Eating Out: Ginger & Rose

A few more visits to one of my favourite little cafes, Ginger & Rose. This place has a lovely atmosphere, the nicest staff, great food (including soy ice cream that I am forever grateful about), plus it is super dog friendly. You can see my previous visits here.

I met up with a new friend for lunch, and we started with some pretty coloured drinks. My favourite strawberry soy milkshake was as always pretty in pink, and they ordered a lovely green matcha latte.



I was keen to try the Vegan Burger, which is a sweet potato and chickpea patty topped with avocado, rocket, beetroot puree, and coconut tahini sauce. I had them sub in regular vegan aioli for the coconut sauce. This was delicious! Though a bit messy to eat. That beetroot puree swirl on the plate looks pretty, but made for sticky fingers! Worth it.



My friend ordered The Big Vegan, which I had ordered at my last visit. It comes with tempeh, not sausage, rosti, avocado, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, and Nuttelex on toasted Turkish bread.



I almost always get a little take home from their sweets cabinet, and this time I got a Berry Chocolate Muffin. That is indeed a big square of chocolate baked right into it!



Another time I visited on my own for lunch, and I tried their Vegan Fritters. They are packed full of peas and corn, and a served with avocado and cherry tomato salsa (with no chili in it), herbs, and a balsamic drizzle. I also got some tempeh on the side because I love their tempeh and more places should serve tempeh!



I did take away a slice of their amazing vegan banana cake, but I am incapable of getting a good photo of it. Next time I will take a photo of it in the cabinet! You may also notice that there are no waffles in this post. This is something that I am keep to fix ASAP, I love their waffles! They also have a new winter menu coming out soon, so I am excited to see what new vegan delights will be mine to try soon.

Ginger and Rose - Crn of James & Merthyr, New Farm, Brisbane - (07) 33388866

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Dim Sim would like to remind everyone that she is very beautiful.

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

For a little sweet treat, it is hard to go past a cookie if there is one on offer. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, by Isa and Terry, is packed full of all sorts of delightful bite sized morsels. From simple, to 'wholesome', to bars, to fancy schmancy. Your cookie jar will always be full of something fun, and you will be a hit at every party you bring a plate to. You can see my previous posts about this book here

Chocolate Chip Cookies: The classic cookie. These were easy to make, but I found the dough to be quite oily to work with. I popped it in the fridge to chill and firm up a bit before rolling, which seemed to help. This recipe says it makes two dozen 2-inch cookies or sixteen 3-inch cookies. I used an Australian TBS as my scoop (20mL or 4 tsp), and I got 21 cookies. I baked my cookies for about 10 minutes, but honestly could have gone a bit longer to let them get a bit more golden and a bit firmer. I find most US cookbook instructions lead to cookies that are a bit soft for my preference, so I normally bake a bit longer.
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies: Peanuts and oats, practically breakfast! Unlike the above recipe, I found the dough for this recipe to be quite dry. It cracked quite a lot when baking, so I might add a bit of extra milk to it next time. The cookies are also pressed into chopped peanuts, as well as having a hefty dose of peanut butter in the batter. One recipe makes two and a half dozen cookies. I made a half recipe, and using my trusty AU TBS as a scoop I got 19 cookies.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Agave Trailmixers: These 'wholesome' cookies are made with agave nectar rather than sugar, and also have some whole wheat pastry flour in them. Sure! I made a half batch, and using my AU TBS I got a perfect dozen cookies. The recipe describes them as soft, chocolately nuggets, which is a good description. I had flattened them a little before baking, but they don;t really spread at all so the cookies were soft and quite domed. I might look at flattening them more and baking them longer next time, my cookie preferences are for thinner and firmer. But they were still very nice. They were packed full of chocolate chips, chopped roasted cashews, and chopped dried cherries.
Rating: :)



Roasted Almond Cookies with Fleur de Sel: Fancy but easy. A sweet wholewheat cookie dough with chopped roasted almonds and rolled oats stirred through, and then sprinkled with fleur de sel. I love the sweet and salty combination. The recipe says that the batter is quite wet when you first mix it, but then quickly firms up. Very true! A full recipe makes two dozen cookies, and I made a half recipe and got 15 cookies using my AU TBS scoop.
Rating: :)



Big Fat Rice Crispy Squares: Classic and easy, no expensive vegan marshmallows required. This makes one eight by eight inch pan, and the bars are very tall! Hot syrup is mixed with the rice crispies, pressed into the pan, and then cooled in the freezer. The recipe says to slice immediately after removing from the freezer, though mine fractured a bit when I cut them. Perhaps they would benefit from a hot knife.
Rating: :)



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Dim Sim has a very long tail!

