kblog

Hey Everyone

2009-12-28T17:43:00.002+11:00

I have a favour to ask, can you please delete your link to this blog. It's a long story but I will be moving all of my food posts anyway to in the mood for noodle.

Thanks!

This might end up being a space for more personal political posts or might just die.

New place

2009-12-21T21:32:00.003+11:00

We finally started blogging at the new address:

In the Mood for noodles

Still need lots to do there though, but there is one new post.

Not sure what I will do with this blog yet, but will figure it out.

Holiday and Satay Bar

2009-11-24T10:57:00.010+11:00

We are leaving for our holiday today, things have been pretty hectic and I have been hogging the computer for my thesis, so poor Toby hasn't had a chance to blog at all lately.

We probably won't be blogging much for the next couple of weeks while we are away, although we might be able to on our first stop to Hong Kong since we will be staying with Toby's family and have internet access, but I can't promise anything because I expect to be stuffing myself silly with vegan yum cha and shopping til I drop. Then we are off to London and Berlin where I don't expect much internet time at all.

But I have some news:

Toby and I are going to start a new combined blog when we get back and I finally have a decent camera, which makes a pretty good change from my camera phone.

Anyway on to the food, when I worked in the city I used to frequent Satay Bar and Toby is now a regular eater there. It's a small cafe, which tends to be quite busy at lunch time on weekdays but makes a awesome take away lunch option for city workers. We recently confirmed in writing that all of the veg options are vegan. You can choose from tofu skewers, spicy tofu skewers or vegetables skewers. For $8.40 you can get two skewers, satay sauce and two sides (rice/salad/krupak). The satay sauce is certainly the best tasting satay I've ever had. And the krupuk have the texture of vegi chips or prawn crackers but with a more natural flavour.

Toby being a big eater always get the larger pack with 3 skewers:

Satay Bar
Corner of Flinders Lane & Custom House Lane
Melbourne.
Phone 9629 1466
MON - FRI 10am - 7pm
www

A bitch about doing a thesis

2009-11-18T22:31:00.004+11:00

Hi everyone, remember me? I'm not back but in need of a bitch about my thesis, so feel free to skip over this post and warning that it's long and pretty negative.

I really really really hate working on a thesis. I am very close to finishing it and have to present soon which probably makes me hate it even more, so will be interesting to compare notes about how I feel once I have finished.

I find doing a thesis to be pretty alienating, probably because no-one else I know is doing a thesis, well apart from those lucky ones who have scholarships and get to do them during regular work hours and get paid to do it. I love socialising and really hate missing out, lately it feels like everyone else is having fun except me, which I'm sure isn't entirely true but it certainly feels like it.

Also, I could slap the next person who makes a comment about how long it has taken me. Yes it has taken me a while, but I am studying part time and for the most part have been working full time-ish hours and I work in a pretty draining job so the last thing I want to do when I come home is any sort of work. Also, I had one topic that fell apart (not my fault). Anyway give me a break, ok! And no more questions about when I am going to finish, I'll finish when I finish, I don't know. I have been working all year on aiming to get it done before I got away, but that's not going to happen.

One of my biggest hates about the thesis thought is guilt, when I do socialise, or go to a potluck or just have a day when I am not productive I get pretty pissed off at myself, I think it is made even worse by people who feel that they are helping by checking up on me with questions like 'did you work on your thesis?', 'how much did you get done today'. I have enough guilt myself, I don't need you giving me more!

I think some people are born academics and love writing, but I really don't as you can probably tell for my disregard for grammar on this blog. It's not really my thing. I don't think I have disliked myself more than when doing a stupid thesis, there are certain conversations that I have with myself where I occasionally feel like I can't do it, like i'm not smart enough, that i'm lazy, that anyone could do it but me. It's not all the time but occasionally often when I hit a wall and am feeling stuck on one part. There does appear to be a bit of a cycle too where I feel so guilty and then hate myself a little more and then actually be less productive.

There is such a major part of me that has wanted to just give up for quite a while, but I am now so close to finishing it, I'm sure if I did give up I would regret it forever. I also I would feel like I am letting the participants of the study down, which I don't think I could manage.

I hate the stress and avoidance around supervision, almost every time I have a appointment with my supervisor I think to myself, she is going to tell me off, she is going to say that what I have done is stupid, and I need to justify why I haven't done more etc. Which is kind of crazy because my supervisor has been pretty awesome and I know I wouldn't have been able to get this far without her.

I really really want to be planning our holidays destinations right now but don't have the time which I hate. I feel like I might have a crappy holiday because I am not planned anything and will have a thesis hanging over my head the whole time. So if you do have any sort of tips for must eats/visits in Hong Kong, London, or Berlin please let me know.

I could go on further but won't.

Thanks for the big whinge, it feel a tiny bit better to get that off my chest! And yes I know there are bigger much worse problems in the world.

A Minor Place and Darth Vader

2009-11-11T20:38:00.006+11:00

Just a few things before tonight's main event:

1) Light n i n g BO LT: Secret Show (at) Irene. \m/
2) Check out Photos of Vegan Fitness Week Melbourne. (Photos by Noah)
3) Dean Wareham, from my favourite band Galaxie 500, blogged about his recent Melbourne tour and the "memorable in-store at Pure Pop Records in St. Kilda".
4)Matt Preston wrote about Trippy Taco.
5) My heart is broken: Bulmbers is not veg*n. And guess what? Also most apple juice brands are not veg*n neither.

"It's not you, it's me."

Kristy and I rode our bikes to A Minor Place (103 Albion Street, Brunswick) for breakfast last Saturday. The Soy Latte was pretty good.

The pretty Bonsoy spiral

What did we eat? Henry's Beans. It is made of Cannellini Beans (Kristy's favourite), garlic, rosemary (Kristy's pet hate) topped with dukkah, and served with lemon. They were not bad in my book. *pointing mic to Kristy* "What do you think about the beans, Kristy?". Kristy: "I was reluctant to go just for one bean dish, but I was pleasantly surprised."

This is pretty much the only vegan option. They also stock Crumb's vegan muffins.

Pip, the cooking god, tried to make it at home. Her version looks like the lost twin of Henry's Beans, but I haven't tried it though.

I bought an all black Keepcup. It has saved quite a few paper cups since I bought it two weeks ago. I call it Darth Vader.

La Double Vie De Dumplings

2009-11-09T22:46:00.007+11:00

A cold winter night in 2001, a young man who had just finished his 14hour shift stepped inside a small restaurant, in the strangest part of China. A little town where Maggie Cheung, wearing no make up, will ride pass you on her bicycle. A little town where hairdressers/brothels are opened next to primary schools. He picked 2 out of the 20 kinds of dumplings from the menu. There were 50 dumplings. He finished them with minced garlic infused soy sauce and 3 big bottles of beer.

When I eat dumplings, I think of my old days working/living in Mainland China. I still insist to have dumplings with minced garlic and soy sauce. I recently found probably the best packaged vegan dumplings in Mix Oriental (293－295 Barkly Street, Off Barkly Square, Brunswick). The Korean made dumplings are a little different than the Beijing or Shanghai ones I normally eat.

The packaging

I love to fry them (around 15-20 at a time) with 2 tablespoons of oil, mid/high heat for around 3-4 minutes. And then, put 4 tablespoons of water on the pan, put the lid on and let it simmer on low/mid heat for around 7-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, mince a glove of garlic finely (DO-NOT-USE-A-GARLIC-PRESS!!!), add to a dash of Yeo's 100% seasame oil in a small bowl of soy sauce. They should be crispy on bottom and soft on the top. Crack a Hightail Ale open and enjoy.

The other night, inspired by Carla, Kristy and I made Pumpkin, sage and pecan raviloi with white bean and garlic sauce and frizzled leeks from The Voluptuous Vegan to feed our friends the other night. It is a lot of work but worth it. Not on a 30 degree day though.

Vegan Fitness Week and My new bag

2009-11-05T21:48:00.006+11:00

So my vegan comrades flew from Manchester and Brisbane for the Vegan Fitness Week 2009 in Melbourne. We kicked off with the World Vegan Day Expo.

One of the world strongest vegan Joni and Fritz Gelato's Ali,

winner of female push up competition.

We dined at Plush Pizza and I suggested Coco Loco for desert. Double happiness!

Kashew Mylk Chocolate Gelato.
It was good. $15 good.

So far, We did some powerlifting, some axle/log presses, Brazilian Jujitsu, bike riding, shot put and discus throwing. For food, We took the guests to try East Brunswick Club's famous Vegan Parma, Las Vegan's Burgers/Muffins/Calzones/Bottomless Chai, La Panella's Donuts/Pies and Veg Out Time's healthy yummy cheap eats.

Strongwoman Rochelle cleaning the 35KG log

La Panella Pies eating after the long ride
Joni shaking some Brazilian Jujitsu actions

In other news, I've just got my 'Hong Kong Skyline' bag from the lovely Crumpler Custom Store.

Me, The Tobinator And The Boys' Night Out

2009-10-31T20:56:00.006+11:00

I went to Critical Mass last night while Kristy, Steph, Pip, S-J and the gang were enjoying the yummy Vegetarian Vietnamese food in St Albans. I was there at 17:30 and there were no cyclists in sight. I thought it was cancelled but "the mass" finally showed up around six. The bikes were cool and the people were friendly. It kind of put me off when a cyclist was drinking a beer while riding though.

We finally started riding around 18:30. A lady asked me if my name is Toby. I said yes. The "The Tobinator" sticker on my bike must have given it away.

I was enjoying the ride but 2 minutes in I've got a call. Button The Bird Slayer was outside the house and I had to go home to take her back inside. Okay, goodbye Critical Mass, I will see you in December.

So I ended up having dinner with Craig at East Brunswick Club. The menu has changed. Vegan Parma is $12 everyday (but smaller) and they now serve Funky Pies with a side of Salad. They also have Mountain Goat Steam Ale on tap.

Craig and I both ordered the amazing Vegan Philly Cheese Steak and a pint of Steam Ale. The Cheese Steak was awesome as usual. The new beer Steam Ale is kinda like the Indian Pale Ale they used to make but yummier.

Talking about about EBC. CURSE ov DIALECT is having their album launch there at 20th Nov and Why?, the only non-hiphop act under Anticon label, will be there for their Meredith side show. I am giving Why? a miss because we will be overseas. Be quick, my friends. Tickets will be sold out in no time.

Coffee: My Drug of Choice

2009-10-29T21:06:00.005+11:00

As most of you might know, I love my coffee. A cup of proper coffee is office workers' best friend. The scent, the taste and the caffeine gives you a good kick in the morning and helps you to carry on with the 8 hours of mind numbing/draining work.

Having a Soy Long Mac(chiato) at Brother Baba Budan(BBB) before work is like my ritual. I have never had a bad coffee there.

Soy Long Mac @ Seven Seeds , mother store of Brother Baba Budan

My recent favourite is the little deli/cafe Superfino (275 Flinders Lane, Melbourne). The non-hipster Barista makes a good Soy Long Mac and Soy Latte with Coffee Supreme Organic Fairtrade Blend with bonsoy. They are also pretty close to my work and don't have long queues like BBB.

When you are in the city, you can also get good coffee at Jungle Juice, Switchboard (they also sell vegan Anzac cookies) and Pushka. I have also heard raving reviews of Collins Quarter and Dancing Goats.

This is a food blog so let's talk about food. Away from the city, you can enjoy a vegan moussaka (replace Feta with Hummus) or baked beans with a nice cup of coffee at Ray (332 Victoria St Brunswick). One of their waitresses is vegan and she went through all the vegan options with Kristy and I.

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Soy Long Mac from Ray

Bomb Cafe (229 Johnston St Abbotsford) make one of the best vegan breakfasts in Melbourne and their coffee is not bad either.

Soy Long Mac from Bomb Cafe

In other news: I'm doing my first Critical Mass tomorrow night! See you at 5:30pm outside the State Library at the corner of Swanston St and LaTrobe St.

Cupcakes for Cat/Dog Lovers

2009-10-27T21:37:00.003+11:00

Hey! This is Toby, previously known as Mr T. I didn't really blog because I thought you can read about my life via Kristy's blog anyway.

Last Saturday we had two birthday drinks to attend: Liz's and Lisa's.

We made Cat cupcakes for Liz, who has a cat called Bella, using fluffy butter cream icing for the face, chopped Oreo as ears, quartered jellybeans as eyes, chocolate chips as noses and cut up licorice as whiskers. We also made some of them for our friends Craig and Bec, who have just moved in together, with two cats.

Using the same Vegan Oreo Cupcakes as the base, we also made Dog cupcakes for Dog lover Lisa.

The dog version are made with a Chocolate icing face, Oreo ears, Skittles eyes, jellybean noses and Licorice mouth. :-)

Lisa had her birthday drink at Bar Etiquette. The small but cozy bar has a carefully selected beer list including the open fermented White Rabbit Dark Ale.

Introducing a new blogger here....

2009-10-26T18:44:00.007+11:00

I was talking to Mr T about how I can't really blog this month because I really need to concentrate on my thesis and asked if he would be a guest blogger for a month and he agreed.

If things go well, I might make him a permanent co-blogger. So we could become a blogging couple like Cindy and Michael at Wheres the beef?

