New routine

Since I posted about changing our meals around (BIG breakfast, Medium cooked lunch, very small dinner) we have been keeping up with the new routine and are enjoying it.
A typical day looks like this:
Breakfast - cooked- tofu scramble, modge (don't ask - Popeye's concoction!),pancakes (chocolate chip, berry), French toast

This is Very Vanilla French Toast from 1000 Vegan Recipes (p. 519). Delicious!
We are still coming up with large breakfast ideas, but with my new cookbook I recently purchased 'Vegan Brunch', I am sure we will have heaps of ideas.

Lunch: We have had big cooked meals such as pasta and sauce, Edamame Donburi (1000 vegan recipes, p. 263)- sorry no photo of this, it was eaten too quickly!, fried rice. It's been a sit down affair because everyone is on holidays and we can. Afterwards (and before the dishes) we've played a family card game (such as one of our million packs of Top Trumps, or Monopoly Deal - our favourite card game at the moment). On Friday I found some tiffins at the shop next door to La Panella Bakery (who are closing for a holiday in the middle of February in case you were unaware - from the 17th I think) which I was very excited about. I had tried finding tiffins in the Indian grocery stores previously with no luck. When the kids return to school, they will be able to have warm lunches instead of boring, boring sandwiches.

Dinner: No photos here either, but we have just been having smoothies! At about half five, we have all gone up to a local park to play games, relays etc for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours (the adults are burning 500-700 calories!!). It has been so much fun!! Great bonding, great exercise! So far our favourite game is one we adapted from a website. We have called it 'Catch a Sneak' although Tweenie is determined to get us all to call it 'Sneaky Buggers' which is a pretty cool name too! It is a great laugh!
When we get back the kids run through the shower (more calories?? haha), and I get out my favourite kitchen appliance, the food processor, and throw in a heap of fruit, some flaxseed oil/ ground flaxseeds (depending on the flavour of the smoothie), sometimes pea protein powder, last night was fresh coconut and milk (oooo, the small chunks were delicious!). On Saturday I went to the market to grab a heap of fruit that could be frozen specifically for our smoothies. So our freezer is chock full of passionfruit, peaches, nectarines, oranges, bananas, apricots, strawberries etc.
Sometimes I have given a handful of almonds to have with the smoothie, or a raw ball. After dinner is another game, followed by dishes, teeth and bed.
Things have been working out well on our new routine. Not sure how it will go later, after a holiday in Bali and then we come back to school and work, but we are going to try. I'll keep you updated.

And now for something completely different:

There is some E.A.T World (eating around the world) action happening here, if you are interested.

Tahn

Quiche and Salad

Having loved Isa's broccoli quiche, and recently buying Vegan Brunch, I really wanted to try the cauliflower and red capsicum version of the original.

It was delicious, and can I say, possibly even better than the original (if that is at all possible!!). I really love this quiche the next day, straight out of the fridge.

The salad was also nice. I made Petite Pasta Salad (I have a mountain of cucumber to use up) from Vegan Lunch Box with cute little star pasta. Today at my local Foodworks I found some tiny alphabet pasta that I can't wait to try with something like a salad that really showcases the cuteness of the pasta shape.

More Uncheese Fun and NEW COOKBOOKS!

I finally got to taste the Buffalo Mostarella uncheese from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Popeye's sister H and her partner M joined us for dinner (after a long ride on the 112 - they live in St kilda - it takes close to an hour!).

We had a few drinks (wild turkey and coke - mmm) while we waited for the pizzas to cook. So, guess what? Photos forgotten!! There was left overs this morning, and although it is not the same, I have taken a photo of them.

Shitty photo. So shoot me. Anyway, my pizza is loaded with caramelised onions, sweet potato, roasted capsicum, mushrooms, baby spinach, and Mosterella (others had semi dried tomatoes, but I'm not a fan. Nor am I a fan of hot pineapple, which they also had - so clearly this was NOT my pizza). The Mosteralla was REALLY yummy! The only downfall was that is makes quite a bit, and although all 7 of us had large clumps of it all over our pizzas, there is still a shit load left. Now I'll need to find something else to eat it with (darn).

Yesterday we headed into the city. We stopped at the casino to watch the christmas display (which was really good!) before heading to Borders to return a couple of books that Popeye had given me for christmas. I had casually mentioned to him that the reason I turned vegan was the book Skinny Bitch and that I had lent it to a colleague last year who never returned it (it would have been ok if she had turned vegan and kept it, but alas, no). So he LISTENED (wow) and bought it for me for christmas. Except that he got me Skinny Bitchin', which is like a blank journal with little motivational quotes throughout. I'm not much of a journal writer - I'd get excited for a few days and write lots, then put it down and never pick it up again! He also gave me a tapas cookbook, but after looking through it, I found that there would not be much I would make as a lot of it seemed unadaptable, with meat as a focus. I told him that I didn't think I would ever use it and could we change that too (I only suggested it AFTER he said I could swap whatever I wanted. I am not an ungrateful gift receiver).

So I swapped the books for Skinny Bitch (which is the one Popeye wanted to get me)

and Vegan Planet (because as you know I love her other book!).

I was really after one of Ani Phyo's raw cookbooks (does anyone have it they could lend to me?) but Borders really only had 2 raw cookbooks and they both seemed overpriced and crap. I was well over budget (as VP was $50 at Borders, yet only $36 at Readers Feast) but Popeye loves me and paid the extra anyway. I was struggling to find anything else I wanted at this book store. I've since found (from Miss T's blog) that Dymocks on Collins is THE ONE to go to for vegan cookbooks (like I need more vegan cookbooks). I also like Reader's Feast, but they had no raw cookbooks. I was determined to only buy Ani's cookbook at Reader's Feast if they had it but walked out of there with

and

Naughty, naughty.

I REALLY wanted a raw book because one of my NY resolutions is to include a raw food day into our diets next year (more on that and other NY resolutions later). I'll have to rely on Google for a while, gosh darn it.

When Popeye's sister came over she brought cupcakes. I also forgot to take photos of those but they were delish! H is planning on transitioning to veganism (from vegetarianism) next year and she has a new love for VCTOTW. She brought VCTOTW and The Voluptuous Vegan with her for me to peruse (so much to read/try/eat, so little time!). Popeye bought a copy of 1000 Vegan Recipes for her yesterday also and she was a tad pleased!

So I have 5 new-to-me cookbooks waiting for me to get stuck into. Which one do I start with first?

Tahn