Chicken & broccoli nuggets

I stumbled across this blog recently and LOVE the ideas I found! I tried two out one weekend to freeze so I could pop it in the oven for bub (and myself).

First up, a healthy twist on the good ol’ nugget.

Ingredients

3 slices of old/frozen bread

A handful of leaves (I had rocket at home but you could use spinach too)

110g broccoli florets (a very small head of broccoli)

1 small carrot, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 onion, peeled and quartered

2 garlic cloves

500g boneless chicken, chopped into chunks (the recipe calls for breast meat but I used thigh as I prefer that cut)

s&p to taste

Method

• Tear bread into chunks and pop in the TMX bowl with the handful of leaves. Blitz on speed 7/2 secs and check if the consistency suits you. Otherwise hit Turbo a couple of times. Set aside.
• Add veggies, onion and garlic into the bowl. Chop on speed 7/3 seconds. Scrape down the sides.
• Add remaining ingredients. Chop on speed 7/5 secs or until combined.

• Shape into nugget shapes, then roll in breadcrumb mixture.

• Bake in a 180 degrees celcius oven for 30 minutes along with a drizzle of oil, or freeze the nuggets until you need them.

Throw-it-all-in vegetable soup

I’ve had a rare baby-free weekend, and instead of making reservations at the hottest, UN-baby-friendly joints in town, I decided that I would spend it cooking.

I am so terribly uncool.

Anyway. I managed to try a whole bunch of new recipes that I’ve now frozen, which saves me having to slave in the kitchen when the family is back. The little miss LOVES her carbs, dairy and meat, but hasn’t really taken to loving veggies. So I decided that it was time to go down the sneaky veggie route.

And if anyone lectures me on how I shouldn’t disguise vegetables for my child, well, you are more than welcome to come to my house and show me how you get a toddler to eat a piece of broccoli without the word “NO.” coming up once. You can come by anytime. Interested?

Thought not.

So I decided I’d start out with a veggie-packed soup that Arianna could have with some cheesy toast, rice or pasta. I found this recipe which looked great because it was so versatile, and I could just run to the supermarket and grab whatever was in season (when I say this, I mean whatever is on special.)

I’ve listed the veggies I used this time, but as long as you aim for 600g of vegetables, you can pretty much use whatever you want.

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic

1 onion, peeled and quartered

A good lug of olive oil (between 10-25g is fine)

Freshly ground pepper

A handful of parsley (optional, I didn’t have any)

600g chopped vegetables (I had a few pieces of sweet potato, 1 carrot, two stalks of celery, a handful of asparagus and a quarter of a stalk of leek)

700g vegetable stock

Some grated parmesan, to serve

Method

• Chop garlic and onion for 5 secs/speed 5. Scrape down the sides of your TMX bowl.
• Add the oil and saute for 5 mins/Varoma/speed 1 with the MC off.
• Add all the other ingredients except the cheese, and cook for 20 mins/Varoma/speed 1. Leave the MC off, and I put a kitchen towel above 3/4 of the hole to prevent spattering.

• Gradually increase the dial to speed 9 once done, blending to the desired consistency. I blended my soup for about 30 seconds.
• Serve with grated parmesan and more cracked pepper if you need.

 

 

Nigella’s chocolate chip muffins

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a bit of an issue with open pantry items. I feel the need to use them up as fast as I can, for fear of forgetting said items and letting them go past their use-by date. So this opened bag chocolate chips had been bugging me for a few weeks and I turned to trusty Google to see what Thermomix could accomplish with it. And it didn’t disappoint, finding this recipe quick-smart. I brought down the sugar a little bit and didn’t have cocoa powder, so I milled a handful of my chocolate chips instead. And finally I tend to prefer hand mixing the final mixture, so my method here is a tad different too.

Ingredients

130g raw sugar

250g milk

90g vegetable oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

250g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder

150g dark chocolate chips, plus a few extra for sprinkling

 

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius.
• Mill the sugar for 3 secs/speed 9. Set aside.
• Pour all the liquid ingredients into the TMX bowl and mix for 10 secs/speed 5.
• Add all remaining ingredients and mix for 3 seconds/speed 4, then finish combining with a spatula to avoid over-mixing.

• Divide mixture equally in a regular muffin tray (I actually only made 9 muffins with this amount), pop in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes. Eat.

 

Brownie balls

I was very late to the protein ball party. I shouldn’t have been given my love for peanut butter, but better late than never right? I must also confess to having a MASSIVE girl crush on Zoe Foster Blake so when she mentioned something on her Instagram account about bliss balls and Thermomix I literally went out the next day to stock up on ingredients. However the recipe I found wasn’t the best and the emd result was quite dry. Also I used some Skippy peanut butter that had been languishing in my pantry ever since the husband last made a trip to Costco and got sucked in to their ‘extra crunchy’ sales pitch. 

They lied. 

