Vegan MoFo - Hot Dogs

Ok, so today is bit of a cop out but sometimes you need a quick, easy trashtastic meal & this certainly fits the bill. 
It is a Sanitarium vegie sausage on a white roll with dijon mustard, tomato sauce & caramelised onions.

Gluten Free Zucchini Pancakes

I found this recipe while searching for yet more ways to use chickpeas & stumbled across these which contain chickpea flour.  I made these last week, they are really easy & they are pretty good.  I didn't use the herbs or the zucchini flowers because I didn't have them but they were still tasty.  I had them with chutney & some vegies.  The recipe says that it serves 2 but I made 4 smaller pancakes & 1 pancake each was plenty.  They were also good reheated for lunch the next day.

Mexican Soup

I made this soup one night this week which in my head was much better than the outcome.  It was ok & it was a good warming winter meal but not sure if I would make it again although I do like the idea of it.  Maybe if I roasted some tomatoes & blended them up to use as the base it would have been better.


Mexican Soup

• 1 tin diced tomatoes
• 1 tin kidney beans
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion diced
• 800 mls water
• 3 tsps vegetable stock
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp ground cumin

• Heat olive oil in a big saucepan/stockpot & add onion.  Cook, stirring until cooked translucent & cooked through.
• Add the chilli flakes & cumin, stirring for about 30 seconds
• Add the tomatoes,stock powder & kidney beans
• Simmer for around 30 minutes & allow to reduce 
• Add salt & pepper to taste

I topped this with a simple salsa of diced avocado,  corn kernels, lime juice & salt & pepper & served with some cheesey quesadillas.

Vegan Brunch Toasted Coconut & Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

These are actually the Toasted Coconut and Mango Muffins, but I didn't have any dried mango so I subbed some chocolate chips.  We bought a mini muffin tray for the cupcake kebabs & have been using it all the time since, I didn't make a whole lot of muffins or cupcakes beforehand because they are often too big but the mini muffin pan makes them perfect size for eating with a cup of tea & it makes heaps so you can't really go wrong!

This recipe is super easy & the toasted coconut flavour is delicious, they also feel healthier than a normal muffin with the addition of wholemeal flour & they don't have huge amounts of sugar in them.

Mediterranean Olive Bread

Whenever I make soup I like to make bread to go alongside it so when I recently made a delicious tomatoey vegetable & sausage soup I decided to also make Mediterranean olive bread from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  This bread is so, so good!  It is essentially savoury cake with rosemary, olives, sundried tomatoes & olives all through it.  It doesn't have yeast in it so is really quick & easy too for a weeknight meal.  Completely delicious & goes exceptionally well with soup.

The soup that I make is a very easy soup & a good way of using up lots of vegies - I chop up whatever vegies I have on hand & cook in a little bit of olive oil & add a tin of tomato soup & massel chicken stock until I have about 4 serves worth & this time I had some vegie sausages in the freezer so I chopped up some of them & added them as well.

French toast

I was stuck at home on Saturday morning waiting for some furniture to be delivered so decided to make myself a tasty breakfast of very simple french toast. 

I just whisked together some soy milk with a couple of teaspoons of egg replacer, a bit of vanilla extract, nutmeg & cinnamon, dipped some thickly sliced bread in it coating both sides well.  Then cooked it over medium heat in a non stick frypan with a little bit of melted nuttelex - I probably should have cooked it a bit longer but I tend to get impatient where breakfast is concerned!  I drizzled it with maple syrup & it was delicious!

Baked tomato risotto

I am a big fan of baked risotto - they are super easy & only use one pot.  One night recently with very little fresh food in the house after a ridiculously, crazy busy week I managed to throw together a quick, easy & tasty baked tomato risotto.  I would have liked to add other vegies, like capsicum & zucchini but I didn't have any and I think fresh herbs would have been really good, but it was raining & I didn't want to go out & pick some!

