Yummy raw food demonstration

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to go to a raw food preparation demonstration/workshop. It was put on through the organisation Vegetarian Tasmania. We had two demonstrators, Gosia and Heather. I have only briefly met gosia once before, but I know Heather quite well. She has been "raw" for about a year and ahe has a 10month old baby. The baby is 100% raw and I have never seen a healthier or happier mother and child. They are just incredible. The baby LOVES tomatoes and mangoes... but he eats just about any raw food that he is given.

Gosia looked at raw food that could be used during the transition to raw and also food that could be used for dinner parties or potluck dinners. Heather's recipes were more about simplicity and she showed us some simple salad dressings so that we could add a bit of variety into the raw diet.

Over the next few weeks I plan to make a lot of the food myself and when I do that I will share the recipes. In the meantime you can check out Gosia's website or youtube videos.

I was really REALLY annoyed when my camera battery died early on in the demonstration. But one of my friends will hopefully send me her photos.

With Gosia we made smoothies, ice cream, fruit jelly, chewies, the most amazing carob cake, cinnamon rolls and pizza. My favourites were the ice cream and the pizza. It was just divine! I will share the ice-cream recipe with you today as it is SO simple!!

I will be posting photos of the cake and the pizza - but for now I will leave you with the one decent picture that I got before my battery died:

Raw Banana and Raspberry Ice-cream
topped with raw cacao powder

Raw Ice-cream
recipe: Gosia

Peel bananas and freeze them. Process them in a food processor with optional ingredients until creamy. Serve immediately.

Variations:
Add some dates/nuts/carob/cacao during processing
Use some frozen raspberries or blueberries, or both.
Decorate the ice-cream with fresh strawberries.
Top the ice-cream with some carob/cacao powder and agave.

Banana bars with butter cream frosting - La Dolce Vegan

What is this delectable creation you ask?? Well if you are only interested in hearing about healthy vegan food than I suggest that you stop reading now - as this, apart from having banana in the base, is quite possibly the most unhealthy sweet thing I have cooked for a while (I have probably cooked worse in my pre-vegan days).
It is just divine though - so if you feel like splashing out and making something a little decadent but still ridiculously simple - than this is the thing for you.

This my friends is Wolffie's B'nanner Bars from La Dolce Vegan. It is topped with their Butter Cream Frosting (which was the recommended frosting for this bar). As I was taking this to a housewarming (and therefore would not be able to try it before giving it to anyone else) - I thought I should stick to the recipe to be on the safe side.

For the bar I followed the recipe and used a flax mix as my chosen egg replacer. When the bars came out of the oven - they looked moist and wonderful. However I decided to proceede with my plan and frost them.

Thats when I met Trouble!

I assumed that the frosting in the recipe would set - I was wrong. I don't know if its because we don't have Earth Balance here - I just had to use Nuttalex which is our non-hydrogenated margarine spread.
It was still REALLY runny by the time it came to frosting the bars. And even after I put the whole dish into the freezer for a while it still hadn't set. So off to the potluck I went with what was now more like a pudding than a bar.

Despite my frosting issues everyone LOVED this dish. Although there weren't many of us at the housewarming and mountains of food - most of the 'pudding' got eaten. When Nat came home from work he was glad that I had saved him some and he thinks it is fantastic.

So I give this recipe the thumbs up - but beware with the frosting ;)

Ok - not the best photo - but you get the idea of how it turned out in the dish after I got home.

The most ecclectic Zucchini Bread recipe ever

So... we have all these zucchini's - I got them cheap at the market a little while ago. When I was talking about what I could make, Nat thought I was joking when I mentioned zucchini bread.

Well, to enlighten him on the wonders of zucchini bread, I had to first find a recipe. I found a couple of lovely ones - particularly Lindsay at Happy Herbivore's fat free fruity zucchini bread and one on Vegan Food: More than Tofu and Sprouts which just looks so versatile.

I decided that the fruity one looked good - but that was too much for nat (he has an aversion to fruit cake and I think a zucchini loaf with dried fruit was just too way out there) so I settled for looking at the other recipe.

I changed the recipe quite considerably - sometimes because I didn't have enough of the ingredients (I ran out of sugar and apple sauce) and I did a few of my own substitutions just because I wanted to make it oil free.

