Sunday 1 April 2012

Look What I Got.....

I was so happy the other day, I actually remembered to go op-shopping and was very happy to score 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts and a skirt for $50, which considering they were all basically brand new, some still with the original tags still on them I was pretty happy.
Yesterday I took hubby around to a couple of second hand stores yesterday and I found this great cork board, reduced to clear for $10!! I thought it was a real find! :)

Wednesday 21 March 2012

A Spot of Autumn Cleaning.

I've recently been thinking that I need some new Tupperware, but on further inspection of my pantry I soon figured out that was not the case! I am disgustingly ashamed with myself at the state my cupboards were in, I even found containers full of dried lentils and chickpeas that I bought, and thought I had used, a year ago!I also found a heap of old glass jars from things like pasta sauce, I thought they we all currently being used or that I had run out, evidently not. I have decided to recycle these for storing my lentils in, as they are glass they won't absorb that horrible plasticy smell that my other containers leech out, plus it will stop me buying more than I can use! 
I have a spice rack, but it too is a mess, I have always bought my spices in glass jars, which I always throw in the recycling bin when done. Recently, though, I bought reusable glass jars that I just label and refill as I need too. I think they look a lot cuter than the little bottles you get at the supermarket.

I finally have total order in my pantry and hubby has been threatened with pain of death if he ruins said order, so we came up with the OCD-sounding idea of labeling the shelves, lets hope it works!!

Sunday 18 March 2012

"Steak" Sandwich.

I had a craving for a "steaky" kind of sandwich for lunch a little while ago, so I did what any good little vego would do, bought some Swiss browns and grilled them! I then added some sautéed onions, lettuce, spinach, bread and BBQ sauce and I got my "steak" sandwich.

So easy and SOOO YUMMY, totally satisfied my craving for something to just bite on in to! (:

I'm not sure how I made this background so black and the sandwich so shiny,
the wonders of my iPhone 3 I guess :-p

NB: Obviously if you want this GF make sure you bread and condiments are.

Happy St. Pat's Day (Kinda).

My contribution to St. Patrick's day was broccoli, broccoli wrapped in pasta (:

Friday was one of those nights that I just hadn't planned anything for dinner, I hadn't been shopping and I didn't know what was in the fridge or pantry! I opened them up and found my ingredients and a meal came to mind.

Now obviously Friday was not St. Pat's day, but I had left overs for Saturday night which I took to my Mum's house. I shared mine with my pasta obsessed niece and nephew whilst everybody else chowed down on stuff you don't want to know about!
(BTW omni hubby liked my meal MUCH better, I love that over time he is starting to see that meat makes you feel heavy, a bit sick and generally gross).

So what was this delectable delight I created? It goes by the "very imaginative" name of:
Broccoli Pasta
Omni hubby said "WOW, that looks so vegan!"
Funny that :-P

Ingredients:
Quick note: there are few measurements because I didn't really measure anything, I just chucked it all in!
  • Pasta, I used high fibre white pasta, but you can use what ever you like, spinach pasta for that extra St. Patty's day kick or of course wholemeal or GF.
  • Garlic, I used granules 
  • Salt
  • 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1 ½-2 heads of broccoli
  • Sesame seeds
  • Olive oil
Method:
  1. Boil water in a large pot.
  2. Whilst water is boiling cut broccoli into florets.
  3. Add pasta and some salt (if desired) and garlic to water.
  4. Juice the lemon and add the juiced halves (NOT the juice, just the left over skins and pulp) to the water.
  5. When pasta only has about a minute to go chuck the broccoli and chickpeas in with the pasta.
  6. When broccoli is cooked drain the whole lot and put it back in the pan.
  7. Drizzle with some olive oil, pour in the lemon juice and toss on some sesame seeds. Give it a good stir and there you have it, broccoli pasta!
The first night we had this with (Woolworths Homebrand) garlic bread, which is my new obsession, but please don't forget about my main obsession to bring Lord of the Fries to Tasmania.
The second night I had 2 Redwood Lincolnshire style meat-free sausages and BBQ sauce with it, both nights it was great!

