I'm a proud mama!

I've got two new babies! I'm very happy! It has been a while since we have had any pets and I just LOOOOVE kittys!

So this proud mama is very, very proud to introduce our new members of the family:

 Biggles

Trim

Aren't they beautiful?? Ok, so like any parent, I may just be a little biased! 

We chose them from Lort Smith Animal Hospital on Sunday. They were in a cage together and I didn't want to split them up so we took both! (Poor Popeye is allergic to cats, but we are hoping that he will get used to them). I was under the opinion that they were brothers, but I think I must have made that up as their DOB differs on their documents.

Popeye named Biggles, after the famous literary aviator. We all agreed on Trim's name. One of our homeschooling stories was about Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim, who was a very intelligent cat. We are hoping our Trim is as smart as the cat he is named after. So far, he is very shy. He jumps at the slightest noise. Biggles, on the other hand, is very friendly and loves the attention. It's good to have that balance of pussy personalities I think.

Fortunately for us, both cats are toilet trained. They will also be exclusively inside cats mainly because we live on a VERY busy road with a VERY busy car wash business as our neighbour. Cats and cars are not a good combination. Also, I have a bit of an issue with cats killing wildlife outdoors. so inside cats they are.

Baby can't keep her hands off them!

YM can't wait for them to settle into our house so he can play with them!

Now having two gorgeous additions to our family has produced a DILEMMA for me. As a vegan, I am having a hard time having animal products in my house for the first time in over 2 years. I do realise that cats are not really made for vegan eating but I would love some ADVICE from my fellow vegan blogging cat owners - What do you feed your cats? 

My initial, uninformed thoughts that I should continue feeding my kitty's on kitty food until they are 1. Then I was hoping to be able to introduce a bit of vegan food into their diet and maybe mix it in with their food. Something to research.

On a change of topic, my two home educated babies (the human kind not the kitty kind) have started a blog page called 'Adventures of our homeschooled superheroes'. Their first post was about the kittens and it is fabulous for their writing skills. I'm sure they would love it if you checked it out and left an encouraging comment (this will also help their understanding of writing for an audience).

Meow for now (oh, I feel a Super Troopers moment coming on meow)

Tahn

My new book and a COOL comment

Today 'Ani's Raw Food Kitchen' arrived! It is funny that 2 days ago I was frantically writing out recipes before returning the book to the library in case I had a long wait from The Book Depository. But they get the books out to you so fast. I am excitedly waiting for her new book 'Raw Food Essentials' out in a few weeks.

I got an awesome comment yesterday from Ani Phyo herself!!! (well, ok, so maybe it was one of her 'party' but I feel good thinking it was really her!)

This is what she had to say about my blog post yesterday:

Seitahn, thanks so much for enjoying my books and for the post and photos! I'm so happy you're having fun making easy raw recipes. hope you'll enjoy the new one, out june 1...unless you're in LA. first event is tomorrow (3 weeks early!). more recipes and info on my website, along with cooking videos: http://www.AniPhyo.com. thanks again for the post and your support doll. 


How cool is that!




Chuffed,


Tahn

Ani Phyo - Portobello Steaks on Brazil-Broccoli Mash with Mushroom Sauce

I mentioned in my last post that I had ordered a couple of Ani Phyo's raw cookbooks from The Book Depository. Excitedly, I received one today, Raw Desserts. Obviously from the title of this post this recipe did not come from my new acquisition. But I was lucky enough to borrow her Raw Food cook book from the library without too much of a wait. It was due back today, but I was unable to renew it as there is a bit of a list of people wanting to borrow it. So I quickly wrote out a few recipes to keep me occupied while I sit and wait patiently for my own copy to arrive!

Tonight I made the Marinated Portobello Steaks, which was really simple - the hardest part was waiting the 1-2 hours for the mushrooms to marinate and soften. The mushrooms sat on top of a bed of Brazil-Broccoli Mash. Another simple dish. A quick throw in the food processor. And lastly, the mushroom sauce - just a momentary mix in the blender. Voila!

It was delicious! The Brazil-Broccoli Mash was an interesting flavour. Definitely one that needed 'something' to go with it and it was perfect with the mushrooms. The kids did not like it by itself, but as a part of the combination it was great. The mushroom sauce around the edge was tasty and I ended up adding quite a bit more to my plate. I am really looking forward to trying a lot more savoury raw meals as I tend to stick to the sweet stuff.

Other recipes from her book I have tried are the Almond Mylk which is so easy and delicious and no straining required. A couple of her 'puddings' were yummy, 'Luscious Lemon Pudding' and 'Almond Pudding' usually we ate them at lunch and they kept me full for a good three hours.

I also made her 'breakfast pancakes' made primarily with flax seeds. I made the blueberry syrup she recommends and topped it with bananas. Very nice and filling.

Can't wait for my copy of her cookbook to arrive, especially her new one out VERY soon.

Enjoying the RAW,

Tahn

Cheap Books, FREE Delivery!!