Ingredients (makes 4 large servings)

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 3/4 cup tomato passata
• 4 cups hot massel chicken stock 
• Half an eggplant 
• Semi dried tomatoes chopped
• Olives chopped roughly
• Artichoke hearts
• Rocket

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Heat the oil in an ovenproof dish (that has a lid) on the stovetop over medium-low heat.
3. Add the onion, eggplant and garlic and cook, stirring until soft. Add the olives & semi dried tomatoes.
4. Add the rice and stir.
5. Add the passata, bring to the boil then add the hot stock.
6. Cover and cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. Stir once during cooking. 
7. Top with artichokes & rocket. 

Roast Capsicum Soup

We recently had a couple of cold days which made me think about making soup for dinner as soup is only something that I want to eat when it is really cold.  So when Animals Australia posted some Australia Day receipes on their website, I decided to make roasted capsicum soup - perfect since I felt like soup & roasted capsicum is one of my favourite foods.  In true Melbourne style though, the weather had completely changed from a cold, grey morning to a sunny evening on the day that I made this, but it was still good!

You Will Need:

• 4 red capsicums
• Olive oil for cooking
• 6 tomatoes, halved
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 red chilli
• 250–500 ml (1–2 cups) vegetable stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Rub capsicums with oil. Place in a baking tray and roast until skins blister, approx 30 minutes.
• Put tomatoes, onion, chilli and garlic in another baking tray, toss with oil, salt and pepper and roast at the same temperature until soft, about 30 minutes.
• Remove and discard seeds and skins from tomatoes and capsicum.
• Puree the tomato, capsicum, onion, garlic and chilli with cooking juices. Pass through a sieve.
• Place puree into a saucepan and add enough stock to bring soup to a good consistency.
• Bring soup to the boil. Check seasoning.
• Ladle soup into bowls and serve.

I didn't sieve the soup & it was fine, I also added in a tin of brown lentils right at the end to make it more of a substantial meal.  I really liked this soup & plan on making it again when the cold weather really hits.

Pies

We are pretty fond of pies in my household, particularly Greg - although strangely he does not really like Funky Pies whereas I really like them. Recently I was at Radical Grocery at around lunchtime & decided to get myself a Funky Pie, I had the Chic n Cheezy (I think that is what it is called as it isn't on the website). It is filled with a thick cheesy sauce with 'chickeny' soy protein chunks & broccoli - delicious!!!



Greg is more of a fan of La Panella mushroom pies & we had some for dinner recently with a salad with a delicious dressing made from roasted capsicum & mayo. La Panella pies are super cheap & easy when you don't really want to cook.

Dumplings

I love dumplings, these were filled with spinach, shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts & a bit of ginger & were delicious. I served them on top of a simple stir fry of rice noodles, red capsicum & carrot with mint & dark soy sauce tossed through it.

Muffaletta

I have been dying to go to a potluck forever so was very excited to be invited by Cindy to a potluck in Princes Park. I wanted to make something very picnicky & had no idea, so did a bit of googling & came across great advise such as "don't wear a fur coat to a vegan potluck" (seriously!) & in the end decided to make a muffaletta.

I bought an enormous loaf of bread from La Panella, in hindsight I brought the wrong bread because it was quite chewy, but it still tasted ok. I filled the loaf with:

• homemade basil & cashew pesto (spread on one side)
  
• roasted red capsicum
• grileld eggplant
  
• artichoke hearts
• kalamata olives
• baby spinach & rocket
• tofutti cream cheese with semi dried tomatoes mixed in (spread on the other side)

I made it the night before, wrapped it tightly in cling wrap & weighed it down with a big wooden chopping board & a baking dish.

Cherry & Vanilla Jam

I decided to make some cherry & vanilla jam last week, stupidly on a 38 degree day because I wanted to take some to my mum on christmas day. This jam is the best jam EVER! Jam is actually really easy to make (although I do panic a bit about sterilising jars) & I think it is one of those things that is really impressive if you make it yourself.

