Midweek Munchies

Some random fun things... and a not so fun thing.

I found these in the depths of my freezer. I bought them at The Green Edge ages ago. They were suffering from a bit of freezer burn, but they were OK. Just a bit tough. I used some to serve with a polenta dish (wait for that in a recipe round-up) and some in some breakfast waffles (which will also be another recipe round-up).



A quick dinner night, these Beevee strips and a packet of Chinese Beef Stir-Fry sauce. I stir-fried it all up with some vegetables I had kicking around in the fridge and served over rice.





I bought these from a Cruelty Free Shop order when they had a free shipping special a while ago. When the order arrived, I realised that I had accidentally ordered two packets. After trying them, I wish I had ordered more. These are SO GOOD! Crispy and cinnamony and I could just snack and snack and snack.



I was at a fun food shop on their discount day, and they had Buchi on tap. This was a rose and berry flavoured kefir, and it was DELICIOUS! I am sad it is not one of their regular flavours that they have available in regular shops in bottles, because I would drink it a lot.



Remember I mentioned I not so fun thing? This was it. This Made with Plants Bangers and Mash... which has some of the worse bangers (aka sausages) I have ever tried. They are smooshy and gross and they have a casing that just sort of peels off it in these gelatinous sheets and they don't even taste good. The potatoes and gravy are nice, but it doesn't save it. And you know what this doofus did? Bought it again because I had forgotten how bad they were (a lot of stuff from earlier this year is very fuzzy to me) and then remembered when I was eating it for the second time just how horrible the sausages in this are.





Ending on a better note, Coles released these vegan Salted Caramel and Chocolate Chip Cookies. I am not a big caramel fan, and these cookies really do verge on being too sweet. But they are pretty good as an occasional treat. (And by occasional I mean for me, because of the sweetness, if you want to eat a whole packet, go for it, I judge not!).

Eating In: A Random Assortment

Some things I have either had delivered or taken away.

I've ordered from Taksim Kebab's before, they have a vegan section of the menu that includes vegan meats and cheeses. This time I got a vegan chicken kebab, just the regular size as last time I ordered a large and it was mammoth! I always get hummus and BBQ as my sauces, I love the combination. This is a good kebab, and I got it with some hot chips.



Some nights you just need a big bowl of soup, and this is the vegan mushroom pho from Roll'd. Itis not quite as good the vegan pho from Bun, but it is still really nice. Lots of mushrooms and tofu.



Montezumas is a Mexican-ish chain that has been around for ages. They have long catered to vegans by removing dairy off vegetarian dishes, but some time ago they started offering vegan cheese and sour cream. I had never quite gotten around to trying it, but then I saw that they deliver to my area. I got my old favourite, the bean burrito, but this time instead of removing the dairy I got it with the vegan versions. I couldn't remember if it had much spice, so I ordered some guac to cool things down. Psych! The burrito itself was mild as can be, the guac was spicy!The burrito is huge, and comes with some of their delicious crunchy rice. I also got a salad on the side, they make this wonderful chopped salad that has apple in it, and it is so refreshing. You can see the vegan cheese on top of both, I have no idea what sort of cheese it was. It wasn't anything spectacular, and is more expensive so I'd probably prefer to just get the veggie one minus the dairy. But it was fun to try.



7-11 has several vegan options in their ready to go case these days. I have previously tried their vegan egg salad sandwich, which I liked. So I tried their vegan chicken salad sandwich. It was nice, the chicken didn't have much flavour, but overall it worked. I prefer the egg one though, I just can't get over the novelty of getting essentially a tofu egg salad sandwich in convenience store!



Another Mexican chain here is Guzman y Gomez. They also have vegan options, though they don't have vegan cheese. I love their veggie burrito bowl, made mild, though I do have to pick out a lot of capsicum. But I'm a pro at that. If you ask for it vegan rather than vegetarian, they replace the cheese with their delicious chimichurri mayo. So good. I also picked up one of these cute little Myk's FFF Kefire bottles, in lychee flavour. I haven't seen this brand for ages! If you do buy them, you have to keep the bottle upright though as it will leak everywhere if it is not.



