Christmas Eve

I worked on Christmas Eve, though the clinic closed a few hours early so I could get home in time for dinner. I have traditionally made nachos for the last few years, so I was after a quick and easy nacho recipe that I could throw together as soon as I got home.

Loaded Cheet-Pan Nachos from Epic Vegain Quick & Easy by Dustin Harder: These were a natural choice. Quick and Easy is literally in the name of the cookbook. These were very fast to throw together. Corn chips (I used a 250g bag of Mission Tortilla Strips), red cabbage, black beans, corn, olives and cheese sauce are baked in a pan, and then topped with salsa and sour cream. I used coriander for ganish rather than scallions, and left out the red capsicum and the jalapenos. I served some diced avocado on the side for me and Dad, as my mum is allergic.
Rating: :)



Vegan Eggnog from Cadry's Kitchen: It's been a long time since I have made anything nog-related, but this seemed like a good place to reintroduce myself to nog. I loved this recipe! I made it in the morning before I left for work, so it could sit and thicken as Cadry recommends. This was thick, creamy, and tasted great.
Rating: :)



If you are going to have milk (or nog), you must have some cookies! Sorry Santa, none for you. All for us! I made to types of cookies. One, the Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance, I had made many times before. These are some of the best cookies you can make! But I also tried a new recipe.

Old-Fashioned Pie-Plate Shortbread from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero: I wanted to buy some vegan shortbread that wasn't gluten free, but had no luck finding any. I made my own, that were full of gluten! This recipe is very easy, though my dough never really went crumbly. I may need to add a bit more flour next time. But it all worked out, pressed into a pie plate with fluted edges to look fancy. They were some lovely shortbread!
Rating: :)



We had our nog and cookies while watching Love Actually. Yes, I know it is terrible when you think about it. So I just don't think about it while I am watching it. Problem solved! We also put out presents and stockings. I bought stockings for Abby and Boo... I may have gone a little overboard with presents.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



That year I got super festive and made Christmas cards to send out using this photo of me and Dim Sim.

Pre-Christmas Christmasing

Hello friends! It is Boxing Day here, the day after Christmas day. I hope whatever this time of year does or doesn't mean to you, you had a lovely time. And shout out to those who were working as well, I know not everyone gets holidays off.

This year, I decided to go Full Christmas to distract myself from the gaping grief hole that is my girls having all passed on. Last year was spent in a grief haze, just four weeks after Dim Sim passed. I am excellent and distracting myself and dissociating, so let's get Christmassy! I went hard from the 1st of December, with decorating and Christmas carols, and buying some special Christmas cat related things. But to be honest 25 days is too long to keep up the festive cheer. I flagged in the final week. But that's OK because I still made some lovely fun food!

My mum always makes the Christmas cake every year, veganising it using Nuttelex and vegan egg baking replacement. This year's cake was exceptional, very yummy! It was gone long before Christmas! I didn't get a photo of the whole cake, but here is a slice I had. Gentle heated and spread with some Nuttelex, my favourite way to eat it!



I bought four different types of vegan roasts this year. Yes, four. I could have bought more. We were only going to have one at Christmas, so I decided to have the Inaugural Week Before Christmas Christmas Dinner. Why not, I was being festive!

I decided to try the one roast I had bought that I had never tried before, the Woolworths Plantitude Vegan Roast. It was also gluten free. It came out of the box in vacuum packed plastic and it did not look promising. It was this flat, grey looking rectangle. I took the roast out of the plastic, tried to shape it into something more roast like, and roasted away. In the final roasting stage put on the cranberry glaze that comes with it. When it all came out of the oven, it was sitting in a pool of greasy liquid that I drained off. Friends, this was not good. It tasted weird, the texture was not good. Glad I didn't save it for the actual day! Would not buy again. Do not recommend.



