Friday 28 November 2014

Cheeses (plus pizza and chocolates).

I think the response I hear most when I tell people I'm vegan is "I could never give up cheese"! I get that, cheese is mighty tasty. I loved eating cheese too and found it hard to give up, and most vegans I speak to say that cheese was the last thing to give up. I have tried various (vegan) cheeses, mostly the Cheezly varieties, some are better than others. Recently I tried the Vegusto Melty, everybody says it's great, not me! I thought it was ok, again, better than some others, but not *that* good. And the other 2 that aren't *too* bad are the Tofutti American and Mozzarella, again, ok.
So I decided to bite the bullet and shell out a shitload of cash to try the 4 cheese varieties I have heard everybody rave about: Daiya, Notzarella, Bio Cheese and The Loving Hut Aussie Vegan Cheddar. 
I have tried all of them raw.

The Daiya was not great raw, and despite it being soy-free I felt it smelt quite soy-like.
The Notzarella didn't really taste like anything, which I thought was good as mozzarella doesn't really have much of a flavour.

The Bio Cheese was fairly good, still had a mild soy taste, but much better than most others. I can see why people have been going crazy over it. I really liked the way it cut, it is nice and firm and that was a nice change.
An finally the Loving Hut Aussie Vegan Cheddar. this one I was the most skeptical about, but I found it fairly decent actually. Not as firm to cut as the Bio, but not much softer.
All blocks grated fairly well, especially the Bio, the Notzarella was a bit soft and more difficult to grate, but that didn't really surprise me.
The Bio and Loving Hut cheeses will be pretty good in toasties and on crackers, so that is a win and the Daiya was much better cooked than raw, though I was disappointed that it didn't melt that well and did not go stringy as promised on the pack. The Bio seemed to melt the best.
So to test all of these guys I made pizzas, something I'm not normally that in to, but in the interest of testing new products I figured this would be a great way to do it. The Daiya was definitely my fave in this regard. Now I will have to find some other cheesy recipes to test and use all of them before they go off.

Now for the chocolate.
Go Max Go chocolates are some of the best I have ever tasted, vegan or not, I love them!! Cleo's are peanut butter cups, Jokerz are a Snickers style and the Thumbs Up are a Butterfingers style, my favourite! The others I like of theirs are the Twilight (Mars bar) and Buccaneers (kind of like Milky Way). At around $4 per bar they aren't cheap, but they are so incredibly worth it! The only problem is I just want to eat them al, NOW!!

I got this haul form Vegan Online, my favourite online vegan store. They do ship cold products over night express which costs around $27, again, not cheap, but worth it if you REALLY want stuff!

If you live in the Launceston area and shop at The Organic Grocery Store on Hobart Road at Kings Meadows they order vegan produce from Vegan Perfection and these guys have started stocking Go Max Go Bars (YAY!), the Organic Grocer will order in stuff from VP for you so you don't have to pay for shipping (DOUBLE YAY!!). VP were going to stock Daiya, but so far this hasn't happened, hopefully they will start stocking that and Bio Cheese, this is my hope :)




Cheese overload pizza.
Top left: Daiya
Top right: all 4
Bottom right: Notzarella
Bottom middle: Bio
Bottom left: Loving Hut
Notzarella and Daiya with mushrooms, capsicum, pineapple and onion.




Sunday 23 November 2014

Evandale Markets

For those of you in Northern Tassie, you no doubt know about Evandale markets. Lots of great food (especially if your not vegan :-/ ), plants, bric-a-brac, video games, hats, clothing, etc, etc. Also a couple of great vegan goodies. Goodies such as Sudanese doughnuts.


And today Higher Taste Bakehouse had a stall and they are planing another before Christmas, depending how swamped they get with orders in the lead up to then. I grabbed 2 bags of cookies today; Chocolate Fudge Brownies and Sticky Date. They are so yummy!! And the great packaging makes them great gifts too, and they have a farm sanctuary also! (:


You can check out Higher Taste Bakehouse on Facebook or online here. And she does post around Australia! (:

"Bounty" Slice

Yesterday I made these gorgeous fingers/bars by Karly at Clean Eating Survival Guide. They taste so much like Bounties it is crazy!
It's not my recipe so I won't publish it, but here is where you can find it, on Karly's Vlog.

