Father's Day 2020

Hi friends, I had to take a little blogging break because I lost all energy and motivation. Still kind of struggling with that, but trying to get back into regular habits again. I am back at work now as well, which is not helping my energy levels!

But on to happier things. The first Sunday in September is Father's Day in Australia. So, as usual, I made my dad a special dinner of his choosing. He picked Mexican, but then as I dreamed about all sorts of delightful beans and rice and totillas I checked in and he was thinking more along the lines of the cheesy/sour creamy 'Mexican'. But also nothing he had to eat with his hands. So enchiladas it was!

Spinach and Bean Enchiladas with Cilantro-Lime Cream Sauce from Everyday Vegan Eats by Zsu Dever: These hit the spot of cheesy, while also allowing me to use some beans and even some spinach, yay! The enchiladas are filled with a mix of onion, tomatoes, pinto beans, baby spinach, and cheese (I used the Daiya mixed one). For the spices, I left out the chili powder and used a mix of regular andsmoked paprika instead. I have zero luck with corn tortillas, so I used some nice little flour ones and they rolled so nicely. So, technically this says it serves 4-6, but the three of us ate it all! It is served with a lovely cilantro-lime cream sauce, which is cashew based and super easy to make. The lime is not overpowering either. I needed to add an extra splash of soymilk to mine to loosen it up a bit enough for pouring. Because my mum is avoiding citrus, I served it on the side rather than pouring it onto the top of the enchiladas after baking. I also served this with a chopped salad (no green leaves, as per my dad's request), of grated carrot, cucumber, celery, tomato, and corn.
Rating: Enchiladas :), Sauce :)







Chocolate Mousse from Tofu 1-2-3 by Maribeth Abrams: For dessert he requested a chocolate mousse, which is what my mother wanted for her mother's day dinner as well. I need more adventurous people to make weird desserts for! Anyway, this time I tried a recipe from my Tofu 1-2-3 cookbook, which was that classic combination of silken tofu blended with melted chocolate. This is RICH! I served it topped with a scoop of So Delicious Vanilla Cashew Youghurt, and some sliced strawberries.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The sun is coming up earlier every day, which makes for a very happy little black cat.

New Years Eats

I am not one who celebrates the new year, or makes resolutions, or does recap posts. Time is time and it just keeps on passing. I certainly don't stay up until midnight, that is way way way past by bedtime/ But I do like food traditions, so I have a few that I have made around the new year.

New Year's Eve I will normally make pizza and pie for dinner and dessert. This is what I made this year.

Chard, Coriander, and Cashew 'Cheese' Pizza from Greens 24/7 by Jessica Nadel: This pizza has a base of Chard and Coriander Pesto, topped with some broccoli florets and sliced red onion, and finished off with blobs of a delicious and easy to make cashew cheese. I used a store-bought crust for ease. The cheese and pesto were very easy to make as well. This is a really fantastic combination of flavours, and not the usual pizza suspect. The pesto recipe is lovely on its own, and uses sunflower seeds to make it nut free.
Rating: Pizza :), Pesto :)



Creamy Banana Pie from Hearty Vegan Meals For Monster Appetites by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: This is a very rich pie! First up, a word about the crust. The instructions say to bake in a pie plate, but then remove it from that to completely cool. Do not do this, mine completely fell apart. I think this must be a mistake? Unless they meant a tart pan with a removable base. Anyway, I ended up with crust bits. I blitzed them up in the food processor to crumbs with the intention of making a cookie crumb base by adding some melted Nuttelex. I followed some proportions for this from Joy Of Vegan Baking, but it ended up being too sloppy. Oh no! But I ended up just pressing it into the bottom of a lined 9 inch springform round cake pan. The filling is a mix of tofu, Mori Nu vanilla pudding mix, almond butter, and chocolate chips. I used regular chocolate chips instead of white chocolate like the recipe called for, because I hate white chocolate. As a result of my fiddling around with the crust, now really just a base, I just used a single layer of the sauteed bananas on top, not an extra layer in the middle. The base actually set up in the fridge and worked out pretty well, like a dense brownie base for it. But as I said, super rich!
Rating: :)



