Catch up: World Vegan Day

The kids and I took our bikes and jumped on the train and headed to the Abbotsford Convent that was to host the World Vegan Day celebrations again this year. It was only a short ride from the train station to the convent.
This year there seemed to be twice as many stalls and twice as many people. We had the opportunity to meet up with some wonderful Melbourne bloggers (you all know who you are - fantastic to meet you!).

I got to watch a couple of food demonstrations (well, one really. I was watching one demonstrating a cheesecake and I was at the front of the mob of people and 10 minutes in I could hear my children at the back, as loud as could be -"There's Mum! She's in here!" I decided at that point I had better leave quietly or risk being embarrassed by them again!). I managed to watch a raw demonstration with Chef from Le Cru. It was scheduled for 1 hour and it went for one hour! About the first 40 minutes was him talking! Ugh! Anyway he made a raw avocado chocolate mousse. He kept having little 'digs' at vegans choosing to abstain from honey, which is fine, I suppose, as that is his opinion, but just demonstrate the recipe FFS!

Anyways, it was nice. Sorry about the crappy photo with my little point and shoot! I took a million of them and I still couldn't get a clear shot!

Here are some more photos. Also included is a rare photo of me! I NEVER take photos of myself, let alone post it on a public space!!

Tahn

Last day of Vegan Mofo

I made it!!! 31 day of blogging about vegan food! My first mofo! Yay!!

I thought that I would finish Veganmofo III the way that I started - with a picture of my goodies from a trip to the Preston Markets.

All for $38.15! I got:
6 Pears
1kg Bananas
4 blood oranges (a request from Tweenie)
Bunch coriander
7 Tomatoes
7 Lemons
11 onions
1 red capsicum
4 green capsicum
1 whole butternut pumpkin
8 purple potatoes (so experienced am I, I don't even know the proper name for them!)
300g baby spinach
1 bunch silverbeet
700g peas-in-a-pod (my absoute favourite - brings back childhood memories)
3kg brushed potatoes
1 bunch of spinach
2 cauliflowers
500g mushrooms
2 kumera
200g snow peas
6 heads of broccoli
15 carrots
2 small bags of red chilli
bag of pink ladies (For YM - only $3!)

I specifically got the potatoes, pumpkin and kumera for a 'Melbourne Uncup Day Before' Dinner party we are having at our friends house in Frankston on the Monday night - complete with dinner party attire! It's Indian themed food and I'm making Coconut Pumpkin Curry, Aloo Gobi (YM's favourite), and Chai spiced biscuits. I'm really looking forward to it!!!!

World Vegan Day tomorrow! See you all at the Melbourne celebrations!

Tahn

Tofu Patties and a new, old cookbook

Today I went for a walk to my local op shop to look for a Jane Austen book. I didn't exactly find a book, rather a text that contains extracts from 6 of her books. Not a bad find, really. I also came across a heap of other book goodies. There is such a huge 'library' there. I found this book:

It's old, but Australian! Gotta love that!

Tonight the kids all had a Halloween disco for school to attend. Baby was first, then YM and Tweenie's time to rock on. So I needed to make an early dinner and I wanted to use up the veggies in the fridge. I made some Tofu Patties which were not very nice so I won't even bother adding the link. From my new, old cookbook I made Saute Zucchini. It was absolutely delicious! It was really simple, although I would never have thought to do it and ALL the children really liked it! Imagine! I'm not a big fan of tomatoes and I really liked it!
I also just fried up some mushrooms and they were tasty with it also!

SAUTE ZUCCHINI

2T oil

3 large zucchini, sliced

1 onion, sliced

3 tomatoes, cut in wedges (although I cubed mine small)

1/4t oregano

1/2C black olives (not a fan-omitted them)

salt (didn't use either)

Heat oil in frying pan and saute the zucchini slices. Add the onion after a couple of minutes and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, olives and salt. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve.

I've had a bit of a 'moment' tonight :( I am really, really missing Popeye. I don't think I will ever get used to this life.

Tahn

Playing teacher at home:dipping my toe into home schooling

Ok, so again not an official veganmofo post but I'll use the logo anyway!!

