Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: mum23 on February 07, 2010, 11:45:41 am
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Hi to all,
I hosted a demo last week, and made the plunge to order my "thermy" on Friday, but haven't done so "officially yet because i am yet to do a bank deposit to pay. In the mean time all week end i am second guessing myself whether or not i will use this fantastic machine! I have stalked thermomix on google and been over this forum heaps, and still yet to find a bad word about Thermy but i still can't help but be nervous! My main concern is I am very weight conscious and try to avoid carbs in my eating, and so i am wondering will it be any use to me? I do have 3 kids so i am hoping i can use it to their benefit if not my own, but i am also very nervous about the use of "thermy" as he can be quite intimidating.
I do hope someone can tell me i won't regret my decision!
Cheers!
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Mum23, I think we all had 2nd. thoughts. However we all plunged in and I don't see any one regretting it. I cant see your diet being an issue, because if you look carefully at the post of the longer time members, you will notice that most convert their fav. recipes.
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Mum23 you will love it ;) not sure about the carb issue but with three children you will more than get your money worth ;D
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Hi mum23 - don't worry it's called "buyers remorse" ;D ;D ;D We've probably all had it - but it'll be quickly and magically erased when you get your machine and start using it and you will wonder how you ever managed without it :)
Just with like any cooking - you can use/substitute low-fat ingredients, but I imagine you will find it easy to convert your own favorite low carb recipes once you get confidence with the machine too. I think it's good to be nervous about the cost, it shows that you have put a lot of thought into your purchase and that when you get it you will be determined to use it well to justify the outlay. Don't worry about the machine being intimidating, you will soon get used to it and the kids will too - my DD (9) and DS (6) get in there to help and have a go, no probs.
Enjoy your machine when you get it and let us know how you go ;D
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Mum23 it is a very daunting thing to do in spending that sort of money. Before I bought mine I was quite sure we had a healthy diet without too many preservatives. Now I realise that we were getting them in so much food that I now make. I even make my own bread as it is so much fun, and we love it. You may go through a time after you purchase your TMX thinking OMG what have I done, but keep using it and it will pass. One very sensible piece of advice I was given was to use it as much as possible in the first few weeks. You feel you must because of the cost. It is truly worth it. I think everyone on the forum is still learning new things that they can do with the machine, even if they have had it for over 12 months.
Your children will probably love helping you make things, and if they are older you may well find them making things for themselves. You will never have to stir another sauce, custard or risotto. I can even make successful pastry now!
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Hi mum23, no-one on this forum is going to tell you not to buy a TMX - we all love our machines too much :D :D The things you can make for your children alone are worth having the machine for and as alioop said, you will soon work out how to convert your own special dietary needs. You can always ask for advice here, put up your favourite recipe eg and someone will have a go at converting it for you I am sure. Once you have done one, you could probably work out the rest for yourself but remember we love questions on this forum. Go on, take the plunge and join the rest of us. Believe us all, you will not regret it.
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Thanks everyone for all the positive reassurance!!
I guess it's all normal what i am feeling and it's good to know others were the same.
Everyone seems very helpful on this forum and i guess that is reassurance on its own that we have a place to come if we have some troubles.
I am trying to learn as much as i can before my thermy arrives, but i think it maybe one of those "learn as you go" things!
I have been thinking about taking on the role as a consultant but have just realised i really think i should get to know "thermy" really well before introducing him to new people.
Anyway thanks heaps and look forward to meeting more of you!
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Am I too late to say - Go for it! You won't regret it! As for being a consultant - I did just that - got my Thermie and starting doing demo's. This forum was such a great help to start of with. When you first start, you're showing it to family and friends so they don't really care when you say - Wow! didn't realise it did that!! LOL :D
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DON'T DO IT ;D ;D ;D ;D Only joking - you won't regret it.
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Well I took the plunge and did the payment today! So no turning back! I did have a good think about the consultant thing and have changed my mind for the moment. Maybe when i get really confident and have things sorted out enough at home, then i will have another think about it!