Midweek Munchies

It's that time of the week again!

First up, a ready made Korma curry, which I served over rice and spinach. See the part on the box where it says mild? LIES! This was spicy and hurt my tummy.



Thankfully this Falafel Mix was wonderful! It was so easy to make (just mix with water and let sit), and made delicious falafels. Magically, they were not too dry (as I find a lot of pre-mix falafel or just store-bought falafel to be). I made some cute little falafel to serve with some salad and sauce in a bowl I made, but also made some into larger patties to make sandwiches with for work.



The Vegie Delights range reformulated to make all their products vegan a while ago, so I was excited to try these chicken slices on sandwiches. So much no. They came out of the package like a congealed puck, and I just had to tear it apart as the slices were stuck together. You can see in the photo how I had to rip them up. Plus they were dry, and didn't taste very nice. I'll stick to Tofurky and Field Roast slices for future sandwiches!



My lovely friend Emma and her kitty Sassy, both of whom I met on Instagram, sent me this wonderful care package and card for Christmas. Emma painted Dim Sim's portrait on the card herself, and it is now framed in my room. I was super excited about the Round Up, which I ate immediately. And everything else was lovely as well! I especially enjoyed the sweet tart flavour in the pomegranate chocolate. The candle smells like the most delicious lollies!



Bennetto is a relatively newish brand of vegan chocolate, made in New Zealand. I love this raspberry flavour, as it is packed full of little raspberry pieces. Not only delicious, it is also on the Food Empowerment Project Recommended Chocolate List, so no child slave labour was used in the making of one of my new favourite treats.



What do I love? Silly drinks! When do I want to drink them? Whenever I find them! And such it was with this Turmeric Tonic. It was... very strong with the turmeric flavour. I like turmeric flavour, so that was good. But definitely would not be something everyone could drink. I suppose you could dilute it out with some coconut water. But I just wanted to drink it down!



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Why hello there! Jed looking very dapper in another bow tie.

Eating Out: Michael's Oriental

With the closure of close-to-my-house favourites Su Life and Pu Kwong (RIP beautiful bean curd rolls), it was with great excitement that I heard about the vegan menu at Michael's Oriental. This place is literally around the corner from me, a three minute drive! And they deliver! Sounds perfect, right? After getting a delivery from them last year, it seemed like the perfect place to go for dinner with the family when my brother and his girlfriend were visiting at the beginning of this year. (Though at the end the owner came out to talk to us about the meal and have a chat and please I don't want to talk to anyone let me be an anti-social hermit and scurry off home after I finish my meal in peace.)

Keen to maximise the experience, I ordered some Peking Duck Pancakes and Sweet Corn and Chicken soup to start. I love peking pancakes, and these were very nice. The soup came in what looked like a huge tureen, but ended up being a warmer with a smaller bowl on top. It took a while for it to cool down enough for me to eat it without scalding my tongue, but it was good soup.





I was glad I ordered two starters. When my main came out, the Vegan Char Kway Teow, I couldn't eat it. It was unexpectedly so spicy and hurt so much. But thankfully my brother was able to eat it. I have had Char Kway Teow at heaps of other places before, and it has never been spicy, so this was a shock! So I had some steamed rice and some of the greens in garlic sauce (not pictured) that we had ordered for my main. Ahhhh, just like the old days of being a vegan. Speaking of spicy, my brother also ordered the Ma Po Tofu off the vegan menu, but I didn't try any because spicy!





On their last night before going back to the UK, we ordered some Michael's to be delivered. We ordered Cashew Chicken, Hokkien Noodles, Singapore Noodles (which my brother ordered with wide rice noodles), vegetables in garlic sauce, and vegan fried rice. Sadly, this was... not great. Very oily, not a lot of flavour, the vegetables were so overcooked they were just mush. Needless to say, it has kind of turned me off from ordering from there again. I have tried most of the things on the vegan menu I can, they have heaps and heaps of spicy dishes I can't eat. Oh well. It is there in a pinch! And a lot of other people like it, I assume they can eat the spicy things, so my opinion may be skewed. Plus I did like it the first time we ordered from there, so who knows. Perhaps a bad day.



