More raw recipesHere's some little maths equations for you:
dedicated uni student who loves studying + five week uni break = bored uni student
bored uni student + new dehydrator x (love of creating recipes + passion for new semi-raw lifestyle) = RECIPES
I hope everyone enjoyed that! I know, I know I'm a nerd but hey, what are you going to do? I guess if I wasn't such a study-loving nerd, I probably wouldn't be studying veterinary science!
Anyway, to get to the point, I have created three raw recipes in two days. As a result, I feel it's necessary to have somewhere special for my recipes. I have been planning to do this for ages but am now finally motivated, so, drumroll please... check out my new blog called
Freedom's Raw Recipes! I'm going to use that as a recipe blog while talking about food and my llife in general on this blog - I will also still publish all my yummy photos here.
So let me tell you about the recipe I created yesterday morning. First of all, let me inform you that this was a huge step for me (along with my recent avocado purchase) because I haven't eaten a meal between breakfast and lunch for about 8 months - I just wouldn't let myself, no matter how hungry I was - but yesterday I firmly decided that I was going to put on weight, dammit, and one way to start would be eating morning tea. I made what I have called
Scrumptious Calcium Bombs, and they really are good. I had two right after making them and they were nice but then I had two more this morning after they's been in the fridge for 24 hours and they were even better! Sorry about the terrible photo - you can at least get the idea of what they look like.
The next recipe I created was for falafels, pictured as I ate them for lunch with a salad. I think this picture is great - so many vibrant colours! Veggies are so pretty. The falafels are really nice but could be better - they need a little more depth of flavour - so I will work on the recipe then post it.
Thirdly I created some cookies but they are currently in the dehydrator, so who knows how they'll turn out (although if the mixture is anything to go by, they're going to be great!) So I'll let you know about them tomorrow!
Have a fabulous day everyone!
 | A Veg*n Meme
What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store? |
| Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week
Well, I had an expensive shopping week this week, with my emergency trip to the wholefood shop yesterday to get things to dehydrate. I had a very, very brief trip to the supermarket though, and in fact almost everything I bought was for animals not me, which makes me happy. So here is everything I got at the wholefoods shop, in two visits (remember, the $ means organic):
$almonds$
$apples$
$atta flour$
$avocado$
black eyed peas
$buckwheat$
carob powder
$cashews$
$corn on the cob$
dates
$dried apricots$
dried figs
muesli
pine nuts
$quinoa$
$raisins$
$spelt$
$sunflower seeds$
walnuts
At the organic fruit and veg shop, I also got:
$apples$
$broccoli$
$carrots$
$green capsicum$
$onion$
I ate my very first dehydrated meal today! I was so excited and it was totally delicious. I know these patties don't look that appetising - and they look nothing like the picture in RAW (by Juliano) but I don't care cos they tasted so nice. They are called 'Cheeseburgers' and are yellow in the book and some of the ingredients are walnuts, almonds, carrots, mushrooms and lots more. I had two served with some sweet potato 'chips,' corn off the cob and a little bit of tomato. Yum.
Links to other Midweek Munchies
(If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments) |
Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog
Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies
A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.
PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!
Raw Avocado Roll
This is my first attempt at a raw recipe of my own... well, aside from chucking all the veggies in the frisge in a bowl and calling it salad! It came out really yummy, except for the coriander - I really don't like this but for some stupid reason I keep putting it in things! Anyone else have this problem with a food/herb/spice? I think I keep trying to convince myself that I'll eventually find a way in which I enjoy it but I think I shall have to give up. Anyway, here is the recipe:
Ingredients:1/2 a small avocado (quite ripe)
about 1/4 tsp finely minced garlic
1-2 tbsp finely minced onion (any colour you like)
2 tbsp corn cut from the cob (or more)
about 1 tbsp finely chopped tomato
1/4 tsp fresh oregano
a tiny bit of fresh rosemary
coriander if you like it
1 leaf of any cabbage or lettuce you like eg purple cabbage or romaine lettuce. I uesd a chinese cabbage leaf which was nice but they have little hairs on them so it felt a bit weird.
