Posts tagged ‘veg*nism’
Friday Feast: Mango Pico de Gallo
This home-made salsa is based on a mango pico de gallo we used to eat when we lived in Texas. It was my first foray into pico de gallo ever (I know! But I’m Australian and it’s not something we typically eat here.). It was from HEB. Don’t look like that. It was good! Especially with those Tostitos cups or fresh made tortillas. You can’t get fresh made tortillas in Brisbane unless you make them yourself. I miss them. I miss Tostitos cups too.
I eat this pico de gallo piled on Mission corn chips/strips which I heat in the oven. In my pre-vegan days, I’d put cheese on top, but I find that it doesn’t taste that different. The heated corn chips add a really rustic flavour to the bright salsa. I also sometimes eat the salsa as an accompaniment to beans and rice. Or as a dip. Or on a spoon.
Yankee Elv has a weird genetic thing that makes coriander (cilantro) taste like soap, so we substitute parsley for coriander. However, if you don’t have that weird genetic thing, you like coriander and you’d like to be authentic, then that’s what should really be used.
Mango Pico de Gallo
Ingredients:
- 2 mangoes, diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 5 – 6 tomatoes, with the cores discarded and the outer flesh diced for use
- 2 green chilis, diced finely (include the seeds if you like more heat)
- 1 red chili, diced finely (include the seeds if you like more heat)
- a handful of chopped parsley leaves
- lime juice, to taste
Method:
- Stir all the chopped fruit/veges together in a bowl.
- Add the parsley and lime juice and combine.
THE END! Easiest recipe ever. 
Vegan Attempts @ The Jetty Oxford
I went to a work lunch at a place not of my choosing today. But I wasn’t paying the bill, so I’m not complaining too much!
We went to The Jetty Oxford, at Bulimba. It’s right near the ferry dock. It had big fat no vegan food. Except, I think, chips and maybe olives. There may have been a salad they could have removed the cheese and dressing from. Er… appetising for a lunchtime meal? I think not.
So I talked to the waitress and she talked to the chef, and he was not helpful. But I think I took him unawares, because about two mins later he had the waitress come back out and offer to make me a mysterious risotto. I agreed.
Here it is:
I think it had fennel, asparagus, apple and maybe mint? The sauce was made from peas. That is not something I would typically choose ever, considering I don’t particularly like peas or asparagus and I’ve actually never eaten fennel. However, the chef didn’t know that and it was very good if you discount the fact that the flavours were not particularly to my personal liking (and actually, I found the flavours were not even too bad). It was infinitely better than chips, olives or nude, boring salad for lunch.
So thank you, The Jetty Oxford chef!
The moral of the story? You should never be afraid to ask if the chef can offer anything vegan, cos they just might!
Friday Feast: Pickled Watermelon Rind
It’s almost summer here in Australia, which means it’s time to eat watermelon! I like to use my handy dandy melon baller so I can eat it with a fork. I know, it’s kinda un-Australian to not eat it in great big slices and get it all over your face… but I don’t really like getting sticky. If someone builds me a swimming pool to jump into after eating it, maybe I’ll change my method.
Anyway, I was eating watermelon the other day and after I’d removed all the lovely pink flesh of the melon, I was left with the rind, and I remembered reading about a Southern (as in the South, in the USA) snack – pickled watermelon rind. I don’t mind regular pickles, but I’m not as in love with them as my Polish-American partner, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat the pickled rind of quarter of a watermelon… but I figured I might as well give it a try at least once. Everyone raved about them, so why not?
Well, I gotta tell you, pickled watermelon rind is yummy! It’s crunchy and cool and refreshing – a perfect snack for hot weather, and it’s not super sweet. Most cold foods are sweet. This one is vinegary, but a little sweet from the sugar. It’s nice for a change. And I really like the crunch!
I chose the absolutely easiest watermelon pickle recipe I could find. Others call for certain herbs, or soaking the rind overnight – stuff like that. Since I wasn’t even sure I would like them, I was going for minimum effort. I think this actually was a great idea. The simplicity of the flavours is part of what I really like about these pickles. Plus they’re quick and easy, and they use up something I’d normally discard. I just changed the vinegar to apple cider vinegar cos that’s what I had in the cupboard.
So now that I’ve raved… here’s the recipe.
Pickled Watermelon Rind
Ingredients
- Watermelon rind (from a quarter of a big melon)
- 1 very scant cup of water
- 1 very scant up of apple cider vinegar
- 2/3 to 3/4 cup caster sugar
Method:
- Cut the watermelon rind into small chunks, about 1 to 2 inches in size. Make sure you remove the green skin.