So go on and enjoy a very tasty and nutritious meal on me (: 


Wednesday 14 March 2012

My First S'mores.

So because I'm not American S'mores aren't something that I have ever eaten, except for in the form of imported Pop Tarts in my previous non-vegan life.
In my recent trip to Melbourne I decided to stock up on Dandies Marshmallows, for two reasons: 
  1. 'Cause I could.
  2. 'Cause I thought I would like to try these American camping snacks.
Tonight was just the kind of night that I thought I would like to indulge in such gooey, sugary treats, even though desserts are not something I tend to consume, so I got out my little toaster oven and away I went!

S'mores
Ingredients:
  • Digestive biscuits
  • Dandies marshmallows
  • Lindt 70% dark chocolate
Method:
  1. Get as many biscuits as required depending on how many everybody wants e.g. there are 2 of us so I used 8 biscuits. However, Carl only ate one S'more, I ate two and there is still one left over, not sure I can do anything with that.......
    Anyway grab your biscuits.
  2. Put a few dandies on biscuits, I probably used to many, but do what feels right :-P
  3. Heat under the grill, or the top element of a toaster oven, whatever ya got. Heat until melty and gooey and a little browned.
  4. Put a square of chocolate in the middle of the melted marshmallows, leave under the heat until it melts a bit.
  5. Get them out from the cooking device and squish another biscuit on top. And there you have it, S'mores.
WARNING TIME: In case you have never cooked before, or if your of the raw food persuasion,  which is totally cool (no pun intended, I swear!!), then you will have to know that this comes out EFFING HOT!!!!! So watch your fingers and your tongue, be warned!!!

The verdict? Wow, cool, using dark chocolate was good as I wouldn't want an overly sugary chocolate for this, but it was the first time I had had dark chocolate in quite some time, so it was a bit bitey.
So much fun though and I think I will be satisfied for quite some time!!

Enjoy the rest of your week
SJ (: 

Monday 12 March 2012

Another long time between posts!

OK so yet again I have been busy as all hell! I started 2 new jobs in as many days and LOVE them both! I am SOO much happier than I was when I was working at the shelter. I have now returned to veterinary nursing and also started teaching animal studies at TAFE. Both of these jobs keep me really, really busy and I have been putting in A LOT of long hours at nights and on my days off to keep up with my workloads. Seriously not at all complaining, I never thought you could really be truly happy at work, but now I know you can! (:
AND a week ago my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew moved down to Tassie as well, they join my folks in muscling in my mine and hubby's "territory", at least the live like 40 minutes away!!!

So with all of this wonderful craziness going on I have really not had time to cook, let alone blog! Thankfully though hubby has kept my belly full as until last week he has been unemployed since Christmas, just one of may casualties from the Tasmanian state government not being able to budget properly. Luckily he now has a part-time job at one of the local collages, which is awesome because it it super close to our house and he's only entering his 3rd teaching year and and we expected about another 7-17 years before he got such a position. So, yay for us, we both have income, something really handy when you have a mortgage! And him only being part-time (at this stage) means I still get a house-hubby for half the week, SCORE!! :-p

We were, however, able to take a mid-week weekend recently to Melbourne. It was awesome, I had never been before and really I had never before had any desire to go to Melbourne, why would I when I had previously lived 1-3 hours south of Sydney? Plus Canberra, believe it or not, had plenty of advantages, and after they got a DFO there was even less reason for me to care about Melbourne!
So what was the reason for this life-changing (stay tuned) trip?
SYSTEM OF A MOTHER EFFING DOWN!!!!!!
At Rod Laver Arena
Oh man I loved this gig, I was head banging like I was a good 10-12 years younger than I am, and even though I'm only 28, I found out the next day that I was WAY out of practice for such activities! I didn't care though, I also didn't care that I screamed and threw my right arm around so much that I was barely audible and my shoulder was competing with my neck for sympathy! 