In a bowl, mash the avocado with a fork and then mix in all the other ingredients except the leaf. Spread the mixture on your leaf, roll up and devour messily. Yum Yum! I was going to take a photo of the roll once it was actually a roll but then the rechargeable batteries in the camera ran out and I wanted to eat, so the 'before' photo is all you get! It actually stayed rolled up really nicely, surprisingly.
The past two days have been rather ... eventful in terms of my raw food journey. To sum it all up though, I now have a dehydrator and a coffee grinder on its way (for grinding nuts - to help out the pathetic food processor mentioned
here). Both were purchased on e-bay, the grinder by me for the whopping cost of
$5.50 (that was sarcasm in case you missed it!) and the dehydrator by my parents for rather a lot more. Not that much, however, considering the thing has only been used once and is in perfect condition. It was supposed to be a birthday present for my 18th, which is in October, so it is
very early but I'm so glad my wonderful parents gave it to me now. Tomorrow I will have pictures of yummy dehydrated food! I'm so excited - I so so adore working with food (can't really call it cooking anymore, since I'm eating so much raw :-).
I leave you with a picture of my dehydrator!
Note: If you're interested, the lamp in that picture doesn't normally live in the kitchen. Yesterday afternoon all the lights in our house decided to stop working. Luckily, the power was fine, but we were in darkness all night and when the electrician arrived at 7.45am we discovered that there is something seriously wrong with the power box. I'm sot entirely sure what's going on but there was a chance we might lose power too and that hasn't happened, so I'm just glad about that.
Thanks for dropping by everyone, hope your day is as exciting as mine was - all it takes is some new kitchen toys!
Tofu 'Neat' Balls and a good dayThis is the dinner I had on Saturday night - it is taken (in part) from, yes you guessed it,
The Everyday Vegan! The recipe in the book is actually for 'Sweet and Sour Neat Balls' but the sweet and sour sauce didn't appeal to me too much - I make my own with you 1/2 tbsp sugar but this used half a cup! (although that was serving four...still). The 'neat' balls, however, looked delicious so I made them and threw together my own accompaniment.
First, the neat balls - yum! Wait for my full review of TEV in the coming weeks to get more details but for now I can tell you that they are very good.
The side I made was simple - mix together some water, powdered veggie stock and dark miso, boil it in a non-stick frying pan (or a normal frying pan if you want to make life hard for yourself when cleaning up) and add a slice of eggplant. Just let it do it's own thing, flipping occasionally, until all the liquid is gone - simple and delish. The green stuff (I do love my greens!) is asparagus and chinese cabbage, sauteed in a little water and seasoned with rice wine vinegar and sea salt. I may have overdone the salt a tad but it was yummy - I missed my kale though because the organic fruit and veg shop (the only place I've ever seen it) didn't have any and the girl serving recommended the chinese cabbage instead. It's nice but not kale, and also doesn't have the nutritional benefits.
Now, onto my explanation of how to have a good day...
begin (at midnight) jumping around the lounge room giving your Dad high fives and squealing in the wake of David Beckham's incredible goal. Go back to bed at 1am following England's defeat of Ecuador in the knockout stage of the World Cup, putting them through to the quater finals (with Beckham's being the only goal). (If you're interested I hate staying up late and will do so only for very special occasions. actually went to bed at about 9.50pm then got up at 11 for the football).
Get up again (properly) at 5.45am, exercise, and eat Strawberry Romanoff for breakfast (see last post). Yes, strawberry romanoff - this is one of the benefits of raw food... as Juliano puts it "you can have dessert for breakfast lunch and dinner and still be eating better than anyone on the planet." And it's true - my breakfast had walnuts, cashews, strawberries, dates and orange juice (and a little water) in it - how can this possible be bad for you?
Walk the dog down to the reserve at the end of the street and release the mouse caught in your humane mouse trap.
Spend about an hour checking e-mails, reading blogs, looking at kitchen toys on e-bay and playing solitaire.
Catch the bus to Fremantle (or other great town with total hippie culture) have a Pritikin Muffin from
The Healthy Byte Cafe for lunch and walk to Manna Wholefoods, buy piles of great raw and organic foods in bulk and eat a delicious (organic) apple.
That's pretty much it thus far but this will be followed by making vegan dinner for omnivorous father, making own dinner, going for a walk and watching new episode of The Simpsons (I'm not a TV person but it's my one great love!)
Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone else is having as good a day as me!
Start Drooling Now...
How incredibly scrumptious does this look? I love it when food both looks and tastes good and I love showing it off on here. This is Strawberry Romanoff, also from RAW: The UNCookbook by Juliano and it does taste as amazing as it looks although it would be better if I had a better food processor :-( Speaking of which, however, I am currently watching an e-bay auction and might be getting a new one :-) I just hate spending money on things that I don't absolutely NEED... I feel like I'm just joining the rest of our consumeristic society, and it bugs me. That's why I don't own any vegan cookbooks. I always think "now I can buy Vive Le Vegan, or I can feed a starving family for X number of days, or free this many caged moonbears in China etc... now what am I going to do?"
Okay, mum just walked in and said she'll buy this thing for me! Check out the link:
Wonder ChopperSo, after that slight digression let me return to the Romanoff. The 'cream' contains walnuts, cashews, orange juice and dates with a little spring water, mushed in a blender and then there are strawberries and more dates for serving. The cream was kind of gritty/lumpy because of my crummy food processor but it was so yummy it didn't matter. This book can do no wrong so far - every recipe has been outstanding.
An update on the Pumpkin Raisin Muffins - they are also super-delicious! REALLY, REALLY YUMM! I want to take them to a pot-luck next month (my first ever!) and I want to know if anyone else will like them so if you would like to try them, please, please check out yesterdays post and try them, then let me know what you think. Seriously, anyone, this would be HUGELY appreciated... my mum can't eat anything with wholewheat flour in it, Dad isn't a muffin person and I don't know anyone else who can try them cos I just moved interstate and don't know anyone! Thanks in advance!
Wednesday's Dinner, Thursday's Lunch and Muffin FridayOkay, there is so much food to post about that I thought I'd better do it in chronological order so it makes sense.
First up we have dinner from Wednesday - not mine, but what I cooked for Dad. He is an omnivore but will eat anything that tastes good, and has eaten vegetarian or vegan every night for five days running! I'm loving holidays, cos I have the time to cook. Anyway, these are
Mexican Tofu Tacos from The Everyday Vegan (By Dreena Burton). As you know, I'm obsessed with this book and still have it on loan from my library. When I have to return it I'm going to do a review of every single recipe I tried (it may take about three posts!) so wait till then to hear more about these tacos.
Next is what I had for lunch yesterday. It is Mayo #2 from Juliano's RAW: The Uncookbook which if you have been reading my recent posts you will know I am loving since I started getting into raw food. Anyway, this stuff is pure heaven (as is most of the stuff in the book). I don't know how one gets a mayo consistency, although I was guessing amounts to make a heck of a lot less than 2 1/4 cups. The ingredients are cashews, celery, lemon juice, garlic, onion, tomato and bell pepper (capsicum). If (when) I make it again I'll add some cucumber to get it runnier but it was so yummy that I sprinkled it with sprouted lentils, added some chopped sweet potato and ate it with a spoon! The picture does it no justice.
The leaning tower of muffin!Now we have muffin Friday. This week I did something different and made two types of muffins, because I really wanted to play around with the recipe I made last week but I wanted something different as well. I made
these muffins, but subbed wholemeal self raising flour for the unbleached, baking soda for the powder, used less sugar and cashews. Oh, and I halved the recipe. These are really nice and I highly recommend them, but they were a bit sweet for me, who is now used to sugar alternatives :-)
Muffins in an ugly green tea towel
Last of all, we have the Pumpkin Raisin Muffins I made - last week they were Pumpkin Hazelnut Muffins and I said they were perfect, but that was an overstatement and the problem was the hazelnuts, so I cut them and replaced with raisins. I can't tell you just how nice they are because when I ate mine it wasn't cooked all the way through and the others had to go back in the oven, but I'll let you know tomorrow. Uncooked, it was pretty darn good! I only made four muffins, so the recipe which follows is actually double what I did. Please, try and let me know what you think! Oh and by the way, I didn't chop my finger open cutting the pumpkin this week :-)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups self raising wholewheat flour
1/2 cup atta flour (a very finely ground wholewheat flour that lightens the muffins)
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup mashed pumpkin (I used butternut)
6 tbsp apple juice concentrate
3/4 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup soymillk
about 2tbsp water (or more soymilk)
lots of raisins
Instructions:
PReheat the oven the 180 degrees. Get your cokked pumpkin (sorry, I don't know how much it is raw) and mash it in a bowl then add the apple juice concentrate, tahini, applesauce and soymilk and whisk with a wire egg whisk. In another (big) bowl mix the flours, sift in the baking soda and nutmeg and mix until the nutmeg is evenly spread throughout. Make a well in the centre and pour in the pumpkin mixture, stir until all the dry ingredients are just wet, the fold through the raisins. Place large spoonfuls of mixture into a silicone bake pan (or lightly oiled regular pan) then bake until browned and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Not sure how long this is because, as I said, I took mine out and they weren't done and had to go back in. It depends on the oven anyway. Makes about 8 large muffins. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading all that!
