Vegan Viloet Crumble *Drool*

I stole this recipe from another blog and I thought if I can pull this off I would be nothing less than awesome.  I did, I pulled it off and I made honeycomb from scratch...how truly awesome!!!!!!  This is the easiest thing ever and to be honest the most fun I have had in a long long time!!!!

I am singing the song *try it, you just might like it* in my head as I type this up...such a joyful recipe!!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup water
2 cups caster sugar
1 tbs liquid glucose
2 tsp bi-carb soda
Melted chocolate

Method:

In a saucepan (make sure it is large and deep) combine the water and the sugar

Stir on low heat till all the sugar is dissolved and you have a clear liquid

Turn up the heat slightly and allow the liquid to boil (do not stir at all)

When the liquid turns golden turn off the heat

add the bi-carb and stir vigorously till all is dissolved.
* Warning: the caramel will now rise quite a bit and bubble up, be very careful that you don't get burnt.

Once mixed in pour into a tray that has been lined with baking paper and allow to cool.

Once cool and hard break into pieces, any size you like

Cover in Melted chocolate and allow to cool and then EAT EAT EAT!!!!!

When do you compromise?

So last weekend was a true test to my convictions as a vegan, I was kindly sent this article http://www.goveg.com/effectiveAdvocacy_personal.asp and this was pretty much my ethos when I first went vegan.  When I initially announced it to family, I got the usual, "what about your health" and "oh its too hard"etc.  But I think most of them kind of got that this time I was sticking to my guns and I was going to do it. 

On the weekend we drove down to beautiful Bunkers Bay, we stopped off for a coffee break and while I went out to get some gas my BIL bought me a coffee.  Only after did SIL remind him that I only had soy did he realise, and apologised profusely.  I had no qualms drinking it, I decided that I was not going to make a fuss and that it was a genuine mistake and there was no way I was going to demand another coffee from the very busy cafe. 

We then stopped off at a gorgeous winery that served German food, with Markus and BIL being of German background Markus set aside his vegetarianism for lunch.  Then we were left with me...what was I going to eat????  So after a squize at the menu I realised that I had to do some tweaking and eat the least offensive dish.  I chose the pumpkin gnocchi with out the feta which was part of the dish. 

While I did not feel guilty about having to make these exceptions, I got thinking about how lenient is too lenient and what kind of message am I sending if I will compromise so easily.  I would never have eaten meat if there was nothing else on the menu, how far is too far? How many times do I compromise before I become a plastic vegan.  On the other hand do I dig my heels in and stubbornly refuse to eat anything that has animal products in it no matter what the situation?  Is there a fine line you cross each time?

I would appreciate any comments and feedback on the situation.  I am a new vegan and I am still finding my way.

Chocolate Tart... the most delicious thing I have ever eaten!!!!!

 

On the weekend I made this chocolate tart, I was a bit suspicious, how can tofu be used in a dessert and taste good...but I wanted to try it anyway...I had BIL and SIL over for do it yourself Burgers and sweet potato chips, they were going to be my test subjects.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

3 packets of oreos

1/4 cup Nuttlex

500 g silken

500 g non dairy choc chips

2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Blend the Oreos until they are just crumbs.  Combine crumbs with melted butter and line a pie tin with the crumbs to form a pie crust. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes and then remove and allow to cool completely.

2. Blend your tofu and vanilla until creamy.

3. Melt your chocolate chips. Add the melted chocolate to the tofu mixture and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into the (cool) pie crust, spread evenly and put it in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours before serving.

I promise you this is the best thing you have ever put in your mouth...so delish!!!! A word of warning though...it is rich, I would suggest small pieces, even Markus could not finish a whole piece.  But if you want to make an impression...this is it!!!!!

Rick Stein's Sicilian Pasta

I just had to share this one, Markus is a big fan of Chef Rick Stein and we usually watch his show while we have dinner every evening.  The other day he made this beautiful pasta from Sicily and he was so excited about how good it was and how this was going to be his vegetarian dish at his cafe.  Truth be told the only thing that made it vegetarian was some Parmesan cheese he added on the top, this is a traditional, authentic Sicilian dish...and its vegan, no adaptation necessary.