The other week at work, we had a lot of sadness with some of the staff having sick kitties. So the boss decided we all needed pizza for lunch. We ordered from Domino's, which I have featured on the blog before as a chain that has vegan meats and cheeses. I hadn't had their pizza for ages. Last time I did, they were still using Follow Your Heart, which was the BEST! But they have since switched to their own vegan cheese, which I had not heard good things about. I got their vegan beef and onion pizza, which I love because it has a BBQ sauce base. The new cheese is not good. You can see it just looks... weird. Thank goodness BBQ sauce covered many sins.



Finally, Nodo is a gluten free cafe that started as a doughnut shop, became a cafe, and has a couple of branches. They have some vegan options, but are not convenient to me and I was yet to feel inspired to sort out going. But they had a pop up doughnut stall in Garden City a couple of weeks ago. They had one vegan option, which was a spiced pineapple doughnut with chocolate ganache and freeze dried pineapple on top. I really liked the flavour combination! The gluten free doughnut was even OK, but definitely improved by having chunks of pineapple through it. Would buy again.

Mid-Week Munchies

Getting our munch on.

Behold, a baked potato for lunch! With... some sort of leftovers. I have no idea what. I just do know that I sprinkled some of this Tuscan Salad Topped on top, that has seeds and sundried tomatoes and things in it.



I was so excited to find these chips! I had seen people in the US posting about various Dill Pickle flavoured crunchies, and I LOVE dill pickle as a flavour. So I was so disappointed when I realised these really just tasted like the apple cider vinegar with almost no dill flavour. Would not buy again.



Coles brand Nature's Kitchen released some frozen vegan pizzas, and of course I had to try the Hawaiian one. Pineapple belongs on pizza and I will not hear otherwise. Anyway, this was OK. A bit dry, and tou can see the cheese didn't really melt, but fun for quick lunch!



A quick dinner using some Passage to Asia Teriyaki Sauce and Chickvee strips. I also added some carrot, snow peas, and broccolini and served over rice.





Does anyone here like Veronica Mars? Anyone else a fellow Marshmallow? I listed to a podcast called Veronica Mars Investigations, that is going through the series. When they got up to the movie, they did a live watch. Which was the morning in my time zone. I wasn't going to do anything special food wise, but at the last moment I added some mini dandies to my bowl of yoghurt, berries, peanut butter, and pepitas. Because why not.



Finally, these fun little snacks I bought on sale. They are salty and crunchy and fun to eat. I'd buy them again. They do have some other flavours as well, but the ones I saw were all spicy.

Recipe Round-Up: Bowls of Goodness: Grains & Greens

What is THIS? Why yes, it is a new recipe round-up! I don't know, I guess I feel a bit inspired to do one. Also, I have been really keen to share this book with all of you, because I love it! I got Bowls of Goodness: Grains & Greens for Christmas last year, and I have made a bunch out of it. Written by Nina Olsson, it is a follow on to her other book Bowls of Goodness (see my previous round-ups from that book here). Both books are vegetarian, but most of the recipe are vegan or if not have a vegan sub listed, so you don't need to miss out on anything. I have been really enjoying this book, which is full of delicious and beautiful meals. So, let's not keep you waiting any longer. Let's get into the first recipe round-up for Bowls of Goodness: Grains and Greens.