- Stir the water, vinegar and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Add the watermelon rind and stir.
- Turn off the stove, but leave the saucepan on the hotplate. Let the rind sit until it reaches room temperature.
- Place rind and as much brine as you can fit in a jar(s) and put them in the fridge.
- Eat them right away or save them for a bit in the fridge. Remember, these haven’t been properly sterilised and sealed, so they’re not shelf-safe. You should eat them within a few weeks at most and keep them in the fridge.
Note: swish your mouth with water after eating, because it’s not good for your teeth to let acidic foods like vinegar sit on the enamel.
Friday Feast: Pumpkin Pie Spice Muffin Tops
These were meant to be cookies. I followed the recipe completely! But they’re way too cakey. They don’t look like the picture in the recipe I veganised. I don’t know what happened… maybe it’s cos I made my own pumpkin puree*? Or could it have been the veganisation? I don’t think it was due to my reduction in white chocolate chips or making my own pumpkin pie spice (you can’t buy it in Australia!).
Anyway, regardless of whether or not they turned out how they were supposed to, they taste good. Just call ‘em muffin tops and eat ‘em all up!
This recipe makes about 36 cookies.
Pumpkin Pie Spice Muffin Tops
Ingredients:
- 2-¼ cups plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup vegan margarine, softened
- 1 cup white/raw sugar (we used low GI cane sugar, which is similar to raw sugar)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (I made my own from a grey pumpkin)
- egg replacer for a whole egg (we used Orgran’s No Egg)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (imitation is fine)
- 1 cup vegan white chocolate chips (or chunks, in our case – we cut up some vegan white chocolate)
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Cream the margarine and sugars.
- Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to the wet ingredients and combine thoroughly.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- When all ingredients are combined, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop small spoonfuls (slightly heaped teaspoonfuls) of dough on a non-stick cookie sheet, then place in the fridge for 5 to 10 mins before baking.
- Place in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
Friday Feast: Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
On Halloween night, while Yankee Elv and I were waiting for trick-or-treaters, we decided to make biscuits. I mean, cookies. Since they were American style, they can be cookies just this once.
We made two types: chewy chocolate chip and pumpkin pie spice with white chocolate chips. The latter turned out too cakey. The flavour is great, but the texture is not right. However, if you think of them as something other than cookies (such as muffin tops), then they are super yummy. As for the former – the chocolate chip cookies – well, they’re only the most super awesome vegan cookies I’ve ever tasted.
So, here’s the recipe. We didn’t really change it much; but we did reduce the number of chocolate chips. Admittedly, this was only because we didn’t have enough chocolate chips… We actually changed the method more than the ingredients. Clearly we made smaller cookies, cos we ended up with 48 rather than the 25-30 the recipe said it would make. Also, to get a great texture and shape, Yankee Elv puts the tray full of unbaked cookies in the fridge for 5-10 minutes before placing it in the oven. This really helps for some reason and is not a trick I’ve ever used before. This may be why I’m typically bad at baking cookies. But these ones turned out great (thanks YE).
Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of softened vegan margarine
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white/raw sugar (we used low GI cane sugar, which is kinda like raw sugar)
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (imitation is fine)
- 2 1/4 cups plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 300g vegan chocolate chips (the original recipe called for 12oz)
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- In a large bowl, cream the margarine, sugar and brown sugar.
- Slowly stir in the non-dairy milk.
- Add the vanilla essence.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda.
- Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir well.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Drop small spoonfuls (slightly heaped teaspoonfuls) onto non-stick cookie sheets and refrigerate each tray for 5 to 10 minutes before placing them in the oven.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, until you can lift them off the tray with a spatula. Then place them on a cooling rack until they’re cool. Make sure you eat some while they’re warm though!
Friday Feast: Rajmah Gobi Curry
This is a dish I made a few weeks ago with whatever I happened to have in the house. Clearly, I had a lot of cauliflower (gobi). It tastes good with basmati rice, but I also enjoyed this curry as a filling in a wrap.
When I made it, I let it simmer on the stove for about an hour while I was cooking something different for Mr Teeny-bop’s dinner and baking dessert. The long simmering time really made a difference – the curry would have been quite watery otherwise. If you want to make this with less cooking time, I’d reduce the coconut milk and chopped tomatoes – possibly using as little as half as much.
Chickpeas would also go well in this – in fact, that’s what I was originally going to use, but we didn’t have any! Kidney beans (rajmah) tasted great instead.