I may already be preaching to the converted but I am sure there are some of you who were 'out of the loop' just as I was!

The Book Depository is awesome! It has FREE delivery WORLDWIDE! WOW! That's huge!! (I find the postage for overseas such a killer!)

And they have an awesome range of books. I've just ordered

For $17.98 (remember free delivery!)

for $18.08

and her new book out in a couple of weeks time:

$19.98

So Cheap!! 

I had a look at some of the books I already own and I have found the cost to be about HALF PRICE compared to what I have paid in Melbourne! Can you believe that???

For example:

I bought

For $29.95 in the city but it is only $14.98 on Book Depository! (FREE delivery!)

This one cost me $29.95 also here but is only $13.48 on Book Depository!

Do I need to go on??

Make sure you change the currency selection to Australian Dollars (only if you live in Oz, BTW!) and see whether you can control yourself!

In case you are wondering, I have actually ordered from them before and have not had any problems with delivery. In fact, it was quite prompt.

And no, I am not getting any commission for the review (although that would be nice!)

Tahn

Nachos from Hot Damn and Hell Yeah

We've all tried making nachos of some description before, but tonight I wanted to try the recipe from Hot Damn and Hell Yeah by Ryan Splint and Vanessa Johnson. This cool cookbook arrived on the day I was leaving to go to Bali in January so I didn't have time to have a good look at it.

The nachos recipe (p. 34) consists of a few different recipes and I used the Taco and Burrito Fill (p. 33) - except I used a tin of Sanitarium Casserole Mince (I have a heap of them lying around!) instead of TVP. I also wanted to try the Cheese Sauce (I'm always up for a new variation of recipes I usually use), p. 5 and Almost Sour Cream (p.10). I had a jar of salsa, so I used that and topped it with spring onions.

The nachos were delicious! All the kids scoffed them up even though they had a little bite to them (not nearly as much as the recipe calls for, though!) - they must be getting used to it! Time to turn the heat up a bit!

For dessert I whipped up the rest of the silken tofu (that I used for the sour cream) into a whipping cream and a peach crumble, both recipes from 1000 Vegan recipes. mmmmmmm

New foods, homeschool fun and a birthday

Wow, have I been busy of late! New recipes have been tried, not photos have not been gotten. I'll be honest and call it as it is - laziness! Here's a meal we had just the other night that I did take out 5 minutes to click away before stuffing it lovingly into my gob!

Country Fried Tofu with Golden Gravy (1000 Vegan Recipes, P. 285) with Szechuan String Beans (Vegan Planet, P. 196) and of course, sweet, sweet corn!

Well, officially we started home schooling one week ago. We are having so much fun. One topic, which began with a reading book called 'Granny Grasshead' ended up with us making our own grassheads. We had a ball making these on the back lawn with a heap of supplies. A few weeks later here is what they look like:

Tweenie's grasshead

YM's grasshead

Baby's grasshead

And, yep, even I made one! The best thing about homeschooling is learning shoulder-to-shoulder with my kids!

Recently it was Baby's 8th birthday and she wanted a chocolate cake. 'No problems,' I said as I picked up my favourite go-to book '1000 Vegan Recipes' by Robin Robertson and I came across the perfect cake for her.

This is the most delicious 'Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake' (P. 445). It has three different sections - the cake, the mousse in the middle and a chocolate ganache on top. Ch Ch Chocolate overload!

Happy birthday my beautiful baby girl. Why do you have to grow up so fast?

Tahn

I've been censored!

Not in a major way, just enough to annoy.

On a forum I have recently joined (nothing to do with food/veganism etc - miles away from this topic) someone posted a rather yummy sounding vegetarian wonton recipe. The only thing not suitable for vegans was the inclusion of a single egg.

So I posted a comment saying how yummy it sounded but suggested that people replace the egg with no egg replacer because the egg wasn't used as a binder and in brackets I wrote "It's a chicken's period, people!!" followed by two emoticons - one of a green 'sick' face and the other of someone covering their ears saying lalalalala.

Nothing but the truth, right? Seems this was taken as offensive and before long a moderator had taken down "It's a chicken's period, people" as well as the two following emoticons. The rest was left.

Now, I gotta tell ya, I was pissed. There is another thread started by someone letting people know they are going to be buying a bulk lot of some sort of animal (pig I think) and asking if anyone was interested in buying the meat from them. Why isn't this censored? I don't agree with the topic, and it is against my beliefs but did I put in a complaint? What annoys me the most is that I don't feel there was anything offensive about what I said, rather it was the truth and I find it frustrating that people are trying to hide the truth.

I think the 'censorship bar' must be set REALLY low if this is what they feel they have to censor.

And to quote Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe 'I actually feel more comfortable with people eating meat if they can face up to what they are doing than those who can't bear to think of the poor animals they are eating.' 
Well said, Johanna - I couldn't agree more!


Reminds me of the issue I had at xmas.


I feel better now, thanks for letting me vent!

Tahn