Michael's Oriental - 223 Padstow Rd, Eight Mile Plains, QLD

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Food may sometimes be disappointing, but Jed never is. Check him out looking smart in his bow tie!

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Casseroles

Several years ago, I tested for Vegan Casseroles a casserole inspired cookbook by Julie Hasson. Even though I made a heap of recipes during the testing process, I realised I haven't actually done a round up post for it yet! In fact, I have only shared a review of one recipe here as part of a MoFo prompt. To rectify, here is my first round up post for it! The book is divided into different types of casseroles: appetiser casseroles, dutch-oven and skillet (aka stove top) casseroles, old favourites, pasta casseroles, vegetable casseroles, dessert casseroles, and a chapter for sauces, toppings, and basics. Please enjoy some of the things I have made!

Aloo Gobi: This is a stove top casserole, and very easy to make. Cauliflower, potato, and onion are simmered with spices and tomatoes (the recipe says to use one cup of tinned tomatoes, I just used a whole tin and it was all good). I left out the jalapenos from this, and served over brown rice and spinach with some chutney.
Rating: :)



Moroccan Vegetable Stew: Another one made on the stove, this was delicious with a lot of fabulous flavours. Carrot, sweet potato, turnip, tomatoes, zucchini, chickpeas, quinoa, and raisins make this a full meal. And a big one, I got six serves out of this. This was Dad approved! I also added some frozen peas to the mix, because why not?
Rating: :D



Baby Greens with Cashew Cream Sauce: Creamed greens are not something I grew up with, but are something I have come to enjoy thanks to my cookbooks. I made this one Christmas, and it was a nice addition to the table. This falls under a stove top casserole, though is one of the least casserole like things, but it is still tasty! The sauce is rich and lovely. I used kale for my greens, but I couldn't find baby kale, it just needed a bit longer to cook down but was lovely.
Rating: :)



Nacho Tots Casserole: Everything about this recipe title sounds great, right? And it is! Thawed potato gems/tater tots are mixed with a Nacho Cheesy Sauce (another one from the sauces chapter) plus some other stuff, then baked and loaded with whatever your heart desires. I topped mine with a bit of cheese as well before baking, and then loaded them up with avocado, tomato, and bacon bits for serving.
Rating: :)



Creamy Rice and Dill Casserole: This requires a couple of pre-made recipes from the sauces and extras chapters: The white wine variation of a cashew-based Almost Alfredo Sauce, and some Chicken-Style Soy Curls. Thanks to my US stash of soy curls, I could do this without subs. Cooked rice is mixed with the above, as well as with spinach, lemon, and dill. I added extra dill, as is my desire. Served with some steamed broccoli.
Rating: :)



Bean and Rice Casserole with Salsa Fresca: Another batch of the Nacho Cheesy Sauce, mixed with some cooked rice, and tinned pinto beans. This recipe was so quick and easy to make. It is topped with some crushed tortilla chips, but would also make a great nacho topping in reverse! It is topped with some homemade Salsa Fresca, which uses tinned tomatoes (fire roasted if you have them) mixed with coriander, lime juice, and smoked paprika. I left out the jalapeno, and also just used a very small amount of onion in it as well. It was a great fresh addition to the casserole. I also added some avocado on top as well.
Rating: Casserole :), Salsa Fresca: :)



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Remember Jed? Well, get ready for some fashion shoot material. How suave does he look in this little bandana?

Eating Out: Loving Hut, Superoll, and MisoHapi

This post is a mish mash of a few individual little meals I have had out at a few different places on my own, so I thought I would just share them together.

Loving Hut Brisbane:

Loving Hut is a stalwart of the vegan Brisbane scene. I used to go there so much, I have eaten almost the entire menu. I don't go there that often anymore, or if I do it is often to get an old favourite for takeaway. But one day I stopped in for lunch and saw that they had something new on their very slowly changing special board. These Hokkien Noodles were delicious and savoury. Also very oily, I could have cut back on that a bit, but it was a nice lunch. (See other visits to Loving Hut here.)



