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raspberry cream cheese loaf

August 3, 2011 By corrie 15 Comments

Sometimes I play around with a cake recipe and then get a bit nervous while it’s cooking in the oven. Sometimes I also eat 2 big slices of cake when it comes out of the oven and then realise I only really needed 1 slice and will need to skip lunch. Both things happened to me this morning but I’m happy to report that this cake is a winner. Definitely worth making. I actually had used a bit of cream cheese in a soup this week and had 200g left to play with and this turned out perfectly.

100g butter
200g cream cheese (I use light)
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 1/4 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup buttermilk (or milk)
2 handfuls frozen/fresh berries.

Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla till smooth. Add in eggs and beat gently for about 30 seconds until well combined. Add in flour and buttermilk and gently combine. The mixture is quite thick but don’t worry. The thicker it is the better your berries stay on top. **Now spoon into a lined loaf tin and top with berries. I pressed mine very gently all over the top of the loaf. Bake in 160/170 degrees oven for about 35-40 minutes until a knife comes out clean (don’t tip it straight in a berry of course) and is golden on top. It should feel firm too. Lift onto cooling rack and leave to cool slightly before slicing and serving warm. This would be lovey dusted with icing sugar and served with cream or ice cream.

If you have a thermomix then make your caster sugar by processing for a few seconds on speed 8 or 9. Add in cream cheese, butter and vanilla and mix for 30 seconds on speed 3. Add in eggs and mix for 15 seconds on speed 3. Scrape down bowl. Add in flour and milk and combine for 20 seconds on speed 3. Now follow from above where marked **.

Filed Under: baking, recipe, thermomix

cheese, corn and bacon muffins

August 1, 2011 By corrie 4 Comments

It’s a tough day in the office today as we cough, sneeze and just take it easy. Thankfully, Elodie is getting back to her normal self so I can stop worrying about her. So while I’d rather be knitting and lying on the couch I did feel like some baking today. I do get a little bit excited when there is something good to have for lunch. And these muffins worked a treat. Tillie and I had a few each while Finn who doesn’t eat cake or sweet things is still to be convinced that these are savoury

Now this a kids recipe so to make it more adult friendly I would add a couple of yummy things like sweet chilli sauce, parmesan, basil, pinenuts, finely chopped olives, sundried tomatoes or pesto in there. Tell me what you add and what works.

25g oil
1/2 cup polenta
1/2 cup milk
4 rashers of bacon, chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
220g self raising flour
1 Tbsp caster sugar
220g corn kernels
125g creamed corn
100g butter, melted
2 eggs beaten lightly
100g strong cheese, grated (I love vintage cheddar)
handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Combine the polenta and milk in a bowl and set aside for 20 minutes. Meanwhile saute bacon and onion for a few minutes in the oil. Set aside to cool. Place bacon and onion mixture in a large mixing bowl and add flour, sugar, corn kernels and creamed corn, melted butter, eggs, most of the grated cheese and polenta mixture. Lastly stir in chopped herbs, season well and stir to combine gently. **Spoon into greased muffin tray/paper cases and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes in a 190 – 200 degrees oven or until lightly golden on top. Mine took a while in my little slow old oven. Tip out onto cooling rack and serve warm. Butter is optional but you know you want to. I’m going to have these with soup for dinner tonight.

If you have a thermomix then these are easy peasy too. Combine the polenta and milk and set aside. Grate cheese in the thermomix for 6-8 seconds on speed 8. Set aside. Place bacon and onion in the TM bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 7. Add in 25g oil and saute on varoma temperature, speed 1 for 3 minutes. Scrape down bowl once or twice if necessary. Leave to cool a minute or so then add in all remaining ingredients (leave a little cheese for topping) and combine for 1 minute or so on speed 1 until well combined. Follow from **

Filed Under: baking, cooking, recipe, thermomix

Top 50 things I learnt at Blogopolis 2011

July 31, 2011 By corrie 38 Comments

Well yesterday was one epic day! Up at 3.30am to fly down to Melbourne for Nuffnang’s Blogopolis with the lovely Frills in the Hills and I didn’t get to bed until 1am making for one very long day! Elodie got very sick during the day and had to be taken to hospital so it really was a long day and I’ve never been so glad to be home again. With my little family around me again.

