Thermomix - Spiced Pumpkin Baked Cheesecake

As a kid we spent a few years in Alice Springs, which has a sizeable American enclave.  I enjoyed pumpkin pies, spiced pumpkin cakes and other sweet pumpkin dishes as well as our traditional Aussie savoury pumpkin dishes.  I didn't realise until I was older that its quite uncommon to use pumpkin in desserts in Australia.  If you've never tried pumpkin desserts, do give it a try!

Spiced Pumpkin Baked Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 packet sweet biscuits such as milk arrowroot, marie.  I like to use half milk arrowroot and half gingernuts.

100g butter

2 x 250g blocks cream cheese

1/2 cup (80g) white sugar

1/2 cup (80g) brown sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree*

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds of half a vanilla bean, scraped

3 tablespoons plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Pinch ground cloves

Pinch teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. Melt butter in the Thermomix at 90 degrees on speed 1 for 3 minutes, then pour out and set aside.

3.  Place biscuits in the bowl of the Thermomix and pulse with lid closed position on turbo a few times until you get a fine crumb.  Pour in the melted butter and pulse again to combine.  Press into a pie dish, covering the bottom and sides and set aside while you make the filling.

4. You can make the filling without rinsing or cleaning the bowl.  Insert butterfly, then add cream cheese and sugar to the bowl.  Beat on speed 4 until combined.

5. Add pumpkin puree and continue to beat on speed 4, then add eggs one at a time.  Add remaining ingredients (vanilla, flour, ground spices and salt) while still beating.  30 seconds after you've added the last ingredient stop the thermomix, and pour filling into prepared base.

6. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes at 180 degrees.  When ready the outer should be firm but there should still be a little wobble in the middle of the cheesecake.   Allow to cool a little then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until required.  I like to serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and a drizzle of maple syrup.

* I often throw a whole pumpkin in the oven when roasting other meals, scoop out the flesh when its tender and puree then freeze in 1 cup portions for this recipe, soups, smoothies, pumpkin pie and cakes.  You could roast (or steam) pumpkin prior to making this recipe, just let it cool before adding to the mixture.  You can use tinned pumpkin puree which can sometimes be found in lolly stores that sell American sweets, or online sellers though postage is hideously expensive.

Thermomix - Apple, sultana and cinnamon porridge

Hubby has been making porridge using the microwave the last week or so for himself and our 4 year old, G, but couldn't make it this morning because he couldn't find the oats.  He had a bit of a "boy look" I suspect, because they were there in the cupboard, though partly hidden by the flour.  G was a good sport about it though, disappointed but no real whinging or tantrum.  So I promised him I'd make him some porridge when I finished feeding his little brother his milk (D, 7 months).

I'd been making the berry porridge from the Cooking for your Baby & Toddler book, but G didn't enjoy it when he'd tried it and specifically requested sultanas in it.  I was going to use a couple of cubes of frozen apple puree but as we had plenty of apples and its going to be cooked anyhow, why not just use fresh?

Apple, sultana and cinnamon porridge

Ingredients:
2 small green apples, quartered and seeds removed
60g rolled oats
450g liquid (I used 150g milk, 300g water)*
60g (1/3 cup) sultanas
Cinnamon to taste
1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
60g plain or vanilla yoghurt
Honey or maple syrup to serve, if desired

Method:
1. Grate apple in Thermomix for 3 seconds on speed 5.
2. Scrape down sides of the bowl, add oats, liquid, sultanas and cinnamon.  Cook at 100 degrees for 10 minutes on speed 1.
3. Stir through chia seeds and yoghurt, for a few seconds on speed 2 until combined.  Serve drizzled with honey or maple syrup if you like it sweetened.

If making as baby food:
4. After removing portions for the rest of the family, blend up the remaining portion to baby's preferred consistency.

* You could just as easily use soy milk, rice milk or nut milk.  Or 450g milk or plain water.  If making as baby food, you could use expressed breast milk or formula, although heating it for so long is likely to destroy some of the nutrients.  If using formula or EBM, uneaten portions will only last 24 hours in the fridge.  Avoid using sweetners in baby's portion, particularly honey if your child is under 12 months.

