10 Things I Love about You

Wow! It is all systems go here at the moment. As a Christmas present to myself and Mr Farmer, my family are doing the labour for our bathroom renovations, meaning that all we have to pay is the materials, more than halving the cost. To say we are excited would be a major understatement! It means it is a bit crazy stations here for awhile, as they can only do the work on weekends (thank goodness we have a second, if small, bathroom!). It is going to be soooo worth it though, goodbye brown floor tiles and yellow and brown fittings, hello lovely white bathroom!  So on the food side of things, my Mum is currently on a gluten and dairy free diet, that her naturopath recommended as a bit of a detox. This gave me the kick in the bum that I have been waiting for, to try some awesome things with Julia. Made my first ever almond milk, using a recipe from the forum , which was so yummy I will be making some for us to have normally as it's really scrummy! Also made a couple of yummy quiches...

We have had lots of visitors this week, so I have been cooking up a storm! Well, Julia and I have ;-) Chocolate chip cookies, mini quiches, tuna mornay, fried rice, and of course more dip! Loving it! Have posted my first two recipes on the Thermomix recipe community , which is quite exciting! I must remember to write down more of the meals I create, so that I can go back to them and share them with others! Ok, off to do some tidying while the mini-farmers are napping! Love, Diva xx

Just quickly, this was tonights dinner, super yum, so thought I would share the recipe. The whole family loved it! Enjoy! Prawn Risotto. 2 carrots 1 stick celery 4 mushrooms 4 cloves garlic Handful parsley 50gm olive oil 100gm white wine 400gm aborio rice (I use mixture aborio and basmati to lower GI) 2 tsp TMX veg stock 180gm cream cheese 140gm cream 900gm water 400gm frozen uncooked prawns (I use tails removed as they often come off when cooking otherwise). Put vegetables, garlic and parsley in TMX process speed 7 for 5 seconds. Add oil and sauté for 3mins at 100, speed 1, MC off. Insert butterfly. Add wine and rice, sauté 2mins reverse speed soft 100degrees. Add stock, cream cheese, cream and water (and prawns if still frozen). Cook 20mins, reverse speed soft at 100degrees, with basket in place of measuring cup. If prawns are completely thawed, add after 6 mins. Pour into thermoserver and wai...

So, here it is, the YUMMY Coconut Mango Dream I made today: Basically used the fruity dream recipe, but instead of 600gm frozen berries, used half frozen mango and half coconut cream, with only 40gm of palm sugar, instead of 80gm raw sugar. The family gobbled it up in the 41degree heat!  Also made my first ever jam the other day, as my MIL has a plum tree which is currently going crazy. Used the recipe from the EDC, but cooked it for about half an hour extra and it is still pretty runny. Will have to go fetch some more plums and try again I think. May be handing around some "plum sauce" to family and friends in the next couple of weeks! LOL!

Julia and I are old friends now, spending our days making magic in the kitchen! Well, what time we can manage in between Mr Farmer and the two 3 year olds! I have now officially finished at my part time day job though, so I am hoping that will free up a little more time for creativity in the kitchen! A couple of weeks ago we had surprise guests and I made a delicious dip in about 10 seconds! We had unexpected visitors with little notice and living 25kms from the nearest supermarket, I had to get work with what I already had. So, one tin of canellini beans, half a block of feta cheese, a clove of garlic and a generous squeeze of lemon juice, dash of olive oil and then parsley, salt and pepper to taste. YUMMO! Tomorrow it is going to be 41degrees celcius here, so I have been plotting a sorbet. Have some coconut milk and cream frozen in ice cube trays and have stocked up on some yummy ripe mangoes......are you drooling yet? I am! Ok, well, off to make EDC mushroom risotto for a qui...