1 Week A Vegan

Much to the dismay of my wife and mother, I made the decision on Monday to live like a vegan, well the diet of a vegan. You won't find me holding up a bloodied lamb in protest of Australia's sheep sheering industry. Don't get me wrong, I am all for animal rights, but the point of my decision to cut out animal products was purely a health based decision, sorry Lamb Chop, all those years as a kid I wasn't that entertained. I was just trying to work out the best way to cook a lamb puppet.

From when I woke up on Monday morning I just decided it. There was no precedent other than two food full Easter weekends, the joys of marrying into an Orthodox family. I just woke up and said it to myself initially, then to my wife when I got to work. The reply text was "lol", and plenty more of those followed throughout the day, along with some "Are you serious?" and "It isn't going to last! rofl" and "come on, stop it already". It turns out it was all very funny and she even went to the extent of discussing it and laughing along with her sister. Could it really be that hard to believe that someone like me could be a vegan? I was even referred to by my wife (with a smile on her face) as the fattest vegan alive! Well, that may be the case, but it is definitely worth the try... I am close to suggesting that I am currently dying of starvation while writing this, but that would be unfair to those that actually are dying of starvation. So instead I will try and put it another way... GIVE ME A F***ING STEAK ASAP!!!

So I have been a vegan for a week and I have to say, it was a struggle. For someone that is a big fan of all things meat, this thing has been killing me, but I think I have turned a corner. Scaled the first hurdle. Bitten off more than I can chew? Probably... it's only been a week, though I truly do think I am over that initial holy shit everything has animal in it! phase. It turns out not everything has animal in it, like carbs... well most carbs. See it turns out, without even noticing, I was eating animal when making home made pasta, because of the eggs. Stupid, tasty, no good, readily available, bastard, in everything, eggs! I have a friend who is allergic to eggs, poor guy. I now know how he feels. 

On Day 1 I just thought, hey let's have pasta with pesto tonight... as long as it is semolina pasta, not fresh. What? You serious? Man, so we had the packet pasta with a jar version of pesto which I quite like by our good friends at Barilla.
I forgot that most pesto has parmesan in it, shit! Day 1 fail.

Day 2 saw me throwing carrot, zucchini, onion and mushroom in a pan and stir frying them while whipping up some steamed rice in the Thermomix. I could have done it all in the Thermomix now that I think about it, but alas, I didn't. While I was stir frying my veggies my wife had me make her my famous omelette, so rude. Not only has she refused to cook for me this week but also made me cook something that I was not able to eat. Unbelievable! Anyway, the stir fry was a success and tasted quite good. The recipe for the Thermomix is for 500 grams of rice so it actually covered a few of my meals.

Day 3 was much the same with all that rice that I made which made the worry of now what do I eat? a non issue. Day 4 on the other hand didn't work out so well. The day started okay, foraging around the house for something to nibble on, but then my brought home some Arabic pizzas for dinner. I ate the curried mushroom one which was OK for Vegans, I think? But then I was still hungry, so I ate the vegetarian pizza too. It had cheese on it. So I officially failed at being a vegan on day 4.

Day 5 started well, made some pasta with a red sauce but even though I managed to refrain from adding parmesan to it, for dinner I caved and we ordered pizza from our local pizza shop. So day 5 really blew out any chance of considering this a vegan week, and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask for a vegetarian with no cheese. Am I right? But I think I will just have to next time if I want to make a serious attempt.

Day 6 is Saturday and football day. Carlton V Essendon, and there is my wifes left over pizza in the fridge. It has ham, and I eat a slice. Vegetarian chances this week also out the window. I think 6 days without meat is a pretty good effort. Especially if you knew how much meat I was eating. Went to mums to chill, had a burger from Grill'd. Saturday is not a good day to be a vegan.

Day 7, today, is an interesting day. Trying to keep myself busy around the house and on the computer to keep my mind off the meat. I look at my dogs and the cat and wonder how they would taste. They can't taste that bad surely. Take it easy, I'm not a feral, I wouldn't just cook them and eat them. I would probably serve them with a side of fries, or a salad.

Don't you all go worrying about my mental state now, I am not some crazed vegan that's going to go around telling the world. I don't want to be the butt of that joke, How do you know if there is a vegan at a bbq? Don't worry they'll tell you.
I will be using the vegan diet as an everyday lifestyle choice and where absolutely necessary I will eat animal stuff, ie when my Mum has us over for dinner, reviewing a restaurant (unless it is a vegan restaurant). So don't fear, my blog will still be full of amazing mouth watering reviews about meat and other such non vegan anomalies. Although this week is well and truly a vegan and vegetarian fail, I think I had a pretty good go at it and will be moving forward to seriously take this challenge on.

In saying all of this, if you vegans/vegetarians would like to see a review on a particular vegan/vegetarian restaurant or you can suggest any good places for me to try out, I would love to hear the names of the places. Just leave them in the comments section below. Until then, wish me luck on this long journey that I have (stupidly or not) thrown myself into.

In the words of Kirk Lazarus, Everybody knows you never go full vegan.