Creamed Spinach from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: I'd been wanting to make this recipe for a while, and this seemed like a good time to make it! It was very simple, a cashew cream sauce and sauteed baby spinach, finished off with a sprinkle of nutmeg. I made the whole lot, and got three side serves out of it. It was lovely.
Rating: :)



I finished off the plate with some jarred cranberry sauce, and some salt and vinegar roasted potatoes. This recipe came out of the Christmas edition of The Australian Women's Weekly magazine. You boil the potatoes in vinegar and salted water, then squash them, dot them with butter and salt, and roast. We were looking forward to a good vinegar flavour, but they only had a hint of it. And they needed much longer in the over to get properly crispy. And definitely add some extra salt to them!



I also did some fun pre-Christmas baking, because why not.

Cranberry Cheesecake Cookie Cups: I made these from an Instragram recipe by Thriving On Plants, which you can find here. I halved the recipe to make three, because there are three of us and also I only had half a tub of cream cheese to use. This recipe is delicious and SO easy! The cookies cups were incredibly simple, and make it look so fancy! We really enjoyed these. Would make again. And I am also going to keep that cookie cup recipe in my arsenal so I can make super easy but very fancy looking things in the future!
Rating: :D



Mincemean & Apple Squares from The Festive Vegan Table by Aine Carlin: I made these for a Christmas bake sale, and they were delicious. But I did have some practical issues. I accidentally added all the water for the dough, which made it a wet dough, far beyond the crumble stage. I added a bunch of extra flour back in, but it never quite went right. For the filling, I cut open my orange to juice and found it was black inside. Ewww. So I googled and found a way to sub it with orange extract and water. After baking, the filling with very runny, so I would suggest just added some orange extract and no water or juice. Maybe it was because my jar of fruit mince had extra moisture? I don't know. But regardless of some issues, these were so yummy and very festive! The apple combined with the fruit mince was lovely.
Rating: :)



Stay tuned for several more festive posts to come!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post


Dim Sim made sure everyone knew that she was NOT happy about being Santa Claws. Coal for everyone!

Litha 2021

While I watch all my Northern Hemisphere friends go from cozy to chilly weather, over here in Australia we are sweltering. Hot hot hot. Thankfully, we just had our summer solstice, known as Litha to the pagan-inclined among us. The longest day of the year means that now the days will get shorter! Bring back the darkness! Go away sun, you burning menace!

Litha (aka Summer Solstice) (21st-22nd December, 2021).

I celebrated as I always do, with food! Summer foods, grilled foods, fiery foods, red foods. Let's see!

I didn't actually grill, I do have a BBQ outside that I really need to use because it has been long neglected, but for this easy Litha dinner I made burgers just on the stove. I just made quick and easy cheeseburgers, using the V2 burger patties, Sheese Red Leicester slices, Veganaise, and some Coles cheeseburger sauce. I couldn't get my favourite Fry's brioche buns, so I just made them with some regular burger buns from Coles. Served with some cucumber slices and salad.



Dustin's Favourite Summer Salad from Epic Vegan Quick & Easy by Dustin Harder: For the salad, I went with this sublime summery offering from one of my newest cookbooks. This is simple, but oh so delicious! Corn, tomato, avocado, and basil in a lime-juice based dressing. It is sweet and juicy and tangy and creamy in all the right ways.
Rating: :D



Ginger Lemonade from Cafe Flora Cookbook: I love making homemade lemonade! And this gingery concoction was just perfect for a warm evening. You make a simple ginger infusion, then dilute with lemon juice and water. It is very easy, has a lovely spicy ginger burn, and was very much enjoyed.

Rating: :)



Vegan Cranberry Muffins from Dianne's Vegan Kitchen: Tying together some lovely red and orange colours with the approach of Christmas, these muffins were a great way to end the meal. I made a half recipe, for six muffins. I just used regular plain flour, and I used defrosted frozen cranberries. These turned into wonderful tart little flavour bursts. The muffin includes some orange juice in the liquid, which gave a nice flavour with the cranberries.
Rating: :)



I hope everyone had a happy solstice, be it summer or winter.

