Recipe Round-Up: Chloe's Kitchen

Time for the final installment of the current Chloe's Kitchen recipe round-up, see previous posts about this book here.

Southern Skillet Black-Eyed Peas with Quick Buttery Biscuits amd Garlicky Greens: I used tinned black beans in this recipe as they are easily available. This is a lovely sweet BBQ sauce recipe that as well as beans has cauliflower and celery (which I used in place of capsicum), I also used paprika in place of the chili powder. I scaled down this recipe to make half, but accidentally mucked up when making the biscuits by intially not adding enough flour... so I had to mix in more at the end. They still tasted great, but maybe not as flaky as they should have been. The biscuits are slathered in Whipped Maple Butter, which is a combination of butter (Nuttelex) and maple syrup that are whipped to be light and sweet. I took a slight deviation in the garlicky greens recipe by using broccolini instead of a leafy green, there was a real shortage of greens earlier this year.
Rating: Beans with Biscuits :), Whipped Maple Butter :), Garlicky Greens :)



Peanutty Perfection Noodles: Who doesn't love peanut sauce and noodles! I glutened this recipe up by using linguine rather than rice noodles, and I only used half the amount. The recipe itself has carrots and scallions as the vegetables, but I added broccoli florets, peas, tofu, and spinach! I used a mix of light coconut milk and water in the sauce, and left out the sriracha, and I also added alittle bit of tamarind paste as I found myself out of lime juice.
Rating: :)



Penne alla Vodka with the Best Garlic Bread in the World: The only reason I ever buy vodka is to make vodka sauce, and this was a nice one with lots of basil and cashew cream, though the overall flavour fell a bit flat. The garlic bread is easy to make and tastes food, though is not the best in the world. Chloe loves to be dramatic when naming her recipes.
Rating: :)



Spaghetti Bolognese: This uses a blend of walnuts, mushrooms, and beans. Blending it to be crumbly and chunky without being mushy was difficult given the bean component of it, and once it hit the frying pan and I was stirring it around, it tended to clump together anyway, which you can see. It was quite a sweet recipe, Chloe uses maple syrup in her sauce recipe, which I would recommend leaving out because why?
Rating: :|



Wild Mushroom Strogranoff Fettuccine: This uses a mix of fresh (crimini and white, in my case as I couldn't get all creiini) and dried (porcini) mushrooms in a creamy roux-based sauced. I used linguine and cut the amount from 450g to 250g to get my preferred sauce to pasta ratio. I also added peas and served it over spinach.
Rating: :)



Herbed Polenta Cutlets with Marsala Mushroom Ragout: I cannot find a vegan marsala where I live to save my life, so I consulted the internet and used a mix of white wine and brandy for this gloriously mushroomly ragout. It has both crimini and shiitake mushrooms! I was making this one night when I was on my own, so I scaled down the recipe to 1/4 of the polenta but 1/2 of the mushrooms, because I love mushrooms! The polenta is easy to make and filled with herbs, but does need to be made ahead so it has time to set. I poured it into a little remakin to set so it came out as a circle, rather than spreading it onto a pan and cutting a circle shape later.
Rating: :)



Hot Fudge Sundaes: This includes a recipe for mint chip ice cream, but I don't like mint ice cream so instead I used the vanilla ice cream recipe that is also included in the book. For the ice cream I used Flora Professional Plant Cream instead of coconut milk, which is my new favourite substitute when making vegan ice cream. This had a beautiful vanilla flavour, and was very creamy. The hot fudge sauce is made with yet more Flora cream (instead of coconut milk), chocolate, and sweeteners. As you can see, it did set up pretty quickly when it hit the ice cream, rather than staying hot and fudgy, but it still tasted great!
Rating: Ice Cream :), Sundae :)



Thsi ends this round of round-ups from Chloe's Kitchen! I still have a lot in the book I have not cooked, so I will come back to it one day. In about ten years after I finish working through and rounding up the rest of my cookbooks alphabetically. LOL.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



A little flash back photo of our beautiful family boy Possum.

