Midweek Munchies

Sure it is closer to the beginning of the week, but it is always a good time for some snacks. How is everyone holding in there? I am not going to lie, things have been rough for me lately. Hence the sporadic posts. But I am holding on and trying to find some joy where I can.

Pana is a chocolate brand here that also has a range of spreads. I got this Raspberry, Coconut, & Chocolate spread on sale. Coconut you say? All good, it is just coconut sugar and shredded coconut. This was really lovely!



Nutrigrain had a special edition Peanut Butter flavoured cereal that I had to try. But... it was just fine. The peanut butter flavour was just the merest hint. If you are going make something peanut butter flavoured, you have to go all in!



Veef now has some refrigerated burger patties... they are not as good as the original ones. I hope they haven't gotten rid of the original ones from the freezer, I haven't seen them for a while.



A fun kombucha flavour to try!



I saw someone post about these and I had to try them. They are from Coles, and sounded perfect for the warmer months. And they are! They are just great little bite sized treats.



A friend sent me this all the way from the UK! It is similar to a Crunchie or a Violet Crumble. So much fun but SO SWEET! I ate in tiny doses and shared it with my family.



Ages ago I posted about some Get Plant'd pepperoni slices I had bought from Coles, but hadn't made anything with yet. Here they are in a sandwich, and I am happy to say they are absolutely delicious!



Finally these Tom & Luke Maple & Almond balls. These are very mild in flavour, which was a nice little change compared to the stronger fruity balls. I definitely enjoyed these.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The 17th of Frebruary was six years since Sahara passed away. Hard to believe it. I took the day of work, and have a very cosy day playing computer games and watching TV.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook Share Eat Vegan

Time for some more recipes I made from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin. See previous posts from this book here.

Mega Miso Freekeh Bowl: This was a great way to use up some random freekeh I had lurking in my pantry. Freekeh, carrot, parsnip, and kale form the base, which is ten topped with some broccolini and tahini sauce. The Goes-With-Everything Tahini Sauce is a separate recipe in the book, but is super easy to make. The freekeh also has some chopped dates in it, which goes nicely with the salty miso. This makes quite big serves, though is not super filling.
Rating: Bowl: :), Tahini Sauce :)



Pearl Barley Paella with Paprika-Roasted Tempeh: To make this easier for myself, I soaked the barley for about 6 hours then I added it, plus sauteed onion, celery, and carrot into a rice cooker and hit cook. It also has green beans and peas in it, and I blanched these and just added them in at the end. The paella itself is OK, but needed a bit more seasoning. The tempeh, however, is definitely the star of the show! It is incredibly lovely.
Rating: Overall :), Tempeh :D



Puy Lentil Ragu: This has a recipe included to serve it over homemade tagliatelle, but I don't have the equipment or energy for making pasta by hand. I served it over some pre-bought gnocchi. The ragu is a very thick sauce, a lot of the liquid simmered away, but it has a lovely flavour. Lentils, red wine, tomatoes, mushrooms and more. This is wonderful on a cold night.
Rating: :)



Turmeric & Ginger Sweet Potato Soup with Roasted Tamari Tofu Pieces: I made a half recipe of this for one very delicious serving. The soup itself is very thick and has a wonderful flavour. The tofu is meant to be baked in its marinade until the marinade is absorbed, but mine never did. I ended up taking it out of the marinade to finish baking. The whole thing is absolutely delicious! I served it with some roasted broccoli and bread with cashew cheese.
Rating: :D



Get-Up-And-Go Shake: This is meant to be a coffee shake, but I don't do coffee. I just left it out, and I also decreased the amount of dates required from three down to one. In the absence of coffee (which I made up with more oat milk), this is a lovely banana, oat, almond butter and maca smoothie. It was incredibly thick though, and a very small serving. While I do love a thick smoothie, this was a bit too thick and sludgy, so I would increase the amount of oat milk to your preference.
Rating: :)



Griddled Cobb-Style Salad with a Creamy Dressing: This salad is LOVELY! Corn cobs and cherry tomatoes are grilled (or in my case pan-fried) until a bit charred. Then served with a salad of cos and cucumber. I replaced the avocado it called for with butter beans, to make it more of a meal, and also left out the spring onions and cress. The salad is served with an easy to make, delicious coconut bacon. And topped with a hummus-based dressing. In the dressing, I used dill instead of chives and white pepper instead of black pepper. Definitely make this.
Rating: :D



Sweet Potato Mash with Pesto-Coated Cannellini Beans: This is a nice combination, combining mashed sweet potato and carrot with roasted cherry tomatoes and pesto beans. The beans and cooked with spinach, pesto and water, which ended up quite watery. I'd leave out the water or only add a little at a time.
Rating: :)



Creamy Curried Chickpeas with Teriyaki Tofu Steaks: I left out all the spicy parts of this curry, leaving me with a nice milkd chickpea curry, and of course I used a blend of light coconut milk and oat milk. The recipe calls for a handful of kale, but I used a whole bunch because it cooks down so much. The tofu didn't get a very thick glaze on it during the grilling, so I ended up heating up the leftover marinade and drizzling it over the top before serving. Served over some rice, this is a filling dinner.
Rating: :)



Cripsy Potato Chips: There is a parsley and almond sauce you can make to serve these with, but I just went for the potatoes themselves. They are seasoned with a mix of garlic poweder, pepper, and I used smoked paprika instead of chili. While they didn't really get crispy, they were absolutely delicious!
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Kitten with milk mouf.

