Dad's Birthday 2022

It was my dad's birthday at the start of the month, and as always I made him a dinner of his choosing.

Cauliflower & Tofu Red Curry from The Australian Women's Weekly Vegan In 30 Minutes: Dad requested some sort of Thai curry, with the understanding that any sort of curry I make will be extremely mild. This was a very simple dinner to make! I still used some Thai red curry paste, but waaaayyyy less than the 1/3 cup called for, I used more like a dollop. I also used a mix of light coconut milk and oat milk rather than full fat coconut milk so I didn't get sick. This curry was full of tofu puffs, cauliflower, zucchini, and green beans, and I also added some baby spinach. Served over some jasmine rice, I got almost 6 serves from this.
Rating: :)



Mandarin Orange Upside-Down Cake from Celebrate Vegan by Dynise Balcavage: This cake uses tinned mandarins, drained very well, in a dark-sugar glaze as a fun twist on an upside down cake. The batter contains orange blossom water, which gives a lovely flavour. I did find that my glaze hardened up a bit as it cooled, but it thankfully didn't turn into a thick unbreakable toffe. I lovely flavoured cake.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Boo is not very good at staying still for the camera!

Recipe Round-Up: Celebrate Vegan

Finally finishing up my round-up from Celebrate Vegan. You can see my previous posts from this book here.

Yoghurt-Tahini Sauce: From the Eid Al-Fitr section, this is suggested to be used with the Kibbe recipe in the book. But I didn't have the energy for that, so I just served it over some store-bought falafel, brown rice, and steamed broccoli. I made a half recipe, using Kingland plain Freek-style yoghurt as the base. I realised after I made it I forgot the mint (even though I had specially bought mint for it... doh), but it was still a nice sauce and would be useful in a lot of ways.
Rating: :)



Penne with Vodka Sauce: From the Wedding chapter... I am not sure what about this makes one think wedding, but I do love a vodka sauce! I made a half recipe of this and got three serves, used a tin of diced tomatoes (rather than chopping up a tin of whole ones), and left out the red pepper flakes. I also didn't have quite enough vodka left in my little bottle (I only use it for cooking), but it was close enough. This uses vegan cream to make it creamy, and was overall very nice.
Rating: :)



Substantial Mix-And-Match Salad with Double-Ginger White-Miso Dressing: I love a make your own salad list, but it irks me that this is in the Girls' Night In chapter. Along with a recipe for Pomegranate Cosmos. Because of course the girls would only want to drink cocktails and eat salads? Am I reading too much into it? I choose to remain miffed. At least there is an Apple Crumble as the dessert option. But we are here to talk about the salads. For the salad you choose something from the following categories: base, sweet, crunchy, colour, protein, and option additions and toppings. I made mine with cos lettuce, peas, corn, carrot, celery, tofu, and a pre-made Seaweed Salad topper I had in the cupboard. There are four dressing options, and I chose the miso ginger one. I made a half recipe of the dressing, which was enough for one big salad.
Rating: :)



Veggie-Centric Seitan: This big bowl of stew comes from the Snow Day chapter. We don't have snow here, but it does get cold! I used a packet of Tofurky chicken pieces for the seitan here, and filled it up with onions, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, corn, and baby spinach. It is finished off with a miso broth. The recipe said to cook for another 20 minutes after adding the miso broth, but my vegetables were already all cooked through and I didn't want them to go mushy.
Rating: :)

Recipe Round-Up: Celebrate Vegan

Who else is obsessed with Heartstopper, both the books and the new Netflix show?? It is so cute and pure and good! If you have loved it, please let me know so we can scream at each other about it! In the mean time, let's look at some more recipes from Celebrate Vegan. You can see my previous posts about it here.

