1 cup self-raising flour
2 cups lightly crushed cornflakes

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, beat well.
Fold in sifted flour and sultanas, mix well.
Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture into
cornflakes, roll lightly.
Place on lightly greased oven trays.
Allow room for spreading.
Bake in a moderate oven
(190-200’c, 375-400’F) 20 minutes.
Makes about 30.

Divine Smoothie

this one really is tooo delicious to be breakie!! it's F&V shopping day today so i've run out of my usual ingredients!

cashews, more than usual (maybe 100-150g)
2 frozen bananas
3-4 dates
1 dessertspoonful of cocoa
rice milk to desired amount

add everything but milk to thermomix, crush on speed 8 for 40 seconds. add milk and crush another 20-30 seconds. serve (serves 2)

edited after eating to say that this is good enough for dessert. i think you could even try freezing it in icecubes, then re-crushing and serving as icecream, or even making really thick and serving as a creamy dessert. mmmmmmmmmmmm

Cookie's cookies!! (GF, TMX)

today i made Cookie's recipe from the Thermomix competition - Decadent Chocolate Biscuits. the dough (yes, i do LOVE cookie dough ;p) wasn't as nice as yesterday's but the finished product is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! the taste kind of comes out of nowhere to sock you one LOL

i had to make a ton of substitutions because i didn't have what the recipe called for, but they were still very good (going to be very hard to pick one)

here is my gluten free version:

Decadent Chocolate Biscuits
Ingredients
about 1/4 cup brandy (GF)
1 cup dried figs
100g GF milk chocolate
about 1/3 cup whole almonds
110g raw sugar *
150g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
300g gluten free plain flour
1tbsp cocoa
small amount milk if needed

Method
Chop figs on speed 6-7 until cut into smallish pieces. Soak figs in brandy for a few hours or overnight in an airtight container.
Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Place broken chocolate into TM bowl and mill for 4 seconds on speed 7. If you prefer chunkier chocolate check the chop earlier. Set aside in fig bowl.
Chop almonds for 4 seconds on speed 7. add to fig bowl.
place raw sugar in thermomix bowl and mill for around 10 seconds on speed 8.
Add butter, vanilla and egg into TM bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5.
Add flour, cocoa and milk if needed, and with dial set to closed lid position, mix for 10-15 seconds on Interval setting until blended.
Add nuts, figs and chocolate and blend a further 7 seconds on Reverse + speed 4.
Place spoonfuls onto lined baking trays and cook for 10-12 minutes.
Allow to cool on trays, they will become firm as they cool.


* oops i just realised i only added in 1/3 of the sugar in the original recipe but they sure don't taste like they are missing sugar!

easy Morrocan-Spiced Quinoa dish (GF)

in my wildest dreams i wouldn't have thought the thing most likely to make me break my detox (haven't yet) would be wanting meat. i have eaten vegetarian for weeks before and been fine with it, i honestly thought it would be bread or dairy that would make me break it (or chocolate)

but it's meat i've been desperately wanting to eat.

so lunch today is quinoa (hopefully the protein will be more satisfying) and tuna (meat of a kind ;)) and i did some googling for inspiration. when i complained last time that our quinoa was bitter no one told me i need to soak and rinse well first to get rid of the bitterness. so that is today's lesson ;p

this is surprisingly delicious for such a simple dish and i will definitely be making it more often for work lunches!

Morrocan-Spiced Quinoa dish
around 1/2 cup quinoa (i used red but any colour is fine)
half tspn chicken stock powder or to taste (i use massell)
sprinkle cinnamon and coriander, larger sprinkle cumin
handful pinenuts
1/4 cup currants
4 dates, chopped (optional)
1/2 carrot, grated finely
1 tin tuna in water, drained
1 shallot / green onion and/or parsley and/or mint, finely chopped

soak quinoa for around 20-30 mins, rinse well. put in a pot of boiling water and boil for 20 minutes.
drain, rinse again. place back in pot with a little water (maybe about 5mm in the bottom)
add all ingredients except tuna and shallots and simmer for 5 minutes.
add tuna and shallots and serve

Links - Vegetarian / Vegetables #2

first list of links to try here http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/2008/07/links-vegetarian-vegetables.html

baked vegetable jalfrezi

Dhansak (eggplant, pumpkin & lentils, indian)

5 minute indian style cabbage

malai kofta

paneer tikka

Punjabi Aloo Gobi – Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes

creamy black lentils

dani's greek style baked beans

red kidney bean curry

roasted garlic cauliflower

mediterranean carrot rolls & salad

sweet potato falafel with yoghurt tahini sauce

cauliflower & date curry

paneer pasanda

masoor dal with lemon

malai kofta

Cranberry Maple Breakfast Scones (Thermomix)

this recipe was heavily inspired by two recipes from The Crepes of Wrath - Whole Wheat Maple Oatmeal Scones and Cranberry Almond Multigrain Scones - thank you!