Rajmah Gobi Curry
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cauliflower
- 1/2 red capsicum
- 1/2 green capsicum
- 1/2 cup peas
- 400g can chopped tomatoes
- 400mL can coconut milk
- 400g can kidney beans
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tab lemon juice
- black pepper to taste
- 1 tab vegan margarine
- 2 tab curry powder
- oil
Method:
- Heat oil in large pan over medium-high heat and fry onions until slightly brown.
- Reduce heat to medium and add garlic, curry powder and tomatoes. Combine and simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add cauliflower, beans, lemon juice, salt, pepper and half of the coconut milk. Simmer for 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add capsicum, margarine and the other half of the coconut milk. Simmer for as long as you want – up to an hour – until the curry reaches a consistency you like. The chickpeas should be soft and the cauliflower tender.
- At the end, add the peas for just long enough to cook through. (If you leave them in there too long, they’ll get mushy and gross.)
- Serve with rice or flat bread. Yum!
Vegan Fast Food
Vegans and fast food don’t often go together. There are exceptions, like Lord of the Fries in Melbourne, but those kinds of places are far and few between. Takeaway food from regular restaurants is a bit expensive to eat very often.
So usually I make my own fast food.
This is what I had for lunch the other day:
- Roasted sweet potato (I had two in the basket in the pantry starting to get a bit old, so I roasted them up to eat as I pleased)
- Refried beans with jalapenos (thanks Old El Paso!)
- Mexi-beans (thanks again Old El Paso!)
- Mexican style express rice (this time, Uncle Ben’s was my friend)
- Roasted capsicum salsa (I’m taking out shares in Old El Paso).
So these aren’t the most eco-friendly items I’ve ever eaten… two things from cans, one in a plastic packet and one from a jar… but aside from the rice packet, it’s all recyclable and/or reusable, which is more than you can say for the paper/cardboard/plastic/styrofoam packaging you get from places like Macca’s.
It’s also loads healthier.
And it was fast! It took me less than 5 mins to make. Sometimes that’s what you want. Plus, there’s leftovers!!
But best of all, it was tasty. Nommmmm….
Whittaker’s Dark Chocolate: Vegan!
I w0uld like to thank New Zealand for bringing Whittaker’s chocolate into my life. Well, into the lives of everyone. You see, Whittaker’s is a recognisable (read: non-specialty vegan) brand here in the Australian market. And all their dark chocolate is vegan. Plus, their chocolate (the family blocks at least) is wrapped in paper and foil – all recyclable.
I’ve known this for a while. I’ve been eating their plain and nutty chocolates for a while (peanut slab OMG!). Recently I discovered the one with little pieces of orange zest. But nothing prepared me for finding gooey peppermint chocolate the other day in Big W.
Whittaker's Ghana Peppermint family chocolate block (250g).
I love gooey peppermint chocolate! Always have!
It tastes like peppermint patties.
It tastes like the Cadbury’s family chocolate block I used to choose when it was my week to pick which chocolate we bought for the family. (Dad didn’t like my weeks, because he dislikes peppermint. Everyone else loved my week. More chocolate for them!)
It tastes like yumminess.
Thank you Whittaker’s!!!
Mulberries: The Beginning
I am attempting a semi-microblog. I don’t think I quite managed it! lol
Here are the mulberries Yankee Elv and Mr Teeny-bop picked. This is a ginormous sieve/colander. These berries filled two large containers.
The mega mound of mulberries.
Day One of The Great Mulberry Harvest: Muffins
Check it out: the crumb isn't right and neither is the outside. But I like how the mulberries stain the muffin bluey purple!
I made muffins with 1.5 cups of mulberries. It was the first time I tried this recipe. I didn’t use any of the lemon stuff, and obviously, I used mulberries instead of blueberries. Unfortunately, I wasn’t overly thrilled. They came out a bit tough; the outside was too hard and chewy and the crumb inside wasn’t right. My friend Jho said they tasted like cardboard! Yankee Elv was slightly more diplomatic and just said they tasted a bit bland. Mr Teeny-bop didn’t like them, but he is super picky, so that was no surprise. I thought, however; they tasted reasonably good when warmed up and spread with some nuttelex. And it used 1.5 cups of mulberries, so that was a win!!
Day Two of The Great Mulberry Harvest: Giveaway
I gave a container of mulberries to Jho and her partner BB. Jho, as it turned out, didn’t like them (“They taste like semi-sweet small cherries!”), and she shared them around to other pepole in the office. BB will eat them with yoghurt, though. Yankee Elv took a much bigger container to work, where everyone picked at them all day long, quite happily.