This is the recipe I based my jam on from Not Quite Nigella:

Ingredients

• 1kg jar of pitted sour cherries, drained (I used the jars of morello cherries you buy at Aldi)
  
• 1/2 cup of sour cherry juice from the above jar
• 800g caster sugar (this freaked me out & given that the cherries I bought were slightly sweetened I only used about 380gm of sugar)
• 1 vanilla bean
• Juice, zest and 4-5 seeds of 1 lemon (you are supposed to wrap the zest and seeds in a muslin pouch but I d not have muslin pouches ever on hand so I just peeled off thick strips of the lemon peel & added this as it was easy to pull out later)
• 50 gram packet of Jamsetta
  

1. First of all, decide whether you like your jam to have whole fruit, pulverised fruit or a bit of both and treat the cherries accordingly. I like whole fruit only so I don’t do anything to the cherries but if you like a smoother jam, blend cherries in a blender (you can cut them up although it will be messy). Place cherries, juice, sugar, lemon juice and muslin wrapped seeds in a large, heavy based saucepan. Slit vanilla bean in half horizontally and scrape the seeds with a knife and place seeds in the saucepan along with the rest of the bean. Cook on medium to high heat for 30 minutes until it has reduced by about a quarter.
2. Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until mixture reduces by a quarter. Meanwhile place 4 clean glass jars (I only got 2 jars out of this recipe) and the lids on a tray in a 200C/400F oven and bake for 10 minutes to sterlise them.

3. Remove the pouch of seeds and stir in the Jamsetta. Place a small saucer in the freezer. After 5-10 minutes take it out of the freezer and place a teaspoonful of the liquid onto the plate. Count to 30 seconds and then run your finger through the centre. If there is wrinkling or the line stays then it will set properly. If not, wash plate and place back in freezer and repeat every 3 minutes until the line holds.

4. Carefully ladle the jam (it will be very hot) into the jars. With rubber gloves screw the lid tightly and turn upside down for 5 minutes to create a seal. I also like to use the rubber gloves as you can wash down the sides of the jar if you’ve spilt a bit during the ladling process.

It looks good in the jar & tastes good straight from the jar


It is very tasty on toast



And it makes good jam drop biscuits!

Pumpkin risotto two ways

Continuing with my carb fest I made a pumpkin risotto last night because I had some pumpkin to use up. I wanted to make a baked risotto so I based my risotto on this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum. I have actually made that recipe before to the letter & it is delicious. I left out the tomatoes & herbs & added in roasted pumpkin & lots of fennel seeds. However given that my brain is not working so well at the moment as soon as I put the risotto in the oven & closed the door I realised I had used sushi rice rather than arborio rice but it still worked ok. Also, I should have added in the pumpkin later because it kind of turned to mush. I served it with a salad & it was quite nice but I am finding pumpkin super sweet at the moment.


I had heaps of risotto let over today so I made arancini. I shaped the risotto into balls, put a chunk of garlic & herb cheezly in the middle & rolled the balls in breadcrumbs mixed with nooch. I panfried these in a little bit of olive oil & then finished them off in the oven. I actually preferred the risotto this way & I had them with a salad of lettuce, roasted red capsicum, chickpeas & mango.

Sausage Rolls

Much like Tahn, I read Miss Ts post on her recent house warming & decided that I wanted to make the much raved about sausage rolls from Where's the Beef. Also like Tahn, upon reading the recipe I was very skeptical looking at the ingredients that these would make for good sausage rolls. But I had most of the ingredients & thought that I should at least give them a go. When I had everyhting in the bowl & was mixing it together I said to Greg that I was very unsure & was not expecting big things - except that I was expecting to hate them. But, oh my, these are so good!!! Greg said that he could eat 10 (which I did not allow) & we happily ate them for lunch again today. These are also super easy, especially if you have a food processor. I am definitely making these again & passing on the recipe to others.

Vegan Yum Yum Hurry Up Alfredo & Cupcakes

Today was quite busy in a good Sunday kind of way. I got up early & went for a walk, then went to Tom Phat for a delicious breakfast of scrambled tofu & then spent the afternoon at my mum's place. So by the time I got home I was looking for something quick to cook or dinner that would give me leftovers for lunch on Monday so decided to make this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum & added in some baby spinach. This is delicious! I have made it twice & don't know why I don't make it more often because it is crazy fast & easy & tasty. I have also used leftover sauce in a potato bake which is also a very good thing.


