Rocket, Walnut and Orange

I have been working at a market stall on Saturdays in return for some organic fruit and veg. Occasionally at the end of the day, if some things haven't sold and will not keep we get given them to take home. This last Saturday I was asked if I wanted to take home a bag of rocket leaves. As I am always needing to increase my leafy green intake I said yes.

I googled rocket salads and, well nothing was really taking my fancy (that and/or I didn't have the ingredients on hand). Eventually I found this recipe. I only had rocket so I couldn't use any other greens. I made a few other changes - I didn't use any oil (I lightly toasted the walnuts in a dry pan). I also only made the recipe for me - so I only used a few walnuts and half an orange. I took this photo before I put on the balsamic vinegar because it didn't look as nice then.

Rocket is sooooo bitter - I know why you need to put sweet fruit with it. It was barely edible. I still had about 3/4 of the package left (and I was still hungry). I made it again except I microwaved the rocket for about 25seconds. then I mixed in the orange pieces, walnuts and balsamic vinegar. I didn't take a photo but the slight cooking of the rocket took the edge off the bitterness and I really enjoyed my second bowl of this salad.

Mum's Zucchini and corn stew

I have for you all another of those 'mum' recipes. There are recipes that my mum used to cook all the time and are tried and true and just yum. This is the first time I have made this since I moved out of home (about 3 years ago) - I don't know why I haven't made it for Nat yet - I guess I have had other things to make - or never had all three main ingredients (kidney beans, zucchini and corn) on hand together. My kidney beans were a little different in colour to what you find in cans (more purple) but they are still wonderful.

I served the stew over some quinoa but it is also wonderful over rice or cous cous. Nat cleaned up his plate and by the time I was home from work the next day he had also devoured all the left overs.

The copy of the recipe that I have is handwritten and I don't know where it came from - so apologies for not giving credit where credit is due (that includes if mum is the creator)

Mum's Zucchini and Sweet-corn Stew
1 onion - chopped finely
2 cloves garlic- crushed or minced
3-4 medium zucchini's - sliced (mum had written 450g of zucchini)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cummin
1 cup sweet corn kernels
2 cups (or 1 can) red kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1/2 large or 1 small red capsicum cut into 1cm cubes
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 - 1 tsp chili paste (to taste)
sea salt to taste

1. Heat a small amount of oil (or water) in a large saucepan and saute onion 5-10mins until soft and transparent.
2. Add garlic, spices, red capsicum and zucchini and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans and chili paste.
4. Simmer for 10-15mins.
5. Serve over rice, cous cous or quinoa.

Pay it Forward

Have you heard about Pay it Forward?? Well, Jeni Treehugger was selected to Pay it Forward and I was lucky enough to be randomly selected by her to participate.

So what does it mean?? It means that within a year I will be receiving a homemade gift from Jeni and then I get to pass on the joy of giving by selecting 3 of my readers to send a gift (and so it goes on and on). How awesome!!

So... if you would like to receive something homemade and from Aussie just leave a comment to this post and I will select 3 people randomly. I will post anywhere in the world.

The three lucky people will then receive a gift within a year.

So what are the conditions for participating:

You must have a blog
If you want to participate you must be willing to post a handmade gift to three different bloggers within the next 365 days
You must leave a comment to this post.

I will close off the entries on the 31st Jan and post about the three winners in early Feb.

Oh I am so excited about being part of this.

Easy Rosemary Roast Potatoes and Pumpkin, Chickpea and Zucchini Burgers

Once again I am sorry for not posting very often. Full time work is taking up a lot of time.

But enough of that - For christmas I got given Now Vegan by Lynda Stoner. I had seen the cookbook before but had not really had a good chance to have a look - until now. It looks awesome. I haven't had much of a chance to cook much out of it (I plan to over the next month or two) - but the photos are beautiful - the recipes look easy but also very presentable to dinner guests and she even has gluten free and sugar free recipes.
Last week I was having some friends over and I planned to make Veganomican's Lemony Roasted Potatoes (as this has been a hit every time I make it) - but I didn't have any lemons. I remembered seeing a recipe for Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Potatoes - and within 40-50 mins they were done. All my dinner guests went back for seconds and Nat requested that I make it again very soon. Two nights later I made it again (so I could take a photo and for Nat to enjoy). I served it up with some Pumpkin, Chickpea and Zucchini Burgers. This recipe was annoying and I had to make a lot of alterations. The finished product was wonderful though.

Rosemary and garlic roast potatoes with pumpkin,
zucchini and chickpea burgers

The changes I made to the burgers were: replaced the egg with Organ No-egg egg replacer. I also added about 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed and about 1/2-1 cup of flour because the mixture was just WAY too runny. Next time I make them I think I will roast rather than boil the pumpkin.

Anyway the meal was a lovely one. More posts soon - I promise!!

Vegan Mayo Recipe - finally!!

Potato Salad with corn, spring onions, seitan and vegan mayonnaise (recipe below)

Well the day has finally arrived where I put down my mayo recipe.
It is not as thick as regular mayo - but the taste is pretty good (having said that - I haven't eaten real mayo for a VERY long time so I think it tastes like what I imagine it would taste like and Nat loves it so it works for us.

The reason I have had to come up with a mayo recipe is that all the ones I have seen use so much oil - and I am sure that it would make a better texture - but with the amount of mayo that we eat - it would not be healthy at all.

We mainly use this on sandwiches and potato salad.

Anyway - here is the recipe. I kind of based it on Vegan Dad's recipe but used silken tofu instead of soymilk and oil.

