Thermomix Menu Plans - 18th June

Hi everyone! I've decided to change how I do 'Thermomix Menu Plans', as I've been having a bit of 'spamming' happening on my 'linkie' and I can't delete them. Very frustrating! So I've decided to get rid of the link-up widget at the bottom of my menu plans, and invite people to link up via my Quirky Cooking Facebook Page instead. When my menu plan is posted each Monday, I'll post the link on my FB page. Then anyone who'd like to share their Thermomix menu for the week can link to the menu on their FB page or website in the comments. That way everyone will be able to see them, it's easy to click through to the menus, and it'll be easier for me to delete any spam. Hope no one minds about the changes... I just think it might work better. And there's always plenty of comments and interaction on Facebook (which is what I love about it!) so we might get more menu plans to check out than we've been getting here... yay! I know I love to see what you guys are cooking, and get some inspiration - I hope you do too.

There really hasn't been much exciting happening in my kitchen in the past week, I'm afraid, because I was sick with a cold for a few days and only got up to start the chicken soup cooking, or to make myself a hot drink! My kids did a good job of looking after me... Simi, my 13 yr old, brought me a hot cup of tea in bed every morning, and my girls brought me breakfast in bed and made lunch (and sometimes dinner) for the family as well. Here's what they made one morning - scrambled eggs with silverbeet and sun-dried tomatoes... yum :)

(See, I can't help myself - I even take photos of my food when I'm sick in bed! As my son said, 'Thank goodness she's got her iPhone so she doesn't get bored!' Lol!!)

Last week's menu was pretty much a wash-out with me being sick. We ate a lot of homemade chicken soup; chicken and vege curries with fresh turmeric, ginger, and garlic all minced up and added at the end (raw) for extra goodness; and lots of fish and greens. This was lunch on Sunday - leftover baked sweet potato and king salmon 'hash', served on baby cos lettuce leaves, with some hot chilli sauce and tamari sprinkled over. So simple, but yummy.

So that's about it for food photos this week... Sorry! Will a sunset do? (Taken at the end of my street from the car window.)

There was a bit of discussion on my Facebook page last week about whether it's cheaper to eat healthy food or junky food (eg. takeaways). I think it's cheaper to eat healthy food, especially if you're comparing takeaways to basic, cooked-from-scratch meals! I save heaps of money by cooking from basic ingredients, not from packets and tins and jars, and by avoiding takeaways. (And by buying bulk!!)

One of the difficulties that was mentioned was the fact that free range or organic chickens are so expensive. Well, I still think you're going to save money if you start with a whole chicken, than if you go and buy a bucket of KFC! But to help prove the point that healthy (even organic) can be cheaper than takeaway, I'm going to share some of my 'eating healthy on a budget' tips in general, and my 'how to stretch a chicken' recipes in particular. I can get three or four meals out of one chicken. You'll notice a few chicken recipes on my menu this week, as I cook and take pics of my 'stretchy chicken' meals, so keep an eye out for those blog posts - they'll be coming up soon.

And don't forget, if you have a Thermomix Menu Plan you'd like to share, I'd love you to come and share it on my Facebook page in the comments under my Menu Plan link. I hope we get lots of new menus to be inspired by :) Have a great week!

Monday:

(breakfast) Chicken & noodles (made from chicken stock that had been simmering all night in the slow cooker, some mung bean vermicelli, garlic, veges and tamari);
(lunch) Chicken & vege pasta (made in the Thermomix with some of the chicken that was poaching in the stock, plus lots of veges & some gf pasta);

Chicken pasta = happy kids!

(dinner) - had a Thermomix cooking afternoon here! Pure fruit sorbet (made from frozen banana & berries), spelt bread rolls, guacamole with carrot slices for 'crackers', raw beetroot salad, pasta e fagioli with gf pasta, grain free vege pasta (vege pasta sauce cooking in bowl, cabbage 'noodles' steaming in Varoma) and dairy free orange-vanilla custard (made with rice-almond milk). Plus some baked cranberry-glazed ham and veges at Grandma's house afterwards ;-)


Tuesday:

(lunch) Coconut lemon chicken soup (tmx)
(dinner) Fried rice (tmx) and green salad


Wednesday:

(lunch) Fish, leftover fried rice (warmed up in tmx Varoma), salad
(dinner) Baked sweet potatoes topped with tuna-a-la-king (tmx)


Thursday:

(lunch) Beef & corn pie (grain free, tmx prep & baked in oven); green salad
(dinner) Steamed fish (tmx), mashed potato (tmx), salad


Friday:

(lunch) 'Roast' lamb (steamed in Varoma, seared in pan) with garlic quinoa (cooked in basket towards end of lamb cooking time), and steamed veges (tmx)
(dinner) Pizza - grain free almond meal crust (tmx), dairy free avocado salad topping (tmx)


Saturday:

(lunch) Beef fajitas with spelt tortillas (tmx), dairy free sour cream (tmx), stir fried capsicum & onion (tmx) (see photo below) and guacamole (tmx)
(dinner) Leftovers (I hope!) or soup (tmx)


Sunday:

(lunch) Slow baked meatloaf with baked veges & salad
(dinner) Frittata made with leftover baked veges & eggs (steamed in Varoma)

Beef fajitas in spelt tortillas with dairy free sour cream

Happy cooking!