| | A Veg*n Meme
What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store? |
| Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week
Whole Food Shop:
apple juice concentrate (still don't know if it's organic)
apple
$cashews$
cucumber
peppercorns
$raisins$
sea salt
$walnuts$
Supermarkets (I shopped at three to get the best prices):
baby spinach
banana
bottled orange and mango juice
chickpeas
celery
oregano (another lovely plant for my herb garden!)
soy milk (low fat, iron, calcium and B12 enriched)
$tofu$
wholemeal grain bread
Conventional Fruit and Veg Shop:
apples
corn
mushrooms
oranges (for juicing)
strawberries
Organic Fruit and Veg Shop:
$apples$
$broccoli$
$brown onion$
$capsicum (red and green)
$garlic$
$lettuce$
$sweet potato$
$tomatoes$
Phew, I think that's everything! (Remember, $ means organic.)
Links to other Midweek Munchies
(If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments) |
Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog
Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies
A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.
PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!
Sushi etcHere is some super yummy food for everyone to drool over! I told you that I’d be cooking lots and I’m not going to let you down, so here is the first installment. Pictured above is my lunch for today, consisting of DELICIOUS raw sushi, which is just nori stuffed with carrot, sweet potato and cucumber sticks, smeared with the Almond Flower Cheese I mentioned yesterday and covered with baby spinach leaves. This is totally yumm yum yum! Sprinkled on the plate are plenty of sprouted lentils (I’m really into sprouting now), two sun-dried tomatoes and five raw organic cashews.
This picture shows the present I made for my mum while she was at work today. It is based on the Chewy Nutty Cereal Chip Squares recipe from Dreena’s The Everyday Vegan but I think I altered the recipe enough that I can post it. So here it is as I made it:
Ingredients:
- 4 tbsp smooth peanut butter
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ tbsp rice malt syrup (or other liquid sweetner)
- ½ tbsp rice milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- pinch sea salt
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup Rice Bubbles or other puffed rice cereal
- 1 ½ tbsp carob chips
Instructions:
Place the peanut butter, maple syrup, liquid sweetner, milk and sea salt in a saucepan over low heat and stir until all nicely melted and mixed together. Don’t let the mixture boil! When it is all melted together add the vanilla and stir through, then pour in the rice bubbles and mix around until they are totally coated in goo. Toss the carob chips in last and mix as much or as little as you want – if you stir lots they will melt, or you can just stir a little and leave them whole/partly melted. Put some baking paper in a brownie tin and tip the mixture in, spread it out to an even thickness (however thick you want) then put in the fridge to cool. The thicker you spread it the longer it will take to cool and harden but mine took about an hour and a half. When it’s cool, peel away the baking paper and cut into squares (or any other shape you desire).
Mum and Dad both said they were totally delicious and half the batch is already gone even though I only made them three hours ago!
I’ll be back tomorrow with more yummy treats for you to enjoy. Thanks for visiting!
