Well, hello blog.  I'm sorry I haven't had much time for you lately.  It's not that you don't mean anything to me, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to spend as much time with you as I'd like.

Life sure can be hectic with two little boys running around under my feet and other commitments of my own.  I don't know about you, but I cannot seem to achieve all that I want to achieve during any given day.  It's so frustrating.

One thing I have achieved lately is making a delicious snack that satisfies the tastebuds of my boys and my husband, and my unrelenting desire to cut back on refined sugar and carbs.  I guess you could say we are moving towards the clean eating idea.  I would like us to move there immediately with no backwards steps tomorrow, but my family have other ideas.

I do buy organic wherever possible, I have stopped buying sugar, but I still haven't managed to get away from white flour all the time.  We hardly eat loaves of bread anymore as such, but I do make crackers, tortillas or baguettes most weeks.  And invariably, I use mainly white flour as this is what my husband prefers.  Baby steps, baby steps...

Anyway, back to the point of this post, Apricot Balls.  Lots of seeds for goodness and held together with rolled oats and a sweet slurry of dried apricots and medjool dates.  A very flexible recipe, so feel free to adjust the quantities and types of seeds to suit your taste and your pantry.

My ingredients are medjool dates, organic dried apricots, water, organic unstabilised rolled oats, organic chia seeds, organic cacao nibs, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, and a homemade spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

This is such a super easy recipe to make.  The dates, apricots, spices and water are cooked in the Thermomix until a thick and sticky paste is created.  Then simply throw in the rest of the ingredients, whizz up until it all comes together (about 10 seconds), roll into balls and toss in extra coconut (or sesame seeds if that grabs your fancy).

If you, or your kids, prefer a smoother consistency, before you make the paste, throw the dry ingredients into the TM bowl and grind for perhaps 5-8 seconds on speed 9 to make a chunky powder (is that an oxymoron?) which you can then set aside until required.  So far, my kids are all good with the chunkier texture.

Healthy Apricot Balls

Ingredients

• 120 grams organic dried apricots
• 4-5 medjool dates
• 125 grams water
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 150 grams rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon pepitas
• ½ tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
• 1 tablespoon cacao nibs
• additional desiccated coconut, to coat

Method

Place apricots, dates, water and spices into TM bowl and cook at 90ºC on speed 3 for 6  minutes. Add remaining ingredients (except additional desiccated coconut) and mix  thoroughly on speed 5 for 10 seconds. Roll into balls and coat with coconut.  Refrigerate for an hour or until cool.

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Leftover Oatmeal Muffins with Apple

Getting back into the swing of a routine now that my husband is back at work after 2 months at home, and given that it's been getting a little fresh in the mornings, I decided to make porridge for breakfast today.  I'd seen that Thermomix Australia had updated their porridge recipe from the EDC, so decided to give it a go.  I added 3 plums (quartered), 2 cloves and a teaspoon of cinnamon, just for good measure.  It was pretty good.  Much creamier than I'm used to, and didn't require any extra milk around the edges (which is how I normally have it).  It was pretty good with the fruit and the plums were very welcome in the muffins.

Of course, I forgot that like pretty much all the recipes in the EDC, it made an absolute bucketful, and was way too much for our little family.  Fortunately, I was able to make the most of my leftovers with this lovely muffin recipe (based on this).

You may think that 300g of cooked oatmeal is a lot, but it is actually just a heaped cupful. Left to cool in the muffin tin, these muffins are moist and not very sweet, but with little bursts of fruity goodness.  Muffins you can feel good about eating!

Leftover Oatmeal Muffins with Apple

• 1 apple, quartered
• 250 grams spelt flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 40 grams honey
• 125 grams milk
• 1 egg
• 40 grams coconut oil
• 300 grams cooked oatmeal

1.Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Butter the muffin pans or line with paper wrappers.

2.Combine dry ingredients together in small bowl.

3.In TM bowl, grate apple for 5 seconds on speed 5. Set aside.

4.Add coconut oil to bowl and melt for 2 minutes at 50ºC, speed 2. Add honey,  oatmeal, apple, egg and milk and mix well for 10 seconds on speed 4. Pour  into dry ingredients and mix well.