Now it wasn't just  SOAD that had me all excited, since going vegan I have wanted to visit Melbourne, and in the end I was actually getting more excited about food than I was the band! This was actually the 2nd time I saw SOAD, but only the first time that I had gone to Melbourne, and as a vegan at that!
A couple of days before I left I asked "the Facebook vegans" where I should go for meals and to stock up on vegan junk food to bring back.
I was directed to some great places, THANK YOU to everyone who made suggestions for me, including one of my fave places in Melbs: 

The Radical Grocery Store
I spent $100 here on junk such as Dandies, various Bonbarr chocolate bars, jelly, toffee, coconut ice, tofutti cuties, AND:
Mister Nice Guy Cupcakes
This was a Peanut Butter Cup and it was SOOO moist and chocolatey
and peanut buttery!!

I also ate at Enlightened Cuisine where we had:
Crispy Duck with Plum Sauce.
And

Kung Po Lamb.
AND on my way back to my plane I made my way to Chan House where I had:
"Honey" "Chicken" with Steamed Rice and Veggies.
We also visited the Australian Centre for the Moving Image which was really great AND FREE! Well worth a look if your hanging out around Federation Square.

But I think the place that got me more excited than ANYTHING else was visiting Lord of the Fries my new favourite place on earth, SERIOUSLY, I'm even spearheading a campaign to bring them down to Tasmania, not just for me, but we NEED more veggie choice down here!
LOTFs was my first stop on my whirlwind trip and then I had breakfast there the next day for breakfast as well. 

This was my breakfast meal, a big original burger and fries with vegan cheese and gravy
I have recreated these fries a few times over the past few weeks with
Redwood's cheezly and Redwood's vegetarian gravy, YUM!!!

Nuggets, onion rings and fries munch box with BBQ sauce .

Mini original burger

The best OJ I have ever had!
Now I can't wait until the next time I get to go to Melbourne, and I plan on spending more than 36 hours there!

Stay well,
Love SJ (:

Friday 10 February 2012

Happy First Anniversary (To Me).

Today is my 1st anniversary of being vegan!
I am so proud and happy with myself and all of the changes I have made this year, not just with my diet, but the way my thinking has changed as well. I feel I have always been a compassionate person, but over the past 12 months I think I have become more compassionate. This isn't to say that I have turned into a weepy sissy, just more understanding. And I haven't become weaker, just the opposite, I have become physically and mentally stronger. Actually this image sums it up nicely I think :)


Now there have been a few amazing changes to my health as well, the biggest being in remission from Hyperthyroidism (that 1 year anniversary will be next month). When my Hyperthyroidism was coupled with my old lifestyle I think it's amazing I didn't have any worse health issues. From the time I was 24 (I'm now 28) I had high blood pressure, 145/90, and a high resting heart rate, 100-120 bpm. These numbers have been gradually falling, I think I started documenting them at some point, but I have no idea where. On Monday, however, I went to  my GP for a check up and and found out that my BP was 103/76 and my HR is 76bmp! I cannot believe how dramatically this has changed!

And of course I have lost weight, something else my doctors are more than happy about. From Christmas 2010-Christmas 2011 I lost 18kg (39.68 lbs). Unfortunately since then I have gained 1.5kg which pisses me off to no end, hopefully that will fall off again soon!