Although I would need to look at changing the title of my blog, something I've been thinking about for a while anyway. I just can't think of any good foodie titles yet.

Our bikes together

Cedar bakery

2009-10-26T18:01:00.005+11:00

A couple of weeks ago, Erin and I went to Cedar bakery, it is a Lebanese bakery and small grocery store that is pretty similar to A1 bakery on Sydney rd, Brunswick. All of the bakery options are super cheap at approximately $2-3.50 each. It's situated on the Thornbury side of bell st, just after high street branches off to plenty rd.

I decided to get a spinach pie, excuse the blurriness :

and a plain oregano pizza with za'atar topping:

And Erin got a oregano pizza with salad. It was massive and filled with a lot more than the usual ones at A1 and Tabets (also on Sydney rd). It had lots of spinach, mushrooms, olives, onion and tomato:

Not only was the salad fillings healthier, but the oregano pizza and spinach pie pastry seems to be much healthier, it wasn't oily at all and was more bread like.

I really enjoyed the lemony spinach pie, and the plain oregano pizza would have been enjoyable to most people, but it had rosemary on it which I hate, next time I will opt for the large, healthy salad oregano pizza which might dull the rosemary flavour a bit.

Cedar Bakery

33-37 High St, Preston VIC 3072

(03) 9484 4999 ‎
Open 7 days- 8am-7pm.

Good and Bad from Isa

2009-10-21T21:18:00.004+11:00

I've been loving Vegan Brunch and think it one of Isa's best books along with my bible- vegan cupcakes take over the world.

I followed her simple but brilliant suggestion to add lemon pepper to my potatoes, I used chat potatoes because they are superior really. However, beware most of the lemon pepper options in the supermarket seem to have chicken in them, the salt free option doesn't though.

I have found mixed results with Veganomicon though, we loved the leek and bean cassoluet but had issues with the biscuits and had to throw them out.

We also made the seitan cutlets from,Veganomicon and they sucked, they were rubbery and even the taste was wrong it just tasted like gluten flour.

Bird killer

2009-10-20T18:22:00.004+11:00

Button has injured TWO birds in a week. On ride to work day, as I was about to walk out the door when I heard button come back through the cat door, and then looked around to see blood so started screaming to Mr T that I thought that she had hurt herself, but instead she had a bird in her mouth, so Mr T and I screamed, chased after her as she ran throughout the house leaving feathers and blood everywhere. We eventually got the bird but it was pretty injured and I'm pretty sure didn't make it, but I'm trying not to think about it. The whole experience really made me even more repulsed by people wearing feathers, they really are not attractive, unless they are on a life bird! We locked her inside for a few days after.

The second time, we both came home to work and saw her actually grab this tiny little bird, we managed to get the bird off her straight away and it looked fine, no blood, no major missing feathers. I took the bird across the street to a large park and thought it was scared but fine. Mr T gave it a bit of water and it drank and then blood started to come out of it's mouth and it rolled over and died right in front of us. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

So my question to you fellow cat people is what should I do? I already lock Button up at night and she has two bells on her collar. Do I lock her up permanently? Is there some sort of cheap enclosure I can attach to our private rental cat door so she can go outside without killing more birds?

Vegan protein/power bars?

2009-10-18T22:01:00.002+11:00

I'm sure that I saw a aussie veg*n blogger blog about some sort of vegan power/protein bars but now can't remember where I saw the post.

Any ideas?

Funky pies how I love you...

2009-10-18T18:09:00.003+11:00

I recently noticed a few new additions at radical grocery and with little self control had to try both the new pies and brownies from Funky pies.

I chose the funky chunky pie on Anikee's suggestion, and did not regret it. It is a lot pricer than a la panella pie but absolutely delicious, with shitake mushrooms, potato and gravy. Now I hate the texture of mushrooms, but this reminded me a lot like mockmeat both in texture and taste, almost like a tuna flavour. It was just a shame that I had to share half of it with Mr T.

and of course I got a brownie:

Now these brownies are orgasmic, yes I know that's a big call, but it deserves it. I love desserts that are super rich, so rich that you almost can't finish it, not wimpy desserts that you end up wanting more with. And this was super rich and surprisingly gluten free. I could just feel my arteries filling up with oil and sugar in the best possible way.

It was seriously the BEST brownie that I had ever eaten, vegan or otherwise. So bad for you but so so so good.

I might have to stay away from Radical Grocery for a little while so I don't walk away buying the rest of them.

Do you like the on the move pictures? We were a little rushed and running late as per usual.

----------------

Btw, it appears that one of the new smiths chips flavour is vegan. All of the ingredients in the late night kebab chips appear to be vegan but it does say contain milk at the bottom, not sure if that was just standard on all of the 4 new flavours or if it was meant to refer to possibly containing traces of milk. I'm tempted to vote for it just based on the fact that it is only vegan one, because we need another vegan chip flavour, but I better try them and confirm their vegan status first.

Upcoming events

2009-10-12T19:33:00.002+11:00

Wednesday 14th October: Ride to work day with organised free breakfasts for riders around the country. It is expected to rain in Melbourne though so be sure to invest in some sort of water proof jacket/poncho thing. Any recommendations for cheap ones?
Wednesday 14th October: fellow vegan and friend Lisa Dempster's Neon Pilgrim book launch at Readings Carlton at 6.30pm.
Sunday 1st November: World Vegan Day celebratio n at The Abbotsford Convent.
Sunday 1st November- November 7th- Vegan fitness week- range of activities and eating planned.

Op shop tour

2009-10-10T20:06:00.004+11:00

I won tickets to an op shop tour a couple of weekend ago. I was a little unsure about what to expect as I consider myself to be pretty familiar with op shops and when the first stop was in the inner north, I thought 'oh no I will know them all' but I had only been to two out of the five that we visited. It was seriously a great day, being on a bus with other keen op shoppers was great and since it was a diverse group it didn't seem like we had to compete over items. The shops were all spread out, which was great since I tend to be more familiar with op shops in the west and north, but not very familiar with those in the south and east and we had discounts at four out of the five op shops, there were even prices under some of the seats on the bus, so some lucky people had $10 vouchers to spend at one of the shops. I went when I was trying to save money but still managed to pick up 5 purchases for under $15: 2 skirts, 2 pillowcases and a dress.

I think this would especially great for someone who doesn't drive or was a keen op shopper and new to Melbourne, but was still lots of fun and well worth the price for a regular Melbourne op shopper. I went with a friend who is so crazy about op shopping that she keeps maps in her car of all of the op shop locations and has gone to more than anyone I have ever met and she still managed to come home learning about 2 new op shops and $50 lighter.

Jo runs the tours quite regularly in Melbourne and Adelaide and the shops change regularly. She also has a op shop blog with a list of op shop by suburb.

I wish that the cities that I am traveling to at the end of the year had op shop tours. If you know of any in Berlin, London or Hong Kong please let me know.

Cookie sandwiches

2009-10-07T19:20:00.004+11:00

We recently had friends over for dinner and I wanted to make something different for dessert, so I quickly settled on the idea of cookie sandwiches. I made cookie sandwiches for a potluck about a year ago and they were a big hit.

This time I cheated and used store brought ice cream(choc so good) and made my favourite cookies but used white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts in place of regular choc chips. I also didn't make the peanut butter caramel but did miss it a little.

There were pretty popular again although next time I don't think I will bother putting in macadamia nuts in, the flavour seems to gets lost in the sandwiches.

I can see myself making lots of these this summer.

Here is the recipe for the chewy chocolate chip cookies from post punk kitchen:

Ingredients
3/4 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon whole flax seeds
1/2 cup soymilk

2 cups all purp flour
3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grind the flax seeds on high in a blender until they become a powder. Add soymilk and blend for another 30 seconds or so. Set aside.

In a large bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In a seperate large bowl cream together oil and sugar. Add the flax seed/soy milk mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla.

Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. When it starts to get too stiff to mix with a spatula, use your hands until a nice stiff dough forms. Add the chocolate chips and mix with your hands again.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and flatten into a disc that's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes, then set them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Almond fudge for new parents

2009-10-05T20:38:00.006+11:00

Close friends of our recently had a baby and to say congrats I got them this vegan appropriate onesie from this etsy seller:

and we brought along some food since I know neither of them have been getting much sleep. We took them some sausages from Vegan Brunch, lentil quinoa stew from la dolce vegan and I made these fudge balls. The fudge recipe is from disease proof your child which I thought was kind of appropriate, but I got the recipe from Katie at frugal veggie mama:

1/2 cup dates
1/4 cup soymilk
1 cup raw almond butter
1/2 cup raw carob powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chop dates and soak in soymilk over night to soften. Mash all ingredients together in glass dish. Chill before serving. Serves four.

I followed Katie's suggestion and used vanilla soymilk instead of vanilla extract. I also used raw cocoa powder but I think it adds a little bitterness so next time I will stick to carob powder.

Congrats again Adam and Sarah on the birth of your healthy, adorable and energetic Astrid!

Not burgers- vegan again?

2009-09-30T17:27:00.004+10:00

Just a super quick post to ask if anyone knows if not burgers are vegan again?

Here is the ingredients list:

Water, vegetable protein (17%) (wheat gluten, soy protein), wheat flour, vegetable oil (sunola), tapioca flour, flavours (contains soy), rice flour, wheat breadcrumbs, sesame seeds, starch (potato, maize, wheat), yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable gum (guar), minerals (zinc gluconate, ferrous gluconate), yeast extract, preservatives (280, 260), emulsifiers (472e, 480), herbs, spices, flavour enhancer (disodium ribonucleotide), vitamin B12, colour (100).

Contains wheat, soy and sesame.
May contain traces of peanut, egg and milk.

They used to be vegan and I used to love them, but then they added milk or egg to them but it used to be obvious, it looks like the ingredients have changed but I know that one of the additives might be animal derived.

I will email them but if I find out sooner I can munch on them straight away. So please tell me they are vegan :-)

Edited to add: BrisVegan answered my question, they are!

Goodbye Vegan Mofo- sausage dhal

2009-09-29T21:51:00.001+10:00

This is an oldie but a goodie, one of the earliest vegan dishes I learnt how to make and one of the few savoury dishes that ALL of my omni family enjoy, my mother still makes this dish regularly even though I no longer live there.

It is actually a recipe from the sanitarium website but this time I used frys sausages, here it is served with basmati rice.

It tastes different to regular dhal thanks to the rogan josh curry paste, and it's super quick, cheap, full of flavour and make a great weaknight meal.

Soy Sausage Dhal

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons rogan josh curry paste

300g vegie traditional soy sausage original, cut into 1cm rounds

3 cups vegetable stock

1 cup red lentils

Heat the oil in a saucepan, cook the onion and garlic until softened.
Add the curry paste and cook, stiring for 1 minute or until fragrant.
Add the soy sausages, stock and red lentils. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft.

Goodbye aus/nz veganmofo- be sure to check out the other aus/nz mofo-ers if you haven't already. Lisa has the full list over on her blog

Monsieur truffle, I have expensive taste

2009-09-29T17:20:00.007+10:00

Monsieur Truffle is just around the corner from my work which is very dangerous because if I feel that I really need chocolate it is just a little bit too close and at $10 a bar it is the most expensive chocolate I have ever purchased.

Unfortunately I am slowly becoming addicted to there chocolate. I have been slowly trying their different flavoured chocolate bars, caramelised almond, hazelnut etc. The caramel specks is probably my favourite, with crisp caramel bits, maybe it is because I haven't seen another dark chocolate caramel bar that is vegan:

I tried to get an inside shot but struggled because apparently button likes the chocolate too
My only problem is I still eat it like it is regular chocolate, consuming a bar in 1-2 days. Yes I need an intervention!

They also sell dark chocolate almond clusters, a whole range of exotic dark chocolate bars and rich dark chocolate flakes to make an incredible rich hot chocolate. Most of their dark chocolate options appear to be vegan!

Monsieur Truffle Chocolate
90 Smith St
Collingwood
9416 3101
Open: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm;
Sat 9am-5pm; Sun 10am-5pm

It's almost the end of Aus/NZ Vegan Mofo (Month of food) and I'm pretty proud of my increase in number of posts but it will probably mean that I will need to decrease my posts in October and spend a little more time on my neglected thesis. I've really enjoyed the experience though, I think it helped me to get out of my food slump.

Lord of the Fries- Northland

2009-09-28T20:50:00.003+10:00

We where over an hour late for the potluck because the stumpy cake was so time consuming and we slept in, so we missed out on most of the savoury options but overloaded ourselves in sugar and thought that lots of salt and deep fried savoury would fix the problem. We started chatting with Cindy and Michael about the new lord of the fries store at Northland or 'Norflands' as the locals say and decided to give it a go.

I was relieved to see that it was actually a small cafe with seats unlike the city store, and the interior was actually quite nice, with a mix of tall tables and low tables and a bright red wall. In addition to the usual range they also had a 'chicken ' burger and 'hotdogs' on the menu although the 'chicken' burgers were sold out on the day. I was tempted to get a 'hotdog' but was worried that it might be the sanitarium ones, in hidnsight I should I have just asked.

The place was sadly empty but it was around 3.30pm. Mr T and I decided to share the chips with gravy and 'cheese', 'chicken' nuggets, and a mega burger which I think is a version of the big mark burger. It was all tasty, hot and the serving of cheezly was very generous on the fries. It's a pity I no longer work around the corner.