Baked Agave Tofu and Potato Kugel: Despite the name, this tofu isn't as sweet as you think it will be, it just has a subtle sweetness. As well as agave, it also has citrus, soy, ginger, and cinnamon. I scored my tofu lightly so it could absorb maximum marinade, and marinated it overnight. It does have quite a long bake time, and I did have to increase the heat to get all the marinade absorbed. The kugel recipe makes a lot, I just scaled it down to a quarter recipe. It was comforting, of course, with all that shredded potato and onion and a hefty whack of nutritional yeast, but I would add a touch more salt next time.
Rating: Tofu :), Kugel :)



Lucky Soba Noodles with Dipping Sauce: I love a cold noodle salad with a beautiful sauce, but this one was pretty meh. The sauce is made using broth (vegetable, mushroom, or miso) and soy sauce, I used a mushroom extract, but it needed a lot more flavour. I would definitely add some miso to the mix. Otherwise it is just cold noodle salads, with the sauce tipped over them, and topped with whatever you want. I went with spinach, cucumber, pickled carrot and daikon, tofu, and seaweed gomasio. The sauce is really important in this, but as written just let it down.
Rating: :|



Blender Hollandaise Sauce: This is meant to be put into crepes with asparagus, but I couldn't be bothered making crepes. Instead I served the sauce over a sauteed portobello, roasted asparagus and sweet potato, and baby spinach. The sauce is made with silken tofu as the base, and is nice and creamy and rich and tangy.
Rating: :)



Sesame Seed Cookies: These cookies have a lot of sesame seeds in them! I used a mix of 3/4 white and 1/4 black sesame seeds, so they are pretty to look at. These cookies are crispy, crunchy, sweet and lovely! As the book says, perfect with a cup of tea. A half recipe of these made 12.
Rating: :)



Banana Spelt Bread: I got some extra bananas in our order specifically so I could let them get extremely ripe for this recipe. As well as the base recipe, there are a number of add ins you can choose. I added some chocolate chips and dried cranberries, which made for a lovely not-too-sweet afternoon treat. A lot of the baking in this book uses a small amount of soy flour, and I have some soy flour languishing in my pantry. So I am planning on holding onto this book for a while to use up some of that in further baking recipes.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Just a little throw back to my beautiful Sahara, snuggling into a doona.

Recipe Round-Up: Celebrate Vegan

Time for another trip through the things I have made from Celebrate Vegan. You can see the other posts about this book here.

Golden Millet Pilaf with Noochy Broccoli: This was two random recipes slapped together, also served with some falafel bites and some tahini sauce. I made the millet pilaf in the rice cooker, because I love how easy that makes things, and I made a half recipe. The pilaf has olives, spinach, garlic, green onions, and a bunch of herbs and spices. The colour comes from turmeric. I paired it up with some Noochy Broccoli, which is a broccoli and nutritional yest puree. I added extra nooch, used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic, and left out the red pepper flakes.
Rating: Pilaf :), Broccoli :)



Prismatic Wild Rice Salad: I made a half recipe of this over summer, which I needed something colourful and cool. It has cranberries, celery (which I used instead of raw red onion), peas (which I used instead of edamame, they hurt my guts), corn, carrot, coriander, and I also added some tinned kidney beans. Rather than using straight up wild rice, I used a microwave pack of wild, red, and brown rice, which gave extra fun colour. Served over baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Ramen Noodle Bowl: This recipe is so easy! Every thing is simmered together in the one pot. It has onion, cabbage, carrot, mushrooms and broccoli in it. I used some Soyco Japanese Tofu instead of edamame, and I also added some corn. The vegetables do get a little mushy in this, but it is in a really comforting sort of way. Definitely recommend for a cold night when you need something quick and easy. I loved this.
Rating: :D



Farfalle with Shallots and Chard: This is a lovely dish, with sauteed shallots adding some nice sweetness. I did not use farfalle for this, I used trevelle (only 200g, not 450g), and I also added some butter beans for protein. The recipe says nutritional yeast for sprinkling, I mixed about 1/4 cup through the finished dish.
Rating: :)



Sag Paneer: This was a little bland, and not in that good way, just in a meh way. It uses dry-fried tofy for the paneer, and the spinach sauce has plenty of spices in it, but it just didn't quite hit the spot I wanted. It calls for 'vegan half-and-half' for the sauce, which who if that exists, so I used soy cream.
Rating: :|



Island Style Tofu: This recipe is meant to be made with tempeh, but I live with tempeh haters, so I used tofu intead. The tofu is marinated in a pineapple/citrus/herbs/other blended marinade, which is then reduced after the marinating to make the sauce for the fried tofu. I did leave out the harissa in the sauce, and replaced it with some tomato paste, and I made a half recipe of the sauce and used a 300g block of tofu.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Tiny kittens may be smol, but they screm loud!