Recipe Round-Up: Chloe's Vegan Kitchen

More things I made from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli. See previous posts about this cookbook here.

Tofu Scallopini with Mashed 'Potatoes': I took a few liberties here, the biggest being that the scallopini recipe was meant to be made with seitan, but I used tofu. I always have tofu on hand, and I prefer it. I made a half recipe with six thin slices of tofu. The slices are battered before being fried, and I did find my batter turned out very gluggy. But I enjoyed them once the lovely herby mushroom white wine sauce was added. The mashed potatoes are a mix of potato, parsnip and cauliflower. The recipe calls it 'Guilt Free', but I don't believe in attaching guilt to food, and especially not potatoes. This mash was lovely for what it was, but you could definitely tell it was not all potatoes. But it had a nice sweet earthy flavour.
Rating: Scallopini :), Mash :)



Maple-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Hazelnuts: I turned this side into a meal by serving it over a rice and quinoa mix alongside some sliced Field Roast Apple Sage sausage. This is very simple to make, and I love anything with roasted Brussels sprouts. I could do with less hazelnuts in the end, I think just a few chopped to sprinkle on top. I made a half recipe of this, which was enough for two side serves.
Rating: :)



Sea Salt and Vinegar French Fries: A ridiculously tiny pile of fries, because I had a little potato I felt like using up alongside a burger. The fries are baked, which I like because I am too scared to deep fry. The fries themselves were good, they actually went nice and crunchy! But as soon as you sprinkle them with the malt vinegar, they went soggy. Alas. But they still tasted good, I love vinegar. I think a bigger pile of fries would hold up better.
Rating: :)



Chloe's Award-Winning Mango Masala Panini: This requires a few components, including a tamarind-mango chutney, a spiced chickpea masala, and a serve of the roasted cauliflower curry I mentioned in my last round-up from here. It also has some spinach added. It is a lovely combination of flavours! I initially made it as a curry to serve over rice, and used the left overs to make the sandwich.
Rating: :)





Moo Shu Vegetables with Homemade Chinese Pancakes: Making pancakes seemed tiring for a weeknight, so I initially served this as a stir-fry over rice! It is a lovely mix of tofu. mushrooms, cabbage and carrot with a lovely housin sauce. Heaven! For the leftovers, I scaled down the pancake recipe and just made two pancakes when I had a bit more time and energy. The dough was a bit hard to work with, and they ended up a bit thick and tough (I do not have the right skills yet), but they were nice.
Rating: :)





Best-Ever Baked Macaroni and Cheese: This is a big claim, when I have had a lot of mac and cheeses over the years. It uses a roux-based sauce with a lot of nutritional yeast, also some tomato paste which made it look so orange! I half the amount of pasta but all of the sauce and cooked it in a 20 x 20 cm baking dish (that is 8 x 8 inches for my non-metric friends). And the result?? It was a perfectly fine mac and cheese. Not the best, but not bad, but I have other recipes I prefer. Be careful about making big claims!
Rating: :)



Pasta Italiano: This pasta is coated ina white bean sauce, made by blending cannellini beans with some non-dairy milk, oil (though I used less oil and made up the quantitiy with more oat milk), lemon, and herbs. The pasta is mixed with the sauce, asparagus, and cherry tomatoes. Rather than boil the asparagus with the pasta at the end of cooking time, I roasted it for maximum flavour. I also used half the amount of pasta, extra cherry tomatoes, added some more whole white beans, and some spinach for fun.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Finishing off my trio of Cloris Create's portraits with Sahara.

Recipe Round-Up: Chloe's Kitchen

Hello! Everything is terrible but I have to keep on going, so how about we dip into the next cookbook to do a round-up of? The book is Chloe's Kitchen, but Chloe Choscarelli, and you can see more of my posts about this book here.