On New Year's Day, I like to start the day with some pancakes for breakfast, and end it with some beans and greens.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Pancakes from Tofu 1-2-3 by Maribeth Abrams: This recipe makes a lot of pancakes! It says 15, but I got 16, so between three people we had several left over. I made half with chocolate chips, and half just plain. To be honest, for breakfast I preferred the plain ones, the chocolate chips make pack a pretty rich punch first thing in the morning. The pancakes have silken tofu and a banana blended into the liquid ingredients. Lovely served with maple butter, maple syrup, blueberries, sliced bananas, and some peanut butter.
Rating: :)



Coconut Black-Eyed Pea Curry (Lobia) from Vegan Eats World by Terry Hope Romero: I took a different spin on my greens and beans this year. In the past, I have made many versions of Hopping John, normally having to make my own black eyed peas from scratch because you can't get them tinned. For a brief few months though, there were some tinned ones available. Sadly I only bought one, and now they are gone again, but I used that tin for this recipe (with a second tin of kidney beans). This is simple, you make an onion/garlic/spice paste in the food processor, but then it is just sauteeing that and simmering beans in a coconut-milk broth and then mixing through some coriander. I served it with some spinach for the greens (no collards where I live), and some brown basmati rice. This served three people.
Rating: :)



However you do or don't mark New Year, I hope you had some nice days regardless.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The one tradition I very much do care about is going to sleep and waking up next to this precious baby for the new year, and if fact for every new day regardless.

Recipe Round-Up: Tofu 1-2-3

Tofu 1-2-3 is one of my older cookbooks, I've had it for ages. I bought it because it highlights one of my favourite ingredients, tofu. I just love tofu in all the ways, which is funny considering one of the excuses I gave for not going vegan a lifetime ago was because I hated tofu. Ha! Doing a tag search on my blog, it has been 10 years since I posted anything from this book! My goodness! I've actually made a lot more than I have shared, but some of it when back when I wasn't taking photos of foods. And then it languished on my shelf for years as I got more and more new cookbookes. But no more! You can see a few things I have posted from it here, but this is the first proper recipe round-up I have given it.

Vegetable Fried Rice: This was a quick and easy recipe, especially because I used some microwave white rice (instead of cooking brown rice from scratch). The recipe doesn't say to chill the rice, but I know how fried rice works so I chilled mine. I only had 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice, a bit less than the recipe would make, but I prefer a high vegetable to rice ratio. I still used the full amount of veggies and tofu, but I subbed carrot for capsicum and shallot for scallion. This made 2-3 serves.
Rating: :)



Thai Rice Noodles with Tofu and Mixed Vegetables: This recipe seems to simple, all one pot, just coconut milk and water with curry paste for the sauce... surely there should be more flavour? But no, it works great! I did pan fry my tofu in a bit of peanut oil first for texture and flavour (and I only had a 375g block rather than a 500g block). I subbed carrot for capsicum, and I sauteed my vegetables first for a couple of minutes before adding the red curry paste (one teaspoon for sensitive little me), the coconut milk (I used a 270mL tin of light with 130mL water), and stock. The noodles cook right in the pot as well. I used 200g of pad thai style dry rice noodles. Definitely break up the noodles before adding them to the pot, so you can submerge them properly. They cooked up fine! I did serve mine with some lime wedges as well, just for fun and because our neighbour gave us five million limes from their tree.
Rating: :)



Pasta with Butternut Creme: The recipe calls for creste di galli pasta, I used elbow macaroni. This is a lovely sauce, with a sweetness from the butternut, cheesiness from nooch (I may have added a smidge extra), and a strong miso flavour. I used a 500g bag of diced butternut, rather than a whole butternut cut up, so there might be some variations in amount of butternut depending on what you use. The tofu in this is silken tofu added to the sauce. The recipe called for one pound of pasta, I used 250g and it was the perfect amount. The sauce thickened quite a bit when you heated it with the pasta. I served with BBQ sauce glazed sausages and some kale.
Rating: :)