I really hope the place does well, it would be great to have another veg option in Preston.

Lord of the Fries-Northland
2-50 Murray Rd
East Preston
near the cinema entry

Stumpy dog cake and adventures in caramel icing

2009-09-27T17:21:00.007+10:00

It was Lidia's potluck birthday party today so Mr T and I decided to bake her a cake that looked like her dog stumpy. I got a pic of Stumpy from one of Lidia's old blog posts:
I then cropped the pic just around his head and enlarged it so that it fit on A4 paper. Mr T then traced the outline onto baking paper and I then placed the baking paper over the top layer of the cake and used a toothpick to make lots of holes around the outline.

We made kittee's chocolate cake but figured that Stumpy's colouring is properly closer to the colour of caramel than it is to chocolate, and I remembered that Lidia loves caramel. So last night we make caramel icing based on this recipe on recipezaar, it was perfect and soft but then once we put in the fridge overnight and it hardened up so much that I couldn't use it. We did still use it in between the two layers of cake which was probably a mistake but it just seemed so wasteful to throw it all away.

Then this morning we decided to have another go and I learnt that caramel goes very quickly from nice caramel to burnt caramel. So we decided to go on the side of caution and made caramel where you could still actually feel some of the sugar. It was way too gooey though and I couldn't put it in my icing gun and it was the biggest pain to do a picture with. Luckily I had Mr T to help me.

I used vanilla frosting from vctotw for the white parts though and that worked well, I then also made a blue outline using the vanilla frosting and blue food dye. And I used black writing icing for the nose and inside of the ears.

Probably the biggest problem apart from the caramel was the eyes, when I put the second layer of cake on top of the first layer cracked right down the middle where the eyes needed to go. So I piped some vanilla icing into the hap and then put the black eyes on but it just looked creepy so we played around with them so much that they still look kind of weird.

Still I'm kind of proud since it is my first decorated cake that I made with regular soft icing as opposed to marzipan even if it does look a little like a horse or some sort of other animal instead of a dog.

I really think I need to get some sort of cake decorating book or the women's day cookbook though to help out with the next one.

Taste wise, the chocolate cake was ok but I think I prefer her vanilla cake (without vinegar) and the caramel icing was kind of sickly sweet but that's just caramel, right?

If this was your box, what would you make?

2009-09-24T22:07:00.007+10:00

We get a box of organic fruit and veg box through a local food co-op for $25, it's pretty good value for money and varies each week. Here is our box for the week.

It has 2 bunches of asparagus, pumpkin, carrots, celery, zucchini, snow peas, oranges, tangelos, bananas, and kiwi fruit.

I'm feeling uninspired food wise this week, apart from the need to make more sausages. If this was your box, what would you make?

More ice cream love

2009-09-24T21:29:00.005+10:00

As Lisa has already announced Radical Grocery now has ice cream!!!! As soon as I saw the facebook status I rushed out and got some choc mint tofutti cuties and they are perfection: soft chocolate biscuits with soft choc mint ice cream that has choc chips in it. I then proceeded to eat 3 and Mr T ate 2. Ohhhps!

Radical Grocery is selling both boxes and individual ones which are great if you want to try before you buy.

I might try to keep the last few until the weekend at least :-)

It's almost the end of Aus/NZ mofo and I'm pretty pleased that I lasted so long with pretty regular posts although at times it was tricky.

My beans are better than your beans

2009-09-23T19:39:00.004+10:00

I read and read and read all these American food blogs and cookbook with recipes with black beans but for some bizarre reason they don't sell canned black beans in Australia, unless you want to pay a crazy price for organic canned black beans. I have however seen dried ones in health food stores and got inspired by Kitten's Gone Lentil dried black bean cook up and then read about cooking them in a slow cooker.

So I set about soaking them and then started reading all of these things about red kidney bean poisonin g from cooking dried beans in slow cooker and got freaked out, so to be on the safe side I boiled them for 10 minutes and then transferred them to my slow cooker to cook for the day while I focused on my thesis.

Mr T then made a massive batch of chili with the black beans using our standard chili recipe, but it tasted MUCH better with black beans and we had lots of black beans leftover to put in the freezer. I swear dried beans that are freshly cooked taste better than canned!

I think we will aim to make a batch of some sort of dried beans about every fortnight.

Pasta with toasted garlic breadcrumbs

2009-09-22T20:12:00.005+10:00

This dish was adapted from a recipe on recipezaar, it was super easy and meant not having going to the shops to make dinner. Have you noticed a lazy theme with our dinners lately? I'm trying to do work like crazy on my thesis and Mr T is injured again.

500 grams pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves,
3 pieces of stale bread chopped coarsely into crumbs
salt and pepper

Cook pasta.
Meanwhile, in a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat.
Add the garlic and saute just until turning color.
Add the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste, and toast to light golden.
Drain the pasta and place in a hot bowl.
Pour all but 1 cup of the crumbs on the pasta along with the water and toss.
Divide between 4 hot plates and sprinkle reserved crumbs over each serving.

We also added some white beans, zucchini and nooch.

Mr T said that he read somewhere that breadcrumbs were originally used as a poor man's cheese in Italy. I can kind of see why.

Cranberry sage sausages!!!!!

2009-09-21T20:00:00.005+10:00

After I didn't get the chorizo texture right, I was determined to try again. This time I decided to try the cherry sage sausages, I used white beans and almost followed the recipe correctly. I only used half the amount of liquid smoke because 1 teaspoon seemed to be a little high, and only half the amount of garlic and sage. Isa specifically asks that you NOT use sage powder, but I used it anyway since I couldn't find dried rubbing sage in the supermarket. I also used cranberries instead of dried cherries. Texture wise these were awesome, but taste wise the chorizo were definitely tastier. Here they are precooked:

And after we fried them in a tiny bit more liquid smoke:

I will be experimenting with this a bit more.

Tart N Round

2009-09-19T12:15:00.005+10:00

I took Mr T to Tart N Round last night. It's now open Friday and Sat nights and has grown quite a bit since I first blogged about it.

I had a delicious, thick strawberry milkshake, which was really filling

and a burrito, with bean/rice chili which just had the right amount of kick to it, lettuce and creamy guacamole.

Mr T had the lasagna which I blogged about last time.

But I think where this place really stands out is it's amazing variety of vegan and gluten free desserts. I was super full but shared a scoop of double chocolate ice cream. It rocked my world, seriously! Soft unlike most soy ice cream almost like soft serve, creamy with lovely dark chocolate flakes in it. If I could marry an ice cream it would be this:

We didn't have room left in our bellies but I couldn't resist getting a piece of black forest cake for take away. It was beautiful to look out (before it went in a take away container) and had really nice cherry and chocolate and "cream" layers. I know where I am getting my birthday cake next year!

The guys who run this cafe are really nice and friendly and also gave us a tiny bit of their choc mint mudcake to try, it was super rich and gave me a really nice sugar buzz.

I don't think there is another place in Melbourne that can compete with this place in terms of vegan desserts. and everything is gluten free too so people like Lena can enjoy everything. They have so many other desserts too including vegan fudge, choc peppermint crisp and lots more.

I was a little sad that this new vegan cafe was virtually empty, the cafe has a nice feel but I guess not many people know about it yet. So go and show it some vegan gluten free love and enjoy the amazing desserts!

Tart N Round
839 High St
Thornbury
Tue- Thu 9-5
Fri- Sat: 9- late
Sun 9-5
www

Hit me with your vegan travel tips

2009-09-17T23:00:00.003+10:00

So Mr T and I will have a smallish holiday in Nov-Dec in Hong Kong, London, ATP (Minehead), Brighton (for only a day or two) and Berlin.

We still haven't decided if we will go to Manchester.

If you have any must eats or other tips like cool second hand shops/markets/handmade stuff please share.

Hong Kong is the only place that we are actually familar with.

Also, if you know of any bloggers based in those areas please send me links, I haven't actually come across many London food blogs but I'm sure they exist. I'm hoping to meet up with a couple of veg*n bloggers from those areas too.

So hit me with you tips..............

Vegan yum yum alfredo

2009-09-16T19:27:00.003+10:00

Vegan yum yum blogger lolo is a genius and this super quick, rich, cheesy dish is proof of that.

Hurry Up Alfredo
Makes 2-3 Servings

1 Cup Soymilk
1/3 Cup Raw, Unsalted Cashews
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
3 Tbs Low-Sodium Tamari or Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Earth Balance Margarine
1 Tbs Tahini
1 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Paprika (smoked is awesome)
1 Pinch Nutmeg
2-4 Cloves of Garlic, optional
Black pepper, to taste

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. This may work best in a high-speed blender (like a Vita-Mix), but you can definitely make it in a regular blender. Just blend extra-long, or perhaps strain if if you want it perfectly smooth. Tiny bits of cashews won’t hurt anyone though!

If you’re making this sauce for pasta, drain the pasta and return it to the hot empty pan. Pour the sauce over, place on medium heat, and stir until heated through. Serve with lots of fresh cracked black pepper.

We added some zucchini to it.

I really want to get her cookbook, but am super duper poor right now, so might have to wait and put it on my xmas wishlist.

Want to read all of the Melb veg blogs in one place?

2009-09-15T18:57:00.002+10:00

Steph and D have put together a Planet vgml with a collection of melb veg blogs in one place. It is already starting to take shape and look great.

Go check it out here.

To have your blog added just contact D or Steph on the site link above.

Elizabeth's red wine lentils with pasta and chorizo

2009-09-15T18:19:00.008+10:00

We made this after the potluck, with a couple of leftover chorizo sausages, which we fried and crumbled. They were friends, but I look forward to trying these with the italian inspired sausages in vegan brunch. This recipe was originally suggested by Elizabeth and the converted into a recipe by Cindy. Vicki also made it and raved about it. I made a few more alterations though. I didn't use any fresh herbs and added marjoram because it rocks and I hate rosemary. I decided to skip the polenta all together and added the sauce to to pasta. The sauce was yummy and was a great change t the regular tomato based lentil pasta sauces that I normally make.

Red wine lentils sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 carrot
2-3 sticks of celery
2 x 400g cans lentils, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups 'chicken' stock
1 teaspoon dried sage powder
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon marjoram
2 large chorizo sausages (from vegan brunch)
Nooch (optional)

Bring the oil to medium heat in a frypan, then saute the onion and garlic in it for 2 minutes. Add the carrot and celery and saute for a further 5 minutes. Stir through the lentils, wine, stock and herbs and simmer the lot until the lentils are tender and the sauce has reduced a little.

Pop the sausages under the grill, turning them once or twice, until they're crisp on the outside but still tender in the middle. Slice them into generous chunks and add them to the simmering lentils.

Add to pasta and add some nooch if you feel inclined.

I've added a new label: weeknight dinner, for dishes that I want to make again on a regular basis and aren't super time consuming and this recipe certainly fits into.

colourful choc chip cookies

2009-09-14T15:40:00.006+10:00

I've having a bit of a blah day thanks to one very high energy bill $500+ which I think must be due to a faulty appliance and being stuck on my thesis, and realising that I might not actually have it finished by our trip at the end of the year. So I decided that I needed chocolate or cookies. I didn't want to go to the shops though because that would take my procrastination into an even longer break from the thesis. I didn't have any soy milk though which most vegan choc chip cookies seem to ask for, and a slightly bigger problem I didn't have any choc chips. But I noticed on Pip's blog header the picture of her colourful choc chip cookies and realised that I had colourful choc chips that I think she used in her picture:

Pic taken from blackwoodlane website.

They are smaller than regular choc chips, but I knew that they would assist with the craving. So a quick google search found these super easy chocolate chip cookies at vegweb that didn't require any sort of milk or any sort of egg replacer. They are quite possibly the easiest vegan choc chip cookie and use two techniques that I have heard Lisa talk about using in her amazing choc chip cookies: a tiny bit of cinnamon and flipping cookies half way through the cooking time. I think these would be perfect when staying at someone else's place and wanting to bake them something without having to purchase many extra ingredients.

Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp.salt
cinnamon to taste (optional)
vegan chocolate or carob chips - put in as many as you like
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
Directions:

VERY IMPORTANT-make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. It will work if they're not at room temp but it works MUCH better if they are. Also while your oven is pre-heating put the cookie sheets you are going to use on top of the oven so they get preheated as well. Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon (if you choose). Add chips. Make a well in the center and set aside.

In a medium size bowl mix vegan sugar and oil. Mix it well. Add the vanilla and then add the water. Mix it well. Add the wet to the well in the dry. Mix it well but be careful not to overwork it. Add more chips if you need to. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Put them in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes and then flip and rotate the sheets.(top to bottom,and 180 degree rotation) Bake another 4 minutes and check them.

The cookies are done when they seem a little bit softer then you want them to be. They will harden up some as they cool. I usually go in two minute increments from here untill they get to where I like them.

Take them out when they are done and move them to wire cooling racks. If they split or come apart when you try to remove them let them sit on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring them to the racks.

Serves: almost two dozen

Preparation time: 15 mins-10 to 12 cooking time

Mine aren't as pretty as Pip's, but this recipe doesn't really brown up in the way that regular cookies do, also they feel like they are undercooked until you leave them for about 15 minutes to harden up.

