Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Finally finishing my current round-up from Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips. You can see my other posts about this book here.

Brown-Sugar Baked Ham with Caramelised Cabbage and Onion: I have made this ham recipe twice, because the first time I realised that I only put in 1 tsp of brown sugar instead of 1 TBS! Ooops. Definitely make sure to get that right. The marinade is very easy to make. The actual recipe in the book uses leftover marinade to make a coffee gravy, but as I am coffe adverse I skipped this and used a normal gravy. I also served it with the cabbage and onion dish. This one is quite sweet (it does have sugar in it) but very nice. Excellent with some roasted potatoes and the salty gravy.
Rating: Tofu Ham :), Cabbage and Onion :)



Chocolate Gravy: This is easy to make and sort of a cross between a chocolate sauce and a chocolate pudding. The book suggests serving it over some buttermilk biscuits (recipe also in the book), but I took an easier route and served it over some pancakes (purchased ready made and heated in the oven), vanilla yoghurt, and berries.
Rating: :)



Bringing Home the Tempeh Bacon: This bacon has a lovely marinade that includes hoisin sauce (yum) and is very easy to put together. There is heaps of marinade, so I froze the leftovers to make future batches. I served this bacon so many ways. Over some mac and cheese, in a BLT, and snacked right on its own.
Rating: :)





No-Tell Ro*Tel Cheese Dip: I've never had the original before, but this is a vegan silken tofu based version. I love a silken tofu based dip or sauce. I did use plain tomatoes instead of tomatoes with green chiles. It came together super fast, and thickens up very well on the stove. Instead of serving it as a dip, I used it to make nachos.
Rating: :)



BBQ 'Pulled' Tempeh and Carrot: This is meant to be made as a sandwich filling, alongside some crunchy coleslaw. But I switched it up and turned it into a bowl instead. It is really easy to make, with crumbled tempeh, grated carrots, and BBQ sauce the main features. I served it over some rice, spinach, and roasted carrots and drizzled with some more BBQ sauce and a creamy bottled dressing.
Rating: :)



And there ends this current go through of Cookin' Crunk! I really wanted to get it wrapped up today, because I have an exciting week coming up. Tomorrow my friends Molly and Helen (and Molly's friend Sharnette) are arriving from the US to come and visit me for a a week! I haven't seen Molly in 6 years since she was last here, and it has been even longer since I visited Helen in Seattle. I had a longstanding plan that after Dim Sim passed, I was going to drop everything and take off to Seattle to cry on Helen's couch for a few months, but COVID ruined that coping strategy. I will of course share our adventures on the blog.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise, lying on her back, looking at the ceiling fan.

Midweek Munchies

Hello friends, back for another midweek munchies post. I am still suffering from gay pirate show brain rot aka Our Flag Means Death hyperfixation, there are many of us around the world afflicted, but none of us are complaining. Here is some food.

I love this Three Olive plant based dip. It is creamy and briny and so good for dipping or on sandwiches. Definitely recommend.



These Vegan Cheese Pretzels had just a bit of a strange taste to them. It was kind of cheesy but also not quite cheesy?



Bought some extremely fancy Raspberry and Rose marshmallows. They were absolutely delightful, gorgeous flavour. They are definitely not cheap, so a special occasion item, but the flavours were incredible.



I don't remember where I bought this, but it was quite lovely.



As my beloved Mojo kombucha stopped production, I did find two boxes of these before they vanished all together. I hadn't ever tried these before. They were really nice, like a tropical kombucha, they vaguely reminded me of Passiona but better, which may be an Australian drink reference no one will understand.



Some new vegan Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavours. The Netflix & Chill'd was really nice. The Berry Revolutionary was just OK. I love berry flavoured ice creams, but something about the flavour of this one was a bit meh.



A friend gave me these and they were really good! I ate them on a bad fibro flare day, when I am often not very hungry. But for some reason these were exactly what I wanted.



Finishing off with a new strawberry oat milk that is in supermarkets. Unfortunately it has a very strange after taste.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



It's black cat time of year and I am missing my baby Dim Sim so much. She was the very best black cat of them all, and my heart will never be whole without her.

Sabbat Catch Up 2023: Mabon, Samhain, Yule, Imbolc

Hello, It's been a while since I've posted about any of the sabbats and the food I have made for them. In part due to not being very consistent with blogging, in part due to not being very aware of the passage of time or having a lot of energy. Anyway, here is a bit of a catch up.

Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (20th March, 2023)

I bought a bunch of stuff for snacking throughout the week, to live my best autumn snacking life. The Fix and Fogg Pumpkin Pie Butter was a gift from a friend who brought it back from New Zealand with me, and it is so incredible! Absolutely delicious. Fantastic on apple slices. I also had some apple cinnamon jam, which was very sweet. Some pumpkin bread, pink lady apples, and some cashew mushroom cheese for fun. I made a lot of different and excellent snacks with these.



