AusNZVeganMoFo: Voluptuous Menus

As many of you may know, I cannot resist a menu plan. I am virtually compelled to make any menu plan or suggestions made in my cookbooks. So The Voluptuous Vegan is like a dream come true - a book full of menus!

Some of the menus can be a bit fiddly, it is true. And there are some that have ingredients that are a bit tricky for me to source here in Brisbane. For the moment anyway, I am getting pretty good at finding ingredients around the place. The thing I like about it though is that although there can be many steps, it gives you a plan for making the menu so it all goes smoothly. And there are lots of components you can compare in advance as well, so it goes a lot more quickly when you are putting it together. The book also contains some super cute suggestions for plating up. Here's a couple of menus I have made in recent history to show you how great this book is.


This is Thai Vegetable Stew. A delicious stew that is bursting with so much vegetable goodness. Look at all those vegetables - eggplant, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots and sugar snap peas. Yum!


But what is this stew without some Baked Tofu Triangles to go with it? These are SENSATIONAL. You just want to make a whole bunch of them to sit and munch your way through.


Serve your stew and your tofu over some Jasmine Rice with Coconut. OK, confession time. This recipe calls for fresh shredded coconut. But I was just too lazy at the time to crack my own coconut that I used some from a packet. I promise I will do it for real next time!


This menu is just delicious already. But what makes it extra delightful is a nice side of Mint, Orange and Red Onion Salad. This is great, but makes a small amount so you may want to double the ingredients because it is very yummy!

This second menu is just perfect for a chilly night.


It starts with Seitan Bourguignonne. This includes seitan chunks, mushrooms and vegetables marinated in the most incredible marinade. It is so full of flavour - shoyu, miso, red wine, mirin, balsamic vinegar, garlic... so good! And the great thing is there is lots of marinade left over for future use. It's great with tofu!


Then you make a big bowl of fluffy Mashed Potatoes with Parsnips. The parsnips give it a great flavour, but can be a bit stringier than the potatoes when mashing.


A simple salad of Mesclun with Raspberry Vinaigrette rounds out the meal by adding some all important greens.


Giving you this! I won't lie, it takes a fair bit of time. But the results are damn tasty!

Cute Cat Photo of the Post


Another bittersweet tale for your today. This is Milky. For about 6 months when I was living in Sydney I had three and a half cats. Milky was my half. She started turning up every couple of days, sitting on the back steps. She was adorable and sweet and was wearing a collar. She was also skinny and had a sore on her face. My best efforts (including attaching a message on her collar and doing numerous neighbourhood door knocks) failed to turn up a home for her. I took her to the vet to scan for a microchip (there was none) and got some antibiotics for the wound on her face. She had no teeth, and would just swallow the antibiotics when you put it in front of her. I started feeding her, and she was so glad for it. It will come as no surprise that she was soon at my doorstep all the time! Unfortunately Sahara hated her, and Gizmo and Dim Sim were wary of her to say the least, so she never became a fully integrated place in the house. She did get into the house a couple of times - and trotted around so happily! When I went away on holidays and my girls went to the cattery, I arranged for a neighbour to keep on feeding her. She was an absolute sweetheart of a cat. Unfortunately for Milky, the wound on her face was not a wound but was a tumour. Knowing what I know now, it was most likely a squamous cell carcinoma. I tried to make her as happy as I could until the time came when the tumour was too big and the distortion to her face too great. She was going off her food. So we went to my vet and Milky was sent off in peace. This is the only photo I have of Milky. In case you are wondering, I named her Milky because of her colour. OK, that was quite an essay! I still love you Milky!

AusNZVeganMoFo: Recipe Round Up - Eat, Drink and Be Vegan

Ever since I bought Eat, Drink and Be Vegan it has been a delightful source of delicious dinners, snacks and treats. Here are a few more of the fabulous meals I have created using this book.