Hello everyone! My holidays have officially begun and I am going to be cooking, cooking and cooking some more, so you have lots to look forward to! Before I begin, though, I am going to share the tragedy which occurred in my backyard this afternoon. Some people may think calling it a tragedy negates the suffering of others but I believe all life is equal and any death should be regarded as terrible. We have enormous glass doors at the back of *our* house (we’re renting) in what is supposed to be the family room but is actually an extension of my room, since my actual bedroom is so small. Anyway, it is lovely to have all the sun pouring in the windows and to be able to see the multitude of birds in the backyard. Although we live in suburbia and the big buildings of the city are actual visible through those same glass doors, we have a lot of bird life. This includes a pair (or possibly a family) of rock doves, more commonly just referred to as pigeons. They’re Australian natives though. Anyway, about 45 minutes ago I was reading and one of them flew into the glass doors at full pelt, and flopped to the ground in a cloud of feathers – I’ve never seen a bird hit anything so fast. I dropped my book and ran outside and held it in my arms while it died – this happened so quickly that at least I think it’s suffering was minimal, but I feel so sorry for its partner, who will be wondering where it has gone. I wonder how keen a bird’s sense of smell is, and whether it will pick up the scent either on the window or where I buried it. Sorry if I’ve made everyone sad, but I had to share that because it is making me sad.
Now, let me try and cheer you all up again with food (it somehow has that ability). A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I am becoming interested in a new diet so to speak and asked for guesses – I got none, so I’ll just tell you… it’s RAW! I have been hearing/reading more and more about raw foodism lately and they whole idea really appeals to me – if you eat things that are living, it will give you more life and vibrancy, plus uncooked foods are full of living enzymes that are really good for you. I’ve known that for ages, and often try to minimise cooking time, for example when I eat steamed broccoli I only cook it until it is barely softened, not like the anaemic mush I grew up on.
This is not the only reason that I’m interested in raw, however. I am about to tell you all something that very few people know. So if you happen to be related to me and have found this blog by chance, stop NOW!!! DO NOT CONTINUE READING OR I WILL KILL YOU!!! I am 100% serious. If, however, you are not related to me or know me personally, do continue.
I have a weight problem. Not the weight problem that some insane percentage of the developed world has that I am grossly obese, I actually have the complete opposite problem. I am desperately underweight. Before you ask, my eating problems started two and a half years ago and have NOTHING to do with being a vegan – they arose after serious harassment at school which left me depressed and suicidal for a time. Being vegan has just been a convenient cover up for why I’m thin – only my two best friends know that I am not underweight because I am vegan. I want to be healthy and happy but it is terribly hard and as soon as I have a good day I have a bad one which ruins everything. However, I have now made the firm decision that I am going to get better and I need to put on weight - the way raw foodism connects to this is that it involves a lot of NUTS, and they are very high in all the good fats so I am trying to eat lots of them. It is useful that I adore cooking so much but now I have to make myself cook for me not others (although I will be doing that too!).
Now, without further ado, here is FOOD! Just one little snippet of all the things I’ve been making – this will have to tide you over until I post more. This is ‘Almond Flower Cheese’ from RAW: The UNcookbook by Juliano, which I borrowed from my library and am loving. If you have this book, make this cheese. It is delicious. In the picture it is topped with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds and a sprig of coriander, with sweet potato sticks on the side (is it just me, or is raw sweet potato totally delicious?) The cheese is kinda time-consuming but totally worth it – the longer you leave it sitting in cheese cloth to drain, the harder it gets but I got sick of waiting and had it quite soft, like a dip.
Well, congratulations on reading all that! Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a great day/night/afternoon or whatever time it is in your part of the world!
PHMs -
Perfect,
Heavenly,
Magical
Pumpkin
Hazelnut
Muffins
As you can tell these muffins are already pretty good but I have a few ideas for making them even better, so I won't post the recipe just now... instead you can enjoy the picture of them in their yummy goodness, combined with a beautiful sunset. Also, typing is a little difficult just now due to the bandage on my finger - a direct result of making these muffins! I have gathered from recipe books and recipe websites that in America you can buy can of pumpkin, already mashed up. This is not a luxury I have. Normally I much prefer to start with the raw ingredients, however, I nearly sliced the end of my finger off whilst trying to cut my lovely organic pumpkin. It just poured blood! As a result I didn't cook as much pumpkin as I had planned, which is why these muffins could get even better. I didn't need stitches in my finger but it is strapped up with sterile strips and Im having fun showering with a plastic bag over my hand!