Superoll:

Despite being very close to me, I haven't eaten at Superoll all that often. But I have ordered delivery from them loads of times. My usual go to is a dish of tofu, mushrooms, and zucchini (wish it was broccoli) in a savoury sauce. One day after being at an event around the corner, I decided to stop in for a quick dinner. I got the Char Siu bowl, which has their delicious char siu, some rice, bok choy, corn, and roasted peanuts. I also had a Jo Melon drink, which was watermelon, soy milk, and ice. It was sweet and refreshing. (See previous Superoll visits and deliveries here.)





MisoHapi:

I love this Japanese restaurant in West End that has vegan options. I popped in for lunch one day and finally had a whole bowl of their vegan shoyu ramen all to myself. While their miso ramen is also delicious, I think this one is my favourite. I also finally had some Tofu Croquette Agedashi. Every other time I'd been in they had been out of the croquettes. While the croquettes themselves were good, and the agedashi broth was amazing, together they just created a bowl of mush. (See previous visits here.)





Loving Hut - Shop 2/1420 Logan Road, Mount Gravatt, Queensland

Superoll - Shop 22a, 342 McCullough St, Sunnybank, Queensland

MisoHapi - 124 Boundary St, West End, Queensland

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A perfect little cat on my lap.

Eating Out: Flora by Greenhouse

Earlier this year, my brother and his girlfriend were visiting from the UK. On their last morning, I took them for brunch at my beloved Flora. This is now the only Flora, the one at the Gold Coast has closed. Which is sad for the Gold Coast, but I am very happy it is thriving here in Brisbane where I can visit! You can see those previous visits here.

They both ordered the Waffle Stack, which had waffles, hash brown, rice paper bacon, ice cream, and berries. Enjoyed by both of them!



I got the Avocado Toast with a hash brown and a vegan egg. What is the egg made of? I have no idea! I think tofu or some sort? But it is fun, without being super eggy. I know avocado toast is the roll your eyes standard cafe offering for vegans, but I also know that avocado toast is great. This one had almond feta and herbs and was served on a delicious sourdough.



Another lunch I had there was their Chickpea Crepe, which is topped with sesame green, broccoli, cauliflower, pickled cabbage, and kraut. It also came with some avocado. Tasty and filling, yet not too filling.



I met up with some friends for lunch another day. It was hot, so we each had an iced drink. I had the iced cacao (yummy), Ashleigh had the iced tumeric, and Cam had the iced chai.



They ordered a Mushroom Benefict. This was what I ordered the very first time I came! Presentation seems to vary depending on the day, and this one was very pretty, so have another photo of one.



And I had... the Waffle Stack! Because I found out at my last visit that they use beautiful wonderful soy ice cream instead of yucky coconut ice cream. I was SO HAPPY! And this was awesome. The waffles are not too sweet, which is perfect with the ice cream and berries and syrup. Plus some rice paper bacon for smoky crunch and the hashbrown because you always need potatoes. I recommend!



Flora by Greenhouse West End - 239 Boundary Street, West End

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This perfect girl had to go to the clinic the other day, but just for a routine blood test. Her thyroid is getting a little bit high again, so we need to fiddle with her thyroid meds a bit more. She is already on such a finicky, tiny little dose that we have to make the teeniest adjustments to. Seems fitting for such a tiny baby! But her kidney disease is stable and everything else checked out OK.

Midweek Munchies

This is a vintage edition of Midweek Munchies. In that I found a random folder on my computer that was of random photos taken earlier last year. They might have been lost forever, but I stumbled across them and now I share them with you! I also realise that almost all of these were work-related foods!

These Chocolate Cinnamon cookies are both vegan and gluten free. I am not sure who makes them, but they are available at a few cafes around Brisbane. My friend brought me one of these when I was having a rough time at work. They are very delicious.



For a work birthday, we got some vegan Little Prague cupcakes to share between us. Flavours included Neopolitan, Chocolate Creme, Passionfruit Raspberry, and Chocolate Peanut Butter.



And another time, we got some treats made by Little Vegan & Co. Including a carrot cake, and their apple crumble cheesecake slice aka one of the best things I have ever eaten.



Finally, one day at work we had a rep coming and they were bringing lunch. We asked them to bring Botanica, which they did, and I had this big delicious plate of assorted salads for lunch.



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Remember teeny Olivia, the kitten who was dumped in a letter box? Well here she is now. Simultaneously still teeny, but also such a big girl! She has grown so much. She is now eating, drinking, and toileting on her own and will be going to her new family soon.