Pasta Alfredo with Roasted Lemon-Olive Oil Asparagus: The alfredo recipe is actually for Fettuccine, but I didn't have any long pasta so I used some spirals. This is a wonderful cashew based sauce, that thickens up beautifully for whatever pasta you are serving it with. There is the option to add miso, which of course I did. I don't know what it would be like without it but I would not leave it out! I made a half recipe of the sauce and mixed it with 200g of spiral pasta and some spinach for 2 serves. I served it alongside the roasted asparagus. The original recipe is for grilling, but I went with the roasting option. This is very simple but lovely.
Rating: Alfredo :), Asparagus :)



Lemon-Dill Dip: I love dill! And this sauce is delicious. It is based on silken tofu, and I definitely added extra dill. I did not have the energy to make the crispy potato-leek patties this sauce goes with, so I served it on top of some roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, and tofu. This sauce will be a star no matter how you use it.
Rating: :D



Roasted Cauliflower Curry with Cilantro-Tamarind Sauce: This curry is meant to be stuffed into samosas, but I didn't feel like making dough, so I just served it straight up with the dipping sauce over spinachand rice. If doing it this way, I recommend cutting WAY back on the mustard seeds, and adding more salt. The cilantro-tamarind dipping sauce was lovely and sweet and tangy, I left out the scallions.
Rating: Curry :|, Sauce :)



Apricot-Mustard Sauce: Again, another recipe where I made the sauce but not the rest! Rather than making wontons from scratch, I used some ready made gyoza. The sauce is super simple, just apricot jam and mustard mixed together. I used St Dalfours jam, which is sweetened with fruit not sugar, but even so the sauce needed way more mustard and a lot less jam. As written, it kind of tastes like dipping your wontons straight into jam.
Rating: :|



California Chop Salad with Agave-Lime Vinaigrette: This salad is full of seasoned black beans, lettuce, tomato, quino, and avocado. I left out the raw onion and added extra coriander. This was a lovely fresh combination, especially when combined with the slightly sweet, slightly sour agave-lime dressing. A full recipe of this claims to serve four as a meal, but it really serves two people for a light meal.
Rating: :)



Wasabi Sesame Noodle Salad: I love soba noodle salads when the weather is hot. This has a lovely dressing, though the wasabi flavour is pretty mild even after I left out the sriracha. Add more wasabi if you like it stronger. You can pretty much add whatever you want to this salad, I used the suggested cucumber and carrot, left out the scallions, and also added tofu and celery.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I don't think I've shared these yet, but a while ago I had some super cute little portraits of my girls done by the fabulous artist Cloris Creates. This was Dim Sim's portrait done in her very cute style.

Mabon 2022

This year seems to be flying by, and here in the southern hemisphere we recently passed the autumn equinox, which is known as Mabon in the wheel of the year if you follow the sabbats. My recovery is also flying by, I can't believe it is almost five weeks since the surgery! I have been getting myself back into life by setting an alarm every morning, doing some arm exercises (seeing as I still can't do anything that engages my core), doing little drives, things like that. Also cooking a bit more!

Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (21st of March, 2022)

Although it is autumn, it is definitely still warm in Australia. With that in mind, I often make an Autumn-inspired salad! Though it looks like last year it was cool enough to make some chilli! But the start of this week was quite warm still, though we have at least had some cooler mornings. I also didn't make this on actual Mabon, as our grocery deliver was cancelled and rescheduled for the next day. But the intent was still there for when I finally did get to make it!

Minted Couscous with Spinach, Butternut Squash, and Currants from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: I made a half recipe of this, which made two big serves. I love pearl couscous! I hardly ever use it, but when I do I always fall in love all over again. The couscous is cooked in vegetable stock, which gives the salad a lot of flavour. It doesn't have a dressing as such, just the flavour of all the ingredients, but it works well! The butternut is roasted, which is always a winner. The recipe actually calls for rocket (arugula), but I used baby spinach instead as I am not a fan. I also added some peas for fun, and served it with some Field Roast Apple Sage sausage, which seemed autumny.
Rating: :)



And normally I would also make some sort of dessert... but I didn't. I am still getting back into the swing of things after surgery, so I took it easy on myself. However I had extra butternut pumpkin, so a couple of days later I made another recipe that also seemed very autumnal. So I'll share that here as well.

