New You Tube Channel & Toy...

Thermomix...

A month ago we decided to buy a Thermomix (TM) as we see an all in one unit like this as a real bonus to the kitchen.. After contemplating our diet for a while we have decided to reduce the majority of processed/packaged food.. The TM will enable us to prepare some ingredients from scratch which will help boost the nutrient content of the foods we prepare..  We will be able to mill our own flours, make tahini from scratch as well as various nut butters, nut milks, fresh fruit sorbets, jams & the list goes on... I know a few of the above listed foods can be made in other appliances but that is one of the great things about the TM, we can now get rid of the food processor, rice cooker (which I never liked using BTW **checks over shoulder for Bianca**), ice shaver, microwave steaming pots, Kenwood chef, hand held processor & when the bread machine finally packs it in, that as well...

Pineapple & Mango Sorbet  is the favourite so far..

 In the 2 weeks we have had the TM we have made  pizza dough, Thai red curry paste, beef Rendang, herb & olive chicken, curried pumpkin & sweet potato soup, garlic quinoa salad, a few broccoli salads, herb cheese dip, Green/fruit smoothies, 6 or 7 fresh fruit sorbets, frozen fruit yoghurt, some "Ice Magic" style topping, besan flour, icing sugar, 6 or so batches of worm food smoothies & some other things I am sure I will remember later...
The only "failure" we have had so far is the when I made some broccoli salad on speed 7 for 5 seconds by accident... The outcome was a rather mushy green salad that was set aside & used for the next days breakfast smoothie so wasn't wasted..
   While searching the net for information on the TM I cam across many blogs & groups on the TM so will not be dedicating this blog solely to the TM but will include recipes for it with a conventional version as well for stove top cooking when relevant..
Here is the 1st recipe that I tried from scratch in the TM (pinched from a post I made elsewhere this week ; )» )

Herb & Olive Chicken

3 Tomatoes
4 clove Garlic
1 tbsp Olive oil
600g chicken breast/thigh, diced
1 Onion cut into bit size pieces
6 Sweet Basil leaves
6 sprigs Thyme
4 tips of Sage
2 large Mushrooms, diced
½ medium Capsicum, diced
Large handful snow peas, cut in thirds
1 bunch Asparagus, quartered
Juice of ½ Lemon or 1 Tbsp of juice
½ cup Kalamata Olives, sliced in half
Thinly sliced Chilli for garnishing

• Chop Tomatoes... speed 4 for 5 seconds then put into bowl for later then rinse out TM bowl
• Chop Garlic... speed 8 for 5 seconds
• Add oil then sauté... Varoma for 3 min
• Place Butterfly into bowl & add Chicken, onions & herbs... Varoma for 5 min on reverse speed 1
• Add Tomato & Mushroom... Varoma for 7.5 min on reverse speed 1
• Add Lemon juice, Capsicum, Snowpeas, Asparagus, & Olives.. 100°C for 5 min on reverse speed 1
• Served garnished with Chilli & enjoy....

As this was a first attempt & I am still getting used to the TM there are a few things I would do differently.

1. Only use 1 chopped tomato & add it after the onion was sautéed with 1/3rd cup of Tomato paste (yet to make my own but on the list to do)
2. Add the Snowpeas in the last 2 min as I like mine bright green & crunchy
3. Add 1/8th cup White wine as I think it would lift the flavour a bit more
4. Not use Butterfly attachment just to see how it goes.. It was recommended on a blog I saw to use it when the bowl was full but was later told by a TM demonstrator  (tar Frogdancer) that it wasn't required at all..

Non Thermomix version...
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion cut into bit size pieces
4 clove Garlic, crushed
600g chicken breast/thigh, diced
1 Tomato, Diced
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/8th cup White wine
6 Sweet Basil leaves, torn
6 sprigs Thyme, stripped
4 tips of Sage, torn
2 large Mushrooms, diced
1 bunch Asparagus, quartered
Juice of ½ Lemon or 1 Tbsp of juice
½ medium Capsicum, diced
Large handful snow peas, cut in thirds
½ cup Kalamata Olives, sliced in half
Thinly sliced Chilli for garnishing

• Sauté Onions & Garlic in oil for 2-3 min
• Add Chicken, herbs, Tomato, Asparagus & Mushroom, cook 5 min on medium high heat
• Add Lemon juice, Capsicum, Snowpeas & Olives, cook for further 3-4 min
• Served garnished with Chilli & enjoy...
  
