Condensed milk choc chip biscuits

Today my boys and I decided to do some baking, and what better for 2 x year olds to make but the easiest recipe ever! It isn't the healthiest but it's school holidays and we did a big run/bike ride (I ran, the kids rode their bikes), so we could afford a few unhealthy biscuits!

Condensed Milk Choc Chip Biscuits

Ingredients:
1 cup caster sugar
500g butter
1 tin condensed milk
3 cups self-raising flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Add condensed milk and combine well.
4. Stir in sifted SR flour and your choice of additions e.g. choc chips.
5. Roll into balls and place on a greased tray.
6. Press with a fork. Bake until brown.

As you will see Mr Keenan was a little bit enthusiastic with the kitchenaid and after adding the flour put it on a bit too high.. so we had a major flour catastrophe. I was very patient and amazingly didn't lose it with the mess! The boys of course thought it was hilarious! These moments are the ones we remember so I need to remind myself to be calmer as it really was quite funny and not something to go cranky over.. something I am trying hard to work on!

Mango & Passionfruit Smoothies

I have been a bit MIA recently from the blog with school holidays upon us. I have been having a lovely time with the children. We just got home after a few days away which I will blog about over the next few days.

I have been making lots of smoothies for the kids as they love them and they're delicious!

Here is my current creation for my three starving children:

Mango & Passionfruit Smoothies

Makes 3 Large Cups

Ingredients
200g passionfruit frozen yoghurt
1 Tbsp passionfruit pulp
1 Banana
200g Frozen Mango
300ml Mango Nectar

Place all in your blender / thermomix / bellini and blend until combined.. then serve up!

Enjoy!

Zucchini Noodles

I absolutely love Zucchini Noodles!! I find they are the best addition to bolognaise dishes.

A while back I purchase a GEFU vegetable noodle maker and I use it regularly.

Tonight I made meatballs with zucchini noodles for BJ and myself. The children were not all that keen so they had leftover Fettucini from last night.

Kiwi, Pear, Apple & Ginger Smoothie

I am on a mission to have more smoothies - and for them to not be the same as my all time fave (Mango, Banana, Passoinfruit and Spinach).. so as such I am trying out a few, and found this one on a favourite blog of mine Deliciously Ella

It was absolutely delicious! Here is the recipe:

Makes 2 Smoothies:

- 2 kiwis

- 2 pears

- 2 red apples

- 1 hunk of ginger

Pretty simple - I put all the fruit in my Bellini with a little water and mixed until blended. Then I added more water to make it drinkable. It was absolutely delicious - I highly recommend.

Hot Cross Buns

I found this amazing Hot Cross Bun recipe on another blog - Thermolicious. I am never buying Hot Cross Buns again!

Ingredients

400g milk
60g raw sugar
15g dry yeast (4 tsp)
650g bakers flour
2 tsp salt
90g butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
200g mixed dried fruit
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Extra butter

Method

Place milk into Bellini bowl and cook for 2 minutes at 60C on speed 1.

Place remaining ingredients (in order of the recipe list) into the Bellini bowl except the dried fruit and choc chips, and mix for 6 seconds on speed 7.

Place dried fruit into the Bellini bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5.

Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 4 minutes on Speed 2.

Remove from Bellini bowl and put into a bowl to prove. As the dough is quite sticky, use buttered hands to make it easier to remove from the Bellini bowl.

Put in a warm place to prove for 1 to 1.5 hours until dough more than doubles in size.

Grease a large baking tray (30cm x 40cm) (you can use baking paper but I find that I get a better bun if it is baked directly on the tray).
With buttered hands pull off enough dough for a dinner roll size bun, press 4-6 chocolate chips into the base and fold over to enclose and create a smooth top on your bun. Makes about 24.

Place onto baking tray about 1cm apart so that they have room to grow. Cover and let prove for about an hour until the buns are touching each other.

Pipe with crosses and bake in a pre-heated oven at 220C for 12 minutes or until a golden colour. Leave oven on.

Brush with hot sugar syrup and then place back into the oven for another minute to set the glaze.

Piping Mixture

Place 50g water, 40g plain flour, 1/2 tsp light olive oil and a pinch of salt in Bellini bowl and mix to combine for 30 seconds on speed 4.

Scrape down sides if necessary and mix again until mixture is smooth and of pancake consistency. Pour into a piping bag (or a ziplock/freezer bag and snip a tiny bit off the corner) and pipe out the crosses onto the buns.

Sugar syrup

Dissolve 3 tbsp raw sugar in 3 tbsp of boiling water by stirring vigorously.