Oh, BTW, my COVID test came back as negative. Just a cold. Though since we opened our borders our numbers have been jumping up hugely every day. And yesterday the Chief Health Officer said: 'Not only is the spread of this virus inevitable, it is necessary. In order for us to go from the pandemic phase to an endemic phase, the virus has to be widespread. We all have to have immunity, you will all have to develop immunity and there's two ways you can do that: by being vaccinated or getting infected.' So... cool cool cool. I have been waiting to get it, I know it is coming for me, and apparently now that it is a good thing? Also, being infected doesn't give immunity. Lots of people have had it more than once. Lots of vaccinated people get it. People will die. People will get Long COVID. So if you are waiting to see what the next fun mutation will be, it will probably be in Queensland! Let's cheer ourselves up with some cats.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Possum was the first one who had to suffer the indignities of dressing up for Christmas. Just look at him suffering through the indignity of this santa had and scarf.

Midweek Munchies

It's the middle of the week, who is feeling hungry?

After Vegie Delights discontinuing their chicken slices, and Tofurky no longer shipping to Australia, I found this VChicken at the Green Edge. I am pretty sure I have had it before, they have just updated their packaging. Anyway, it is good on sandwiches.



I tried the Fable Goulash Pepper Stew ready meal, which I added the suggested sour cream to. I used the new Made With Plant sour cream, look out for it on an upcoming munchies. The pepper in the meal came from actual black pepper, not from capsicums, which I checked before I bought it. I also added the baby spinach.



I made some burgers using some of the Coles Nature's Kitchen Mushroom and Caramelised Onion burgers. After the absolute tastelessness of their meaty-style burgers, I was worried. However, these burgers are delicious! So much lovely flavour. I made my burgers with some Sheese slices (that I got on clearance - bonus!), tomato chutney, and of course my favourite Fry's Brioche Buns. Also some mayo and baby spinach.



Some fun teas that I bought! Cocoa, Cinnamon, and Ginger just sounds so wonderful and warming. And I was intrigued by the Beetroot, Ginger, and Curry Leaves. They are both nice in their own ways, though the flavour never really gets strong enough even with leaving the bag in the whole time. The curry one has a nice, almost savoury sort of vibe going.



Finally, some chocolate! KM Foods is a local brand, they also make jerky. I have not been interested in their chocolate before, as their flavours were white, caramel, and milk. But they introduced this new dark cherry coconut one, and it is really nice.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



We did reindeer antlers, how about Santa hats? Yes, there was a yearly Santa hat dress up as well. Sahara was very hard to keep it on, she moves so much, but she did give a cute little one-ear out post here!

Eating In: Drinks, Ice Cream, Doughnuts, Fries

Hello friends! I am meant to be at work today, but instead at home feeling crappy and waiting for results of a COVID test. Yes, I am boostered as of last week, but since our borders opened up COVID is rapidly spreading where I live, so no chances are to be taken. So I've made a nice cup of peppermint tea, and thought why not put up an extra blog post for funsies. This Eating In post is about food that I have taken away to eat later, or have had delivered. Heads up, this post talks about some pretty rough days I had.

I loved drinks from Huey's Sugarcane and Coconut Juice. I say loved, because they have sadly closed. This drink was a Rapsberry and Lime Sugarcane Juice with Basil Seeds, my penultimate beverage from Huey's.



One quiet day at work, I went and picked us up some doughnuts from Brooklyn Doughnut Co. They have a few vegan flavours. I got the chocolate peanut butter and the biscoff to split between us. They were very good.



The doughnut place was right next to Gelatissimo, and I got a cone with their vegan Peanut Butter Brownie ice cream. It was really nice, but not as nice as the vegan strawberry cheesecake they have previously had. Also not $600 worth of nice. Why $600? This was the day my wallet got stolen. I had my wallet in one hand, card in the other ready to tap and pay, but then they handed me the ice cream, so I was juggling all three. I sat down next to the shop to eat the ice cream quickly and put my card back in my wallet, and my wallet back in my bag... and that was the last time I saw my wallet! This was four months ago now, so it's fine, I'm over it. But seeing this photo again does make me remember the time an ice cream cost me a whole lot of money, plus the sentimental things I had in my wallet.