This is Sesame Lime Soba Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Snow Peas, with some Pan-Fried Tempt-eh. The noodles are super tasty, and have a lovely sauce on them. The snow peas are retain a really nice crunch and with the mushrooms make for some great textures. Plus, who doesn't love soba? The tempeh is so more-ish, and would be great alongside any number of other dishes. The tempeh is coated in arrowroot flour, which I found did get very sticky so the slabs tended to stick together.


Polenta Casserole is ridiculously easy to put together. It uses the prepared polenta that, from the sounds of it comes in a 500g tube in America. Here it comes in 1kg slab. The polenta is grated and mixed with seasoning and 'cheese', and is then sprinkled over a delicious tomatoey mixture of beans and corn. Just pop in the oven and serve! It's not pictured here, but I served it with a green salad tossed with the amazing Back-To-Basics Balsamic Vinaigrette.


The pasta on this plate is Olive Oyl Pasta, which involves loads of garlic and lots of different olives. It is pretty lovely. I served it over a gluten-free penne I had, which was one of the first times I have used gluten free pasta. It was pretty nice! On the side is lots of greens tossed with Living Caesar Dressing and the amazing Polenta Crutons. This dressing is amazing! I used the sesame seed option in place of the pine nuts because my brother has an intolerance. And I cannot say enough about the croutons. I like to make them just to snack on them, they are that good!


Hide The Lentils Tomato Sauce is delicious over fettuccine. I was only cooking for myself and my dad, so I had enough sauce left over to freeze for another recipe that uses the sauce - more on that when I make it! I served it with Lemon-Broiled Green Beans, which are delicious and so quick and easy to make. I also cooked up some Seared Portobello Mushrooms that are really delicious, they have some lime added to the coating mixture that adds a fabulous extra dimension. Again, they used arrowroot powder so were a bit sticky. But yummy!

Cute Cat Photo of the Post


This is my beloved miss Gizmo. I love this photo of her, I think she looks so stunning. While Dim Sim is allowed into the great, big, scary outside world (only because she is so sulky and sad if she doesn't get to go), Gizmo is an inside only kitty (with a kick-butt CatMax enclosure) where I can keep her nice and safe. In this photo I was outside playing with Dim Sim, and Gizmo was sitting in the sun room window looking out watching us. I took it through the glass.

So, I am back from the girls' weekend at the Gold Coast and it was a lot of great fun! I will post about it (including all the yummy food) when I put my photos onto my computer.

AusNZVeganMoFo: Brinner time!

Brinner. Breakfast for dinner. Apparently, according to the world of Turk in Scrubs, brinner is the pinnacle of awesome. Brunch is taking the vegan world by storm at the moment, but in the generally working week brunch-time is usually work time. So should brunch dishes be kept only for weekends? No... bring on Brinner!

I made this a while ago. It's not from where you think. Even though I had actually received my copy of Vegan Brunch a few days before making this, this particular menu comes courtesy of another of Isa's babies - Veganomicon.


First, take some Diner Home Fries. These are amazing. They are a little bit oily, a little bit salty and a whole lot of good. You should really make them anytime. Go and make some now! I left out the green capsicum.


Next, add a big wedge of Mushroom and Spinach Strata. This was not bad, but I found the chunks of bread mixed through it to be a bit odd in the overall texture.


Then put them both on a plate, add a green leafy salad and smother in some Cheezy Sauce. And then sit back and enjoy!


For dessert, make some Chocolate Chip Brownie Waffles topped with ice cream, fruit and maple syrup. These are incredibly decadent and and just ridiculously yummy. Any leftovers are great eaten cold straight from the fridge. Addictive, chocolate goodness!

Cute Cat Photo of the Post


This is Pandora. She belongs to my lovely friend Jen (of the small variety). This photo was taken the night before said Jen's wedding. Panda (as she is known), was lying on her back giving me this adorable little look.

