Sesame Spinach Noodle Pie

This what I made for dinner tonight from, yep you guessed it, 1000 Vegan Recipes! It wasn't bad. We ate it with a fork like we do with normal pasta dishes and it wasn't until just then that I realised its name - pie. I think we would have enjoyed it better with a knife and fork, cutting off small chewable pieces instead of throwing a whole gobful in with a fork and munching. A side salad would have been nice too.

So far it is the only thing I have found that is average. Nice, but not great.

Tahn

Beans Bourguignon

Tonight for dinner we tried yet another recipe from new favourite cookbook (1000 Vegan recipes).

Beans Bourguignon

I made a few changes, well actually just one. It needs red wine and I didn't add it for 2 reasons - 1. I always find that red wine in cooking is quite overpowering, especially because I don't drink it or like it. I thought that the kids would not like it either. 2. I was actually going to put a quarter of what it asked and the rest stock, but I looked at the back of the bottle of red wine that I was given when I bought this house (I think) and it said it was made with eggs and gelatine. I past it straight to Tweenie and got her to tip it down the sink.

Even without the key ingredient, the bourguignon  was delicious. I served it with couscous, mostly because I was unsure what bourguignon is usually served with. Is it pasta? Regardless, it was good and Baby even asked for leftovers for school lunch tomorrow (and Baby is usually the one who doesn't really like stuff - her young palate is still getting used to the mountain of flavours I have been dishing her up).

Another recipe from the book that I made for the kids' school lunches was Sesame Udon Salad with Azuki Beans and Baby Spinach.

So easy and so delish. The people who know me should be so proud of the amount of salads I have been  making AND eating AND enjoying!!! **pats self on back**

Recently, on the World Wide Web, I found a recipe for Sugar-Free Breakfast Cookies. If it is your recipe, please let me know and I will give you the credit for it you deserve.

YM is making them here in this picture, ready for baking. They are so quick and easy and healthy to boot! My girls usually have porridge for breakfast with apple sauce and sultanas so this really is just another way to eat those ingredients. Best eaten soon after cooking.

Sugar-Free Breakfast Cookies

Makes about 18 cookies

2 bananas, mashed

1/4C apple sauce

1/2t vanilla

1/4t cinnamon

1/4t nutmeg

1/3C sultanas/raisins

2C quick oats.

Preheat oven to 180C. Combine all ingredients in the above order. Place tablespoon mounds on a cookie tray (they don't spread so you can put them pretty close). Cook for approximately 15 minutes.

I give my kids a piece of toast or two with about 4 cookies (they NEVER get toast for breakfast - I don't believe it fills them up for school enough- so they LOVE this breakfast!).

18 days until Popeye is home!

Tahn

Mushroom pies and tofu spinach salad

Baby decided yesterday that she would like to make mushroom pies. I asked her how she was planning on doing it and her idea was to just chop up the mushies, chuck them in some pastry and wack them in the pie maker. Err, mmm, no. Good try, Baby!


So I was on a mission last night, as a good **cough, cough** mother, to find a mushroom pie recipe that Baby would like.
I found this recipe (scroll down to heatherq's recipe)and this morning I made the mix and left it to cool. Because I made the pieces of pumpkin and potato quite small, I didn't need to cook it in the oven for 30 minutes tonight. Instead I put them in the pie maker and made little individual pies.

I thought we would need some protein with this meal, and in my quest to try (and love) salads I made a tofu spinach salad. It was quite nice, although I would use baby spinach or mixed salad leaves next time as the spinach (all that I had in my fridge) had a slight bitter taste.

On Tuesday, my mum went down to Seaford to stay with my sister for the night. We met them at Mordialloc Beach which was nice. Here is a photo of my nephew, R. Tweenie, Baby and YM buried him and Tweenie drew a pair of boobs and a g-string on him!

When we wanted to come home we got to the train station at 9.05pm and had just missed the train by 5 minutes. It was a 25 minute wait for the next one. When it finally arrived, a few stops later we had to wait for some dickhead to stop forcing the doors for 10 minutes! The Epping line at Flinders Street Station was then 10 minutes late and we had to go by way of the city loop adding ten minutes to the trip. We finally opened the door of our house at 11.15pm! My poor babies feel asleep on the train! Gotta love public transport at night!


So the next day I kept them home. Tweenie already had an orthodontist appointment to get her plate fitted anyway. We did some learning about Remembrance Day and the kids wrote a poem. Here's YM's (he used my computer so that is why I have access to put it on here!):

Remembering The Dead

Poppies covering the grave

The dead under the crosses

People screaming, getting shot 

Sadness for the dead     

The blood of the wounded people

There should be no wars.

Anyway, so on the way to the orthodontist, Baby found a REAL poppy which they thought was great.

After we went to the Art Gallery again and completed the water trail before stopping off at the AC/DC exhibition at the Arts Centre. The kids rocked out with the guitar!

It's my birthday tomorrow! We are heading out to Shakahari so expect a heap of photos on my next post with my friends and family celebrating with me. I am so looking forward to tomorrow night's dinner!

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

Friends for dinner and Boo-nanas for dessert

I had the day off today so I decided to do a bit of cooking to make up for last night's lack of enthusiasm. When I had settled down at the end of it, just before the kids got home from school, I thought about Popeye's sister, G, who had just returned from QLD visiting her army b/f and I knew she would be feeling low. So I rung her up and invited G and her 2 gorgeous boys - V, 5 and JA, 3 (I hope I got the ages correct!) over to help us eat dinner.

My cooking day started with FUDGE!!!! OMG!!! G, I totally forgot to tell you about the fudge!!!

Look at that!! So delicious!! Very sweet, didn't quite set (like 'real' fudge - but enough) and so I need to eat it with a spoon. I am not sure where abouts on the WWW I got this recipe from.

FUDGE

6T margarine
31/2C icing sugar
1/2C cocoa
1t vanilla
1/4C milk (I used rice)
1C chopped nuts (optional)

Spray a baking tin. Place all ingredients (except nuts) in a heatproof mixing bowl. Place the bowl over simmering water and stir until smooth. Add nuts. Pour mixture quickly into tin. Chill thoroughly (overnight is best). Cut into squares.

Next I made Spanakopita from this recipe.

It was really good! I'd definitely make this again! It's like a spinach and ricotta strudel. I made it with FRESH silverbeet from my garden! So good!

I tried an Aloo Palak recipe (spinach and potatoes). I liked it although the kids thought it was a little too spicy for them.
Here is what our dinner looked like:

After I invited G and the boys for dinner, I quickly made a dessert for them that was called 'Boo-nanas'.

How cute do they look?? Like little ghosts! The kids gobbled them up. Even I had one and they were yum!

Boo- nanas
Bananas
shredded coconut
sultanas
orange juice (I actually had no OJ, so I used a pastry brush and brushed maple syrup on them)
popsticks (I used skewers)
Stick a skewer up the length of the banana. Sprinkle bananas with OJ (or similar), press in coconut and gently push in sultanas as eyes. Eat immediately or freeze (freezing them ROCKS!!)

I made tomorrow night's dinner also, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that!

Tahn