  

RBs Kitchen...

The Girls & I decided to start up a separate channel on You Tube to upload cooking & other around the house clips to.. So far we have posted 3 recipes from the Bits out the back Channel as well as a bread making clip using whey from Labne Cheese making  & an up to date clip on  how we make Probiotic Yoghurt... Hopefully we will have a Labne Cheese clip up in the next day or so...
Hope you enjoy the clips & get something from them.. Feel free to comment as I am by no means an expert on cooking but do enjoy learning from others...

 Thanks for reading this far (if you made it :D») & have a great day...
: )»

Yoghurt from scratch...

For years now we have been making Yoghurt using the Easiyo system... The system includes a flask that holds boiling water & a canister... A package of Yoghurt culture is added into a canister with enough water to make up a litre  of Yoghurt, given a good shake, sealed into the flask containing the boiling water then is left for 8-10 hours to let the bacteria do its thing by multiplying into some very nice yoghurt... There are a few different brands of Culture available at the Stoopidmarket in different varieties such as fruit/honey flavoured, Greek style, Low fat & drinking... The cost for this is about $3-4.00 pet litre V's about $5-6.00 for brand name natural Yoghurt so it saves you a bit...

A few years ago we joined the Simple Savings web site where another method of stretching the packet culture was found... To is done by reducing the amount of starter culture to 2-3 heaped Tablespoons, adding 1 1/3 cups of milk powder & the required amount of water to make up a batch... This was a great way to bring the price of a litre of excellent tasting yoghurt, free of additives, down in price even further to about $1.50 per litre...

During my search for some lids to do some canning/preserving with I cam across Green Living Australia that not only sold the lids but also cultures & all the bits needed to make your own Cheese's & Yoghurt's at home... We purchased 2 Yoghurt cultures from them, a normal culture & a Pro Biotic culture...

 We have only made it on the UHT milk (shown above) but will be having a go with powdered milk as soon as this batch is finished... The costings for the UHT batch is $1.25/L...  It would come down $0.96/L on powdered milk...
The Pro Biotic Is a massive savings on buying the little bottles from the shops... $9.32/L from Aldi is the chepest store bought I could find but by making your own you can get it down to an amazing $1.10/L using UHT milk or cheaper if you get the full  1000 batches from the packet...
It has been pointed out to us that as UHT milk has been heated to high enough temperatures to kill off any bacteria that may have been lurking in the milk so doesn't need to be boiled before using & is ready to go once brought up to temperature..
Just a note on the culture, once opened it needs to be kept at very cold temperatures to keep the culture alive.. You also get 2 jars with the packet that are used to divide & then store the culture... All instructions are given upon purchasing for dividing & storing...

As well as the Yoghurt culture's we also purchased a Feta Cheese making kit, lids of various sizes for preserving, jar lifter, Soap nuts for clothes washing & some very small measuring spoons in the following sizes,
Tad - 1/4 tsp
Dash - 1/8 tsp
Pinch - 1/16 tsp
Smidgen - 1/32 tsp
Drop - 1/64 tsp
Tickled our fancy & have already come in handy when dividing up the Yoghurt culture...
I would Like to thank David at Green Living for all his help, encouragement & generous gift of recycled jars to help us start off with some preserving....


 Please note, anyone who tries this does so at their own risk... We take no responsibility for any adverse reactions suffered by people trying to copy our methods...
Just covering our Butts !!!!
**NODS**
Is a sad day when you feel a disclaimer is needed...   
 Have a great one all....
: )»

Baking with the girls...

Have been at it in the kitchen again the last few days... Yesterday we used the the Chickpea & Bean Salad recipe from the other day to make up a Quinoa version... Is basically the same except for cooking 1 cup of Quinoa in 2 cups of water with 1 tsp of Chook stock powder... This was cooled & added to the other ingredients...Went down a treat with the family & we still have heaps left for dinner tomorrow night...