My last exam is tomorrow (YAY!!!) so I'll be doing some looong blogs after that. Have a good day and thanks for dropping by!
| | A Veg*n Meme
What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store? |
| Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week
Write your delicious contributions here
I had fun shopping this week! On Monday I went to the wholefoods shop... this is something I do almost every monday but normally it is just to grab one or two things. Not so this week! By the way, everything was bought in bulk which I love because it is cheaper, doesn't create lots of packaging to pollute the world and means that I can buy the little tiny amounts that I want (I don't eat much!). Remember, the $ means organic.
$almonds$
$?apple juice concentrate?$ (I think this was organic but I'm not sure)
$atta flour$
dates
$hazelnuts$
$quinoa$
$raw cashews$
$sunflower seeds$
These are the things I got yesterday - they are from four different shops because I like to get things as cheap as possible (especially when I spent so much on organics on Monday!!)
applesauce (unsweetened)
bottled orange and mango juice
less-salt soy sauce
satay sauce
sultanas
tinned chickpeas
wholemeal muffins (97% fat free)
asparagus
apples
baby spinach
banana
grapes
mushrooms
oranges (for juicing)
parsley (another actual plant! I had to buy it because it is rather dead and sad looking and was on sale for 99 cents!)
I've realised how few recipes I have posted lately and I'm really sorry... I have only one more exam and then 5 WEEKS of holidays so you can bet I'm going to be cooking up a storm! Be ready!
Links to other Midweek Munchies
(If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments) |
Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog
Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies
A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.
PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!
Muffin MondayMuffin posts two in a row! Does it get any better? As many of you know, every week I have 'Muffin Friday' when I bake up a batch of (usually - see post below for an exception) totally delicious muffins which last me throughout the week. However, I also have Muffin Mondays when I let someone else prepare the muffin for me! Yes, there is actually somewhere I can buy vegan muffins in West Australia - it is called 'The Healthy Byte Cafe' and is highly recommended. They are not vegan or even vegetarian but have lots of choices. Many of the sandwiches and wraps are vegetarian - I haven't asked about the bread but if that is dairy free, there are some that would also be vegan (eg avo and salad, falafel and hummus). They serve soups which are occasionally vegetarian and have a number of hot foods that are. Also, in with the hot foods are three different flavours of samosa (curried lentil, potato and spinach, can't remember the other) which all clearly say *vegan* on the little label! They have jars of biscuits and one is also labelled as vegan. There are normally five salads on offer and the last few weeks one of them has been a sweet and sour looking tofu salad. But despite all these yummy options, I have a 'Pritikin' Muffin every week. Now, I don't know why it's called that... I do know of an old diet fad called 'The Pritikin Principle' so I'm guessing it's related, but who knows? The important thing is that on the little label beside these muffins it says
"sugar free, fat free, egg and dairy free." Makes you wonder what is in them! Well, I know that some of the things are dates, sultanas, currants, orange zest and cinnamnon... YUMM! One day they were out of muffins (I nearly cried) and so I had one of the samosas (potato and spinach) and it was really good although a little spicy for me. The pastry was thick and not too oily, which was good. So, in short if you ever happen to be in Fremantle Western Australia, I highly recommend this cafe. By the way, I took a picture of the muffin but it was rather blurry, so you can see the cafe itself. Now I must go, and study for exams!
Have a great day!
ACMs and Other Food PornPictured above are the Apple Cinnamon Muffins I made on Friday but I'm not posting the recipes for several reasons.
1) This is a pretty basic type of muffin so I think if you want to make them you can find a recipe.
2) This was my first experiment with sugar free muffins and I need to work on this a tad.
3) These muffins really were doomed to failure when I opened the jar of applesauce and discovered... there was some funky pink mould growing all over it. Who knew of pink mould? The jar was closed, in the fridge - I don't know why it went mouldy!
So in short, it's not worth posting the recipe. Especially considering that I am really pressed time - I have had one exam so far and have four to go, on tomorrow and one the next day.
