LCMs? LTMs? Rice Bubble Snack Thingos

I have seen the recipe in the book and a few versions going around but none of them really appealed to me. So I came up with these as a slightly healthier version and must say, was pretty pleased. Best of all, the kids just loved them.

Add to the Thermomix and cook for 5 minutes, 100 degrees, speed 3

• 50g butter
• 60g coconut oil
• 50g sugar or rapadura or any other sweetener
• 2T honey

Add 1t vanilla essence, then add the following and stir gently on reverse for a few seconds:

• 1 cup of puffed amarenth
• 3 cups puffed rice
• 50g coconut.

Give it an extra stir with a spatula, pour in to a lined square tin and press down firmly with baking paper over the top. Refrigerate until set, then cut in to bars.

Choc N Two Veg Cake

I have always baulked at hiding vegetables in kids foods, I’d rather they know what they were eating and make choices. But, after years of them making choices that didn’t fit with mine, I decided to have a crack at making a cake that tasted fabulous and could be considered healthy too.

This is what I came up with. It was as rich and moist as a mud cake, super filling and super decadent. And the kids absolutely smashed it. Oh, and in keeping with my theory on not hiding veggies, I told them the ingredients after the plates were licked clean.

Here is how I made it:

Blitz in the Thermomix on speed 8 for around 15 seconds:

• 1 zucchini
• 1/2 cup of mashed cooked pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 60g butter

Add and mix well on speed 6 for around 20 seconds:

• 250g spelt flour
• 3t baking powder
• 80g raw cacao powder or cocoa
• 150g milk
• 150g sugar

Pour in to a lined fairly large tin and bake at 180 degrees for 50 minutes.

A Handful Of Bliss

For those who need exact measurements in a recipe, look away now. Or, give this a go anyway as it really is fool-proof.

Into the thermomix put the following and blitz on speed 8 for around 15 seconds:

• A handful of raw cashews
• A handful of raw almonds
• A handful of goji berries

Add to it the following and blitz on speed 7 for around 20 seconds:

• A handful of apricots
• A handful of dried raspberries
• A BIG handful of fresh dates, seeds removed
• A handful of raw cacao powder
• A splash of coconut oil

Form in to small balls, roll in coconut and freeze. Perfect for an afternoon snack.

Spelt Pasta with Sweet Potato, Spinach and Ricotta Filling

Easy to make, freeze in to bags ready for a quick dinner.

Make a batch of pasta dough by mixing 300g of spelt flour with 3 eggs and 20g of olive oil in the thermomix. Knead for two minutes, then wrap in plastic for ten minutes to rest.

Steam 3 small sweet potatoes and a couple of big handfuls of spinach, mash and combine with 200g of fresh ricotta, an egg and plenty of salt and pepper.

Roll your pasta dough through the machine, in small batches. You want to get it down to the smallest setting, so just do a small ball at a time.

Lay it on to tea towels, covering as you go.

Once all done, cut in to triangles and place 1 teaspoon of filling in each centre, run a wet finger along each edge, then bring each corner to the middles, pressing edges as you go. This will form an odd pyramid shape. Bend edges down and tuck in a little. Very hard to explain and no matter how you do them, so long as the edges are sealed, that is all that matters!

Only make a few at a time, keeping the rest of the dough covered to stop it drying.

Scatter flour on a tray and add pasta shapes to the tray, sprinkling liberally with flour as you go to stop them sticking.

Freeze on the tray, then shake off and transfer to a zip lock bag to store in freezer. This made just over 1kg of pasta shapes.

To cook, bring to boil a big pot of salted water, add a few at a time once boiling. Once they rise to the top, after a few minutes, they should be cooked. Serve with your favourite sauce, or with a splash of olive oil and parmesan and more pepper.

Coconut Orange Cupcakes

A new take on the whole orange thermomix cake. These were so lovely and moist due to the coconut.

 

Add to the thermomix and blitz on Speed 9 for 10 seconds.:

• one whole orange, cut in to quarters, plus squeeze the juice out of a second orange.
• 200g of butter

Add the following and mix well on Speed 5 for 20 seconds:

• 200g sugar, agave or honey
• 200g spelt flour plus 3t baking powder (or 200g of SR Flour)
• 100g shredded coconut
• 3 eggs

Spoon in to muffin cases, this batch made around 16 good size cakes.

Bake at 170 degrees for around 20 minutes.

Spelt Fruit Bread – Fig, Apricot and Goji Berry

Looking forward to having this for breakfast in the morning… or a late night snack with a cup of tea.

Fruit – big handful of dried figs, big handful dried apricots, handful of goji berries in to the thermomix with big shake of All Spice. Blitz on speed six for around 20 seconds.

Scrape it all out in to a bowl and put aside.

Thermomix 290g water, plus 20g olive oil – 37 degrees, 2 minutes, speed 1.