Pre potluck ride

2009-09-13T18:51:00.004+10:00

So a group of decided on sat the day before a potluck to do a group ride to st kilda, but it was super windy so instead just rode to the vic market and back. We wanted to go to somewhere for lunch and Mr T remembered seeing in market lane a place selling vegan and gluten free crepes called Le Triskel Creperie. We decided to give it a go.

They did have vegan crepes, which is great but they were pretty disappointing. Cindy had a non vegan crepe and said that the actual crepe itself was a lot drier than their her non vegan one, I suspect that they use buckwheat flour instead of regular flour. For savoury options, they only had one that could be made vegan which was tomato, mushroom and spinach, not so great though for tomato hating Craig. It was just dry and not overly tasty. They offered a fair few sweet ones that could be adapted though so I had a banana, almond and maple syrup one. Despite the maple syrup it was also a bit dry and disappointing but did look quite cute :

I appreciate the effort they made in making vegan ones, but not sure if the cafe realised that vegan doesn't have to mean dry and boring crepes.

We then went to casa del gelato which I adore, I seriously can't say enough good things about that place. I can see myself spending lots of time there this summer. They have awesome creamy soy flavours like hazelnut, pistachio, coffee, chocolate, natural (which is vanilla-ish) and bachi. Also all of the fruit flavours (except for banana) are vegan, it's so great to have non fruit flavours to choose from. I had bachi, hazelnut and passionfruit in a cone, and Mr T had pear, natural and pistachio:

For the potluck today, I decided to leave it to one of the many other bloggers who attended to post about and take pics. I made the chorizo sausages from vegan brunch but made a few changes, I decided to use refried beans instead of mashed pinto beans, added a tiny bit of liquid smoke because I run out of smoked paprika and used sage powder even though the recipe asked for dry rubbed sage because I couldn't find dry rubbed sage. I think that refried beans substitution may have contributed to the softness, but they were pretty tasty. I look forward to trying the other ones.

Mr T made kiwi sorbet which was yummy but we reallied half way through that we are a missing a piece of our ice cream maker so it wasn't as smooth as it should be.

Casa del Gelato
163 Lygon St Carlton
Daily 12:00pm-12am
Tel: (03) 9347-0220

Best scrambled tofu!

2009-09-12T10:49:00.006+10:00

I've blogged about bomb cafe before, it's this tiny cute cafe that sells two vegan breakfast options. This time we both had scrambled tofu because it rocks. It has caramelised onion in it and is slightly sweet, peppery and cheap too at either $7.50 or $9.50. Mr T had mushrooms and fried potatoes on the side of his. The sour dough bread is chewy, hard to cut and delicious.

Mr T and I both agree that is the best scrambled tofu we have ever had. Don't get me wrong, I love the scrambled tofu at soul food too, but this is slightly tastier and cheaper too.

I don't know how this place doesn't get blogged about more.

Bomb Cafe
229 Johnston St
Abbotsford
9486 0699

Oh and I haven't been putting the aussie mofo symbol in all my posts so here is it again :-)

Ezard

2009-09-09T18:48:00.007+10:00

For Mr T's birthday I took him to Ezard for dinner, we had the pre theatre tasting menu. It was AMAZING and well worth it's super high prize. My fav dining experience ever, although apart from press club, I haven't had many fine dining experiences.

We went with my brother and his girlfriend who are omni's and had separate menus but also really enjoyed it.

It was a little hard to take pictures, because we didn't want to use the flash and didn't want to be obvious about it, so some are quite bad. Also my descriptions are not the greatest because I didn't bring a notepad and the descriptions were all quite lengthy with descriptions like: "oyster mushrooms with mirin/soy/plum wine sauce infused with x y and z and topped with x y and z". But hopefully you get the point.

We had bread with olive oil, ground szechuan peppers, a mixture of sugar/lime and chilli, and a non vegan seaweed/fish one. It made me decide that I have to get my hands on some szechuan peppers.

We then had rhubarb, beetroot, grapefruit with salsa verde. I normally hate grapefruit but this was not sour at all.

We then had silken tofu in a red miso broth with some sort of melt in your mouth seaweed and sesame seeds. I've had lots of miso before, but this was hands down the best miso ever.

Then we had a warm artichoke salad with fennel. Why is it that I only like fresh fennel in fancy restaurants?

Then followed by oyster mushrooms in a plum wine/mirin/soy sauce that was sweet and savoury and so addictive which I mopped up like a crazy person with my bread.

Dessert was the only thing I was slightly disappointed with because I thought sorbet was just too easy, but it was delicious. We had mandarin/orange sorbet and raspberry sorbet with fancy dried fruit on top.

About half way through I started to worry that I might actually be hungry afterwards, but the meals got progressively bigger and by the end I was full, Mr T on the other hand wanted a stop at casa del gelato on the way home, but he's got a massive appetite. I really can't name a favourite dish, but Mr T said the oyster mushrooms in plum wine sauce was his favourite.

I really could get used to this type of fine dining, it's a pity my budget won't allow it.

Slow cooker

2009-09-08T12:28:00.003+10:00

My family gave Mr T a slow cooker for his birthday and mother drove to Frankston from the west to get what appears to be the only copy of the simple little vegan slow cooker book in Melbourne.

We didn't waste anytime putting it to work and made the tofu in pumpkin seed sauce from the book. Which we put in mountain bread with nacho cheezly, sour cream, with avocado and lettuce. The sauce itself was a bit bland, although i'm not sure if it that is because I used regular pumpkin instead of pumpkin puree, does pumpin puree in the US have something added to it? I also didn't put a small can of chillis in it, I put a capscium and chilli powder in it instead.

The slow cooker itself though was so nice to use, I loved not having to stir or check on it and the warmer function which kept it warm while we waited for friends to arrive for dinner.

Does anyone have the cookbook or know of any awesome slow cooker recipes?

2009-09-07T22:03:00.004+10:00

We recently rode to ceres for breakfast. Ceres is positioned right next to the gorgeous merri creek bike track.
Ceres stands for center for education and research on environmental strategies. It is pronounced "series". There is a cafe there, small nursery, market on sat, community garden and much more. It really does feel a lot like a hippy place, but I love it.

Anyway this is for Aussie/NZ vegan mofo (month of food) so I better get to the food. We shared an almond muffin:

Pumpkin, tofu and miso rolland vegan breakfast which contained toast, mushrooms, spinach, smoked tofu, baked beans, and beetroot and chili relish. The smoked tofu was definitely my fav part, but I really enjoyed the beetroot relish too.

It was all delicious, and I especially enjoyed the vegan breakfast but at $17 it's pretty expensive for breakfast and really not that big for it's price.

Ceres cafe
Corner roberts and stewarts st
East brunswick
9387 2609
www

Mr T's bike cake, or my most depressing baking day

2009-09-06T20:55:00.011+10:00

I think maybe the universe is trying to tell me that I should stick to cupcakes, because I had issues with the scrabble cake, but the attempts for Mr T's birthday cake were almost heart breaking.

Mr T's had drinks to celebrate his birthday on sat night. A groups of our awesome friends had all financially contributed so that two friends could build him his very own bike. So I decided to bake him a bike cake to match his bike.

There doesn't appear to be many instructions online for bike cakes, so I just made it up. I decided to make the bike out of white icing and it was an absolute bitch to make. I had to redo the writing, wheels and several parts and when I tried to move it it kept falling apart even when it had hardened. But I eventually got it done, even if it looked a bit like a 10 year old did it.

1st cake attempt: I made an oreo cake using the vctotw recipe x 3. I baked two square cakes, put icing in the middle and all over the sides and had it looking pretty good and then tried to move the cake into a container and it all broke and fell to a thousand pieces, I wanted to cry because I had spent two evening and one whole day to get to this point and was running out of time. Around this time, all of my family members came over one by one, each seeing what had happened and tried the crumbly mess and told me how delicious it was. Which was great but at this stage I had started to make a different cake.

Failed cake #1 looked something like this:

For the second attempt I made a vanilla cake because it didn't require going to shops to get more oreos. I used kittee's vanilla cake recipe because I know she is a cake goddess. When it was in the oven, I thought something might be wrong because there was quite a strange smell. I had already made the icing though and thought maybe it was just me. So I iced it by cutting it half and put jam in the middle and then chocolate icing all over. The chocolate icing was awesome and surprisingly doesn't need any soy/rice milk. Anyway I then noticed that there was a tiny bit of cake that I could try, so I had it and realised that it tasted sour, I then realised that I must have put apple cider vinegar in it in place of the oil. So I had spent all day and then all evening making two failed cakes. I just wanted to crawl up in a ball and cry but had to go home to Mr T. I considered staying up to midnight to bake a third but just realised it was crazy. So I decided to take the iced cake to show him and everyone and explain that it wasn't really edible.

But somehow, with 24 hours and a hell of a lot of icing and jam it was edible. It still smelt weird but all the sweetness of the jam and icing seemed to compensate for the weird cake.

Here is the cake:

and here is the bike:

I think I need a rest from cake baking for a while :-)

Tandoori Times

2009-09-04T09:44:00.007+10:00

We went to Tandoori Times recently with my family and found it to be quite vegan friendly. I explained to the waiter that we are vegetarian and don't eat dairy and eggs and he explained that they don't use egg at all and then explained which dishes contained dairy and which ones could be made vegan. They really did pay attention, telling us if a condiment that was put on the table contained dairy and explaining that the kitchen accidentally put butter on our bread so he asked them to make us a new bread. The interior was quite nice too and the food was very tasty and affordable.

We had, onions bhaji, which was crisp and not too oily:

Tandoori mushrooms which are normally made with butter but were made dairy free for us. I'm not a big mushroom fan but Mr T loved these.

Punjabi daal which had just the right amount of ginger and coriander was and pumkin lakhanawi which was a bit spicy but had a nice tamarind flavour.

Tandoori Times
45 anderson st
Yarraville
9689 0666
www

Soup for the soul

2009-09-03T19:18:00.003+10:00

Again, a dish that I made in my early vegan days. I love this soup, it has lots of veggies in it and is the type of thing that requires lengthy cooking time but that's when you get to go blog or whatever. We had this for dinner and then had it as leftovers the following day as a pasta sauce.

This recipe makes a lot so be prepared for leftovers, it freezes well too:

2 cups green lentils
1 head garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed
2 medium onions finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bunch celery chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4-5 carrots sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
4 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
8 to 10 cups water or vegetable stock
2 bay leafs (remove before serving)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about five minutes or until soft.

2. Add onions and garlic to stock pot with water or stock.

3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally for at least 1 hour. Like most soups of this type, this one will taste even better the second day when the flavors have had a chance to develop.

This has got to be one of the least appealing food pics, but it's better to have crappy images, than none right?

Vegweb can be pretty darn good

2009-09-02T20:24:00.007+10:00

Lately I've been making dishes that I made when I first went vegan 5-6 years ago and didn't really know how to cook. I used to make this noodle dish regularly and was kind of relieved to see that I still enjoyed it today. It's easy, ohh how I love easy savoury dishes. To make it slightly more interesting I also made tofu bacon. I can't find the recipe on vegweb anymore but basically you fry the hell out of tofu pieces, and then sprinkle some nooch on it, and add a tiny bit of liquid smoke and a fair bit of soy sauce so that it so that it nicely coated.

I also can't find this dish which was titled 'asian broccoli noodles' dish on vegweb. What's up with vegweb lately? Anyway I did find it on another blog:

Ingredients:
2 cups Broccoli, Raw
3/4 cups Onions, Green
2 servings Fresh Garlic
2 tablespoons Fresh Ginger Root
2 tablespoons Omega Natural Peanut Butter
1/4 cups Soy Sauce
1 tablespoons Natural Cane Sugar
3 tablespoons Water
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoons Salt (table)
4 servings Noodles, Japanese, Soba, Dry

Instructions:
Combine garlic, ginger, PB, soy sauce, and sugar. Blend well and add water, lemon juice, and salt.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse, and set aside.

Heat oil in wok or skillet. Stir-fry broccoli for about 3 minutes. Add noodles and stir until heated.

Add PB mixture to pan and stir until sauce is evenly distributed.

Bourban balls, or super classy jim bean balls

2009-09-01T19:05:00.009+10:00

Apparently I am crazy, because I decided that I will participate in Australian Mofo in a crazy busy month for me. But I'm hoping that it will get me out of my food rut that I have been in lately and get me back to making and blogging about interesting yummy food.

It's Amy at Iron Chef Vegan fabulous idea to have it one month early for Australians, which is great because while September is going to be crazy, October is going to be even busier for me. So the goal is to post every day about vegan food, but since we are lazy Aussie's we will aim for 4-5 a week. There are quite a few vegan Aussie blogs participating including unwakeable, vegan sixteen, tropical vegan, Annabananabomb, ink and venom, twilight and shadow (from NZ), and for esme.

Anyway on to the food.

