Today's Tasty Foods

Looking for a tasty dip (not sure what I wanted, but I thought it would jump out at me when I saw it) I stumbled across a raw cheesy dip that sounded ok, but with only 4 ingredients I didn't know how well it would go.

Let me just say this - TRY IT!

WOW. It really does taste like cheese! It tasted FANTASTIC with the broccolini stalks I picked up for cheap yesterday, although the kids loved it with red capsicum sticks, and carrots.

(in case you were wondering and couldn't be bothered clicking on the link to see what the four ingredients were, they are: cashews, nama shoyu, red capsicum and lemon juice)

Tonight, I had left over salad for dinner (actually, the curried carrot salad that I love) so the kids and I made Cauliflower Yellow Capsicum soup. 

The  kids loved it. Again, having not tasted it, you'll just have to take their word for it!

Once again, photos are so crap, apologies! I am really, really, really lazy and usually grab the closest thing to me to capture the food before it (the food) gets munched!

Tahn

Balls, Balls and More Balls

Every since Popeye gave me his food processor I haven't stopped whipping up a batch a balls every couple of days. They usually don't last out more than 2 days around here with all kids on holidays, Popeye home and me - the worst culprit!!

Some I have just thrown all sorts together to make healthy raw balls

Others have been planned a little better

Both of these are from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. On the left are Chocolate Macadamia Clusters (p. 512) and on the right are Date and Cashew Nut Truffles (p. 513). Both are good, but my favourite is the orange looking ones on the right - they are rolled in ground cashews. Yum, yum, yum!

These delicious balls are Apricot-Walnut Balls from 1000 Vegan Recipes (p. 444) also by Robin Robertson.
There have been countless other 'freehand' balls that didn't quite make it to be photographed.

And now for something different:

Our first harvest of plums! Some more are still baking on the tree and should be ready (along with a MOUNTAIN of grapes) when we return from Bali. We are all very excited! (For Bali, and the grapes). We are off to Perth on Tuesday, and leave for Bali early Thursday morning. I've never been to Bali, and it is the first time the kids have been overseas! Exciting times ahead!

Oh How I Love Thee, Summer Fruit:Peaches 3 Ways

Last week I bought a heap of peaches cheap at the markets and once I got them home my thoughts turned to how I was going to use them up.

I flicked through my cookbooks and found a chutney and a relish in 1000 Vegan recipes. I would never have thought about making them pre-vegan. Hot, cooked fruit? No way! (especially sultanas!). But I put my prejudices aside, gave these a go, and was very pleasantly surprised.

Firstly I made Spiced Tomato and Peach Relish. (pg. 570). It recommends Chickpea and Vegetable Loaf (on pg. 265) as a fantastic dish to have with the relish as an accompaniment. So I had to make that, too!

Then I made Ginger-Peach Chutney (pg. 564). This was the winner hands down! We had these with Kebabs (post to come later) but they just ROCKED as a spread on bread with Macadamia Cashew Patties (p. 119)!! It was like an orgasm in my mouth! Amazing!

Lastly, I stewed up the rest of the peaches and added them with some puff pastry to my pie maker with some Vegan Whipped Cream (p.501) on the side for an awesome, quick dessert.

My family are really enjoying my urge to cook!

Tahn

So much to cook, so little time

The day started with Baby complaining of a sore stomach and asking if she could stay home. She complained that if she went to school and went to the sick bay they would just send her straight back to the class room. She's right. She also was complaining last night too, so I let her stay home. Turns out all she needed was one gigantic turd (!) and she was back to normal. Pity it was too late to send her to school!

I wanted to get a couple of pie tins today so Baby and I jumped on our bikes to head to the shops. I had a letter 'RTS' to post and so we went a different route near the school. Low and behold, who should we see walking towards us was the deputy and principal of her school and Baby yells (and I mean YELLS!) "Hello Mr. ___. Hello Mr. ____!" I could have died! She has NO idea, that child! Too innocent for her own good!

Anyway, the reason I wanted a couple of pie tins was to 'try' a dessert for taking to the vegan christmas dinner we are going to in Frankston on the weekend. More on that soon.

For dinner I really wanted to try polenta. We have only ever had it as a sort of crumb on tofu cutlets. I wanted to make it properly. From '1000 Vegan Recipes' (again, all of tonight's recipes are!) I made the basic polenta recipe, poured it into a loaf tin, threw it in the fridge for a couple of hours and then sliced and fried it up. On top of it I made the Spicy Tomato Ragu (which wasn't spicy because I left out the crushed red pepper), which also consisted of a homemade Marinara Sauce (also from 1000 Vegan Recipes). I had also marked Crunchy Sesame Slaw to make for the kids' lunch tomorrow, so I decided to have that with the polenta.

The Crunchy Sesame Slaw was a HUGE hit!! The kids want me to take this to the christmas dinner and it was so easy I think I will oblige them. The polenta was yum too! I'd like to try it straight into bowls next time and see which texture I prefer.