Recipe Round-Up: Celebrate Vegan

Wow wow wow! I feel up to writing a recipe round-up post! I had a follow up with my surgeon a couple of days ago, who gave memtwo thumbs up, and I go back to work tomorrow. The last week I have finally started feeling more like myself, and able to move around comfortably, I just still get tired easily because I spent the last five weeks not doing much of anything. But I am on track to being back to normal. But the better new normal, with no more uterus to ruin my life. Hurrah!

This next batch of round-ups will be coming from Celebrate Vegan, by Dynise Balcavage. You can see the one previous post I have from this book here. I love menus, and this book is full of menus for different sorts of celebrations. But as life goes on, I have had less energy to pull off big menus. I know this will sound ridiculous, but my brain was in such a set pattern of: if it is in a menu you have to make the whole menu, that it took me a while to let go of that and decide I could just make individual recipes that appealed to me. I know I know, but honestly. Brains. Don't try living in mine, it is exhausting.

A little note on the book itself, it is not a book I would really recommend. It is has a load of menus for specific days around the world (new years celebrations, American celebrations, International celebrations, religious-based celebrations), as well as milestone celebrations and everyday celebrations (a sick day menu will forever seem like a strange choice to me, if I'm sick I don't want to be making three courses). But there is little thought or consideration given to the meaning behind some of these celebrations (particularly from other countries or religions), and it also includes a Columbus Day menu with a very flippant entry. I am not American but I know that Columbus day is NOT a day to celebrate. So, don't go out of your way to get this book. With that ringing endorsement, let's get into the first batch of recipes. Wow. I have written a lot before even getting to the food!

Esther's Baked Falafel and Smoky Tahini Sauce: I often find store-bought falafels to be dry, so I like to make me own. I know they should be made with dried chickpeas as the starting point, but I have no issues with a recipe calling for tinned chickpeas. So much easier. This is a very simple recipe, and I like that they were baked. It still called for quite a bit of oil in the baking process, but I cut way down on that. The flavour was nice. It was a fairly small recipe, I got nine little falafels, but served with rice, green beans, and the sauce it was a good dinner. As for the sauce, it made a bunch! It was quite lemony, so I would cut down on the lemon juice and up the smoked paprika next time.
Rating: Falafel :), Sauce :)



Tofu with Broccoli and Black Bean Sauce: I'm a sucker for a broccoli and tofu stir-fry! The sauce was easy to make, and uses those little packets of fermented black beans that you get at the Asian grocery store. I used the lower amount of soy sauce required to make it, and it had just the right level of salt for me. This made three serves with white rice and spinach.
Rating: :)



Good Old-Fashioned Macaroni Salad: This made three big servings of macaroni salad, especially when served with some sausages and cucumber as a great summer-time dinner. I left out the raw onion and capsicum, and added extra celery and carrot. I also added some peas because I will add peas to almost anything, and I used white pepper in place of cayenne. The recipe says to leave overnight if possible, or at least a few hours, I made mine the morning of. It was quite sweet, so cut down on the sweetener!
Rating: :)



Japanese-Style Mashed Potatoes #1: One of the recipes in the book is for mashed potatoes, and it has a huge range of variations that you can flavour them with. This one included the regular suspects of some vegan butter and milk, but also miso, scallions (I sauteed mine lightly first due to my issues with raw onions), and sesame oil. I also used white pepper in this, and didn't add extra salt because the miso and Nuttelex made it salty enough. I served it with some roasted broccoli, a schnitzel (in lieu of katsu), and vegan kewpie and tonkatsu sauce.
Rating: :)



Polish-Style Mashed Potatoes: This version added some horseradish as well as chives. I added an extra big dollop of horseradish, as I love the flavour! I served this with kraut, spinach, and a schnitzel topped with some dill and mustard sauce out of a bottle from Ikea.
Rating: :)



Seitan Kebabs with Smoky Yoghurt Dipping Sauce: First up, I rarely have the energy these days to put things on skewers, so rather than grilling skewers I left out the skewer process entirely and just sauteed the whole thing. I used Meet strips for my seitan, which you can get from Coles. They are marinated for several hours before cooking. The sauce was a bit on the sweet side, though I had left out the cayenne. It could also have been smokier. I just love the flavour of smoked paprika so much! Served with roasted potatoes and baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby comes downstairs several times a day now! She's still wary of things, but also spends a lot of time happily relaxing in the sun room. This is a little sofa we have in the sun room that she sits on occasionally, and she looks very pretty on it!