I am off to scour for info! thanks again to everyone!
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Hi Mum 23
I am a low carber and have had my thermie since december and it has made my low carb lifestyle HEAPS easier!
I would suggest you buy the gluten free, wheat free book as that has lots of low carb recipes and will help you learn how to convert your existing recipies.
the thing I love about thermie is that she (yes I refer to my machine as a person!) can mill just about anything into a flour, I use a lot of chickpea flour, but instead of spending a fortune in healthfood stores (7.00 per bag!) I just buy dry chickpeas from the supermarket and mill them myself!.
Thermie helped me lots with my healthy lifestyle as she enables me to make just about anything from scratch, rather than the chemical laden, prepacked crud from the supermarket. For example I make my own butter, flours (from beans etc), sauces, curry pastes, dips, icecream and sorbets (sugar free!), soups (as oppsed to canned!), coconut milk and cream and many more things I previously would have bought in a packet.
So buy the thermie, don't feel guilty as I believe they pay for themselves in the end. Just be prepared to experiment and have fun, and if you have any issues just ask the fantastic people on this forum!
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THanks bartonics!
Man i am getting overwhelmed at some of the cooking people do! I am far from adventrous, I hope i still find Thermy helpful!
I have referred to my machine (when it comes) as a "he" and named him Thermy also!
I am glad to find others that do low carb also, so i will be able to share/swap info ect.
Can't wait to start expermenting, but i probably will have to wait about 2 weeks for him to arrive :-[
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Yes my Thermie took about 2 weeks, longest 2 weeks of my life!!!!
My poor consultant got sick of me calling her I am sure!
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I would suggest you buy the gluten free, wheat free book as that has lots of low carb recipes and will help you learn how to convert your existing recipies.
Thermie helped me lots with my healthy lifestyle as she enables me to make just about anything from scratch, rather than the chemical laden, prepacked crud from the supermarket. For example I make my own butter, flours (from beans etc), sauces, curry pastes, dips, icecream and sorbets (sugar free!), soups (as oppsed to canned!), coconut milk and cream and many more things I previously would have bought in a packet.
Hi Bartonics, did you find the wheatfree cookbook recipes are tasty? I find the EDC very disappointing...too high in sugar and fats and very ordinary...
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You'll find that you can reduce the sugar in most everything in the EDC by at least half if not more. I often make sorbets with no sugar, depending on the fruit. The amount of fat can often be fiddled with too. Faffa (and others I'm sure) uses apple puree to replace butter sometimes.
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I'll just add, dont feel like you have to cook in it all day every day, remember you will have your Thermomix for life!! Mine has only been used this week for cooking rice as Ive been making sushi for my lunches
Dont feel daunted by what some of the amazing people on this forum cook, you can do that if you want but you dont have to, either way you will love your machine and you know its always there for you for when you do want to get adventurous
In the meantime just enjoy the sorbets, rissottos, soups, sauces and get to love your machine first!
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Hi there!
I have lost 14 kilos since last July! Slow gradual weight loss all thanks to my Themie! 2 words sum it up! Healthy & fun!You won't regret it! We promise! ;) ;) ;)
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Thanks Baf, I think you are so right! Maybe just concentrate on the basics before i think i have to get carried away with the big stuff. I have also made a mistake reading about peoples cooking problems and that has put me into a little panic mode but i know i will just have to sit tight and experiment like everyone else did!
Congrats Bron on your weight loss! I too have lost weight (11kg) since last July. I actually lost mine in roughly 3 mths, but i am pleased with myself that i have managed to keep it off. (thats the hard part!) Despite people telling me how great i look now, i would still like to drop another 5 or 6 kg and bust through the plateau then i would be really happy. But if i stay where i am and not gain, i will be happy also. I dropped my weight doing the body trim system which is reducing or dropping the carbs in the diet. So i guess that's why i am a little concerned about "using" my Thermy. My consultant has reassured me she will help me work it out to suit what I eat. (salad, salad and MORE salad) oh and MEAT!