Curried Lentil, Squash, and Apple Stew from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: This is a slow simmering stew, that takes a bit of time but most of it is hands off and it is very easy. I was worried initially that it might be too sweet, but the flavours combined to make a wonderful savoury base with the sweet pumpkin and apple in it. I only had 1/3 of a cup of lentils, rather than the full 1/2 cup. I soaked them overnight to make sure they cooked well. I did need to add a bit of extra water when I added the pumpkin and apple. I only used 1tsp of mild curry power, which was perfect. It was a rainy night when I made this, which was just right.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby and Boo! Chilling near each other in the sun room! Amazing! It isn't always so chill. Boo still chases Abby sometimes, and then gets upset when Abby stands her ground. Such a naughty little sister! But it is nice that they can also spend time in the same vicinity as each other sometimes.

2018 Pizza Challenge Part Two

Continuing on with the second half of last year's goal to make pizza once a month!

Meatball Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: I actually made this twice. The first time was not such a success, because I used the Ikea veggie balls and they are just too sweet and not right for this kind of thing. The second time I made it using the Gardein meatballs, and it worked much better! I only made a half quantity of the sauce both times. The first time I tried to get it all on, which ended up making the base (I used a ready made for this attempt) too smooshy. The second time I used just what I needed, so there was some sauce left over, and it worked out better. That time I used the base recipe from the book. Definitely recommend using a meaty meatball and being careful with the sauce!
Rating: :) (second attempt)





Cheeseburger Pizza from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson: I really went for some meaty and cheese pizzas last year. I used the pizza dough recipe from the cookbook (it makes enough for two bases, so I froze half for the next time), and it was a super easy dough to make. This recipe uses a cashew cheese sauce on the base, though it could have been a bit thicker. I was worried it was all going to run right off the base! It is topped with some TVP (which I soaked in beef flavoured stock rather than water for more flavour). I also garnished with ketchup, mustard, and gherkin relish.
Rating: :)



BBQ Chickpea Pizza from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson: This is a very easy pizza to make. The base is topped with a mix of chickpeas mashed with BBQ sauce, tamari, and mustard (also chiles, but I subbed that with some diced celery). The topping uses two tins of chickpeas, but really you could halve it as it led to an incredibly thick layer. Although not mentioned in the recipe, I topped it with some FYH mozzarella. I'm glad I did because otherwise it would have been a bit samey. I accidentally overcooked the base a bit (in both this recipe and the above one the base is baked for a bit first), but it worked in my favour given the topping was so heavy and a bit sloppy!
Rating: :)



Muffuletta Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: Base, tomato garlic sauce, olive salad and garlic salad. The olive salad is a mix of three different olives, capers, giardiniera (I used some home made one from 1000 Vegan Recipes as all the store bought ones had chillies in them), and herbs. I found it to be a bit too salty, but I didn't have the right mix of olives (not enough green) so I think the kalamata overpowered it a bit. I also used water rather than olive oil, but even so I found it a bit oily overall (even with leaving off the extra olive oil it suggests to garnish!). The pizza needed some freshness. I only made a half recipe of the olive salad so I could use it all up on the pizza, the recipe says it makes a lot so you will have some left over if you make the whole batch. I did add a little bit of my beloved Fenn smoked sesame cheese on the base before adding the rest of the ingredients, so that adding a nice creamy counterpart to the saltiness.
Rating: :|



Meat-Free Lover's Barbecue Pizza from Taste For Life by Animals Australia: The recipe as written makes two pizzas (including the dough), I halved it for one. The pizza is topped with a mix of tomato paste and BBQ sauce, then cheese (in a shocking twist, I used the Daiya blend shreds), hot dogs (I used Field Roast Frankfurters), and red onion. It is also meant to have chopped sun dried tomatoes, but I realised I was out when I went to get them from the fridge. Garnished with some chives for colour, you can also garnish with a herbed sour cream that I did not make. This was a good pizza, I love BBQ pizzas, could have had some pineapple. But that's just me.
Rating: :)



