Granola Round-Up

How about another crunchy granola round-up. It's been a while since I've made any, I've been leaning towards the much easier option of buying some, but here are some really fun flavours I made last year. Pretty much all of these were served over some sort of soy, almond, or cashew yoghurt and sometimes I added fresh fruit if I had some around.

Pecan-Sweet Potato Granola from Sweet Potato Soul by Jenne Claiborne: This granola is delicious! Though the sweet potato flavour in it, coming from grated sweet potato, is fairly subtle. It has both brown sugar and maple syrup in it, putting it on the sweeter side of granolas, but it has a bunch of cinnamon to make it warming and welcoming. I found out as I was making it that I didn't have quite enough pecans for the recipe, so I topped it up with some pepitas.
Rating: :D



Homemade Granola from Chloe's Vegan Desserts by Chloe Coscarelli: This is in the dessert for breakfast chapter, but even with a hefty amount of maple syrup is more a traditional granola rather than anything particularly desserty. I have seen recipes for ones with chocolate chips and marshmallows in other places! But this recipe is super easy, can be scaled up or down, and tastes great. As well as oats it has almonds cinnamon. It called for raisins as the fruit, but I don't love raisins so I used a mix of sultanans and cranberries instead.
Rating: :)



Stove Top Granola from Forks Over Knives The Cookbook by Del Sroufe: I hadn't made granola not in the oven before. This method was easy, however it didn't crisp up the way it does in the oven and while it was yummy, it was also very sticky! It uses date molasses as the sweetener and binder here, which was lovely and not too sweet. Surprising, given how sweet dates themselves are! I used a blend of mixed fruit (like for Christmas cakes) and cranberries. I made 1/3 of a recipe for 3 serves.
Rating: :)



Chai-Spiced Almond Granola from The Easy Vegan Cookbook by Kathy Hester: This granola uses a lovely mix of spices to give it a warming glow. It uses a combination of flax-seed mixed with water and oil to bind it together. They call for coconut oil, gross, I used canola oil instead. The mix of the spices and crunchy almonds makes it a lovely way to start the day.
Rating: :)



Sesame-Apricot Granola from Vegan Bowl Attack by Jackie Sobon: I just realised this is a recipe from a bowl cookbook but it is the only one I photographed not in a bowl! Ha. This is a really nice combination, with a mix of oats, buckwheat, coconut flakes, almonds, apricots, and seeds (including sesame seeds and chia seeds... I could do without the latter in there, they were weird). All coated in a tahini mixture. I had to add a smidge of hot water to my tahini mix to get it thin enough to be able to stir through and coat everything. I also had to bake it for slightly longer in my oven. It came out in wonderful crunchy crumbles! I made a whole recipe, which said it served 6 but really makes 3 generous serves.
Rating: :)



Homemade Hippie Cereal from Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking by Dana Shultz: This is a combination of granola mixed with puffed rice cereal. The granola part is gluten free, so no oats. It is all based on a mix of nuts (I used almonds and pecans) and seeds... including chia seeds again. I just really only like them under specific circumstances. I also added some raw sunflower seeds to the first baking stage, rather than adding rosated ones later on. It also has dried blueberries, and I added extra cinnamon as well. Confession time: I forgot to set a timer for this after I put it in my oven, so it baked for however long it took for the lovely smell to remind me that I had something in there! But it all worked out well. Once cooled, you mix it with the rice cereal. It is pretty fun to eat!
Rating: :)



Crunchy Citrus Toasted Granola from Cooking With Kindness (Edgar's Mission): A bright and tangy take on granola, using orange, lemon, and lime zest in mix. I made a half recipe for this, and used a blend of rolled oats and rolled rye. It also has coconut flakes, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, dried dates, and dried apricots. I left out a the linseeds (aka flaxseeds) and the dried figs (I don't like figs), and I used canola oil instead of coconut. Served with some orange segments, it was a refreshing start to the day.
Rating: :)

