Tragedy averted

Meesh with her new Machine was able to give me her old food processor.  It's heaps bigger than mine, and can cope well with CADA.  Dates do get stuck under the blade, but it's all good once cleared.

Tragedy

My one-trick food processor just became a no-trick food processor.
Thanks to the "D" in CADA.
But I must remain strong.
I will just have to exist in a life without finely-chopped breakfast, onions or beetroot salad.

A challenge

I challenge my Machine owner friends to replicate and tell me how long it took and how many dishes they had at the end.

The meal is: Cous cous with bacon, mushroom, baby spinach, onion and random herbs and veggies (frozen peas in my case).

It took me just over half an hour to: chop onion & sautee in small frypan; chop mushroom and bacon and lightly fry off (while the onion went into a separate dish); make cous cous up in small saucepan; tip onion, bacon, mushroom and herbs and spinach into large saucepan; add cous cous and peas; take off heat and allow the peas to heat through; add a dollop of that lite cooking cream.

For dishes, I can now look forward to spending another 10 minutes washing: a couple of dishes for raw & cooked ingredients; small oily frypan; small saucepan with cous cous stuck on the bottom; large saucepan with cous cous stuck on the bottom; two wooden spoons, a knife and a chopping board; a spoon for the cream and the serving dish.

Now don’t get me wrong – I am just a little bit impressed that I managed to come up with this meal on a lazy Sunday night, after remembering that I haven’t been shopping this week at all.

Time savings

I wonder how much less time it would have taken, obviously following some kind of similar recipe in The Machine’s cookbook.

Money savings

Unlikely to be much given that most of these ingredients were “leftovers” in my fridge or cupboard from other meals.

Post-script

Yummo, if I do say so myself.

Spring babies!

So this is a post from inside the circle of The Machine. I am not outside the window, looking in jealously or attempting to copy its mastery over food. I am inside, a partner, a member of the team - and today's position was Assistant Stork in a delivery.

S and her 3yo let me join them on a road-trip an hour north with a precious package for dear friends M & R. The weather was divine and the trip peppered with happy conversation. When we got there, M & R were constructing another toy for their eldest baby who turned ten today. [Fancy that? Baby 1 and Baby 6 (counting the cat) arriving on the same date!] They had been struggling a bit with the instructions so it wasn't hard for them to drop tools and unwrap a more complex, yet very uncomplicated appliance!

Isn't she gorgeous? (And M is pretty cute too.)

The plan was for S to train M using a basic recipe for lunch. Basic. Using each of the functions of The Machine.

We had a warm Moroccan chicken salad, starting first with a dip made from garlic, Parmesan, capsicum, cashews, olive oil and vinegar. Half of that dip was stored for later, and the other half was softened and pureed into a salad dressing with more olive oil and lemon juice. Chicken, pumpkin and cous cous were then steamed. The entire salad was tossed together with baby spinach, cranberries, dried apricots and chickpeas. [Gals - please let me know if I have missed or added anything!]

The little ones in the house weren't so keen on the salad, as it was a very adult flavour. Even one of the adults was testing the flavours through a second serve, just to see what it was he liked and what he loved. The kiddies were won over by the chocolate custard which followed - you know the kind that is piped into profiteroles? Phenomenal.

"Do you like it, J?"
"Yes."
"What does it taste like?"
"Chocolate. And custard."
"Great."

Time savings:

Do I care? No.

Money savings:

Huh?

Post-Script:

Baby 5 tried to get a taste of the custard but since she hadn't proven in the last week to be anywhere near as useful as Baby 6 had been in one hour, she was pushed away. (This was not how she landed.)

[This is the first time I have publicly identified The Machine. It's no secret, but I didn't want to come across as an official supporter or critic. This is all just a bit of fun.]

Juice schmuice

I'm at home, sooky-lala, and in desperate need of vitamin C. So I bought a few oranges, hoping to try my food processor out at juice.

A juicer was the only implement I couldn't find at the back of my cupboard, so I guess I don't actually own one. I peeled 2 oranges, with my thumb (yes it's still orange coloured), put the segments in the machine and processed.

What I ended up being able to drink, or eat, was pulp.

I am feeling sulky and sorry for myself and grumpy with my food processor.

I know The Machine would have given me orange sorbet where the texture was unequalled and the flavour just perky.

And then there were the dishes.

Sigh.

C A D A

I couldn't remember what the letters stood for, but S sent me home one day with a serve of leftover breakfast she has been making for herself in The Machine. It was so yummy, and had the same texture as thick muesli, but had no actual grain in it.

I wandered around the supermarket the next night...

A... pretty sure she mentioned Almonds, and green Apple.

D... definitely Dates, because I'd teased her about which nationality they were.

C... I had nothing. Next to the packets of dates and almonds however was a packet of Cranberries. Ooh - Cranberries for antioxidants. Good for women's health too apparently. Must be it.

I had to guess proportions at 1 cup dates, 1 cup almonds, 1 apple and just less than a cup of Cranberries. Turned out just lovely. The Cranberries cut through the supersicklysweetness of the dates.

My one-trick food processor roughly chops the almonds, apple and cranberries reasonably well, but I actually have to stand there with kitchen scissors and chop up the dates.

I've been having it with milk (just a bit), though many have it with yoghurt.

Oh - and the C - it's actually Coconut (yech).

Money savings:

Sorry I really haven't worked this one out!! (S might have to help me here.) But I am sure it's cheaper (and way healthier) than my other "traffic light" breakfast of choice, which is evil on so many levels.

Time savings:

Being a much better "traffic light" breakfast than wet cereal, or evilness, it saves me heaps of time on a rushed morning.

Preparation takes about 10 minutes for four serves (though I know The Machine would do it much quicker).

Post-script:

It is very very yummy and very very good for your tummy (and other parts).

Another one falls

...or rises...

My friend JB now has The Machine. It's on her kitchen bench, unwrapped, awaiting her demonstrator tuition. The dips we eat tonight are store-bought, but maybe next time...