Fast forward a couple of weeks and it was the day I was at work with Boo, getting her ultrasound done. And she was going to have to have surgery the next day for gut biopsies. It gave me some pretty bad flashbacks to Sahara. I was also at work much later than my shift ended, because I was waiting for her procedure. So at the end of it I was tired and upset. Do I go home and not eat? Do I instead aggressively eat something and get a stomach ache? I chose the latter, and Taksim Kebabs came through for me with a Vegan HSP. Chips, vegan lamb, caramelised red onions, vegan cheese, BBQ sauce, vegan aioli. This was the medium size, and it was HUGE!



My final drink from Huey's, right before they closed. This should have been a free drink. In my wallet, I had a '10th drink free' loyalty card, and this was going the be the 10th drink. The wallet that was stolen. Oh, the things they took from me. For my final drink, I went with a Strawberry Sugarcane Juice with Basil Seeds. RIP Huey, please come back. I love you.



The final thing to share, and it is a happy memory. I was going to watch Riverdale with my friends, and had worked late. So I stopped at Burger Urge on the way to get myself a burger to eat. I'd always been meaning to try a vegan offering from Burger Urge, but just never had been by one, so I was happy to find there was one right near her house. I got the vegan cheeseburger and some chips, and they were both excellent. And my friends and I had a lovely time watching Riverdale and trash talking about it with each other.



Obviously, the food in this post reminded me of some stressful times. And hey, that's OK. It's amazing how food becomes entwined with other events happening in our lives. The important thing is that while losing my wallet was stressful and upsetting at the time, I am OK now. And Boo is also OK. She's on medication, but she is living her best Boo life!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Gizmo made an excellent Santa Paws!

Peonies and Puddings

Saturday the 27th of November was a really hard day for me, it was the year anniversary of Dim Sim's passing. I had made sure I wasn't working, so I could look after myself in whatever form I needed to. This wasn't just the anniversary of Dim Sim dying, it also marked one year of living without any of my heart cats, my soul mates, the loves of my life. It was rough.

I had organised to go and pick up a couple of very nice things for myself in the morning, because I figured that would give myself a reason to get out of bed, at least for a while.

First up, I had seen on Instagram that Poco Posy, a Brisbane florisy, was having a peony market day. Peonies are my very favourite flower, so I wanted to go and get some. I picked out two bunches, which were just so beautiful and smelled amazing.





The other place I had to go was a dessert tub pop up by The Little Vegan & Co. They used to make the most amazing vegan baked goods that you could order, and they also supplied some cafes for a while as well. But over the last year, they took some time off. But they have popped back up, but having some special pop-up events. They've had one every Saturday for the last week, and I have been to three of them. You need to pre-order and pre-pay, and then you go at the appointed time and pick up you delicious dessert, in an extremely COVID safe manner.



So this first one, on the 27th, I had ordered a Blueberry Custard Lamington Dessert Tub. Let that sink in, because it was every bit as delicious as it sounds.



I couldn't get to the one the following week, but I was back the week after that to pick up my Trifle. This was so good, and look how cute it is. Those little jelly stars! My heart!



The surprised us with a final pop-up this most recent Saturday, and I swung by after work to pick up some adorble Chocolate Lava Cakes. I forgot to take a photo, so here is a screenshot I grabbed from my Instagram stories. These were then heated up in the microwave, and then cut into to reveal a gorgeous molten chocolate centre.



Even though it is a little bit of a drive, I look forward to visiting them many more times next year when they start doing these little weekly pre-orders again. They have been working on some amazing looking things.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I started this talking about Dim Sim, so I will end it talking about Dim Sim. After I got home from that initial trip out, I didn't really know what to do with myself and I was dreading the clock ticking down until 2.30pm (the time she passed), so I just climbed into bed and went to sleep until 4pm, slept right through it. Abby sat on top of me while I slept. Then I got up to watch some Buffy and we ordered delivery. So it was a very gentle day for me. Not so gentle however is the expression on Dim Sim's face when I used to make her be a reindeer. Pretty sure she was plotting my demise.