Lammas 2023

We have had a sweltering summer, and the start of February was an extremely humid heatwave. Disgusting. Lammas, while being a harvest festival, is also a celebration of the height of summer, and acknowledgement of cooler times coming. I don't much feel like celebrating the fact that it is so hot, and cooler days are still a long way off in Brisbane, but I still made a nice dinner.

Lammas (1st Feb 2023)

Lammas is meant to be a harvest festival, and grains, corn, and bread are center along with seasonal berries. Not pictured are the berries I have been eating for breakfast. I have been eating a lot of blueberries at this time, as well as raspberries when I can find non-Driscoll ones. Blackberries are also a traditional fruit of this sabbat, but I couldn't find any fresh one's that are not Driscolls. If you want to know why I do not buy Driscolls, there is a global boycott (see more information here.

BBQ Seitan Salad from Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips: Being as hot as it was, I decided to just make a nice BBQ salad. I used Meet chick'n style strips for the seitan, and pan-fried them then glazed them in BBQ sauce. These sit on a delicious base of baby cos, tomato, cucumber, and radishes. I left out the capsicum and green onions, and added some celery. The salad is topped with vegan bacon bits and a Country Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. The dressing is based on vegan sour cream, is super easy to make, and tastes fantastic.
Rating: Salad overall :), Dressing :)







Pantry Corn Bread from More Quick-Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson: Bringing in the Lammas with corn bread! This has two options, either using a box of cornbread mix or making your own, I went with the latter because I don't even know if there are any vegan cornbread mixes. I halved the recipe and baked it in a 5 x 9 inch pan. The recipe uses tinned creamed corn as most of the liquid, which was fun. Taste wise this was good, though it had a very crumbly texture.
Rating: :)



And all served together!



I had assorted thoughts about making a dessert. But it was hot and I was tired, so I did not.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Please enjoy this photo of some kittens my friend is hand raising.

Midweek munchies

Monch.

Found a vegan-friendly Japchae sauce, so scooped up some sweet potato noodles, added some tofu and a rainbow vegetable stir-fry mix, and made a very lovely dinner. Would make again.





Vegan Red Hazel chocolate had crunchy bits of freeze dried raspberry and hazelnut. Unfortunately the chocolate itself wasn't very good. 47% cocoa mylk? It was never going to be for me. And it was the style of chocolate bar where the add ins are just sprinkled on top, rather than mixed through the chocolate, which would have improved it.



Made myself a snacky plate for lunch one day to use stuff up! This has cucumber, celery, hummus, pink lady apple, black garlic cheese, vegan five spice beef jerky from an Asian grocery store, and peanut butter pretzels.



In my quest for fun kombuchas. This one was OK, it had a mild berry flavour. This brand can be a bit bitter, but I don't mind that. My second favourite of their flavours, with ginger turmeric being my favourite.



These were chocolate cups filled with a peanut butter brownie filling. But it wasn't actually brownie, which would have been next level. It was just a chocolate peanut butter filling. I prefer my peanut butter and chocolate together but separate, rather than mixed, but these were still pretty good.



Another ridiculous drink. This was not great, it kind of tasted like dirty lemon water? A ringing endorsement if ever I've heard one. It did not chill me out.



Finally I had this vegan mince mix hanging around in my pantry. I followed a recipe on the back to make maple mince, and turned it into a maple mince bowl with brown rice, broccoli, and topped with BBQ sauce and yellow mustard. It was not bad, though I'd only get it again if it was on sale.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby only started really getting comfortable coming downstairs in the last few months of her life. Spending time with her on the sofa next to me, curled up like the precious baby bean she was, was such a special time.

Eating In: Hotdogs, Burger, Buritto, and more

Another post of some things I have had either delivered or gotten to take away!

There are a number of Turkish places that deliver to us, and I can't actually remember where I got this one from. But it is a falafel plate, which comes with falafel, dolmades, kale salad, hummus (I got two serves of hummus as the only other vegan dip was a spicy one) and some chips. This was fine, but the falafel fell victim to being a bit dry and and heavy.