I will just leave you with a little bit of food porn - these are the 'Mexican Tortilla Triangles' from
The Everyday Vegan (yep, I'm still loving this book!). If you have access to this book, I command you to go and make this recipe RIGHT NOW!!! It is amazing! A very unusual combination of pumpkin (or squash, as you call it in America) sun dried tomatoes (or red peppers), cummin, rice vinegar and a whole lot of other things. YUMMMM!!!
| | A Veg*n Meme
What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store? |
| Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week
I had a very short list of things at the regular supermarket today, which makes me very happy. I'm planning a big trip to the wholefoods shop on Monday to get lots of organics in bulk so I will include what I get there in MwM next week. Although I have been wanting to go this way (more bulk/organic) for a while I am extra motivated at the moment thanks to a book I'm reading... don't have time to elaborate now but I'd love for you to guess. Here's a clue on what it is (actually, two clues) 1) it is a part recipe book and 2) the author has a restaurant in the US (I think it's california). Anyway, I also went to the oriental supermarket, which is where the first three things come from. I will also be going to the organic fruit and veg shop on saturday as usual.
fried tofu (not deep fried though - very low fat)
white miso (I had to buy an enormous packet and I only want a little bit - recipes?)
rice paper wraps
wholewheat pita bread
soy milk (low fat, iron, calcium, B12 enriched)
bottled orange and mango juice
salt free tomato paste
sundried tomatoes (new purchase - finally found some not packed in oil!)
jar of raosted red peppers
$firm tofu$ (remember the $ means organic)
royal gala apples
granny smith apple
baby spinach
field mushroom
passionfruit
banana
Okay, now that Munchies is done, I have to share one of the most exciting nights of my life... I met Peter Singer last night. Two weeks ago I found out that he was presenting a free speech, along with an awesome animal advocate named Lyn White, and I came hold and told my mum and she said "who's Peter Singer?" I was appalled. Just in case anyone doesn't know, he is the author of 'Animal Liberation' (commonly know as the animal rights bible), and numerous other books, the father of the modern animal rights movement and was named as one of Time magazine's '100 most influential people in the world' in 2005. And I sat next to him. Yes, NEXT TO PETER SINGER!!! Looking for a seat, I was called over by two ladies I met at a protest a few weeks back who (for some reason) had seats in the front row, with one spare. So I slipped in and said hello and then began introducing Spirit the rat to all the people sitting bhind me who saw her head come out of my shirt - yes, she comes just about everywhere. Then the man on my right wanted to meet her and I said something to him (can't remember what) and then suddenly went OH MY GOD THAT'S HIM!!! Both his speech and Lyn's were inspirational and heart wrenching and I was weeping openly along with Peter as Lyn showed videos from her trips to Middle Eastern slaughterhouses. There was an open forum for questions at the end and the final question of the night was "how do vegetarian/vegans deal with feeding their pets meat?" and Peter responded with "well, dogs are fine but with cats there is more of a problem. I tend to suggest that if it is a real concern for you, when your beloved pet passes away replace it with one that is naturally a vegetarian. For example, the lady (Not I do not regard myself a 'lady' but there you go) sitting next to me has a rat crawling around her jumper and they make great vegetarians." (For your interest, Spirit is a strict vegan and has been since I rescued her.) So not only did we sit next to him but he talked about us!! I'm not the type to be impressed by famous people but in case you can't tell I'm a little start struck here. I even got him to sign my copy of Animal Liberation.
Well, after that long rambly post, I have to go have dinner!
Happy Munchies everyone.
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A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.
PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!
Baked Beets (and other veggies)Here is my lunch for today - no I didn't nearly spill it everywhere, I just turned the camera sideways. I think it makes it look a bit 'cultured' :-)
This post can't be long as I'm busy studying for my university exams, of which I have five. One is an hour, one is an hour and a half, two are two hours and one is three hours. I'm rather dreading the three hour one...
Anyway, I won't give you a recipe for lunch because there isn't one - basically, chop as much beet as you would like into chunks, wrap in foil (or not) and place in an oven at 200C. After about 10 mins add some chunks of sweet potato (lots of them, if you love it like I do!) and leave for around 35 or 40 mins. Then put some asparagus in with the potato and beets. In a small bowl combine about 1.5 tbsp fresh orange juice with about 1 tsp maple syrup and a splash (eg about 1/4 tsp) of balsamic vinegar and whisk it together. When the asparagus has had about 10 mins in the oven, take all the veggies out and arrange decoratively on a plate (see photo) and spoon dressing over the top. Sprinkle with ground nutmeg, take a fancy photo, and enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by everyone!