There will be a short interlude in AusNZVeganMoFo posts as this afternoon I am off to the Gold Coast for a girls weekend with the Jens. I will be back on Sunday afternoon though, so expect more from me either then or on Monday. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

AusNZVeganMoFo: Black Gold

A while ago I posted about my Black Bean bonanza, where I cooked up a massive pot of black beans and froze them for future use. I started with 14.5 cups of beans, and now there are none. This is their story...


Here they are, all packaged up and ready to be frozen until they are called to their greater destiny...


The first thing I made was the Black Bean Burgers from Veganomicon. These burgers are so good, they might just make you cry from joy!


Then there was some Three Bean Dal from Vegan Planet, which I made to go with the Taste of Indian Menu.


Garlicky Broccoli, Corn and Bean Burritos from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan were delicious!


Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas from Vegan Planet were a lovely dinner. It said to fill 8 large flour tortillas. I used 6 jumbo tortillas and then spread the little bit off left over filling over the top with the salsa. I also sprinkle a bit of tomato juice over the top before baking to give a bit more moisture.


Vegan Planet also offered up some Cuban-Style Black Beans, which were delicious but quite spicy! When I made this I did not drain the tinned tomatoes, as instructed, I just threw it all in and it was great. I also found this made about 3 servings rather than the 4 suggested, unless you have a teeny appetite!


Three Bean Chilli (yes, also from Vegan Planet, was great and also included pinto and kidney beans. I served it with some cornbread, which you can just see peeking in at the top there. Delicious!


And some salad. Gold and Black Bean Salad from Vegan Planet to be precise. Delicious! I used yellow tomato in place of yellow capsicum. I took the option of tossing it with some rice and served over some greens, which was lovely.


I already posted about the Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango from Veganomicon a few days ago, which used up the last of my black bean store.


That was the second time I had made that salad. The first time I made it with red quinoa - how pretty is it? It has some delicious Tangerine Baked Tofu on top. Mmmmm!

So here's for black beans! I have obtained some more, so no doubt there are more black beans in my future. They really are delicious!

Cute Cat Photo of the Post


Here is my own little black bean, the beautiful Dim Sim. I love this photo of her. Like a little blank panther staring out from the jungle. She's actually staring out from the plants around the pool, but that is her jungle so do with it. How gorgeous is she? How beautiful are her bright yellow eyes? Excuse me while I go and find the actual Dim Sim and give her a giant snorgle!

AusNZVeganMoFo: Recipe Round Up - Vegan Planet

So, some of you may have noticed a Vegan Planet theme running through my posts of late. I've been on a bit of a Vegan Planet mission of late, trying to do power on through as many recipes I can. It's my own personal cookbook challenge. It's hard not to, when it is full of so many recipes that are mostly so easy to make. So here are some more dinners I have been enjoying from Vegan Planet (along with some sides from a few other books as well, see - variety!).


This is Indian-Spiced Quinoa with Raisins and Pine Nuts, served alongside a beautiful trio from Veganomicon - Curried Tofu, Cornmeal-Masala Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Roasted Butternut Squash with Coriander Seeds. The quinoa says to cover and cook for 10 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed, though I found I needed a few extra minutes with the lid off to get rid of all the liquid. It is tasty. And the three sides went really well with it (thanks Vcon!).


Bulgur Plaf with Tomatoes, Shallots and Mint is a lovely dish. A suggested alternative is to add some chickpeas and I think that would be just lovely, and add a bit more oomph to the meal. I served with with Blow Me Down Lemon Spinach from The New Vegan and some roasted eggplant slices rubbed with cumin.


This was a fabulous dinner. The pasta is Linguine with Pesto-Kissed Tomato Sauce, which is absolutely delicious and has a fantastic flavour. I used the Basil Pesto, also from VP. It is one of those recipes that is so simple but has such a perfect flavour, that you just start raving on about it like a crazy person. Like me. Hee. I served it with Pseudo Caesar Salad. This was quite nice but the dressing was very salty. I have made better 'Caesar' salads from other books, Vcon comes to mind. The sausages on the side are from Sanitarium and are one of their new 'gourmet' sausage range. I think they have thyme, parsley and sage in them. Or something like that. They are nice, but they are expensive and only come in packets of five. Which is kind of a ridiculous number.