It was my dad's birthday recently and I wanted to make him something, but he is pretty picky when it comes to desserts. However, I know that he loves Jim Bean so I decided to make something with it. The first thing I thought of was rum balls, I found this great recipe from vegalicious which was easy and which my dad loved:

Ingredients:

3 cups vanilla wafer crumbs or digestive biscuits
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup pecans or walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup rum or bourbon
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup of shredded coconut

Directions:

Using a kitchen machine, or blender or food processor or a rolling pin (depending on what you have available), turn the cookies into fine crumbs.
Combine biscuit/wafer crumbs and chopped nuts.
Add remaining dry ingredients in bowl and mix thoroughly.
Mix the corn syrup and rum together and then add to the crumb mixture, using a big spoon or fork, mix all together well. It will be a sticky mass.You can put it in the refrigerator for a short time to harden a bit before making the balls, sometimes this makes it easier, or less sticky.
Roll into balls 1 inch in diameter then roll balls in either confectioners’ sugar or finely chopped nuts. I obviously used coconut.

Makes 40-48 balls. Store in a cookie tin or container tightly sealed.

I only used a quarter cup of bourbon which is an exactly one mintaure bottle of jim bean because I thought they would be too strong but all of the bourbon drinkers said that they could use more. I am going to make some more this weekend for fathers day for my stepdad and include his favourite drink Johnnie Walker.

Paper Crane Baby Mobile

2009-08-28T12:02:00.006+10:00

Friends of ours recently had a baby shower and to celebrate Mr T and I made a paper crane mobile.

It seemed like a such simple thing to do but we had a few tiny issues. First we wanted gorgeous Japanese patterned origami paper which I expected to find at Lncraft or Spotlight but they didn't sell it. In the end we found it at made in japan, but it was far from cheap. There was also the little issue of not actually knowing how to make paper cranes. Mr T had made them before but couldn't rally remember. A lot of trial and error soon fixed that though.

We used a small clothes hanger/drier thing that had several pegs on it and simply removed all of the pegs.
Then we made all of the paper cranes, threaded cotton thread them each one and tied knots under each one to keep it in place. We then threaded the top of each row of paper cranes through the holes on the clothes hanger/drier where the pegs originally were. It was quite a fiddly task but we did it bit by bit over a week, threading and making paper cranes as we watched tv.

We were pretty pleased with it, especially the way that the cranes spun around. I think wire would have made it a bit more sturdy, but we thought thread was probably the safer choice for a baby.

Here it is set up in it's new home:

Speedy food talk

2009-08-25T19:19:00.003+10:00

East Brunswick club philly cheese steak (pic above) was not what I imagined but is amazing.
The vegan turkish deli pide at the tenth muse (brunswick st opp vegie bar) is massive and tasty, worth it just for the amazing pesto.
I'm not normally a big fan of soul mama but the truffle malteser slice(I think that's what is is called) is rich and well just perfect in every way.

Selling vegan boots and wallet

2009-08-24T16:43:00.006+10:00

I will only do this once, I promise. I figure it is worth a try and am open to ideas on where else I can sell stuff apart from ebay.

Ok so first I bought these 80s vintage oxford white/cream boots from a store in the US only to discover that they are slightly too small. I really heart them and think they look even cuter in person. They are size 8.5/39 and roughly measure 9.45 inches inside from heel to toe. There is minor stretching of the pleather and marks on them which you only see if you look upclose but they are pretty good condition and seem really sturdy. I am selling them for $50 plus shipping in an attempt to get most of my money back.

Next I'm selling this vegan wallet which is brand new and I have never used it. The coin section is just too small for me and I like myself a huge wallet. If you like small wallets that can fit inside pockets then it might be for you. It comes with a removable chain. Am selling it for $10 plus shipping.

Front of wallet:

The inside of the wallet (ohhps the pic is upside down):

The back of the wallet:

Email me at bluerthanpink (at) gmail (dot) com if you are interested in either or have any questions.

Ok I will return to normal food posting now I promise!

Mashed potato and gravy PIZZA!!!!!!

2009-08-22T15:12:00.003+10:00

Yes you read correctly, and it is amazing. Comfort food x 1000! We got some pita bread, spread a thin layer of gravy added mashed potato and then added broccoli and soy sausages on top.

We made it once, and then made it for a small potluck minus the broccoli.

There is something so comforting about basing a meal around mashed potato, instead of just having it as a side and being able to eat it with you hands. The only thing I would do differently next time is put in on a proper pizza base instead of on pita bread.

We are so making this again!

Yes man and Zooey Deschanel

2009-08-17T12:45:00.004+10:00

Mr T and I recently watched Yes Man on dvd, and had pretty low expectations but were pleasantly surprised. We both enjoyed the film which is a bit of goal in it self since we normally can't agree on movies. I was surprised because I normally can't stand Jim Carey. The soundtrack was not bad too, and towards the end I realised that the female vocals sounded very familar and then realised that of course Zooey Deschanel sang many of the songs and I really like her stuff in she and him with m ward.

Speaking of Zooey, I enjoyed watching the US cooking show where they made a five course vegan, gluten free, soy free meal for her. I was a bit disappointed in some of the lazy efforts like buying ready made rice based ice cream and how some of the professional chefs found the concept so hard but loved the look of the quinoa pasta dish. You can watch the episode here Thanks vegan dad for pointing it out.

Ma Po Tofu

2009-08-16T19:43:00.002+10:00

Mr T and I recently made Ma Po Tofu from where's the beef and it is AWESOME. It is so easy to make and rich in flavour that we have made it about 3 times in a pretty short period. The only change we make, is using a little less of the spicy soya bean paste because we both have a pretty low heat tolerance.

Thanks Cindy and Michael, and Quinn T for suggesting it.

Finally a couple like us on tv but...

2009-08-13T19:43:00.005+10:00

There are never couples like Mr T and I on tv, the few inter-racial couples generally consist of Asian female- Caucasian male combinations, not the other way around like us.

In the early days of our relationship, I talked about the whole white female-asian male (wf-am) relationship stuff a lot and while I tend to think about it a lot less now, I still smile when I see couples like us on the street.

So I was super excited to see a couple like us on the new show Jon and Kate plus 8 , but then of course they are quite different with their 8 kids (Sextuplets & Twins) and Jon seems to be a little cruel with his comments about her body. Cute kids though:

I must stop shopping online!

2009-08-10T19:38:00.006+10:00

I'm not normally that into online shopping, but lately I can't stop. I recently decided that after months of hating them, that I had to have a pair of brogues and it took me ages, but I finally found this beautiful pair from Bettes that are vegan and cheap ($40), who knew that one pair of shoes could make me so damn happy?
The laces are even velvet like and they actually look sturdy and they are even prettier in person.

And I think I may have blogged about this before, but if I have then it needs to be blogged about again. Feminist etsy seller Km Stitchery sells recycled t-shirts with feminist icons printed on them. Like this cute t-shirt of Charolette Bronte:

But I was squealing in exictement about their new feminst featured on clothing- Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre:
If I can combine the previous style with Kathleen's print than I don't think I will be able to control myself. Did I mention that the seller is vegan too?

My other latest obsession is looking at vegan coats, in preparation for our freezing trip to the UK in December because I know that my crappy thin coats won't help me. I lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve this blue one from ModCloth that is currently sold out:

But if I had money I would so get one of the Vaute Couture wind resistant/snow resistant coats like this one. Unfortunately they are well out of my prize range.

Broccoli Quiche

2009-08-09T19:26:00.003+10:00

We recently made broccoli quiche from vegan brunch, it was ok but a bit on the bland side.

After some adding some more salt and cheezy it was significantly better but the omelets are still a thousand times better.

The cupcake carrying bike experiment

2009-08-04T18:23:00.004+10:00

I recently made lots and lots of mocha cupcakes for a party

And I decided to take some to a friend. As you can see, they looked fine in their container:

And I put them in my bike basket like this

Unfortunately they didn't arrive in the greatest state:

I have a cupcake courier for regular cupcakes and maybe I can experiment with attaching to the back of my bike. Anyone had success with carrying cupcakes on a bike?

$10 offer

2009-08-02T09:47:00.002+10:00

Menu Log is offering a $10 voucher to my lovely readers. I debated about advertising it because I guess it is just another form of advertising for them, but I'm pretty frugal and love any kind of discount and they have lots of restaurants to choose from around Australia.

Besides, I discovered that they have Vege2go as one of the restaurants that can deliver to me. If you do get some Vege2go you must have the vegan tiramisu, it is AMAZING!

Anyway, to get $10 off your order simply type in the code: FB39A6 when you order.

Life is good

2009-07-31T23:10:00.002+10:00

I feel like I either blog about food or rant when life is a bit shitty. So this is kind of the opposite. Lately life has been really awesome for a number or reasons like:

I got a secondment role which means an awesome opportunity to take a break from the role I have been doing for the last 3 and a half years and working with some different clients. The new role will be in Collingwood so am looking forward to having lots and lots of vegan options.
Mr T recently learnt how to ride a bike and we have slowly been exploring some short bike tracks around us. It has been so amazing to see him getting more confidence, learn to maneurve the bike and get more and more exicited about riding. It's kind of like rediscovering something through new eyes, or like watching children get excited about things, it's kind of contagious. I really enjoy riding slowly with him and chatting and just taking in our surroundings.
The weather has finally started to get a little milder and I now have some boots (from target) and mittens which makes the cold weather so much easier to tackle.
I have the found the greatest traditional chinese practioner ever. I have seen lots of good chinese doctors but this one is perfect, she has the cutest clinic ever, it is in Brunswick and she managed to help me getting rid of my horrible cough in like 2 days. I have a pretty shit immune system and it normally takes me at least a week if not weeks to fight viruses. I have been enjoying getting cupping I even think the bruises look kind of cool, and last time I had acupuncture I had this amazing floating feeling, it was aweome.
She has encouraged me to try Qi Gong which I'm super exicted about, but just need to find a good school.
I've been enjoying lots of dinners at friends places, and have really been enjoying the company and the awesome culinary efforts.
Button has been super affectionate lately.

Ok I'm probably making you sick with all this 'oh my life is so awesome....' stuff so I'll stop now.

Pancake weekend

2009-07-29T19:29:00.002+10:00

A couple of weekends ago I had to knuckle down and spend a weekend working on my thesis, to try to make me feel better on sat morning I made these 5 minute pancakes. I didn't have regular soy milk but had choc and then made Vegan Dad's easy blueberry sauce.

The pancakes were super easy, slightly sweet, and yummy although I probably wouldn't recommend using choc soy milk. The sauce was delicious and well kind of healthy too.

The next morning, I made them again with regular soy milk, and served them lemon and icing sugar. Mr T said that he had never had them with lemon and sugar before. I think it is my favourite way to eat them and you can also eat them with your hands when there is no sauce or sticky maple syrup.

I will be making this quick pancake recipe again and again and again.

5 Minute Pancakes

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup soymilk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Set out all your ingredients.
Set a stove element with a pan to medium heat.
Combine the 4 dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a bowl.
Add the soy milk and vegetable oil to your mixture.
Mix until smooth.
Now the pan should be ready for your batter, so spoon one pancakes' worth of the mixture into the pan.
Flip [carefully] when you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, or if the edges are looking stiffened.

Nan's choc sauce for ice cream

2009-07-26T18:27:00.003+10:00

Both my nan and mum used to make this yummy choc sauce that was only ever served on ice cream, and I asked about it recently and found that it was super easy to veganise.

This is best served on vanilla ice cream. It is gooey and almost fudge like and makes me feel better about eating ice cream in winter.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbsp of cocoa

Melt margarine, add sugar and cocoa and stir until sugar starts to dissolve
Add soy milk, bring to boil and cook for a minute (be careful here if you cook it for too long it will become too hard like toffee)
Take off heat and add vanilla essence

This makes too much for just 2 people, even people who eats lots like us so next time I will half the recipe. I didn't have regular soy milk but had vanilla soy milk so I just used that and left out the vanilla.

Thanks Nan, you rocked!

Oh my god, vegan omelets!

2009-07-21T13:31:00.004+10:00

Ok so go and buy vegan brunch right now! I have only tried one recipe but already the book is worth it's money for vegan omelets.

These are amazing and quite easy to make too!

Here is my soy sausage, broccoli, cheesy sauce and sun dried tomato one

and my not so pretty one with cheese (from tart n round) and sun dried tomatoes.

I got some some black salt from the indian supermarket on sydney rd but only used half because it was too eggy for me, but Mr T loved it and sprinkled some on top of his.

Lindyloo has already posted the recipe so I guess it is ok if I also post it.

INGREDIENTS:

2 garlic cloves

1 lb. or 450g silken tofu, lightly drained (not the vacuum-packed kind) or soft tofu

2 T. nutritional yeast

2 T. olive oil

1/2 t. turmeric

1 t. fine black salt, plus extra for sprinkling (optional)

1/2 c. chickpea flour

1 T. arrowroot or cornstarch

DIRECTIONS

Chop up the garlic, if using, in a food processor. Add the tofu, nutritional yeast, olive oil, turmeric, and salt. Puree until smooth. Add the chickpea flour and arrowroot and puree again for about 10 seconds, until combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides so that everything is well incorporated.

NOTE: The original recipe also has a note in case you use soft tofu, and it's essentially that you will need to add/adjust water to your mix. Start off with 1/4 cup and test it out by heating up a skillet and cooking up 1-2 T. of it according to the directions below. If it spreads and congeals as it cooks, you can move on to the big versions. If it doesn't spread at all but just sort of sits there and doesn't congeal, then add up to 1/4 cup more water. I didn't add any it was fine.