Last night Tweenie was complaining about swollen glands in her throat. So when she woke up this morning I gave her the option of staying home if she chose. They never get to stay home when they are a little bit sick, I'm usually working full time and make them go to school (what a bad mother!). So she decided to stay home (no surprises there!). I told her we would do a little bit of learning at home and asked her what she wanted to learn. She suggested the maths book I bought her ages ago. And then talked about impressionism, which she is learning at school. I though that if she was already learning it at school we should maybe look into something different. She chose cubism (I'm pretty sure she just plucked this out of thin air, but that was ok). So I had a look at Art galleries in Melbourne and found that the National Gallery of VIctoria had little activity booklets for children to follow around the gallery and learn about a certain theme. Excellent, I thought! And Tweenie was more than happy to drop the cubism thing.

So, while I waited for the real estate agent to turn up we did a lot of maths and it was awesome to watch her face when she 'got it'! Its exactly the thrill I get when I teach full time. Then we got out a history book and we learnt about the slave trade in Africa in the 1800's. I came up with a couple of questions for her to research from this topic on the internet while I spoke to the agent.

Then we jumped on the train for an 'excursion' to the NGV. The themes we chose to look at were Persuasion by Jane Austen and Totally Wigged Out - people and fashion of the 1800's.

Both were very fascinating topics! From this Tweenie has now gained an interest in Jane Austen and wants to read one of her novels! So we picked up the other 2 kids from 'real' school and headed to the library. Unfortunately all of Jane Austen's novels were booked out and some were not even due back until December! Shame! There was a teenage fiction novel of her's that would have been perfect and it was available but it was nowhere to be found! Even the library staff tried to find it to no avail. Looks like I may have to buy the book, which I was really hoping not to - to save money! Maybe I'll have a look in the op shops (that'll give me something to do tomorrow).

So Tweenie really enjoyed today and I am hoping to do it more often. I would really love to have them home full time. Being in the education sector myself, I am really becoming disillusioned with the education system. I love the fact that we can follow whatever path the children want to learn about, rather than what the school says they should learn. We can go at the pace suited to each child, rather than learning the same concept over and over, just to make sure the weaker kids 'get it'. They get real life skills. They are interested in what they learn. They can be socialised through external activities like scouts, sports etc. There will be NO bullying by other awful children (only their siblings haha). We all get a lot closer as a family. Plenty of one-on-one time.The list could go on.

The negatives are that the children will be around 24/7 (also a positive). Not much me time. Won't be able to earn money. Not sure how Popeye would feel about it, especially supporting us financially.

Maybe I could do a bit with the children on weekends, or maybe pull them out on the days I don't get work. Part time school/home combination is also acceptable through the education department. It's all really early days. It would certainly solve the problem of the children having to change schools every few years when we move with the Navy, the teachers taking a whole term to get to know the child (happens every year to every child), teaching to the test (thats the whole curriculum!!). Oh, so much to think about! I also found a forum for ADF families who home school! There is a wealth of knowledge out there.

Do you have any opinions about home schooling?

Tahn

Silverbeet Pizza and Chocolate Banana Mousse

WTF?? Is it midnight? Am I sick? How come I'm posting so early??

Actually, I'm not really sure why I am able to post so early today, as opposed to other days when it is almost midnight before I get a chance to write.
I'm just extremely happy that I can!

So earlier in the day I made some basic pizza dough and left it to rise. I found a recipe for swiss chard, onion and tofu pizza to use up the silverbeet I had. The recipe combination sounded weird, but I thought I would give it a go anyway.

The recipe requires the pizza bases to be pre-cooked for 15 minutes but I don't recommend this. Have a look why:

Mine blew up like a balloon and here in this photo I have removed the top and now it looks like a pizza bowl! Luckily I had two lots and I pre-cooked the other one for only 5 minutes.
The rest of the recipe was really easy. I like how it turned out. The kids enjoyed it also. It's a very interesting way to use up silverbeet!

