Midweek Munchies

I realised after discussing it in comments on my last post, I never mentioned on the actual blog the actual great news that I do not have to do an oral defense for my PhD! You have no idea what a giant relief that is. When I started my PhD (officially in 2014, when I upgraded from a Masters that I started in 2009... I kid you not when I see this was the slowest PhD ever!) an oral defence was not required, but then in 2017 it changed that publication based theses had to do one. The post grad liaison at the time told me that I had to do one... but she was so wrong. Shout out the the person at the graduate school who contacted me to check if I actually meant to tick the 'oral examination required' box, as because I started in 2014 I still get to submit according to those rules. I absolutely do not want to do an oral examination! Thank you graduate school person who saved me from so much stress. Now I just have to wait for examiners to read it and do any revisions until they are happy and then... PhD!

That was a long ramble. And I know you are actually here for snacks. Well, OK, some of you are here for cats, and the snacks are just a bonus. Time for some munchies.

The frustrating quest for stevia-free kombucha and water kefir continues. I found these Buchi cans in funny flavours, and may I say they were both very good. Of course, they are super hard to find unless I want to buy and entire case of them online, and who has the fridge room for that? But next time I see them in the wild I will definitely pick up some more. Of course, I have forgotten where I bought them the first time.



I bought this GF Hemp Rigatoni to use when my brother was here the last time, but we didn't end up using it then. So I made it a while ago to use it up, and it is awful. It absolutely just fell apart and turned into pasta fragments in the gummiest of ways. The sauce I put on it barely saved it.



Chocolate bar the first. This was like eating a very rich Vego-style bar. Was it good? I honestly can't remember. So I can only imagine that it was fine. I remember when things are incredible, and when things are bad.



Chocolate bar the second. This was not good, and mostly tasted like chalky protein poweder. I had also bought one of their hazelnut flavoured ones, which suffered from the same issue.

I really like this Woolworths Summer Fruit Blend. It has strawberries, grapes, mango, and pineapple. I originally bought it thinking I would make some great summer smoothies with it, then just never felt like a smoothie. I ended up just defrosting it in portions to add to yoghurt and granola. But one day, I shall smoothie it.



Tasti makes my favourite fruity snack balls. Here are two flavours I tried recently - the apple and the blackberry. The blackberry one had a very very strong blackberry flavour. The apple one is sweet and mild.



I don't remember where I got these mushroom snacks, possibly a supermarket, possibly The Green Edge, but they were good. They have a mix of mushrooms in them.



Finally, some vegan gummies a friend sent me. These had three flavours - apple, blackberry, and orange. The apple was my absolute favourite, but the orange had a funny aftertaste to it. The blackberry was nice. I would love to get just a whole bag of the apple ones!



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BIG YAWN from Eloise.

Eating Out: Brisbane Vegan Twilight Markets July 2023

Hello everyone, how are you? What have you been up to? I have suddenly become deeply into women's soccer in the last week, thanks to the Matildas being incredible in the FIFA World Cup, which was held in Australia this year. I caught their match against France, and it was so intense. And even though they didn't win their next two games, they still made it to fourth place in the world, and incredible achievement! Anyway, I'm a sports gay now, or something. Yay Matildas!

This post is about another visit to the markets! This was my most recent one, I didn't go this month because work got in the way. The July one was very special, because my brother was visiting from Spain! And we went together. Sadly, he had made the cardinal mistake of having a late lunch, which is not what you do when you are going to go to the markets! But some good food was still had.

This market was the week after Taylor Swift tickets went on sale (and swiftly - heh - sold out) in Australia, and a few days after the release of Speak Now (Taylor's Version), so Pippa's Pantry went all out with a Taylor Swift theme! Pippa's Pantry is a cupcake stall where I often buy something for my mum, as I am not a cupcake person. But I couldn't resist getting a Lavender and Earl Grey Haze cupcake: an earl grey cupcake filled with earl grey custard and topped with sparkling lavender icing. And it was really good, miraculously the icing was not super sweet. I also got a Chocolate Goes All Too Well With Caramel Cupcake for my mum, complete with a little red fondant scarf. All the cupcakes had fun names based on Taylor songs, and were decorated beautifully.



I also couldn't resist a 'We Hate Jake' sugar cookie, because it made me laugh.



Cupcakes bought (there was a super long line, so we went there first), next stop was some savouries from Vegetabelle, where we got their new special - potato rosti with smoky beans and cheesy sauce. It was a chilly night, and this was perfect colder weather comfort food. Vegetabelle always hits it out of the park.



We also go the Potato Crispy Tacos from Holy Taco, which were three crispy rolled tacos filled with mashed potato and topped with assorted things like guac, salsa, and sour cream. Very good.