But the conference was amazing and I learnt a lot more than I expected. It also reinforced that a lot of the things I do and have been doing are great and I’m going to keep doing them. And I learnt things that I should be doing to make life easier for myself and my readers. I like that. I’m not good with the tech side of things here at retro mummy so I have a bit of learning to do. And I hope that this condensed version of what I learnt helps my blogger friends out there.

1. I was one of the few who was taking notes with pen and paper. I really need to get myself an ipad.

2. Blogging conferences are so much more fun than securitisation and banking conferences that I used to attend.

3. I was sitting at a table with some very pretty ladies. This is Violet le Beaux. How cute is she? If keira was with me she’d be in awe.

4. I need to get friendly with such things as feedflare, mailchimp, CDN, smush.It, wise stamp, clickbump SEO, AllinOne SEO, lightroom, infographics. I know. Don’t worry. I have no idea what these things are either but once I do know I’ll share.

5. Establish 5 keywords for your blog that best describe your blog and use those words in your title, content and tag words. Don’t spam your keywords

6. Don’t attack others online. Amen.

7. Share your blogposts on twitter, facebook, google +, stumbleupon and so on. Just share.

8. Be considerate to your family and friends when sharing. In other words don’t bombard them.

9. Plan your blog posts (this is something I don’t do but it could be more time efficient for me)

10. Companies still ask agencies ‘what is a blog’

11. you can spot the fashion and beauty bloggers in a crowded room.

12. look into wordpress again so you can host your own blog and not have it removed by blogger. Learn how to use wordpress.

13. I took my knitting but was so busy writing and tweeting I didn’t get to do any at the conference.

14. Kit kat and a diet coke is the perfect afternoon tea.

15. Diet coke and a bag of party mix lollies at 10pm in emergency is no party. It’s not a good dinner either.

16. Think about setting up a newsletter for your readers. Planning with kids likes Mailchimp for hers. It’s a great way to send out your top posts of the week for your readers who might have missed something.

17. ‘totes’ is a gen Y word. I think it means totally. I am gen X. Can you tell?

18. Ask your readers what they’d like to read on your blog (how about baby number 5, lovely readers?)

19. If you want to tweet all day with the free wifi then pack your charger otherwise your phone will die before you land in sydney and retro daddy will drive to the airport without telling you and you’ll be in a taxi home.

20. Problogger is an amazing public speaker and a fountain of knowledge when it comes to blogging.

21. He had my attention when he started his presentation with a photo of his 4 week old baby. And then a photo of his cute boys. Kids. Get me everytime.

22. He said live and breathe your ‘brand’ aka your blog. Do your tweets etc build your ‘brand’? But don’t worry, ‘tweets happen’. That’s funny.

23. Problogger says that a small group of raving fans can be better than a larger following.

24. Don’t focus on the readers you don’t have! Look after the ones you do have (hi ladies!)

25. Think about what you want people to say about your blog when you’re not there

26. Content is key and what people talk about. It should inform, inspire and interact.

27. Childhood 101 said ‘Ask yourself what is keeping your readers up at night?’ (for me it’s a baby, craft and laundry!) I think she meant burning questions that keep your readers up at night.

28. If you want to start working with brands or sponsorship but you don’t think you have the traffic don’t worry. If you have good content then go for it.

29. Believe in yourself and your blog.

30. Unique visitors to your blog is a good basic statistic that you should be taking note of.

31. Problogger says that sneeze pages are pages that draw your readers in and then they got lost in your blog reading and reading older posts!

32. Get off your blog more and use twitter, facebook, flickr and so on.

33. Befriend your competitors and work together not against each other. Love this one!

34. Reward your readers and those that share your blog. Love this one too. Love my readers

35. When speakers like Childhood 101 get teary. I get all choked up.

36. Nicky of Styling You has amazing skin and hair. I need to pay more attention to beauty products she uses.

37. Ask Elodie or the ‘powers that be’ to be sick and end up in hospital on any other day and not the one time you fly to Melbourne for the day.

38. I’m not good at being away from my Elodie for more than an hour or so. I missed her like crazy and can’t stop squeezing and kissing her since I got home. She looks less than impressed but missed me. Honest.

39. Thank you Virgin Australia for putting me on the earliest flight when I told you my baby was in hospital and for seating me at the front of the plane to get off quickly. For no extra cost. Thank you so much.

40. Sorry to the flight attendant on the 6am flight to Melbourne that you had to tell Liss and I to keep our voices down during the safety demonstration. Sorry about that.

