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.





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

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.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



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!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

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?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

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