Cannellini Beans and Roasted Potatoes in Cashew Cream Sauce: Again, silken tofu plays a component of the sauce. In this case, a noochy cashew and tofu based sauce that is really delicious. Served over some roasted potatoes and white beans, this is cheesy, potato perfection. I took the variation of adding some spinach to the mix, but also served it over some spinach for lots of greens. I did bake my potatoes at a higher temperature for a bit longer to get them perfectly roasted. Then I heated the beans and spinach together, added the sauce, added the potatoes, and bam! This says it serves 6, but I am not sure in what universe. I got three serves.
Rating: :D



Barbecue Tofy with Oven-Roasted Potatoes: Much like the previous recipe, I roasted the potatoes hotter and longer to get them to my preference. The tofu in this case if extra-firm tofu that has been frozen, defrosted, pressed, and crumbled. It is then simmered with vegetables (I left out the capsicum) and BBQ sauce for about half an hour. There is no BBQ sauce recipe, it just calls for a jar. I used some leftover sauce from another cookbook I had made, so use whatever you like. This gave a very juicy and flavourful tofu. I served mine over some steamed broccoli, as well as the roasted potatoes.
Rating: :)



Chickenless Salad: A super simple salad, again involving tofu that has been frozen, defrosted, pressed and crumbles. I made a half recipe of this, using 250g of tofu, and got enough for four sandwiches. Simply mixed with mayo, celery, poultry seasoning (I made my own blend, salt, and pepper. I left out the scallion because I didn't have any. I did need to add a bit of mayo, it was a little dry as written. But then easy sandwiches were mine.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Great news! The day after my last post, Mozart and Mariah were adopted together. So happy for them! Here is a photo of them back when they were smaller kitties.

Thai Style Tofu With Butternut Pumpkin

Dinner tonight came thanks to Tofu 1-2-3, a great little book that I picked up a while ago. Every recipe contains some form of tofu, and the recipes range from snacks to desserts to breakfasts to soups to mains.

The 'Thai Style' I can only assume comes from the coconut milk involved. A mix of curry and chili powder plus ginger, garlic and some other spice that evades my memory make up the main flavour of the dish. It is also nice and chunky with tofu, butternut pumpkin and broccoli! The recipe also called for red capsicum, but as I rarely if ever actually enjoy this vegetable I left it out. I served it over brown basmati rice.

It was pretty easy to make. There was some chopping involved in the prep work, but once everything is all lined up and ready to go there is very little effort. All up the cooking time is about 40-50 minutes, but a lot of this is simmering while covered time and it only needs occasional stirring.

The verdict was pretty tasty. My parents both enjoyed it.

And for an added bonus, here is another dinner I recently made from the same book. Captain Tofu!



Apparently it is based on some East Indian Chicken Curry thing, according to the little blurb in the book. The tofu is coated and fried first, and then mixed in to a yummy tomato sauce and baked. I left out the green capsicum (foul under any circumstances) and put in some zucchini instead.

Happy (belated) birthday to me!

Last week was my birthday. I have already blogged about the yummy dinner my friends took me to, but I had another special dinner as well. Monday is family night in our house, so for the family night closest to my birthday my brother and my mother cooked a birthday dinner for me. It is quite the novelty to have yummy vegan food prepared for me while I am watching TV!

While I make dinner most nights I am home, whenever there is a birthday or special occasion I always make a special dinner. They get to pick out whatever vegan yummies they want, and then I make it. So this time was my time to choose. I picked something pretty easy (mum doesn't like lots of fiddly cooking, crazy woman). I picked out of Veganomicon, that greatest of tomes.

For the main I chose the Vodka Penne Pasta. I had made this before and it is outstanding. It gets my five star, two thumbs up rating. The tomato sauce is amazingly creamy and fresh. And it is so quick and easy to make, it is just fantastic!