Add 500g spelt flour (or normal bakers flour), 2t yeast, 1t natural bread improver, 1t salt, 4t sugar or honey.

Knead for 2 minutes, after 30 seconds add the fruit mix in to the hole in lid.

Do what you do to let it rise, I spray the inside of a freezer bag with olive oil, drop the dough ball in, fill with air and tie in a knot.

Spray the inside of a tall round cake tin with removable bottom, or even a springform tin.

Once doubled in size, punch down and stretch out to a long sausage. Divide in to ten pieces.

Roll each piece in to a ball and arrange nine around the outside and one in the middle, so they are nestled nice an close to each other. Or you could do any amount you want, this just worked for me.

Sprinkle with water, then top with sunflower seeds, or any seeds you like.

Let rise in a warm spot till nice and high. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees.

WAIT TILL COOL BEFORE CUTTING!

Squashed Frog Pasta aka Avocado & Salami Pasta

My daughter promptly named this Squashed Frog Pasta. The salami is the guts, the pasta is the intestines and the green sauce is, well, the rest of the frog. Whatever you call it, it was delicious, quick and all went back for seconds.

 

Add to salted boiling water 500g of fresh Egg Pappadelle Pasta. Or, any other pasta you like if you don’t have this.

Add the following to the Thermomix and blitz on Speed 8 for around 15 seconds:

• Flesh of 2 avocadoes
• half a bunch of finely chopped spring onions, including greens
• two really big slugs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 250g natural yoghurt
• splash of cream
• salt and lots of cracked black pepper

Taste and add a bit more olive oil and salt and pepper if required.

Slice in to thin strips around 100g of salami, you choose how hot, for my kids I used mild hungarian.

Warm through at 70 degrees for around 7 minutes, Speed 1.

Drain pasta, reserving some of the liquid. Add the sauce to the pasta, if it’s a little thick, add a bit of the reserved liquid back in.

Serve with more cracked pepper, or if you like it hot, sprinkle with chilli flakes.

Baked Cauliflower Risotto with Chilli Pangrattato

This is my twist on Jamie Oliver’s twist of a classic Italian dish. Featured in the March 2013 edition of the ABC’s “delicious” magazine, I simplified it and thermomixed it. It looks a bit dry in my pic, so I have modified it further to fix that.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Put in to the thermomix:

• 1/4 of a ciabatta loaf, torn in to chunks
• a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes

Blitz for around 10 seconds to achieve a coarse breadcrumb.

Add around 20g of olive oil, the zest of one lemon, 1/4t of cinnamon and mix for 5 seconds on speed 5. Cook on Varoma temp, 5 minutes, speed 2.

Tip out on to a plate to cool.

Break up a whole cauliflower into chunks and put in the thermomix. Give it around 5 seconds on speed 5 to break it up in to little pieces. Tip out into a bowl.

Put in the thermomix and cook for 4 minutes, Varoma, speed 2:

• 2 white onions, quartered
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• a splash of fish sauce
• 30g of butter
• 20g of olive oil

Add 350g of arborio rice and stir, speed 2, reverse, for a few seconds.

In a large, castiron or heavy casserole dish, add the cauliflower, rice and onion mix and 1.25L of hot vegetable stock. Whack the lid on tight and bake in the oven for 35 minutes.

Remove from oven, stir through a big spoon of butter and a heap of parmesan and let stand to thicken for a minute or two.

Serve, with the Chilli Pangrattato sprinkled liberally over the top, some more parmesan and cracked black pepper.

Vegetarian Parmesan Sausages with Avocado Dip

 

Okay, so not the best looking photo, but these were really delicious. Most vegie sausages taste kind of odd, but these tasted great and held together really well.

In to the thermomix, speed 5 for 10 seconds:

• half a red capsicum
• one onion, quartered
• 1T olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic

Add and combine, speed 6 10 seconds, or desired consistency.

• 1T tahini
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and well rinsed
• 50g parmesan cheese, or more
• 80g of pulled apart bread crusts
• handful of chopped garlic or onion chives

Prepare a plate with seasoned flour, then with floury hands, take a small amount of the mixture and form in to a sausage, flouring the outside really well. This amount made around 16 small chipolata size sausages.

Refrigerate for at least an hour, then shallow fry in hot oil.

I served these with a simple avocado, yoghurt and lemon dip. Oh, and the cup is just a little espresso coffee cup. Were also delicious with tomato relish as well.

Apricot and Goji Berry Spelt Bread

A delicious fruit combo, great for breakfast.

 

Follow the normal Spelt bread recipe, but increase the rapadura or honey to around 30-40g and reduce the salt to 1/2 a teaspoon.

With around one minute left of kneading, add through the lid:

• a big handful of chopped apricots
• a big handful of sultanas
• a big handful of goji berries
• 2t of All Spice

Finish recipe as normal, baking for 30 minutes at 200 degrees celcius.