Monday 31 March 2014

Farm Lunch

 Old McDonald's Farm came to visit Kindy last week. I was planning on sending a special lunch for Miss M, but she's had a bit of a sore throat and having had a choking incident recently she's really gone off her food. Thankfully I've been able to pull out a few bento tricks and she's been eating. Not as much as usual, but enough.
We spoke briefly about Charlotte's Web, but it's been so long since I heard the story I couldn't remember much. I don't think she made the connection between the farm visit and the spider & web rings on top of her 'wriggles' aka 2 minute noodles.

 A pretty flower pick in some nice soft watermelon. Easy to chew & swallow.
FunBites Cube-It jam sandwiches ('because you can't choke on jam' I'm told) with an assortment of farm-ish picks.
 I wasn't sure how she'd go with the shared fruit for morning tea, so I made her banana contribution stand out from the crowd.  

Have you entered our competition to win a Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker yet? 
Just in time for Mother's Day. . . I'm just saying. . . 
Details in this previous post

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Purple Cow

 Have you ever seen a purple cow? I heard the Gelett Burgess poem when I was a kid and it's stuck with me ever since.
I wrote it out on a card for Miss M's lunch so she knew why exactly her Lunch Punch cow was purple, although I don't think she really minds what colour her lunch is at the moment :-)

And there's her Sinchies yoghurt in the back too
 I put the crusts from this sandwich underneath as a field for our cow and the box always comes home empty. I'm not sure if they get tossed or eaten, but either way at least she has the option. A few details with a FooDoodler, and she's complete.
Snacks for the day were grapes, crackers and cheese with Pepperoni from Walkerston Country Meats. Also included was a popper (juice box). Do you like the limited edition purple box too?
 I love this little cutter. Here's a 'same but different' lunch I threw together one night after a rough day. I love having a formula for lunch. It makes those 'I don't feel like it' nights so much easier :-)

Have you entered our competition to win a Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker yet? 
Just in time for Mother's Day. . . I'm just saying. . . 
Details in this previous post

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Sunday 30 March 2014

Uno Duo Tres Quatro Multi Cooker and a Giveaway



If you've been following along on Instagram you will have noticed my experiments with our new Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker. The best thing is that you have the chance to win one too!

Over the last few days I've given you a run down on the individual functions. Steaming, Slow Cooking & Saute and Rice Cooking. Today I'm going to share a recipe that combines all four functions!

This is the recipe that inspired me.

This was my first attempt, which was a little heavy on the rice, so here's a modified version.

Cook 2 cups of rice using the Rice Cooker function. 
This time I left it plain, but you could quite easily cook in stock and add a little Mexican Chilli powder to taste.

While your rice is cooking, finely chop 2 celery stalks, 1 large onion, and 2 cloves of garlic

Oh, and roughly chop a handful of mushrooms too.

Grab the rest of your ingredients from the pantry. This time I used smaller tins of beans, hoping it would reduce the overall volume of the dish. I forgot to grab a small tin of corn though :-/

Drain & rinse your beans

Rice is done!
Remove it from the cooker.

In a little oil, Sauté your onion and celery until golden 

While your base veges are cooking, dice 1Kg of chicken thigh meat. This actually produced a little too much chicken mixture. I'm sure 500g would work just as well.

You can also top & tail 2 cups of beans and load them into the steam basket.

Remove your cooked veges from the Multi Cooker and brown your chicken in batches. You may need to add a little more oil before the first batch. 

While your chicken browns feel free to pour your 2 jars of salsa (I use one mild and one medium) into your base vegetable mix

Nice & golden. Add this to your base vege mix

Add your corn to the chicken & base vege mix. . . 

Then realise you were supposed to put it in with your beans. *sigh*

Once all your chicken is browned you can add your mushrooms to the mix too. Switch unit to standby while you do a little mixing.

Stir it all to combine well (you can see I didn't get all the corn out). To recap this mix should contain sautéed onion and celery, browned chicken, two jars of salsa and mushroom.

In the bowl of your multi cooker add half the rice and your bean/corn mix. Stir well to combine

Your cooked rice can be frozen in a zip lock bag, or stored covered in the fridge for use with tomorrow night's dinner.

Pour your chicken mixture on top of the rice, leaving enough room for the steamer basket to go on top

I made a little too much chicken mix

Problem solved. I zapped for a few minutes in the microwave to ensure the chicken was cooked then added it to a wrap with lettuce and sour cream for lunch. Yum!

Back to the recipe - top with grated cheese. You may have to press down your mixture if you want to . . .

pop the steamer basket on top

Cover, flick the switch to 'slow cook' and enjoy the rest of your day, knowing that your dinner is now taking care of itself :-)

6 hours later. . . 

The green beans were *very* lightly steamed. I think if you preferred softer greens you'd be better off using frozen rather than fresh. I like my greens to have some crunch so these were perfect for me.