Fortnightly Meal Plan II (Fri 16 May 2014 - Thurs 29 May 2014)

Here's this fortnight's meal plan, along with a couple of items that didn't get made last fortnight:

Friday - Steak, cheesy rice & salad (again, by my 4 yr old's request)
Saturday - Korean rice bowls (Coles recipe)
Sunday - Piri Piri Pork Belly (Save with Jaime)
Monday - Lamb, eggplant & mushroom ragu w/ pasta (TMX - Cooking for your Baby & Toddler)
Tuesday - Chorizo, pumpkin & spinach risotto (TMX)
Wednesday - Carrot, potato & zucchini slice & salad (TMX - Cooking for your Baby & Toddler)
Thursday - Meatballs alla norma (Save with Jaime)

Friday - Chilli & brandy beef with beans (Woman's Weekly Slow Cooking)
Saturday - Soba noodle salad w/ crunchy tofu (Dinners for Winners)
Sunday - Spiced Orange roast chicken with horseradish mash and beans (Australian Good Taste Magazine)
Monday - Ultimate pork tacos (Jaime Oliver - 15 Minute Meals)
Tuesday - Slow cooker Rogan Josh ($120 food challenge)
Wednesday - Tuna Melt Piadina (Save with Jaime)
Thursday - Corned beef with horseradish sauce (Woman's Weekly Slow Cooking)

Snacks and desserts -
Mandarin curd swirl ice cream
Slow cooker fruit pudding
Spiced Custard (TMX - EDC creme anglaise with a slug of rum and sprinkle of cinnamon)
Peanut butter and cinnamon cookies (based on this recipe, with a little cinnamon)

Oh, and Thursday 29 May is when Costco opens near us!  I'm really interested to see what they stock, and compare unit prices.

Creamy Ham, Salami and Broccoli Pasta

As we wound up going out for dinner on Mother's Day, we had to shuffle the meal plan a little, and I was faced with coming up with something having forgotten to get any meat out to defrost.  I checked what we had to use up and came up with this pasta, which scored a big thumbs up from the family.

Unfortunately, my stovetop died a couple of nights ago, so I've had to go ghetto with the camp stove until its fixed.

Creamy Ham, Salami and Broccoli Pasta

200g short pasta (we used macaroni, it was all we had)
1 head of broccoli, chopped into small florets (I saved the stalks for TMX stock paste but you can chop and include if you like)
1/2 400g can of corn, drained (you can use fresh or frozen if preferred)
100g ham, thinly sliced into strips (1 section of the ALDI 400g ham packs)
80g salami, thinly sliced into strips (1 section of the ALDI 360g salami packs)
2 eshallots, finely sliced
80g cream cheese, chopped
300ml cream (thickened is fine)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch black pepper

Cook pasta according to packet instructions, adding the broccoli (and corn if using frozen corn) 2 min before the end of cooking time.  Drain and set aside.

In the now-empty pot throw in the cream cheese and cream and stir over heat gently until the cream cheese has melted into the cream.  Add garlic powder and pepper.  Return pasta and broccoli to the pan and add the remaining ingredients (ham, salami, corn and eshallots), toss together and serve.

 

Honestly, I could have used less meat, but I just used the amounts that came in the cells of the ALDI packs.

Singapore Noodles (Jaime Oliver)

The Singapore Noodles from Jaime Oliver's "Save with Jaime" are a great 'use up whatever is leftover' meal.  We had shredded chicken left over from the Roast Chicken in the freezer that we'd made earlier in the week (which, as it happened we decided to do as a sticky, spicy, beer-can chicken thanks to another Jaime Oliver recipe - can you tell we're Jaime fans here?), and we had some left over shredded brisket in the freezer also.  So we used those in place of the prawns and meat in the noodles, and added shredded carrot since we had plenty.

I think the 225g rice noodles is a bit much - we used a 200g pack and it was far, far too much and we had to double the spices in order to make up for it.  I'd probably use half a pack next time, about 100g.

Beef and Feta Burgers

Burgers are a great cheap feed that you can load with sneaky veg.  My burger recipe varies quite wildly by what's in the fridge that needs to be used up, but here is what we had this week:

500g regular beef mince (don't get the low fat stuff, you need a bit of fat to keep the patties moist)
1 carrot, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
2 eschallots, finely sliced
125g feta cheese, crumbled
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 beef stock cube, crumbled or 1 heaped tsp TMX stock paste (optional)
1 teapsoon dried oregano
1 egg
3/4 cup breadcrumbs

To serve:
Bread rollls
Salad leaves
Tomato, sliced
Mayo
Sauces (eg BBQ, tomato)

Simply mix all the patty ingredients together by hand, shape into 6 patties the same size as your bread rolls and fry with a splash of oil or on the BBQ.  As its a minced meat dish, make sure they're cooked through.  I like to toast the bread rolls in the oven or BBQ also.

These patties got put in the oven, post bun toasting, to keep warm for hubby while he was at footy.

This recipe is done without the thermomix, though Thermie blitzes up my end pieces of bread to make up my breadcrumbs which I store in the freezer.

Oven Tray Fajitas with Thermomix Tortillas

We love Stepth Berg's thermomix tortillas!  We'll never go back to store bought.  They're dirt cheap to make (although tortillas are also pretty cheap at ALDI) and they taste so much nicer than store bought, and are free from all the nasties of the long life packet ones (Really, a bread product that stays "fresh" in your cupboard for months without mould? Somethings not quite right).