I will say that I used agave as my sweetener and I didn't have enough dark chocolate, only about 40g, so I topped up with Sweet Williams choc chips which was fantastic!! 


Friday 14 November 2014

ChocNana Bliss Balls

I got a new food processor today and I am stoked, it means I can finally make all sorts of awesome new treaties! Its first job: bliss balls. 
I have found various recipes that I like on the intertubes, but I decided to wing it today, not something I normally do when I haven't ever made something before. So I came up with ChocNana Bliss Balls. I realise banana might be a little odd, and you can totally leave it out if you want, but I had it lying around after my little dude decided he wanted one and then promptly decided that actually he didn't! *facepalm* So I just whacked it in too. 

SJ's ChocNana Bliss Balls


Ingredients:
  • 2 cups of pitted dates (mine were pretty dry, so I soaked them in boiling water for about 2 minutes)
  • 1 C rolled oats
  • 1 C raw nuts, I used cashews, but whatever you want
  • 1 banana
  • 1/2 C coconut, I used moist flakes, plus extra coconut for rolling, I used dedicated. 
  • 2 Tbs vanilla protein powder, optional
  • 1/4 C cocoa

Method:
  1. In food processor roughly chop the nuts and oats.
  2. Add and chop the dates, banana and coconut. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as required.
  3. Add protein powder and cocoa. Mix until everything form together in the bowl.
  4. Scoop out tablespoons of mixture and roll into balls. Roll the balls in the extra coconut or you could use extra cocoa or chopped nuts.
  5. Place balls in an airtight container and leave to firm up in the fridge for one hot before eating. Store in airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days. 


For a GF option take out the oats (or use GF oats) and use extra nuts.  

I popped the recipe into My Fittness Pal and here is an approximate nutritional analysis from the mix. My mix made 17 balls. 

Approximate nutritional value per ball based on 17 balls.


Pot Luck

A couple of weeks ago I went to my very first Pot Luck picnic. It was lovely. The weather was great, I met some new people and the food was fantastic!
My contributions were "Hedgehogs", an old family recipe that is kind of like a little potato rosti, and a beany pasta salad. Both of these recipes are perfect for a BBQ, picnic, or a party (maybe not a fancy party in terms or the hedgehogs).
I'll start with the salad first.

Sooo much vegan goodness!
Even the locals liked it ;)


Beany Pasta Salad.


Ingredients:

  • 1 tin of mixed beans (or any legumes of your choice) drained and rinsed
  • 350-500g of pasta your choice of pasta,  (I used 500g, but next time I'll only use 350-400g)
  • 1 tin or 3 fresh chopped tomatoes (I prefer to use fresh for this recipe)
  • 1 red onion (optional, and not used this time)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 C chopped basil leaves
  • 200g (or more) of baby spinach leaves
Method:

  1. In a large pot Boil enough salted water to cook a whole bag of pasta. Whilst water is boiling/pasta is cooking do everything else. When ready drain pasta and pop it back in the pot, set aside off heat. Cover with lid until ready to use.
  2. Whilst the pasta is doing its thing chop tomatoes and onions, if using them, drain and rinse the legumes, wash and spin the spinach leaves.
  3. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and gently sweat down the garlic, and onion if using, and basil leaves.
  4. Add beans and tomatoes to just heat up a little bit and to get some of the garlic, basil and onion flavours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Once the beany mix and pasta are both ready combine the two gently, being careful not to mash the beans or tear the pasta. Drizzle the pasta with a little extra olive oil.
  6. Add the spinach last minute, just before serving or walking out the door, so as to prevent it from wilting too much.
The salad is lovely warm or cold and great to take for work/school lunches also.