BBQ Pineapple Pizza from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: Yes, more BBQ pizza! I skipped the dough recipe in the book (I had made it once before and found it to be kind of runny and sticky) in favour of a pre-made pizza base. I can't get the pre-made dough that the US cookbooks all seem to talk about, and finding vegan pizza bases that are actually good can be tricky as well (WHY ALL THE MILK IN THEM?), but I have found a base that I like now. This is topped with BBQ sauce, BBQ sauce roasted tofu, caramelised onions, and pineapple. No cheese. I knew my base was going to be smaller than the one the book would make, so I just made a half recipe of the BBQ sauce, but still piled on on the toppings! It was a nice combination, especially with the caramelised onions.
Rating: :)



And there endeth the challenge. It was a fun challenge, because I love pizza but I don't make it enough. I got to try a few different recipes for pizza dough as well!

So what does 2019 hold in store for my food blogging challenge? I had a number of thoughts. But then I decided my goal was to have no goal at all. My year hasn't gotten off to the greatest start, so the idea of just being able to go with the flow and not be locked into anything specific is very appealing. But of course I'll still be cooking and eating and blogging!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Pizza Cat!

Recipe Round-Up: Chloe's Kitchen

Time for another recipe round up! This time we are heading back to Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarella. You can see what else I have cooked from this book here.

Chloe's Favourite Five-Minute Salad Chloe uses a combination of mashed avocado and sushi vinegar as the dressing, which was delicious! The salad itself had mixed greens and tomato in it, I left out the scallions, but you could really add anything into it. Chloe said it served 6, which I guess if you served it in a thimble would be true. I got two side serves out of this (served with some boxed vegan lasagna), but really you could eat the whole thing on your own.
Rating: :D



Classic Roasted Vegetables: This is a fairly straight forward recipe, using cauliflower, broccoli and carrots as the vegetables. She calls for 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil, though I used a lot less - just enough to lightly coat the vegetables. Using that much seems like it would have just been drowning in oil.
Rating: :)



Teriyaki Wok Vegetables: Chloe provides a simple teriyaki sauce recipe to mix up for these veggies. Chloe suggests using carrot, bok choy, onion, mushrooms, zucchini and snow peas, though you could really use anything you fancied. I didn't have any onion so I left that out, and I also added some dry roasted cashews at the end. I only needed to add about half the amount of sauce for the veggies. This served three over rice.
Rating: :)



LA-Style Chimichurri Tacos: I could only seem to get terrible photos of this yummy dinner. It has three components for the filling - tomato rice (which I adapted to make in the rice cooker), a chimichurri sauce, and a mushroom and black bean filling. The sauce was a bit runny, though I used a mix of pasta water and oil rather than the full 1/2 cup of olive oil (I don't have anything against oil in general, but personally things that have a lot of oil in them tend to make me feel sick). I topped them with some Sour Cream, also from the book. It is a tofu based sour cream, and at first had quite a strong soy taste. However it mellowed quickly.
Rating: Tacos :), Sour Cream :)



Baked Sprinkle Doughnuts: Confession: deep frying terrifies me, so I have only ever made baked doughnuts. These ones are delicious! There is an option between making a chocolate glaze or an old fashioned glaze, and you can see I have tried both (I coloured the old fashioned one pink), and I have topped them with all sorts of things. The recipe calls for piping the doughnuts into the doughnut pan, and while this does give a nice smooth all over appearance, sometimes I skip the step and just spoon it into the pan. I've made these a few times for bake sales, and they are definitely popular. I generally do a triple dip of the glaze to ensure a nice, thick, smooth covering.
Rating: :D





Iced Apple Cake Squares: These are so delicious! It rises quite high in the pan, giving the squares a definite cake vibe rather than a slice. They have a great flavour, and are wonderfully moist (sorry if that word creeps you out). They are topped with a simple icing. As always, I would have preferred it without the icing. Though I was making them for a bake sale and I know how people like their sugar!
Rating: :D



Sea Salt Toffee Bars: I thought these were just OK (though disclaimer, toffee and caramel aren't my favourites, I was making these for a bake sale). The base is quick to make, but I found needed an extra 10 minutes to go golden in the oven. I had some issues making the caramel following the instructions as written, it didn't almost burnt and then ended up quite thick and hard to spread. Granted I haven't made many caramels, so if I had more experience I would have had a better intuition about how to handle it, but the instructions for a novice may not end up well. As always, be sure to put on lots of salt!
Rating: :|



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Last week was five months since Sahara passed away. Time goes too fast.