Now my weight loss would have been a lot more, as I am still overweight, if I hadn't been so frickin' lazy!! I didn't feel the need to exercise very much, or at all, as I have a very physical job (excuse number 1). I was also seeing such great results just by the changes in my diet that I didn't feel I had to exercise very much, or at all (excuse number 2). So I didn't.
For some reason, however, I have decided that I need to exercise, which has turned into "I have to exercise or else I am a fat, lazy slob!". I understand that in writing that may send alarm bells off in some people's minds thinking "Whoa,this chica better watch out she doesn't do anything stupid or dangerous!" whereas what it actually means to me is "itchy feet". I am finding that if I walk for an hour or do a Zumba class after work I feel more relaxed, happier, less stressed and I sleep better. I know those of you who are regulars to this exercise thing would be thinking "Well duh!!", but it takes lazy peeps, like me, longer to figure these things out! So now I am loving exercise, just annoyed that this 1.5kg came back whilst I'm doing it! >:-/

Back to the anniversary. To reward myself for everything I have achieved I made my favourite meal. This is something that like my Lentil Bolognese is a childhood favourite that I had a lot of fun veganizing!

NOTE: This isn't a quick recipe, you probably want about an hour or so just to let the mix simmer on the stove, so allow 2-2.5 hours prep/cooking time. The ingredients and methods lists look huge, but don't be discouraged, it's totally worth it. I do recommend the use of an apron!


SJ's Lasagne.
Ingredients:
  • olive oil
  • 1 brown onion
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • ¼ cup tomato paste
  • 1 400g tin brown lentils
  • 2 zucchinis 
  • 2 carrots
  • 250g mushrooms, I prefer button or Swiss brown or a mix
  • 100g (or so) frozen spinach
  • a nice big bunch of fresh basil, as well as fresh oregano, rosemary and thyme to taste
  • 3-4 fresh tomatoes or a 400g tin
  • 200-300g firm tofu
  • 750g bottle pasta sauce of choice
  • ½ cup red wine, I've been enjoying the Yallumba Y Series Merlot for both cooking and drinking :)
  • 6-8 lasagne sheets of choice (regular, GF or even tortillas!)
  • If you wish TVP (1 cup), veggie mince (1 cup) or crumbled up veggie burgers (about 2 home or ready made) are also nice editions.
  • 1 Tbs sugar (optional) 
  • salt and pepper to taste
Cream Sauce:
  • 1 tub Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
  • 1 tin Carnation soy milk
  • 2 Tbs (or to taste) nutritional yeast/Parmazano/"Motzarella" or a combo of all
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
To Serve:
  • Garden Salad
  • Garlic bread (recipe at the end)
Method:
  1. Slice and press, or just press, tofu.
  2. Drain and rinse lentils, set aside.
  3. Top and tail and chop the zucchinis, carrots (peeled or not) and mushrooms, set aside
  4. Finely dice the onion. Heat a little oil in a nice big deep pan or large pot, through in onion. Gently cook on medium to medium-high heat until translucent, stirring occasionally, do not brown. When ready crush garlic into pan, stir.
  5. When garlic becomes fragrant add tomato paste and allow it to cook off for a minute or two, gently stir every now and then.
  6. Add zucchini, carrot, frozen spinach, tomatoes and lentils, mix well.
  7. Add pasta sauce and red wine, mix well.
  8. Crumble in tofu. if using veggie mince or burgers now is the time to add them as well. If you find that the mix is getting to thick you may want to pour a little water in, or maybe just simmer for less time, you be the judge.