This is a VP triple threat. It all started because I felt the desire to make Shiitake-Stuffed Sesame Potatoes, which are deliciously tasty and creamy and filling. Nom! It suggested serving with a teriyaki or hoisin side. I served it with baked tofu that had first been marinated in Tempting Teriyaki Marinade and Sesame-Broccoli Stir-Fry. The broccoli was delicious, and I think would make a lovely main in its own right with some diced tofu over brown rice as suggested in VP. The recipe did call for some red capsicum strips, but I declined the offer because I avoid capsicums as much as possible.


Another beautiful combination of VP and Vcon. I'm so pleased that my cookbooks play nice together so well! VP contributed Middle Eastern Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Shallots, which is really quite nice. A bit bland, but in a good way. There is a similar recipe in Vcon as well. On the side is some more Curried Tofu from Vcon, and some silverbeet that has been sauteed in the left over curry marinade.


This was a slightly amusing dinner. The basis for it was Sweet Noodle Kugel with Apples and Almonds, which I knew would be sweet. So I added some strongly marinated and baked tofu on the side (using a marinade I had leftover from a Voluptuous Vegan recipe) and a nice green salad. Ha! OK, this is lovely but it is really super sweet. I cannot imagine having it as anything other than dessert. So go ahead and make it if you wish, but perhaps enjoy it as 'Delicious Noodle Pudding', as it has become known as in our household, rather than as your main.


Tasty noms were had on this night. Rice Noodles with Tofu and Asian Pesto was the starting point for this combination. It was delicious. The pesto was a combination of coriander and parsley and was just fantastic. It said to use 1 pound of fresh or dried rice noodles, but I used 200g of dried rice noodles (medium width) which made a good serving for 4 people. Oh, and the tofu! OK, so fair enough it is just tofu fried in peanut oil with some tamari sprinkled on it but sometimes the simplest things are so damn fine. To complete the meal I made the Asian Cole Slaw, which is absolutely frakking fantastic! Just a fabulous combination of flavours, so yummy and would just be ideal on a hot summer day.

So there we have it, the latest round up. I have loads more VP photos to share, but fear not for I have lots of photos from other books to share as well. As for my future cooking, I am still on the VP kick, but I feel some Isa-love bubbling to the surface so I imagine I shall be starting off on a new personal cookbook challenge soon.

Cute Cat Photo of the Post


This is Oz. Oz was a kitty who came into the clinic and was sick with very bad kidney disease. She was a really beautiful little girl, and as you can see she had her very own little sheep friend. You may have noticed I have said the word 'was' a few times. Thankfully we were able to make Oz feel better for a while so she could go home and spend her last couple of weeks with her family before she passed on. I love how she would snuggle up with her little sheepie in hospital. A lot of times we cannot cure a kitty, especially when they have a chronic condition. But being able to give their families the time to prepare themselves and spend those last hours, days, weeks...

OK, I promise some non-sad kitties tomorrow!

AusNZVeganMoFo: It's getting hot in here...

... so take off all your clothes? How about we just cool down with some salad instead. One beautiful last autumn day towards the end of August I had planned to make some pierogies. However, the great weather gods looked down and decreed that in fact I should not be attempting to make dough on this day, and they made it a 35 degree Celcius day. And it was hot, and it was good. So then there was salad!

Yes, Brisbane had a taste of summer at the end of autumn, and it was glorious. I do love the heat. And even going into the evening, it was still hot. So instead of cooking anything, dinner plans were changed to a salad buffet. Here's what we had:



This is Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing from Veganomicon. Asian pears, as I discovered in a previous post, are actually Nashi fruit (which I love to munch on). This salad is fabulous. So creamy and the nashi and peas just add the right amount of something to it. But this salad is now famous because my brother ate it and did not make the 'Eww! I hate tempeh!' face of doom. He liked the tempeh in this! Probably because of all the other flavours around it. Isa suggests serving with rice crackers or cakes. I served with some rice crackers and it is delicious both on its own or piled on top of a cracker.


Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mangoes from Veganomicon is one of my favourite salads ever. It is just a perfect summery dish to my mind, and I knew I just had to make it again. Sadly, while the day was summery the season was not so I had to make do with some tinned mangoes (don't judge me!) but it was still so wonderful. If you have not made this before, all I can say is DO IT! I also use 1 cup of chopped mint instead of the cilantro. The first time I made it was back when I hated cilantro. Now I enjoy it, but to me the mint flavour just goes so much better with this and is so refreshing. Try it both ways.


I also made Indonesia-Style Vegetable Salad from Vegan Planet. This was very exciting, as it was my first time ever using jicama, sold over here in Asian grocery stores as yam bean. I was a bit worried at first that I might have got the wrong thing, until I ate a bit and it was exactly as described! Kind of potato-apple thing. Delicious! Here it is shredded along with cabbage and carrots. The sauce is a cooked peanut sauce, which was nice but I would add more peanut butter next time because I love my peanut sauce to be super peanutty. It saus to use 1 cup of coconut milk or as needed, enough to make sauce of the right consistency. I didn't use the whole cup but it may depend on how saucy you like it! I also tossed through 200g of dried rice noodles that I had cooked and cooled. Combined with bean sprouts, raisins and peanuts it was lovely.


This is a salad my mother made. Cucumber, tomato, butter beans, lots of fresh parsley and a balsamic dressing. Yum!


And, of course, a big bowl of greens. You can never have too many greens. Ever.


We ate out on the deck, in the balmy evening air, with a big line of salads down the table for us to pick at. Nom.


And here is my plate, with a bit of everything piled on. It was a great dinner, exactly what was needed for such a night. The weather has cooled down a bit now, but summer is still on its way, so no doubt lots more salads to come! Yum!

You will notice that I have joined in AusNZVeganMoFo, a group of Australian and NZ bloggers trying to post as often as they can for the month of September. I am very excited to be taking part, if a few days late to the party. It is inspiring me to get back into regular blogging, so watch this space!

Other blogs taking part include:

Cupcake Kitteh
Iron Chef Vegan
Unwakeable
The Tropical Vegan
Kblog
BrisVegan
For Esme
Annabananabomb
Twilight and Shadow
Ink and Venom
Vegan, Sixteen

So go and visit them as well!

Cute Cat Photo of the Post:

Today's cutie is Pascall. Pascall was my fourth cat. We got her from the RSPCA at the end of 1993 and she was a gorgeous silver tabby with a delightful nature. Sadly, when she was under a year old Pascall was diagnosed with Feline Leukaemia Virus and a tumour (lymphosarcoma) on her kidney. She was put to sleep on the first day of spring in 1994, less than a year old. I will always remember how she used to sleep in bed with me with her head on the pillow and body under the blankets, just like me. She was a beautiful cat.

Menu: Asian Fusion from Vegan Planet

I know I have been very slack with my blog of late. I am trying to rectify the situation. I have been making so many recipes and have so many photos backing up to share with you! Today is another menu... you know how I love my menu plans! This one comes once again from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson, and it is the Asian Fusion menu. I made this dinner on the night my parents came back from their Singapore holiday. It was all pretty awesome, if I may say so myself.


The starter was the lovely Ginger-Scented Vegetable Pot Stickers. These tasty little dumplings were amazing. Though I don't know if 'scented' is the right word for the ginger flavour, with nine tablespoons of ginger mixed in they packed a fair gingery punch. A delicious gingery punch. The recipe called for 24 wonton wrappers, but I found that I made a few more, about 30. I don't know if maybe the wonton wrappers available in Australia are a bit smaller than the ones in America. Also, unless you have a humongous frying pan/skillet, expect to cook these in more than two batches. I kept mine warm under some foil while cooking subsequent batches, and that kept them nice and toasty. Also, my brother reheated some leftovers the next day and apparently they reheat quite well in the microwave according to him. I just served these with some delicious shoyu soy sauce.