85g oats
140g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
70g ground almonds *
1 tab baking powder
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn cardamom
100g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
65g milk (low fat)
140g yoghurt (low fat, i just used the yoghurt i had left, so if you have more or less in a tub just adjust the milk accordingly, you could also use flavoured) **
25g maple syrup ***
50g cranberries
for the glaze:
1-2 tspns each of maple syrup and milk

place oats in tmx, closed lid position and pulse using the turbo button x3
add in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix for 3 seconds on speed 7
add butter, closed lid position and pulse using the turbo button x2-3
add wet ingredients and cranberries. remove the measuring cup from the lid. set on closed lid position, reverse and knead until the dough is well mixed (i forgot to pay attention to how long but probably just 3-4 'kneads')
line a baking tray (i used my silicone baking mat) and sprinkle with flour - probably about 1/8-1/4 cup. gently knead the dough a little more and shape into a circle. flatten until it's about 4cm thick. with a butter knife cut into 6-8 wedges.
in the measuring cup mix the extra syrup and milk and brush over the top of the scones. i think it would be nice with a few oats and some raw sugar sprinkled over too (ooops i just noticed this is actually in the whole wheat scones recipe!)
bake in a 160' oven for about 20-25 minutes

* to grind the almonds place 70g whole raw almonds in the tmx, grind at speed 6-7 for 5-10 seconds until you can hear the smoothness and no larger pieces hitting the sides.
** my dough was a little wet so perhaps i will adjust the amount of yoghurt next time
*** this was the perfect (not very) sweetness for me but if you like sweet breakfast dishes you might like to add a little brown sugar too - or you could serve with a brown sugar / butter blend

geoff just got home from the Botanic Gardens native plant sale and had a scone - he's not a fan of any fruit except blueberries - but he loved them!

Bread Pudding Muffins

this sounds like a great way to use up stale bread - which could be handy as our neighbour usually brings over a bag of day old bakers delight loaves a few times a month (i think he gets them through his church and he seems to share them out around his neighbours)

i got it from here and originally from here

Bread Pudding Muffins
350'F 35-45 minutes

8 cups packed cubed bread
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup dried cranberries, cherries or raisins

Butter and flour nonstick muffin pan or line with paper cups. Mix bread cubes with milk in a bowl. Let sit for about 10 min. until milk is soaked up.

Combine eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla and cinnamon in separate bowl. Add dried cranberries and mix. Combine egg mixture and bread mixture. Spoon into prepared pan, filling to the top press down and fill to the top again. Bake 350� 35-45 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then remove.

Tips: Muffins can be rewarmed in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

Date Slice

mum just made this and it's DELISH and perfect for the cake stall...

Date Slice
90g butter, at room temp
4 weet-bix, crushed
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp bicarb (baking) soda
1 cup boiling water
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
icing sugar, for dusting

1. grease 18x228cm slice pan, line base and sides with baking paper
2. cut butter into small cubes. place in large bowl with weet-bix, dates, sugar, bicarb and water. mix until thoroughly combined, cool
3. stir in egg, flour and walnuts. mix well. pour into pan, smooth top with a knife
4. cook in a mod oven (180'c) for about 30 mins or until cooked when tested. cool in pan
5. lift out of pan, cut into rectangles. serve dusted with sifted icing sugar

from the New Idea

Mum's Boiled Fruit Cake

I can't believe I haven't blogged this already - how remiss of me!!!! Mum always makes this for christmas, and occasionally in between (when she can be bothered lol) . i like to make them as gifts for people (as they are quite expensive to make) and often people ask for the recipe.

I've put my name down to bake for ryan's preschool's fundraising cake stall, however when i was putting it in my calendar today i realised that i will be away that weekend! (ahhhh queensland, child free weekend, i CANNOT WAIT). so then i didn't know what to make that would still be fresh after being made on wednesday, but not sold til saturday - they're after cakes and slices so i was assuming that biccies and cookies and toffees etc were out.

anyway, what i'm going to do is to make a batch or two of this (it stores really well), cook in muffin tins (so enough for probably 2 serves), wrap in cellophane with a nice ribbon :) should be good :D

this cake is also ok to decorate (not made too far in advance as it's fairly moist). i decorated one years ago for christmas as a trial run for our wedding cake, but unfortunately that was before we owned our first digital camera!


