Monday 30 July 2007

Catch up food porn... Yeah baby - work it!

Hi everyone! I finally got the complete draft of chapter one done (5500 words later!), so here's what we've been eating.

Cam's been cooking lots (not that he doesn't cook a lot anyway)... Most of the mains below are his - I think I can only take credit for the desserts in this batch! Oh the joys of having a vegan boyfriend who can cook...

To the porn...

Cam made lentil soup last weekend (I think). It was super yummy!
Cam's Dahl

He tends to make enough to feed an army (it's really good when you're tired to have lotsa lentil soup in the freezer! This pot is HUGE! The recipe is his own - I believe that you soak whatever lentils & pulses you want (we tend to add chickpeas) and boil, add in onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc and spice it up. Maybe I'll just get him to write it down for me next time. :)
Enough dahl to feed an army

Next, I believe Cam made Chicken (mock) and Sweet Corn Soup. The recipe came from an ABC website, but do you think I can find the link (but I did!)? Very easy to veganize - just sub vegan margarine and vegan "chicken" (we used the "chicken nuggets from Burlington in Fortitude Valley - great asian supermarket). Warning! This soup is souper (yes, very funny) fatty. You don't need butter on your crusty bread for this one!
Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

Chickpea and Spinach Curry from Vegan With A Vengeance. Truly Isa is a god in the kitchen...
Chickpea and Spinach Curry
The flavours were so delicate in this one. Just perfect.

This one I can take credit for - pizza! Our usual square base with veggies and SoG. Delectable....
Pizza

We also made polenta - I crave this frequently:Polenta and Baked Veggies

And finally, Cam made Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy from VWAV. We didn't have vegan white wine, so we made it with red. Awesome!
Miso Stewed Potatoes and Tofu

And now for the sweet things! I went to My Heart Garden @ St Lucia a few weeks ago (I go to UQ) and had lunch with a friend. This cafe is awesome! The food is tasty curries, burgers, salads, etc. They also do awesome desserts. I had a conversation with the chick that runs it - she's also a huge Isa fan! She had some cupcakes from VCTOTW, which I had with lunch, but I brought home this Pumpkin Maple Cheezecake for Cam and I. So yummy!Pumpkin Maple Cheezecake
If ONLY I had the recipe for this - I would have to run 10km a day instead of 5km!

Finally, Cam requested that I make pumpkin pie. I've seen a few recipes around, but I made the nut granola base from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook and used Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe (I found it here). Yummy! I've made it once since (and we've been having it for dessert every night). While it is pretty low in fat (1/4 cup of oil for the entire pie), it's loaded with sugary goodness......
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie with Ice Cream

It's been pretty smoky in Brisbane over the last few days (I think they've been burning off on the BrisVegas outskirts - 'tis awfully dry from the damn drought). I took this pic from our front porch before we headed off to work. Views like this make me want to be a better nature photographer.
Awesome Sunrise

Tuesday 24 July 2007

Checking in - I'm not dead!

Hey everyone!

Just checking in to say yes, I'm still alive. My thesis has taken over my entire existence for the last two (ish) weeks.

We have some photos waiting to be uploaded, but I'm waiting until the weekend when the 6th draft of chapter one is done.

Meanwhile, watch the 1995 P&P for me & drool over Mr. Darcy....

Tee hee!

Monday 9 July 2007

Cookbooks - help!

Hey everyone!

I'm avoiding study, but I need to order a few books online for my thesis. Thus, I thought that it would be a good time to update the collection (also, I'm a book geek, so I 'like' want every book ever published...)...

Anyway - here is the list thus far (please feel free to make suggestions):
Vegan Vittles (I hear that there is a good pizza cheeze recipe in this - I REALLY want a decent pizza cheeze recipe)
Vegan Planet

Thanks for the help in advance!
Amy.

Thursday 5 July 2007

Slow week.....

It hasn't been the most exciting week here at Casa Cam & Amy. I've been working my a$$ off on my thesis. I sent a draft of almost 4000 words to my thesis supervisor on Monday night (at about midnight) and I got it back on Tuesday afternoon - the number of corrections and rethinks I have to do is ENORMOUS. So depressing.

We don't have many exciting pics for you this week. I've been doing a bit of a repeat week - I've made Seitan Bolognaise (nowhere near as tasty as the last batch), Fresh Spring Rolls (although I skip the noodles now & use grated carrot - so many less cals (I think!)), and a disasterous attempt at a stuffed seitan (it looks like roast beef with the potato when you slice it now)!

I had a friend over on Saturday morning & we made a SoG (Vegetation's fabbo term for Seitan o'Greatness) and some Apricot and Almond Cuppers from the Vegan Cupcake Bible (VCTOTW):
Almond & Apricot Cuppers

I didn't get a chance to try these, but I'm dying to try a variation with raspberry jam (I'm not an apricot fan)..... My friend said they were awesome! So I suppose I can take her word for it! :)

Cam cooked last night ('cause I was working on the thesis redraft - sigh). Potato and Leek soup. The leeks were a ripoff at about $2.50 a stalk (damn you drought), so we joked about not bruising our gold plated leeks. LOL.... Anyway, it totally rocked - we don't have a handmixer (and there's no way in hell I'm sticking something this hot into my food processor) so it was chunky! In a word - YUM!
Potato & Leek Soup

We're having pizza for dinner tonight (yay) so I may have a few pics in a few days. **End Communication**