We use make them frequently, so often now I've become quite fast at portioning and rolling, frying and stacking in the Thermoserver, which is just the right size.

This fortnight it was paired with Oven Tray Fajitas.  As usual, my photos don't do it justice, especially as I wasn't fast enough to take a photo of the full tray before hubby attacked it - it was a wonderful meal.

We ate with leftover salad leaves and sour cream.  Mmmm delish!

Pork Belly, Lentil & Roast Veg Salad

This was one of my favourite meals of the fortnight.  It was pretty simple to - Bang the pork belly in the oven on high, then just peel and chop up the veg, quite largely too, brush with oil and bung in the oven with the pork belly and turn the heat down a little.  Set a timer, walk away, come back and throw in the kale, while its cooking stir up the dressing.  Then throw on the lentils and coriander when ready to serve.

A more detailed, though pork-belly free, recipe is at Stay At Home Mum.  If you want to add the pork belly, simply find a piece the size you wish (ours was about 700g), score the rind, rub with flaked salt and fennel seed, place on a bed of one or two sliced brown onions and throw in the oven.

The lentils and kale were met with some skepticism from our 4 year old.

While the Thermomix wasn't used in preparing this dinner, it did blitz up some of the undressed veg, kale, lentils and meat (sans crackling which was salted up) for our 7 month old and he absolutely loved it.

Thermomix - Vanilla Glazed Hot Cross Buns

These are basically the Hot Cross Buns from the Every Day Cookbook (EDC), with a couple of tweaks:

I replaced the lemon peel with orange peel, as I think its a little sweeter and works better with the spices in the buns.  I also added vanilla to the glaze, because I have a jar of sugar that I add my vanilla beans to if a recipe calls for the seeds and not the pods - you could get the same flavour by adding the seeds from 1/4 vanilla bean or adding a little vanilla bean paste to the glaze ingredients.  And I didn't have any currants or other fruit on hand so I only put sultanas in.

I separated a third of the dough before adding the sultanas in order to make fruitless buns, as I don't like dried fruit much.

Its a little fiddly because it takes so long proving and has multiple proves, but was worth it.  They smell AMAZING while baking, the whole house smelled lovely.

Fortnightly Meal Plan I (Fri 2 May 2014 - Thurs 15 May 2014)

I've decided to start posting our fortnightly meal plans, as I seem to be discussing them frequently on Facebook and a few forums.  I use my Thermomix most days at least once, though often not in dinner preparation but for smoothies and snacks, cooking for my baby.  I will mark Thermomix recipes with a (TMX).

Our family grocery budget is $150 per fortnight.  Not per week - per fortnight.  Although its blown out slightly in the initial phase of introducing food to our baby.  Every now and then I see a thread on Facebook or a forum asking how much folks spend on their shops and people seem stunned that our shop is this cheap.

I usually plan meals at the start of the fortnight that use fresh herbs, salad leaves, fruit or veg that would spoil swiftest, and meals toward the end that use vegetables that last well eg (potato, onion, pumpkin), comes tinned (crushed tomato, corn, beans) or frozen (peas, beans, corn), and uses herbs that I grow (currently lemongrass, tarragon, rosemary, oregano, thyme).

Without further ado, here's this fortnight's meal plan:

Friday - Chilli con carne (TMX - Cooking for your Baby & Toddler) served in taco cups (TMX tortillas - Steph Berg)
Saturday - Octopus & Haloumi salad (based on the recipe from Taste.com.au)
Sunday - Roast Chicken with roast veg and salad
Monday - Oven Tray Fajitas (made with leftover TMX tortillas - Steph Berg)
Tuesday - Lentil & Roast Veg Salad with Pork Belly
Wednesday - Broccoli & Blue Cheese Soup (TMX - Choothefat's Thermomix Adventures)
Thursday - Beef and feta burgers

Friday - Steak, cheesy rice and salad
Saturday - Afternoon tea for dinner (a platter of veg sticks, fruit, crackers, cheese and cold meat)
Sunday - Chicken parmigiana and coleslaw
Monday - Singapore noodles (Save with Jaime)
Tuesday - Salmon patties and salad
Wednesday - Grated rainbow salad with feta and sesame fritters (Save with Jaime)
Thursday - Spaghetti & meatballs

Snacks and desserts:
Mini Cherry pies (Based on recipe Taste.com.au, made in muffin pan with pastry made in TMX)
Carrot & pineapple muffins (Based on recipe from Taste.com.au, made in TMX without icing and baked in muffin pan)
Lactation Biscuits (Peaceful Parenting)
Slow cooker fruit pudding
Pumpkin ice cream (TMX)

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some recipes and photos.