Sparkled GInger Cookies (VWAV)

We had friends over for dinner last night (we made Fresh Spring Rolls & Malaysian Curry, but I won't bore you with more pictures of their deliciousness) & I whipped these cookies up about 10 mins before everyone arrived. I ran out of ground cloves, so I ground some myself in the mortar & pestle.... Extra spicy goodness!!!!

Four Year Anniversary Breakfast

It was our four year anniversary on Tuesday, so we went to see Irish comic Dylan Moran (I cried from laughing so much that I skulled 1 litre of water upon our return). For dinner that night we had leftover Pad Thai, but the next morning we cooked up a storm!!!

Tofu bacon w. hash browns & waffles:



And I insisted that we have waffles & ice-cream for dessert (at 10am):



Here's the pattern of the waffles all on their own - I think they're pretty:



And we enjoyed this breakfast whilst watching three episodes of Arrested Development (yes, we're behind the times, but we're in Australia - surely that's an excuse?).... ;)

Pad Thai

I've been doing a fair bit of 'new' cooking lately, but no blogging (I've been catching up on the PPK forums)....

Anyway, here's our (Cam & I cooked it together) attempt at Isa's Pad Thai in Vegan With A Vengeance:



It was soooooo good!!!! Try it!!! 

Black Eyed Bean & Mushroom Stroganoff

I'm a wee bit obsessed with this recipe at the moment (I believe I've cooked it three times in as many weeks. The recipe is on page 136 of Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan!
I substituted the mock meat with Black Eyed Beans (that I put on to soak last night). It was tasty (I love the sauce, I believe I could drink it) but I think that next time I'll mash the beans a bit before I add it to the sauce (I added the beans in after the mushrooms & onions were browned). The beans didn't really soak up any of the sauce.

Still yummy though.

And now, for the newest, geekiest section of this blog, I'm going to start referencing the recipes (when from cookbooks) in MLA style. I'm trying to get the reference style into my head for my thesis, so this is good practice!!!

Referencing the whole book:

Kramer, Sarah. La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin' Made Easy. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2005.

Referencing the recipe:

Kramer, Sarah. "Phebe's Mushroom Stroganoff." La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin' Made Easy. Ed. Sarah Kramer. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2005.

I can't get Blogger to indent the second line - darnit.... Anyway, enjoy!!!

Fresh Spring Rolls

These have to be one of my favourite dinners for in front of the TV (they're interactive!).

Ingredients: 

Package of Rice Wrappers
Marinated Tofu (I'm lazy & use a pack of marinated tofu, but you can marinade your own. Spicy Thai is good & also a mellow Chinese "honey" soy is good too)
Vermicelli (you won't need a whole pack - get the ones that have a few servings & use one)
Various veggies (I usually use carrot, cucumber, 'shrooms)
Herbs (mint & coriander is my fave)
Hoisin (vegan)
Sweet Chilli Sauce
Garlic

Steps:

Cut up the veggies & grill the tofu (my mum got me a health grill a few years ago & it is the best for making low-fat crunchy tofu). Slice the tofu up into sticks - 1cm x 4 or 5cm.
Arrange attractively (or stick it in a big pile!):

Make a dipping sauce with the hoisin, sweet chilli & garlic. I usually get a heaping teaspoon (or two) of minced garlic, cover it with sweet chilli sauce & add hoisin until I'm happy with the colour (it needs to be fairly dark):

"Cook" the vermicelli according to directions (I normally put in a heat proof bowl & add boiling water until I'm happy with the level of 'cookedness').....

Boil another kettle of water & add to the biggest bowl you have in the house (I have a monstrous pasta bowl). Dip the rice wrappers in the hot water (careful, it's hot!) & drip for a few seconds to remove excess water (otherwise they'll be soggy & unmanageable). Arrange your ingredients on the wrapper (I like putting the sauce in the middle of the roll - usually on the noodles - so much easier than dipping & re-dipping - and less messy!!).

Here's the results - I was too hungry to take a wrapped pic, but you get the idea!!!


Enjoy!!!

Dinner - as made by my Ma

We had dinner @ Mum & Dad's on Sunday night. Mum made fritters (which were a favourite of mine when I was a kid, but I haven't had them since I became vegan)...... Yummy (carbs & fat).......
Here's the mix:


If I remember correctly, Mum said it was a cup of flour, 3 tsp of Baking Powder, 2 serves egg replacer & soy milk to make a runny mix. Then add veggies. She added red onion, grated carrots, grated zucchini and corn (that she microwaved and de-cobbed). She fried them with canola oil (you do it like pancakes - wait for the bubbles and then flip) & served them with a tomato relish (I didn't get a photo).....

Here's the tasty results (Mum said that there were too many, but there were none left after Cam & I had finished with them!!!):


Appetizer was some spicy pumpkin soup:


For dessert Cam & I took over the trusty pie maker & had simple apple pies (Canola based puff pastry, can of baking apple, cinnamon sugar). Even though you can only see the outside, I assure you they were the bomb....


Peace out - enjoy the veggie freedom!!!!

One last thing

Does anyone in Australia make their own seitan??

I'd love to know what brand of flour you use - we don't have Vital Wheat Gluten anywhere in Brisbane......

Thanks...

And another thing

It could probably be expected, given that I'm such a book geek, that I'd be conversant with the works of Kurt Vonnegut already. Well, I'm not (I was meant to read Slaughterhouse Five in a North American subject, but I was busy trying to make sense of The Sun Also Rises).....

Anyway, while I was pilfering books from the library yesterday (tough luck if you're a UQ student and you want to read about Sense and Sensibility at the moment - I have ALL the books - tee hee) I grabbed A Man Without a Country.

