apple cabbage and spinach salad and Pumpkin oat cookies

Apple, red cabbage and spinach salad. Yuuummmmm.

Well today was a (relatively) busy day for me. I am on holidays but I had a few pre-employment things to sort out. I had to go and get a pre-employment medical done (all clear!!) and then I went to do some op-shopping for some work clothes. I found 4 really nice shirts and one skirt and it all came to under $15 (I think it was $14 exactly). I am trying to walk everywhere so as to help lower my carbon emissions and also reduce the amount of money that we pay for transport.

By the time I got home I was pretty hungry. I initially ate a piece of corn on the cob (it was raw and beautifully sweet). Then I decided to whip up a salad inspired by The Café Fresh Cookbook. It was so simple and easy. I just thinly sliced some red cabbage (local and organic) and some baby spinach leaves (local and organic). I then added a small handful of sultanas and 1/2 a diced jonagold apple (which was the only type of apple I had on hand - this apple is crisp and has a bit of a bite to it but is still quite sweet). I then made a dressing from the juice of 1/2 orange and 1 1/2 tsp of apple juice concentrate and poured this over the salad. It was just divine - I had to stop myself from having seconds.

Pumpkin Oat Cookies

Two days ago I made VWaV's Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. I cooked and pureed my own pumpkin because you can't buy canned pumpkin here and I added the flaxseeds, used coconut oil instead of canola oil and used sultanas instead of raisins. I also used spelt flour which seemed to work fine.

I found it a little difficult knowing when these cookies were cooked - they do firm up a LOT when they come out of the oven. They tasted a lot like ANZAC biscuits. I took them to a staff meeting and everyone loved them (and thought that they were ANZACs). I will be making these again but I have notes in my VWaV that these are still REALLY soft when they come out of the oven.

Feeling like raw - and this hits the spot!

Carrot salad with grated apple, celery,
sunflower seeds, walnuts, pepitas and sultanas.

Well summer is defiantly approaching and my body is starting to crave a lot more fresh alive foods and meals. I am going to have to look into finding some nice simple raw recipes for summer.

At the moment I can't get enough of my grated carrot salad... I make it differently every time depending on how I am feeling. So I will give you a run down of basic ingredients. In the photo I put most of them in just to show you - usually I use a little less of the "toppings".

Basically I grate a medium-large carrot.
I grate some apple as well (how much apple depends on how sweet I feel like - today I used less than half an apple, some days I use a whole apple).
Any other vegetable I desire: celery (chopped finely), ginger (finely minced)
Then I add desired toppings: nuts (chopped almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, coconut flakes or shreds), seeds (pumpkin and sunflower), dried fruits (sultanas, raisins, chopped up dates)

Then I devour!! It is raw heaven - believe me!!!

When I was a kid an after school treat that mum used to make was grated apple and sultanas... that is another dish if your body is craving sweet things.

**Edited November 4th - I was thinking about other yummies that would rock in this salad I came up with: grated beetroot, grated parsnip, chopped pineapple, orange segments or orange juice... the list goes on... mmmmm***

VeganMoFo- Iron Chef Challenge - Vegan Mulligatawny

Well I only just realised that there was an Iron Chef Challenge - hence the second post today. This weeks challenge was posted by Katie - if you want more info you can get it here.

The ingredients for this week are Apple and Ginger. Now my Northern Hemisphere fellow bloggers are in Autumn and so they are in the heart of apple season - here - they are still around - but just not as nice as they are in say April or May.

I didn't really know what to do for the challenge - so I googled apple and ginger recipes and came up with Mulligatawny. It looked interesting - looked very different to anything I have ever eaten - so why not give it a try.

I have not yet ventured into the seitan realm so I thought that frozen tofu would be a perfect substitute for the chicken. Except I had no frozen tofu!!! This never happens. So I had to settle for extra firm tofu.

The results are awesome. Nat and I both love it and will make it for tea again very soon. I still think frozen tofu would be awesome to try - but I am not at all disappointed with this dish.

Vegan Mulligatawny

400g extra firm tofu (optional: freeze and then thaw/press out water)
1 inch fresh ginger - grated
2 tsp chicken style stock powder
400ml water
1 tsp sugar

1 medium onion - chopped
2 carrots - chopped
1 red capsicum - chopped
2 small or 1 large apple (I used jonagold - the recipe I found suggests Gala)
1 stick celery - chopped
1/2 cup green beans - trimmed

2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp curry powder (I used Madras)
1 tsp chili paste
1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp mango chutney
1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions

1. Cut the tofu into cubes - mix the stock powder with the water and add the ginger. pour the fix into a flat bottomed container and place tofu in to marinate - leave for a few hours.
2. When marinated, spray a heavy bottomed saucepan with cooking spray and fry the tofu for about 3-4mins - stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove tofu from the pan.
3. Saute onion, carrots, capsicum, apples, celery, and beans for about 5 mins.
4. Add flour, curry powder, chili paste and salt - stir to combine.
5. Add chutney and tomato paste - bring to boil and then simmer for about 10 mins.
6. Add tofu and serve over rice.