Saving Money with the Thermomix

Making the Thermomix work for you and your wallet

                                       

Enjoyment is the key!

The most common question I am asked is exactly how I got the Thermomix to take money off my grocery bill! I am a ‘hunt for the cheapest groceries’ kind of gal, choosing fewer options to save…and yet the Thermomix saves us 25-$30 each week! How?

1. Focus on the greatest need the Thermomix is meeting. Is it speed? Then choose the simplest meals and enjoy the freshness of the food and the simple preparation. Let yourself get the time back while having fun!

Is it meeting specific dietary needs? Then find meals that rejuvenate your eating. Thermomix allows you to use whole foods more easily. Buying whole grains means cheaper, bulk buying without your food going rancid. If it is creativity, allow yourself to re-energise with the incredible creativeness you can now enjoy! The sky is the limit.

2. Once you have started to gain some fun and time back in the kitchen – focus on the big ticket items in your food expenditure. Is it take-away? Look at the recipe community and try at least 3 times some yummy recipes that take less than a ½ hour to prepare. You will develop the habit and expand your repertoire quickly. Is it a staple in your grocery bill? Ours was yoghurt, and it only took four times for it to become routine and even something our children can make. Now we get to enjoy much healthier yoghurt for 1/5^th of the price! If it is special grains and milks – you will soon love the fresh taste of your produce, and the savings start to add up quickly. Almond meal costs me $7/kilo now! Let me know if you need help finding bulk suppliers.

3. Let the little things start stacking up. Make your own vegetable stock concentrate instead of chucking the wilting veggies,  easily make Jam out of the in-season fruit from your neighbor or market. Make coconut milk and cream instead of buying it. So easy! 

4. You can have your cake and eat the sorbet too! Sorbet is one of our biggest money savers. Ice, seasonal fruit and an egg white, 2 minutes later a $7 container of sorbet is made for less than $1.50. Instead of buying naughty’s, we enjoy custards and easy ice-creams.

5. Do yourself out of a job. It is FUN to use the Thermomix and my children love preparing the spreads or treats that save money. A little bit of chopping for them and they can make your Tuesday night dinner for you.

6. Use your consultant’s resources. Come along to a cooking class, or book another demo. This was what helped my confidence soar. My consultant picked up on the easy things that I could be cooking to save us money.

7. Plan! Use the meal plans from the Thermomix App, or ThermoNerd's or Quirky Cooking’s menu plans .

8. Enjoy cutting down on waste and energy costs. 

Well, now I have owned a thermomix for a couple of years and started to experience what a long lasting and quality tool it is, I need to do a little Thermomaths with you so that you do not put yourself under pressure that it should pay for itself in a few months but appreciate what a good money investment it is.

Cost per week over a twenty year life span - $1.80 (should last longer but being conservative)

Just making two items each week that regularly replace grocery items (e.g. for us, yoghurt and a sorbet treat, taking ingredients into account) - $8.00 saved per week.

That's more than four times the cost. At that super conservative rate, it's paid for itself in just under 5 years, and will therefore bring more than $6000 in savings in it's remaining life. 

Now realistically - only replacing two items per week is on a rushed week. For us, it's at least 6 or 7 items. For some it's take away. The average Aussie family, if they replace one take away meal a week and some prepackaged food is apparently $40 (from a survey).  That means, an 'average Aussie family' will pay for their thermomix in grocery savings in one year, and over the next 19 years will save $39, 000 in groceries/minimum takeaway. That's a good chunk of money to invest in something better than food that doesn't help your body.

However, how do you put a price tag on improving your family's health and taking away all the additives? Not just a bonus, it's the most important factor. So enjoy your investment, and I hope all my tips above help you to get it working for you even better!

Baked Chocolate Cheesecake - oh yes!

