Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: Lellyj on September 30, 2011, 02:55:05 pm
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I'm having a lovely time thermomixing through the school holidays! Don't you just sometimes get a glow of satisfaction from how clever you can be with the help of TMX!! Today for example I made butter and buttermilk bread, Nay Nay's passionfruit butter to use as a flavouring in my home made yougurt (still tweaking that one), a vegetable soup that I kind of just invented, ricotta gnocci with Farfallina's zucchini cream sauce (this is my DS age 16's favourite meal) and orange cake! Woo hoo! I was very impressed with myself and my family gobbled everything down . . . although my son did say "So . . . did you make the plates too" in quite a sarcastic tone. Maybe I'll take him up on that challenge--Heston Blumenthal watch out!!
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It is a lovely, rewarding feeling lellyj and it is amazing how much can be done in an uninterrupted day of cooking. I've been very slack of late - either trying to clear out the freezer or eating out - but I will get back into it soon.
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Judy, with my family being massive eaters, I rarely have left overs and I failed shopping 101--feel very remiss when I read others post about their over-full freezers!! If I could, I would choose what I wanted to cook on the day and then shop for it, in fact before children when I lived in the inner city, that's just what I would do!! But not so easy now that I live in the country and the little local supermarket is very expensive (when I first started working full time, I think I single-handedly provided a massive boost to the local economy!)! Now I do an Aldi shop with kind of a master list and this forum and TMX ownership is making me be more organised as there are so many recipes I want to try! Who knows maybe one day I will be like you and Hally and some of the other forum members with bulging freezers!!
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I have the same problem Lellyj. My family eat faster than I can cook.
I have definitely NOT been a domestic goddess so far these holidays. I have not cooked much recently and the freezer is bare (so are the cupboards). Worse still, I have put on a few kilos (aaaarrrghhh) as the food I have been eating is not nearly as healthy as the food from my thermie. Meant to be raining in Sydney this weekend ( so I can't fix the neglected vege garden) so I'm planning a huge cooking weekend. Good thing thermie is always up to the task :)
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by gee that son of yours has a sense of humour :D
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hahaha you should make your plates too just to shut him up lellyj
i wanted for a while to get some porcelain plates and design my own crockery...one day...no time for the moment...taken up with house, DD an DS and DH lol!
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It would be funny to make some http://www.ehow.com/how_5114365_make-tortilla-salad-bowls.html
for your son.
I'm with you Lellyj, i often would shop day by day. The more space I see in my fridge/pantry the calmer I feel and I make more good meals with less, when I have too much choice it's confusing and things get lost and wasted. Lucky the shops are just around the corner for me. And in my ideal world I would meal plan.
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;D I am about to do my meal plan for the week, and start cooking.
My kids need biccies, so about to bake cakes, biccies, slices ready for school again.
I saved about $200 last week on groceries, as I just used what we had in the freezers / pantry.
Robyn ;D
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Domestic goddess here too ;D Passionfruit butter and choc sprinkle cookies this morning, yesterday was curry beef, lasagne, laksa and meatballs, all frozen in portions ready for quick and easy meals :D
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i dont know how you guys eat all this stuff...i find if i cook a dish and or biscuits it lasts a while but we arent big eaters and i restrict the kids with biscuits and cakes etc but it seems everyone makes so much food...that will probably change a little when the kids are teenagers !
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Just you wait a see frozzie, you will need to get a job just for the food bill ;D
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Ha ha Vivaroo, thanks for the link . . . would be fun to do that!
I am working on the meal planning thing. . . getting so much better!
Frozzie it's true when the kids hit teenagerhood you need to put a lock on the fridge and the pantry. I often laugh at how I used to worry that they weren't eating when they were little and now I can't keep up with them. My daughter has moved out to go to university, but I look at my two enormous boys (my youngest is 13, 6ft 2--taller than his father and older brother--with size 13 feet) and I wonder how could you have ever been little tiny toddlers who I used to coax to eat. Now the main problem I have is that they wolf down the food, then leave the empty boxes and biscuit tins in the pantry, hoping they will regenerate I guess!, and I think there is still stuff there, and when I go to get it--it's gone!!