Not pictured, we got some steamed BBQ buns from Oh Mien. And then we were going to finish up by sharing a toasted sandwich from Miso Toasty, but they had just had a huge order and it was going to be a 30 minute wait, so we decided to skip that and head on home. Not before stopping by Vegetabelle again though to pick up my favourite market treats - Lemon Meringue Tart, Apple Crumble Cheesecake, and Rosewater Raspberry Blondie.



Tonight I guess I am staying up to watch the finals of the FIFA Womens World Cup between Spain and England. I am going for Spain, not because England beat Australia but because my brother lives in Spain as his partner and her family are Spanish. Have you discovered something new and unexpected that brings you joy recently?

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I went to say goodnight to Eloise the other night and found her sleeping here... on top of one of my bookshelves. I guess she thought she was a nice addition to the display, which she was. Let's be real, she's be best centerpiece I could think of.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook The Pantry

In a sudden burst of blogging energy, I'm finishing my round-up of things I have made from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson today. Find other posts about this book here.

Kitchen-Sink Capellini: Angelhair pasta is not something I eat often, but every time I eat it I just love it! This is a very fast recipe with tinned and sundried tomatoes, artichokes, olives, spinach, and olives. I also added some green peas or extra.
Rating: :)



Artichoke-Cannelini Linguine: This kind of gives me picatta vibes, with capers and white wine and butter and lemon juice. It is easy to make, though I got three serves rather than four. The recipe has forgotten to say when to add the lemon juice, so I added it in the last minute of cooking.
Rating: :)



Rotini with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce and Walnuts: I used a hard-to get tin of pumpkin for this recipe. The pumpkin sauce initially is very liquidy, but it thickens when the pasta is added. I also added some white beans and peas, and I used toasted almonds instead of walnuts.
Rating: :)



Pasta Marinara: This is very quick to make, and relies mostly on crushed tomatoes with some red wine and seasonings, but I found the sauce was a bit bland and needed some adjustments. As well as the pasta, I added some kidney beans and peas.
Rating: :|



Manchurian Black Bean Noodles: This recipe calls for black bean linguine, which I didn't have but I did have some black bean spaghetti. I don't remember the brand, but this was actually a nice bean-based pasta. The Manchurian-style sauce was nice, though I did find it got sucked unto the pasta pretty quickly, so I'd double it next time.
Rating: :)



Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce: You know I made this into Noodles with Peanut Sauce, no spicy. The peanut sauce was still lovely without the spice, and was freat on the noodles along with broccoli, peas, and tofu. Once again though, it ended up a bit dry because the noodles sucked up all the sauce. Double to sauce. I like things saucy.
Rating: :)



Spaghetti Lo-Mein: This is turning into a pasta post! Once again I wanted more sauce for this, but the flavour was good. I used Japanese marinated tofu instead of soy curls, and peas instead of capsicum.
Rating: :)



Stovetop Peach-Blueberry Crumble: Finishing the post off with a couple of desserts. I made a half-recipe of this, which was really easy to make. I used frozen peaches and blueberries, but ended up needing to make it a blueberry peach-crumble because although my bag of frozen peaches said it had 300g in it, it ended up being about 100g, so I switched quantities. I cooked this on a stove in a mini-frying pan, and it was a quick and fun Sunday afternoon project.
Rating: :)



Fudgy Brownie Mug: As you can see, I actually made it in a little bowl. This is a microwave recipe, and I don't know how to take good photos of microwave cake mugs. This was very quick and tasted good, though my microwave is high powered so I think I over cooked it a little.
Rating: :)



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This happened a couple of nights ago! Mirabelle snuck in next to Eloise, who was sleepy enough not to try and bop her. Very exciting!!! It has not happened since.

Midweek Munchies

Another random assortment of things I ate at some point in history. I think I have caught up to things from this year at least!

I needed croutons for a salad I was making and I didn't want to make my own, so I was able to get these in our weekly Coles delivery. They are absolutely delicious! Great on salads, great even just for snacking on.



I have been on a little bit of a vegan lolly kick over the last several months. I don't remember where I got these from (I suspect some sort of online order) and I don't really remember what I thought of them. But this is a brand of vegan gummy lollies.



The final I Should Souvlaki protein I got was the BBQ chicken-style, so this is another souvlaki made with that.



These pastrami slices are the same brand as some of the ham and the salami I shared in a recent Midweek Munchies post. The pastrami is my favourite. It is still a bit dry, but I really like the flavour.



Some fun vegan wafer rolls I found kicking around in my pantry. There is something just so fun about eating these.