VeganMoFo 2017 #27: Menu: Child's Birthday Menu from Celebrate Vegan (+ I Made A Thing!)

27th: Meals for the young (at heart)

I've been pretty pressed for time this MoFo, but I am glad I got the chance to make at least one menu. This is the Child's Birthday Menu from Celebrate Vegan by Dynise Balcavage, and it is also the first time that I've used this book. Oh, bonus recipe for you at the end because I modified something so much that I actually made something new!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dip: I actually made this separately from the rest and had it for breakfast with some apple slices, which was lovely. I just made a mini-batch for one, using 1/4C peanut butter instead of 2C and scaling down the cocoa and agave as appropriate. I used normal cocoa rather than Dutch cocoa, because Dutch cocoa is expensive here.
Rating: :)



Orange-Soy Seitan Tenders: These are very good, and the sauce gets a very strong flavour. Instead of seitan chunks, I used some Lamyong Soy Nuggets that I had kicking around in the freezer, I defrosted them for this. The seitan/nuggets are marinated overnight before a long bake. I was a bit short on orange juice for the marinade, my oranges were weirdly dry when I cut them for juicing, but it was still good. I was worried that the Lamyong nuggets might end up getting tough or weird with the defrost and baking, but they were tender on the inside and a bit crispy on the outside - perfect! My mum particularly loved these. Should note I scaled the recipe down for three people, so I used three cups of nuggets instead of four and altered the sauce appropriately. Three adult people, I should specify. The book says the recipe makes 8-10 servings for kids.
Rating: :)



Baked Polenta Fries: I made a half recipe of these, which was enough for three people with the rest of the menu, but they are good so you might want to make more. Cheesy, herb polenta is set overnight, cut into strips, and baked. It is super quick and easy.
Rating: :)



Mushy Peas: The surprise favourite for me! I loved how sweet and creamy they were, a perfect counterpoint to the strong sauce on the nuggets and the saltiness of the fries. The full recipe, using 4 cups of peas, apparently makes 8 servings for kids. I had three adults, so made it with three cups of peas. We each got a nice big mound. I also just blitzed this in the pot with my immersion blender rather than putting it into a blender or processor. Faster clean up.
Rating: :D



And here is the plate with everything on it. I also added some ketchup right before eating for the polenta fries. Because I had set the polenta to set and the nuggets to marinate the day before, this came together incredibly quickly the next night. So I think it would be quite an easy menu to prepare for an actual party!



I Made A Thing: Not A Shirley Temple: Recipe time! The book also includes a recipe to make a big punch bowl of Shirley Temples, using maraschino cherries and their juice and some lemon-lime soda. This does not appeal to me at all, so I took inspiration from the basic flavours and made my own!

Add 25 mL St Dalfours Black Cherry Jam, 1 cup coconut water, 1/2 tsp lemon juice and 1/2 tsp lime juice and blend together. Serve over ice if desired. Makes 1 serve.

So good! It is a bit sweet, a bit tart, and very refreshing! I was feeling super lazy and just blitzed it with my immersion blender, so you can see how it separated out a bit. But if you wanted to go super fancy, blend it properly and then strain it to take out any little bits of cherry skin still in it, then it would look clear and pink and lovely! Unlike mine.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post - Month of Sahara



Sahara and Gizmo actually really loved each other. They got on well. When we lived in Sydney, they used to spend a lot of time snuggled together, and grooming each other. Mostly Gizmo grooming Sahara, actually a dominance move on Gizmo's part, but a friendly one. When I moved back to Brisbane, to a much much bigger house, they had more options so they spread out a bit, but they always were friends. It was nice.