 Chocolate Maccadamia nut Brownie.....
Also made up a batch of Chocolate Maccadamia Brownies to help "Grease the wheels" at B☼'s work....
 This is a "Coles" recipe I grabbed from Simple Savings & have altered slightly.... (just can't help myself)
 

Fudge Brownies...

200g unsalted Butter
150g chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
 2tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup chopped Maccadamia Nuts
Method
1. preheat oven to 180
2. Lightly grease and line a 180by280cm shallow cake pan (I use a square Silicone "pan")
3. Melt Butter & Chocolate in Microwave or in a double boiler on stove
4. remove from heat. stir in sugar.
5. beat in eggs, one at a timethen stir in Vanilla
6. sift in dry ingredients and mix.
7. stir in nuts.
8. pour into prepared pan and cook for 35 -40 min
9. Allow to cool completely in pan, then remove cut into desired sized pieces...

 Vanilla Essence...
A few of the Vanilla beans that I bought a while ago were finely used to make 700ml of Vanilla Essence today...

16 beans (8 for each bottle) were slit down the middle, had the seeds scraped out, chopped into 1.5cm long sections & then placed into 2 swing top bottles we once used for home brew...
16 x beans was $10.40 &  700ml  Vodka  was $32.00...

All up it worked out to be  $32.40 for 700ml or $4.60 per 100ml of pure Vanilla Essence which is a small savings on the purchased bottles but a lot more fun to make with the kids...
**Sits back & smells Vanilla scented Fingers**


Bread Mix...


Also did up a bulk batch of bread mix for the bread maker...
We make a 1kg wholemeal loaf in an Aldi machine...
 
350g of white flour
250g of ATTA flour
1.5Tbsp of milk powder
1Tbsp of raw Sugar
1.5tsp salt
This is all bagged up in reusable clip lock bags & kept in a 8.5L Decor container until needed....
To use we first add 2Tbsp of oil & 350ml of water to the bottom of the bread pan.. On top of this goes the bread mix followed by 1tsp of bread improver & 1.5tsp of Dried Yeast....

This saves us time when it comes to putting the bread on late at night or as your running out the door in the morning....


Have a great one all.....
: )»

Yesterday in the Kitchen....

Yesterday we used up all the Zucchinis we picked the other day  by making some bulk Zucchini & tomato sauce....  
Please note that I make recipes up as I go even when I am supposed to be following one.... ; )»
No 2 batches of sauce are ever the same....
                                                               Zucchini Sauce....

• 3 medium onions Cut in ½ then sliced thinly
• 4 large cloves of Garlic crushed
•  Approximately 1 kg of Zucchini sliced lengthways then into 1.5cm chunks
• 500grams of Mushrooms chopped
• 3x 400g tins of diced tomatoes
• 375g jar of tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp dried Oregano
• ½ tsp Dried Thyme
• 2 tsp dried Basil
• 300g jar of grilled Peppers chopped (I ran out of time & capsicum to make my own so raided the pantry)

- Cook off onions & garlic in some oil (We use Rice Bran due to the high smoke point & added health benefits)
- Add mushrooms & Zucchini.. Cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally so as not to burn 
- Add the tins of Tomato, paste, roasted Capsicum, dried herbs & bring to the boil for 5 minutes
- Simmer for 2 hours to reduce liquid..

This made up 2.8 Kg of sauce which I split into 4 lots... from this we can split a lot in ½ to use as a sauce or a whole bag as a base for a main meal..

I blitz it with the stick blender to use as a Bolognese sauce base, as a chunky sauce on sausages or steak, mixed through some pasta with extra flavourings then topped with cheese/bread crumb mix as a pasta bake, & B☼'s Favourite, a sauce for a Chicken Parmigiana with Colby or Wauchope (Just a friendly reminder MUM !!! : )») cheese  grilled on top.....

 Also made a very tasty stuffed Zucchini for dinner..... (Don't faint Mum)

                                                      Stuffed Zucchini/Marrow...

