Quinoa Pilaf is yum

I just made the yummiest quinoa pilaf. I put shitake mushrooms, peas, red capsicum, shallots, and topped it with a little fresh corriander and big squeeze of fresh lime juice. YUMMY!!! The stock was some of the leftover stock from my Vietnamese soup the other night, and some of the water used to rehydrate the shitakes. Greg is away so the left overs are for my lunch tomorrow!

I'm making a conscious effort to eat healthily lately and do some exercise every day. For the last year I've pretty much thrown my healthy eating and exercise habits out the window, and it's nearly to the stage where I need to buy bigger jeans, so FUCK THAT!!!! No more yummy (but fatty/gluten-y) Green Gourmet and Green Palace for me for a while. No more eating whatever the hell I feel like all the time. I'm attempting to do the 28 day detox from the 'detox for life' book. I've used this book as a recipe book before, but never really tried very hard to do the actual detox. i think it will be easier now that i'm vegan. These are the foods I can and can't eat.

what to eat checklist

-fresh fruit (limit banans to 1 per day)
-vegetables (limit potatoes to 1 portion every 2-3 days)
-salads
-grains - millet, brown rice, quinoa, rye, buckwheat
-breads - rye, wheat-free, pumpernickel
-crisp breads - rye, rice cakes, oatcakes
-water and herbal teas
-fresh squeezed juices (carrot, apple, celery)
-pulses and bean sprouts
-rice, almond and sesame milk
-nuts (brazil, almond, cashew)
-seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, flax)
-cold pressed oils
-fresh herbs


what to avoid checklist

-coffee, tea and other caffeine drinks (aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i can't quit coffee altogether)
-sugar (holy shit)
-cakes, biscuits, confectionary
-wheat bread, pasta, noodles, crackers
-white rice
-ready meals
-salt (aaaahhhh soy sauce is my best friend)
-alcohol
-artificial food additives (shit this will be hard)
-fried foods
-artificial sweetners
-hydrogenated fats
-fizzy drinks
-squahes and cordials

Korean Noodles

I bought The Asian Vegan Kitchen by Hema Parekh for myself for my birthday. I own a lot of vegan cook books, and this is by FAR the best! I could live on Asian food alone, and to find a book that lets me cook my own authentic dishes, and sets my mind at ease that there isn't any hidden fish flakes floating around in my soup broth, is just the best thing ever!

Last night I made the Vietnamese 'Fresh Corriander Soup' which my boyfriend can't stop raving about, and tonight I made the Korean Noodles. YUMMY. I thought I'd copy the recipe for the noodles, since it's fairly quick to make once you've chopped up all your veges.

Two things to do prior to preparation is to rehydrate your mushrooms in water for a few hours before (I used shitake as I couldn't find 'wood ear mushrooms'), and to create your chili sesame oil. To make the oil:

3 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons chili oil

Combine both oils and heat until smoky. Allow to cool before using. There is more here than you will need so the extra can be stored in a glass jar for later use.

Korean Noodles

5 cups (1.2L) water
7 ounces (200g) sweet potato noodles (cellophane noodles are a good substitute)
1 tablespoon Chili Seasame Oil (see above)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 medium carrot, julienned
1 scallion, thinly sliced (I used shallot)
1/2 cup (50g) garlic stems, cut into bite sized pieces
2 dried wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted and chopped
1 cup (100g) beansprouts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon castor sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons white seasame seeds, toasted (i bought pre-toasted seeds)
red chili threads, for garnish (i didn't have these so a few chili flakes did the job)

1 - Bring the water to a boil in a large pan. Add the noodles and cook for 5-6 minutes until soft. Drain and rinse under running water.

2 - Heat the Chili Seasame Oil in a woke and saute the garlic and onion briefly over medium heat. Add the bell pepper, carrot, scallions, garlic stems, and wood ear mushrooms, turn the heat to high and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

3 - Add the bean sprouts, salt, pepper, sugar, and soy sauce. Toss the vegetables and reduce the heat to medium. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

4 - Mix in the cooked noodles and saute for 1 minute. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with red chili threads.

Vegan potato, spinach and pea stew

Today i got the inspiration to make an African style curry of my own concoction with what I had available. I was wanting lots of tasty spices so this is what I did.

dash olive oil
5 cloves garlic (i'm sick!)
3 tiny onions
1 teaspoon each: ground cumin seeds, ground corriander, salt
1/2 teaspoon each: ground tumeric, ground hot chili, ground harissa
5 medium sized potatoes chopped into small pieces
bunch of spinach (silverbeet)
half bag frozen peas
2 big dollops tomato puree
2 1/2 cups water

Sautee the onions, garlic and spices together in the oil for a few minutes. Add the chopped spinach until it reduces a little. Add the potato, tomato puree and water and simmer for about 45 mins with the lid on loosely, stirring occasionally. Add the peas and cook for a further 15 minutes or so. This would have been great with fresh tomatoes and cauliflower but i couldn't be bothered going to the shops! You can adjust the quantity of the spices to your taste of course. It could also be cooked for longer but i couldn't wait to eat it!