  9. Tear the leaves of the herbs of the stems and stir them into the mix.
  10. Now add the mushrooms, sugar, salt and pepper.
  11. Turn the heat down to medium low, stir very well to ensure all the ingredients are combined. Allow the mix to simmer an bubble away for up to 1 hour, just keep a close eye on it and stir semi-regularly.
  12. Whilst the mix is simmering away prepare your cream sauce. Combine the Tofutti cream cheese, Carnation soy milk, nutritional yeast/"cheese" and nutmeg. To do this I usually just use my immersion blender or use a medium sized bowl and good spoon or spatula. The process is easier if the Tofutti is at or close to room temperature.
  13. When The mix on the stove is at a consistency you are happy with preheat the oven according to the directions on the pasta box (usually about 180oC and 30-40 minutes cooking time). 
  14. Get a LARGE baking dish and assemble your lasagne. I layer pasta, veggie mix (make sure it covers the pasta well) and cream sauce until dish is full. I do pasta, veggie mix (3-4 ladles worth) and ¼ of the cream sauce. Repeat this once, then top with pasta and remaining half of the cream sauce. On top of this I sprinkle extra nutritional yeast. If you have a REALLY LARGE baking dish you may just need more layers.
  15. Pop in the oven for bout 30-40 minutes, it should be nice and golden and bubbly, just like a "real" one.  
  16. Now is a good time to make your salad and start preparing your garlic bread, recipe bellow).
Ingredients:
  • Woolworths "Bake at Home" Dinner rolls, however many is required for the amount of people you are feeding.
    My garlic bread is super easy, but NOT GF so if that is something you require ensure you have GF bread rolls.
  • olive oil, about  ¼ cup 
  • 3-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
Method:
  1. When the lasagne only has about 10 minutes left to go, pop the rolls in the oven until they are half cooked.
  2. Mixed the desire amount of garlic and oil together. If you like a more subtle garlic taste use only a little, if you like it more robust use more.
  3. When ready pull the rolls out of the oven, cut them in half lengthwise and using a teaspoon pour the garlic oil onto the rolls, rub the mix in to ensure decent coverage and not just a clump. Depending on the size of the rolls you may need to repeat this.
  4. Once covered in garlic oil pop the rolls back into the oven until they are golden brown around the edges. Once ready pull your rolls and lasagne out of the oven and serve.
Just be warned, this amazing tasty garlic bread gives you seriously gnarly garlic breath the next day, consider yourself warned! :)
I know this seems like a lot of steps and a lot of time in the kitchen, but trust me, it's not that bad. The only person I have served this to that didn't like it was my dad, and that is only because he doesn't like zucchini or carrot, oops! Other than that EVERYBODY loves this, even omni hubby told me that he likes my vegan lasagne better than he does my mum's traditional lasagne, a he truthfully wasn't sucking up!
If you find you have a ton of veggie mix left just pop it in the freezer until next time, it won't be enough mix for a huge one, but you could definitely getter a smaller one out of it.
I also find that this makes fantastic left overs for my lunches.So go on, give it a go, as I said at the beginning this is one of my favourite dishes. If I could be bothered I would make it every week, but eventually I would get sick of it and I do not want that!!