Another poke bowl from Cheeki. Unfortunately, the Cheeki closest to us has closed down, so this was from the one a bit further away. The quality was sadly not very good, and I ended up throwing out a lot of this because it was making me feel bit nauseous, so I'm sad to say we won't be ordering from them again. Got the kombucha that tastes like a strepsil as well.



Grill'd! Love Grill'd! I made my own burger for this one, with satay sauce, lettuce, carrot, a Fable patty, cheese, pineapple, and vegan mayo. As always served with a side of their incredible chips.



Sometimes you just need a giant serve of very inauthentic Mexican food, and in those times Montezuma's comes through. This is their vegan burrito, which I think I have shared before. I love that it comes with a side of their incredible crunchy and fresh salad. The salad has green apple in it, which I particularly enjoy.



Finally, I promised hot dogs. And here they are! Five Dogs is a place with vegan hot dogs that delivers to us. I got the Vegan Maple Bacon Dog first up. The hot dog itself is maple bacon flavoured, but it is kind of strange. It comes with kraut as standard, and I got BBQ sauce. I also got a serve of their vegan poutine. Their serves of chips are huge! Their gravy is vegan, which is great. But I haven't got the poutine since because you are essentially paying extra for a tiny sprinkle of cold vegan grated cheese. I stick to just the fries and gravy now.



I also got their Vegan BBQ hotdog, and I much prefer the vegan BBQ sausage to the other one. It comes with kraut, and I got it with some pineapple as well just for fun.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby and I had such a short time together, I didn't get a chance to share many photos of her. So going back into my archives. The fact that Abby felt happy and safe enough to lie on her back like this was a massive achievement for this little scaredy cat. She had such a brave and loving soul.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook Share Eat Vegan

Let's get back into a cookbook, shall we? Continuing on with Cook Share Eat Vegan, by Aine Carlin. You can see previous posts about this book here.

Warm Potato Salad: This recipe is meant to have samphire in it, but I cannot find that anywhere here. Instead I did some googling and replaced it with some asparagus. The potatoes are first cooked until soft, then are cut and seared on a hot pan to get them a bit crispy. It is lightly seasoned and dressed with lemon juice. I left out the fresh raw spring onions as garnish but used extra fresh dill.
Rating: :)



Stir-Fried Soba Noodles with Aubergine Medallions: This is from the spicy chapter, but of course I left out the chili and sriracha from the noodles. The soba noodles have a light citrus sauce, and have onion and green vegetables cooked with them. It is topped with eggplant slices, that I baked rather than grilled, that are smeared with a lovely miso sauce.
Rating: :)



Falafel Shakshuka: This recipe calls for ready made falafels, which I appreciated from a time perspective, an simmers them in a spiced tomato and eggplant sauce. I of course left out the spicy parts! It is served with flatbreads (I used store bought pita) and a lovely tahini and poomegranate sauce. I didn't have any taragon to serve, so I just used parsley.
Rating: :)



My Favourite Penne ala Norma: This is a wonderful simple dish of penne, tomatoes, and eggplant. Punched up with some capers, though I left out the chili as per usual. What makes it extra special is the homemade tofu ricotta that you top it with. You will have left over ricotta, and it is fantastic on crackers or sandwiches as well. Overall, this is a really fantastic meal.
Rating: :D



Easy Korean Ramen Bowl: Most of the recipes in today's post come from the spicy chapter, so just assume I am leaving out the spicy part. I did have to do a little sub magic for this recipe, which called for gochujang. I didn't have time to make my own spice-free version, so I just added a bit of tomato paste with some extra soy sauce and miso. This recipe also has a but of peanut butter in the broth, yum! The noodles are loaded up with a bunch of different veggies and tofu, and topped with a very easy quick pickled cucumber recipe.
Rating: :)



'Chip-Shop' Vegetable Curry: This is inspired by UK takeaway food, apparently inauthentic curry served over rice and hot chips. This recipe calls for vegetables, but I also added some chickpeas to bulk it up a bit. You can serve it over whatever you wish, I did not go the hot chips option, instead being more basic for dinner with rice and spinach.
Rating: :)



BBQ-Coated Tofu Kebabs: These were meant to be coated with Harissa, but absolutely not. I went for the much more friendly BBQ option. The tofu does need to be marinated for at least a couple of hours before hand, so make sure to leave time!
Rating: :)



Quinoa-Stuffed Tomatoes: Moving out of the spice chapter, into the grain chapter. The quinoa mix includes corn, peas, onion, zucchini, and pesto. I could barely taste the pesto, and I ended up adding some nutritional yeast to the mix to get a bit more flavour. It makes way more than you will need to stuffing your tomatoes, so I served the stuffed and baked tomatoes over baby spinach, cauliflower, and the leftover quinoa mix. This is a very light meal.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Mirabelle on her ladybug cushion.