Best eaten straight from the oven whilst warm!

Five Seed Bread

One of the easiest breads I have found, and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

500g Bakers Flour
2 tsp dry Yeast
1 tsp Salt
50g Oats
30g Sesame Seeds
30g Linseeds
30g Sunflower Seeds
30g Pumpkin Seeds
30g Poppy Seeds
30g Honey
30g Olive Oil
500g lukewarm Water

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.

Place all ingredients into Bellini bowl. Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 2½ minutes on Speed 1.

Scrape into 20cm square, greased baking dish. Sprinkle top with mixture of above seeds.

Set aside in warm place to rise for 25-30 minutes. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes.

Allow to cool in tin before unmoulding and slicing.

Spinach & Egg Tarts

Ingredients:

6 bacon rashers
3 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry
500g spinach
1 x onion
12 eggs
1C grated cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Heat a medium frying pan over high heat. Add bacon, cook and stir for 5 minutes.

2. Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares and line a 12 hole texas muffin pan with pastry. Using your hair squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach. Divide the spinach amongst the pastry cases. Sprinkle with bacon and onion. Crack an egg into each case and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until egg is just cooked.

Vanilla & Raspberry Cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients

100g butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 C caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 C milk
1 1/4 C SR Flour
Red Food Colouring
100g frozen raspberries

Mock Cream topping Ingredients

125g butter
3/4 C icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.

3. Using an electric beater on low speed mix butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, milk and flour. Beat until pale. Tint with food colouring. Spoon mixture into prepared cases.

4. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean. Stand in tray for 5 minute and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Now to make the mock cream to pipe onto the cupcakes. Using an electric mixer beat butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy. Add essence. Gradually add 1/4 C warm water, 1 tsp at a time beating well between additions.

6. Pipe cream onto cupcakes and enjoy! I didn't pipe as I didn't have a piping bag.. but I am sure you get the idea!!

Freezer Audit!

Since we are heading overseas in 16 days (YES 16 DAYS!!!!!) I thought I'd better do a quick freezer audit so we can try to eat up as much of the meat as possible. Here is what I found in our freezer...

Chicken Marylands x 600g x 3 packets (1.8kg total)
Chicken Breasts x 600g x 4 packets (2.4kg total)
Chicken Breasts x 500g x 3 packets (1.5kg total)
Chicken Breasts x 400g
Chicken Thighs x 1.2kg
Eye Fillet Steak x 400g x 2 packets (4 fillets total = 200g per fillet)
Beef Blade Steak x 600g x 2 packets (1.2kg total)
Leg Schnitzel x 200g
Lean mince x 500g
Chilli Sausages x 600g
Shortcut bacon x 500g x 2 (1kg total)
Shortcut bacon x 200g x 2 (400g total)

As you can see we have a LOT of meat to eat up.. and that is just in our normal fridge freezer.. I haven't even looked in our chest freezer downstairs!!

So my mission tonight is to do a menu plan up and eat up a lot of it. I really hate wasting food so want to make sure there isn't too much left here while we are away in case of power outages etc.

Anyone have any idea of what we can cook up with the above meat??

I am a bit out of ideas!

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

I thought I'd try something different for dinner tonight from Steph Berg's Website... I liked them but no one else did... But thought I'd share anyhow!!!

Ingredients

1 Onion, peeled and halved
2 tbsp Mixed Herbs of your choice i.e. Parsley, dill
100g Fresh Walnuts
95g organic rolled oats
3 Eggs
150g Fetta Cheese
1 tbsp Tamari Sauce
45g organic breadcrumbs
3 Sheets of Butter Puff Pastry or make your own from Australian Cookbook (pg.134)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200°C

Place onion and herbs into Bellini bowl and chop for 6 seconds on speed 6.

Add walnuts, oats and chop for 3 seconds on speed 6. Scrape down.

Add egg, cheese, tamari, breadcrumbs and oats and mix to combine for 20 seconds on speed 5.

Cut just thawed butter puff pastry in half on a working bench.

Place 1/6th of the mixture onto the long edge of the pastry and roll, cut into four equal portions, brush the tops with organic whole milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Place sausage rolls on a baking dish, brush with egg and score with knife. Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C until crisp and golden.

Whole Wheat Banana Sour Cream Bread

I found this recipe on Jamie's Recipes so had to try it on the little people.