41.If your readers think you’ve sold out because you make money on your blog then they are living in 2004 and this in 2011 according to Lady Melbourne. With a family of 6 to raise – I like this lady’s thinking!

42. Take a picture of the gorgeous pumpkin tempura inside out sushi roll you have for lunch at Chocolate Buddha before you stuff it all in your mouth.

43. Don’t stuff a piece of sushi in your mouth and then try to say something in front of such lovely ladies like Melissa Goodsell. You’ll only regret it later. You don’t like people talking with food in their mouth.

44. The best bit about a blogging conference is all the lovely people you get to meet in real life! It was great to meet some for the first time – hello Melissa Goodsell, Tammy, Katrina, F is for Fabric, Tarisota, Craft Revival, Violet le Beaux, Chaigyaru, Kylie, Organised Housewife and more. There were so many people there and it was great to see some familiar faces from the last bloggers conference I went to. There are so many people I didn’t get to meet. Next time.

45. My diana ferrari boots just get comfier and comfier and my wrap dress stayed wrinkle free all day.

46. It was a nice surprise to see my Westfield competition and photo up on the screen.

47. I must check out the blog, Waffleizer, about a guy who experiments by putting everything in his waffle iron.

48. 300 bloggers in a room doing the mexican wave is fun.

49. Ask Glowless to share her media kit. Media kits are important and apparently hers is really good. I don’t have one!

50. Nuffnang did an amazing job organising such a great conference. The speakers were all excellent and what they had to share was very relevant and inspiring. My brain is overflowing at the moment. Thank you Nuffnang for sending me down.

And that my friends was a snapshot of Blogopolis 2011. I’m sure that there will be more in depth blog posts around the place and I’ll share a bit more when I go back through my notes if you’re interested. Here was a good slideshow of one of the presentations! I think blogging conferences are perfect for all bloggers because you always learn something new and meet some great people in real life. The end.

Filed Under: blogs, problogger

PW’s Oatmeal Crispies for the thermomix

July 29, 2011 By corrie 9 Comments

I love Pioneer Woman aka PW and I love my thermomix. So here are my favourite cookies in the thermomix! I’m off to Melbourne for the day tomorrow for Nuffnang’s Blogopolis conference and retro daddy will be in charge of everyone from 4.45am till 11pm. It should be an ummmmm interesting day for him and I figure a container of yummy biscuits will keep everyone happy. I don’t think the twins will be this beautifully behaved all day…… they were waiting for cookies to come out of the oven.

225g butter
190g brown sugar
190g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
230g plain flour
1tsp baking soda
250g -300g rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts or choc chips (optional)

place sugars and butter into TM bowl and cream together for 1 minute on speed 3. Add in eggs and vanilla and combine for 30 seconds on speed 3. Add in flour and baking soda and combine for 15 seconds on speed 3. Add in oats and choc chips and combine for 30-40 seconds on closed lid position and interval speed. I like to tip out the mixture into a large bowl and chill for 20 minutes then roll into balls, flatten and bake for 15-20 minutes in 180 degrees oven. You can also freeze the dough by dividing the mixture in half, roll each half into a log, wrap in gladwrap or baking paper and twist the ends. Just slice while frozen and bake for a little longer. I love it when I find some cookie dough in the freezer that I had forgotten about!

You can also find the recipe in Pioneer Woman’s fabulous book! I love the book so much!

Filed Under: baking, pioneer woman, recipe, thermomix

Quilts for Queensland day!

July 28, 2011 By corrie 12 Comments

OK well hasn’t this post been long overdue! Righto! So ~~a few weeks~~ month ago I opened all parcels and sorted them. It was quite a job. We now have a grand total of 8 boxes. Woohoo. How can I say thank you! 3 boxes are of completed quilts and 5 are of blocks and quilt tops. Uh oh. That is one big job. And did I mention that quilts and blocks came from as far as Portugal, Spokane (thank you to a lovely group of quilters there who sent me a big box), Singapore, Europe, England, New Zealand and every state of Australia. Talk about coming from far and wide.

So shortly I will be sending completed quilts up to two lovely ladies in Queensland who have contacts to distribute the quilts in flood affected areas. The remaining 5 boxes will come with me to a quilting day I am going to run in Sydney on Sunday 21st August. The first priority of the day will be to assemble quilt tops. It will be all hands on deck and this is a job suitable for beginner sewers too so don’t be scared of coming because you don’t quilt. If you can sew a straight line then we need you. Did I mention it’s 5 boxes!