Hedgehogs


Ingredients: 

  • 4 large potatoes
  • 1 brown onion
  • Replacement for 3 eggs, I use Orgran's No Egg
  • 1 C frozen corn
  • Plain white flour to mix (this could be substituted for a GF flour)
  • Oil for frying, enough to submerge the Hedgehogs in
Method:

  1. In your food processor or by hand, grate the potatoes (peeled or not is your choice) and the onion. If you don't have a food processor grating onions sucks big ones, so I recommend slicing fairly thinly instead. If you are doing it by hand use a large bowl, if doing it in the food processor make sure your chopping blade is not in there.
  2. Heat your oil, either in the deep fryer or on the stove, keep an eye on it!
  3. Mix in the No Egg and frozen corn kernels.
  4. Mix in enough flour to bring everything together. Start with about 1/4 C at a time. How much you will need depends on how wet your potatoes are. You could squeeze the liquid out of them just after gating, but I have never worried about that. Don't mix in too much as you will probably need to add more to soak up the moisture from the mixture as you are cooking as the corn will start to defrost.
  5. Now get your hands into it. Scoop out handfuls, if you have big hand make the little handfuls, mold them together by gently, but firmly squeezing them until formed.
  6. Place in your hot oil and cook until golden brown. I don't have a deep fryer so I just cooked them on the stove. I found about 2 minutes on each side (I flip them over) worked fairly well, but the first batch took longer, despite the oil being hot *shrugs shoulders*
  7. Drain on paper towel and enjoy! 
These are great hot or cold, sprinkle with salt, squirt on some tomato sauce, whack 'me between two slice of "buttered" bread and totally eat the shit out of them!! These are also frickin' awesome as a hangover food, vegan, greasy, amazeballs, hangover food. They are also great to eat with beer. They just friggin' rock no matter what your doing!!

Sunday 2 November 2014

Cream Cheese Frosting

I love cream cheese frosting, it can be a bit zesty if you like, either way it is super easy and super yummy! This makes a large quantity, when I made it last I frosted a 30cm round banana cake and 12 cupcake/mini muffins, and had enough to do at least 12 more!! So you may want to halve the quantities (:

Cream Cheese Frosting 

Ingredients:
  • 1 tub of Tofutti "Better Than Cream Cheese"
  • 1/4 cup Nuttelex
  • 500g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract/lemon juice/orange juice/lime
  • The zest of 1 lemon/orange/lime (optional, but recommended if using citrus juice instead of vanilla, which is what I usually do).
Method:

  1. Allow cream cheese to soften on the bench for a little while before you are ready to make the frosting.
  2. Place all ingredients in a bowl/bowl of mixer/bowl of food processor and mix until combined. Done! You may want to add your flavourings according to taste rather than quantity.
  3. If you aren't using the mix immediately transfer to an air tight container and pop into the fridge until ready. It can be stored like this for a few days or so. 

Mini Carrot Muffins/Cupcakes

I have been finally get back into the swing of baking again, but I have terribly neglected my poor little blog!

I have never been a fan of carrot cake, it always seemed like a "grownup's" cake because I never found it very sweet, it never had pink or chocolate icing and the grownup's would alway have it with coffee. That was all terrible to me, and now if I was offered a slice of carrot cake I would still turn it down as I hate walnuts, which always seem to make an appearance. 
I stumbled across this cupcake, or really mini muffin, recipe a while back and I've been tweaking it to my tastes. 
So here are my carrot cake muffins, I  hope you enjoy them (:

Mini Carrot Cake Muffins






Makes 12 mini muffins/cupcakes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup raw/white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 225g grated carrots
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • Subsitute for 2 eggs 
  • 1 1/2 cups self raising flour, white/wholemeal or a mix
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 55g sultanas
  • 1/2 cup milk of choice, you may need more or less so start slow. I use soy or oat milk.
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Method: 
Basically I just chuck everything, except the milk, in my mixer and go for it. I then just add the milk whilst it is mixing through until it looks right. But I'll give you the proper version as well ;)

  1. Preheat oven to 200oC/400oF
  2. Sift flour into a bowl/food processor bowl or bowl of mixer
  3. Add all other ingredients except for the milk. Gently mix until almost all combined.
  4. With the mixer/beaters/food processor on low speed, slowly add milk until the mix has just come together and looking smooth. If you are doing it by hand just keep going until done. Remember; try not to over work the batter or the "muffincake" will go tough. 
  5. Bake for about 15-20 minutes (give or take).
  6. Cool completely on a wire rack.
  7. Frost with cream cheese frosting.
Can be stored in a air tight container unfrosted for a week or for about 3 days frosted in the fridge.