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Yes starting out slow is good advice. When I bought mine a year ago I started just making main meals. I was so pleased when I had 5 or 6 main meal recipes that I really liked to make and making dinner with toddlers at my feet was so much easier.
I have put on at least 5kgs since I picked up my thermie (we don't have scales thankfully). Puddings and desserts are my weakness!! I have started walking each day before my boys wake up (yawn) and have cut out puddings (sniff sniff). Thankfully the weight is starting to shed and I will hopefully be back to normal by winter. :)
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Chelsea, i don't want to hear about weight gains! ;D That is my main concern. I am sure there is lots to make but not too many yummy things when i am trying to LOSE weight. Oh well will save the yummy recipes for once week only! Hopefully Thermy will be here this time next week! :)
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Mum23 it is easy to gain weight with a TMX, that can't be denied. I lost 30kg about 2 or 3 years ago and I have not gained it back. I have had the TMX for 14 months. I put on 1 kg at Christmas and am still battling to lose that, but I will. Just don't pig out on things. I taste them and then let everyone else eat them. DH has lost 10kg since last October . I think the best thing about the TMX is no preservatives. We now find if we eat certain prreservatives we get all itchy. :-\
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Hey Thanks Cookie, that is a great achievement to lose that amount of weight, but the biggest achievment is keeping it off(twice as hard with a thx!) Yes that is a good idea, a small taste can't hurt, DH trying to lose weight at the moment so i shouldn't be letting him pig out like i normally would!
I have checked over the dessert recipes and my mouth just drools. Can't wait til he gets here! (Thermy)
I have noticed there are a few low carbers so hopefully when i get cooking i will be able to meet and swap ideas with them.
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i think it will be great if we could have a low carb section!!
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You won't regret it I can assure you. My wife says it's like having kids: First of all comes the "should we, shouldn't we?" (can we do it/afford it etc.go to a demo) stage, then comes "OK, let's go for it" (the fun bit ;D) closely (hopefully) followed by "Oh £$%^, we did it" :-[ (little blue line appears/TMX ordered, did we do the right thing). Now comes the anticipation, lots of reading, waiting for the new arrival until finally the great day arrives :-* (oh the pain of seeing ones bank balance sadly depleted :o). Early days - getting to know this new "person" in your life, the loud noises (TMX can make a LOT of noise) and cleaning up the mess (TMX can make a LOT of mess, if you forget to use the nappy [sorry, MC!]). After a further period of feeding it lots of different things comes increasing confidence, exploring new things and ideas together and the great pleasure of seeing all your efforts rewarded by smiles around the dinner table. What a great life!! ;D ENJOY.
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What a fantastic analogy and oh so very true. Well done Rogizoja.
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Chelsea, i don't want to hear about weight gains! ;D That is my main concern. I am sure there is lots to make but not too many yummy things when i am trying to LOSE weight. Oh well will save the yummy recipes for once week only! Hopefully Thermy will be here this time next week! :)
LOL!!! It really does depend on what you cook and having a TMX can certainly help you loose weight if you cook the right things. For desserts I would stick to icecreams made from frozen yogurt cubes and frozen fruit chunks and sorbets with the sugar content cut right down. For mains there are lot's of healthy recipes right here on the forum and I also find Jo's Quirky Cooking blog very helpful when sourcing healthy recipes.
Just remember that there are lot's of ways to measure good health and your TMX can be beneficial in many ways. We have been 95% preservative free for almost a year (making almost everything from scratch in Thermie) and in that time we have seen huge changes in our health - particularly in our kids. Our eldest son has struggled with splitting nails, dry brittle hair, eczema and asthma since we united with him in Ethiopia a couple of years ago. Now his nails are strong and his hair is healthy and shiny (without changing shampoos ;)). His eczema and asthma are now nonexistent. Our eldest son hasn't had a single illness all year (not even a little cold) and our youngest son has had one sniffle that lasted two days and an upset tummy that lasted for one morning. Perhaps some of these changes are coincidental, but I'm sure our kids are benefitting hugely from having a chemical free diet. I had better hop off my soapbox now ;).
