Happy Birthday to me (for Monday)

I've been busy with my first week of law school (yay!), so here's a quick pic from my birthday party on Saturday night (my birthday was on Monday, so alas I had to party early):



Cookies and Cream cuppers and the Hazelnut Choc Mousse filled Hazelnut Cuppers from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. So yummy. These provided me with the energy to sing karaoke for two hours. Best. Birthday. Party. Ever.

Arrrggghhhhhh (or Yarrrrr for the piratical amongst us)

This is the THIRD time I've started this post. I attempted to post this twice on Tuesday and Blogger decided that it wanted to be evil that day, so here I am!

I wanted to title this "The Yum Disease", in honour of Cam's medical studies, but now it's just Arrrggghhhhhh (or Yarrrrr for the piratical amongst us).

Here be the tasty stuff:
Special guests Adam and Kath's "Tomato Basil and Garlic pasta with Chickpea Salad". Remind me to get the recipe from Kath. It's full of olive oil and deliciousness!

Cam made a "Mushroom and Pea" type curry, but this included zucchini (a vegetable I can no longer live without) and cashews (which are just tasty dammit). 5 stars. Seen here with turmeric rice!



I made my first attempt at a curry "Zucchini Chickpea Tomato Curry" from Dreena Burton's Eat Drink and Be Vegan. Woweeeeeee. We're not going to include the whole coriander seeds next time, but other than that the flavours were perfecto. I might invade Cam's cooking arena!



My dad came over for dinner (Mum was away at a conference) so I made Lasagne and salad.


The Lasagne uses the "Chik'n" seitan from Volume Two of Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk (which I baked) made into a bolognaise sauce (with the "Marinara Sauce" from Veganomicon) layered with wholemeal pasta and spinach "Cashew Ricotta" from V-con. Topped with "Pine Nut Custard" of the same book.


Cam made Tomato and Walnut Rocket Salad. We used a balsamic dressing (the Paul Newman one is vegan!).


Cam's snack plate using various Asian grocer treats – Spring Rolls, Mushroom Chunks and Cabbage Dumplings.



Get Sconed's New Farm "Mac and Cheez". I added extra mustard powder. Yummers.


It's been a week (or so) of firsts – My first Chili! This one was the Black Bean stew (I think) from VWAV.

With Joy of Vegan Baking Cornbread (another first). Awesome Awesome Awesome!

I sent "Coconut Choc Chip Cookies" from La Dolce Vegan in the Aussie PPK Cookie Swap. Quality testing assured that these were of the highest standard.


Finally, Cam took me out to dinner on Monday to Magic Wok in Sunnybank. I had "Crispy Chicken in Bean Sauce" and he had some kind of fish. We also had greens on the side (that were still crispy the next day when I ate leftovers for lunch!).


Aaaahhhh. That feels better! We're not big on Valentine's Day, so we're having hot dogs for dinner. I'm then planning to crash on the couch and watch Buffy. Toodle Ooo!

Holidays are awesome

So I've been lazy. Woops. Actually, not woops, I've been enjoying my last few weeks of freedom (and Cam's already started Med School, so it's been a bit crazy 'round here!).
I'm excitedly preparing for law school. I had to pick a non-law elective and, in order to be fair to the poor 18 yr olds, I decided not to do English. I'm doing French instead! I've been speaking aspirational French since I was a teenager (yes folks, that's English with a French accent).
We've got lots of food to catch up on, so here we go!
WARNING: There's lots of repeats in today's post – I don't have much of an imagination sometimes!

Spinach and Ricotta (Veganomicon Cashew Ricotta) Ravioli with (Veganomicon) Marinara Sauce:


I continued my fetish for kitchen equipment with a ravioli mold!

Isa's Pumpkin Pie Brownies (I've made these before, delicious!):

The usual fortnightly pizza:

Cam made "Chicken" and Sweet Corn Soup. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tasty!