• 1 Large Zucchini Halved Sliced length ways & seeds scooped out (Feed to the worms)
• 3 slices of Shortcut Bacon Diced Finely
•  2 small-Medium onions Diced finely
• 300 g of mushroom Diced small
• 2 large cloves of Garlic Crushed
• 1 stalk of Celery Diced finely
• ¼ red Capsicum Diced Finely
• 2 Tblsp Tomato paste (didn't use the Tomatoes)
• 400g of Beef mince (Pork or Sausage would be just as good me thinks)
• Master Foods African Spice blend (You can use your favourite Spice or herb blend)
• Grated cheese

- Bake sliced Zucchini halves in oven at 180°C for 20 Minutes.. I checked after 10 just to make certain that it didn't go to soft..
- Fry off Onion, Garlic, Mushroom & Bacon until most of the Mushroom liquid has evaporated..

- Add Celery, Capsicum, Tomato paste & mince..
- Add Spice/Herb mix to taste & cook until mice is browned..
- Take Zucchini from oven & remove any pooled Liquid...
- Stuff Zucchini with mixture, top with grated Cheese n& grill until browned.
Enjoy...... We did !!!

You could easily turn this into a vegetarian recipe by using Eggs, Rice, Quinoa or even oats if desired.....
Next one I make will be a Vego one with Quinoa, Olives, sundried Tomato slithers Danish Feta & Spinach....


Also made up a batch of Vanilla Sweetener for my Sister.. She has been trapped at home for nearly a month with multiple cases of Chicken Pox & is the only one not to fall ill so far...
I think she needs a pick me up (Bit of an understatement there me thinks) & know how she loves her Vanilla Coffee....
                                                      Vanilla Sweetener...

4 beans were sliced lengthways & their seeds were scraped out & placed in a Mini Blender with about ¼ cup of Xylotol.. (I did the same with white sugar for myself)
That was Blitzed until the seeds were evenly distributed through the Xylotol..

The mix was then removed & stirred through the remaining sweetener & placed back in the jar along with the pods... Best to leave it for a few weeks to let the flavour spread through the Sweetener..                 This was dropped off with some extra beans for her to play with...

I couldn't wait & have already used some in coffee for B☼ & Myself.... Subtle but still Lush...

I got the beans from a supplier on eBay... 250g of Madagascan Beans for $39 delivered... There are larger volumes available that make it cheaper if you use it a lot... I will be Buying some Vodka & experimenting with making our own essence in the near future....

Must go Make the evening's Nosh..
Have a great one all....
: )»

Icing Sugar...

I have pinched this from My Simple Savings Blog.....
Bit slack I know...... : )»
 We now make all our own Icing & castor sugar for baking.... Just was silly having the extra containers taking up space in our pantry....
It is really easy to make as all I do is just "wizzz" up 3/4 of a cup of white sugar at a time until it reaches the right consistency... A little Bullet blender or Mini Food processor are great for this job.... I do find there is always a few grains remain but they are easy enough to Sieve out if desired...




 According to http://grocery.bestpricedirectory.com.au ,
Home brand White Sugar works out at .88c per KG when bought in 3kg bag...
Icing sugar (not mixture) works out at $2-3 per KG.... Not a huge saving but still a saving....

Must clean out the pantry so may make that the next Excitement packed Blog...

Have a great one all...
: )»

Dairy Spread....

 Made some up some Dairy spread this morning.... It's easy to make & we know what goes into it...
 I use a Ratio of 2:1 Butter & Rice Bran Oil... It works out heaps cheaper than buying the "spreadable" butters & is a lot better to cook with as you get the butter flavour but it doesn't burn like normal butter due to the oil content... Taste great on sandwiches & toast as well....
Method : Just add the softened Butter to a mixing bowl & beat or whisk with Electric Beaters/Stand Mixer... When the butter is all smooth & creamy add the Rice Bran Oil a bit at a time.... I keep  Whisking it until it becomes pale & increases in volume.... I store it in decor 500ml containers & freeze until needed....
Costing : 
1Kg butter $4.58
500ml R/Bran oil   $1.63 (4L for $13 at Woolies on sale & I have a small stockpile..)
This works out to be  $0.42 per 100g or $2.10 for a 500g tub....
 The closest everyday cheapest equivalent is Aldi at $2.99 for 500g....
We don't like the Aldi brand due to it having Canola oil in it & that it spits everywhere when using it in cooking due to the water content.... Have been making this version of Dairy spread for a few years now after modifying a Recipe we found on the Simple Savings Site....



Have lifted this from a post on our garden blog, Bits Out the Back.....




Have a great one all....

: )»