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Thanks Rogizoja your analogy is hilarious :D I hope my Thermy doesn't carry on like my kids do sometimes! They can give me alot of grief some days i do hope Thermy is a little more well behaved!
Chelsea that's great your kids are doing so well with the changes to their diet. I don't think that i will be able to get that good (with no additives) in the diet, i am a little slack when it comes to such discipline and go for convenience and unfortunatley give in to whatever brings peace and harmony. I would like to start by not having to buy the kids "snacks" from the supermarket and do more home baking, which i can do wo a thmx but i am hoping that thmx gives me the motivation to do it more. My kids are extremely fussy and one of them is a junk food addict. I struggle for him to have fruit as a snack instead of "biscuits" in the end for the peace he gets his own way. He is also terrible at dinner time and very rarely will eat what i give him, hence he has nothing or a sandwhich and then has to watch his brother have icecream for dessert!
Yes i would like to improve my parenting skills :-[
Anyway still waiting desperately for thermy to arrive, i really shouldn't be on this forum cos it's driving me nuts not being able to do anything yet! I am hosting a bodyshop party on Sat morning and would love to be able to "whip" something up in Thermy to show off to the girls (they all came to my demo), but i will probably be having to use the old beaters. (hopefully for the last time!)
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I'm sure your parenting is just fine :). Don't beat yourself up about it. If you're not happy with things I would consider just changing one little thing at a time (like swapping some bought bickies for homemade ones etc) and then you and the kids won't get too overwhelmed.
We are all do things in our own way and I guess just have to find what works for us. I sometimes think I am super mean when I read the way other Mum's do things on the forum here. An example is that I only ever cook one thing for dinner and it is a "take it or leave it" policy, but they go to bed hungry if they choose to leave it (and possibly expect to see it reheated for lunch the next day so that it is not wasted). Some people would think that is terrible (a result of me spending too much time in Ethiopia where food is precious I'm sure), but it works for us. :)
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Hi Chelsea, yes i agree everyone is different. I tried that approach last week, one option only or nothing and of course had nothing! My aunty suggested i try offering a jam sandwhich if he doesn't want the dinner i cook, it worked on one her kids when they were little, so i gave that ago and of course he chose the sandwhich!
I guess it is such a big thing to change to after so many years of shopping/cooking and eating like we do, so baby steps will be the way to go and maybe introduce new things slowly. I figure if they are going to eat bad stuff, it's better of home made isn't it??
Wow Ethiopia would of been some life experience!! CAn i ask how long you were there and what for? Don't mean to be nosy, and only aswer if you want to tell me.
Cheers
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No it is fine. Our eldest son is Ethiopian born so we are an Oziopian family and ET is our second home. We have had two trips over so far and our next is planned for when I return to work and our youngest son settles a little (he is a VERY busy toddler). Our first trip we did before we were allocated our son and we worked our way around Northern ET and then returned to Addis and spent some time with some sick little tots in a HIV orphanage (one of the most humbling and beautiful experiences of my life). Our second trip we did when we united with our son and this was a longer stay in a guest house with an Ethiopian family. It was very important that we bonded with our son in ET with all of the familiar sounds, tastes and smells around so we bunked down together there. Oh this makes me homesick for Ethiopia again! :'( :)
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Wow Chelsea, that's really amazing. I sometimes think how boring my life is so i love hearing about other peoples lives ect. Please don't mistake me for being intruding just love to hear other peoples experiences!
Your experience sounds wonderful! :)
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Even though I knew your story Chelsea, I loved reading about it again myself. I'm sure you will get back there again real soon.