Enjoy :) 
xo



Thursday 9 February 2012

Any Meal With Salad Is Healthy, Right?

WRONG!! I didn't care though! I have been working out a fair bit lately and I got a craving, just for chips with Nice N' Tasty Chicken Salt, yes vegan chicken salt!! :) :) :)  I figured I couldn't just have that though, so I started looking for seitan recipes, but it was getting a bit late to start making seitan and I was really, really hungry! (When I get like that I tend to get grumpy also, sometimes to the point that hubby tells me that I need feeding :-p)
Any-who, I Google kept directing me to "Southern Fried Chicken" recipes and that's when I remembered that I had a pack of  Redwood Gourmet Meat-Free Chicken in the freezer.
Now I have previously made this recipe and found that the coating was ACE, but that I didn't like the chicken I used as much 1) Because it's quite glutinous and 2) Because it has an Asian BBQ chicken flavour. You can check this out here.
So the recipe I was referring is one that many vegos would 
have come across in their quest to satisfy a meaty, chickey, fried, KFCy kinda craving. This recipe is all over the web, I have found it on About.com and on Yeah, That Vegan Shit, but just in case you haven't seen it before here it is:

Southern Fried "Chicken"

Ingredients:
  • 1 tsp salt or seasoned salt 
  • 1 tsp onion powder 
  • 1 tsp garlic powder 
  • 1 tsp black pepper 
  • dash cayenne (optional) 
  • 1 1/2 cups flour 
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional) Personally I think this shouldn't be skimped on.
  • 1/4 cup prepared mustard (yellow/mild American is where it's at, but you could probably use any) 
  • 2 tbsp baking powder 
  • 1/2 cup water 
  • 1 lb seitan or other chicken substitute, cut into 1-2" square pieces 
  • oil for frying
Method:
  1. In a medium to large bowl, mix together the salt, onion powder, garlic powder, flour, black pepper, cayenne and nutritional yeast. 
  2. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the mustard and water. Add 1/3 cup of the flour mixture to the mustard mixture and combine well. 
  3. Add baking powder to the flour mixture and combine well. 
  4. Coat pieces of seitan or mock chicken with the mustard batter, then coat each piece with the dry flour mixture. 
  5. Fry chunks of "chicken" in the oil on medium-high heat in a large skillet for 3-5 minutes, turning once until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel, serve with ketchup or barbeque sauce and enjoy! 
  6. Tip: If your chunks are turning brown or black rather than a crispy golden brown, your oil is probably too hot! Reduce the heat a small amount and try again.
So as you can no doubt tell, this is not a healthy meal, especially when I served it with chips, at least I skipped the bread, but I did have salad with it to make it appear healthy :-P
The Redwood chicken worked really quite well, I did gently defrost it in the microwave prior to coating, and it cooked really quickly.
I highly recommend that the next time you feel like something naughty definitely give this a go, it's quick and easy to prepare, tastes great and you can totally play around with different seasonings and salts. 

So go on, have fun :)

Wednesday 1 February 2012

My Favourite Room.

I am in the process of catching up on all the blogs I want to post, but haven't had time to. I have photos, recipes and notes all over the show. I keep telling myself I must get organised, but of course I never do!
For once in my life, however, my kitchen was immaculately clean and tidy (if you will forgive Gabby on the bench), so i figured I should take a picture to prove it!
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, as I am sure many of you do also. So for now I am just going to share with you my kitchen, and when I am slightly more organised I will share with you some more food.
:)
The cats love supervising my work in the kitchen, even if it is just when
I'm taking photos :-P
My breakfast nook on the right and half of my double pantry on the left.
I love that sky light!

Monday 23 January 2012

SJ's Pad Thai

Hubby and I went out for dinner a few nights ago to a local Thai restaurant, the chef was more than obliging to make my Pad Thai vegan. I was pretty good, I did enjoy it and I was very grateful for the efforts she went to.

Tonight  Hubby wanted a stir-fry for dinner, he usually does. He feels that as I am now vegan I should be an honourary  Asian and eat stir-fires every night basically. 
(Please note that these comments are not intended for offence, he, well we, just think that Asians do the best food, but especially vego food!)

So, anyway, we have been eating a lot of Asian and Indian (inspired) foods lately which means we have been eating a lot of rice lately, white rice at that, not the healthier brown rice! I decided that I could not deal with rice again tonight so I would make noodles instead. Even though I had only had a Pad Thai style dish a few nights ago, I decided I would finally try to make my own. It turned out pretty good too, Hubby even went bakck for seconds (remember Hubby is omni, and not at all vego), though the dish was a little dry as I didn't have any peanut oil and only used a little bit of olive oil. Clearly restaurants use a hell of a lot more oil than I do (no shit!). I have adjusted this in my ingredients, but if you have the same problem just add more oil.