Sun Salute Rice Porridge: Cooler mornings call for warmer breakfasts. This is a lovely rice porridge that is golden from turmeric, and also has orange juice, non-dairy milk (it calls for coconut, I used oat), vanilla, agave, and other spices. Topped with caramelised banana and some quickly sauteed sweet greens (baby spinach with lemon juice and agave). Also topped with some vanilla cashew yoghurt and some extra coconut sugar for sprinkling. This was a lovely warming sweet way to start the day.
Rating: :)



Oats with Sweet Greens and Almonds: The sweet greens here differ a bit from the previous recipe, they have similar ingredients but also have some ginger and herbs, but I chopped the spinach and mixed with the other ingredients and left it to marinate briefly, rather than cooking it. The oats are quickly made, and have some vanilla yoghurt stirred through as well as some cinnamon. Topped with some toasted slivered almonds, this was a nice breakfast. Both these recipes were a fun way to get some greens into the start of the day!
Rating: :)



Sababa: This is in the breakfast chapter, but I served it for dinner. It is a wonderful fresh, satisfying, but not too heavy meal that would be great any time of the day. I used store-bought hummus for the base, and some store-bough pita bread that I toasted in my panini press. It is topped with some sauteed spiced greens (sping onions, asparagus, baby spinach, and green beans), some feta yoghurt, fresh tomatoes, and coriander. Feta yoghurt, you say? Yes! I used Kingland soy natural yoghurt and Sheese greek style cheese, blended up smooth in the food processor. And it is SO GOOD!
Rating: :)



Okonomiyaki Bowl: Another recipe from the breakfast chapter that I served for dinner. This recipe has sauteed cabbage mixed into cooked rice, seared tofu (I used a flavoured Japanese baked tofu), peas, carrots, cucumber, avocado and a creamy shoyu sauce. It has the option to add some melon or stone fruit, but it wasn't the season so I left it off. I used a store bought Soy Salad Sprinkle to top it off.
Rating: :)



Savoy Cabbage, Griddled Tofu, Gravad Carrot, and Creamy Horseradish: Of course I couldn't find savoy cabbage the day I was shopping for this, so I used sugarloaf! This bowl layers brown rice (which I used instead of rye), miso-agave grilled tofu, and garlicky sauteed cabbage. The Gravad Carrot is a lovely recipe from the staples chapter of the book, where ribbons of carrot are marinated in a wonderful tangy marinade. A cashew-based horeseradish sauce and some cucumber top it all off. The recipe called for fresh cucumber, wasabi paste, or Dijon. I can never find fresh horseradish, but I love horseradish flavour, so I used a hefty amount of prepared horeseradish from a jar. The best thing is this recipe is finished off with a liberal sprinkling of dill, my favourite herb!
Rating: Bowl :), Carrots :)



Satay Tofu: This recipe is meant to be made with tempeh, but my dad dislikes tempeh so tofu it was! The tofu is marinated in what should be a spicy marinade, but of course I left out the hot sauce. Once cooked, it is served over rice (the recipe calls for red, I used a blend of brown, wild, and red rice) with spinach, green beans, sauce, and garnishes. This recipe invoves a couple of different components to be made ahead of time for the garnishes. A coconut and coriander gremolata, which I found to have way too much lime juice in it. It really took over the flavour of the rest of it, even though I added some extra sugar accidentally. Also, some sweet and sour cucumbers, which are cucumbers marinated in a sweet vinegar mix (I left out the chilli). They were lovely.
Rating: Bowl :), Cucumbers :), Gremolata :|



Chickpea 'Tuna' Pasta Salad: Chickpea Tuna Salad is a staple, and this is a nice and tangy take on it. A bit too tangy at first, I added some extra mayo to the mix. The salad also has capers, apple, and corn in it to give it a lovely sweetness. The rest of the bowl is pretty simple, with cooked and cooled pasta, lettuce, tomatoe, olives, celery, cucumber, corn, and parsley. This says it makes four, but the tuna salad made enough for two bowls with a bit leftover for a sandwich.
Rating: :)



Leek and Barley Gratin with Cauliflower Cheese: This is a wonderful cheesy, warming casserole. Barley is such a nice grain, and it often doesn't get enough of the spotlight outside of soups and stews, but it is great in all sorts of ways. The cheese sauce is a mix of steamed cauliflower and white beans, which was nice. I could have used more sauce though, as it gets absorned more into the cooked barley and thickenens up when baking. The barley is mixed with most of the sauce, cabbage, leek, and white beans, then topped with the rest of the sauce and baked.
Rating: :)



This is only about half of what I have made from this book, so be on the lookout for another round-up next time I feel inspired!