Also, it has a strongly artificial taste of something which I can’t put my finger on but is definitely not good for you. 

When I decided to give these babies another shot, I discovered that I could literally whip up my own peanut butter too instead of using the stuff in the jar. A very exciting day in this kitchen, lemme tell ya. 

Ingredients

3/4 cup raw almonds or preferred nuts

1 tbs cacao or cocoa powder

12 pitted dates

2 tbs peanut butter

Shredded coconut, optional

2 tbsp maple syrup (the original recipe uses agave syrup and says honey or rice malt syrup are possible substitutes, and also that you might not need as much if using fresh medjool dates which are super sweet.)

Method

Pop cocoa powder, dates and peanut butter into your Thermomix bowl and blend for 20 secs/speed 6.

Add the nuts in and press the turbo button a couple of times until the mixture is well combined and the nuts have been chopped coursely. 

Test the mixture, you should be able to roll a tablespoonful into a ball quite easily. If the mixture is too crumbly, add a touch of water. 

I rolled my balls in shredded coconut to finish them off but you don’t need to do this, I just love coconut and also think that it makes the end product look pretty 🙂 

 

Apple, banana, coconut and date muffins

This four-day weekend has been the BEST, I managed to try four different and NEW recipes in the Thermomix. CAPS EVERYWHERE! 

I wanted to give Arianna a treat that packed in some fruit and was relatively healthy. Plus we are going away for a couple of trips over the next two months and I wanted to clean out my pantry as much as possible. There were some frozen bananas that were shouting out to be used as well as a pack of dates, so I googled “Thermomix bananas dates” and voila, this lovely and more importantly easy recipe popped up. It uses cups as a measuring device for some of the ingredients, but I’m all about only using those brilliant TMX scales (one less thing to wash up amiright), so I guesstimated the weight of the oil, coconut and milk here. 

Ingredients

1 apple, cored and quartered and chopped in the Thermomix

2 small bananas, mashed

50g pitted dates, chopped in the Thermomix

70g desiccated coconut

80g sugar

220g self-raising flour

125g vegetable oil

200g milk

1 egg

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Add apple, bananas and dates to your Thermomix bowl, and mix for 5 secs/speed 5.

Add the oil, milk and egg, mixing for 15 secs/reverse/speed 4. Side note: I read somewhere that the Reverse function should not be used on speeds 3 and above. But I’ve seen quite a few recipes that ignore this rule so maybe it isn’t actually a rule to begin with. In any case the original recipe uses speed 5 in this step, I used speed 4 for peace of mind, even though that doesn’t really make sense 🙂

Add the flour, coconut and sugar, gently mixing with a spatula (over-mixing = muffin death) 

 Pop mixture into a muffin tin, and bake for 20 mins (check at 15mins)

Leave in tray for a couple of minutes and then place onto a wire rack to cool. Done! 
 

Super easy peanut butter

I grew up on Kraft peanut butter. I tried a couple of healthy versions recently but perhaps my tastebuds are conditioned to eating artificial goodness, because I just couldn’t get into the all-natural stuff. But I’m trying my best to give Arianna healthy options where I can, so this morning when I woke up and decided to make bliss balls as a snack for us, I thought I’d also try making my own peanut butter. And when I came across this recipe I got a little bit excited! You literally just need peanuts or your preferred nuts. I used unsalted peanuts. Because these were looking a bit blah in the packet, I toasted them slightly in a frying pan, but you can leave this step out if you don’t feel like it.  

 Once the peanuts had gotten some colour on them, I tipped the lot into the Thermomix jug and blended it for 10 secs/speed 4. This gets you to crushed-nut phase. Then I scraped the sides down, before continuing to blend on speed 4 for about a minute, slowly increasing to speed 7. I stopped when the consistency looked like this: 

 When I tipped the contents out, I got around a chinese soup bowl full of peanut butter which was perfect for making a smoothie and my bliss balls (recipe to come!) 

 

I must say that due to the lack of anything extra, this literally tastes like a peanut paste and is also quite dry. I wouldn’t put this on toast without adding some salt, and perhaps a touch of oil to make it a bit smoother. Or honey… But as a base for another recipe it is absolutely fine, And I must admit I was quite chuffed knowing how healthy it was! 

Gingerbread waffle batter

After my first waffle attempt (cheddar and rosemary) I decided to go for a sweet option for round 2. There are sooooo many waffle recipes out there, it’s ridiculous (and amazing!) I couldn’t go past Martha Stewart this time, but tweaked her recipe for the Thermomix. 

Ingredients

300g plain flour
30g granulated sugar (original recipe calls for about 45g)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

4 large eggs

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (now normally I would just ignore the unsalted part, however my end result was a tad on the salty side. So either go for unsalted butter or reduce the quantity of salt to 1/4 tsp)

250g milk

1/2 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons golden syrup

Method

– Put all of your dry ingredients in the bowl and mix for 20 seconds/speed 10 (I had whole cloves and scraped out cardamom seeds from their pods so I blended the dry ingredients for 30 seconds)

– Add your wet ingredients and blend for 10 seconds/speed 6.

