Quinoa Balls

After a very hot spring day, all I felt like was some salad, so I cooked some Quinoa and mixed with some roasted eggplant, onion, tomato and finished with some baby spinach and feta. Simple but very yummy....but of course, I always cook too much Quinoa. So today, whilst I was waiting for a new window to be installed, I set about finding a way to use it up and this what I came up with.

1 cup oats
1 cup cooked Quinoa
1/4 cup coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cranberries
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put all ingredients in TMX bowl and mix
Speed 6 / Approx 10 sec or until combined

2. Roll into balls and store in the fridge

Crackers

I can't believe I have been buying expensive not so healthy crackers when these are so easy to make. After my girls sat down to eating a plate of these with some hommus, I later caught them stealing a few more from the baking tray...so I'm guessing they like them!!

70 g warm water 

70 g olive oil
250 g wholemeal Bakers Flour

10g Chia seeds

10g Linseeds
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, remove sticks
1 tsp sea salt 

Preheat oven to 180ºC 

Place water and oil into TMX bowl and warm 

80ºC/ Speed 1 / 1 min

Add remaining ingredients and blend

10 secs / Speed 7

Tip into a bowl and scrunch into a ball to form a soft dough

Wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Divide into thirds and roll out each ball of dough as thinly as possible. Side onto a flat baking tray.      
Use a pizza cutter to score the dough

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until crisp.

Turn off oven and break into crackers into pieces. Return to oven to completely dry out.

Icing Ideas

With all the birthday cakes that have been made here recently, I thought I would devote a post to purely icing ideas. Here are some of the ones I have tried recently and a couple of others which sound yummy!

Icing used was the Creamy Vanilla Frosting

Cashew Nut Cream

1 cup of raw cashew nuts 

1/2 cup of water
little vanilla

Add all ingredients to TMX bowl
2 mins  Sp 9 (or until smoothish)

Berry Cashew Cream

1/4 cup raspberries (thawed, but any berry would work)

1/2 cup cashews (If you have time soak for an hour first and then rinse before using)
2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp coconut milk

2 tbsp maple syrup

 Add all ingredients to TMX bowl
2 mins / Sp 9  (or until smoothish)

Creamy Vanilla Frosting 

From Steph Berg’s Blog http://www.stephberg.com/?p=2888

35g Plain Flour

200g whole milk

150g sugar

200g unsalted butter

35g natural vanilla extract

Place flour and milk into TMX bowl and blend

5 secs / Sp 6

Cook for 15min / 80deg / Speed 4

Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, pushing plastic down onto surface of mixture.

Cool completely

In clean TMX bowl add sugar and pulverise

15 secs / Sp 9

Add butter and chop
5-10 secs / Sp 7

Insert Butterfly and aerate butter and sugar

1-2 mins / Sp 3 with MC off to allow air in bowl

Scrape down sides of bowl when necessary.

Add Vanilla and beat

6 secs / Sp 4

Add cooked milk mixture and continue to beat
2-3 minutes /Sp 3 until very smooth and white.

Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes (No longer and no less). Use immediately

Tip: As Mim discovered...make sure the milk mixture is completely cool before adding to the butter mixture.

Coco Cheese Icing
Recipe stolen from Karen....this one is so yummy and particularly good if you need white icing.

250g cream cheese
120g chilled coconut cream (not light)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp lime zest
1 tsp vanilla essence or paste

Add all ingredients to TMX bowl and mix to combine

Approx 30sec / Sp 6

Chocolate Ganache

As per the Everyday Cookbook (not so healthy but very yummy!)

100g Dark chocolate, broken into pieces

80g Cream

Place chocolate in TMX bowl and grate

30sec / Sp 8

Add Cream and cook

2 mins / 50degreesC / Sp 5

Chocolate Icing

This came from "The Healthy Chef" website

1/4 cup honey

2 ripe avocadoes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup good quality dark cocoa powder

Add honey first then add all other ingredients and blend

30 sec / Sp 6 until smooth and creamy
Spoon into a bowl and allow to set in the fridge.

Tip: The addition of banana or a little water makes for a lighter mousse.

Quirky Cooking's Gooey Chocolate Icing 

Grind cashews for 10 secs / Sp 9, until fine

100g raw cashews

Add remaining ingredients and mix at speed 6 for 30 seconds, scrape down, add a little more water if needed, and mix another 30 seconds until smooth:

- 3 fresh pitted dates

- 20g raw cacao powder

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 20g pure maple syrup

- 20g filtered water

Natural Food Colouring
If you are looking for Natural Food Colouring, I ordered them from Allergy Train - http://www.allergytrain.com.au/Store/tabid/62/CategoryID/9/List/1/Level/1/catpageindex/3/Default.aspx