Anything with banana and chocolate chips is a winner for my three. Plus I love any excuse to use my Kitchenaid mixer that I got for Christmas! :)

Here is the gorgeous view outside my kitchen window tonight... there's nothing like a beautiful sunset! :)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mushed
2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/4 c brown sugar
2/3 c fat free sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c chocolate chips/chunks (optional)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Mix all ingredients until well mixed.

Pour into greased 9×5 loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes.

Bread is cooked completely when a toothpick or knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool completely on wire rack before slicing (1-1 1/2 hours) ENJOY!

Meatloaf with Red Sauce

This was dinner last night and OMG it was absolutely delicious!!

Ingredients:

Meatloaf

60g parmesan cheese cut into cubes
4 springs fresh parsley - leaves only
1 garlic clove
1 sprig rosemary - leaves only
500g topside or rump steak
2 eggs
50g fresh breadcrumbs
sea salt and black pepper to taste
2 slices double smoked ham
90g mozzarella cut into 2cm x 2cm strips
8-10 slices bacon or prosciutto
2 x sweet potatoes

Red Sauce

1 garlic clove
1 brown onion, halved
4 sprigs fresh parsley
1 celery stalk - roughly chopped
40g olive oil
150g white wine
800g tinned tomatoes
1 sweet potato, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 potato, roughly chopped
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Place parmesan cheese and parsley into mixing bowl and grate at Speed 10/7 secs. Set aside.

Place garlic & rosemary into the mixing bowl and chop Speed 7/3 secs. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add beef and press briefly 8-10 times/Turbo/1 sec to mince.

Add eggs, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and reserved Parmesan and parsley and press briefly 4-5 times / 1 sec / turbo, then mix Speed 5/20 secs to incorporate.

Take a long sheet of aluminium foil. Remove mi from bowl and place onto foil. Shape into a large rectangle about 3cm thick. Place ham and chess slices along the longest edge and roll mince up into a log to enclose. Gently remove the foil from underneath the foil and wrap the bacon around the outside of the meatloaf.

Lightly oil the aroma dish and place meatloaf into the centre. Pack vegetables of choice loosely around it, ensuring no overcrowding in the dish.

Set varoma aside while you make the red sauce.

Place garlic, onion, parsley, and celery into mixing bowl and Speed 7/3 secs. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add oil and sauté Speed 1/Varoma/3 mins.

Add all remaining red sauce ingredients and cook Speed 1/Varoma/5 mins.

Place varoma dish with meatloaf into position and cook Speed 2/Varoma/40 mins. Test to ensure meat is cooked through, or to your preference, by slicing open and ensuring the colour is uniform.

Once cooked, place meatloaf onto a large platter with steamed vegetables and pour sauce over the top or serve on the side.

This dish was absolutely DELICIOUS! I loved it. It took a bit of effort, but well worth it. :)

Meal Plan - Week 2

I absolutely loved our meal plan last week - so easy using the Bellini. I am so in love with it and just know a Thermomix would be even better... now to keep using it so I can convince my hubby that I must have one when we get our tax return back! But until then I will keep using the Bellini and trying out fantastic Thermo recipes... here is this weeks menu plan:

Thursday 20 Feb

Tandoori Chicken & brown rice

Friday 21 Feb

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls & veggies

Saturday 22 Feb

Vegie Macaroni (I will be out with friends and B will have leftover Tandoori - so this is all for the kids)

Sunday 23 Feb

Shepherd's Pie & veggies

Monday 24 Feb

Cheese Souffles and Salad

Tuesday 25 Feb

Chicken Nuggets & Sweet Potato Chips

Wednesday 26 Feb

Bombay Chicken with Spinach Rice, Pappadums & Mango Chutney



Baking / Treats this week

Apple Cakes with caramel sauce
Bread Rolls
Raspberry Brioche Bread Pudding
Custard & Almond Brioche
Blueberry Muffins
Wholewheat Banana Sour Cream Bread

Meal planning..

I am so proud of myself!

The last few days I have stuck to our menu plan EXACTLY!

So last night we had Beef Stroganoff and it was delicious!!! We had it with quinoa which was absolutely delicious.

Tonight I made pumpkin soup which was also delicious and the children actually loved it - which is unheard of.

Tomorrow I will be starting to prep food for the boys birthday party on Sunday. I am pretty organised which is unheard of. All I have to duck out and get on Sunday morning is a few bags of ice and some grapes, water melon and strawberries, to make fruit kebabs.

I'll be back with lots of party pictures as I just love birthday parties!

Now to get things organised as I have a 25km run planned tomorrow.. wish me luck!!