The next course was the Szechuan Hot and Sour Soup. Now, hot and sour soup is my favourite type of soup in the world, and nothing makes me sadder than one that fails to deliver on the hot and sour promise. This, I am happy to say, was delicious! It has fried strips of tofu in it that just really added an extra flavour and texture to it as opposed to the silken tofu cubes. And it was just generally NOM. Make it. In fact, make it and invite me over so I can eat it too!


Our next tasty delight was Three-Way Sesame-Coated Tofu Strips with Spicy Broccoli. Three ways because the tofu is first dunked in tahini (and tamari), coated in sesame seeds and then sauteed in sesame oil. It was great, really crunchy and full of flavour. And amusingly well timed as I had just been discussing with my mother before they went away all the wonderful non-dairy calcium sources in the world, and here is a fabulous and calcium rich dish! You could serve this with rice, but given that we were filling up on dumplings and soup and had dessert to follow, we just gobbled it up with chopsticks in our tiny bowls. It also reheats well, and makes an interesting change to breakfast. I also had it cold the next day for lunch, which was also good.


And finally, dessert: Asian Pear Tart with Toasted Almond Crust and Orange-Ginger Glaze. OK, firstly I had some confusion over what makes an Asian pear. Because it am silly and didn't stop to think about the description. Only once I had started making it did I realise that an Asian pear with what we in Australia refer to as the delicious, crispy, juicy, sweet Nashi. So I was making it with some random sort of other pear (I can't remember its, it was a bit red and quite crisp). I also found that my almond and date crust burnt a little bit, but the pears hadn't had enough cooking time yet. The base is awesome though, just toasted almonds ground up in the processor with some pitted dates. Simple, delicious and healthy. Despite my mishaps and misunderstandings, it tasted pretty darn nice. I will make it again, next time with actual nashi pears, and report back.

So there was our dinner. It was a really nice dinner, and also a really cute one. My mother works as an academic in Japanese, so we have quite a few cute Asian place settings around. I wish I had a photo! We ate with black bamboo place mats, chopsticks and we ate everything (bar the tart) out of the little bowls pictured in the soup recipe. I thought it was all pretty darn cute, anyway.

Spring is here and hopefully I will be able to get blogging on a more regular basis again! As I said, so much to share. And so many more recipes to make! The news that Robin Robertson's new book 1000 Vegan Recipes is due for release soon fills me with joy and dread - another thousand recipes to make? In addition to all my current cookbooks, blogs that I follow, and cookbooks I have yet to buy? Oh well, it is a tough life but someone has to do it!

I'm going to add some random new sections to each of my post. Including a cute cat photo of the post, because the word kitten is in the title of my blog and I think we all need some more cute cats our lives! The others are just random sections about that I am listening to, watching or reading. Why? Umm... because I can? And I am hoping to discover some more sci fi and genre fans out there to geek out with. ;)

Cute Cat Photo


This is Ruby and Clarence - are they not just the cutest little snuggle buddies? Clarence and Ruby were cats who were surrendered to us at the clinic and that we took on to rehome. As adult cats at the clinic, they also helped out many other sick kitties but donating some of their blood to save lives. What heroic kitties. I am happy to report that both Ruby and Clarence have now got loving homes.

Can't get out of my head: (Do You Wanna) Date My Avatar by The Guild. If you have not seen it, go there now and join in the obsession!

Bludging out with: The Guild, Dexter Season 3, True Blood Season 1, Battlestar Galactica (the complete series in my special edition shiny black tin - hurrah).

Improving my mind with: The Rose Grower by Michelle De Kretser.

Happy spring to my southern hemisphere friends!