It's been busy social time with my bday last wed, lots of shows (Cat power and Modest Mouse coming up), comedy festival shows, lots of dinners and lunches and hardly any pics. I'm a bad blogger sometimes. Here is a pic of the feast that my faboulous mother made for me for my birthday dinner:

2 different types of lasagnas, spicy roasted potatoes, tomato cucumber flower, hommus, chips and salad

Before my bday Kylie made me a yummy dinner and 3 vegan ice creams, yes 3! Berry, raw coconut and chocolate peanut butter. They were all creamy and yummy but the chocolate peanut butter was amazing. She has lent me her ice cream maker so once the weather gets better I will experiment. Any recommendations?

I also got veganomicon for my birthday, and it's huge. I had no idea how big it was, it has 250 recipes in it and looks a lot better than vegan with a vengeance which I was not a big fan of. Any recommendations for recipes that are in the 45 and under classification? I love the idea of the 45 minute symbol as one of the reasons I didn't like vegan with a vengeance was the recipes take longer than the 30 minutes Mr T and I used to.

Btw, fleas are now gone thanks to nasty flea bombs and lots of vacuuming.

I have lots to post about but I've had computer problems (which are resolved now thanks to Dave!) and then internet problems and now an even bigger problem: fleas!

It's kind of strange that we have now have a flea problem when we don't have a cat living here, but it happens!

Any tips for dealing with them?

Fruit Juice salads

With the weather being the hottest ever in Melbourne we have been eating lots of salads. The latest two contain fruit juice. Mr T made them both, but I chose the recipes, that has to count for something, right?

The first recipe was taken from Veggie Meal Plans. The recipe is called three bean dinner salad and I loved the fact that it asked for flax seed oil, I'm always looking for new ways to include it in meals. We only changed it a tiny bit we didn't include sweet potatoes, celery, red onion, red pepper and coriander (cilantro) because we didn't have them in our box from the food co op. Instead he added leek. He doubled the recipe because we like dishes to last more than one meal and he added about three times the normal amount of dressing. We both liked it, it was healthy, refreshing and didn't taste like flax oil. The apple juice just added a hint of sweetness and I don't think you would guess there was apple juice in it. We will certainly make it again, and try it with the suggested veggies.


The second recipe I made up and I think it was pretty good. It consisted of shredded carrot, cooked soba noodles and pan fried tofu and this orange miso sauce:

1/3 cup miso paste
2 tablespoons of Orange Juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

mix everything together and add to noodles

It may need a little tweaking but I think that miso and orange go really well together.


And because we have been eating such healthy salads, it seems only fair that we treat ourselves with these little ice cream treasures from Rishons. They are small vegan ice creams covered with chocolate and what appears to be rice bubble type bits on the outside. They certainly get our thumbs up.



Speaking of Rishon Foods, I went back to get another ice cream cake and they have sold out. Why did I open my mouth on here? Has anyone seen them any where else?

Aussie vegan white chocolate

Sweet Williams has dairy free white chocolate blocks which are about half the prize of the expensive overseas rice milk white chocolate blocks.

I'm not a big fan of sweet Williams normal chocolates, because I prefer dark chocolate to soy chocolate but I definitely give this the thumbs up. It tastes exactly as I remember white chocolate to taste, although it has been 5 years.

I found this block at Safeway in Broadmeadows of all places. I've also seen it at Preston Safeway too and yet Brunswick Coles and Safeway don't sell it yet

I noticed on their website they also sell carob chocolate but I haven't seen it anywhere.

I can eat, well soft things anyway!

Yay!!!!

Chilled cucumber soup

I can't believe it wasn't until day 5 that I thought of chilled soup.

I've never made or even tried chilled soup, so it was completely new to me. I veganised and mixed around with a few variations for chilled cucumber soup that I found online. It's not fancy but it is pretty good and really refreshing for the hot weather we have been having. Besides, it took 10 minutes to make and didn't require any cooking and I made it myself (not Mr T). If I hadn't of spend most of my money of soy ice cream I may have added in some fresh dill or mint. A lot of the recipes asked for raw garlic but I couldn't do it.

2 cucumbers, peeled and diced
1/2 cup soy milk
2 containers of plan soy yogurt (almost 2 cups)
3/4 -1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of salt
pepper to taste

Put all in blender and blend til smooth


If you have any tried and tested chilled puréed soup recipes please share! I like the look of this chilled cucumber and rocket soup recipe.

Weird Wisdom Food Combinations and Soy Ice Cream

Out of sheer frustration I have got creative with my eating and discovered that:

* mashed potato mixed with beetroot dip rocks
* mashed potato can be eaten with tomato sauce (when your partner is eating fries with tomato sauce and you can't have any)
* refried beans, smooth taco sauce, tofutti cream cheese and guacamole can all be eaten cold without bread or corn chips and it still tastes good. Thanks to Erin for reminding me that refried beans are another thing I can eat. It was also inspired from layered bean dip over at Vegan Lunch Box. This is my favourite wisdom meal because it has lots of different flavours as opposed to boring soup.
* some soups can be eaten cold and still taste ok (when it is 37 degrees outside)

Speaking of cold soups, apart from chilled cucumber soup, are there any there any chilled soups that are puréed and taste good?

The swelling is almost gone, but I have now have a green-yellow bruise on my chin which looks beautiful. The pain has gotten a lot better, but I still can't eat. I also had a dissolving stitch come out on 0ne side which seems to make me very sensitive to hot and cold foods. But there no way that is stopping me from eating ice cream. I've become a vegan ice cream expert and discovered the order of my favourite smooth soy ice creams:

1. Tofu Shop soft serve- rose water or pandan or any of them except for green tea. It doesn't matter that the boss is crazy anti vegan man. The soft serve is worth it.
   