Vegan Witches Fingers

I baked Vegan Witches Fingers for Halloween. and freaked alot of ppl out. mwahahahaaaa.









I'm going to the Cruelty Free Festivaltomorrow. I'm SUPER excited and hope to take lots of pictures.

I just gave Chai a bath in the kitchen sink cause our shower is broken and the nozzle sprays water everywhere, that would have freaked her out too much. She's getting allergies again now it's spring and she's been very itchy lately. Other than the oatmeal shampoo the vet told me to use, I wonder what natural remedies I could use. I need to do a bit of research.

I found vegan gummi bears at coles. I rock the kasbah. Now I'm going to eat them!



Edit: to say the gummi bears are DELICIOUS!!! more flavoursome than regular gummi bears, not as chewy but who cares?!

Food and Shampoo

Last week I was inspired to make a delicious chili, so I concocted one from what I had in the pantry and fridge. It turned out pretty well, and the tick I used was to add a little corn flour in to thicken it up a bit. As I was cooking it I was thinking, "This is just like a pasta sauce, what makes chili special" so I added the corn flour and voila! It saved the day! Unfortunately I was too excited about my end result which I served on a bed of rice, to take any pictures, but I did snap this one in the pot as I'd just started cooking.



I also made us some more delicious pizzas, making sure I made extra to take to work with me the next day! Yummo.




Next night we had miso soup. I'd asked my boyfriend to chop up potato, carrot, leek, garlic and boil it as I was going to make soup. I didn't tell him it was for Miso so he put a tomato in as well. I normally wouldn't do this but it added a nice subtle flavour, and added a little extra 'body' which was nice. Once those veges were soft I added some noodles, the miso paste and some dried seaweed. On top I sprinkled some fresh corriander and seasame seeds with some extra small dried seaweed. Was delish!



Today I didn't feel like cooking much so I picked up a couple of my favourite 'take away'. They are prepared by one of my favourite restaraunts Green Gormet, but I picked these up at Harris Farm fruit market as it's easy to stop off there on my way home from work. I love all their food. I feel like I'm spoilt when I eat at that restaraunt cause I know that I can have anything from their menu!




I also felt like a treat so I bought some chocky.



And bought some new shampoo and conditioner to try. I haven't used it yet so I'll let you know what it's like. I hope it's good because:

The Herbon range of Body Care Products:
Allergy free
100% biodegradable
No petrochemicals, artificial perfumes or animal ingredients
Not animal tested
No added colours.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies!

Last Sunday we took Nanna out for her birthday lunch. I was disappointed because it was quite busy and the waitress didn't seem to be very helpful with vegan-ising a very meaty menu. What I ended up with was delicious, though not very filling.


Roast pumpkin salad.



Me & Nanna

Nanna had a great lunch so thats what it was all about! When I dropped her home I climbed up and picked some mulberries for her, she was going to make an apple mulberry crumble. I had a few, they were delicious and juicy, just like I remember when I was a kid. Every time I've bought them at the fruit market they have been hard and tasteless.



I made a yummy pasta for myself the other night, zuch, capsicum, tomato and basil, with vegan parmesan on top.



Today I made some Pumpkin Spice Cookies!!. I subbed with rice milk, Nuttalex margarine and egg replacer. I also added some extra spices to the glaze as well. I used my new cat and dog bone cookie cutters!!! so cute!

Vegan Pizza

Today mum and I decided to make pizzas, so we went shopping to stock up on some delicious toppings!

Along the way I discovered Beetroot Chips! Nice with a beer before preparing dinner, although a little oily. Made me realise that I definitely want to invest in a dehydrator down the line, as so much can be done with one without the need for oil.



Olive dip to use as the spread on my pizza, and some chickpea sausages to slice up for part of the topping.



Slow roasted cherry tomatoes, leek, garlic and potato with mixed herbs.



My pizza! Base of wholemeal lebanese bread, olive spread, roasted cherry tomatoes, roasted potatoes, sliced chickpea sausage, roasted leek, roasted garlic, marinated capsicum, artichoke hearts, drizzled with tahini and topped with fresh corriander. Cooked at 200c for about 10-15mins.



Salad with mixed leaves, red capsicum, cherry tomatoes, avocado, bean sprouts sprinkled with seasame seeds & sunflower seeds, with olive oil, lemon, soy dressing.



Dessert was tapioca cups.