Single best thing about owning a Thermomix

Last night I posted a cheeky Facebook status stating that I would need to now write something with some substance since MKR wasn't on for a few nights, as I had been recently doing an episode recap on my blog. My cousin suggested that I write about the single greatest thing about being a Thermi owner. So I am going to give it a go.

We all know from my Nutella Christmas Tree review that I am a pretty big fan of the kneading function, who doesn't want that? Saves a whole lot of exercise that's for sure, and we all know how annoying exercise can be. Am I right? Looking down at my guts.

So I have taken everything that the machine does into account and tried quite thoughtfully to think of the single greatest thing about it. So here it goes.

I approach the Thermomix being a bit technology obsessive, I would be lying if the touch screen and the recipe chip weren't enough to sell it, I am a bit of a sucker like that. I would like to see it link to wireless and kick off cooking remotely via an app, but we will have to wait for the TM6 for that I suppose. Off topic already, not good. What I would say the greatest thing is the minimal effort that is required across the entire cooking process. You hear people telling you things like that's not cooking, takes all the fun out of it. Those people obviously don't own a Thermomix, and when I hear people say those things I tend to be happy they don't own one. They don't get invited to dinner either... 

You are not taking away anything from the cooking, all you are doing is condensing the cooking process to the one location. Avoiding the spread of mess throughout your kitchen.

For instance, if I am making a zuchini slice, hand grating the zucchini and the onion for 20 minutes isn't going to make it taste better than the Thermomix chopping it in 3 seconds. Not to mention the fact that you measure your ingredients straight into the thermi like some sort of wizard! Plus, you save the tips of your fingers from trauma along with the crying onion eyes (I can hear a song with the words crying onion eyes playing in my head). Granted it wont julienne for instance, but if you are wanting to julienne something for a dish, then you just julienne it, chances are it's going to be some sort of wanky plating garnish anyway. Not sure about you folks, but when my wife and I are making dinner on a week night, the last thing I give a flying follicle about is garnish or how nice and fine my carrots are cut.

So, reducing effort isn't something that stops with the cooking process, it extends to the amount of bench space required and the amount of cleaning before, during and after you cook. For most recipes, you will find that the Thermomix performs around 80 to 90 percent of the process, through preparation, cooking and cleaning. This, I feel is the best part of the device. Less mess, preparation, and cleaning means more time, and more TIME is really what this is all about at the end of the day. 

Forget what I said about effort earlier, it's all about the time. The phrase time poor is probably the most promenent phrase that comes up in the sales spiel when you go to see one of these devices in action, and it isn't just something they say to suck you in. Vorwerk have been making Thermomix for a quarter of a century now and they know who their target audience is, and they have developed a product around that very audience. 
It can be hard to eat properly when you are time poor, there is a reason that all the doctors that my wife works with own one of these, they are probably in the most time poor profession around but they understand the importance of healthy home cooked meals.

So in conclusion, I would say the time saving that you get from using the Thermomix is the single greatest thing about owning one. I think if you ask my wife she will tell you the same thing, in fact she is the one that keeps telling me these things, I am just along for the ride. The tasty tasty Thermi ride to mushroom risotto heaven.

Take a look at GC's Galaktoboureko thermomix recipe below...

Nutella Christmas Tree - Thermomix Husband Review

If anyone has any requests on Thermomix recipe reviews (a husbands perspective) let me know in the comments, would love to know what everyone is interested in reading.

After my last Thermomix post, I received a number of questions regarding the Nutella Christmas Tree, so I thought I would write a review on it specifically. Let's be clear; in this particular situation, I had nothing to do with the actual Thermomixing part, but more to do with the rolling of dough, layering of nutella and dough and some input in the shaping of the end result (although I was told I could not be trusted with this part). Link to the recipe will be at the bottom of this review for your reference.

When my wife told me that such a dessert existed, I immediately ran to the pantry and spread Nutella about an inch thick onto two slices of bread. I ate them, and while doing so was toasting two other slices of bread for further Nutella spreading to take place, I was then ready to discuss this. We sat and spoke over a cup of green tea to offset the sugar overload, it didn't work. We discussed using the 5kg jar of Nutella that I had received as a gift just recently. I fought against the idea, but was unsuccessful, apparently 5kg of Nutella is too much for one person to consume, I refused to accept but it was of no use. The Nutella was to be used.

