Eating Out: Brisbane Vegan Twilight Markets (March 2023)

Hello friends! It has been a while, almost two months since I last posted. I have had some pressing things going on. Mostly the fact that my PhD thesis was due to be sumitted by the 30th of June, so that was taking up all my home time. But the good news is that I got it in on time! It isn't over yet, there are still reviewers and revisions and orals, but we are a huge step closer. My brother was also here visiting from Spain, and only left to go back a few days ago, so I was also spending lots of time hanging out with him once my thesis was in. In between working, of course. My cooking motivation also completely disappeared. I ate a lot of delivery and takeaway because I was very focused on the tasks at hand, as well as just being extremely tired. However I have cooked a few times over the last couple of weeks, twice in the last two days, so I hope I can get back to cooking again because I do enjoy it.

Anyway, let's get back to those Brisbane Vegan Twilight Markets. I headed there again in March, because why not. This is what I had!

I got the okinomiyaki with potato and tomato demiglace sauce from :D Select. I love okinomiyaki. This was very good, but it was so filling that I didn't really have room left for much else.



I also got the Cheesy Mushroom Pizza from Piante Pizza, with the plan of squeezing in a couple of slices fresh and then taking it home to have leftovers the next day. Good plan. I have been waiting for ages to get this pizza on their market specials list, and it was pretty damn good.



In a final moment of glory, I remembered that my ice cream stomach was still empty, so I headed to I Should Coco to try their special, the Cinnamon Crunch Biscoff Sundae.



After that, there really room for anything else. So I picked up a couple of cupcakes for my mum, and an Iced Vovo for me to eat much later, from Pippa's Pantry.



How have you all been? I have been catching up on everyone's blogs. But not everyone has a blog. Let me know what you have been up to!

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The girls are good. Mirabelle and Eloise continue to bring me great joy and love. Here they are sitting next to each other. Eloise was there, and Mira just came and plonked herself down next to her. It lasted for a few minutes before Eloise jumped off. So cute!

Eating Out: Brisbane Vegan Twilight Markets (December 2022)

Figured I may as well keep sharing my trips to these markets. I've only been once more after this so far. It is getting pretty chilly in the evenings now, but I hope to make another visit soon. This post is from the December markets.

I love Hawaiian Pizza, I love pineapple on pizza. This is the Hawaiian Pizza from Piante Pizza. It was good but the tomato sauce of the base overpowered the other flavours a bit.



There was a new empanada stand, I can't remember the name. But I tried the Tofu and Spinach one. They have a lot of other fun sounding flavours, but they were all spicy. You can also get them with two different sauces, but they were spicy as well. You can also buy frozen empanadas to take home and keep in the freezer to bake when the mood strikes.



I love the Grapefruit Iced Tea from the iced tea stall there. It is caffeine free, and is the perfect blend of tart and sweet. It is so refreshing.



I also got an Eggplant Dengaku roll from :D Select. It had eggplant dengaku, green beans, and avocado and was absolutely delicious.



I brought home a couple of sweet treats for my parents. A Caramello Cupcake from Pippa's Pantry, and a Peanut Butter Brownie from Vegan Yumm. They both got a bit squished in transit.





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Eloise. She is beauty, she is grace. She wants my to get the camera out of her face.

Midweek Munchies

A touch past the middle of the week, but midweek is more a state of mind and a fun alliteration. You can have a midweek munchy any time of the week!

Pana has baking chocolate now! Including dark, very important if you are me. The cool thing about Pana is that they are on the Food Empowerment Project approved chocolate list! I haven't used these yet, as my baking motivation is currenrly all burned out, but I am looking forward to trying these next time the baking urge strikes.



Dandies Maple Flavoured Mini Marshmallows! OMG these are so sweet... like... so sweet. They also all stuck together in my packet, so you couldn't easily pull out a handful. But I do recommend pulling out a wodge and sandwiching it between to Gingernut biscuits with some salted crunchy peanut butter. That is an excellent little dessert snack.



Coles Nature's Kitchen (one of their in-store vegan lines) came out with some jarred bolognese sauces. It has TVP-style meaty bits in a tomato sauce. I sauteed up some carrots, celery, and mushroom to add in to mine. It was fine. Nothing outstanding, but not bad. Good for times when you need something convenient and quick to make.





On hot sweaty summer days, of which we have many here in Brisbane, these ice blocks are incredible. They are so refreshing, lightly sweet but not overly so, and they just really help you cool down when you think you are about to boil from the inside out. Highly recommend!



Picked up some Heinz Vegan Aioli in clearance and, as it says on the bottle, it is seriously good. It is not super garlicky, so not really like an aioli at all, but certainly like some sort of taste enhanced mayo. I'd buy it at full price.



Finishing it up with a weird drink. This tasted kind of gross, like some weird funky lemon water. But you know I had to try it. It is getting harder and harder to find silly drinks that don't have stevia in them, so I am required by law to try all the ones that do not.