Recipe Round-Up: Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking

A while ago I bought Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking by Dana Shultz after seeing a bunch of Instagrammers do a cookbook challenge from it. The recipes I saw looked good, though once I got the book it took me a while to get inspired by it. However, eventually inspiration hit,and I have made many lovely recipes from it, with many more marked to make. This is the first proper round-up I've done of this book, though I have blogged about a few individual recipes in the past past

Carrot, Potato & Chickpea Red Curry with Cauliflower Rice: This is a hearty, comforting curry. The recipe calls for a quarter cup of red curry paste, plus more to taste. So cute. I used a tablespoon and got a nice mild heat. Because there is no coconut milk in this curry to mellow out the heat a bit (it is a tomato based curry rather than a creamy one), I increased the amount of sugar to use two of the larger Australian TBS (20mL each), rather than the standard US one (15 mL each), and also added a squirt of lime juice. I got a lovely sweet, tasty curry with just a very mild heat. I served this over cauliflower rice, which was just cauliflower processed up and sauteed in a little oil. Cauliflower rice will in no way replace real rice for me, but as there was a lot of potato in the curry for carbs already, it seemed like a fun thing to try. I think this was my first cauliflower rice!
Rating: Curry :) , Cauliflower Rice :)



Crispy Baked Tofu: This recipe is so simple and so easy and barely a recipe, basically just involving baking plain tofu cubes until they are crispy. But sometimes the simplest things are the most perfect. And I do really love tofu. I made this for another recipe, but I also just snacked on a bunch as well.
Rating: :D



Super Green Juice: I don't have a juicer, but this is a blender juice. It has parsley, coriander, spinach, kale, celery, ginger, cucumber, apple, lemon and either banana or pineapple (I used pineapple), that is blended up with water and strained. I am a rebel, so I had mine as a smoothie rather than a juice, because sometimes I am too lazy to strain. It was post sweaty yoga, so I used coconut water instead of regular water. It makes a lot of juice/smoothie! It was... OK. Not my favourite mix of greens. The texture was also a bit strange, though that is my fault for making it as a smoothie rather than juice. But the flavour was just not quite there for me.
Rating :|



Beet & Green Apple Yogurt Smoothie: So pretty and pink! Also very refreshing. This uses raw beet, a green apple, and vanilla soy or coconut yogurt, I obviously went for soy. It has berries in it as well as the beet and apple, and some lime for tartness. A great mix of earthy beet, sweet apple and berries, and the lime.
Rating: :)



Super Powered Chocolate Shake: I know this looks more like hot chocolate than a shake. I styled this for a MiniMoFo challenge about warming up over Christmas. Of course, in Australia, Christmas is hot! So even though it is in a mug, that is one icy cold smoothie and the marshmallows are actually ice cream. I made a few changes to this simple recipe. I used peanut butter instead of almond butter (almond butter is just so expensive here, plus chocolate and peanut butter is a perfect match), oat milk instead of almond milk, and LSA mix (linseed/sunflouwer/almond meal) instead of flaxseeds (aka linseeds). The cacao powder, chia seeds, and banana I had as written. I also left out the date, because I knew this would be sweet enough for me without it.
Rating: :)



Garlic Cheddar Herb Biscuits: I haven't made a lot of biscuits, but these are the best I have ever made. They are salty, garlicky, cheesy, and delicious! I made a half recipe and for 4 biscuits using a 2.5 inch cutter. The cheddar flavour comes from lots of nutritional yeast. I loved these.
Rating: :D



Chickpea Fesenjan: I wasn't sure exactly what this would taste like before I made it, but it was a runaway hit. Roasted walnut meal is mixed into a sauce with pomegranate molasses and simmered with chickpeas. I am not always the biggest fan of walnuts, sometimes they can be bitter, but after the simmering there were no issues. The sauce had such a great flavour, including some lovely sweet onions as well. I served this over basmati rice, and we got 3.5 serves from it. The recipe calls for 1.5 cups, or 180g, of walnuts. My 1.5 cups was less than 180g.
Rating: :D