– Use your waffle iron as per instructions. Enjoy with maple syrup and fresh fruit, or sour cream and jam! 

   
 

Rosemary and cheese waffle batter

I’m absolutely obsessed with waffles. I’d go into more detail about how obsessed I am but then we’d never get to a recipe! I recently bought a waffle iron and although I’m sure that it’s relatively easy to hand-mix the batter, it’s pretty great being able to chuck all the ingredients into the Thermomix and just pressing a couple of buttons. 

Instead of breaking the waffle iron in with a plain batter, I decided to make some savoury waffles to go with my crunchy cajun chicken. I used a standard waffle recipe (here), and added some cheddar chunks plus a few sprigs’ worth of rosemary leaves. 

Ingredients

300g plain flour

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

500g milk

100g butter

75g sugar

250g cheddar cheese, broken into small chunks 

Rosemary leaves from 2-3 medium sprigs

Method

Throw everything into the Thermomix bowl and blend for 1min/speed 10. Yep, that’s it. 

  

I’m not sure whether all waffle irons are a similar size so don’t quote me on the quantity here, but I used one standard ladle’s worth of batter per waffle, and made 5 waffles with this recipe. The colour wasn’t quite as even as I would like despite following the timing instructions, I’m guessing it’s the cheese? But it tasted pretty scrummy!   

Toddler Tums – Pumpkin and pea risotto

I had some leftover pumpkin after this adventure as well as a small amount of peas that was languishing in the freezer, so this recipe was perfect to make up and freeze for the little miss! I didn’t have a lemon or chives and I’ve been feeding her way too much cheese so I actually omitted the Parmesan and it still tasted lovely, but I’d definitely recommend keeping those ingredients in. 

Ingredients

400g diced pumpkin (I actually just threw my large chunks in the Thermomix and grated the lot, then removed it from the bowl)

1 onion, halved

1 clove of garlic, peeled

20g butter

300g arborio rice

900g veggie or chicken stock

80g frozen peas

Juice of 1 lemon (I think the zest would work really well here too!

1tbsp finely snipped chives

Method

– Chop the onion and garlic for 3 secs/speed 7.

– Add butter and sauté 2 min/100°C/speed 1.

– Add rice and sauté 1 min/100°C/Reverse/speed 1. 

– Add stock and cook 8 min/100°C/Reverse/speed 1.

– Add pumpkin and cook a further 8 min/100°C/Reverse/speed 1.

– Add peas, lemon juice and reserved Parmesan and cook 1 min/100°C/Reverse/speed 1. Transfer to a ThermoServer and serve topped with additional Parmesan (if using) and chives. 

  I always get nervous introducing new dishes to Arianna, but she whacked 2 massive portions at dinner so we’re all good! This would probably be quite lovely with some flaked salmon or trout too!

Pumpkin and maple loaf

Oh, it’s been way too long! I have been using the Thermomix as a support gadget in the kitchen but since I went back to work it’s always been tried and true recipes hence the lack of updates. But this weekend I had a rare afternoon to myself, and also Curtis Stone was on TV telling me to go and buy pumpkins from Coles. So I did. And I decided to experiment a bit. 

I googled ‘Thermomix Pumpkin’ and found this loaf recipe. Whack all the ingredients in, mix it up and then chuck it in the oven? My favourite kind of experiment! Unfortunately, I’d thrown away the pumpkin seeds before I realised I could use them, and I didn’t have any pepitas handy, so my loaf lacks the rustic seed crust. Also, as is the case with most recipes I find, the sugar content seems to always be a bit more than I like so I’ve reduced it here. 

Ingredients

700g pumpkin, skin off, cut into chunks. I used Kent. 

200g wholemeal flour

200g plain flour

70g caster sugar (next time I’ll go 60g)

170g canola oil (I used olive oil)

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

1 tsp cinnamon powder

15g vanilla extract (1 tsp)

50g maple syrup (2 tb)

Method

– Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celcius. Line a loaf tin. Oh, before I forget, I have what I thought was a standard loaf tin which was what the recipe called for, but I ended up having to make 5 extra muffins because there was so much batter. 

– Pop your pumpkin in the Thermomix and chop for 10 secs/speed increasing to 8.  

 – Add all other ingredients in and mix for 30 secs/reverse/speed 4. Make sure the batter is mixed evenly.

– Pour the batter into your loaf tin. Throw in oven and bake for 1 hour. Loaf is ready when a knife through the middle comes out clean.  

– I popped my muffin cases in the oven after I took out the loaf, and baked those for about 25 minutes. 

       The little one gobbled a few pieces after dinner, so I consider this one a win!