Ahh - nice and golden.

Cooked all the way through

And served. . .

. . . with greens and sour cream

Voila!

So what do I think of the Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker as a multi function cooker?
Loving:
  • Multi function, one bowl cooking = less washing up- yay! 
  • Set & forget cooking is brilliant, especially when you are easily distracted. Nothing like burnt rice to ruin your morning
  • Everything there is to love about each of the individual functions
  • Easy clean bowl - even after my recipe reading fail it wiped clean with very little effort
  • Steam while you cook! Multi-tasking at it's best!
  • Perfect size unit for our family
  • Glass (dishwasher safe) lid so you can see how your goodies are going
Loving a little less, but liveable
  • It can be a little tricky to remove the steamer basket when the unit is on the go. Some handles or a special place to hook handles into would be nice.
  • There have been times when I've cooked something in the slow cooker (like Quick Slow Curry) and then wanted to cook rice to serve with it. I realise you can simply empty the pot & cook your rice, or be thoughtful enough to cook your rice first, but I'm lazy like that. It's good to know you can purchase spare parts and a second bowl will set you back $30 (+ P&H). Or you could be organised and use that frozen rice or the leftovers from today's dish.
  • The temperature control knob can only be used with the Sauté function. Some recipes I've found ask for the slow/rice cooker or steamer to be set to low or high. 
  • I'd love to be able to manually engage the 'keep warm' function
Overall
I love my Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker and can see it getting quite a workout for years to come. It hasn't left my bench since it arrived and I think it's going to stay there for some time. Love love love it and highly recommend it if you are looking for a unit that can handle multiple tasks for you in the kitchen.

Now for the fun part! Thanks to the lovely people at Kambrook, you can win a Quatro Multi Cooker too! Simply follow the prompts on the Rafflecopter widget below to be in with a chance to win!
  • As per Terms & Conditions entrants must be subscribed to Kambrook Australia's Facebook page, and at least one of Loving Lunches' social media or email updates. It is highly recommended that the email address you enter the giveaway with matches the email address/ID you follow with, otherwise your entry can be difficult to verify.
  • Full Terms & Conditions can be found here

Note - only open to Australian Residents aged 18 years & over (excluding NSW)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches and Kambrook Australia who generously provided a sample and the prize/s for this competition. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Rice is Nice


That's what they say! Sorry, I can't cook rice without starting to sing :-)

I've been sharing with you some of my experiments with our new Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker. Yesterday I shared about the slow cooking function and Friday about the steaming function. Today, it's about the rice cooking function. 

I don't tend to cook with rice being the focus of a dish. It's usually more of an accompaniment. Having said that I do enjoy making sushi, but don't do it very often as I can never get the rice 'just right'. Well, guess what's about to change?



Sushi rice and water

Some julienned carrots in the steamer basket too.

My cheat - honey soy chicken kebabs make perfect portion controlled fillings.

And some more veges - mini capsicums and avocado.

Looking lovely

And done!

Now for the fun part!

I am rather pedestrian when it comes to my fillings

and I never do manage to get everything in the middle

But I still think they look yum

And they taste good. . . 

. . . and that's all that counts :-)

You'll have to tune in on Friday for my first ever risotto experience. Let's just say I'm a convert!

Let's also say I need to learn to read the *whole* recipe

I did think there was quite a bit of milk for the amount of rice in the rice pudding recipe provided with the unit. I'm kind of glad I didn't actually put it all in.

And then I realised why - the recipe was for the slow cook function, not the rice cook function - oops!

But you know what? I think I can re-jig it to work next time.

It did do a pretty fine job for a fail I think :-)

So, what do I think about the Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker as a rice cooker?

Loving:

  • 'Set and forget' cooking is brilliant. Especially with two little ones I do tend to get distracted and knowing that my rice isn't going to burn is one less thing to worry about. 
  • Automatic 'keep warm' function - great for the nights we have staggered dinners or if hubby is running late home from work. Even if the rice is going to be sitting in the warmer for a while, a few extra drops of water to keep it from drying out too much & Bob's your uncle!
  • Dishwasher safe lid
  • You can steam while you cook!
Loving a little less, but liveable:
  • There is a 2 cup raw rice recommendation for the unit. Sometimes it would be nice to just do one cup
  • You can't manually engage the 'keep warm' function
  • Only the lid is dishwasher safe, but we don't have a dishwasher so that's not really an issue for us
Overall:
I've never had a rice cooker because quite frankly we don't eat that much of it. I think that might all be changing soon! I can even see me bulk cooking rice and freezing it to serve as a side for slow cooked meals (like the Quick Slow Curry). And now I know I can do a rice pudding in about 15 minutes - dangerous territory! 

Don't forget to check back later today for details on how you could win a Kambrook Quatro Multi Cooker for yourself (just in time for Mother's Day!)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.
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