Preheat a large, heavy-bottomed, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the pan with cooking spray. Also, make sure that you use a large skillet, as you need room to spread out the omelet and to get your spatula under there to flip.

In 1/2 cup increments, pour the omelet batter into the skillet. Use the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula to spread the batter out into about 6-inch circles.

Let the batter cook for about 3 to 5 minutes before flipping. The top of the omelet should dry and become a matte yellow when it's ready to be flipped. If you try and it seems like it might fall apart, give it a little more time. The underside should be flecked light to dark brown. Flip the omelet and cook for about a minute on the other side. Keep warm on a plate covered with tinfoil as you make the remaining omelets.

Fill omelet with the filling of your choice, then fold it. Once the omelet has been filled, sprinkle with a little extra black salt, since some of its flavor disappears when cooked.

Makes 4 omelets.

Tart 'n' Round cheese

2009-07-19T23:03:00.005+10:00

On my second visit to Tart n Round I noticed that they sell their own cheese I decided to buy a container but was quite skeptical looking at the jelly-ish texture.

But I put some on toast and grilled it and it was yummy. The texture was quite similar to how I remembered tasty cheese grilled on toast, the 'cheese' was kind of crisp on the outside and soft in the inside. Flavour wise, it is quite mild but you can definitely taste the cheesiness mixed with herbs.

And I asked about the choc tops, they are coming!!! At the moment they have a few tubs of their own home made ice cream and lots more savoury dishes like pizza and soup.

Let's talk vegan shoes

2009-07-18T18:52:00.009+10:00

I have been looking everywhere for vegan boots, but not come up with any ones that I like. I want something that look like these leather camper boots only vegan. The biggest problem I have is finding relatively flat boots.

I have however found lots of other cute vegan shoes. Dimmey's in footscray has lots and lots of size 10 and size 11 croc ballet flats for $10 in a variety of colours. I wish I was a size 10!

And target has a variety of really cute vegan shoes at the moment, including: mary janes, ballet flats and wedges.

And of course I'm obsessed with the nicely scented melissa shoes. I love a lot of the new designs like these:

As for overseas sites, I've come across quite a few that I like but would rather not have shoes shipped if I can help it. Here are some ones that I like:

these red boots and many more from moo shoes

For unisex sneakers I love keep's casual men and womens shoes like these:

Enlightened cusine banquet or lots and lots of mock meat

2009-07-15T21:16:00.005+10:00

Normally when we go to Enlightened Cusine, we go with a big group of friends and share lots of different dishes but then you only get a couple of bites of each dish. Mr T and I recently went to celebrate my new job or rather secondment. We chose one of the more expensive options on the banquet menu which I think was $32 each, but was worth it for this special occasion.

We had shark fin soup which I suprisngly liked and spring rolls

fried rice, sorry for the pic quality but It was kind of embarrassing taking food pics because my fellow diners kept looking at me when I did

Crispy sweet and sour pork, and mixed vegetables with tofu in a light stock/soy sauce

ma po tofu and spicy kung pow prawns

After all that mock and deep fried food it was nice to end with lychees and soy ice cream.

There was so much food, and it was so good to try a few dishes we had never had before and to have more than a few bites of everything. I liked all of it except for the prawns but I can't get into mock fish. I was slightly dissapointed with the ma po tofu, but I spend a year eating Ma Po Tofu in Hong Kong so I might be a bit picky with it. I always thought that shakahari would be the best first date option for vegans but am now thinking a banquet might be a better option, although maybe you don't want that food baby look you get from eating too much on a first date.

Enlightened Cusine
113 Queensbridge St, Southbank
9686 9188
www

Gossip!

2009-07-13T23:02:00.003+10:00

Chris and Julia from Masterchef are dating
Lord of the Fries will soon be serving vegan desserts
Las vegan is open on thu and fri nights now

Happy Tuna Salad meets Jacket Potatoes

2009-07-11T18:19:00.003+10:00

I heart jacket potatoes, I don't know why we don't make them more often. The other day I decided to combine the chickpea based Happy Tuna Salad with jacket potatoes and it rocked. I then added some cheddar cheezly to the top. My only complaint was that it was quite dry and so next time I might add some tofutti cream cheese or sour cream.

We had some of the potato/happy tuna salad filling leftover so I decided to fry them into patties which worked really well, I didn't even have to add oil.

What are you fav jacket potato combinations?

Bad food pics but yummy food

2009-07-08T20:18:00.003+10:00

This first dish is up there with my favourite tofu dishes, and I really like the method for dry frying the tofu first and love the orange sauce It was a perfect way to use up some excess oranges from the food co-op and I think I will add it to our dishes that we have again and again.

I don't want to risk losing the recipe so here is it:

Orange Tofu with Broccoli from Vegan Homemade

1 lb.(450 grams) extra-firm tofu, cut into cubes or triangles
bunch of broccoli, cut into florets
4 cloves garlic
4 green onions
3/4 c water
1/4 c orange juice
1 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs seasoned rice vinegar
4 Tbs soy sauce
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper
1 Tbs cornstarch

Dry-fry tofu until browned, or saute in oil if preferred. Steam broccoli until crisp-tender.

Whisk remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Heat a large skillet to medium, and add tofu, broccoli and sauce mixture. Bring to a simmer, then continue to simmer until the sauce is reduced to your liking, stirring occasionally.

Serve over brown rice or noodles.

Erin also linked to this handy link on how to dryfry tofu.

This second dish was so great when I was sick. Ginger is awesome for both nausea and colds/flus. We followed her recommendations and used soy sauce instead of braggs. I love the unusual combination she uses, it actually works.

Carrot Ginger Cashew Pasta from Vegan Soul Power

*This recipe is casual with portions, because it can easily be stretched. I usually use about 3 carrots and 2 handfuls cashews.

-Raw, unsalted cashews
-Carrots, peeled and chopped
-1-2 cloves garlic, peeled
-1" ginger root, peeled and sliced
-1/2 tbs agave nectar
-Braggs
-Whole wheat pasta
-Kale or swiss chard, loosely chopped

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil for your pasta. Bring a small pot of water to boil for your veggies.
2. Using a steamer insert, put equal parts carrots and cashews, along with the garlic and ginger in a pot to steam. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and steam for about 5 minutes, or until carrots can easily be pierced with a fork. Meanwhile, cook desired amount of pasta.
3. (Carefully) add steamed veggies to food processor or blender. Add a dollop of olive oil, a splash of braggs, and agave nectar. Blend until smooth-ish.
4. Once pasta is al dente, pour over kale or chard. Then toss with carrot sauce, adding a tiny pasta water if desired.

And finally not a food pic but a pic of the graffiti from my favourite safeway in Brunswick. It's my fav safeway because they sell tofutti cream cheese, often has good buskers, is right near radical grocery and I can take the bike path the whole way to get there instead of having to cross Sydney or Grantham St.

Strawberry cupcakes

2009-07-06T19:02:00.004+10:00

It was my cousin's 21st on sat night and so I made 80+ mini cupcakes for her party. I'm almost worked my way through vctotw so decided to try something else. I made Kittee's strawberry kake recipe (minus the food colour) and put them into mini cupcakes liners. I baked them for about 12 minutes. I was really really happy with the flavour of these moist cupcakes and have already put in a request for Mr T to make me the actual cake for my birthday. The recipe is quite interesting because it asks for blackcurrant cordial but I don't think you would ever guess it. I then made the vanilla icing from vctotw and added some of the cordial to it. I think next time I will just stick to the vanilla icing as I think flavouring it takes away from the actual cake part. I also made flowers but didn't like the way they tasted. I had one person at the party ask me if I would make cupcakes for children's parties, I said I would think about it. I kind of worry that if I bake for money regularly I will no longer enjoy baking. Besides I wouldn't know how much to charge, and also whether I would advise her that they are vegan.

I've recently updated my veg links on the site, if I have left someone out please let me know!

Sweet Potato Falafel

2009-07-05T13:44:00.002+10:00

Our friend Ann recently made us some sweet potato falafel from 101cookbooks and I fell in love with it instantly. So for the last potluck-Lidia's farewell party Mr T made it. The sweet potato really pairs well with garlic and coriander. I think I actually prefer them over regular falafel, but that could be because I am all falafel-ed out, I do live in Brunswick the falafel capital. These aren't as firm as regular falafel but these are baked not fried. We will definely make them again.

Breaking news: Melbourne's newest veg cafe opened today!

2009-07-01T19:20:00.006+10:00

I was super excited to find out that Tart n Round that make the amazing chocolate balls that are available at Fatto a Mano and many other places was opening a cafe. I was even more excited when I learnt that it was going to be in Thornbury and super close to my work. They opened today and so I popped in on my tiny lunch break. Everything they sell is egg free, dairy free, and wheat free and vegetarian of course. I didn't get a good look at the menu, but they had a few things in their fridge like veg burgers/patties, and lasagna. I also noticed that they had their amazing cherry bliss and peanut caramel balls, with some other chocolate balls and a few different varieties of giant cookies. One thing I did see on their menu was brownie sundaes that I will definitely try next time. I also heard rumours that they will see vegan choc tops but didn't see any. I needed something quick though so got a piece of lasgane. It was quite unique in that it had mashed potatoes on top but it worked. It had a range of vegies and mushrooms in and it and was yummy.

I also got myself a choc orange cookie.

It was huge like the size of my palm and I have long hands, see:

I can't wait to go back on sat with Mr T and try more. It's great to finally see a veg cafe around Northcote/Thornbury.

Tart N Round
839 High St
Thornbury
Tue- Sat 10-6
www

$3 Awesomessness

2009-06-29T20:21:00.009+10:00

We once tried to order the pork rolls that are discussed in the Melb veg food guide but they didn't really understand when we asked for vegetarian pork roll and offered us either pork or vegetarian noodles, thankfully Mr T was with me and asked in Cantonese but they didn't have any. I have since asked Emily and she explained that you need to ask for "vegetarian rolls" .

These $3 rolls are frigging amazing, not just amazing but life changing. I'm not normally a fan of cold gluten products but the gluten is super tasty and when paired with a long bread roll(it's bigger than the pic looks), coriander and pickled carrots it is AMAZINGGGGGGG. And for $3? you can't even get a salad sandwich for $3.

Here is the place where you can get them from.

That's why I heart the western suburbs.

But if you need another reason to venture to Footscray there is also yummy jam donuts that are accidentally vegan here. I don't have the address yet but basically if you come out at the exit at Footscray market and turn left you will come across a bakery called Sunny Nguyen. Next time I will get the address and actual pics of the donuts I promise! It is a $1 for 2 donuts. They are greasy, and nice and cheap tasting in a good way. Much better than la panella jam donuts which have a slightly weird flavour.

Tan Truc Giang Restaurant
36a Leed St
Footscray
9689 9509

I've edited it so the pics are no longer miniature

Soups make winter bearable

2009-06-26T18:27:00.004+10:00

We have been making lots of yummy soups lately. I can't remember exactly which one this was and I have lots more pics that even I won't post.

My two favourite soups so far include Cheri's Hearty Garlic and Lentil Vegetable soup which is so warming and comforting when you have a cold.

2 cups green lentils
1 head garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed (we used less than this)
2 medium onions finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bunch celery chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4-5 carrots sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
4 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
8 to 10 cups water or vegetable stock
2 bay leafs (remove before serving)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about five minutes or until soft.

2. Add onions and garlic to stock pot with water or stock.

3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occassionally for at least 1 hour. Like most soups of this type, this one will taste even better the second day when the flavors have had a chance to develop.

-----------

A surprisingly awesome combination is apple and pumpkin soup from the great big vegetable challenge. The apple just adds a nice sweetness to this otherwise savoury soup. It has inspired me to try other soup recipes that I have seen about that contain fruit.

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

500g roasted pumpkin flesh

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 medium onions finely chopped

2 tablespoons of rape seed oil (or olive oil)

2 medium cooking apples, peeled cored and diced

1 roasted garlic bulb ( roast at same time as pumpkin flesh)

1 and a quarter pints (750 ml) of vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to season

Roast the pumpkin flesh by scraping out the flesh in large chunks and laying it in a baking tray, season with salt and pepper and mix round with a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Roast in the oven at 180 for about 35 to 40 minutes. Wrap whole garlic bulb in foil with a little oil drizzled on top and roast at the same time.

In a small frying pan, gently saute the chopped onions and apple together until both are soft.

Puree roast pumpkin, add squeezed out roast garlic. Add onion and apple and stock and puree with a hand held blender or in a food processor. Cook in a large pan over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

It must be time for a rant...

2009-06-25T22:15:00.003+10:00

Feel free to skip this post. But sometimes I need to get stuff of my chest!

