Where's The Beef Week - Day 7 - Curried Eggplant Soup

The final night of my Where's The Beef week!  It has been ages since I have had a week where every meal has been a winner taste-wise & that us exactly what has happened this week.  I am actually keen to try more recipes from Cindy & Michael's blog now since I have had such good results.

I love eggplant & I love soup so I was pretty excited to make Curried Eggplant Soup (which was via Yeah that vegan shit via Fatfree vegan kitchen), but it was probably my least favourite meal of the week.  My curry powder is kind of old though so I think that might have been an issue.  That being said, I did have leftovers for lunch the next week & I did like it a lot more & I did like the soft chunks of eggplant in it.

Where's The Beef Week - Day 6 - Sort-of Spring Rolls

These were my only kind of fail for the week, but I think it was more my fault rather than the recipe.  I made up the sort-of spring rolls which use rice paper & then left them on my wooden chopping board while I fed Holly.  Then I came back half an hour or so later & they had stuck a bit so when I cooked them quite a few had holes in them & completely fell apart.  They were still really tasty & I really liked the rice paper rather than the usual spring roll pastry.  I think I need to try these again.

Where's The Beef Week - Day 4 - Cheesy Tofu Fritters

Day 4, I made the Cheesy Tofu Fritters which are a veganised gluten free version of goats cheese fritters.  These are so, so good!  I followed the recipe exactly, but also added in a little bit of grated mozzarella cheezly into the mix & I only cooked them in a tiny bit of oil.  I served these with a simple & delicious cranberry gravy just made from cranberry sauce, massel chicken stock & flour, I reduced the gravy too much though & didn't make nearly enough.
This meal is going on regular rotation.

Where's the Beef week - Day 3 - I can't believe it's not meat pies

More deliciousness!  I really liked these 'I can't believe it's not meat pies' & found the filling not unlike the La Panella pies, but with red wine.  These are really easy & really versatile because you can flavour them to your tastes.  I left out the mushrooms because I didn't have any but next time I will certainly add them in next time.  I used the following ingredients:


INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup massel beef stock
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 cup tvp
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp flour 

Where's The Beef Week - Day 2 - Felafels & ZIppy Warm Potato Salad

I have tried to make felafels in the past with a very poor result so wasn't expecting to really like these that much, but I loved them!  This is the recipe that will stop me ever using the packet mix again.  I had them drizzled with sweet chilli sauce & made this potato salad to go with them which was also really nice.

Where's The Beef Week - Day 1 - Maple Marinated Tofu

I am the sort of person that plans everything & I am pretty organised so now that I am on maternity leave & can't use that at work I have to channel that elsewhere.  At the moment it is mostly going into wedding planning, gym training & meal planning.  For my meal planning, every weekend I sit down & work out all our meals for the week, lunches & dinners, and write up a shopping list & then hit Vic Market, the supermarket & any specialty shops like the Asian supermarket or Radical Grocery.
This week I noticed that I had a couple of recipes bookmarked from Where's The Beef so decided to make all my dinners this week from that blog.  When I went through their recipes working out what to make I had trouble narrowing it down to just a week's worth, there was so much I wanted to make!

So, day 1.  I had some tofu that needed using so I decided to make this marinade recipe to make maple marinated tofu.  This marinade is so, so delicious! I am definitely making it again.   It was a super quick, easy & tasty way to cook tofu & I just had it with some steamed vegies - yum.