The loaf was awesome - I used Tofu mum's recipe as a base - and forgot to look at how many loaves it made (which is two) - I don't have two loaf pans and so I made 6 muffins and one loaf.


The verdict. Nat loves them. I think I have dispelled his fear of a vegetable being the base of a sweet bread and maybe next time I will stick in a few sultanas or chopped dates... when he doesn't get a choice he usually finds out that he likes it.
So without further ado my version of the zucchini loaf.
Ecclectic moist oil-free zucchini bread

1 tbsp ground flax seeds
3 tbsp water
300g silken tofu
1/4 cup applesauce
2 large ripe bananas - mashed

1 medium-large zucchini - grated
1 1/4 cup unprocessed sugar (cause thats all I use in the house)
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups unbleached spelt flour (just cause thats what I cook with)
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F)
2. Grease two loaf tins (or 1 loaf tin and 1 6x muffin pan)
3. Mix flax meal with water and set aside to expand
4. Place tofu, banana, applesauce and flax mix into a food processor and blend till smooth
5. In a large bowl mix zucchini with the sugar, vinegar and vanilla. Add the tofu mixture and mix well.
6. In a separate bowl, mix flours, salt, bicarb, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder.
7. Mix a little bit of the dry mix with the zucchini mix. Continue to add dry mix a little bit at a time until it is combined. (The mix will be very heavy - don't worry it worked really well for me)
8. Pour into loaf tins or spoon into muffin pan.
9. Cook for 30-40 mins (mine was done at 30) for the loaf and about 10-12mins for the muffins.
10. Let cool and then enjoy

Optional variations
choc chips
dried fruit pieces
you can replace applesauce or banana (or both) with oil - you might need a bit more sugar
use any egg replacer for 3 eggs (instead of tofu and flax)
use any vegetable or fruit in place of zucchini (I guess within reason - carrot would go well)

Iron Chef Challenge #2 - Pear walnut and banana muffins with walnut crumb topping

So I have a vegan potluck to go to today - and, as there are mountains of bananas in my fruit bowl I thought some banana muffins would go down pretty well. When I looked at some other vegan blogs I found this pretty awesome recipe at vegan visitor.

But then this morning when I woke up and started checking my blog reader I saw that the Iron Chef Challenge for week 2 of Vegan Mofo used the ingredients pears and nuts. Now pears are becoming quite expensive here (as it is now spring in Aussie) but I did have two pears in the fruit bowl. As I needed to get cooking straight away so I could get to the potluck on time, I decided to create a pear and banana muffin and use the crumb topping from vegan visitors muffins.

The muffins were a BIG hit - everyone thought they were moist and the crumb topping really went well. I did have issues keeping the walnuts from falling off the top - maybe I need to press them down more firmly next time.

Pear, walnut and banana muffins with walnut crumb topping.

1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup whole meal flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 225g (8 ounce) tub plain soy yogurt
1 large banana mashed
1 1/2 cups pears –peeled and diced
Topping
1/4 Cup Walnut Halves or Pieces
1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Margarine
1/8 teaspoon Salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Finely grind walnuts using a mortar and pestle or a food processor.
Sift flour into a bowl; add baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in ground walnuts. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine sugar, oil, vanilla, yogurt and banana in a small bowl, add to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in diced pear.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

Topping
For the walnut crumb topping I followed Vegan Visitor’s recipe here.

Bake at 180ºC on the centre rack for 18 minutes, until firm and golden or insert and remove a toothpick.
Allow muffins to rest in the tin before moving to a rack to cool.
Makes about 12 muffins.

Vegan MoFo #5 - What we have for breakfast - fat free wholesome banana pancakes

I have been looking at other vegan mofo blogs and there has been a bit of discussion about breakfasts. Now I LOVE pancakes and I made some fantastic ones this morning (recipe and photos further down the post), but first I thought I would show you what nat and I have on a 'normal morning' (when nat doesn't have to be out of the house before 6.30am). Fruit Salad!!! At the moment we are able to get apples, pears, kiwi fruit, strawberries, grapes, bananas and oranges. Top it off with some soy yoghurt and its heaven in breakfast!!!