What is that smell from Chocolate? It instantly tingles my senses and starts the salivation. And for me, a lover of baked cheesecakes there couldn't be a happier union than chocolate and baked cheesecake. The twist though, is that this recipe was made brilliantly easy by the thermomix. Not just the mixing - but the fiddly bain-marie step was replaced by using the Varoma. 

Ever since the very foodie Brooke from WholeFoodieKitchen told me that she made 2 chocolate chestnut cheesecakes to compare baking and steaming, (guess which one won?) I have been itching to try. I already tried a hybrid of Nigella's baked chocolate cheesecake with the toblerone cheesecake, and did the bain marie - and my husband's verdict is that this steamed version topped the charts. 

We love bittersweet, dark chocolate. So if you know you're a Cadbury Dairy Milk kinda kid, then I would use toblerone chocolate or 1/2 milk, 1/2 dark chocolate plus some extra sugar in this recipe.

If you are going to have all the bad stuff....do it in fabulous style. Here's my tweaked and twisted recipe:

Base:

60g toasted and rubbed hazelnuts (or toasted almonds)

1 tsp cocoa if you like DARK

200g packet of chocolate biscuits (we used the additive free Arnott's chocolate ripple)

80g cubed butter (I cubed it very small)

(you could try some orange zest and a dash of nutmeg and cardamom for a spicy christmas twist - blitz first on speed 9 for 20 seconds)

Place nuts in TM bowl +/- cocoa and mix for 3 seconds speed 8. (I like texture in my base)

Add the biscuits, breaking in half as you add to the bowl. Put in locked lid position and pulse x 3. Check the mix - if there are still some big biscuit chunks, pulse 2-3 x more.

Add the butter and mix on REVERSE speed 6 for around 8 seconds (until you hear the sound change). It should be starting to clump together.

Press it into your spring form tin and pop it in the freezer while you get to work on your cheesecake.

I used a 20cm spring form tin, greased, and the base covered in foil.

Cheesecake:

150g caster sugar

1tsp cocoa

1tsp instant coffee

200g dark chocolate broken into small pieces + some extra for garnish

2x Phillie cheese packets (500g cream cheese)

2 eggs plus 3 egg yolks (though I wonder if 2 eggs plus 2 yolks would be enough)

100g sour cream (use thickened cream if you don't like bittersweet)

or you could do 80g sour cream and 20g Contreau or Frangelico

1 x 20cm spring form tin, lightly greased. I put foil around the base, but next time I will try without.

Blitz the sugar, cocoa and coffee for 5 seconds speed 9.

Add the chocolate and blitz for 8 seconds speed 9, then cook for 2 minutes, 70 degrees speed 3. Use your spatula to ensure the mix at the top is incorporating. It should look like fudge is forming.

Add 1 of your Phillie cheese packets and set for 1 1/2 minutes, 50 degrees speed 4. 

While it is whizzing, start chopping up your other packet of cream cheese with your spatula and begin adding it to the TM in the last 50 seconds. Turn it up to speed 5-6 occasionally if it isn't mixing through.

When done, push the mix away from the blades a little (like making a well) and add your eggs and yolks and sour cream. Mix for 20 seconds, varying the speed between 3-6 to incorporate everything.

Pour it into your prepared tin. I then sprayed a piece of alfoil, and made a dome shape covering over the top of the cheesecake, so that the steam wouldn't drip onto the mix.

Put 1.3L of hot water into your Thermie and set on the base. Lock in your lid and put the varoma in place. Put some aerators over the holes so that the spring form tin doesn't cover them - pencils, chopsticks, etc. I used little chinese dipping bowls. Put in your cake and put the varoma lid on. Then set to 55 minutes, varoma temperature, speed 2.

Time to check your cheesecake! It should have a slight wobble but be fairly formed looking, (not swampy soft in the middle). If need be, cook another 10 minutes, varoma speed 2, but check your water levels.

Let it sit in your fridge for several hours or until the biscuit crumb is pulling back from the edge of the spring form. I garnished with a chocolate peelings. Serve with orange and cream me thinks!