Nutella Christmas Tree - Thermomix Recipe

It is recipes like this that the Thermomix enters a league of it's own. The ability to knead dough automatically without having to lay a hand on it is such an awesome feature, I mean seriously. It only needs to knead for a few minutes! You are kidding yourself if you think you don't need a kneading function like this. YOU SIMPLY NEED THE KNEAD!
You let the dough double in volume by leaving it in a warm spot (don't be rude! This time of year in Melbourne, outside is perfect) and then you proceed to divide it into four equally sized balls. You need to make sure these things are shaped like balls, not like a tennis ball, but like a football. Trust me, four little footballs. Roll them out into a football oval shape (you getting the theme here?). When the dough balls are shaped like a football they are easier to roll into an oval shape, if they are spherical it makes it a little more difficult. This is my way of doing it, and the best way to end up with heaps of off cuts. If you want less offcuts, you should probably watch the YouTube video I have linked at the bottom of this review. Roll them out so that they are pretty thin, but if you start to see the bench you have gone too far. If you start to see the floor you rolled it off the bench. If you see grass then you are outside getting the dough which has probably risen by now. After all the rolling and spreading of nutella and cutting of the resulting Christmas tree, you stick it in the oven for a bit and get the best damn dessert this side of the Mississippi. Break off those twisty branches and stick em' in your gob! A bit of whipped cream could be a good accompaniment, though they were most enjoyed without anything extra at all. If you do want something to add on the side, try the vanilla bean ice cream, another earth shattering recipe that holds total disregard for your cholesterol.

As mentioned in my previous Thermomix blog (an essential read for the husbands that don't really use the things too much), we made quite a few of these Christmas Tree's as they were well received by the family. They are easy to do and a joy to share.
For my Thermomix related reviews I am creating a special rating system, complicated beyond belief, just goes to show my level of commitment to the cause.

Recipe Rating: 7.25 / 10

http://www.easycookclub.com/2013/12/christmas-tree-with-nutella-filling-with-thermomix/

Thermomix TM5 (The Husband Review)

If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one - Mother Teresa

Thermomix...

Me: What are you on about?
Wife: The Thermomix! Don't tell me you haven't heard of it!
Me: Nope
Wife: It is this fantastic machine that chops, and weighs and cooks and blah blah blah...

Sensing my excitement, my wife booked me into a demonstration to check out this amazing piece of machinery, but before that I did some research as I was told this thing was going to cost us 2000 bucks! I'm glad I did the research, and glad I went along to the demo.

The Thermomix TM5 is the new generation of a product that has been around since the mid 80's. Though the company behind the product has been making appliances with similar functions for longer than that, the mid 1980's gave us the first with the Thermomix name. Enough of the history.

The wait for a Thermomix at the time we got it, which was December 2014, was 6 to 8 weeks. Talk about popular, it's not like it is coming direct from Germany, there is a warehouse in Perth. Apparently sales are through the roof at the moment and they are struggling to keep up with demand, those consultants must be pulling some serious cash. The first couple of weeks after receiving it were a bit of a non event. A reluctance to dirty a $2000 cooking appliance accompanied by lack of experience using it meant very few meals were cooked early on, but then came the Nutella Christmas Tree desserts that took Christmas by storm. The Nutella Christmas Tree is a simple dough recipe that is mixed and kneaded within minutes, all inside the Thermomix. You take it out, let it prove and then you start spreading nutella and finally shaping it all into a nutella and sweet dough layered Christmas tree. This tree was such a hit it was almost the only thing that we made in the Thermomix in the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas, but we made it about 10 times. Massive hit! 
Having perfected the art of Nutella Christmas Tree making, my wife gained the confidence she needed to start getting into some serious cooking, and now we find ourselves using the machine almost every night for multiple dishes. The beauty of it is the fact that you can prep something like a cake before dinner, get it into the oven and then get into making dinner itself. For instance, the average risotto takes around 20 minutes in the Thermomix, big deal you might say. But think about this, you don't need to do anything! Once you follow the steps getting all the ingredients in and letting them get chopped up, you let it go and it stirs and saute's the risotto for you. That's twenty minutes you get to spend reading a book or sitting down watching some television, at the same time the cake is baking in the oven.

The machine is pretty massive, but when you take into account that it needs to perform all these amazing functions then you kind of figure it makes sense, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to find somewhere on your bench to put the thing. You don't want to be lifting an 8 kilo machine in and out of a cupboard every time you want to cook, plus you will be using it every night, so no point storing it away anywhere.

When it is kneading dough it almost looks and sounds like it is going to bounce off the kitchen bench, but it doesn't which is lucky because it would probably do some serious damage to the tiles. It has some other quirks, like the lid gets locked into place for safety reasons when it about to mix or cook or do anything, if you don't put the lid on properly (which is common), it doesn't let you do anything. I hate that stupid chime it makes when something is finished cooking or it is telling you to move to the next step in the cooking process. Also, I can't imagine how I am going to be able to watch a game of footy with that racket coming from the kitchen... there may be arguments. It is a very loud machine, no one will deny that.

All that matters in the end is that it puts a smile on our faces, like a picture of a minion eating a candle or something (lets face it, they could do anything and make you smile). Nothing beats the feeling you get when you stuff your face with awesome food and share it with those you love. The Thermomix helps you do that by making the whole process of cooking more efficient and less complicated. 

My suggestion is to find yourself a Thermomix consultant and get to a demo, it will blow your mind (and your budget, once you realise you just simply MUST have one). I feel like I should say that this isn't for everyone, but it kind of is. It is just a matter of justifying the cost based on how much you plan on using it; but don't forget, it does inspire you.

If anyone at Thermomix wants to hire me for promotional work let me know ;)