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.

Eating Out: Izakaya Midori and Nonna's Nightmare (Birthday edition)

It was my birthday in November! And I had the day off work, so I spent it eating food. What else does one do on their birthday?

My friend and I headed down for an early lunch at perpetual favourite, Izakaya Midori (see previous posts here). We started with old favourites, the Agadashi Tofu and Smoked Edamame.





As well as trying some new things, most importantly the okonomiyaki, which was lovely! And I love that it comes as an entree (that's starter, for my US friends) rather than a main so you can enjoy it along with many other things! We also had the Katsu handroll, which has wasabi inside as well. I love wasabi! Also, just look at the okonomiyaki, almost too pretty to eat!





For my main I had the Teriyaki Tofu Don, which was a lovely bowl of rice, salad with dressing, tempura silken tofu, teriyaki sauce, and mayo. I realised I didn't take a photo of my friend's main, but it was the terichiki don, which you can see in previous posts.



And we finished off by sharing their wonderful Hojicha and Black Sesame Affogato with Red Beans and Crystal Mochi. So good!



Come dinner time and I was planning on ordering delivery from a vegan pizza place, but they were closed! But never fear, instead we ordered in from vegan Italian restaurant Nonna's Nightmare (previous posts here, which also has pizzas! We ordered the Amatrice (Tomato, mozzarella, red wine braised onions, vBacon, pecorino, black pepper, basil) and the Potato (Mozzarella, ‘pork & fennel’ sausage, roasted potato and capsicum, rosemary oil). Unfortunately on the ordering site, you couldn't modify anything, which meant I couldn't get the capsicum taken off, so I had to pick it off when it came. Still, worth it for potato and sausage pizza! There were both lovely pizzas. I gave them a brief reheat in the oven once they arrived.





I also ordered a serve of their Cannelloni (Cannelloni pasta filled with ricotta and spinach, cooked in a rich tomato sugo sauce and mozzarella), which was INCREDIBLE! Star of the show.





I didn't have a cake, instead we ate tarts that I had picked up from Flour of Life vegan bakery on the way home from Izakaya Midori.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Show



Speaking of birthdays, yesterday (30th of January), should have been Abby's 7th birthday. This photo is from her 6th birthday, and I will never recover from the fact we only got to celebrate one of her birthdays together. I miss her so much.

Eating Out: Grown

A few days after Abby passed away, my lovely friend Alana motivated me to get up out of bed and meet her for brunch. Getting out of bed and eating were two things that were not high on my agenda, but she gave me the push I needed. I met Alana through Abby, she is involved with the rescue Abby was adopted from, and we had become friends on Instagram. We met at Grown, where I have been several times before. When I made the booking, I asked for an outside table that was well undercover, and they provided with a lovely table for two, tucked under cover and completely separate from other people.

Grown makes the best hot chocolate, and we both got one. Even if you aren't in shock and grief, I recommend getting a big mug to soothe your soul.



I got the Congee, which came with slow roasted tomatoes, asian greens, woodland mushrooms, ginger, soy and mustard. This was just a perfect savoury bowl of comfort food.



I also got a side of one of their amazing Hash Browns, and also some of their fabulous smoked sesame cheese.



My friend got their avocado toast on gluten free bread. It came with housemade vegemite, sesame cheese, chickpea crumb, and pickled onion. She also got a hashbrown on the side.



On my way back to my car, I had to walk down by the river for a little bit. Which was beautiful. Even though the Brisbane river is brown, it is still nice to be near trees and water.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I still cannot believe that my beautiful girl is gone. Sometimes it seems like she was a dream. How could that have happened? I love you so much Abby.

Recipe Round-Up: Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

Time for another cookbook to enter the round-up arena, and these next RR posts will be dedicated to Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen, once again by Chloe Coscarelli. You can see previous posts about this book here.