So we’ll devote the morning to laying out the blocks and making quilt tops. I have decided to make the kids quilts and a few of the bright and colourful quilts backed with polar fleece or flannelette backs and tie them so we can get as many finished as possible.That will be our afternoon job as well as quilting smaller quilts on machines using batting. If you have polar fleece, minky, flannelette, quilt batting, backing fabrics lying around please bring them with you. We need them.

all images from our flickr group here

I have loads of extension cords and power boards so if you have a machine bring it. Don’t sew? We still need some people to sort the blocks to make quilt tops, pin together and tie with cotton thread. It’s going to be a fun day and think of how many lovely ladies you are going to meet! If you’re interested in the quilting day email me for full address and details. If you are in Sydney or nearby and can help with quilting but can’t make it drop me a line as I have quite a lot of quilt tops we won’t get through on the day.

When: 9am – 5pm Sunday 21st August
Where: North Balgowlah (plenty of free parking)
What to bring: plate of food to share, sewing machine, sewing supplies, suitable backing fabrics

If you’ve wondered what happened to Quilts for Queensland I hope this answered your questions but if you have a question just ask! It’s been one big job but I hope the end of our quilting day will see most of our work done.

Filed Under: quilting, quilts for queensland

love notes for a knitter

July 27, 2011 By corrie 15 Comments

Retro daddy is working away from home at the moment. It’s tough for the little ones because he flies out early monday morning and comes home late friday night. Every week. And we are really missing him. But it was nice to find an envelope in my letterbox this morning- awwwww he printed out a pattern I’d wanted and posted it down to me.

Like a knitter’s little love note. And I bought the pattern here because I know you’ll ask. So thanks retro daddy. I got about 3 hours sleep last night so this really made my day and was a lovely surprise.

Filed Under: knitting, ravelry

luscious low fat brownies

July 25, 2011 By corrie 11 Comments

OK, so once upon a time there was this really healthy young lady and she used to make carob brownies, chocolate tofu mousse and eat quinoa with apple juice for breakfast each day. And she’d been at the gym when the doors opened at 6am. In the middle of a cold english winter. Yes folks, that would be me. Before children. Before marriage. Those were obviously my healthier (and skinnier) days.

So I’m no stranger to low fat recipes and I found this recipe for date and apple brownies. But surely they couldn’t taste good with no butter or chocolate and hardly any sugar in there. But I was wrong. They are really moist and delicious. Perfect if you are on a low sugar or low fat diet or health kick. And since I’m back at the gym I don’t feel too guilty about eating these brownies.

80g pecans

250g pitted dates

2 green apples – peeled, cored and quartered

80g water

120g self raising flour

50g cocoa

120g milk

1tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

45g raw/brown/castor sugar

If you have a thermomix then you want to place your pecans and 70g dates in your TM bowl and pulse on turbo 3 times. Set aside. Place the rest of the dates and the apples into the bowl, cover with 80g water and cook 7 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1. Puree for 10 seconds on speed 8 and then leave to cool a little while. Now add flour, cocoa, milk, vanilla, eggs and sugar to TM bowl and process for 25 seconds on speed 7. **Pour into a lined square cake/lamington tin, top with date and nut mixture and bake 20-25 minutes. When a knife comes out clean it’s done! Leave to cool in tin 5 minutes then lift out by paper and cool on cooling rack. Slice and enjoy. You won’t be disappointed.

before the oven!

No thermomix. No problem. Chop 70g dates and pecans roughly or as fine as you want for the brownie topping. Place remaining dates and apples in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil them simmer for about 10 minutes until the dates are soft and falling apart. Leave to cool slightly then puree this mixture. To the date mixture add your sugar and stir to combine. Then add in your eggs, milk and vanilla and combine. Sift in flour and cocoa and stir until it is all combined. Scrape down bowl well. You can do this brownie in your mixer, food processor or with a wooden spoon. Follow instructions above from **.

Filed Under: baking, recipe, thermomix

Travis

July 24, 2011 By corrie 15 Comments

What happened to Travis? I was on youtube listening to a song (as you do) and thought you know who I haven’t heard in ages and loved. Travis

I was 24 and going through a few boyfriends when I loved Travis. I love how a song just takes you back as if you are right there in the moment. I love that! Ok, just one more song.