"

Meal Plan - Week 1

Since Thursday is our shopping day I thought I'd do my meal plan to start on Thursday and finish on Wednesday. So here is next weeks starting tomorrow. I am going to use my Bellini for all my dinner meals and also for all the "treats" for the kids. This weekend I also have a birthday party for the boys happening so have listed a rough list of what I am making for that too - which isn't too much since it's an outdoor venue and the kids will be flat out playing!

Thursday 13 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Chili Con Carne (leftovers from tonight)
Dinner - Beef Stroganoff

Friday 14 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Beef Stroganoff (leftovers from Thurs night)
Dinner - Pumpkin Soup

Saturday 15 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Cheese Souffles
Dinner - Apricot Chicken Risotto

Sunday 16 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - At Boys Birthday party - menu TBA
Dinner - Butter Chicken

Monday 17 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Butter Chicken (leftovers from Sunday night)
Dinner - Sweet & Sour Meatballs with veg

Tuesday 18 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Sweet & Sour Meatballs with veg (leftovers from Monday night)
Dinner - Meatloaf with red sauce

Wednesday 19 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Meatloaf with red sauce (leftovers from Tuesday night)
Dinner - Quiche Lorraine


Birthday Party baking

Too easy chocolate cake - I am planning on make a three tier cake with chocolate buttercream icing, and then just having some "Minecraft" Figurines on top.
Little sandwiches - egg and lettuce, ham, cheese and tomato etc
Home made Biscuits - as per baking list below
Cheese & Bacon Balls & various Chips
Fruit platter with fruit kebabs
Grown up platter with cheese / dip / crackers / cabanossi etc.
Zooper coopers which will be frozen and in the esky
10L water cooler for drinks

Since we are in Darwin and the party is at an outdoor venue it is a bit hard to cater with cooked food - so i think finger food will suffice. The kids will be too busy playing anyhow as there is a big waterside they just love, and also a wadding pool for the little ones.


Baking/treats
40 second biscuits
ANZAC biscuits
Choc Chic biscuits
Apple Pie and custard
Banana Bread
Soft butter rolls
Easy bread

Hopefully I will have time to bake all the above as I really want to get more treats in there for the kids. I will freeze some of the biscuits in zip lock bags ready for school lunch boxes, and the rest will be at the boys party ready for the kids to snack on. The kids absolutely adore apple pie so I promised them i'd make that for them when I got the chance.

Paleo Pizza

One thing I really miss on the WLC is Pizza! We used to do Friday night home made pizzas and it has been strange not doing it. Last night we had friends come to visit and decided to do homemade pizza. So then of course I had to find a home made pizza recipe that was WLC compliant. A blog I regularly read is Everyday Paleo. I also have a few of their cookbooks too. Anyhow I was searching for a pizza dough and found an almond dough on that site. So decided to test it out. Here is the link to it on Everyday Paleo and I will list below what I did. Everyday Paleo Pizza.

Ingredients for base:

2 cups almond meal
2 eggs
3 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tbsp fresh rosemary chopped

Method for Pizza base:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

I placed all this in the Bellini on speed 4 for 10 seconds.

Lightly grease a pizza tray with olive oil. Place the ball of dough in the center of your pizza tray and using your hands, push and pat the dough down into the shape of a circle. You want to make the dough as thin as possible. Bake JUST the base in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.

Toppings:

Capsicum
Pizza sauce (see how I made this below)
Mushrooms
Baby Spinach
Diced bacon
Red Onions

For the Pizza sauce - combine:

Small can of tomato paste,
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder

While your base is cooking, prepare your toppings. After the base is done, remove from the oven and evenly spread the pizza sauce over the base. Add the diced bacon and all remaining toppings evenly over the sauce and bake again for an additional 25-30 minutes. Use whatever toppings you like.

Next time I think I might try a pizza with avocado and salmon - to try something different! I only used what I had in the fridge and while it was delicious it definitely will be better next time. Enjoy!

Quirky Cooking - Fajita Chicken & Salad Pizza on Quinoa & Chia Seed Flatbread

My favourite blog is Quirky Cooking and I am always on there trying to find cooking ideas.
Tonight I thought I'd try a recipe I've been looking at for a while -

Fajita Chicken & Salad Pizza on Quinoa & Chia Seed Flatbread.

It is not WLC compliant as it has honey but i was happy to lose a point tonight as it was DELICIOUS!

Here is what I did - a little different to QC due to what I had in our house:

It makes 2 large pizza size flatbreads.