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As Chelsea said - you have to start somewhere! Look at it like this, at least you are trying! ( there are heaps of people out there who aren't!!) You will have the thermomix to help you and any change you make will make a difference ;D Positive thinking a small steps can make all the difference mum23 :-*
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Hi everyone, i have had a busy week and haven't had a chance to visit the forum but just wanted to let everyone know he HAS ARRIVED!!! Thermy came yesterday and we bonded beautifully. I think he might of been a bit tired and weary by the end of the night because he didn't get much rest once he hit my kitchen bench!
Has only had a little start today but i have been busy hosting a body shop party which of course i could show of Thermy's skills with some of my refreshments I had made .
Can't wait to keep going and do more, DH rekons the grocery bill is going to be more not less! HOpe i can prove him wrong!
I think it is love at first sight. Sure hope it's not lust! a bit too expensive for lust!
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Mum23, read on another topic the things you cooked during your delivery demo yesterday. That was great, all I got the chance to do was to make a sorbet - how boring compared to what you did. If I had realised way back then that I could have cooked a whole meal, I would have done so but it was a wham, bam, thankyou maam sort of delivery. How confident you are sounding already - I read your first posting in this thread again, are you that same person :o :o :o It may cost you a little more each week when you first start as you will be buying things like flour in bulk and heaps of other things but it will even out in the long run like mine did. I didn't believe the demonstrator when she told us our grocery bill would be cheaper as there are so many things I make now that I would never have made before TMX but on the other hand there are other things that I now never or rarely buy eg ice-cream, bread, custards, biscuits, cakes, dips to name a few. Lovely to hear your initial doubts are now replaced with full-on enthusiasm and confidence.
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Mum23 it is lovely to read about the new addition to the family. If is is 'lust' I am sure it will be a very long running lust. I've had my machine 14 months now and am still doing new things in it. Things I would never have tried earlier on.
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Good to hear the new arrival has settled in well and getting a good workout. ;)
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Hi everyone,
As i speak thermy is in action working on a vegie stock for me. He has already done an ice-cream which is in the freezer waiting for second round. Hope it works! I am also ready to do a salad dressing, mayo, some peanut butter, some cookies, and might even try the chilli con carne for dinner!
I have a recipe to tell everyone about that i made yesterday but unsure where to tell it? do i just post in the appropriate category?
Oh better go Thermy is "singing" out to me.
Happy cooking everyone!
ps, Judydawn, I promised my dh last night grocery bill "won't" increase! ;D
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Just post the recipe where you think it fits best and if somebody doesn't like where it is then they will tell the moderators to move it !!
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Oh Oh, another addicted TMX owner - there goes your social life mum23, too busy in the kitchen to go anywhere except the shops to buy more food to cook :-)) :-)) You are going great guns, looking forward to your first recipe on the forum. Hope DH is won over too with all the lovely food you are serving.
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So glad to hear you are enjoying your new addition Mum23!!! Aren't they just amazing!!! ;D
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yes amazing! just amazing and i am sure my friends are all sick of hearing about "thermy".
Well i have been off doing all my cooking and atm i have the ice cream still in the freezer waiting for it to harden but not freeze ?? I hope it works, i am scared of failure ;D
I am not on bit scared of the machine just a little scared of my recipes not working therefore wasting ingredients.
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If you feel as if you have had a failure mum23, just let us know what it is that you have made and someone will tell you what to do with it to turn it into a success. eg Bron turns all her sweet failures into ice-cream and most savoury into soup. It has happened on the forum where things have been tossed into the bin and someone has told them what they could have done to avoid the waste. I wish I knew all that when I first started as I had a few things go in the bin.
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thanks judydawn. My consultant has rung me whilst waiting for my icecream to set (for the first time) and i have moved it to the deep freeze. THis forum is so helpful it's not funny! Not to mention having a great consultant!
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Yes we certainly all have our failures JD. I had two big failures today - one that could be saved and one that definitely couldn't. Thank heavens for one pot spag bol and Belgium lemon teacake. By dinner time I had had enough of trying to convert recipes and turned to some favourite forum recipes and tweakings. :)