So the dessert. As I mentioned, I wanted to try whatever dessert I decided to take to the dinner early to make sure it is what I wanted to make. This morning I thought I would like to take a simple apple crumble and I found a recipe (in 1000 Vegan Recipes!!!) for an Apple Tart with Walnut Crust and I couldn't resist! It's a little bit more involved than a basic crumble, but SO worth it!
This all started by me thinking about riding my bike with Baby to The Radical Grocery Store in Brunswick for a can of whipped soya cream to take. It got me thinking about making my own and I'm glad I did. I made Cashew Creme (1000 Vegan Recipes) and it was to die for!! Beats the pants off any dairy whipped cream I have EVER tasted! It looked like this:

It even tasted way better than it looked! OH SO GOOD! I will be definitely taking this to the dinner (especially the creme!!).

So this is what I have decided to take to the Christmas Dinner:

Sushi
Crunchy Sesame Slaw
Broccoli Quiche
Apple Tart with Walnut Crust
Cashew Creme

I know it seems like a lot but there are 4 of us to feed so it wouldn't be right just turning up with one dish to share. Also, I can't help it - I want to show off my culinary skills! I love to see people enjoying the food I have made!

Got to start tomorrow!

Tahn

Can I have some more broccoli, Mum?

OMG! Who's kids say that?? Certainly not mine BEFORE we became vegan!

This is what we had for dinner. SO SO SO very sorry about the crappy photo again - we were all chowing down when I suddenly remembered I needed to take a photo of all my hard work! Luckily YM is a slow eater, so I took a photo of his plate (chip on the side and all!) of food. He chose not to put the mushroom sauce on the cutlets or the special broccoli sauce on the broccoli which is why it is sitting separate to his plate.

Chickpea cutlets with Mushroom sauce & Mashed potato and Kumera with caramelised onions & Borlotti beans with Silverbeet & Broccoli with Garlic butter and Cashew

What a feast! It may not LOOK particularly appetising, but it was delicious!!

I had never made the chickpea cutlets before and I will definitely make them again! I got the recipe from here. Next time I might try baking them. I made two batches and they are all gone! That's me and four small kids!

I found the recipe for the mushroom sauce in Vegan a Go-Go by Sarah Kramer. Pretty basic.

Mushroom Sauce

6 Button mushrooms, chopped small

2T marg

1C vegetable stock

3T flour

1T Nutritional yeast

Pepper

1t Braggs

In a pot, soften the mushrooms up in the margarine. Add flour, yeast, Braggs and pepper and stir briefly. Add stock 1/4C at a time and stir continuously until thickened. Either blend or leave as is.

The mashed potato, kumera and caramelised onion dish is just as it is said! Too easy.

My new favourite way to cook silverbeet is the next recipe. I remember silverbeet as being a boil sloppy mess on my plate when I was a kid, but this dish rocks!

Borlotti Beans and Silverbeet

1 bunch of silverbeet, greens, chopped, washed

1 tin borlotti beans, rinsed

2T tomato paste

1 carrot chopped small

1 onion, diced

Put beans, tomato paste, carrot and onion into a pot and just cover with water. Cook for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, boil the silverbeet. Add silverbeet to beans mix when beans and carrots are cooked. Cook an extra few minutes and serve.

I also love this next recipe. It's from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. The first time I made it I had no marg (so I used oil) and no cashews and it still was fabulous.

Broccoli with Garlic Butter and Cashews

Broccoli cut into bite size pieces

3T Nuttelex

2 cloves garlic, minced

1T brown sugar

2-3T Braggs

2t rice vinegar

1/4t black pepper

small handful cashews, chopped small

Steam broccoli. Meanwhile melt marg and add garlic, sugar, Braggs, vinegar and pepper. Bring to the boil, allowing it to thicken up a bit. Remove from heat and stir in cashews. I usually serve it in a separate bowl so people can add as little or as much as they choose, otherwise toss it through the steamed broccoli and then serve.

mmmm mmmm mmmm

Well today we went for another bike ride. The plan was to head past CERES to watch 'Derrick' the litter trap on the Merri Creek being emptied. There was a little sign up that said he was to be emptied at 11am Oct 2. Today. So we got there, and waited and waited. NOTHING. How disappointing. I was interested to see how it worked. But all was not lost. I met a lovely lady there  who turns out she and her two gorgeous kids are raw vegetarians! So we got talking, exchanged email (now where did I put her email address??) and I am looking forward to having more contact with her. She said she would give me some raw kid 'treat' recipes which I am really looking forward to.

Then we headed back my way, with the intention of heading to Moomba Park a few more kms away. We kept riding and riding and riding. It is not very nice much further past Coburg Lake. :(

Baby said 'This reminds me of the leech walk' (A disastrous Tasmanian walk that should have lasted only 2 hours but turned into four where the children were eaten alive by leeches, it was raining heavily and was very, very unpleasant!)

And I thought, yeah, she's right. This is not fun anymore. So we turned around and came home. Almost 4 hours later and the kids were knackered (which is why I am able to post this so early - they have crashed out!) I don't think we will go past Coburg Lake again. Heading in towards the city is nice, though.

You may be wondering why I always tell what we have done for the day? Shouldn't I just post about food?

Well, a few reasons why I tell more. I hope Popeye will get some time to read this, so he can see what we are up to while he is away. It's not all about food for me, it's about family. I think it is nice to read what others do, and to realise we are quite normal after all! It is also like a diary for me. One to be able to read back through at any time and reminisce.

D & M over, have a great weekend!!

Tahn