red risotto

this recipe was adapted for the thermomix from Tessa Kiros' much loved book 'apples for jam'. it has been doubled to satisfy a family of 5 (with one serve of leftovers for the next day).

ingredients:
3 garlic cloves
1 red onion, quartered
400g arborio rice
1 400g tin of tomatoes, pureed with a stick blender
2 x 400g tin quantities of water
1 tbsp stock paste
6 basil leaves, torn
6 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup danish feta, crumbled to serve


method:
1. place onion & garlic cloves into tmx bowl and blitz sp 5 for 5 seconds.
2. add olive oil, cook 5 mins 100° speed 1.
3. add rice & basil, cook 1 minute sp 1 100°.
4. add tomatoes, water, stock paste. cook 20 minutes speed 1, 100°.
5. place into thermoserver or bowls and top with crumbled feta and allow to sit for a few minutes. serve. enjoy!

Why working out is worth it

Because it's peace and quiet, just you and the pavement. 

Because going in the early morning you're able to witness nature at a time when most people miss it.

Because you're worth better health, you are valuable and your children deserve a healthy mother, with both mind clarity and physical strength.

Because pushing yourself beyond your expectations a little more each time just feels so empowering.

Because being free and detached from your problems when you leave them at home for a short while gives your mind space to gain love for yourself and for those around you.

And finally;

Because when you come home from working out, whether you walk, run or a combination of both - that warm down, when your breath slows and your body begins to regulate, and your sweat actually begins to cool yourself down... There's nothing like it, that natural high. 

You did it. Feel proud. 

Sour cream, cherry & coconut cake

 This makes a delightfully moist cake, so delicious!

Sour cream, cherry & coconut cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 2 eggs
• 100g raw sugar
• 100g butter, room temperature
• 4 tablespoons cherries (I used Morello jarred ones)
• 100g plain flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
1. Blitz sugar on sp 9 for 10 seconds.
2. Add butter and cream for 10 seconds on sp 4
3. Add eggs and sour cream and continue to cream 10 seconds sp 4.
4. Add flour, coconut, baking powder. Mix 5 seconds sp 4. Mixture will be thick.
5. Pour into prepared round cake tin, using a spatula to spread it out.
6. Get cherries and drizzle them over the top. Place in oven and cook for 25-35 minutes or until the top is golden and the middle is cooked through. If need be toward the end lower the temperature of the oven and cook til it reaches perfection.
7. When the cake is out of the oven and still hot, pour some syrup from the cherries on top.

Serve!

Swedish Meatballs - an adaptation

Swedish Meatballs

-Adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe 

Meatballs

500g beef or pork mince 

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or substitute with almond meal to make GF)

2 tbsp caraway seeds

1 onion, peeled and halved 

1 egg

1/4 cup cream

Sauce

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup plum jam

Dash of vodka

2 tbsp chopped or dried dill 

Salt and pepper

Rice

400g rice

3 small washed potatoes, skin on OR 1 celeriac bulb - peeled and diced 

Large handful baby spinach 

1. Place onion into TMX bowl and chop for 2 seconds sp 7.

2. Add remaining meatball  ingredients and mix together on sp 4  for 10 seconds.

3. Lightly oil (I use spray) Varoma bowl and tray. Use teaspoon and scoop balls of meat into Varoma. Scatter through peeled and diced celeriac.

4. Rinse out bowl. Add water to the first marker. Place basket in, add rice. Place lid on, then Varoma tray and bowl. Cook for 15 minutes Varoma temperature sp 4. 

5. Remove rice, empty into thermoserver. Add spinach and celeriac and combine. Season with salt and pepper. 

6. Place lid back on, and cook the meatballs for a further 10 minutes Varoma temperature sp 4. Place into thermoserver.

7. Rinse bowl. 

8. For the sauce add the ingredients then cook on 90 degrees speed soft for two minutes. Pour over meatballs.

Serve meatballs on top of rice with a drizzle of the sauce. Delish! Serves 6.

steamed puddings in the Varoma

Here's another Thermomix recipe I whipped up. This recipe is really flexible: you can change the fruit to what you have, add maple syrup on the bottom of the molds before you add the mixture (plain with vanilla) on top so they're self saucing. You can make chocolate ones by adding 2 tbsp cocoa. You can make it really tangy by using 2 lemons (zest and juice). Mix it up!

Ingredients:

• 100g butter
• 100g raw sugar
• 150g self raising flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of coconut
• Zest & juice of mandarine
• 4 strawberries

Method:
1. Add sugar to the bowl and blitz on sp 9 for 10 seconds.
2. Add butter and eggs to the bowl and mix on sp 5 for 15 seconds.
3. Add flour, baking powder, strawberries, mandarine rind & juice and mix sp 4 for 10 seconds to combine.
4. Rinse bowl and fill with water to the halfway mark. Place Varoma on top with both trays and scoop the pudding mixture into silicone cupcake molds using a spoon.
5. Place lid on top and turn the machine to Varoma sp 4 for 30 minutes and cook.

Serve with cream or ice cream. Eat hot or cold.

 Makes 12 cupcake size puddings.

tuna mornay

This is a Thermomix recipe. I kind of made it up. I tried a different recipe and it was too rich and didn't have enough veggies for my liking. So I came up with this instead! I have had my machine for 2 years now and I still adore it. More on that another time..

Ingredients: 

• 1 can tuna
• 1 can corn, drained
• 4 mushrooms sliced
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 50g butter
• 30g plain flour
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp stock paste
• 300g small pasta
• 500ml milk
• 300ml water
• 50g cheese (I used cream cheese)
• 2 cups of spinach
• Salt and pepper

How ya make it:

1. Onion and garlic into thermomix on sp. 7 for 2 seconds.
2. Add butter and sauté for 3 mins on Varoma temp sp 1.
3. Add milk, cheese, flour. Cook for 7 minutes sp. 3, 90 degrees.
4. Add Dijon, stock paste, water. Then add pasta, pushing it under the liquid. Then add corn and tuna, and mushrooms.
5. Cook for 18 minutes on 100 degrees sp. soft, reverse.
6. Add spinach to the bowl you're going to serve the mornay in, and when the cooking is finished add the mornay on top of the spinach.
7. Season with salt and pepper, and slowly mix to incorporate spinach.

Serve! Makes enough for 4-6.

slow cooker sausage curry

This recipe makes a lot. It can be frozen afterward.

Into your slow cooker place:

• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped
• 2 carrots chopped
• 2 sticks of celery chopped
• 1 onion into wedges
• 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 500g sausages, I prefer to use pork. You can use kitchen scissors to chop these up or leave them whole. You can even add them frozen if you are short on time.
• Big handful of parsley, torn with your fingers.

Grab a jug. Place:

• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1 tbsp tomato sauce 
• and then top with 2 cups of chicken stock, mix to combine.

1. Add contents of jug to slow cooker over the veg and then add 1 large tin of coconut cream.
2. Stir the slow cooker a bit to combine ingredients.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Season with salt and pepper, serve with rice or quinoa.

YUM!