Simple Salsa and Other thingsI have officially completed my first ever semester of University! I now have one week for study, followed by five exams spread over 9 days (the first of which is on a SATURDAY!) and then five whole weeks of holidays. Personally I actually think five weeks is over doing it but hey - what are you going to do? Anyway, what this means is that I will have lots more time to blog/read blogs/comment on blogs and I will be cooking lots more interesting things to share. Yay! To kick things off, I had a salsa for lunch today. I don't know the technical definition of salsa, nor have I ever eaten one, but I have seen a few recipes for mango salsa, which really appealed to me. Last week I got two really cheap mangos, as it is the very end of the season. One went into a smoothie and the other one has been patiently waiting in the fridge. Unfortunately the price of the mangoes was reflected in their rather sorry, bruised state, but I managed to get enough good bits. I studied a few different recipes then just threw something together, and it was good. All you americans suffering through extreme heat - I recommend you try! I didn't measure, so everything is estimated - alter to taste!
Ingredients:-flesh of one very small mango
-1/2 tomato, chopped fairly small (any kind you like - organic is best, of course)
-about 2 or 3 tbsp corn (fresh, tinned, frozen - I used tinned)
-about 1 or 2 tsp red or green capsicum (Bell pepper) chopped finely
-3/4 tsp fresh coriander (cilantro) chopped fine
-juice of half a small lemon
-1/8 tsp dukkah spice or cumin powder
-teeny tiny pinch cayenne pepper
Instructions:Put everything in a bowl and mix well with a fork, mashing the mango up a bit. If I had a hand blender I would have stuck it in and given everything a quick mix up but I don't, so I didn't. Place bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes (or more) so that flavours can combine and then serve with some coriander for garnish.
I made some pita chips while this was in the fridge by tearing a wholewheat mini-pita into chunks and sticking them in the oven for about 10 minutes - it went really well! Tasty and super good for you - the only fat I had was 0.3g in the pita!
Have a good day everyone and thanks for stopping by!
PBRMs - Perfect,
Brilliant,
Robust,
Magical
Peanut-
Butter
Raisin
Muffins
In case you can't tell, I really like the muffins I made today! I have been wanting to do peanut butter muffins for ages but at the same time not wanting to because of how much fat is in PB. And I admit, I can atually taste/feel the fat in these muffins, which is odd and a little unpleasant after so many fat free muffins. But then it kind of occurred to me that I've been putting nuts in my muffins, which is probably actually more fattening than the smallish amount of PB I used. So anyway, I made them. And of course I had to add raisins - I don't know if I've ever actually had them before and I was expecting them to just taste like big sultanas, but they actually have a unique (and yummy) flavour.
I have decided that I want to try making sugar free muffins from now on, using more natural sweetners. Today i just stuck with some more of my incredible maple syrup (as discussed a few posts ago) but in the coming weeks look out for other sugar alternatives.
Finally, in addition to my muffins I took four bigs globs of mixture and stuck them on a baking tray to make 'muffin tops' - this was inspired by a recipe in Dreena's The Everyday Vegan. Yes, I do still have it - it was due back at the library yesterday but I reborrowed and now have another wonderful three weeks to enjoy it! The muffin tops are totally delicious and I think i will be doing this again - the bottom stayed moist, the inside was a little chewy and the top was crisp - what more could you ask for? The picture below shows the tops before cooking and in the first picture you can see them beside the muffins after cooking. So here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:-1 1/2 cups self raising wholewheat flour
-1/2 cup atta flour (could sub chickpea flour or just unleached plain)
-2 tsp baking powder
-3/4 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp soymilk
-1/2 cup water
-2 (generous) tbsp natural peanut butter (the kind you grind yourself - nothing but peanuts!)
-2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
-3 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
-raisins (to taste)
Instructions:Preheat a fan forced gas oven to 180C before you start. In a large bowl combine the flours, baking powder and cinnamon, digging a well in the centre. Put all remaining ingredients except raisins in another bowl and mix well with a fork or wire whisk until there aren't any big peanutty lumps anymore, then add to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined then stir through the raisins (I don't measure but I'd say maybe 1/4 cup). Place in silicone muffin pans or, for something a bit different (and yummy) put large blobs (maybe 1 1/2 tbsp) on a baking tray and bake until browned and risen, about 25 mins. Remove from oven and enjoy their scrummy goodness!