Ingredients:

1/2 a large eggplant (or more if you want)
Vine Tomatoes
Dry Spaghetti

2 cloves garlic

Olive oil

Basil

Method:

Deseed the vine tomatoes and set aside
Chop your eggplant and fry, set aside
heat olive oil
Add garlic
add tomatoes and cook
Add your cooked spaghetti
Add your egg plant and mix well to get all the flavours going
Throw in chopped basil...done!!!!

I cannot tell you how delicious this meal is.  For a variation and non-eggplant lovers, swap the eggplant with capers.

Upside down Banana cake

This is a truly delicious yummy cake,  the recipe was adapted from Now Vegan's upside down pineapple cake, with reducing the amount of sugar used in the original recipe the cake was perfect!!!!!

So here goes,

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Bananas
1 cup Self raising Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp vanilla Extract
2 measures No Egg
1/2 cup olive oil

hand full of almonds / walnuts and sultanas

Method

Grease your baking dish and sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar on the bottom. 
Then place sliced bananas to cover the bottom of the dish. Set aside.

To make the cake mix all the wet ingredients together
Add Sugar and No Egg and whisk

Slowly add the flour until all ingredients are combined.

Add nuts

Pour cake mixture over bananas and bake for 40 mins, but check, every oven is different.
Cool cake once done and over turn

So good you can actually eat it:

Vegans are cool!!!!!

I am excited, yes its been roughly 6 weeks now that I have gone vegan and I am absolutely loving it. I love that I now don’t have that nagging little voice telling me that I needed to do it, I love that it make me feel good and best of all, cutting out all crap…I have even managed to shed a couple of kilos.

Something that struck me when I turned vegan was that I was almost apologetic about it, like having to explain myself, like what I was doing needed to be justified in some ways. I was actually taken aback by the change, I’ve always been a very proud vegetarian, and defended, boasted and even flaunted my vegetarianism. To make this change and almost feel ashamed that I have made it had me wondering “why”. I put it down to the fact that I was being an inconvenience and thinking that people thought I was boring.

So, in celebration of my 6 weeks I will also celebrate my liberation, I will not be apologetic anymore, that's fine, I'll bring a dish to dinner.  I will not be ashamed, I am actually making a difference, and finally I will not laugh with embarrassment when I am asked "so what do you eat" or I get "the nuts were living till you ate them" jokes.
Vegans are as cool as they come!!!!

Chinese Takeway...at home

Yesterday was one of those days, went home starving and I needed to eat a good scrumptious meal. So I decided that we would have Asian and I would use some of the mock chicken I bought from the Lotus Supermarket.  I wouldn't call this meal healthy because of the mock meat, but substitute it for some tofu and you've got a good healthy Chinese takeaway meal...oh and very very simple.

"Chicken" Stirfry:

Ingredients:

1 packet mock chicken
2 cloves garlic
small piece of ginger finely sliced
1 fresh chilli (you can use less or more depending on your taste)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 Tsp sesame oil
2 TBS rice wine vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
1tsp (or more) cornflour
veges: I used, 1 capsicum, chinese baby cabbage, spring onions, Broccoli

Method:

Fry Ginger, Garlic and chilli till fragrant
Add veges and stir fry
Add chicken (I baked the chicken before adding to veges so it was crispy)
To make sauce add soy, sesame oil, sugar, vinegar and conrflour and mix well
When veges are tender add sauce allow to cook and thicken.

Coconut Rice.

This is the easiest and yummiest thing ever.

1 Cup Basmati rice, soaked and rinsed till water ran clear
1 cup water
1 cups coconut milk
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp Tumeric (for the colour)
salt to taste.

Method:

Combine all ingredients into a microwave dish
Cover with cling wrap
Cook on high for 12 to 14 minutes checking to see if rice is cooked.
Timings will depend on your microwave.

Note:  This rice can be made extra special by frying some cashews and sultana in some oil and adding when rice is done.  You can also add 1 clove and 1 cardamom pod when cooking.