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.

Vegan Mofo #12: Breakfasts on the go - healthy breakfast bars

Nat is a tour/bushwalking guide. His job has its perks (ie. getting to go bushwalking around many pretty places in Tasmania and getting paid to do it) but it also has its drawbacks (a day trip starts by nat leaving before 6.30am and getting back well after 7.30pm). Having said that - some of his multiday trips require him to leave before 5am so I am not complaining too much about getting up at 5.45am for the day trips.

Because its way too early to have a decent breakfast I have been looking into cooking some breakfast bars for Nat to take. I was having trouble finding something that I thought looked nice and had almost given up hope (it either had too much oil or sugar or used banana or tofu so wouldn't keep for very long). But then as I was making myself a dandelion coffee (really good coffee substittue - I would reccommend it) I saw on the back of the soymilk container the perfect recipe... ok, well almost the perfect recipe. (It was a different soy milk that I had because I had run out of my normal one and the local shop only stocked this one)
I pretty much followed the recipe but veganised some of the ingredients and changed the nuts and fruit (ok -I didn't actually measure anything specifically - I just bunged it all in roughly according to the directions- I was really tired).

I was really pleased with the results. Its crunchy but not too crunchy - sweet but not too sweet and held together really well. And it was really REALLY easy. I will be making these a lot more often.


Breakfast on the go breakfast bars

2 cups rolled oats
1/3cup dried apricots - chopped
1/2 cup dried dates - chopped
1/4 cup almonds (chopped) or sunflower seeds
1/4 cup coconut flakes (optional - I was going to put them in because I thought they would be nice but I forgot when I was making it)
3 tbsp agave or maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coconut extract (or vanilla)
1 cup soymilk
egg replacer for one egg (I used organ no-egg)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius
2. Place all ingredients in large bowl
3. Spray bottom of pyrex dish (20cm square) with cooking spray or line with baking paper
4. Press mix into pan and bake until golden (approx 30mins)
5. Let cool completely and then cut into bars.

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Oh before I go - I got so SUPER excited yesterday. I was walking back from the city Library and I walked past a little store that I know sells foreign food (ie. American and British comfort food mainly). I have never had the need to go in there but I thought that now I see so many recipes online with american ingredients maybe I should check it out. Well what did I see... a few really gross things like marshmallow spread and peanut butter and jam swirled into a jar - "biscuit" mix (which I now realise to be scones) and lots of Hershey's chocolate products to name a few. But what got me super excited was that I found this:




LIQUID SMOKE!!
YAY!!!

I was hoping that this would be in there but I didn't want to get my hopes up. So now as the BBQ season approaches I will not feel deprived when I find recipes calling for this little baby. I am rather happy right now.

[VeganMoFo #4] Cooking up some kickarse VWaV cookies

Nat is a tour guide. Now that the guiding season has started Nat is sometimes away for days at a time. He has just got a job with a day tour company which is much cooler!! As his next trip is for backpackers they either have to take their meals or buy them. Because the guests will all buy yummy non-vegan sweets I thought that I would make nat something that he could eat and not feel deprived.



I recently got Vegan with a Vengeance and nat asked if I could bake the Big Giantoid Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies. Well I baked them - but I made them normal cookie size. This meant that I made HEAPS (I forgot to check how many cookies the recipe made)

I am very into coconut oil at the moment and so I substituted it for canola oil. I also didn't have any vanilla soymilk (so I added a little bit extra vanilla essence) and I used half unbleached and half wholemeal spelt flour instead of the all purpose flour (I don't actually know what all purpose flour is - I am guessing just plain flour??). I baked them for 10 mins at 175°C.

Nat loves these cookies and, as they taste FANTASTIC, I am happy too. My only difficulty is keeping them away from nat so that there are some left for him to take away on his trip!!

What to do with left over silken tofu??

Well I had an assignment due yesterday and so I have spent today relaxing and looking at what in our fridge needs to be used up. I found some left over silken tofu from a package that I had to open a few nights ago. Since then I have been trying to use up the tofu including making a chocolate pudding for my hubby. I still had about a 1/2 cup left and so I looked through my cookbooks to get some inspiration. I found this recipe in a folder of recipies I have collected from magazines over the years and never cooked. I didn't have all the ingredients so what I have created is very different to the original (almost totally different - apart from the fact that both recipes had silken tofu, oats and sugar). These bars were a resounding success. They are chewy and a great protein filled energy bar. My husband came home from work and was immediatly after the source of the yummy smells wafting from our kitchen.

Easy chewy oatmeal bars

Prep time: 15mins

Ingredients

· 3/4 cup sultanas

· 1/3 cup walnut halves or pieces (optional)

· 1/4 cup white flour

· 1/4 cup wholemeal flour

· 1/2 tsp. bicarb soda

· 1/4 tsp. salt

· 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

· 1 cup rolled oats

· 1/2 cup silken tofu

· egg substitute for 1 egg (I use Organ No-egg)

· ¼ cup olive oil

· 1/3 cup brown sugar

· 1/3 cup maple syrup

· 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Spray a 20cm x 20cm glass baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Soak sultanas in boiling water and set aside for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. If using walnuts, spread in small baking pan and toast in oven until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. In a bowl, combine both flours, bicarb soda, salt, cinnamon and oats.
5. Drain sultanas and chop walnuts (if using). Set aside.
6. Blend tofu in a food processor until smooth. Add egg substitute, oil, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Process until mixture is smooth. Stop and scrape down the sides with rubber spatula in the middle.
7. Add flour mixture, sultanas and walnuts to the food processor. Pulse on/off until all the ingredients mixed.
8. Turn the mixture into the dish and spread into an even layer.
9. Bake until light golden and firm to the touch, approx 30-35 minutes.
10. When done, remove from oven and cool in the pan. Cut into bars.
11. Bars can be kept in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer for many months.