Tell me did you love Travis? Oh I did!

Filed Under: youtube

kitchen renovations for dummies

July 23, 2011 By corrie 50 Comments

Well the last few days we’ve been coming to terms with the $33,000 (oh plus gst) quote to to create one big space out the back for our new kitchen. I loved the builder when he came out to the house and said ballpark $20,000 then came back with a much bigger quote. Yikes. That doesn’t include the kitchen or cost of installing….just removing walls, levelling ceilings, putting in beams and other preparation jobs. We’ve never renovated before so this really is renovation for dummies here. We have no idea how much these things cost. But I’m wondering should I have married a builder or an accountant? Not sure about that yet.

Thankfully I know exacty what I do want because I’ve been living in ‘1970’s brown kitchen land’ for almost 3 years. I can’t find any redeeming features of my current kitchen from the cork tiling and smelly cupboards to the carpet panels on the breakfast bar – um, no I’m not joking. And since a cat has come to live here the carpet has become her scratching post. Eventhough she has a scratching post.

So this is my kitchen inspiration that I will be giving the kitchen guy this week. It will work in our new space and is totally my style. I really love the glass cupboards up the top too! Out of reach for me to stuff things up there. There are quite a few things that I need like a double door fridge, handles and knobs with a more antique feel, antique tapware, an island big enough to seat 6, an appliance cupboard for my microwave and toaster and caesarstone benchtops in ‘snow’. What do you think? I just love the perfect symmetry of the back wall. It just works so well. Retro daddy likes it but unfortunately has his heart set on timber countertops for a more country look but I’m the boss – oops I mean cook – so I’m saying caesarstone! So feel free to tell me your kitchen renovation experience or dreams.

Images from here

Filed Under: dream on, homes, kitchen, renovations

Little Apples Giveaway

July 21, 2011 By corrie 166 Comments

Oh look! It’s nearly the end of July and I haven’t announced my June giveaway winner. Why is my life so crazy busy! Why am I so crap at drawing giveaways. Ok. Focus. Priorities. The winner of the June giveaway was a toughie – so many worthwhile entries. I settled on Pamela and her touching entry – she will be making a quilt for her new friend Leanne who is a young person living in a nursing home. Can’t wait to see what you make Pamela.

And what about July’s giveaway you say? How about a Little Apples Layer Cake! I love this range. It is so much fun. Haven’t had a chance to quilt with it yet. Haven’t had a chance to quilt fullstop. But what I love about layer cakes is turn it over and it has diagrams of all the different combo’s you can make. Love it. Would love some time to use the Layer Cakes I have in my stash but I’ll get there. One day.

So all you need to do is just make sure you’re a follower of my blog or start following now and leave a comment to enter and I’ll draw it early August. Promise. No, really. I do. And everyone can enter, where ever you live in the world.

Filed Under: giveaway

my jaffa muffins

July 21, 2011 By corrie 7 Comments

Operation ‘no chocolate’ hasn’t been going too well here. Monday – I cracked open a block of milk chocolate, it was so good and my fellow sweet tooths – Keira and Tillie – helped me out. Now it’s Thursday and I’m making muffins with choc chips. But these only have a little bit of chocolate so you can get your chocolate hit without going overboard. I bought a couple of cookbooks last week but I didn’t have half the ingredients for the choc orange muffins so winged it. And they were delicious. Super moist, not too sweet but when you eat them hot you get teeny tiny pockets of chocolate. Enough to keep me happy.

jaffa muffins
250g self raising flour
55g brown sugar
juice and rind of 1 orange
125g butter
50g creme fraiche/cream cheese
2 eggs
75g choc chips

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Place strips of orange zest into your TM bowl and process for 10 seconds on speed 9. Add in butter and sugar and cream on speed 5 for 30 seconds. Add in eggs and combine 10 seconds on speed 5. Then add in juice and flour and combine speed 6 for 15 seconds. Add in choc chips and creme fraiche and process on speed 3 for 15 seconds. Bake in paper cases for 20 minutes until lightly golden on top.

If you don’t have a thermomix grate the rind and then juice the orange. Cream butter, sugar and rind together until light and creamy. Add in eggs and gently combine. Add in juice and creme fraiche and gently stir before adding in the sifted flour and lastly the choc chips. Be careful not to overmix when you combine it all together then divide into paper cases and bake for 20 minutes until golden on top.