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It is Eurovision week! Which means getting up for 5am live watches of the semi finals on Wednesday and Friday, before the 5am Sunday morning grand final! It is also Mirabelle and Eloise's first Eurovision. This was Mirabelle watching me watching the first semi final on Wednesday morning.

Eating Out: Brisbane Vegan Twilight Markets (October 2022)

Another blog post already, my goodness! The blogging urge seems to be resurfacing. I have posted many times about assorted markets in different places run by QLD Vegan Markets, but lately I have been enjoying the monthly twilight market. It is the closest location to myself, and is not as punishingly sunny as the other morning markets. This is from the visit I made to the October markets.

On this visit, I started with some miso corn on the cob from a stall Miso Corny. They have since changed their business from corn on the cob to toasted cheese sandwiches, so you can't get this anymore, but I really enjoyed it. I love corn on the cob.



Followed up with a bento box from :D Select, which seems to be what Izakaya Midori is calling their marked stalls now. This had BBQ tofu, with potato salad (yum), brown rice, steamed vegetables with garlic sauce and mayo, and some sort of capsicum thing that I didn't eat.



And I finished up with an old favourite, The Cookie Wookie (with chocolate sauce instead of caramel) from I Should Coco.



There were two doughnut stalls there! I went with a new to me one, though I don't remember the name. They had iced donuts in a million flavours, but they also made fresh filled doughnuts to order! I got one cinnamon sugar doughnut (no filling, just pure cinnamon sugar goodness) and one with lemon passionfruit curd to take home.



I also brought home some lovely little treats from Vegetabelle, an OG of the Brisbane vegan market scene. I absolutely adore their mini lemon meringe tarts! I also got some pumpkin spice cookies and a s'mores cookie.



I don't go to these markets every month, but I have been to a couple more since then, so look forward to some more posts about those visits coming up!

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Mirabelle and Eloise both on the foot of my bed while I was reading the other night.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook The Pantry

What is this? A blog post! And not only a blog post, but a recipe round-up post! Let's move on to the next cookbook I want to share with you, and we'll get quite a few posts from this. Cook The Pantry by the prolific cookbook author Robin Robertson is a book focused on quick to make recipes with primarily pantry-friendly ingredients. You can see other things I have made from this book here.

Red Bean Chili: Of course I used no chili in the making of this recipe, my chilis are not even mild, they are zero heat! I loved how this had a mix of beans and TVP crumbles in it. The TVP is technically optional, but not really because TVP makes everything excellent. I made a half recipe of this so I used a whole tin of kidney beans and a half tin of black beans, so I guess it is red black bean chili. I also swapped out the frozen onion and capsicums for fresh onion and celery. For the spices I used a heaped tsp of smoked paprika instead of chili powder and chipotles, and I also added some corn kernels because I had them. Served over brown rice and baby spinach with some sour cream on top.
Rating: :)



Taco Salad with Corn and Black Bean Salsa: I love taco salads in summer, such a great combination of fresh ingredients. This salad has black beans, corns, coriander, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and tortilla chips. I used a 200g jar of mild taco sauce in place of the salsa with the beans, and I also left out the scallions. Topped with some plain soy yoghurt (rather than sour cream) with some grated Vegusto cheese on top.
Rating: :)



Asian Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing: I love peanut butter noodles, hot or cold! This has carrot and green peas in it, but I also added some diced marinated tofu. I also used diced celery instead of water chestnuts, and obviously left out the chili flakes.
Rating: :)



Suddenly Sushi Salad: Sushi salads and bowls are another one of my favourites in summer. This one has a layer of baby cos, a layer of sushi rice, and then a layer of a heart of palm mixture. The heart of palm is shredded and then mixed with carrot, cucumber, and soy sauce for a really nice addition. Topped with avocado, some optional marinated baked tofu, avocado, pickled ginger, and nori shreds. This said is serves four but really it was three serves.
Rating: :)



Sesame Soba Salad: Yes, more noodle salads! This one featuring a wonderful dressing made from sesame oil, soy, hoisin, rice wine vinegar, and ginger. I left out the sririacha. I left out the scallions, and I mixed in some shredded baby cos instead of cabbage, grated carrot, and dived marinated tofu. I also added some extra hoisin in the dressing because I love hoisin.
Rating: :)



Homestyle Hash Burgers: These were a bit of a disaster in the structural sense, the mix was too loose to really make patties with, even after adding in some gluten flour (my own addition, not in the recipe), so I ended up just kind of cooking it as a big mess and trying to flip parts of it. But it still tasted good! It has thawed and mashed potato gems (tater tots) in it, which was fun. Also lentils and vegetables. I did swap out the roasted peppers for grated carrot, so that may have contributed it to it falling apart. I served these on buns with lots of ketchup and a side of more potato gems.
Rating: :)



What has been going on with you all?

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Mirabelle just hanging around on the scratching post in the sun room.

Eating In

Hello friends! Long time no blog, I know. Things have been things. I am on the final push to finish my PhD by the end of June, and work is also taking a lot out of me at the moment. I mentioned I while ago that I had various news, and one of those bits of news is that I have been formally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It makes a lot of sense, given what my life has been like the past few years. And it was very validating to get the diagnosis, but it is also sad because it means that this really is my life now. So between work and PhD and trying to rest and recover from the two, I haven't had a lot of brain power for blogging.