1. Toast 150g white quinoa using the Bellini at 100C for 10 mins, speed 1, with measuring cup off.

2. Then grind the toasted quinoa, 2 Tbspns chia seeds and 1/2 tsp salt in Bellini bowl for 1 minute, speed 9.

3. Add 180g water and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds.

4. Drizzle pizza trays with some extra virgin olive oil (use baking paper if needed), and divide dough between trays. (The dough will be more like a sticky batter.) Drizzle the dough with some more oil. Using your fingertips, pat the dough out evenly into a thin circle, about 3mm thick. I find it's easier to use my fingers than a spatula, as the dough is very sticky. The oil will stop it sticking to your hands. There should be oil all around the edge of the dough, and a thin sheen over the top. This will make it crispy. If you want it soft, there's no need to use much oil.

5. Bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes, depending how crispy you like it.


Fajita Chicken & Salad Topping

1. While the pizza bases are cooking, make the toppings.

2. Chop garlic on speed 7 for 3 seconds - 2 garlic cloves

3. Add the remaining ingredients except the chicken and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds
- 20g extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbspn honey
- juice of 1/2 a lime
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

4. Add 500g chicken breast - thinly sliced, and cook for 5 minutes, ST temperature, blunt blade, with measuring cup off.

(There will be a bit of 'juice' left after cooking the chicken - you can just lift the chicken out with a fork or slotted spoon. I actually drizzled the juice over the top of the pizza because it was too yummy to waste!)

When flatbread is cooked, remove from oven and top with baby spinach, chopped tomato, thinly sliced Spanish onion and fajita chicken.

Enjoy - they are absolutely delicious! The fajita chicken was so delicious I will be making it regularly!

Chile Lime Chicken Wings, Beetroot Salad and Sweet Potato Fries

Two of my favourite paleo / healthy eating blogs are Quirky Cooking and Nom Nom Paleo and while looking for ideas I found some great recipes for dinner tonight.

I have wanted to make Quirky Cooking's Beetroot Salad for a long time so have finally taken the plunge... sweet potato fries are a staple in our house, and chicken wings are always a winner - so I am hoping to other 4 people in this house like it all too!

So here goes with the recipes and some pictures.

Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
salt, pepper and paprika

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.

I peeled the sweet potato and cut into even matchsticks.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the matchsticks out.

Then bake for 20 minutes - turning after 10 minutes.

Then they should look something like this:

Chile Lime Chicken Wings

Ingredients

½ medium onion
2 jalapeno peppers
3 garlic cloves, peeled
½ cup coriander
Freshly ground pepper
Zest from 2 limes
¼ cup lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
2.5kg chicken wings

Method

Place the onion, jalapenos, garlic, coriander, ground pepper, lime zest and juice, fish sauce, and coconut aminos into the bellini. Blitz it all on speed 9 for 10 seconds.

Place chicken wings into a bowl and cover with marinade. Use your hands to mix it in. Place in the fridge for 30-60 mins to marinade. Leave up to 6 hours, but no longer.

Once you are ready to cook - preheat the oven to 220 degrees, line an oven tray with baking paper and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken wings over at 15 minutes. Grill for the last 5 minutes to brown the top.

Beetroot Salad

Ingredients

400g raw beetroot (I cut the top and bottom of the beetroot off but didn't peel)
100g carrot, quartered
1/4 small red onion
1 green apple, quartered
1 handful of parsley leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch salt

Method

Place all vegies in Bellini and chop on medium speed (sp. 5) until evenly chopped (3-4 seconds). Scrape down sides and chop again for a couple of seconds until desired consistency.

This was the whole dinner together.. just delicious:

Bellini - Cheese and Bacon Scrolls

My children adore bacon, as do the grown ups in our house! Even though we are mainly eating Paleo (I am, B is 90% and kids are about 50%), I am still trying to bake them treats they enjoy in moderation. So thought I'd make some scrolls for their lunch boxes.

Dough Ingredients

440g Self Raising Flour
400g Greek Yoghurt

Ingredients for filling

200g grated cheddar
4 bacon rashers
3 tbsp tomato paste

Method

Preheat oven to 190C and cover a tray with baking paper. Flour the bench in preparation for the dough.

For the dough, place flour and yoghurt into the Bellini bowl.

Mix for 20 seconds on speed 8 to combine. The dough will be a bit sticky. Transfer to the floured bench.

Roll dough into a large rectangle and spread preferred filling all over the dough evenly and top with the grated cheese.

Roll into a log.

Cut 2cm segments from the end of the roll and place on baking tray.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden.