Chocolate Crackles

Party food is one of my crusades in life ... why do we need every artificial colour on offer with tons of sugar. All it creates is madness, with kids having hyperactive episodes followed by tears and tantrums! Gee that sounds like a good idea!

I was shocked when I took my daughter to her first birthday party ... the table was groaning in bowls of lollies, chips flavoured with every form of MSG, cakes covered in the rainbow of artificial colours and to drink was everything but water! We could not find a piece of fruit lurking anywhere on the table!

Chocolate crackles

I know that some treats are probably OK but this was the extreme ... my kids are quite used to my rants by now and often walk into a party and declare at the top of their lungs ... "where is the fruit?" and "oh no the sausages are covered in red skins, Yukky". Very proud yet quite embarassing moments all rolled into one.

So over time I have come up with my version of party food that we can all tolerate and enjoy without the price of disaster!

I usually serve fruit plates, homemade popcorn, plain Smith crisps or plain corn chips, cupcakes (gluten free) and chocolate crackles. I offer mini water bottles or real juice poppers. Everyone is happy, there are no major tantrums and I end the day not stressed out from hyped up kids!  Win win!!

Chocolate Crackles

makes 12

Ingredients

3 cups of brown rice puffs

1/3 cup brown rice syrup or coconut syrup

2 tablespoons of cacao powder

1 tablespoon of water

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method

1. combine coconut syrup, cacao powder and water in a saucepan and heat on low and stir until combined, remove from heat

2. add vanilla essence to the liquid

3. in a large bowl place all the rice puffs and combine with liquid

4. mix well making sure all the puffs are coated

5. spoon into patty pan cases (making sure they are full as the mixture shrinks)

6. bake in 150oC oven for 15 minutes

7. Store once cold in an airtight container

Serving Suggestions

Allow to reach room temperature before serving as they will go crunchy when cool.

Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies

It is Christmas once again.
Nowadays it is not the done thing to just hand out a card to your friends at school but attach a chocolate or candy cane. This of course can very easily get out of hand when there is over 20 in the class!

For preschool this year decided no cards just some yummy gingerbread. I had bought the latest Donna Hay Christmas magazine and was inspired by her beautiful gingerbread men cookies. I changed the flour to spelt to make it wheat free and the changed the source of sweetener and voila delicious cookies. They were a hit!

Everyone, even those who hate gingerbread loved them as they were not to spicy and also not too sweet due to the brown rice syrup. (Yes it does use a lot of brown rice syrup but these are a treat cookie so well worth it!).

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients

125g butter
90g coconut sugar
200g brown rice syrup
370g white spelt flour
2 teaspoons ginger powder
1 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method

1. Place butter and coconut sugar in Thermomix bowl. Process 30sec / 6
2. Add all remaining ingredients. Mix 30secs / 6
3. Remove dough onto a well floured pastry sheet.
4. Divide dough into four pieces
5. take one piece and dust with spelt flour, then roll with a well floured rolling pin to desired thickness
6. Use cookie cutters to create desired shape ... in this case stars.
7. Place cut cookies onto a baking tray lined with bake paper allowing plenty of space between cookies .. they grow quite a bit.
8. Bake in a 160oC oven for 8 minutes.
9. Place tray on cooling rack to cool before removing cookies. they harden as they cool.
10. Store in an airtight container.

Serving Suggestions

To create ornaments ... when the cookies are first removed from the oven use the end of a teaspoon to push a hole into the cookies whilst they are still hot and pliable. Then allow to cool. Thread ribbon through the hole and tie a knot.

Moroccan Chicken

Our family have just returned from a four week camping trip, by camping I really mean glamping. Camper trailer and power every night ... so yes Thermomix came with us. This ensured that I could cook well balanced meals every night with no compromise on nutrition. Also I could prepare the meal, load it in, turn Thermomix on and then proceed to sit back and enjoy the great outdoors (no fear of setting the tent on fire ... husband attempted this week one when he went to fry eggs for breakfast, there was a nylon rope left on the gas stove ... in hindsight quite spectacular).

Cooking whilst camping

One of the meals I made every week was Moroccan Chicken, I had prepackaged the spice mix in zip lock bags before leaving home (knowing that it is a family favourite). It can be cooked in a fry pan, on the BBQ, in a Cobb oven ... anywhere really and every time it is beautiful. When I cook it for the family I leave out the cayenne as the kids are not up to eating spicy food ... too much whinging!!
One week I forgot to buy a lemon so threw in some white vinegar (variation in recipe below) and no one noticed.

Moroccan Chicken

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 tsp coriander seeds

1/4 teaspoon cloves

(optional) 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 clove garlic

40g (2Tbl) lemon juice  (or 15g white vinegar and 25g water)

20g (1 Tbl) olive oil

500g chicken thighs, sliced into strips

Method

1. Place all dry spices into dry Thermomix bowl. Grind 1min / 9
2. Pop in 2 garlic cloves. Chop 3sec / 7
3. open lid carefully and scrap down all spice powder.
4. Then add lemon juice and olive oil. Mix 5sec / 2
5. Put in chopped chicken. Mix 30sec / reverse / 2
6. For best results marinate in a covered bowl for 2-3 hours prior to cooking (when camping I cook straight away and still tastes fine)
7. Cook in frypan, on BBQ hotplate, Cobb oven .. whatever works.

Serving Suggestions

Serve chicken with rice and steam vegetables cooked in the Thermomix whilst frying (see photo above)

When cooking in the Cobb oven we bake potatoes whilst frying the chicken and serve with salad.

Lime Ginger Chicken Noodles

Lime Ginger Chicken Noodles

Using up leftover BBQ meat is one of my lifelong quests. Husband always buys too much and cooks it all telling me he will eat it sometime during the week. Famous last words!

I was recently inspired by Jamie Olivers new cookbook Save with Jamie. His idea is to purposefully buy a larger cheaper cut, cook it then use in multitude of ways. Sounds great. Most of my base recipes are using raw ingredients and there is only so many times you want to eat pasta sauce with leftover BBQ.

This week had way too much chicken that had been too tough to eat so it was in need of shredding. Oliver had an interesting recipe for Singapore noodles. Me being me ... decided to work with the recipe then ended up completely reinventing the recipe ... again as usual.

Being predominantly gluten free I use pad thai  style rice noodles or rice vermicelli for dishes like this. They are cheap, quick to cook and the kids love them. For paleo style you could serve with zucchini noodles or on steamed shredded cabbage.

Lime Ginger Chicken Noodles

Ingredients

300g (rough measurement as it is leftovers) cooked chicken
1 large carrot, chunks
1/2 cup peas
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 brown onion, skinned and in half
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled
25mL olive oil
1 teaspoon chinese 5 spice powder
25mL tamari (gluten and MSG free soy sauce)
1 lime, zest and juice
packet of wide rice noodle sticks

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, for the noodles.
2. Put chicken in Thermomix. Shred  5sec / reverse / 5. Tip into a mixing bowl.
3. Put carrot in Thermomix. Chop 2 sec / 7. Tip in with chicken
4. Add peas and shallots to chicken mix.
5. in Thermomix place onion, garlic and ginger. Chop 3secs / 7.
6. Add olive oil and chinese 5 spice powder. Saute with MC off 3min / Varoma / 2.
7. Add tamari and lime zest, then mix this sauce into the shredded chicken and vegetable mix.
8. Stir fry chicken mix on low heat on the stove ready to serve on the noodles.

Serving Suggestions

Serve chicken over noodles, squeeze lime juice on and sprinkle with fried shallots or roasted nuts (peanuts or cashews).

Alkaline Soup

One of my all time favourite foods is soup and the Thermomix has made this a no brainer. I eat soup for breakfast and lunch most days. For me it is a way to get lots of vegetables in, full of flavour with the added benefit of being alkalising. Vegetables contain the most amazing phytonutrients and as I say to my kids all the time ... "we are humans and humans eat vegetables". Vegetables aren't a lifestyle choice like grains, they are a core essential part of the diet upon which all other food hinges.

It is very important to keep the diet alkaline as we know that an acidic diet leads to inflammation and altered immune system. When the body is alkaline it functions at its optimal best, absorbs nutrients well and fights of illness and disease effectively.

Alkaline Soup

Alkalising Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1 brown onion, peeled and cut in half

1 clove garlic, peeled

20mL olive oil
2 sticks celery

1 leek, cut in rings

1 carrot, roughly chopped

cauliflower

broccoli

600mL filtered water

1 tablespoon TM veg stock paste

Method

1. Add onion and garlic to Thermomix bowl. Chop  3sec / 7
2. Add celery to bowl. Chop 3sec / 7

3. Add olive oil, leave the MC off. Saute 3min / Varoma / 2

4. Fill TM basket to the top with leek, carrot, cauliflower and broccoli

5. Add water and stock paste to the bowl and place TM basket in on top.

6. Cook 20min / 100oC / 2

7. Carefully tip vegetables from the TM basket into the bowl. Puree carefully by taking 20sec to get to speed 9 then 10sec / 9.  (total 30sec / 9)

Notes

For breakfast I like my soup to have texture and not to salty. As we wake slightly dehydrated and salt can increase this sensation. To make the soup smooth, puree for a full 1min / 9.

Enjoy!