But, here I am! With a blog post about some fun food that I have had delivered. I am happy that there are more fun options becoming available, so let us see!

First up, Chili Coco Thai! It is hard to find a Thai place with vegan options, as a lot of them use fish sauce and shrimp paste as a base for a lot of their sauces. So when I find a place with a vegan menu section, I get very happy. This place had a limited selection of non-spicy vegan options. I got Vegetarian Dumplings with Peanut Sauce. The dumplings were good, but the peanut sauce had a bit too much spice in it for me! I also got the Ginger Vegetarian Stir-Fry and some Coconut Rice. The stir-fry was extremely expensive for what was essentially a fairly small bland container of vegetables with a few bits of soggy tofu.





Much more fun was discovering Okuman Karaage and Ramen Bar! This place is in West End, so the delivery times can be a bit longer... plan ahead! But it is so good! This is the first of many times I have ordered from there. This was their Agedashi Tofu, which is incredible and very generous with the tofu! I also got their Gyoza and their Tofu Yakisoba, both of which were also good.



And a couple of things I ordered from Vietfood Springwood, which is a Vietnamese place with a heap of vegan options. This is the Vegan BBQ pork rice paper rolls and the Buddha's Delight (vegetable and mushroom stirfry... it said it was meant to have tofu, but it didn't). They were both really good.



When I ordered delivery from Vietfood, Doordash sprung up with 'do you want to add a drink from another place, the same driver can bring it to you'. So I ordered Lemon Roasted Melon Tea with Basil Seed from Gong Cha, a bubble tea place. But then Doordash had a second driver bring me that, and I felt bad because they order was split and I could only leave a tip on the app for the first driver, so I won't do that again. But ethical quandaries aside, the drink was lovely.



Finishing up this post with some food from Motto Motto, which is a chain of Japanese restaurants that has a few vegan options! Including their Teriyako Tofu Don bowl, made vegan by leaving off the kewpie mayo. So when I got it home I transfered with to a bowl and added my own vegan kewpie! This bowl is good, and I have ordered it a number of times now, normally with extra tofu and extra pickles! The downside is it doesn't have any veggies, so I will often add some baby spinach at home. I also got some seaweed salt fries to try, which were nice but needed more seaweed flavour.





Hope you are all hanging in there!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Poor Boo has had some more health problems over the last couple of weeks, but thankfully I am able to get the very best veterinary care for her. She has picked up a bit now, thankfully.

Midweek Munchies

Yes, it is Sunday today. That is the end of the week, not the midweek. But you can munch anytime, so let's midweek munchies today.

V2 is one of my favourite plant-based meat brands. They hit that sweet spot for me between meaty enough but not super realistically meaty. They came out with some new sausages recently, including these Garlic & Herb ones that I scored on sale. Definitely do recommend.



At the end of last year I did an online conference, which started at 11am and didn't really have a proper break until 2pm. So I packed a lunch to snack at while I was watching on my computer. This has sliced cucumber, grape tomatoes, oat crackers (that a friend sent my from Scotland... important update on Scotland coming soon!), Field Roast slices, gherkins, and Sheese.



I got these Veggie Snags on sale at The Green Edge. They had caramelised onions and balsamic vinegar, which sounds delicious. They were chickpea based, and that definitely came through in the texture. My mum really liked them! I thought they were OK. Definitely only an on-sale buy for the future. I served them with roasted potatoes, some frozen vegetable mix I needed to use up, and BBQ sauce.





I found this vegan cookie dough at a random IGA that had a lot of cool vegan stuff. You can't see it in the photo, but the tub proudly proclaimed that they were made using aquafaba. Also, no coconut oil. Very important. It was expensive, but I couldn't resist buying it. And you know what, they were pretty good! Not quite as good as homemade, but much less effort. I love to see more products like this coming out.





I was able to buy a bunch of Pana spreads on sale that I have been slowly working my way through, including this chocolate orange one. I love chocolate and orange together! And this tastes like a jaffa! Though I have noticed one way my tastebuds are changing is that I find that things with orange oil in them are leaving a funny aftertaste on my tongue that I am not loving, which is a shame. Anyone else had weird things like this happen?



My friend got my this Lindt vegan chocolate to try. Although Lindt has traditionally had some vegan-friendly dark chocolate, I tend not to buy them because I do my best to stick to FEP approved chocolate to avoid slave labour and Lindt is on their 'cannot recommend, did not respond' list. But they do have some information on their website about their chocolate sourcing. As for this chocolate, I guess it is fine for those who like milk chocolate. But why would I buy it when I could be eating their 99% dark chocolate if I was going to buy Lindt? For any new readers, I famously like my chocolate dark, bitter, and angry with the world.



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Friday the 31st of March was Mirabelle's fifth birthday! Happy birthday to my squeaky beaky criminal squirrel, stinky alien baby!!