Masala Chickpea Curry: This comes together easily, and is a very lovely sauce. The recipe calls for 4TBS of garam masala, which seems like a lot. She does have a note to make a quite GM blend, though I used my regular store-bought one. My one was nothing like her one, and I decreased the amount to 4 tsps. It was quite peppery! As well as simmering chickpeas in the sauce, it is topped with some spiced chickpeas as well. I reheated these garnish chickpeas just before I put them on. I served this with rice and baby spinach, garnished with parsley and with a little lime juice squeezed on. It says it makes 4 serves, but really it is 3.
Rating: :)



1-Pot Chickpea Noodle Soup: I scaled this recipe for six down to a recipe for one, when I was under the weather and needed something soothing. I used 1 carrot (instead of 5), 2 celery sticks *instead of 4), 2.5 cups of stock (instead of 7-8 cups), and a 70g bundle of ramen (instead of 225g of spaghetti). After simmering for 10 minutes, a lot of the liquid had absorbed. It made one big serve, for one not so well girl. And it definitely hit the spot.
Rating: :)



Butternut Squash, Kale & Quinoa Bake: I had to use silverbeet (swiss chard) for this recipe because the kale in the store was no good. As well as butternut a kale, this also has onions and mushrooms. I could have decreased the dried quinoa from 3/4 cup to half a cup, as I would have preferred a heavier vegetable ratio. I got three to 3.5 servings out of this. I used a shallow rectangular baking dish, rather than an 8x8 inch one, and it was the perfect size. I served this over some more silverbeet.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Look at these two ridiculous Burmese brothers. They love snuggling!

New Year

I am not really into celebrating the new year. It is just a moment of time, and nothing really changes between one day and the next. I am certainly not a fan of staying up until midnight just to watch the clock tick over, that is way past my bed time! But over the past couple of years I have adopted a couple of new year food traditions that I quite enjoy.

New Year's Eve is always pizza and pie night. I make a couple of pizzas, and a sweet pie for dessert. This generally leaves enough for cold pizza for lunch the next day, because I love cold leftover pizza. It is almost better than fresh hot pizza!

Plain Jane Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: This is a simple pizza with tomato sauce, homemade pepperoni crumbles, and FYH mozzarella. The crumbles are a mix of seasoned TVP and quinoa, and come together very fast. Because I am me, I only added the slightest hint of chili to them, giving a nice mild pepperoni (a lot of the vegan pepperoni on the market is a bit too spicy for me). I used Julie's Easy Peasy Pizza Dough, which is the easiest dough ever and what I normally use as my base. This was a good pizza, though was sadly a bit dry the next day if eaten cold.
Rating: Pizza :), Crumbles :)



Green Bean Casserole Pizza from Bake and Destroy by Natalie Slater: I've never really had green bean casserole, so this was a fun way to try it out. I used a half recipe of 'I Love the Dough', also from this book, to make the base. It is not as easy as Julie's recipe, but was relatively simple enough and worked nicely. The topping is a mix of green beans, mushrooms, french fried onions, yoghurt and others. It makes quite a lot, but all fits on the base. I would recommend baking the base a little bit on its own first, as the topping is quite heavy and the centre of my crust was a little soggy. It is topped with more french fried onions. This was also my first time trying the onions, I bought a packet off a US import store. They are OK, though so salty. I prefer Asian-style fried shallots.
Rating: Pizza :), Dough :)



Blackberry Custard Pie from The Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking by Dana Shultz: This pie is filled with a custard mix of cream cheese and silken tofu, that is easy to blend up in the food processor. The crust is simple to make, though softens quickly. I would suggest blind baking the crust a little bit next time, as while the filling set up perfectly the base of the tart was pretty blonde. Even though it is blackberry season here, we couldn't find any at the shops when the time came, so I used frozen blackberries and it was fine. They recommend this pie is best eaten fresh, though can be kept for a couple of days. I would agree, I finished the last piece the following day and it tasted good but structurally was not as pretty.
Rating: :)



After food, I watched a bit of Buffy, then went up to bed with Dim Sim and was asleep by 9.30. I didn't have anywhere to go in the morning (there is no morning yoga class on New Year's Day), so we had a little lie in a snuggle in the morning, before getting up and getting to the serious business of NYD breakfast, which is always pancakes!