It's a fantastic book - I remember seeing the interview KV did on the Daily Show last year. He's incredibly funny & thoughtful.

It will only take you 2 hours, but you'll enjoy it......

I forgot to say

I've been listening to some GREAT music lately...

Newest addition to the collection has been Serena Ryder's If Your Memory Serves You Well.....

She's an awesome singer - it's great for the treadmill (except it's hard to sing along when you're jogging, but that doesn't stop me trying!!)...

Favourite tracks: Just Another Day, Boo Hoo, My Heart Cries For You...

Give it a try.....

I'm a lazy, lazy blogger

A lovely friend of mine invited me over to her place last week for dinner, so I took my camera - I left it at her place. Ha! I have an excuse for being lazy.. ;)
Anyway, here's the food we've been eating for the last couple of weeks:

Last night: Malaysian Curry (made by my boyfriend)....
In the words of Elmo (I think) this is definitely a 'sometimes' food. Laden with Coconut Cream and generous quantities of canola oil, this one's for when you've been v. good with your food! So tasty though (just had a bowl for breakfast!!!!). Perhaps the brown rice makes up a teeny weeny bit for the fat??? LOL.. We got this recipe from the lovely people who owned ID Cafe in Fortitude Valley. I really miss their laksa (although now I have the recipe!!!).... :(

According to the photo properties we had this on April 3 - I've posted a pic of this one before - Ginger Miso Tofu Salad. It's incredibly fresh tasting (but you do get slightly wierded out (is that even a word???) by the tofu - it comes off the grill looking like Chinese BBQ pork). The miso ginger dressing is so tasty. I think we may have gone overboard with the sesame seeds.....

I seem to be posting lots of meals that my boyfriend has cooked of late - he's making up for a few weeks ago (he took GAMSAT & I did all the cooking, etc so he could study). I'm meant to be catching up on my thesis - it's going VERY slowly.....

Anyway, here's another Vegan Monkey creation:


I believe this recipe is from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. It was very good. It reminded me of the delightful curries you get from Krisha restaurants - very fragrant, but not too heavy......

I couldn't go a week without making cupcakes, I actually had a few left over when I took them to work - everyone's either been off sick or on holidays...... These ones are the basic vanilla and basic chocolate cupcakes 'marbled' together with Peanut Butter icing (from VCTOTW). I've gone on a health kick (I've started running on the treadmill - I did 5kms in 38mins 30secs on Friday). Anyway - here they are in all their unhealthy glory:


I'm drooling just looking at them.... How very Homer Simpson of me.....

And finally, a silly picture I took at my friend's place. She forgot to take the screw cap off the wine bottle before pouring..... Here's our silly reconstruction:


I'll be a little less lazy this week I think!!! Enjoy your vegan food everyone!!!! xxooxxx

Vegan Easter Egg!!!!

I don't normally blog specifically about products on here, but I found this easter egg at Target in the Myer Centre (Brisbane) on Friday. It appears that not only is the easter egg vegan, it's also ethical!!! They're not cheap though (but Vegan Monkey certainly enjoyed it!!!).......

Maybe it's a Vegan Easter Not-Egg?????? LOL.... 

Cupcakes - the vegan's secret weapon

Every time I make cookies or something sweet & take to work, everyone appears to be my newest friend!!!

Anyway, I made these last week (Wednesday) to celebrate finishing a project. Above are Mucho Margarita Cupcakes (p133-4 Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World). And below are Mint-Chocolate Cupcakes (sans icing) (p73-4 Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World).

The cupcakes took less than five minutes to disappear & everyone loved them...... Surprise surprise.... ;)

Malaysian Dumplings (again)

I've made these dumplings before, but I forgot to add a completed picture!!!!
So tasty (so fattening!!!).....

Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Soup, with Assorted Focaccias

With the change of seasons (and my flu/cold this week) I decided that we should have some soup. Making this reminded me of growing up with my family - my mum would usually make pea & ham soup out of the Xmas ham bone (frozen for the three months prior) & we'd eat it for an entire weekend.

However, now that I'm vegan, I don't want to go killing innocent piggies for tasty soup, so I turned to another family recipe - pumpkin soup. Here's my variation on my ma's recipe:

Ingredients: Pumpkin (get the quarter pieces from the supermarket), 1 large sweet potato (I think I got gold, but I'm not really au fait with the different varieties of this vegetable), 1 (at least) bulb of garlic, olive oil, 1 tablespoon vegan margarine, 2 tablespoons corn flour, cup (or so) of soy milk, vegan chicken stock powder & salt.

How to make the thingy: Cut & roast the pumpkin, sweet potato & garlic bulb (don't peel, just drizzle with olive oil) in olive oil in the oven at around 180 degrees (Celsius) for about 45 mins to an hour. Make a roux with the marg & corn flour & add the milk to make into a white sauce/pasty looking thing. Add in the roast veggies & top up with about half a litre of water and 2 tablespoons of stock powder (go for your own taste here). I puree with a potato masher, but you can puree with a blender or something else if you want a professional finish. Simmer for about 5 minutes until thick (or however you like it). I like to add chopped basil on top to finish.

I served with two focaccias I made using the breadmaker......

Olive and Sea Salt:


Mushroom & Sun-dried Tomato:


Now all we need in Brisbane is some really cold weather & I can make more!

Ginger Hoisin Noodles (Special guest cook: Vegan Monkey)

So I could attempt to get some work done on my thesis this week (fat chance - I got the flu and spent most of the week in bed and on the couch) Vegan Monkey (my boyfriend) took over the cooking duties.

One of the dishes he made were these noodles (p126-7 The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton).

They tasted pretty good!!!!

Also, first person to think of a better blog name for the boy, other than Vegan Monkey gets.... my eternal gratitude..... Add to the comments below..... :)