Low-fat vegan mayo recipe
1 300g silken tofu
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (I use raw sugar)*
1/2 tsp mustard powder*
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp vinegar (I use white wine vinegar)

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process for 1-2mins. Adjust seasonings to taste (I sometimes add a little more salt and sugar and lemon juice. Chill before serving. I have stored this in the fridge for up to a week. Sometimes water forms on the top - just stir it back in before using it.

*I have used dijon mustard as well but I reduced the sugar a little bit when I did that.

If you are not afraid of adding oil to your mayo, you might want to also check out Vegan Dad's Recipe.

6 month anniversary and PIZZA

Sorry I have been neglecting the blog - camera went MIA for a little while and so although I was cooking a fair bit, I didn't take any photos of it.

But I am back - welcome to 2009. I am going to try and be a little healthier in my cooking for the next little while (trying to shed xmas festivity weight).

But first - today Nat and I celebrated our 6month wedding anniversary!!! The time has just flown by.

I asked Nat what he wanted for dinner to celebrate and he wanted pizza. I had never made pizza before - and I had the recipe from VWaV so I decided to give it a go.

IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!
For all those people like me who think that pizza is too hard its not!! I don't like any of the soy cheeses available in Aussie and so I didn't think it would be so good without cheese - it was so yummy.

It is easy and so SO worth it. We are going to be eating pizza a lot more in this house (at least once a month) - and once we have got a few nice pizza combinations going we are going to have a pizza party!! I need to get another pizza tray first though!!




I used the VWaV pizza dough and sauce recipes and then topped it with the following:
sundried tomatoes
olives
onion rings
pineapple
kittee's seitan, cubed
capsicum
vegan parmesan cheese (I don't think this is necessary for a good pizza - we just had some in our cupboard)
BBQ sauce
mushrooms

The finished product - isn't it awesome!!

I would love to hear your favourite topping combinations for pizza (especially if you don't use fake cheese).
Have a great 2009

Lucy Speaks

Christmas is a time of family and friends and joy. But it is also a time of suffering for the many animals that are imprisoned in factory farms across the globe.

Billions of animals suffer needlessly each year. Animals Australia have put together the Lucy Speaks radio campaign. These ads are getting played across Australia in prime time slots to try to highlight the plight of pigs.

I would encourage you to go to the website and listen to the ad.

Please spread the word and share the ad with your friends and family (post it to your blog or facebook page).

You can also donate to the campaign to get more ads played on the air. Nat and I are thinking that we will give a few ads as Christmas presents. Maybe if you are looking for a present for a difficult to buy person you could do the same??

An award

Tara from The Snowy Vegan gave me an award.

Here's a little info about this award:

"This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Tara (who used to author the blog Married Vegan Yogi) is a blogger who started blogging about the same time that I did and I have thoroughly enjoyed the blogging relationship that has developed. Her new blog is awesome and I think you should all check it out.

So I am now going to choose 8 bloggers that I have learnt a lot from and really enjoy reading their blogs.

Jessy from Happyveganface
Allularpunk from Awesome.vegan.rad
Jess from Cupcake Punk
Ricki from Diet Dessert and Dogs
Marni from La Vegan Loca
Tami from Vegan Appetite
Nicole from Sweet Potatoe
Miss V from Miss V's Vegan Cookbook

Sorry for my absence

Hi all, I realise that I haven't blogged here for ages - things have just been crazy.
I started work at the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. The people are all really lovely which is nice - what wasn't so nice was that on my first day of work I had to go to a work lunch and there was NOTHING vegan on the menu apart from "lettuce leaves with citrus dressing". How embarrassing to only be able to eat lettuce (thus perpetrating the image that vegans only eat rabbit food). So because I didn't want to eat only lettuce I ordered some sourdough bread which came with butter - so I ended up spending a forking fortune for some lettuce and a few pieces of bread. I was really angry and rather embarrassed. Next week is another lunch - and as I know about it before hand I got the menu - and once again all I can eat are the side dishes of salad or vegetables (and once again I will be paying about $10 per side dish). I hate eating out in Hobart :(

Nat and I have been eating (which is a good start) - but at the end of the day I have just been too tired to take a photo of what I make - Nat and I also had Nat's mum down for two nights and then my brother down for one night and so we have hardly had any time to breath - let alone cook and blog.

I just thought I would show you a few pictures of some dishes that we have had over the last fortnight. Then I think I will go and have a nap - I am so tired (I worked at the Organic Market Stall from 5.30am this morning and only just got back home). Tara nominated me for a blog award- but I think I will do that a bit later tonight.

So onto the eating!!

Pumpkin Oat Patties (made up recipe that needs
a lot of tweaking before I post it), wedges and green beans.

Zucchini Mozzarella Sticks from Happy Herbivore. These were really good. A healthy snack - I was a little lazy and didn't crush up the bread crumbs as much as I should have but it still worked well.

Chickpea and Spinach Curry from VWaV. I thought this was nice. But I have simpler chickpea spinach Marsala recipe that I enjoy much better.

I don't know how often I will be able to blog until Christmas - but I try to be a little bit more diligent. I hope you stay sane over the Christmas period.

Sparkled Ginger Cookies are SO good

VWaV Sparkled Ginger Cookies

Oh My Goodness - if you have not made these cookies then you do not know what you are missing out on!!! I made these three days ago and I think that these will be the cookies that I bake for Christmas parties and Christmas day snacks. I used to love an awesome ginger cake that my friends mum (the owner and chef of the restaurant where Nat and I got married) used to make - this had that flavour.

They were a different texture to a lot of the cookies I usually make. I made them quite large and they pillowed up and looked very pretty. They had a beautiful soft texture. mmm..... they will not last as long as I thought they might. Oh well - I am not upset because they were so ridiculously easy that it will take no time to make them again.

VWaV kicks some cookie arse once again!!

Oh - does anyone know of a good ginger cake recipe?? I would love to make one.