Blueberry Chocolate Pancakes and Cashew Maple Butter Cream from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton: I made a few substitutions here. First up, these pancakes were meant to be carob, not chocolate, but I am not a huge carob fan and certainly didn't want to buy a bag of carob powder for a couple of TBS. So I used cocoa powder. The recipe has no sweetener, but does use vanilla soy milk. I only had regular oat milk, so I added a heaping TBS of coconut sugar. I used frozen blueberries in the batter. I found the batter was quite runny, so I might use a bit less liquid last time. I used a 1/4 cup scoop for the pancakes, which worked well. I needed to cover the pan to get them to set through in the middle. These pancakes ended up tasting very nice, they were not particularly sweet but had a deep flavour. Then I made the cream. The cream is a blend of maple butter (I got some just for this), silken tofu, vanilla and nut butter. It was meant to be macadamia butter, but I had cashew. It was delicious. I made a half batch, which was just right for the pancakes. Especially delicious when it was layered between a stack of pancakes, it was quite decadent!
Rating: Pancakes :), Cream :)



I have also adopted the southern US tradition of eating black-eyed peas and greens for dinner on NYD. Not because I think it will bless me with any particular prosperity or luck for the year ahead, but mostly because after pizza, pie, and pancakes, eating some beans and greens sounds pretty good! Normally I have to make up a batch of black-eyed peas from scratch, but our supermarkets have FINALLY been blessed with them in tins, so I don't need to plan ahead so much.

Hottie Black-Eyed Peas & Greens with Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I downsized this recipe a little bit from using two tins of beans to just one. I still used a full bunch of kale, though. Because I reduced the beans, I also reduced the liquid a little bit. Oh yeah, and I left out the hot sauce because nope. So I guess they are Mildy Black-Eyed Peas? I used smoked paprika to get a nice smoky taste to them. They were lovely and savoury, which was nice served with the sweet vegetable mash. This recipe was so easy! I was worried that I would screw up the sweating of the apples and potatoes, either burning them or undercooking them, but it was perfect. I added extra ginger, and didn't add any agave as it was sweet enough.
Rating: Peas & Greens :), Mash :)



I am not one for making resolutions any more. My main goals for the year are to hug Dim Sim a lot, and to make pizza once a month. I feel they are achievable! What did you get up to for New Years?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The face I woke up to on NYD.

Christmas Eats 2016

I'm a month behind with this, but here is my Christmas round up. But first, a quick Sahara update again. After my last post, she took a turn. Three days after chemo she suddenly became very unwell. A day of drugs and nursing improved her a little, but she was clearly dehydrated and unhappy. I took her back into the clinic on Sunday to admit her for IV fluids. Thankfully she responded really well and I was able to take her home on Monday. She has been a lot better since. Though I just gave her the week two chemo dose (a tablet she gets at home, so a different drug from last week), so who knows what the next week holds for us. Things I am learning: it is literally day by day, be happy when she is happy and be ready to give her the support she needs when she is not.

OK, so Christmas. This year was a special year because my brother was home from the UK for a few months, so this was the first Christmas we got to spend together as a whole family in several years. Christmas is always tinged with sadness for me, due to Gizmo memories and loss, so it was nice to have him here. The last few years I have skipped the big Christmas morning breakfast and started my day with a 90 minute bikram yoga class, followed by a green smoothie. I am that person now.