Ok so here goes:

I had nausea, vomiting, ingestion for a week and then like the worst flu ever with a constant fever, where I have been going through over a box of tissues per day for a week. Now I have both the flu and an upset stomach together. How unfair is that?
We have just been told that our rent will go up. We are already paying $30 more a week than the other units next to us and now will be paying $55 more per week. We originally offered them 9 months ago an extra $20 per week to secure this place, thinking at least our rent won't go up for a while. I had a quick look and for the same price we could easily get a 2 bedroom property but is is worth the cost of moving? It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that our place is crap, no proper heating, the place if falling apart and there are major gaps in all of the doors and windows so it sucks in both winter and summer. I'm actually contemplating a sharehouse right now even though I hate them.
I am so behind at work due to all of the sick leave so when I'm at home I keep thinking about my poor clients and when I'm at work my colleagues are angry at me for being there in case I infect them. I'm run out of sick leave and am starting to think I will never get better.
We have this amazing holiday coming up and I'm starting to worry that we won't be able to afford it and that I won't be able to get my thesis done in time. It's hard to be productive when your constantly sick!

To try to counter balance all of the complaining a tiny bit:

We just celebrated button living with us for a year. It is a relieve considering that we had our last cat Molly for only 6 months before she disappeared.
I have an awesome husband, that word still feels really weird and really old. Still better than wife though in my opinion.
I made something non- food related, a button bouquet: using lots of different types of buttons, floral wire, and a vintage salt shaker for a friends birthday:

A month of fruit crumbles

2009-06-23T15:55:00.004+10:00

First I made the apple and berry crumble from now vegan for friends. I really liked this recipe. It was quick, warming and our dinner guests seemed to enjoy it. I just used blueberries because I often find the mixed frozen berries are a little sour.

I still had crumble mixture leftover so I decided to make Pip's pear and berry crumble with half her crumble and half Pips's. I loved the texture of her crumble and the pears however I think I used too much cardamon as I found it quite overpowering.

And then we had crumble at Press club when several of us enjoyed their vegan dishes. But you will you need to wait for Cindy and Rachel to blog about it for more details.

chocolate and cherry crackles

2009-06-21T20:13:00.003+10:00

I treated my little sisters 18th birthday like a 8th birthday and made fairy bread which is fun to make but I used a little too much margarine:

I then made chocolate crackles using the standard recipe and put them into mini cupcake wrappers.

I then stole an idea and a rough recipe from a friend claire for cherry crackles. She had them at her 21st. Many of my teeneage cousins who hated glaced cherries loved these.

Cherry Crackles
4 cups rice bubbles
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
250g copha
1/3 chopped glace cherries
pink food colour

Mix coconut with food colour until it is a nice pink colour. Melt copha and then mix all of the ingredients together. Add more pink colour to mix if needed.

Makes 24 large crackles.

Self frosting peanut butter cupcakes

2009-06-16T21:48:00.004+10:00

Over the long weekend, it was pouring down with rain and I decided that I need to bake something without leaving to go to the shops, I decided on the self frosting peanut butter cupcakes from my sweet vegan.

So I started making them and then realised that what I thought was apple sauce in the fridge was actually apple, banana, strawberry puree and decided to use it anyway. It actually worked, the banana worked well with the chocolate, and peanut butter and you couldn't really taste the strawberry. I know that I am on to a good recipe when I substitute it with something silly and they still taste great.

I loved the idea of self frosting, although I am not sure it is that much easier than just making icing. Still these felt a little healthier and they were delicious.

Speaking of delicious, Cindy introduced me to the bookmarking website delicious, which I have been way too excited about. Now I can bookmark all the recipes online with appropriate tags, and access them from any computer. Yes I am kind of a nerd!

Murder party treats

2009-06-15T18:56:00.003+10:00

For a murder mystery party that we had recently I made bloody finger cookies from yeah, that vegan shit except I replaced the almond extract with more vanilla extract because almond extract sucks. Taste wise they were a bit plain but don't they look great?
I also made lychee eyeballs and stupidly forgot to take a pic.

And it turned out that I was the murderer although I didn't know until almost the end.

Automatic cafe and pink cupcakes

2009-06-14T12:04:00.003+10:00

My little sister turned 18 last weekend and to celebrate I made pink oreo cupcakes because she loves pink. I didn't mix the crushed oreos into the icing though like the recipe asked for because it becomes too chunky and is difficult to ice in my icing gun, also it turns it a weird grey colour, instead I just sprinkled the crushed oreos on top.

And we went to automatic cafe at the casino. I was suprised to learn that this cafe had 3 items on the menu that were marked as vegan. Consdiering we are not talking about a cafe in the northern suburbs and we are talking about the casino I was surprised.

Mr T and I shared the baked beans which were the BEST BAKED BEANS I HAVE EVER HAD. They had carrots in them that just kind of melted in your mouth and had a lovely smoky, slightly salty flavour.

We also had the dhal, which come with flat bread which was cooked in the wood oven and had some tomato based relish on this side. This was yummy but compared to the best baked beans ever you really can't even compare the two.

I look forward to trying the other vegan dish: chickpea cassoleut.

Automatic cafe
Crown
No 8 Whiteman St
South Melbourne
9690 8500
www

Thousand steps potluck

2009-06-08T19:00:00.008+10:00

We went to ferntree gully for my potluck, it was small in numbers but I am kind of glad about that, as it was quite embarassing how many times I had to stop doing the thousand steps walk. At the top though we enjoyed the nice weather (it was a few weeks ago) and lots of good food.

Craig made green caspcium, red capscium and eggplant dips.

and mushroom dip which actually had me the mushroom hater liking mushrooms
Rebecca made rice apricot balls
Jo made an assortment of yummy sandwiches in cute shapes and with the crusts cut off.

I made these bacon and potato puff pastry things. I simply added mashed potatoes and bacon bits to puff pastry. So simple but quite good.

And anzac cookies with orange blossom water which were sadly a little bitter but I guess I used too much baking soda.

Mr T made cheesy mite scrolls using cheezly. They were so amazing the night before, all hot and gooey but the following day were kind of average.(excuse the pic)
It was really pretty and we saw lots of different birds
Afterwards we went to belgrave manor earthly pleasures cafe which is in this really cute old building. Earthly pleasures is an omni place but has lots of vegan options.
We shared a piece of chocolate pear tart, it was rich and soooooooo good!
Belgrave Manor Earthly Pleasures
1627 Burwood Hwy
Belgrave
9754 7899

Marshmallow mud cake

2009-06-02T13:16:00.003+10:00

The night before the scrabble party there was another party, Lexi's birthday/Tara's farewell potluck party. A couple of weeks before I heard Lexi say that you wants to make the marshmallow mud cake from my sweet vegan but she can't because we can't get ricemellow cream here. So I decided to try to replicate it with the marshmallow making kit.

The kit had instructions for making marshmallow 'cream' or fluff. So I did that and was left with a quite firm jelly like texture, I followed the recipe in the book but added more 'cream' that it asked for and it come out great, both texture wise and taste wise. Although I later decided that maybe it wasn't marshmallowy enough so decided to use the 'cream' to make letters which we put on the cake. We put x's on it because Lexi is straight edge. And then used black writing icing to make a shadow around the letters.

While I was impressed with the icing, the cake itself was tiny. It barely rised in the oven and was so flat. I wonder if maybe the mixture should have been put into a 8 inch pan instead of 9 inch pan like it asked for, or if I did something wrong.

Scrabble Cake

2009-05-31T20:15:00.004+10:00

My friend Bec celebrated her birthday with a scrabble party and her boyfriend thought of making a scrabble cake. So I jumped at the challenge, I've never really decorated a themed cake before. It took us ages and I struggled a little with lots of small things like getting a proper red colour but am really pleased with the finished look. Her surname is hale in case you were wondering.

So how did I do it? I got white icing ruled off squares, and then used paint brushes to paint on food dye on to the squares and made tiles and a little holder out of the icing and stuck them on with a little bit of water. It sounds easier that it actually was though, well for the novice me. The dye kept leaking on to other squares, and even though I made a little diagram on which colours to paint where I stuffed up and I kept smudging the writing.

We made the scrabble board first and then made the cake on the day. We made the easy vegan choc cake and the chocolate frosting from vegweb. I wasn't overally impressed with either but that could just be our errors like overcooking the cake. The cake was moist but didn't seem sweet or chocolately enough and the icing was unlike any that I made before because it was cooked and the texture was a little like pudding. In the middle, we put mashmallow icing which I will discuss in more detail next.

The funny thing was Bec's sister turned up with a scrabble cake too.

Now vegan cookbook

2009-05-31T19:15:00.002+10:00

I have loaned Now Vegan from the library but have no idea what recipes to try. Any suggestions?

Crashed Hot potatoes

2009-05-30T14:30:00.002+10:00

I was talking to someone the other day about how influential blogs are for my food inspiration, I don't tend to read cookbooks that often instead I read lots and lots of blogs. It's strange too because often a recipe I read about from one blog originated from another blog.

One of the latest inspirations was crashed hot potatoes which I read about on Musings from the Fishbowl and which she read about here.

Basically you boil ptoatoes and then smash them a tiny bit and then bake them. So it's like mashed potatoes and baked potatoes rolled into one. What more can a gal ask for?

The best pizza topping- apple on pizza

2009-05-25T21:08:00.003+10:00

When I first read about apple slices on pizza, I thought I have to give it a try. I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I first read about it over at yeah, that vegan shit and then Cindy verified it's tastiness. This pizza was perfect: caramelised onion, sundried tomatoes, capers, cheddar cheezly (my fav flavour but doesn't melt properly) and pesto.

I didn't want to make pesto, and so looked for a vegan one at the supermarket but the only one that I found was the Thai pesto dip with coriander. It added a slight Asian taste to it, but the flavours really went well together in an Asian meets Italian type of way. Well pizza is supposed to have originated in china, so...

The apple slices when cooked on top of pizza didn't really taste like apples just added a touch of sweetness that really complimented the other flavours.

I can't way to try this again with regular bail pesto.

Mock tuna is my friend

2009-05-20T20:36:00.002+10:00

After the tuna patties, I decided I had to try the mock tuna with something else. First, I made a tuna bake using the recipe here or below.

1 can Tuno (or in my case 3/4 packet of mock tuna but I doubled the recipe)
8 oz (or 225 grams) macaroni or other pasta, cooked
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 onion, chopped
2 Tbs. Green pepper, chopped finely (I used celery)
2 Tbs. Flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup Vegan mayo (optional)
1 can (or small box) creamy mushroom soup (I used a packet of cream of onion soup powder mixed with 3 cups water)
1 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup breadcrumbs tossed with 2 tsp. Melted margarine
optional topping:
French’s French Fried Onions (gives a nice crunch)

Preparation:

First of all, you want to start the pasta cooking while you start chopping the other ingredients. Melt margarine in a large frying pan or saucepot and saute the onions and green pepper 2-3 min., until onions are soft. Add flour, salt and pepper, and stir until smooth. Add soy milk and soup, stir over low heat until smooth and thick (this will take a while, so be patient). In separate bowl while this is cooking, mix cooked pasta, peas, mayo, drained can of tuno, and 1 cup nutritional yeast. Mix together and pour into casserole dish. Toss breadcrumbs with melted margarine and remaining nutritional yeast, and use to top casserole, along with french onions, if you are including them. Bake 30-40 minutes at 350, until top is golden brown.

It was delicious but I was forgot to take a pic.

I did however take a pic of my toasted sandwich with cheezly, mock tuna and a little bit of tartare sauce. Also delicious!

Bushwalk and Potluck

2009-05-16T18:51:00.005+10:00

So after attending lots and lots of great potlucks I've finally decided to host my own potluck. I'm combining it with a bushwalk at ferntree gully next sat, weather pending of course. If you haven't attended one before and are vegan or vegan friendly please feel free to join us. For more details send me an email at bluerthanpink (at) gmail (dot ) com.

French prune filled chocolates

2009-05-16T18:05:00.003+10:00

I came across this lovely looking picture of prune chocolates on this french website and thought I should give it a go. I wasn't confident in the google translation though so I asked on PPK and Mandee and a few other forum users come to the rescue. Below is their translated recipe and it was really yummy, it actually makes prunes taste good. I didn't use agara agar and I actually used 250grams of prunes but it was still ok. My only problem was using sweet williams chocolate next time I would use dark chocolate as I don't really like their 'milk' chocolate. I also found that I didn't have quite enough chocolate though but that might just be my crap chocolate making skills. I discovered that I love orange flower water, any suggestions for where else I can use it?

300 g prunes
250 g of extra-dark chocolate (min. 70%)
1 / 2 l water
1 tablespoon of orange flower water
1 tspn. vanilla extract
Optional: 1 / 2 tspn agar agar powder, goji berries

Preparation

In a saucepan, combine the prunes, water, orange flower water and vanilla extract. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15 to 25 minutes. Remove the stones, reduce to a purée. If the cream is too liquid, add the agar agar powder, and simmer 30 seconds. Cool.
In a bain-marie, melt 90 grams of chocolate. Spread on a cutting board covered with baking paper. Let harden.
Using a small spoon, place forty small piles of the prune mixture on the chocolate, as evenly as possible.
In the bain-marie, melt the remaining 160g of chocolate. Using a spoon, completely coat the prune mixture. Top each with a goji berry. Let harden.
With a knife, separate each bite. Enjoy.

For a gorgeous picture of them please see the original website, mine looked ugly :-(

Beetrrot Curry and Baked Paprika Fries

2009-05-13T20:16:00.007+10:00

I don't know if you noticed but since we cut down on eating out my blogging has increased it's because since eating out is not a regular option I think we try a little harder when we prepare meals. Also when eating out it's really not worthwhile to blog about east brunswick club, plush pizza or some other veg restaurant for the 1000th time. Anyway, now that I've patted myself on the back I will continue. I now find that I have too much food to blog about and just not enough time. So will shut up and continue blogging.