Well it was a lazy morning yesterday - neither of us had work and I had the perfect opportunity to procrastinate from writing my last assignment by making pancakes for breakfast. Now I have a couple of pancake recipes - some have worked better than others. This one I created as I really wanted some wholesome fat-free pancakes (breakfast is, after all, the most important meal of the day!!) The results are AMAZING!! Yummy moist pancakes. I tried the first lot without putting maple syrup in the batter and I liked them a lot - Some people who like sweeter pancakes might like to put a little bit of syrup in the batter - however I think that if I am going to eat them with maple syrup they don't need it at all!!

Fat Free Banana Pancakes

1 1/4 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 banana's - mashed
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or normal vinegar - I only have apple)
1 1/2 tbsp applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

1. Combine soy milk and vinegar a sit to the side for 5 minutes
   
2. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.
3. In a seperate bowl, mix banana, applesauce, vanilla and soymilk together until fairly smooth (I still had some small banana lumps which were really nice)
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined
5. Leave to sit for 15mins. (During this time I make some fresh orange juice)
6. Mix in enough water to reach desired batter consistancy (I added about 1/4 cup more - the pancakes were still rather thick)
7. Spray a non-stick frypan with cooking spray - pour about 1/4 cup batter into the pan - I can comfortably fit 3 small pancakes into my pan.
   
8. Flip pancakes when bubbles appear on the surface. Cook another 1-2 minutes until pancakes are golden brown on both sides.
   
9. Transfer to a plate and loosely cover with foil - cook more pancakes.
10. Serve with maple syrup, sliced banana or whatever you want!!

Banana and date slice - a homecoming treat

Nat was away for the weekend for work and so I have been busy cleaning, doing assignments and this afternoon I have been baking. I try to bake at least once a week so that we have something to nibble on and take to work and uni. There were a couple of bananas that were slightly overripe but I had already made banana bread in the last few weeks. I settled instead on making a banana and date slice. I have an amazing recipe for a fat free banana and date loaf - so I thought that the combination would work equally well as a slice. I veganised a recipe I found from the Australian Women's Weekly website. I also tried to reduce the fat content by substitution apple sauce for half the oil. I am relatively new to working with apple sauce - I am sure that the recipe would be fine without any oil at all (and more apple sauce) - but I just wanted to do half half to make sure.

Banana and Date Slice

• ½ cup dried dates, chopped coarsely
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ apple sauce
• ¾ cup raw sugar
• 1 cup wholemeal flour, sifted
• ¼ cup (35g) plain flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 medium bananas - mashed
• ¼ tsp salt

METHOD

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease 25cm x 30cm pan.

Combine dates and the water in small saucepan; bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.

Place flour, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in bananas, date mixture and oil. Spread the batter evenly into the tin.

Bake in moderate oven about 30 minutes or until firm; stand 20 minutes.

Beautiful Banana Bread

My husband loves the weekend. You may think that it is because he gets time off. Because of the nature of his job he isn't guaranteed the weekend off. No, my husband loves the weekend because I try to always bake him something sweet to get him through the week (or at least a few days). I have a couple of tried and true recipies that I will use, but this weekend I decided to try a new recipe I found in Lois Dieterly's book Sinfully Vegan. I modified the recipe to reduce the oil content and according to what I had in the cupboard - so I will post my version. I have not baked many recipes out of this book... don't ask me why, because every recipe I have baked has just been wonderful. This was no exception. An organic stall at the local market was giving away overripe banana's on Saturday and I took the opportunity to do some banana baking. (I have not made a banana sweet for a long time because banana's have been VERY expensive lately).


Lois's Moist Banana Bread

1 cup white spelt flour (Lois uses unbleached plain flour)
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour (see above note)
1 tsp bicarb (baking) soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup agave syrup - I like the Loving Earth Brand
3 medium ripe bananas - mashed
2 tsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup water
30mls extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup applesauce (no added sugar)
3/4 cup walnuts - roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 175degrees C.
2. Prepare a loaf tin by greasing it or lining it with baking paper
3. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt
4. In a small cup, mix flax with water.
5. In another bowl mix banana with the agave syrup and then add the flax mixture and stir until mixed well.
6. Add the oil, applesauce and walnuts to the banana mixture.
7. Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.
8. Pour mixture into the loaf pan and bake for about 60 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven.
9. Leave bread in tin for 10 mins before removing and allowing to cool completely

15 servings
Preparation time: 15 mins
Baking time: approx 60 mins