Vegan Tagine with Butternut Squash from Lazy Cat Kitchen: I also made an actual dinner, sticking with the autumn theme. This tagine with butternut squash was full of flavour, though I of course left out the chili flakes. I served it over some buttered cous cous. I hardly ever eat cous cous, but it is always delightful when I do.
Rating: :)



Samhain (30th April - 1st May 2023)

Halloween gets a lot of its pagan roots from Samhain, which is also consider the beginning of the new year in the sabbat cycle. I kept things seasonal and also kept it colour themed with black and orange for fun.

Roasted Red Onion & Butternut Squash Salad from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: This is a lovely salad, which I served warm. It was meant to be served with black quinoa, but I used black rice instead. It has a bunch of different ingredients to give a lovely flavour, though I left out the figs because I don't like them and it really didn't need it. The salad is a mix of cooked savoy cabbage and the rice, the roasted vegetables, and is topped with a creamy sunflower seed dressing.
Rating: :)



Yule aka Winter Solstice (22nd June 2023)

This was in the lead up to my PhD being due, and I had zero energy for anything. But my mum happened to make a Japanese Curry that night, and what a perfect way to celebrate the longest night of the year. A steaming bowl of Japanese Curry and rice was just right. We use the S&B Mild Japanese Curry paste, which is so good and has zero heat in it.



Imbolc (1st August 2023)

Confession, I totally missed this date. Imbolc is meant to celebrate the midpoint of winter. I had nothing planned because I didn't even realise it was happening. But when I looked back I realised that I did make something kind of appropriate for it. Red is a traditional colour for Imbolc, and I just so happened to make a kidney bean and red wine slow cooker stew! I used a Masterfoods recipe base for it (substituting kidney beans for the dead animals it called for), and it also had mushrooms and carrots in it. Served over some spinach and brown rice, this was very yummy and I would absolutely make it again.





We are two days away from Beltane, so let's see if I manage anything for that. Hope everyone is hanging in there, the year seems to be going so quickly.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Beautiful Boo doing a tiny blep.

Midweek Munchies

Hello friends, how are you? Back with another easy midweek munchies post. I am back at work this week, holidays over. Also every spare cell of brain space I have is currently taken up with my Our Flag Means Death hyperfixation. I did go to the Taylor Swift Era's film last week as well (N95 mask firmly attached), and 1989 Taylor's Version comes out on Friday. So my niche fixation is finding OFDM edits to Taylor Swift songs on TikTok. What a time to be alive. But here are some snacks and things.

I bought this Black Lemonade brownie mix ages ago, and finally used it to take to a housewarming. It is also gluten free (the person I was going to see is gluten free, so that was handy) and extremely east to make. The brownies were incredible, I could not tell they were gluten free, and I loved the tangy raspberry flavour in them.



Some vegan fairy bread, which I enjoyed at said housewarming. Going to a housewarming was a bit strange given *gestures at pandemic*, but I wore a mask except for the very quick times I nipped off for a snack.



These vegan Japanese sauces are available at Woolworths. I used the Yakisoba sauce to make some quick yakisoba using some noodles, prepared tofu, and stir-fry vegetables. The okonomi sauce is excellent for putting on or mixing through things as well.





I got these Pickled Mushroom chips from Ikea! They needed more flavour on them, but I could get a hint of pickled and maybe a whisper of earthy mushroom from them.



New vegan deli slices dropped at Coles, though I haven't seen them since. They were OK, the salami has a lot of pepper in it. The chicken slices were the best, and better than the other vegan chicken slices on the market.



Cheese and Onion Crunchy Corn that a friend from Scotland sent me! These were so fun, and had a really nice flavour. I am not a fan of popcorn, but I am a fan of these crunchy corn kernels.



Finally someone gave me some of the new Whittakers Oat Milk Chocolate. It is not bad for a milk-style chocolate, not too sweet.



Tell me what you have been hyperfixating on lately? Or I guess, if you have a neurotypical brain, what you have been enjoying.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Another funny Eloise photo. She makes the best shapes.

Midweek Munchies

Hello! I have been on holidays for the last week, going no where, house to myself and the cats, having a lovely time. I suppose I could have been posting every day, but I wasn't feeling the vibe until today. So here are some midweek munchies!

I found this purple corn drink in a market with a lot of international options, this was from the Peruvian section. It mostly just tasted sweet, but did have a bit of a corn undertaste.



KM Foods is a small vegan business based in Brisbane, and they have started making frozen cheesecakes you can pick up from the Green Edge. This was their strawberry one. Really lovely flavour and great creamy filling, though the base could have been a bit crunchier.



I got this Bolognese mix on sale, which was basically just bolognese seasoned TVP. But it made for a quick and easy dinner one night. I added carrots, celery, and mushrooms.



Coles brought out a jumbo vegan chocolate chip cookie in their fresh bakery range. I was super excited, because it seemed like it was the sort of thing that gets baked fresh daily. But when I finally found one, it had like a week's expiry on it. So I guess it technically is baked fresh at some point! It was still good. I have heard from others that the best way to eat it is to heat it gently in the microwave.



Get Plant'd brought out some vegan slices - ham and steak slices. The ham is probabl the best ham since Tofurky become unavailable, However, lately, every package has gone mouldy, so I am not buying them until they sort it out.