5.Spoon each muffin cup 2/3 full of batter. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a  toothpick comes out dry when inserted into the centre.  Leave in tin for 5  minutes before removing and cooling on a rack.

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Apricot & Muesli Balls

I have had this recipe on my "to convert" list for such a long time.  It's really such an easy recipe I'm not sure why it took me so long, however, I got to it today.  It's a great sweetener-free recipe - no sugar, no honey, no sweetened condensed milk.  It uses partially reconstituted dried apricots for sweetness and for binding.  The original recipe is from Good Taste magazine.

 I think it could be "mixed up" in a variety of ways though by substituting various ingredients for the store bought natural muesli.  I used the muesli today because I wanted to get rid of it out of my pantry, but using rolled oats as the majority, you could add any of the following alternatives (plus many others I'm sure):

• almonds
• pumpkin seeds
• sunflower seeds
• cashews
• walnuts
• pecans
• banana chips
• shredded coconut
• currants
• sultanas
• craisins
• dried apple (mmm, imagine an apricot & apple crumble version of this)

The possibilities are endless, especially when you also think about modifying the spices.  How about all cinnamon in the apricot and apple crumble version, or mixed spice with currants and sultanas.

Place apricots in TM bowl and chop briefly.

Add water and spices and cook until softened.  Set aside to cool.

Put the muesli (or combination of muesli-like ingredients) in the TM bowl.

Process until finely chopped.

Add apricot mixture and stir until well combined.  Knead briefly.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan until golden brown.

Form tablespoons of mixture into balls and roll in sesame seeds or shredded coconut.

Eat and relax knowing there's nothing bad in there!

Apricot & Muesli Sesame Balls

Source: Good Taste - May 2005, Page 96 Recipe by Emma Braz, Sarah Hobbs & Jan Purser

Ingredients

• 140 grams dried apricots
• 125 grams cold water
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 30 grams sesame seeds, (or shredded coconut if preferred)
• 215 grams natural muesli (or other chosen dry ingredients)

Directions

1. Place apricots in TM bowl and chop for 3 seconds on speed 5 (this is just to break them up slightly so that whole ones don't get stuck on the blades causing the TMX to work harder than it needs to). Add the water and spices and cook for 14 minutes at 80ºC, reverse soft speed. Set aside for 20 minutes to cool.

2. Meanwhile, place sesame seeds in a saucepan and toss over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Set aside.

3. Place the muesli (or other chosen dry ingredients) in the TM bowl and chop on speed 5 for 5 seconds. Add the cooled apricot mixture and stir on speed 4 for 5-8 seconds until well combined. Set the speed dial to lid closed and knead for 30 seconds.

4. Use your hands to roll tablespoons of mixture into a ball. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Toss balls in sesame seeds or coconut to lightly coat.

Notes

I prefer them coated in coconut rather than sesame seeds.

If using shredded coconut for the coating, grind it briefly to help it stick to the balls better. These are good for kids snack time/lunch boxes etc.  They probably wouldn't cut it for a fancy high tea!  In that case I'd definitely go for a condensed milk version ;-)

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Fish, Wedges & Asparagus

Tonight we had a bit of a cheats meal.  Frozen fish.  But I did make wedges.  And I cooked some asparagus with bacon & garlic.  And we had some leftover coleslaw.  Oh, and I'd made some homemade mayonnaise as well.  So all in all, it was still a pretty good meal.

On a side note, I'm very excited about ordering my Thermomix this week.  All going to plan I should have it the following week.  Woot!  It will make making mayonnaise a much less painful exercise for my whisking arm!

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Meat & Spinach Lasagne

This is one of my favourite lasagne recipes.  I found it on the back of a Leggo's Lasagne Sheet packet a few years ago, but I haven't seen it printed for ages.  I even checked the Leggo's web site and it's not listed.  I'm very glad I wrote it down when I did.
When I made it yesterday, I also had some mushrooms that needed using up so they were added at the same time as the red capsicum.  We had leftovers today for lunch and the flavour was out of this world.  I think it should be a rule that lasagne is always made the day before it is eaten.  The world would be a happier place I'm sure.

