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.