For dessert they made the Berry Coconut Crisp. It is not something I have made before. And I frakked up by hallucinating a bottle of coconut essence in the cupboard and only found out at the crucial moment that there wasn't any. But it was great anyway.

It was a lovely dinner. Thanks to them both!

Tonight I am on call at the clinic. I have spent the last several hours on my computer, discovering insane amounts of new vegan blogs. I also updated my list of blogs, and now all the vegan ones are marked as such. Easy peasy! I am also right now watching a really bad movie on channel 10. But how can I say no a Hilary Duff movie? Followed up by some Season 3 Supernatural on DVD. Heck yeah!

I haven't posted much about what I've been cooking lately. A while ago I bought a book called Tofu 123, which is just chock full or recipes involving - you guessed it - tofu! It's quite a good little book. On Thursday night I was feeling like baking up some tofu, and so I cracked open this book and I made Ilyse's Cripsy Tofu Cutlets With Mustard Sauce. The tofu cutlets were quickly dunked in a sweet soy marinade before being coated in panko and nooch then baked. They were pretty tasty. Not too crispy though. The mustard sauce is a combination of vegan mayo (I used the Vcon recipe), dijon mustard and something called relish. Which, as far as I can tell, is something similar to sweet mustard pickle, so I used that. The sauce is really yummy! I also served it with some mashed potatoes and some roasted asparagus. The asparagus was a mix of regular green and yellow. The yellow had a more subtle taste, but something about it reminded me of tinned asparagus. So I like the green best!

In retrospect, it was kind of similar to a Vcon menu I made earlier this year:



Only the Vcon one was better, because it involved the Chickpea Cutlets of Vcon legend, and also one of the best mustard sauces ever known to man kind!

Got to go and check on some kitties. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Saturday night!

VeganMoFo: A week of dinners!

The end of another week - which means another weekly dinner round up! Be aware gentle dial up viewers - lots of pics ahead!

Monday
A night at the clinic, which meant dipping to the freezer of awesome left overs! Tonight I enjoyed some Spicy Peanut Noodles from Tofu 1-2-3. OK, so this picture is from when I actually made them, but they were still damn tasty!



Tuesday
Tonight I went to the awesome The Forest in West End. Alas, no pictures, but here's a round up! While waiting for my friend I enjoyed a yummy Banana Smoothie. Dinner itself was a Forest Plate, for which I chose Tempeh Bolognaise, Potato and Pumpkin Filo Pie, Roasted Spuds (they are the best!) and Pasta Pesto Salad. Finished off with a slice of Mango Cheesecake and a Soy Hot Chocolate. And for takeaway fun - a Raspberry And White Chocolate Cupcake and a Chocolate And Pecan Cupcake. 5 star meal!

Wednesday
On call at the clinic, and for the life of me I can't remember what leftovers I enjoyed! So I thought I'd post a picture of Spaghetti And Beanballs with roasted brussel sprouts, fro Veganomicon.



Thursday
Burger Night! Jerk Spiced Portobello Mushrooms (huge, courtesy of the market mushroom man) with Green Apple Salsa, both from Vegan Planet, popped between some wholemeal rolls. And served with Zesty Coleslaw, from The New Vegan. All I can say is - hurrah for the glory of the shredder on the food processor! I've been enjoying the coleslaw for lunch for the last couple of days as well.



Friday
First up was Chili Macaroni Bake from Vegan Planet. I made this using some leftover East Coast Chili. It is awesome - a macaroni cheese base, chili on top and then sprinkled with Cheezly.


And then, a salad dressed with the yummy Raspberry and Lime Vinaigrette from Veganomicon. The salad was a mix of baby spinach and mesculin leaves, lightly steamed asparagus and chunks of mango. Scrummy!



Saturday
On call... into the left overs! Tonight I enjoyed Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms, with Tomato Cous Cous with Capers, both from Veganomicon. A wonderful combination!



Sunday
Again on call... what is it with this week? At this very moment of blogging, I am enjoying Vegan Planet's Shredded Seitan with Green Beans and Shallots.

So ends my week of dindins!