Meals for Mum (Mother's Day and Mum's birthday 2016)

I'm a little behind in sharing specials meals that I made for special people. In this post, it will be about the meals I made for my mum last year for mothers day and also for her birthday.

First up, Mother's Day! This was a pretty fun meal. Mum loves baked beans, so I knew from the moment I saw the main recipe that I was going to make it for her sometime. She also requested a chocolate lava cake, which led to some fun times in the kitchen. Here's what we had!

Open Sesame Dressing from Blissful Bites: I made a half batch of this creamy dressing, and served it as a dip. It strangely calls for arrowroot, even though you don't heat anything to thicken it, so I just left that out. I served this with some Beanfields BBQ chips and some carrot and celery sticks.
Rating: :)



Maple-Baked Beans & Cornbread Casserole from But I Could Never Go Vegan: Unfortunately, the ratios for this seemed to be a bit out. I ended up with a very thick cornbread layer on top of an almost minimal layer of beans. I would consider making it in a smaller dish with only half the amount of cornbread for a better ratio. That is nothing against the cornbread though, it was a lovely light and fluffy one (I used a blend of half whole spelt and half AP flour in place of the whole wheat pastry flour). Also, this claims to serve 12 to 14, but really it serves about 6.
Rating: :)





Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes with Raspberry Sauce from Chloe's Kitchen: Thankfully these tasted good, because they did not hold their shapes once they plopped out of their molds. Also, it was hard to unmold, because everything was very hot and it was hard to get a good grip with oven mitts on. And then they just kind of collapsed on themselves, though didn't actually split. The chocolate chips also kind of spread a bit with baking, so they had more of a centre ooze than a lava flow. But the good thing is, they tasted great! The recipe says to store the raspberry sauce in the fridge once made, but mine set up like a gel when I did that and I had to reheat it again.
Rating: :)



Her birthday is later in the year, and this year we had my brother home from the UK as well! She requested a fairly light dinner, with cake of course.

Edamame-Mint Hummus from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook: I made a half recipe of this refreshing dip, which gave me about 1.5 cups (the recipe says a whole batch makes 4 cups, so mine came out a bit under expected). This dip is lovely, creamy and fresh, plus very pretty. I left out the chile flakes, and added a bit of extra mint. It says to serve with pita points, but I served it with cucumber slices and it was just delightful.
Rating: :)



Miso-Glazed Eggplant from Chloe's Kitchen: This interpretation of nasu dengaku is a little on the sweet side, but still very pleasant. I used 5 eggplants to get the one and a half pounds (the recipe saus 3 will give you this), and I doubled the sauce because Mum likes a lot of sauce. We had these with sushi rice, baby spinach, and broccoli.
Rating: :)





Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake with Fudge Frosting from Chloe's Vegan Desserts: This is meant to be a double layer cake, but I just made it as one layer for a more manageable amount (this is a lesson we learned during with my Dad's birthday cake... that story to come in a later post). The cake has coffee in it, but as I am not a caffeine person (or a coffee taste person) I used some weak decaf, and I also added 1/2 tsp of chocolate extract. The cake was good, I liked it. The problem was that the frosting was just way too sweet for me. It has melted chocolated in it, and I used 70%, so a darker chocolate may help with that, but there is so much icing sugar in it. Not for me. However, my mum loved it. So if you like icing, you'll be right. You do need to let the frosting set a little bit before putting it on the cake, or it is too oozy (the recipe says to apply immediately before it sets at all).
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Mum used to love giving Sahara her bear hugging cuddle walks, and Sahara was a big fan of it as well. Miss those walks with her.