Day Three of the Great Mulberry Harvest: Taking a Break!!
We still have a couple of cups of mulberries left in a container in the fridge and we’re still getting through the muffins too! I don’t want to make much more til we get through those, but I’m going to have to do something tomorrow or the berries will go bad.
I think we’ll probably pick the next lot of ripe ones off the bush (tree) tomorrow and get going on the next lot of things to make. Ideas include:
- Mulberry nutbread: Yankee Elv makes a great one with zucchini and dried cranberries – I think the addition of mulberries would work quite well
- Frozen mulberries: For later in the year when we want berries but the growing season is over
- Mulberry cobbler: Yankee Elv introduced me to cobbler when we were living in the USA; we don’t have cobbler in Australia really. I love it.
- Mulberry jam: I’ve never tried making jam before, and I’d like to try, but it seems like such a big job. If I have time, I’d definitely like to do this – especially cos it means using up berries now before they go bad, but not having to eat them incessantly for a month!
- Mulberry syrup or stewed mulberries: To eat with pancakes, on icecream or with yoghurt.
- Mulberry/hoisin marinade to eat with tofu
- Mulberries in salad.
September Already?!
Whoa, so it has been ages since I’ve been here… I’ve been keeping an eye on things, but haven’t had a chance to post. It’s been a crazy year so far. Some major highs, like…
- Buying (mortgaging) our first house, just 5 mins up the road from my good friend Jho’s place
- Getting a new kitten (rescued off the road at 5wks old, poor wee thing, just in time for my birthday)
I hereby christen this kitten Fruit Tingle.
- Ending a lease for the last time ever (no more renting!!)
- Everyone going great guns at work and school
- My health hitting a plateau (and since the only other way it could go was down, I’m taking plateau as a major win)
- Yankee Elv getting dreadlocks, which she loves, and which killed my hands for the 50-odd hours it took me to do them for her
Yankee Elv loving her dreads (they were less than a week old at this point)
Yankee Elv's new hairdo gave me the perfect opportunity to rock a dreadstache.
- Mr Teeny-bop getting taller than me and is starting to act less like an irritating teenager and more like a sensible verging-on-grown-up boy
- Our old mate The Dyke Mike coming back down under… maybe for good again
- My vegan-ness continues unabated
- …and did I mention our new house? Quarter of an acre, baby!
Yankee Elv running around the lounge room on the day we got the keys.
But there have been some heavy lows too. The biggest and hardest hitting was Loodle and Old Man Fatso leaving us for greener pastures/another turn at the wheel. They were both very old and it was time… but it still sucked. It’s been since January for Fatso and since May for Loodle, but we still miss them and catch ourselves looking for them. That’s probably partly why I haven’t been here too much. I didn’t feel like I could write about it. Time helps, a bit.
Fatso and Loodle in times gone by.
Otherwise… Yankee Elv’s health has gone down as mine has improved plateaued and we’re not sure what’s going on with her yet. The car has been a never-ending money pit, but we have found an awesome mechanic and our new place is closer to Yankee Elv’s work, so there’s less driving (better for us and the planet!) and everything seems to be on track now. There’s an enormous possum in our ceiling who refuses to leave and is probably peeing all over everything up there as I type. I think his little minion possums come bring him food and water. He sounds like an overgrown wombat wandering around over our heads.
But in the grand scheme of things, life hasn’t been treating us too badly. Some days are diamonds, some… no, I’m not going to go there John Denver. Especially since I only realised the lyrics were ‘stones’ when I looked them up just now. I always thought he said ‘dogs’. Why did I think that?
Sorry, sidetracked.
So anyway, basically, I’m here to say I’m here. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I still read your comments and I still think of things to write here all the time. I just haven’t been able to get here to write anything. Mortgages involve a lot of paperwork. Paperwork = time-consuming.
I hope to get here more often from now on, I’ve got lots I want to say, but I’m going to be honest. No promises. There’s lots we want to do with the new house to get it just how we want it and the rest of my family are planning on applying for Aussie citizenship shortly, now they’re eligible. More paperwork; more time. But I’ll pop back again at least periodically, if not regularly… maybe I’ll do some shorter posts. Somewhere between the microblogging of Twitter and the super-epic-macroblogging I tend to do here.
So on that note, I leave you with one of the awesome surprises we found it our backyard (it was a stick when we moved in and suddenly, rapidly, ended up like this):
Mulberries
More mulberries (there are tonnes of them)
Peaches! I think it's a dwarf peach tree.
More to come…
Recent Comments