Midweek Munchies

It's the middle of the week, so let's see some random things I ate many moons ago.

This was the last of those Nutrish soups, this one was the orange one! Pumpkin, chickpeas, lentils, sprouted pea protein, and chia seeds. Dear friends, chia seeds to not belong in soup. This range of soups is obsessed with putting different 'superfoods', in... they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.



Pringles! Once you pop, you really can't stop. For years most salt and vinegar flavours have been not vegan. Why is their milk in them? I don't know. It's not needed. Anyway, I was super excited to see that the salt and vinegar pringles now had a vegan tick on them! Then my friend told me they had been like this for ages. I could have been eating delicious crunchy salt and vinegar pringles for all that time.



Another quick dinner of sausages, potatoes, and gravy. I love these Vegie Delight Herb and Garlic sausages, they are the perfect sausage for this sort of dinner. I made a quick mash, boiled some frozen peas, and served with this Coles Christmas Gravy that was still idling around in the fridge. The gravy was OK, but it lacked the rich depth I want in a gravy. Still, it was a good quick option!





For a while, my beloved FYH Vegenaise was GONE. VANISHED. NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! This was tragic, as it is my favourite vegan mayo. I don't like a lot of the other ones. Someone posted on a vegan group about this one being close, so I gave it a try. And you know what? It is very close, and very good! Australian made, and available from Coles and other specialty stores. Thankfully Vegenaise is now BACK, but I am happy to swap between the two.



Picked up this V2 vegan mince on sale. I used it for a bunch of different recipes from cookbooks, which will eventually come to the blog in the next ten to one hundred years. But just some general thoughts, I really liked this. Despite appearances, it isn't too meaty and doesn't smell gross. It is great for forming into meatballs or patties. And you can easily cut it into portions while it is still frozen, so you can just defrost the amount you need for one recipe. Or you can cut it into portions before freezing, I just remembered that this came from the fridge section but I froze it because it was about to expire.



Continuing with my adventures through trying vegan frozen meals, I definitely recommend this lasagne by Coco & Lucus. It has a great flavour, and nice melty cheese.



My final offering for this midweek munchies, these Sunrice Smokehouse BBQ and Paprika chips are exceptional. I don't eat a lot of chips, the flavours often are a let down. But these are packed full of delicious flavour, and are nice and crunchy. I have been through many bags. They say they are a limited edition, but I hope they made them a permanent addition because these are too good to ever go away.

Eating Out: Wooden Horse

A new addition to the blog! Wooden Horse restaurant and bar is literally a 45 second walk away from one of the places I occasionally work. I'd walked past a number of times when it was closed (it only opens for dinner), but never thought much of it. Until one day I saw a post in one of the vegan groups on Facebook that they were starting to offering vegan menu options! And it looked good. Of course, COVID and such. It took me a while to be able to get there. But one day when I was working at the nearby place and finishing at 7pm, I thought it would be a handy time to go try it out. The menu changes based on the season, and I this was from their summer menu.

First up, the Arancini with beetroot, white bean cheese, and green goddess dressing. It was supposed to come with chipotle mayo, but I asked if they could switch it for something less spicy. This is still on the current autumn menu, so perhaps it is a regular.



They had a bunch of pizzas on their summer menu, and I got The Drifter. It had cauliflower, beetroot, hummus, spinach, pinenuts, green goddess, and vegan cheese. I asked them to leave off the capsicum. It was really nice, a very unique pizza topping combination. I took half of it home so I had room for dessert, and it tasted great cold the next day.