Caprese Skewers: This is a very simple recipe, but with lovely results. Cubes of tofu are seasoned and sauted, then skewered with a basil leaf and half a cherry tomato. Drizzle with some balsamic dressing for a refreshing and tasty little appetiser.
Rating: :)



Roasted Cauliflower with Onion, Garlic, and Thyme: A quick and easy roasted side dish. The thyme adds a great flavour. I served this with some mac and cheese, sliced and sauteed Apple Sage Field Roast, and some BBQ sauce.
Rating: :)



Roasted Potatoes with Gremolata: I cheated a bit with the gremolata to make use of what I had and also to make it Susan tummy friendly. I used freeze-dried fresh parsley flakes, garlic powder instead of fresh garlic (no raw garlic for me), and some preserved lemon rind instead of lemon zest, as I didn't have any fresh lemons. This made it all very easy to mix up. Added to roasted potatoes, it was lovely. I made a half recipe and got two serves. Served with some noochy spinach and BBQ glazed tofu.
Rating: :)



Lemonade Cauliflower: Cauliflower is roasted with maple syrup and tossed with lemon zest, and a very easy but lovely vegetable side dish.
Rating: :)



Lemon Broccoli: Technically this is meant to be Chili Lemon Broccoli, but I just left out the chili flakes. This left me with a lovely simple lemony broccoli.
Rating: :)



Rosemary Sweet Potatoes with Sweet 'n' Spicy Mustard: Sweet potatoes and rosemary are a match made in heaven, especially when we have a huge rosemary bush in our front yard just ready to be picked. You can use a few different types of mustard for the sauce, I used Dijon, which is mixed up with some brown sugar for quick and easy dipping.
Rating: :)



Pasta and Beans: Pasta ai fagioli is a classic, and for good reason. This used cannellini beans, and I used some small tube shaped macaroni as the pasta. It called for an 8 oz tin of tomato sauce and 1 cup of water, instead I used a can of crushed tomatoes because I had that. If doing it this way, I'd recommend also adding some tomato paste for a bit of a deeper tomato flavour. I made the whole recipe, which said it serves 6, but I got 2-3 big servings out of it. I also added some baby spinach, as I love to do.
Rating: :)



Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Brussels Sprouts Leaves: This is a pretty looking soup with the crispy roasted sprouts leaves on top, though as soon as they hit the soup they start getting soggy. This soup has pumpkin and apple in it, so it is quite sweet. I got three serves out of this, and served it with grilled cheese sandwiches and salad.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I miss Abby so much.

Abby

I have tried to start this post so many times, but I just haven't been able to. I'm still not able to, but I am just making myself. On the 31st of May, Abby very unexpectedly passed away. She was 6 years old, we had been together for 17 months.



To say I am heartbroken is an understatement. I am still in shock, and I furious that this happened to her, I am devestated the little cat who saved my life is gone too soon and so suddenly.



This is why I haven't posted for a while, and why I haven't been very good keeping up and commenting on your posts. It will take some time. Right now everything is just too hard and heavy.

Samhain 2022

Hi Friends! Long time not post, I know. I've had a few things going on. One, I have been having a big push for my PhD to get another paper published. Two, I have a really injured shoulder that makes everything very painful, and typing on a computer makes it worse. So today is just going to be a short and sweet post. I also have really been struggling to find much cooking motivation lately, in part due to my shoulder, so I have been relying more on easy convenience-style foods or delivery. I still make things here and there, but I am looking for things that are much simpler to make. I'm sure my cooking mojo will come back one day, for the moment I am taking it easy on myself. How have you all been?

Samhain (31st April-1st May 2022)

In the meantime, the wheel of the year just keeps on turning! Samhain is the new year on the wheel of the year calendar, and is the time when the veil between the world is thinnest. It is a time for honouring loved ones that have passed on. I lit a candle for my girls. Previous years, I have eaten in silence, but this year I ate in front of the TV because I was just so tired and sore and needed some distraction from my shoulder.

Pumpkin Ravioli: Pumpkin is a traditional Samhain food. In the northern hemisphere, samhain coincides with (and provided inspiration for) Halloween, so pumkins are everywhere! I was almost going to not have any pumpkin, because my shoulder does not want to chop or mash or anything hard at the moment, but Woolworths came through with these vegan pumpkin ravioli. I served them with a jar of stir-through pasta sauce, baby spinach, and FYH parmesan. The tomato sauce was a bit overpowering for the lovely pumpkin flavour, but it was the path of least effort. I would definitely eat these ravioli again!





Plum & Almond Cake from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: I have been wanting to make this cake while plums were still at their best, and I saw some other plum desserts listed in Samhaim menus, so this was the time! The cake also includes a recipe for an Earl Grey pine nut cream, but I didn't make that. Just the cake! You can see the recipe went a little awry, with the cake burning a bit. The recipe calls for the cake to be baked at 210dC for one hour, with baking paper covering the top for the final 15 minutes. This is too much! While the very edges of the cake were black and crispy, thankfully the rest was fine and it was a great cake.
Rating: :) (not including burnt bits)





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby would like you to know that she's doing great!