This year's smoothie was the Ginger Colada Green Smoothie from the Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking cookbook by Dana Shultz. I generally like a gingery smoothie because it seems festive. This one had ginger, lemon, coconut milk, pineapple, banana and greens. I decreased the amount of coconut milk and made up the rest with oat milk due to my sensitivities, and I used only spinach rather than a blend with kale. It was a refreshing smoothie, and fairly creamy, but I did find it a touch too acidic. Behold my festive mug that I served it in.
Rating: :)



After breakfast we did presents. I got some new cookbooks (Baconish and But My Family Would Never Go Vegan), some Buffy Season 10 and Angel & Faith comic volumes, the final season of Parks & Rec on DVD, and a Music for Cats CD (that is actually incredibly soothing for my own stress and anxiety levels). So a decent haul.

After presents it was time to start making lunch, which is our main meal of the day. For the centerpiece this year, I had found a Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute. It was pretty tasty, and definitely one of the better Christmas roasts I have tried. I like the puffed pastry and the filling. The roast itself is made with the apple sage style sausage meat, which is my favourite flavour. So all round a very good roast. Seen here with some roasted asparagus.



Of course, you cannot have roast without cranberry sauce. My favourite recipe from this is the Cinnamon Citrus Cranberry Sauce from Keep It Vegan by Aine Carlin. This is the second year I have made it and it is excellent.



For sides, I tried the Glazed Baby Carrots from Naturally Lean by Allyson Kramer. I couldn't find baby carrots as such, so used some little Dutch carrots, I am not sure if they were a bit bigger. Next time I might peel them first, just because the outsides got a bit wrinkled and didn't look as cute. But then, the skin is meant to be the healthiest part? The glaze was really nice, though didn't stick the carrots too well. (Here they are on a platter with our favourite Potato Smashers from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton that I make every year.)
Rating: :)



I also tried the Super Traditional Stuffing from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I only made a third of the amount, because the full recipe is huge. Unfortunately my bread was sliced a bit too small I think (I bought it from a bakery and they said they would slice it thick for me to make the stuffing with, but their thickest slice was really not that thick), so it was a bit soggy. The flavour was good, but I would have liked a higher veggie to bread ratio.
Rating: :|



Finally, some greens. As greens are important. These are just some seared green beans with toasted almonds.



With four of us a the table, we served the food buffet style in the kitchen, and loaded up our plates.





After lunch, we had some vegan Christmas pudding that we got from the Cruelty Free Shop. It was nice. Served with custard, of course (Alpro vegan custard). The first photo here is so you can see the pudding, with a custard drizzle. The second photo shows you my optimum custard to pudding ratio.





Then we played some fun card games (Sushi Go and Timelines Inventions), before lazing about for the afternoon and picking at leftovers for dinner. The following day we played our traditional game of kids vs adults Trivial Pursuit, which we can only play if Greg is here. It was a very long, close game, ultimately the parents won. I'd forgotten how long Trivial Pursuit can go for, next time we need a speed version.

I had a few days off after Christmas as well, and this time of year sees me eating lots of treats I associate with Christmas. So here a few other things that I had over the next few days.

A croissant with Tofurkey Ham, Tofutti cheese slices and leftover cranberry sauce. The croissant is from a local company, but unfortunately they aren't great.



Fruit mince tart with cherries and grapes. I ate this while watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special on Boxing Day.



Open-faced sandwiches with Tofutti French Onion cream cheese, beetroot relish, Tofurkey ham slices and cucumber. Served with some sauteed greens and addition cucumber because I really needed some greens at this point.



Some vegan Stollen I got from Aldi. I love stollen, and this was the first I have had since I went vegan! It was really nice.



A Tofurkey ham, Tofutti cheese slice and sweet mustard pickle sandwich.



A hot and melty toasted sandwich with Daiya swiss slices, Tofurky hickory smoked slices, beetroot relish and Tofutti French Onion cream cheese. This was my favourite creation.



Cute Kitty Photos of the Post



Before yoga on Christmas morning Dim Sim and I had a lovely quiet time together, with pats and purrs.



I got them some catnip spray and sprayed their stocking with it as a test. Sahara was interested.