2. Soylati-Mocha. I don't even like coffee but I love this flavour. I can only find it at piedemontes in North Fitzroy but for around $6 for organic soy ice cream it's pretty good value.
   
3. Turtle Mountain- Neapolitan. This is normally my 2nd fav ice cream but most of the flavours that I enjoy have crunchy, chewy bits.
   
4. Tofutti-Wildberry supreme. This is way too pricey a tiny container costs around $6 the same price that you pay for the soylati.
   
5. So Good: Mango coconut. I like all of the so good flavours, but the fact that you can get them everywhere means that I am a bit over them. This flavour however is new and still exciting.

Thanks for letting me whine and whine and whine. With me being trapped inside, I've gotten really bored, sick of watching dvds and eating soup, soup and more soup. Whining on here has helped!

Chickpea cutlets

If you read any veg food blog you would have come across rave reviews everywhere about these chickpea cutlets fom Veganomicon. So I decided to eat them prior to getting my wisdom teeth out to treat myself while I could still eat chewy normal food.

They were ok but the texture seems a bit weird and they only seemed to have a hint of flavour. I haven't ruled them out completely yet though, since it may have been caused by Mr T baking them rather than frying them or that he didn't knead them enough (we don't normally knead in this house) or that he used corn flake crumbs instead of regular breadcrumbs (my fault I got them) or that he made them too thick. Besides, we have a big bag of gluten flour left to use.


Speaking of Mr T and his cooking, he figured that since he now does the majority of the cooking (due to the fact that I lost my cooking mojo and he still has his) he is going to start a food blog. I'll provide the link once it is up and running. I think it's great, there are not nearly enough male food bloggers !

Day 4

Still swelling and pain, but not as bad, but more importantly:

I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes!

I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes!

I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes!

I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes! I can eat mashed potatoes!

Whiny stuff continued.

Day 2 continued

I attempted to eat mashed potato and mashed avocado and failed. I wanted to cry when I discovered that. Even babies can eat mashed potato but it hurt way too much.

Getting to sleep was really difficult because I normally sleep in my side and both sides of my face were swollen and extremely sore to touch.

Day 3

Woke up and felt exactly the same as Day 2, maybe a little worse. Or I simply forgot how bad the pain is. Mr T asked what the pain feels like and I explained that it feels like a sharp tooth ache constantly on both sides of your mouth. My jaw also feels like I have been beaten up.

I never ever take pain killers, I might take 1-2 pain killers a year and that's it. So I thought that taking these heavy duty painkillers would be super effective. No such luck. They don't seem to be doing much except making me drowsy and weak. The pain especially on my left side of my face is horrible.

Apart from soup the only foods I can eat are sweet: ice cream, jelly, soy yogurt, chocolate mousse and custard. I'm a savoury girl and desperate times call for desperate actions so I ate plain hummus out of the tub and I don't even like hummus that much.

I had to get out of the house today so walked the 5 minute walk to the local supermarket and discovered that walking hurts and that I need to walk very very slowly.

I also discovered that having a shower makes me feel like I am going to faint and that I still can't brush my teeth. Gross, huh?

I swear I am not exaggerating about any of it!

Warning: if you are not interested in whiny gross stuff don't read below.



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Day 1

I went to the hospital super early and waited and waited and waited for about 3-4 hours before they finally put me to sleep.

I woke up and coughed up lots of blood, so much so that I almost vomited.

The nurse then forced me to eat jelly, because I had to take pain killers before I left the hospital and I couldn't have them on an empty stomach. God I hoped it was vegetarian jelly. I couldn't feel any of the bottom half of my face and so I kept spilling food and water down my chin and had no idea until the nurse and my mother kept pointing it out. It is also extremely difficult to swallow tablets without any feeling in your mouth. It took forever and I almost vomited from the horrible taste of them swishing around in my mouth for so long.

I then went home and passed out.

And ate lots of ice cream. The only good point about this whole thing, and I'm not even an ice cream fan!

I then coughed up some more blood, spilled more food and water down the front of my t-shirt and face took more tablets and slept again.

And then repeat again. Maybe the sleeping sounds good, but it feels horrible like every waking moment I am going to die from sleep exhaustion and my stomach was growling like crazy. I wished and wished I could feel my mouth so that taking tablets, eating and talking wasn't so difficult. It is really difficult to get full on jelly, ice cream and soup when you have to consume half a teaspoon at a time and push your head up to make sure it goes down your throat. You should have heard me attempt to talk, no-one could understand me. What a silly wish though.

Day 2
I woke up and my silly wish come true. I could feel my mouth and I could feel pain. Serious, terrible fucking pain. I also looked into the mirror and saw cheeks the size of tennis balls. And I had a new problem, I can barely open my mouth which makes eating, talking, drinking and taking tablets still pretty damn hard. I'm so bloody hungry!

I can't wait for day 3. It's got to get better, right?

So I ask you one thing: appreciate the fact that you can eat crunchy, chewy food that doesn't resemble baby food!

Rishon Foods is my new fav food store

I ventured down to Balaclava on Sunday and almost $40 later come out with all sorts of vegan goodies. Including this vegan Viennetta style ice cream cake called Fantasia Chocolate Vanilla cake (although the label is not in english). Here is the only pic I could find online of the box. Sorry for the size. My camera is not working and I want you to find this amazing product. It also comes in mocha flavour.
I love asian supermarkets, the Mediterranean wholesalers and the nut factory outlet in Brunswick. But I used to really love Viennetta ice cream! So this Jewish supermarket gets my vote. I also picked up these vegan spinach pastries, garlic pretzels and many more products that I have never seen before.

In case you have no idea what Viennetta ice cream is here is a pic:

Rishon Foods is located at 23 William St Balaclava