The best thing about visiting my mum is that I always get sent home with food. Today I got christmassy cupcakes which she made or me to take to work. I can't guarantee that they will all get to work though because they are really good!

Last day of mofo!! And I bought a mushroom farm!

That's right - a mushroom farm! I was in Aldi & saw them & thought that I would like to grow my own mushrooms. We got it all set up & put it in a cupboard, misting it with water most days & what do you know - we grew a mushroom!




Since then we have another 4 big mushrooms happily growing. I felt like doing something a bit special with the first mushroom but couldn't work out what to do, so it ended up going on pizza. I was inspired to make pizza after I read an easy pizza dough recipe on Yeah, that vegan shit. This recipe is insanely easy & really delicious.

The Easiest Pizza Dough in the World

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 packet of yeast


• 1 c. warm water


• 2-1/2 c. flour


• 1 t. agave nectar (or 2 t. sugar; I recommend the agave though cuz MAN does it make the crust taste lovely) - I used maple syrup & that was good!
  

• 1 t. salt


• 2 T. olive oil


• 2 T. fresh rosemary, chopped (optional) - I didn't use because I didn't have any
  


• cornmeal

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 200. In a large bowl, add in the yeast and warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add the flour, salt, agave (or sugar), rosemary (if using), and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon vigorously until combined. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Either sprinkle cornmeal onto a walled baking sheet and press dough into it until thin
-OR-
Sprinkle flour on your counter and roll out the pizza dough. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza stone and toss the dough on top. Spread olive oil over top (optional), and add all your toppings.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until pizza crust is golden and toppings are heated through.


I topped my pizza with roasted pumpkin, sliced mushrooms, caramelised onions & garlic & herb cheezly. Served with a tasty salad - this is a delicious mid week meal!

Quick & easy pasta

This is a super quick & easy pasta that I make sometimes when I really can't be bothered but have to prepare a meal.

• Roast some pumpkin
  
• While that is roasting, cook up some pasta
• While the pasta is cooking, fry some oyster mushrooms is a little bit of olive oil & plenty of garlic
• When it is all ready, add the pasta & pumpkin to the frypan with the mushrooms, add some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, halved cherry tomatoes & baby spinach
  
• Toss it all together & serve

Eggplant Parma

I usually buy my fruit & vegies from Vic Market before work on Friday mornings so at this time of the week I am trying to use up what I have left. I had an eggplant in the fridge & was trying to work out what to do with it & decided to do eggplant parma - I have never made it before & I loved it!

I sliced the eggplant, dipped it into soymilk mixed with egg replacer & then coated it in panko. I then cooked it in the frypan on a medium heat with a little bit of olive oil. Normally when I make parma type things I top them with pasta sauce but I didn't have any & was feeling lazy so I mixed together tomato paste, tomato sauce & fruit chutney - it did the job but was a bit too sweet. I then topped each piece of eggplant with half a piece of a tofutti cheese slice.

I served these with garlicky broccoli (steamed broccoli tossed in massel chicken stock & garlic) & lemony smashed potatoes.

Melindas White Choc Custard Biscuits

These biscuits are delicious. I know that I can make similar biscuits from scratch but when you arefeeling super lazy, they are really easy & really fast. I had some passionfruits in my fruit bowl so added the pulp of 3 passionfruits to the icing which sandwiches them together which makes them all the yummier.

Finally some salad weather!

It was a gorgeous sunny day in Melbourne today & was perfect salad weather. So I made a salad for dinner with all of my favourite things:

• rocket
• roasted red capsicum
• cherry tomatoes
• roasted sweet potato
• avocado
• olives
• balsamic glaze
  

I wanted to add some tofu & couldn't work out what to do with it, so I flicked through the Vegan Yum Yum book & came across this recipe for smoky miso tofu. I decided to give it a go because I had all the ingredients, it looked easy & I am won over by anything with miso, I could quite happily eat straight miso paste I love it so much. This tofu rocks - it has heaps of flavour & roasting it gives it a really nice texture.