I mentioned dessert. Oh yes, I did. The vegan dessert option was the Pumpkin Pie, which had burnt butter crumb, pecan praline, candied sage, chocolate soil, and vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was coconut based, but it was in that range where I wouldn't want to eat a whole tub, but a single scoop didn't make me feel sick. All together it was a wonderful dessert.



A few weeks ago, my roster got suddenly changed so I was working an evening shift at the nearby clinic again. I spontaneously (a big deal for me) decided that I should got back for dinner that night! I live on the other side of town, so had to take advantage of being a 45 second walk away! And it meant I got to try out their current autumn menu.

I skipped the starters and went straight for the main, the King Trumpet Mushroom Scallops. These had house-aged shiitake, grilled asparagus, crispy enoki, and aromatic congee. It was delicious. So savoury and mushroomy. I was very happy.

While I didn't have a starter, I sure did have a side. Not Your Mum's Sprouts were roasted Brussels sprouts with aged soy mushrooms, maple, smoked almond, and shallot, vegan mozzarella. This was phenomenal. It was piping hot, and just a perfect combination of sweet and smoky and creamy and crunchy. It ended up being a cold and raining night, and this hit the spot.



Of course I had to end with dessert! The 'Choc Onslaught', described as ganache, olive oil semifreddo, raspberry, chambord, choc shards, and cocoa soil. Oh friends, this was AMAZING!! The choc shards had this wonderful malted flavour, almost like milo. But the star was the olive oil semifreddo, which had passionfruit, and I could have eaten an entire tray of it. Oh, just thinking about it again makes me yearn for it.



I highly recommend Wooden Horse to everyone! If your non-vegan friend is thinking about a dinner out, suggest this place! You will be well taken care of. I can't wait to go back and see what is on their winter menu when it is released. They always have a gnocchi dish on the vegan menu, but the two times I have been their seasonal version always had chilli in it. It is meant to be amazing, so I really hope that the next one will be chilli free so I can enjoy some gnocchi. Anyway, if you are in Brisbane, go here.

Midweek Munchies

A selection of random foods I have eaten.

I got these Eaty Gourmet Snags from the Discount Grocery Outlet. I had seen them in supermarkets, but being that they have coconut oil in them I was only willing to give them a chance at an extremely discounted price. They were OK. Not amazing though, I wouldn't buy them again unless they were very discounted. The coconut oil was not prominent or gross, which was good. I served them in a summery way with potato salad, corn on the cob, and cucumber.





Enjoy this terrible photo of a ham and cheese tik tok wrap. It is a pretty fun thing to do, though terrible to photograph. In the back ground are some roasted and squashed potatoes.



I bought this Bae Korean Pear Juice because it sounded amusing. I was less amused when I got to the register and realised this tiny thing was $4. But I was committed. Apparently it is some sort of special pear juice that will stop you getting hungover. I don't know about that, I don't drink. What I can say is that it was nice. Different from regular pear juice. But no way would I buy it again for the price. Also, when I was trying to open it a bunch splurted out onto the bench. A devestating amount of cents lost.



Earth is a brand that has a bunch of different sorts of vegan party food snacks for the oven. I was curious to try these Chickenless Cheeseballs. Well, I would call them chickenless balls. They were nice, crunchy on the outside, a good nuggety texture. But where was the cheese? It was just a tiny drizzle in the middle of each. I was expecting a full on ooze.



Some fancy cheeses that do not have coconut oil in them that I bought from The Green Edge. The Fine Cultures Port Cheddar will feature in an upcoming midweek munchies. I realised that I don't have any photos of the Delictio Vegan Chevre, but I ate it smeared on crackers or in sandwiches. It was really nice. A bit smudgy with the ashy outside though! But would buy again.



Finally, a vegan jerky that has popped up in Woolworths. I liked this, it is good and peppery, not too chewy for my poor TMJ. I love finding savoury snack options.