First up the healthy dish, I made Limes & Lycopene's beetroot curry. I subsuited white beans with mushrooms because mushrooms suck. It is so full of flavour that I could eat it with plain brown rice which I normally don't care for. Although part of the credit has to go to massels chicken style stock, the best stock ever, it's so addictive that I sometimes sprinkle it on top of food.

I'm copying the recipe here in case she suddenly stopps cooking, like a few of my old recipes that I can no longer retrieve.

Beetroot & tomato curry

Oh yes, while it’s even better the next day, this time I discovered the leftovers are exceptionally good over a baked potato! Serves 4.

900g raw beetroot
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 whole dried chilli
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
800g tin of tomatoes
200g button mushrooms, cut in half (or white beans )

Cut the leaves and stalks off the beetroot, peel and cut into roughly 2cm cubes.

Heat the oil in a medium sized pan, with a lid. Once it’s hot, add the cumin seeds and chilli, stir once and add the garlic. Stir for about 10 seconds and then add the turmeric. Stir once and add the tomatoes (with juice) straight away. At this point the mixture will hiss and spit. Just put the lid on and wait for it to calm down.

Add the beetroot and mushrooms and then season with salt. Bring to a simmer. Then turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for about 45 mins – 1 hour, or until the beetroot is tender.

And on to the slightly less healthy. Tofu for Two's baked paprika fries. I made them wide, but will next time make them like regular fries. These were delish although I do admit to adding even more paprika, because I can't get of enough of it. You should go look at their blog for a much better pic.

And again the recipe just in case.

Baked Paprika Fries

4 large potatoes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

I set the oven to 225 degrees Celsius. Then I scrubbed the potatoes and used our mandolin (aka v-slicer) to chop them into 1 cm thick strips. This could be done without a mandolin but the tool really makes the whole process much quicker and easier.

Now I spread the fries on a kitchen towel on a single layer and then folded the other half of the towel over the fries, patted them lightly, and let them dry until the oven was ready. Meanwhile, I mixed the paprika, cayenne, thyme and oil in a bowl, and when the oven had reached the right temperature I just tossed the fries in the oil until they were all evenly coated.

I spread the fries on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper in such a way that none of them were overlapping - important for crispy results. Then I baked them for 15 minutes in the upper third of the oven, tossed them up a bit, and baked for another 10 minutes until they were nicely fried and crispy. After baking I sprinkled them with sea salt and they were ready to serve.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ok and as promised here is a pic of the pandan chicken that I blogged and raved about a little while ago.

Radical Grocery Potluck

2009-05-11T16:13:00.004+10:00

The Radical Grocery had a potluck a few weeks ago with a fair trade theme, you had to have at least one fair trade ingredient in your dish. While it was quite small it size it meant even more food for me and so I left with a very high sugar state. As you probably would have guessed chocolate or cocoa powder appeared to be the favourite fairtrade to include.

I decided to make smoky bean chilli and add fairtrade cocoa powder to it, I made polenta cups using this recipe here (minus the cheese and egg) and baked them with a tiny sprinkle of cheezly and crushed corn chips on top. As you can see they were more likely rounds rather than cups and next time I would make a little more mixture to prevent a few of them from cracking.

I did the same with puff pastry too.

Mr T who is now fully repaired made almond buscits which I forgot take a pic of, sorry!

Anikee made yummy choc chip biscuits

And her friend made these delicious chocolate and raspberry pikletes

Lisa made coffee cookies with chocolate icing on top and while I normally dislike coffee I loved the cookies.

Her housemate mate possibly the best brownies ever, they were so rich and tasty and oh so bad for you.
And to help balance it out a little we also had some healthy quinoa salad with rocket, coriander and lots more
There were other items too like my friend Kylie made muffins but I was already in sugar coma by then.

Here's a pic of some of the potluckers in the shop.

and this little one enjoying the chocolate baked goods

PIzza and Park Date

2009-05-07T21:31:00.004+10:00

While we have tried to stop eating out, we still continue with our dates once a month with the promise to try to be as frugal as possible.

So we picked up a few pieces of pizza and desserts from Fatto a Mano. It's a regular unassuming bakery with a few tables inside and out and it just happens to have lots of vegan items, although they don't tend to advertise them as such, so you need to ask. Almost all of the pizzas don't have cheese on them though which is awesome. Plus it's cheap, one piece of pizza costs a few dollars and filled me up. We took the food to the carlton gardens.

Tomato and basil pizza and vegetable pizza (pumpkin, roasted capscium, mushroom and potato). The tomato/basil while simple was pretty great but the veg pizza was my fav.

mushroom and caramelized onion pizza. Mr T who doesn't share my mushroom hatred loved this piece.

Cherry bliss ball which tasted like cherry ripe.

Peanut butter ball . They are same ones that I blogged about from world vegan day and which allergy block sell.

We then enjoyed the sun shining down on us, laying on the grass and looking up at the gorgeous trees.

It was probably my favourite date yet and reminded me that you don't need much money to have fun.

Fatto a Mano
228 Gertrude St
Fitzroy
9417 5998

Vegan bloggers in London and Berlin?

2009-05-04T21:35:00.003+10:00

So in our trip at the end of the year, I would love to read up on vegan food in London and Berlin from vegan bloggers that live there and possibly meet up with a couple of bloggers too.

But I don't know of any vegan food bloggers based there, if you know of any can you send me their websites please.

Blueberry Parfait

2009-05-04T21:09:00.005+10:00

Ok so technically it's not really parfait but parfait sounds better than sloppy stuff in a bowl.

For a recent weeknight potluck-Joe Fox' farewell, which Lidia promises to blog about. I decided to make white chocolate mousse using the recipe from VCTOTW and leaving out vanilla. It wasn't as good as the dark chocolate mousse and you actually taste the tofu in it so I decided to add vanilla beans which helped a lot. I decided it needed something more and so I decided to combine it with blueberries, thanks to yeah that vegan shit raspberry drizzled chocolate mousse. I subsituted the raspberries for blueberries because that's what I had in the freezer. I didn't blend the blueberries though or defrost them but it still turned out fine.

It was a great answer to a midweek potluck and appeared to be quite popular and I was pretty impressed, although I couldn't really layer it because the mousse was so thick. Next time I might try blending the two together.

I didn't have lots of small glasses so followed Lidia's suggestion and made one giant one using my massive apple bowl.

'Tuna' Patties

2009-04-30T18:01:00.004+10:00

For the latest potluck, I decided to veganise a childhood favourite: tuna patties and I have never been more proud of making something. It was also my first time making something savoury for a potluck so I was doubly proud. I purchased some 'tuna' from vincents which has just the right amount of fishyness although it is quite oily and bright orange. They were a bit time consuming to make but I think it is worth it since it makes so many and tastes exactly as I remember them to be. The only changes that I have made to the recipe is to change the type of cheezly, I used Morrazella which I find really mild whereas I think the cheddar will stand out a little more. I also recommend draining on paper towels which I didn't have so they were quite oily. Anyway here's my recipe:

1 packet of Cheddar cheezly, grated
1 packet of 'tuna', shredded (you can do this with your hands)
1 batch of the cheezy sauce from Dianne's cheezy broccoli/cauliflower
1 carrot, grated
1 capscium, chopped
1 onion, chopped
breadcrumbs (I used the Organ gluten free ones)

Mix capscium, onion and carrot in bowl and add the cheezy sauce, it acts almost like a binder. Then add cheezly and tuna and mix again. Roll into balls and then cover in breadcrumbs. Fry both sides for a few minutes until browned. Put on paper towels to drain and then serve.

Makes 30 small patties.

Mini ones for the potluck

Large ones for home. Sorry about the quality of pictures, it's always dark now!

Ok off to yet another potluck!

These boots are made for...

2009-04-29T22:26:00.002+10:00

Puddles!

With all of this rain I have gotten a fair bit of splashing around in them too. It is so great to get to places and not worry about wet socks/tights/feet. The best bit about gumboots is that they are naturally vegan.

Also notice that they match my new bike in the background?

Sweets without visiting the shops

2009-04-26T21:28:00.004+10:00

Once Mr T's heavy medication started kicking in he would sleep several times a day, instead of resting like a sane person I used those opportunities to make sweets with ingredients we had at home since I am trying not to buy desserts.

First up I made snickerdoodles, yes what a silly name but such awesome cinnamony goodness. I loved the texture of them. The recipe made a a lot too so we could share them, well a couple of them. I felt like I good quite easily eat half a dozen of them in one sitting as opposed to normal cookies. They are ugly though:

Then I followed Cindy's idea for chocolate almond figs, I had to improvise a little as I didn't have figs or dark chocolate. Instead I put an almond in a date and covered it with white chocolate. The almond seemed to be the perfect size for where the pit would normally go and it was yummy but I'm sure her original combo is even better. I don't think white chocolate goes quite as well with dried fruit.

Pandan rocks!

2009-04-26T17:18:00.003+10:00

I heart pandan flavoured desserts like the pandan and coconut soft serve soy ice cream they occasionally have at tofu shop and pandan chicken. I was just talking about how I wish I could get some pandan chicken when I found some vegan pandan chicken at our local asian supermarket (the one at Barkley Square).

It lived up to my high expectations, full of flavour, with just the right amount of kick to it. I really love effortless cooking like this!

Mmmmmm

Lasagna saves the day

2009-04-22T09:08:00.004+10:00

Mr T and I made the tempeh lasagna that we read about on where's the beef and was originally made over at tofu for two.

And boy am I glad we did as we had lots of leftovers and the very next day Mr T injured himself quite badly. He was at a kung fu class and fell quite hard and now has damage to nerves in both his arms and hands, yes BOTH hands! It means that he has had painful pins and needles non stop for days and can't really use his hands for anything. So I've been feeding him and well doing anything for him, the poor thing can't really do much and is in a lot of pain. Thankfully he is young and fit though so he should heal and it shouldn't a long lasting thing. So it's been soooooooo great to have premade food that I can just pop in the oven for several meals.

Anyway, back to the food itself. We had the intention of doubling the recipe but ended up only doubling the tempeh (which Cindy kind of suggested anyway) and doubled the amount of cashews only but not the rest of the sauce and it was still awesome. You know a recipe is great when you don't even follow it correctly and it still turns out great! I think it is a two person recipe though because it has several parts and takes a little while to make but it is worth it because you end up with quite a lot of yummy meals. I'm not even a big fan of tempeh but this almost makes me a convert!

Now what bulk meal should I make tonight to get us through several more meals?

So good and yet so very bad: fried tartex

2009-04-20T18:22:00.004+10:00

I normally just eat tartex (vegetarian pate) on crackers or on toast but decided to have a google for recipes and found a page full of recipes. One of the lasiest, easiest and nastiest recipes is the tartex fritters. Basically you get puff pastry make a circle out of it using a glass or whatever and put some tartex in the centre then close up and fry like crazy. It also asked to coat each one in milk but I skipped that step and it didn't seem to matter. I didn't even know you could fry puff pastry but you certainly can. These were awesome!

The only problem was that I only had one sheet of puff pastry left so couldn't make many.

No more eating out: how we eat lots of chilli

2009-04-19T15:41:00.006+10:00

Mr T and I booked and paid for our flights overseas for our trip at the end of the year. We have one little problem though we don't really have spending money so in an attempt to save as much money as we can, we are going to stop eating out, maybe not stop for the whole 6 months but cut down drastically from our usual 3+ times a week.

We lasted this whole weekend without eating out which is normally where we do the most amount of eating out. So far it has been good, we have been making more creative and tasty dishes and I've been pleasantly surprised.

Inspired by the Mexican potluck we made a big batch of chilli on friday night which made 7 serves! We would normally eat the leftovers the next day but for the bonus serves we would put them in the freezer for another time, but we enjoyed it so much that we had it for 3 meals in a row and also fed a friend.

Anyway on to the recipe, well a loose recipe:

Smoky bean chilli
3 cans chickpeas
3 cans kidney beans
2 cans butterbeans
2 cans tomatoes
1 can corn
1 cup water
1 bunch coriander
1 capscium
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
liquid smoke to taste
cumin powder to taste
chilli powder to taste

Fry onion, garlic and capscium in vegetable oil until onion is transulecent.

Add beans, corn, tomatoes and water. Bring to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Add a little more water if needed. Add cumin, and chilli powder to taste. Simmer, stirring occasionaly for 20 minutes. Add liquid smoke and coriander just before serving.

Serves 7-8.

Served with corn chips and cheddar cheezly.

Coles Garlic Bread

2009-04-19T10:47:00.005+10:00

There are a few different varieties of coles brand garlic bread and only one of them appears to vegan. It is cheap and not healthy at all but quite good. I still prefer our handmade sundried tomato garlic bread but for really lazy days this stuff is so great.

Speaking of accidentally vegan items, I really need to update the list here. Also I have made a facebook group: aussie vegan food updates (for both new vegan products and items that are no longer vegan). Feel free to join and spread the word. People can update it and I will send regular update private messages. Also I will need some fellow admin members, so if you feel like you are on top of what is vegan and what is not just let me know.