A while ago I bought a heap of different flavours of St Dalfour jams, but I wasn't using them because I don't tend to eat jam on bread. Then I decided to use them in my overnight oats. This pineapple and mango one was delicious, it has a lovely sweet tropical flavour.



Finally, Vegie Delights brought out these chicken-style sausages. They fall firmly into the camp of very obviously not a meaty-sausage, but I generally prefer that. They had a pretty mild flavour, but I enjoyed them.





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Last night while I was reading I had both Eloise and Mirabelle snuggling up to me. That is my leg between them. Living the dream.

Eating Out: Brisbane Vegan Twilight Markets (June 2023)

Hello, it is Sunday. I spent the last few days miserable with a stomach bug, but it seems to be slowly improving now. I hope you have all be well. When I am in a normal blogging rhythm, I would do a recipe round-up on a Sunday, but I just didn't feel like it, so I am doing another vegan markets instead. That may not seem like a big deal, but when your brain makes up arbitrary but very rigid rules for life, being able to alter them to what I feel like doing withouth my brain spiraling is pretty major. Hurrah for tiny steps. Anyway, you are not here for brain talk, you are here for food!

Let's jump back in to some of the twilight vegan markets, this time for June. It is nice in winter months because they sun is pretty much gone, though it is nippy! But you get lovely early sunsets.



I went with my mum, and we shared a bunch of things. First up we split another okinomiyaki from :D Select, this time topped with eggplant, tonkatsu sauce, and miso mustard. So good, but again so filling, so it was nice to share this.



We also stopped by Oh Mien and got some BBQ buns and some Fried Chicken with Plum Sauce. The fried chicken was cauliflower, and was really nice. As someone who can only eat a little bit of fried food before feeling sick, it was again lovely to have something to share with!



We finished up with the Duck Tacos from Holy Taco, which were excellent. These has BBQ duck, cucumber, carrot, coriander, salsa, and tomatillo sauce. These were such a great combination of flavours, I do recommend.



My mum got some pretty cupcakes from Pippa's Pantry to take home.



And I got some sweets from Vegetabelle. I was just getting some of my favourite lemon meringue tarts and some smores cookies, but then I saw they had apple crumble cheesecake (which I verified did not have any coconut oil or coconut cream in it) and raspberry rosewater blondies, so I had to get one of each. Everything was incredible, as it always is from Vegetabelle. That make gluten free food taste not gluten free.



Hope you are all hanging in there.

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Today is Eloise's one year adoptiversary! One year of the sweetest biggest tenderhearted tiny baby, one year of the bunniest of butts, one year of legs everywhere. I hope the universe is kind and gives us many more years together.

Midweek Munchies

Hello, it is the midweek, which means it is time for munchies.

I Should Souvlaki is a Sydney-based vegan souvlaki shop, and a while ago they did a special delivery to Queensland. You could choose from a number of different proteins, pita bread, and tzatziki. I picked out a few of the proteins and the some of the pita breads. This is the first one I made, which was their smoked pork-style meat. I made my own tzatziki using plain soy yoghurt, cucumber, garlic powder, lemon juice, and dill. The pork came vaccuum packed in a marinade, so neeed to be drained and blotted a bit before use, but was very nice.



These Teriyaki Green Peas were indeed a crispy and delicious snack, though they were a bit tricky to eat as they were so small. I ended up eating them with a spoon rather than pick up each individual little pea. Yes, I know I could have just poured them into my hand and had a handful, but I was at work doing word games on my phone, so I needed to keep my hands fairly clean.



Plantitude came out with a new range of vegan sliced deli meats. Their salami is OK... it is a bit dry and very peppery. Better in a a salami and cheese toasty than on its own.



RIP Mojo, my favourite kombucha brand. Thank you for not having stevia, and being available in supermarkets. This was one of their last product lines, smaller bottles of the peachy and berry kombuchas. They were both really nice, but the peach was the best. I wish they hadn't stopped making this brand. I miss them.



The Plantitude smoked ham. I was really excited for these, hoping they would be similar to the tofurky smoked ham slices, but they are dry and kind of flavourless. Would not buy again.



Some vegan turrons that my brother brough me from Spain when he was here last year. One was whole almonds in a sticky syrup, and one was more like a marzipan-style. They were both really good.



Another I Should Souvlaki creation, this time using their mushroom lamb!



Finally, these Drizzled BBQ Potato Chips. Sounds incredible, right? Not so right. The chips were flavourless except for the drizzled BBQ sauce, which wasn't enough, and also made the chips kind of chewy not crispy. Good idea, but the execution just doesn't quite work.



What have you been munching on lately?

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Mirabelle, contemplating.