SJ's Pad Thai


Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
  • 2 Tbs peanut oil (you may need more), coconut oil would probably go alright in this as well, though I would use the refined
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 small-medium brown onion, sliced into thin half moons
  • 1 Tbs vegetarian Tom Yum Paste, I used Vessimix by Lamyong and yes, it is vegan
  • 1 tsp tamarind puree 
  • the juice of one lime, including pulp, plus an extra lime (or lemon) to serve
  • 2 Tbs kecap manis, soy sauce or tamari to keep it GF
  • 1 Tbs brown sugar, muscovado or coconut palm sugar
  • 1/4 tsp (or one good pinch) dried kelp/seaweed, Sea Power Dulse Flakes or Wakame Leaves 
  • Coriander to taste, I am not a fan so I only used a few, maybe 5 or 6, leaves chopped up for the whole dish, plus extra for garnish, some recipes say a whole bunch, ew!
  • 200g firm tofu, pressed and sliced into bite sized pieces
  • 100g of vegetarian chicken seitan (NOT GF!) or 1/4 cup unprepared soybean chicken (optional) ~ I tend to just use tofu more often than not
  • 1 1/2 cups bean sprouts, washed, drained
  • 1 1/2-2 cups mixed veggies, be as traditional or not as you like! I used yellow capsicum, beans, snow peas, carrots and broccoli simply because these are what I had in my fridge and they need to get used!
  • 200-400g rice stick noodles
  • Crushed peanuts, these should be natural, raw peanuts
Method:
  1. Prepare your veggies and put them aside.
  2. Heat oil in a large pan or wok.
  3. Add sliced onion and cook gently for about 1 minute. Add garlic, do not allow to colour.
  4. Add the Tom Yum Paste and tamarind puree allowing the pastes to cook off.
  5. Now add the lime juice and pulp, kecap manis/soy sauce/tamari, kelp/seaweed and brown sugar. You may need to add a little more oil or a little bit of water if it seems to be drying out.
  6. Once well combined and sugar has dissolved transfer to a small bowl, mug or measuring jug, makes about 100ml, and put aside.
  7. In the same pan/wok that was used to make the sauce, which should now be empty, throw in the tofu and "chicken" if using.
  8. Start preparing the noodle according to packet directions.
  9. Add veggies to pan, once tofu is starting to get golden. Stir-fry nice and hot for a few minutes. Drizzle on 1/4-1/2 of the sauce that was put aside and allow the flavours to start to infuse the veggies and tofu.
  10. Drain noodles once ready and add to pan along with bean sprouts. Add remaining sauce and stir everything through thoroughly, let cook for about a minute.
  11. Serve with crushed peanuts on top (if desired) and garnish with leaves of coriander and wedges of lime, my fave, or lemon.
Enjoy (:

Thursday 19 January 2012

Fostering Is Fun!

I have been sooo busy lately camping, house painting, learning how to sew and fostering kittens, this all means that my guitar lessons, cooking and blogging have taken a very big back seat!
In case you didn't know I work at my local RSPCA as an animal care attendant. Most of my  work is in the cattery with the occasional kennel shift thrown in the mix.

One of the perks of working (or volunteering) in the shelter is that you get the opportunity to foster some little babes that otherwise might no have a chance. I just wanted to share with you a few pics of my latest foster babies (partly so you don't start to think that I don't like blogging!).

I had 5 kittens for about 8 weeks until they got nice and "fat" and healthy. their names were: Eenie, Menie, Minie, Moe and Cherub. Originally there was only 4 and then Cherub got pushed into the mix as well :)

This little cutie is "Eenie" a very sweet tabby and white male.
This is his sister "Menie" also tabby and white and very sweet, but more independent.
 And this is "Cherub" trying very hard to suckle off my gorgeous Pomeranian, Meg.

When I first got the babies home they all had a slight touch of flu and through Meg's constant cleaning of their faces and all the TLC she gave them they fought it off! I truly believe that if Meg didn't help me care for them the way she did we would have gone through a lot of antibiotics. If she had of ever had the chance to bredd I think she would of made an amazing mother!

Back to the kittens. Moe got adopted after only being back in the shelter for 2 hours!! Menie and Minie went within a day or 2 and last I heard Cherub and Moe were still at the shelter, hopefully by the time I go back to work they will have found their forever homes as well.

It really is a very rewarding experience being a foster carer, although there is some chores involved it is also very fun just playing and spending time with the babies. At the moment the RSPCA is calling out for foster carers, so if it's something you thing you could do give your local shelter a call, I'm sure they would be glad to get you on board.

:)