Ingredients

• 2 packets lasagne sheets
• *** MEAT SAUCE ***
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 small red capsicum, finely chopped
• 400 grams mince
• ¼ cup white wine
• 250 grams frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 410g can tomatoes
• ½ teaspoon mixed dried herbs
• ½ cup water
• *** CHEESE SAUCE ***
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup plain flour
• 1 ½ cups cheese, grated
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 600 ml milk

Directions

1. MEAT SAUCE:

2. Melt butter, add onion and garlic and fry until soft.

3. Stir in capsicum and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add mince and cook until brown.

4. Mix in wine, stir for 1 minute and blend in spinach.

5. Add tomato paste and tomatoes and season with salt, pepper and herbs.

6. Add water and simmer for 30 minutes.

7. CHEESE SAUCE:

8. Melt butter in saucepan, add flour and fry off for 1 minute. Remove from heat and slowly add milk stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

9. Return to heat and bring to the boil to thicken the sauce. Add cheese and nutmeg and pepper.

10. Remove from heat and place plastic wrap on surface of sauce to prevent skin from forming. Set aside until ready to assemble.

11. ASSEMBLY:

12. Place a thin layer of meat sauce in the base of a lasagne dish.

13. Cover with a single layer of lasagne sheets. Cover the lasagne sheets with a layer of meat sauce. Drizzle on a layer of cheese sauce.

14. Repeat step 2 finishing with a layer of pasta and a final layer of cheese sauce.

15. Bake in a moderate oven for 45 minutes ensuring the top layer is golden brown.

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Spring Asparagus Soup

Asparagus is in season and cheap at the moment so I helped myself to a few bunches.  Two bunches made it into this delicious soup.  Recipe on the Taste web site: Spring Asparagus Soup.

Amazingly enough, Will polished off a whole bowlful.  I don't know what it is about soup, he won't eat pumpkin or asparagus in their solid form, but soup is always a winner.  I think it must be the texture (or maybe that it requires less effort to swallow soup!!).

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Cheesymite and Ham & Cheese Scrolls

I decided to get my breadmaker out and dust it off the other day.  I was thinking about how every day (just about) I feed my son ham and cheese or vegemite and cheese sandwiches for lunch.  I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to make my own bread dough and then create scrolls with the same fillings.  I made the wholemeal bread dough using the recipe that came with the breadmaker.  I split the dough in half and rolled out each into a rectangle.  I spread one with Vegemite and sprinkled on grated cheese, and I placed ham slices over one half of the other piece of dough and again sprinkled cheese over.

Then I rolled each piece of dough into a log shape along the long edge.  The next step is to slice each log into (roughly) six equal pieces.  Best you have a sharp knife for this step.

I placed the 12 slices in a greased tin, which I'd also sprinkled with a little semolina to prevent sticking, and set it aside to prove for 30 minutes, then baked in a moderate oven until the bread was browned and sounded hollow when tapped.

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Banana Pikelets

I had some overripe bananas that I needed to do something with.  Usually I just throw them in the freezer in their skins to deal with at a later date, but this time I knew I wanted to make Banana Pancakes.

Ingredients

• 2 bananas, mashed
• 1 cup plain flour
• 60 grams caster sugar
• ½ cup milk
• 30 grams butter, melted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Place the flour and sugar into a bowl. In another bowl, combine the egg, banana, milk and butter.

2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the banana mixure. Using a whisk, gradually incorporate the flour and sugar into the banana mixture until a thick batter is formed.

3. Melt a small amount of butter in a frypan. Drop spoonfuls of batter and spread into a circular shape. They can be small like pikelets or the normal pancake size.

4. Flip the pancakes over when the base has turned golden and small bubbles start to appear on the surface of each pancake. Remove from frypan when second side is golden brown and the pancake is cooked through. Serve immediately.

I made these with wholemeal flour, and next time I will replace the sugar with honey.  These were a great hit with Will.

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