Curried Carrot Salad

This is by far one of the best salads I have had yet! (yes, it's the same bowl - it's the only good one I own!)

Again the recipe is from goneraw.com and can be found here. Well worth a look!

Tahn

Took a break, now I need to catch up!

Wow, has a week gone past already?? I seriously needed the 'break' after posting for all 31 days of Veganmofo!

But now I am back!

This tummy-rumbling picture is a mixture of a couple of recipes I found. The tofu is sesame seed encrusted and it's resting on a bed of capsicum, broccoli, spinach and tomato. DELISH!

Most of our meals in my week off have been very boring.

My mum arrived from W.A today and we went to the South Melbourne Markets. I found Chia seeds and organic cacao powder. After we got home we walked to Woolies to get a few things. We specifically wanted some ingredients for tabouli and oaty burgers. By the time we got home we were stuffed so I ended up using my new toy from the World Vegan day to make some raw zucchini and carrot curls.

I then probably broke the rules of raw and added some heated pasta sauce over the top. Everyone thought it was delicious and I thought of some other wonderful ingredients I would add next time (including making my own pasta sauce!). It was scoffed down before I could remember to take a photo! I think this was a good introduction to partially raw for all of us. The kids were comparing the lengths of the curls to see who had gotten the most and longest!

After we cleaned up I made the kids a green smoothie. I used green grapes, spinach, flax seed oil, cacao powder, banana, chia seeds and ice.

The result was happy kids!

Stay tuned for the tabouli and oaty burgers. Tweenie gets her braces off tomorrow and is very excited. I wonder if I will feel like cooking...not if it is as hot as it was today!

Tahn

Zucchini is coming out of my ears!

On Saturday we got to the Markets VERY late so we didn't have much choice left. It was 15 minutes before closing and the stallholders were getting rid of the last bits of fruit and veges. I managed to pick up a dozen zucchinis for $1! So I have been trying to find yummy things to do with them before my pets (the worms) get to eat them.

So I found this recipe for Vegetarian Chilli on the Supercook website (there is a bit of a theme going on here with the Supercook website this week!). I know most of you will have your own chilli recipe you use, but I haven't got 'one' yet and found this one to be SCRUMPTIOUS! Every single one of my babies LOVED  it. I used up 2 of the zucchinis in this recipe, changed the 2T of cumin seeds to 2t (still could taste it but not overpowering - too much spice makes for whingey kids!). I'd also add MORE sweet corn as I am such a fan of this vegetable (that's because I am such a sweet tooth!). I didn't have an extra can of whole tomatoes so I left it out, but next time I would try it with 2 cans of chopped or some fresh chopped tomatoes. Other than that, I think this recipe is a keeper for us. Maybe it will be my 'signature' chilli! ha

Oh, and I had a TINY bit of left over rice from last night that I added right at the end.

I went to the 'Nong today to help my BIL with his website. I tried to find the new Vegesafe cafe for lunch (was suppose to be on Foster St), but could not find it ANYWHERE! Very disappointed as I was hoping to see what they had, give it a go and review it. If it is there it is hiding and not very noticeable - if a vegan looking for it can't find it, how are the general public going to go! Shame, really, was looking forward to it.

On the way out my sister and I stopped at Savers. Wow, that is a big store! Very neat, orderly and set out. Lots of kids clothes too, so I promised that I would take the kids there one day (they'll love it!). All we pulled up in a parking spot and were putting some coins into the meter, an average looking, nicely dressed bloke came up to us and said that he had just had his wallet stolen and really wanted to buy a jacket in the Salvos (that store was right where we parked) for $5 and could he swap some cigarettes for $5. My sister said she had no money but I knew I had a $5 note and although I am on government benefits (dole bludger!) I reached into my bag and handed him some money. He looked at me, took the cash, started to walk off, then turned and said thanks. Then he started to walk in the OPPOSITE direction of the Salvo store! Rude. Anyway, we went into the Savers store and after 10 minutes in there the same dude walked up to us and was about to give us the same line again but you could see in his face he recognised that we had already been suckered into  handing over money and he promptly turned and got the hell out of there. You, know, it really annoyed the crap out of me because 1. I have NO money (I haven't been paid for the teaching work yet) and 2. It makes me think twice about helping out these people who REALLY need help. I bet he makes more in a day than I get from the government with 3 kids in a week! So wrong and again, I feel embarrassed that I got suckered in again!

Slime ball.

Tahn

Keen for some Quinoa

Quinoa is such a funny name (just like seitan, agave, and other names I can say in my head, but I have never had to say them out loud). I’ve actually never eaten quinoa, let alone cooked with it!! Can you believe it?? I bought some a few months ago with the intention of giving it a go and I am only just trying it now! 

I found this recipe at Savvy Vegetarian but made some adjustments (mostly because I didn’t have some of the ingredients). The original recipe asked for 1/4C currants but I think hot fruit is WRONG!!!!

Quinoa, Carrot & Zucchini  Casserole

1C quinoa

a small handful of pepitas (I had no sunflower seeds)

2 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

2T olive oil

1 small leek, chopped small

2 medium carrots, chopped small

2 small zucchini, chopped small

1t ground coriander

1/2 t paprika

pinch cayenne

1/2t ground cumin

1 3/4C boiling water

fresh coriander

ground pepper 

Method

Soak quinoa for an hour, rinse, leave to drain. Preheat oven to 180C. Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Stir fry leek until transparent. Add carrots, stir fry five minutes. Add zucchini, stir fry one minute. Add the spices, except for the fresh coriander and pepper, lower heat and stir until they start to brown. Put all ingredients (except fresh coriander and pepper) into a casserole dish. Stir in 1 3/4 cups boiling water, cover, and bake 20 - 30 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed. Before serving, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Stir in the minced fresh coriander, fresh ground pepper, and serve

The original recipe also asked for celery but that is one vegetable that I can’t stand! It is so overpowering in every dish I have had with it!

This dish wasn’t bad. A bit bland, but the kids liked it (probably because it was bland!)

Today we went for a really long bike ride. We tried to find Dight’s Falls but couldn’t! We found a sign that said ‘Dight’s Falls 250m’ with an arrow. So we followed it only to come across another sign with an arrow pointing back towards where we had just come from saying ‘Dight’s Falls 500m’. WTF!! So we gave up and found a cool park to eat our picnic lunch and played on the playground. On the way home we stopped at other parks and went around the Brunswick Velodrome a million times to wear ourselves out a little more! All up -   4 hours of continuous exercise and about 18 kms of bike paths!!

When we got home Tweenie said “my vajeena is sore’ and YM said ‘So is mine!” We all rolled on the floor laughing as YM is a boy and therefore does not own a ‘vajeena’! hahaha

(note: we do actually use the correct names for our body parts in this house but Tweenie considers herself a bit of a comedian!)

Looking forward to the start of VeganMoFo III tomorrow! I have noticed there is a bit of ‘chat’ about having a theme, but I will just blog about what we eat - it’s hard enough coming up with things for this family to eat let alone trying to follow some of the suggested themes! I have found the master list of participating VeganMoFo blogs here and I am aiming to have a quick look at all the blogs on the list over the next month. It’s alphabetically listed. Which letter will I make it to??

Tahn