Random stir fry.... I think I made this?


Apple and Sultana Muffin (bastardized recipe from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk Vol. 1):

(Yes, I have tiny hands)
The insides were yummo!

Cam's Extra Special Tomato Soup (1 can Rosella Tomato Soup, 20 mushroom chunks (from the Asian grocer) and a can of chickpeas. You'll have to hassle him for the extra special herbs and spices!):


An army of gingerbread cuppers for Cam's last day of work:

VWAV Carrot Bisque (I was sick for about three days – this helped with my recovery):

Lower fat Pumpkin Ziti from Veganomicon (the secret is not frying the topping & just spraying the top with our fancy new non-aerosol oil spray bottle. Yes, another gadget!):

Celine(from the Have Cake, Will Travel blog of awesomeness)'s Cheezy Quackers. Note the hand of our fantastic model Kath!

There's more to come, but I might save our very special Iron Chef Vegan guest chef meal for another day!

I got into law school!

I get to be poor for the next four years! I'm super excited!

Pass the Pasta!

Yes, that is a super lame post title!

I had the girls from uni over on Friday night 'cause one of our friends was visiting from Adelaide (we miss you Tif!). We went to see Atonement and I cooked for three hours! Atonement was awesome. We're all big fans of Ian McEwan's work 'cause our thesis supervisor wrote her Ph. D on his novels. Read the book before you see the film!

Down to the reason you're here: food!

I made a bastardized version of the spinach and ricotta filling from Nonna's Italian Kitchen using the Cashew Ricotta from Veganomicon. I added a packet of frozen spinach, a handful of fresh basil (from my pot in the kitchen - it's the only thing I can actually grow!) and a shake of dried basil. I made a batch of the chickpea pasta from Nonna, and proceeded to make ravioli. Rolling out the pasta and filling it took 2.5 hours! Now I remember why I only make fresh pasta on special occasions. I need a pasta mold or similar.

Anyway, here 'tis with a modified Marinara Sauce from V-con (I added zucchini!).

I also made my usual olive foccacia. I used smoked olives from the divine deli that my brother works at!

The whole Shebang:

A few days before I made the Pumpkin Ziti filling, but I put it in cannelloni!

Here it is from the side too!

Hope everyone's having a fun summer. It's not raining in Brizzy anymore, much to my dismay. Only three more sleeps to see if I got into law school! And Cam starts med school in two weeks (actually it was two weeks yesterday)! Exciting times....

Amy's second vegan-versary

Howdy everyone! I went vegan two years ago today!

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday, so I made the Veganomicon Moussaka. In fact, it was a VWAV and Veganomicon meal!

Chickpea cutlets! I made a triple batch (thanks to Mr Food Processor). I think I overcooked them slightly...

But they were uber yummy with the tasty mustard sauce from V-con (we used red wine). This is so good! I'm loving mustard more these days. I think my tastebuds are growing up (I realised I'm turning 27 in about two months - eek!).

We had the cutlets with VWAV sesame asparagus. This is the fastest side dish ever!!!!

Then, there was the moussaka. This is insanely tasty. It takes a while (and I need to slice the eggplant more thinly). The tomato sauce was delicate & the pine nut cream/custard was awesome. 11/10!!! In whole form:

On the side:

Upclose (which, to be honest, is pretty similar to on the side):

And to finish, the lovely view from my window (it's raining, yay!)

Happy Non-denominational Christmas everyone!

Here's what we ate today. 'Twas delish!!!



Sanitarium Roast - check out my awesome lining up skillz!
Sesame Asparagus (from VWAV). Roast pumpkin, potato and sweet potato (and the onion that sat under the roast, soaking up the delicious glaze).

Polenta salad from a random Italian cookbook I stole from my ma.

Pumpkin Ziti from Veganomicon.

I also needed more Ziti while writing this!!!!

Hope everyone is as full of food as I am!!!!