Before I made the pizzas I made this Chocolate Banana Pudding. It needs about an hour in the fridge. It requires 2C of silken tofu. So after I picked up the kids from school we walked to Woolies (well, Safeway, but I'm from W.A and some things you just hold on to!) to pick up 2 pkts.
So I stick one packet into the blender, all fine and dandy. Then I go to put the other one in and it looked like this:

It didn't smell too good either! And it was FULL of water! Its expiry date wasn't until the 25th of November! This is definitely not right, is it?
Anyway, I chose not to add it to the blender, so our dessert only had about 1C of silken tofu. And lazy me didn't scrape down the sides of the blender and a lot of the cocoa was still dry on the sides. I didn't mind, though. I thought it probably balanced out the lack of tofu.

Tweenie and Baby had a couple of tinned mangoes on top. It was delicious and I would definitely make this dessert again. It was so quick. About 3 minutes!

I'm feeling a little better today. I did manage to get up and at 'em, although it was a bit later in the day. I organised for a real estate agent to come around and appraise my house for renting and I have another coming tomorrow morning. It's an exciting, yet nerve-wracking time for me. I know I have made the right decision but...

Tahn

Banana Loaf Cake and a lazy poorly day

OMG, I have had such a lazy day. I'm not sure whether me being a little poorly is any excuse!! I'm sure that if I had actually left my bed for other reasons except to pee, I would have not felt so bad! So, I have made a pact with myself, and I write it here for all to see, that no matter how bad I feel tomorrow, I'm getting showered, dressed and occupied! I need to because my house is trashed - the children always seem to take advantage!

So tonights meals was fried rice again. I used the sweet corn rice recipe that I used before and also added the vegetarian pork because the kids asked for it. (Note to self, I must see how much protein that stuff has). Tweenie organised the rice. The rest is so quick and simple. Remember when I thought I should have a fall back plan when I wanted to have take-away or can't be bothered cooking? I think I have found THE recipe! So very quick and pain free.

I was searching for a quick recipe for Tweenie to make after dinner and came up with Nancy's Banana Muffins. So easy, too!

She turned it into a loaf cake instead of muffins. I thought it would be quicker and less messy (it was nearly her bed time, too!).

It has no oil (which is a bonus because I have TOTALLY run out of every oil I use!) and only 1/3C marg. It is quite tasty. Tweenie is really good at making stuff! I LOVE this age! (she's just turned 11).

While lazing in bed reading blogs and playing on Facebook, I caught up with a friend from WA. She called me and we talked for soooo long, about an hour-and-a-half!! Hope she's reading this now - thanks for the chat K!

Vicki from Vicki Vegan blog is trying to organise for us all to catch up at the WVD this Sunday. Looking forward to that!

Tahn

Tofu and Vegetable Pie

This afternoon I sent Tweenie into the fridge to see which vege she wanted as the main ingredient for tonight's dinner. She came back with 'Cauliflower'. Hmm, not my favourite, although I am learning to love it through the fantastic recipes I have been trying in the last 6 months.

So I googled, and I Supercooked and I googled some more. I wasn't finding anything that tickled my fancy. Nearly gave up and thought about telling the kids to make toasted sandwiches! Anyway, thought I'd have to rethink the main ingredient. And I came up with a Tofu and Vegetable Pie (I wanted to use the fresh tofu I picked up at the Asian Grocer), plus I used up the rest of the corn on the cob and steamed some cauliflower and add the Instant UnCheese-it.

The kids really liked it and it was nice, but a little boring tasting - like it was missing a little something (I didn't use the 'chicken' seasoning, maybe that was it??). I liked the taste of the fresh tofu though!

Ages ago, my friends A & C ( who took us out for lunch at Soul Mama) lent me The Uncheese Cookbook. That's where I had made up the instant uncheese. I made it up in a snap lock bag and it has sat in the cupboard for a while. I pulled it out tonight and realised that I couldn't remember how to make it so I just boiled some water in the kettle and added a few tablespoons to it. It worked out well, and Tweenie even steamed herself some more cauliflower in the microwave so she could have some more cheese sauce.

Yesterday I posted that I had four days work this week. I went in today, and after school I got a call saying that they didn't need me for the rest of the week as they had finished all the testing they needed me for. Shame :( Was looking forward to that cash. I have also picked up something from the germy kids and I am feeling like absolute CRAP for the FIRST time this year :(
I may just spend the day in bed tomorrow. I wish Popeye was here to look after me - I am really missing him tonight.

Tahn