Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and relaxing break.  I've been making delicious almond milk from time to time but never do anything with the left over almond meal.  It sits in my fridge with the best intentions but I always throw it out!  Does anyone have some interesting uses for this?  Should I somehow dry it out if I'm using in place of regular almond meal in cakes for example?  Has most of the nutrition gone into the milk? 

And another question - can almond milk be frozen?  I'm trying to make smaller quantities because it doesn't seem to last more than 3 days in the fridge, I don't drink a lot of milk but I like to have it on hand because it tastes so much nicer than cows milk.

Thought you might be interested in this segment on the food industry chemical flavours.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389748n
Is that scary to you?
I feel blessed that if I want a citrus flavour I'll just eat an orange rather than buy a chemical laden flavoured drink.

I've just discovered how easy it is to make your own coconut cream & milk in the TMX.  Saw this in a Charmaine Solomon curry cookbook.

1 cup desiccated coconut (80g)
300gms hot water

Blitz on speed 10 for 30 seconds.  Strain through muslin cloth, squeeze as much liquid out as you can.

Then repeat - put the strained coconut back in  add 300gms hot water, blitz again for 30 seconds and strain through fine cloth.

The first batch will separate & develop a thick creamy layer, and the second batch is thin and milky.  Charmaine says both would normally be mixed together, unless you're wanting a thick cream specifically. 

600mls for $1 using organic coconut 

You'll need 20 roma tomatoes (approx 2kg) and a few sprigs of fresh herbs plus oil & seasoning.  

Halve tomatoes lengthways and place on 2 cake racks over trays to catch drips.
Drizzle over some olive oil, sprinkle with fresh oregano &/ thyme.
Season with salt & pepper and lightly sprinkle some powdered sugar (that's the TMX part)
Place in very low oven 120^oC and forget about it for 6+ hours depending how dry you like it.  Perhaps check after 4 hours.

2.1kg of fresh tomatoes became 470g of semi-dried tomatoes after around 6 hours.

Then I keep in jars in the fridge in olive oil with a couple of crushed garlic cloves, 20 tomatoes made 3 jars in oil.

Can anyone help me with a recipe for ordinary multigrain sandwich bread like from the bakery. That one can make sandwiches with.  I keep wasting ingredients and it's frustrating.  The bread is kind of edible but only good for eating chunky pieces can't make a vegemite sandwich.   I can do nice baguettes & pizzas, but we still buy normal loaves.  The texture is wrong, flops in middle, undercooked even though sounds hollow when tapped, tried the 5 seed loaf tonight and when cutting it falls apart and is too moist even cooked 10 mins longer.  I see there are plenty of bread roll recipes that are apparently easy, how can these convert to a medium loaf tin, maybe add 50% of time?  Am I expecting too much, is homemade bread just so different and thin sandwich slices are not possible?   And want some grains, not plain white bread.
Please help     It doesn't seem like it should be this hard. 

Does anyone make their own natural hair wax/mud/gel type product or have any styling tips to avoid the use of commercial products which are making my scalp itchy. Doesn't have to defy gravity, just add some sleekness and hold style.

For optimal health the salad should be the main dish and eaten first.  I lost around 5 kilos over a few months by loosely following Dr Joel Fuhrman's Eat To Live principals - that is eating mostly salads, vegetable & bean soups & stews, plenty of fruit & nuts & seeds.  I say loosely because my family would start a mutiny if I ONLY fed them this 'healthy crap' for dinners.  

So basically: breakfasts (oatmeal, fruit, smoothies), workday lunches (big salad & vegetable/bean soup), no wine (whine), and normal dinners (still with plenty of vegetables) really so simple and normal and no 'you can't mix that food with this food or buy this $35 superfood ingredient blah blah blah'.  That's my version, but the book Eat To Live is great and worth a read, borrow from the library and see what you think.  It's great because it's all health based, not diet based if that makes sense.  It's about abundance and choosing foods with the highest nutrition not about starving yourself or strict rules.  

But getting back to the point of my post: here's a good list of no-oil salad dressings on the Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog to try with the TMX.  No one should complain about same boring salads as there are so many to choose from.  There's plenty of good fats in there from nuts, seeds & avocados, just not alot of oil which is great if you're trying to shift a few stubborn kilos, and if you don't care hey go crazy with the olive oil!  

Not really a recipe and maybe you do this already:

2 frozen banana in pieces, 2 tsp homemade milo, high speed for 10 seconds, scrape down, blitz again 10 seconds on 10 sp, and viola banana icecream that the kids actually liked. 

From Choosing Raw blog http://www.choosingraw.com/recipes/desserts/banana-soft-serve/ and one of the main reasons I wanted a TMX - for heathy yummy food.   A quick after dinner treat