Brazilian Style BBQ Grill Flavoured Pringles! Are good! Of course they were a limited edition, so they don't make them anymore, but I still have a tube in my cupboard to enjoy.



Has anyone been watching the new season of Our Flag Means Death? I have been completely undone by it, it has taken over my brain. I just want to scream about it. Ed is my precious baby girl and I would die for him. Etc. If you have seen it, please scream about it in the comments!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise. As she does.

Midweek Munchies

Hello hello! I have just started almost two weeks of time off work. I am staying home, hanging out with the cats, starting my yearly Buffy rewatch, catching up on some other shows, and generally just trying to chill out. Hurrah!

Starting the post today with these chips, which sound incredible because I love paprika. But unfortunately fall prey to the not enough flavour on them trap that so many chips seem to fall into these days. Say it with me chip companies, coat those chippies with all the flavour please!



I am loving these vegan friendly coconut chocolate macaroons. Soft pillowy mounts of coconut with a chocolate base and chocolate drizzle, they are so good! Also they have all of the good sweet coconut flavour, but none of the gross sick-making coconut fat. So it's a win for me.



A very belated sharing of some Easter chocolate I had this year. I am working through a backlog of things to share! The very last of my Treat Dreams easter bunnies, as well as a new cream egg and a cookie dough filled chocolate bunny. The cream egg was too sweet, as cream eggs always are for me, but I still insist on having at least one a year! I had heard very good things about the cookie dough bunny, and the filling was good, but unfortunately the chocolate that surrounded it was foul. I have seen the NoMo brand of chocolate around for ages, but never wanted to buy it because I suspected it would be gross. The cookie dough filling lured me in, but confirmed my suspicions.



Bega and Cheer, two Australian dairy brands, both launched their own vegan cheeses this year. The Cheer one is full of coconut oil, but this Bega one seems to be coconut oil free, so I gave it a cautious try. It is not good. Awful straight from the packet, marginally better melted, but I will continue on using my beloved Sheese.



SaraLee has come out with some non-dairy dessert pies. Two are full of coconut cream, but not this blueberry cheesecake! It is was surprisingly good. The cheesecake filling was a little watery, but the berry topping had great flavour and the base was sweet and crunchy. Would get again.



I posted previously about how good the Toatl strawberry and chocolate oatmilk flavours are. I am not usually a caramel person, but someone said it tasted more like brown sugar, and I love brown sugar. It did taste more like caramel, but for some reason the first time I tried it I went against my usual norms and adored it. I got it a second time, and then rembered caramel is too sweet for me. If you are scratching your head at me because brown sugar and caramel taste the same, they don't to me!



I thought I was done with sharing Treat Dreams bars in the last post, but I found one final one to share. The Orange Hazelnut Dark Chocolate. I love chocolate and orange together, which I have discovered is quit a divisive flavour combination. What side do you fall on?



That's it for today! What are you all up to this week?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Please enjoy this photo of Mirabelle's wrinkly little chinny chin chin.

Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Just a little post today, I wasn't sure if I'd blog at all, but I got some late Sunday afternoon motivation to do a little something. This is a few recipes from my continuing adventures through Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips. See other recipes from this book I've posted about here.

Creamy Squash Casserole and Tofu Chicken: The tofu chicken recipe book in this good is great - such a good marinade! I had lots of marinade in left over, so I froze it for future tofu chicken adventures. I didn't have adobo seasoning or poultry seasoning though, so I used a mix of garlic and onion powders, salt, chili-free cajun spice blend, celery seeds, and sage. It worked a treat. I served it with some Creamy Squash Casserole, which has rice and summer squash (I used zucchini). This is recipe looks very simple, but it is absolutely delicious!
Rating: Tofu :), Casserole :D



Unfried Corn: This is a quick recipe that uses frozen corn kernals (very handy). It is quite sweet, so I would decrease the amount of sugar in it substantially next time (it is only 1.5 tsp, but alongside the sweet corn that is quite a bit). The corn is cooked in a creamy soy-milk mixture, which is simmered off. I served it with some BBQ tofu and some green beans.
Rating: :)



Baked Curried Sweet Tater Fries: These were some very nice fries! I took the option to bake them, rather than deep fry, because I don't like deep frying stuff. I made the seasoning me-friendly by using mild curry powder, smoked paprika to replace the cayenne powder, and some extra salt. Great alongside a burger.
Rating: :)



Mama's Mac and Tomatoes: This is pretty simple, with macaroni and fresh tomatoes and basil. It is also really good! The tomatoes make this incredible broth. You definitely want to make sure that you are using the best tomatoes you can for this. I served it with some herby tofu and roasted broccoli.
Rating: :)



Vanilla Spice Cupcakes: These are an easy to make cupcake recipe, that go great however you want to serve them. The recipe in the book pairs them with a pumpkin buttercream. I was making these for pink-themed bake sale, so instead I filled them with strawberry jam and topped them with pink strawberry flavoured buttercream.
Rating: :)



This would have been my final Cookin' Crunk post, but I have a few tempeh things I want to make on my week off that I have coming up, so I have saved a couple of other photos to go along with that. Stay tuned!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise being a little bunny baby having a nap with my black cat face cushion on my bed.