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haha yes well thankfully a few years off for that!! For the moment I still have trouble getting them to eat...I used to worry but like the pediatritian said if they arent losing weight its fine !!
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I love to do meal planning - that's what makes me feel like a domestic goddess!! I use my own template that I created in Publisher and I sit down every Sunday fortnight and plan for the next two weeks. I pin it up on my corkboard and also print off my shopping list with my menu on the back.
I only do a big shop once a week and buy incidentals in between at our local store. I find that my fridge isn't full of stuff that I'm not going to use and my shopping bills are much smaller!
I've made a plain version of my planner that can be downloaded from google docs.Weekly Planner (https://docs.google.com/document/d/14QapDtzmCKfCGPKfI4pEugFXELxEOo4fQKBKXb5Orao/edit?hl=en_US)
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do you actually stick to it ???
i know in the morning when i start cooking, lets say chicken we end up eating fish,DH has given up asking what for t love
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Thanks for the link MeganJane. Will check it out. Fundj that's my problem too. I often don't feel like cooking or eating what I had planned for the day or stuff happens and I need something quick when I've planned something that needs to cook for a while and then I end up giving the meat that's gone a bit smelly to the dog!! So no savings!! But seriously am trying to get better. I tend to use our local shop as an extension of my pantry sometimes visiting several times a day (and once I was so embarrassed as every one knows me by name and says "What did you forget"), I drove over the bridge to shop at San Remo, rather than going to the local shop AGAIN! But it is a very expensive way of doing things, and with our daughter at University, it would be really helpful to save money. So really will check out that link. Domestic goddessness, here I come!
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I guess if i was working and hade to menu plan it would go something like this
Italian dish day 1
A curry day 2
Italian dish day 3
Mexican day 4
Italian dish day 5
Asian day 6
Italian dish day 7
uni
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do you actually stick to it ???
i know in the morning when i start cooking, lets say chicken we end up eating fish,DH has given up asking what for t love
I pretty much stick to it. I might swap days if something happens, but over each week we will eat what's on the menu. I find that whatever I've planned, I'm happy to eat. If something pops up that I'd like to try, I'll make a note to add it to the next fortnight's menu.
I've been following a planned menu for around 3 months and it's working well.
Edited to add:
fundj, my menu is 1 x beef, 2 chicken, 1 x fish, 1 x vegetarian, 1 x mince, 1 x pork each week. From this it's curries, stir fries, fry ups, roast dinners, casseroles, meat loaves or rissoles, patties and so on.
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I need to get back into it as it defiantely takes out the stress of deciding and cooking whats for dinner not to mention shopping costs rather than just restocking in general you only buy set amounts of of the ingredeints needed...
good idea mj re doing it for 2 weeks in advance...i found every week became a hassle but two weeks could work...hrrmmm
funny thing is i used to be an incredibly organised person with everything in its place UNTIL i had kids...all went to hell after that lol!
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I have menu planned for some years now. I find it stoops me having things in the pantry that sit there for months/years. I only plan for the evening meal. Like MJ if I see something I want to make I put it down for next week. My plan has
the date anything on food we're eating where the recipe is what I need to buy
this is all in columns. At the bottom I list how many fish/chicken/vegetarian and red meat meals just to keep a check.
I also list things I'd like to bake and there is a place for what meat/chicken/fish is in the freezer.
It suits me and I love pouring over my books and forum recipes to do it.
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sounds good cookie...I also like mjs one (not the simple one) but hte other one that has all baking, shopping list etc on it...had a look online and thre are several templates available..will have to do my own and get organised...will have to be tomorrow as off to a friends house today with the kids so that rules out getting much done today :-\ It is much better knowing what your going to cook rather than just figuring something out last minute..
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I am loving menu planning now too. Like MJ I don't strictly stick to set nights, but generally eat all of the planned meals over the week. I plan around what is in my pantry and meat freezer as I only grocery shop once a month. I do my plan on Sundays and visit my local veg shop for our fruit, veg and dairy on Mondays. When I stick to my plan I don't have any additional trips to the shops and I use up all our fresh produce each week. :)