Deliciousness

On Sunday, L-whack and I decided to hit some markets to find some nice fresh fruit & veg for the week ahead. We failed miserably (I’ll tell that story another day – but it’s near impossible to find quality fresh produce, at a reasonable price!). I’m lucky that I’ve discovered Superfruit in Ivanhoe, but as this isn’t near L-whack’s place, we need somewhere a little more local for him.

But one major positive came out of our market trek. Mister Nice Guy Cupcakes.

***SWOON***

I’m not much of a cake person. Sure, give me a piece and I’ll scoff it down in 2 seconds but I don’t crave it nor do I have it often (unlike chocolate, which is consumed daily). But when Mister Nice Guy is knocking, I go (natural, all natural white pistachio) nuts like a kid in a toy store!

L-whack and I braved the miserable, cold, drizzly weather and headed into Prahran Market, hoping to find some nice leafy greens (kale, anyone?) but instead were bitterly disappointed – until I grabbed L-whack by the arm and dragged him over to MNG.

We settled on buying 4 mini cupcakes to share later in the day.

Clockwise from top left: Key Lime, Beetle Juice, Lickety Split and Rocket Shot

Their other flavours are here.

They were all all kinds of deliciousness, but we couldn’t go past the Rocket Shot as a favourite. Chocolate AND coffee? What’s not to love!!

The girl that served us told us that MNG were going to be opening up a bakery soon (I hope that’s not classified info!!) in addition to their Prahran Market spot. Melbourne vegans rejoice!!

Black lentil dahl, Potato & swiss chard curry with brown rice and brocolli

Above is my dinner from last night. I think my love for Vegie Head is well known in this blog (I’m not a crazy groupie stalker – promise!), but I just can’t stress to you how good, versatile and simple her recipes are! Last week I had Litha over for dinner and made the Swiss chard & potato curry (which she looooooooooved and was about the fifth person to ask for the recipe). On Saturday, I made the Black lentil dahl which is featured in Vegie Head’s e-book and I enjoyed a bit of both after my gym workout last night. Both recipes are seriously delicious, and I can’t recommend them highly enough. As well as her other recipes.

Food Porn Friday! – July 27

I’m introducing a new day to everyone’s calendar.

FOOD PORN FRIDAY

Try not to get TOO excited...

Each Friday (if all goes according to plan!); I will post 1 x delicious savoury photo/recipe and 1 x salivating-inducing sweet photo/recipe.

So here is today’s selection (courtesy of Vegie Head). Have you got her e-book yet? If not, you totally have to. At $7 it’s a steal – GET ON IT!

Savoury

Potato Fries – two ways!

http://www.vegiehead.com/breakfasts-snacks--smoothies.html

I am a massive fan of chips (thank God they’re vegan!). L-whack and I went to a fish & chip shop last week, and ordered a large serve of chips and a potato cake for our dinner… yep. Nutritious dinner I know, but we’d just completed a 90 minute walk in the cold, and it was a Sunday evening. Don’t judge us!

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

1 or 2 large sweet potatoes
2 tbsp safflower oil
Ground sweet paprika
 

Method
Preheat oven to 200ºC.
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes in half.
Slice them into chips- try to make them as evenly sized as possible.
Par boil for 4-5 minutes.
In a bowl, whisk the oil and paprika together.
Toss the chips to coat, and spread out evenly on baking paper.
Sprinkle with more paprika and put on the middle shelf in your oven.
The trick to getting them crispy is to cook them on a wire rack over a baking tray.
Bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on how thick your chips are.
Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

For Rosemary and Sea Salt Potato Chips

3 or 4 large Nicola Potatoes
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1 tbsp safflower oil

Method
Follow the above method, replacing the ingredients, and cook for 35-40 minutes.

Sweet

Self-Saucing Chocolate, Cinnamon and Macadamia Puddings

http://www.vegiehead.com/desserts.html

This looks like heaven in a ramekin. I just wanna lick that chocolate dripping down the side… *drool*

Makes 4 - 6 individual puddings or 1 large pudding (depending on size of ramekins)
 

1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup coconut flour (Or 1 1/2 cups plain flour)
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/2 cup raw coconut sugar
1 tsp ground Dutch cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts

Sauce
1/4 cup raw coconut sugar
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
1 1/2 cup boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
In a large bowl, sift in flour/s, cacao and cinnamon, and stir in coconut sugar.
Add melted oil and almond milk and stir to combine- do not over mix.
Fold through macadamia nuts gently; the mixture will seem quite 'doughy'.
Spoon into ramekins or large oven proof dish.
In a heatproof jug, whisk together the sauce ingredients and pour gently (over the back of a spoon) onto puddings.
Bake for 20 minutes (ramekins) or 35 minutes (large dish).
Serve with vegan chocolate ice cream and grate some chocolate on the top.
Serve immediately.

Don't adjust your screens!

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted… lack of motivation has been a big factor.

Recently, my gorgeous nieces moved up to Queensland. It’s been a pretty sucky couple of months; I miss them dearly. But hopefully I will get to see them soon. My mum has gone up to visit them this week (I couldn’t take time off work), and I hope to do the same sometime in the coming months.

It’s been fairly quiet anyways. And freakin’ cold. Man, I hate winter.

Coles supermarket is totally messing with my head.

Read the caption...

Really? Do I need to get checked for colour blindness??

And then there was this capsicum I bought.

As they famously claim “there’s no freshness like Coles freshness”…

And then I baked this blueberry & nut loaf last week. It is totally tasty, and easily veganised.

I found it in a little pull-out recipe book from some magazine (L-whack’s mum gave it to me) but I don’t know where it came from!! So thank you to whoever wrote it. I’ve included my modification in italics…

BLUEBERRY & NUT LOAF

1 1/4 cup self-raising flour (I used wholemeal SR flour)

1 tsp mixed spice

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)

1/2 cup hazelnuts, chopped (I put these in a Ziploc bag, and bashed the hell out of it with a rolling pin – quite therapeutic!)

1/4 cup oat bran

2 tbsp pepitas (I used about 3.5 tbsp. cos they’re yummy)

125g butter, melted (Nuttelex)

1/2 cup low fat milk (soy milk)

2 eggs ( I used Orgran no egg egg replacers)

Method

Preheat oven to a moderate 180°C. Line a 10 x 20cm loaf pan with baking paper.

Sift flour and spice together, then stir in sugar, 1 cup of the berries, nuts, bran and half the pepitas.

In a separate bowl, whisk together nuttelex, soy milk and egg replacers. Gently mix into dry ingredients until combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan, smoothing top. Sprinkle evenly with remaining pepitas and ½ cup blueberries. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until cooked when tested with a skewer.