The house smells like orange, we had a yummy morning tea and these were so tempting out of the oven that the twinnies little hands couldn’t wait .

Filed Under: baking, recipe, thermomix

and more things I haven’t told you lately

July 20, 2011 By corrie 12 Comments

Well, I always have fun sharing total random things with you that don’t make it onto the blog:

– I need to lose 2 kilos that I’ve gained recently
– It seems odd then that I bought 3 chocolate cookbooks on monday at the mall
– I’m blaming those choc chip cookies with 250g butter in each batch
– I rejoined the gym after a 3 month break because I was having major zumba withdrawal symptoms
– I did try jazzercise but I didn’t get to shake my booty enough
– the kids are happy because they love the creche at the gym
– they actually cried and screamed after rejoining when they realised they weren’t going that day
– I generally iron uniforms and pack the school bag just before midnight each night
– I’ve decided to grow my hair out a little
– I cut a good 5 inches of keira’s hair off
– I love it short with a big navy bow on the side for school
– I am the canteen bookkeeper at school to do my bit
– Keira would prefer I was on canteen so she could have free lunch
– she is allowed sushi on a friday from the canteen
– I’m only allowed to watch real housewives of NJ when retro daddy is away
– I still love my thermomix
– I’m working on more low fat recipes so my jeans aren’t as snug
– keira has not stopped asking me for a furreal dog called Cookie.
– my frown lines seem to be getting worse this year. I’ve been looking at Restalyne
– I’m not kidding but I’m too chicken and it’s expensive
– I watched Joy Luck Club on Foxtel and cried and cried
– the twins love this. You might want to leave the room.
– there are days when 4 is enough for me
– Elodie is still the easiest baby in the world to please so long as you keep the food comin’
– I’ve had the builder in already to do the quote for our new kitchen.
– It’s going to require the removal of 4 walls, 2 of which are load bearing and removal of an ensuite
– I’ve told retro daddy to keep working. Hard.
– when retro daddy is away my secret to bed time is piling all of them into my bed
– two at the bottom, three at the top
– the key is not to let myself fall asleep
– Elodie sleeps next to me every night and I love it
– retro daddy doesn’t like it. I don’t know why because surely it is a natural contraceptive!

And that is what has been going down here!

Filed Under: everything else

my bitty bump is too bitty

July 19, 2011 By corrie 9 Comments

Oh dear, I decided to knit this pattern called bitty bump as it was a quick knit that was supposed to take me 3 hours. I had visions of a blog post bragging about me finishing something in 3 hours and my super cute elodie modelling it. WRONG. Oh so wrong. It’s taken me almost a week, still isn’t finished and is like a tight shrug on my dear little elodie. Delicate little flower that she is.

So I will be finishing this and wrapping it up for a newborn who is still little. Unlike my elodie. The pattern is Bitty Bump and I bought the ebook as I just love that you can make baby garments from super chunky yarn like Malabrigo and the like in no time at all. I used Bendigo Mystique. Thankfully the bitty bump pattern goes up to a size 4 and I might just have to try that size and hope it fits one of my girls.

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, knitting, ravelry

apple + maple syrup flapjacks

July 18, 2011 By corrie 9 Comments

I hoped to share this recipe with you all this morning but school is back and that meant I had 50 million things to do. I do love baking things to go in keira’s lunchbox but lately my one cup cookies have been coming home uneaten. So I went through a couple of cookbooks and found an old faithful book called Great Healthy Food for Vegetarian Kids which I picked up for $5 a few years ago. The recipe is for apple flapjacks but you see I’ve never had flapjacks before so I wasn’t sure whether the consistency was right – these are cakey, moist and super yummy. I also think they’re pretty good for you. And you could make them lower in fat and vegan just by swapping the butter for something like Nuttelex Lite which is a vegan/dairy free margerine. I say this because I did have the low fat vegan margerine in the fridge but went the whole hog with the butter.