Eating Out: North Brisbane Vegan Markets

Well friends, Queensland's borders have opened, and over the last three days COVID cases have been increasing every day. Opposite of yay. So while I still have quite a few eating out posts to be shared in my archives, I am not sure that I will be doing much eating out at all in the future. Let alone at something like this, the North Brisbane Vegan Markets. This is at a newer location, upstairs at a shopping centre, and it is actually not a bad one. I met up with my friend last month so we could check it out, and get some food.

I was really excited to try a Breakfast Muffin with scramble and bacon on it, from a stall that sells their own vegan scrambled egg mix. I don't remember the name, and really there is no reason to because sadly this was not good. The scramble tasted weird. And even the tots were so fried and oversalted that they almost hurt my mouth to eat. The lemonade I got as part of the meal deal was also extremely average, not like they just added some lemon juice to water. So no need to look up this stall's name, because I am not going to recommend it or get anything from it again.



My friend got some tacos from Holy Taco. Though they seem more like tacquitos? They are rolled up and crispy. They have three flavours to choose from - potato, beans, and vegan mince. I have completely forgotten what she chose, but she really enjoyed them.



I fared much better with dessert, getting a Loaded Biscoff Sundae from I Should Coco.



And my friend got a crepe with walnuts, strawberries, and caramel sauce. I cannot remember the name of the crepe stall, and not because it was bad. She really liked it. I should try and find the name of it, but I am tired. So if you ever go to the vegan markets, just look for the crepe stall.



My friend also got some cute cupcakes from Pippa's Pantry to take home.



I got a Carbonara Pizza with Cheesy Stuffed Crust from Piante Pizza to take home for lunch. This was so good! I've been wanting to try their pizza for a long time.



I also bought some chocolate, some jerky, and some sourdough crumpets to take home!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Possum, our sweet family boy, probably had to deal with the reindeer antlers the most. As you can see, he was resigned to his yearly fate.

Midweek Munchies

Hope everyone is hanging in there. I had my COVID booster shot yesterday. No ill effects today other than a sore arm, which is good. But even if I'd felt a bit crappy, it would be worth it. Come on immune system, get those anitbodies pumping! Anyway, let's have some snacks.

I love mochi, do you? They are so good! I used to be able to find peanut butter mochi, which were the best. I was looking for some recently, and no luck, but I did get these two. Matcha mochi and red bean mochi, two classic flavours!



I love the Coco & Lucas Earth meals, and I tried their Spaghetti Vege-Naise. It was pretty nice! They always have a good flavour in their meals, and they are satisfying. But I haven't seen them as much in Woolworths lately, I hope they are not discontinuing them. Their lasagne and cottage pie ones are awesome.



I bought this vegan ravioli to use in a recipe that I'll blog about at some future recipe round-up. It has a nice texture and flavour, this brand is expensive, but worth a little treat when you are able to because their fresh vegan pastas are always really nice. They are in the fridge section at Woolworths, with the other fresh pastas.



I love rose flavoured things, and these chocolate covered rose fondants were lovely.



Finally, some muffins! I found these Sourdough Rye english muffins in the supermarket. They are a little more expensive than regular ones, with only four in the pack rather than six, but I really liked them.



I used them a couple of times to make Bacon Cheese Burger Pizza Muffins. Just the muffin spread with some Coles Cheeseburger Sauce, topped with some FYH cheddar before melting under the grill (or broiler, for my US friends), and then sprinkled with some bacon bits. Sure, there is no actual burger on there, but cheeseburgers are really more about the flavours that go with them.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Continuing on with the reindeer photos, here is Sahara wearing the antlers with her 'grin and bear' it face... apt considering she was my little Bear.