Mum’s Boiled Fruit Cake

2 cups raisins
2 cups sultanas
2 cups currants
1 cup water
250g butter / margarine
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cups SR flour
1 cup plain flour
1 ½ tspn bicarb soda
1 tspn mixed spice
3 tabs brandy

Put fruit, water, sugar & butter in saucepan. Boil & simmer. Take off heat & let cool slightly.
Add flour, spice, soda, eggs, brandy.
Grease & line cake tin. Cook in a slow oven (150’C / 300’F)

Links - Sweets (cakes, slices, pancakes etc) #2

ran out of room in the last list of 'want to makes' so here's part 2 :) part one can be found here

blueberry & yoghurt crumble cake

Chocolate pecan cheesecake bars

double lemon bars

easy apple pie

healthy pumpkin bread

light cranberry oatmeal bars

majestic and moist honey cake

maple huckleberry coffee cake

moist gingerbread cake from the crone

orange cranberry walnut loaf

parkin

peanut butter crispy bars

peanut butter oatmeal bars

pumpkin cake roll

pumpkin pecan scones

raspberry spice cake

sour cream coffee cake with chocolate and nuts

sour cream coffee cake

Links - Breads, Fruit Loaves & Muffins

aloo paratha

Bran Muffins

NEW Ciabatta

tenina's crackers

Cranberry Almond Multigrain Scones (breakfast)

dosa - masala paper

Garlic Knots

Naan Bread (thermomix)

Onion Flatbread with Mustard and Fennel

NEW Perfect pita pockets

Quick Fruit Loaf

steamed varoma bread (thermomix)

tortillas

vegan gingerbread muffins

Whole Wheat, Honey, Almond, Linseed and Cardamom Bread

za'atar bread (foccacia with middle eastern spices)

zucchini cake

Mum’s Christmas Pudding

220g raisins
220g sultanas
110g currants
110g shredded peel (we don't add this)
100ml 1/8 pint or 2 1/1 fl ounces rum or brandy
250g butter
250g brown sugar
4 eggs
200g plain flour
blanched almonds
pinch salt
1/8 tspn bicarb soda
1/2 tspn spice
110g fine white breadcrumbs

Put fruit in bowl , add brandy and soak overnight.

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Mix well. add almonds. sift flour, soda, salt, spice and add to mixture alternatively with soaked fruit.

Cook 3-4 hours and another hour on day of serving.

i volunteered to make the pudding a few years ago - what a disaster! unfortunately mum cna't be bothered these days :( I LOVE this pudding!!!

Introduction

crazy i know, but i decided to start another blog (like i don't spend enough time online already) - i'm hoping it might get me a bit more inspired with food.

i USED to be great with food, in the kitchen. pre-kids this was. now i just resent it (until i get in there usually). on the other hand i'm trying (TRYING) to save money by cooking as much as i can, and reducing the number of pre-prepared food we have in our lives to reduce preservatives etc etc.

we buy organic F&V, that started because i wanted them home delivered and didn't want to have to pick what i wanted (http://www.organicexpress.com.au/) and then became hooked on the taste and freshness of organic F&V. i now buy some from organic express and as many things as possible from Choku Bai Jo in North Lyneham, which is run by the same people who have a stall at the local farmers market (which is too hard for me to get to) and is super cheap. sometimes the produce has only been picked that day too!!

i try to menu plan, but get bored with it easily lol

i have a cookbook addiction which i have severely curbed - i can't afford them and i rarely use them for anything other than inspiration! last count i had nearly 70 books - have sold some since then but also acquired more *blush*

in the kitchen i love gadgets and atm my favourite is my thermomix which i talked dh into buying last year. i don't use it much for cooking whole meals (though he does) but more for preparation and i am addicted to my fruit porridge every morning which tastes like heaven with way more calories than it has LOL

i had to fill my empty freezer so during the past weekend (after i recovered from being sick last week) i made several snacks for the kids:
chocolate chip cookies with oats and rice bubbles in them (i couldn't find any recipes so just kind of invented one based on this one which i hadn't been all that excited by, and this one (cna't find it now, will add link later) which i also wasn't excited by LOL
fruit truffles based on the thermomix vitality truffles (i used almonds and added cocoa)
apple muffins

tonight i'm trying to use up what's in the fridge as we're going away for the weekend so i'm planning to make pasta with a sauce based on a weight watchers recipe - with bacon, and grated zucchinis and carrots in a tomato base:

low fat pasta sauce:
finely dice 1 onion, fresh garlic (i used 4 cloves!) & bacon with all fat removed
fry lightly in a pan
add in grated zucchini and carrot
fry lightly until softened
add in diced tomatoes (fresh or tinned) and herbs if desired. (i like a little salt too)
cook until ready LOL (depends how much time you have)
and serve over pasta eg: penne