120g butter

3 Tbsps maple syrup

150g brown sugar

280g rolled oats
30g pumpkin kernels/sunflower seeds

1 small apple grated (leave the skin on to make them more nutritious)

pinch of salt

In your TM bowl place butter (cubed), maple syrup and brown sugar. Heat for 2 minutes at 90 degrees and speed 2. Pour in remaining ingredients and on closed lid setting combine for 15 seconds on interval speed. Alternatively, if you don’t have a thermomix then melt butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan and stir until combined and melted. Remove from heat and add in remaining ingredients and mix well. Tip into lined square/lamington tin and bake for about 25-30 minutes in a 180 degree oven until it feels set on top. Mine took close to 40 minutes but my oven is slooooow. Leave to cool for 5 or so minutes in the tin then lift out by paper and leave to cool on rack. Cut them into bars/squares. Enjoy.

The original recipe called for golden syrup but I just use maple syrup in everything now because golden syrup can be such a PITA when it gets stuck in the bottle so I gave up on it and much prefer maple syrup. And guess what happened – I made these and keira loved them at home but doesn’t want them in her lunchbox because of the green things. So back to my books………..

Filed Under: baking, recipe, thermomix

cheesey pizza scrolls

July 17, 2011 By corrie 8 Comments

I’m feeling a little ordinary today. Don’t feel too sorry for me though because I had a great night out minus the rest of the family at a gorgeous friend’s birthday party. And I overindulged in everything and am paying the price today. Retro daddy came downstairs and said did you know you haven’t taken your make up off. Yes. I do. Thankyouverymuch. But it’s not a good day to be feeling ordinary because school is back tomorrow so there are things to organise and that library book we still can’t find. Honestly, that’s the reason I stopped going to the local library because I’d spend forever hunting down library books.

Anyway, I really felt like something hot for lunch and had wanted to make these for keira’s school lunch. I know you will love this recipe and have put directions for the thermomix and without a thermomix. The recipe comes from A Taste of Vegetarian for the thermomix and is called Cheese Scone Pizza Scrolls. I’ve tweaked it and think it sounds so better as cheesey pizza scrolls. But just do yourself a favour and don’t leave out the tomato paste like I did.

Cheesey pizza scrolls

120g cheese (I use vintage light cheddar)

120g cream cheese

280g bakers/strong flour

1 tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarb

pinch salt

200g natural yoghurt

filling

handful fresh herbs (I used basil, mint and parsley)

2 cloves garlic

1 tomato

50g pitted olives

50g tomato paste

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Place cheddar in TM bowl and grate for 10 seconds on speed 8 and then leave aside for later. Place cream cheese into bowl and mix for 5 seconds speed 5. Add in flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt and mix for 5seconds on speed 7. Add in yoghurt and with dial on closed lid position, 30 seconds on interval speed to knead.

Tip out onto a well floured baking mat or baking paper. It’s really important that you have it floured because it’s super sticky and I didn’t flour up my baking paper so take my advice. Now dust your fingers with flour too and press your dough out into a rectangle. This is a scone dough and is sticky so don’t stretch it just press out.

Now make your filling by chopping your herbs and garlic for 5 seconds on speed 5. Add in the tomato and olives and chop for another 5-10 seconds on speed 5. I liked mine kind of chunky but you could have it fine if you wanted just by chopping it for longer. Now if your mixture is watery and mine was then drain it out. I didn’t. You want to do this.

**Now spread the tomato paste over your dough. Um I forgot this step so you want to do this. Now sprinkle half of your grated cheese over the top, then your mixture and then you want to roll up into a long roll. Cut into pieces and place in a greased baking tin and have the scrolls touching each other. Sprinkle with the rest of your cheese and bake for about 25 -30 minutes until cheese is melted and started to look golden on top. Now once I realised that my filling was too watery and I left out the tomato paste I moved the scrolls to another tin which is why they are looking a little um rectangular. And then I spread with tomato paste and put extra cheese on. So they were extra cheesey and extra delicious. You would never know I’d made a couple of serious boo boos.

OK so you don’t have a thermomix. Sorry. You want to grate your cheese. In a bowl or mixer combine your yoghurt and cream cheese then your dry ingredients. Combine then knead gently until it comes together. Tip out onto floured surface and press out into rectangle. Make your filling in your food processor or by hand by chopping your garlic and herbs and then adding tomatoes and olives. Make it as chunky or as fine as you like. Drain any extra liquid now before you follow instructions above from **. Enjoy.

Anyway, give these scrolls a go. They are so good and I’ll definitely be making them on a regular basis! Keira and I had two each and we must save some for daddy who is in the office today!

Filed Under: baking, dinners, recipe, thermomix