Trippy Taco 2

Remember back in July last year when I announced that Trippy Taco was my favourite cafe? Well it still is but I haven't been back much since we purchased a tortilla press and started making my own corn tortillas. I think I actually prefer out tofu tacos but their black bean tacos are definitely superior. This time though we both decided to go with the combination of tofu and taco filling which is a winner. I didn't realise that you could have both, why didn't anyone tell me earlier? I had their corn tacos, look at all that salad, surely they are healthy:



Whereas, Toby had the wheat based large burrito:



And because the tacos didn't fill me up, we shared some trippy fries. These are perhaps my favourite fries. I can't resist their spices, mostly smoked paprika I suspect.



For other reviews check out easy as vegan pie, vegan about town, vegan and vegematirian.




Trippy Taco
48a smith st  234 Gertrude Street
Collingwood Fitzroy
9415 7711 

One Ingredient Vegan Soft Serve

This is ridiculous easy. So easy that I had my doubts when Tahn shared the recipe but I now agree with choosing raw that this will change your life. But the texture really is like soft serve and best of all it's surprisingly tasty, healthy and super quick.

So you cut bananas into pieces and freeze. Then place frozen bananas in the food processor and voila:

I have a confession to make though, I was lazy and a week ago froze 3 bananas with the skin on. Big mistake! I couldn't take the skin off frozen so had to wait til they were partially defrosted and then try to get the skin off when they were all mushy which took  quite a while. So save yourself the trouble people!

We served it to plain to Richmond Bec and then Toby and I tried some with chocolate peanut butter on top! Terry very kindly brought some of this over from the states because I was curious. It is so frigging amazing.  I just can't decide what to do with it next, although it's tempting to just eat it out of the jar, I want to do something special with it, any ideas?

And then we used a tiny bit of the leftover banana soft serve and added frozen blueberries to make blueberry flavoured ice cream. This was great too, although it meant the texture wasn't as smooth. I love a bit of crunch in ice cream though so enjoyed this.

I look forward to experimenting with this further will all of these hot days coming up.

Lentil Soup Inspired Salad

That's not the real name but this salad kind of reminds me of my favourite lentil soup. This is actually based around a Neil Perry recipe called goat cheese, lentil and potato salad but we made quite a few alterations.  We used potatoes from our friend's Troy and Bec's garden, thanks guys!

Lentil Potato Salad
   

•  3 cans of brown lentils, drained
•  8 small potatoes (I'm really not sure about the amount), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
•  5 small tomatoes, chopped
•  1/4 cup finely chopped mint (from our garden, yay!)
•  1/8 cup garlic chives
•  3-4 Tablespoons of dijon mustard
•  1/8 cup cheddar cheezly (optional)
•  Praise Fat Free Mayo (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

        In a medium saucepan, cover the potatoes with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook over moderately high heat until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain very well and add to the lentils and remaining ingredients.  Serve at once.

Serves 4-5 (Toby eats large portions).

This was pretty easy to make, really filling and was a tasty option on a summer day. Besides I love one bowl meals. Feel free to use different herbs and/or increase the amount, the original recipe asked for mint and parsley. I think the flavour of the cheezly kind of gets lost so would suggest skipping it or just serve it on top.  Toby enjoyed this without mayo, whereas I couldn't help myself. We had this on Sunday and then had the rest for leftovers on Monday, but some of the flavour was lost the following day so I suggest serving it immediately.

Shakahari, great food BUT.....

Toby and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary at Shakahari yesterday. We have been sticking to our eating out only once a fortnight rule, and had planned that this meal wouldn't count because my mother recently gave me a $100 voucher for Shakahari. We often get restaurant vouchers which means we can treat ourselves without worrying about picking up the bill.  So we didn't count on what would happen at the end of the night, but more on that later, first the food.

Please excuse our phone pics!

We ordered the Gohon Nori rolls for entree because we were intrigued by the idea of cooked sushi. Instead of the usual rice, it was filled with a mixture of vegies, seaweed and roasted black sesame seeds and was served with a miso wasabi sauce and salad on the side. The salad wasn't particularly special but the sushi and sauce were awesome, I think I'm a cooked sushi convert!

I ordered Tokyo awaken, don't you love their corny names? This consisted of a mount of red rice, mashed tofu salad and braised pumpkin and daikon. This dish reminded me a lot of the dishes we used to eat at cheap buddhist places in HK and while I enjoyed it, Toby enjoyed it more than me. He particularly loved the seaweed mixed in with the rice and the tender daikon. 

He ordered the GF spaghetti which I ended up enjoying more which worked out well, so we swapped dishes. This included loads of mushrooms which he ate, soy cheese, beautiful pesto, and really lovely g/f pasta. I think it is hard to tell that the pasta is g/f which is always a good sign and I really applaud them for using some sort of superior g/f pasta from Italy.

We had planned on eating dessert, because I love dessert but was too full by this stage.

Here comes the BUT part...

So we went to pay for our meal and handed over the voucher. The man said that since our meal didn't cost $100 and he couldn't give us change, maybe we should order dessert and a bottle of wine.  We explained that we were full and asked if we can get another voucher with the remaining amount. He suggested us to  pay cash and use the voucher next time, and maybe pay for friends.

He then looked in a cupboard and said that he didn't have any vouchers anyway. We suggested that maybe he write it out on something else since the original voucher was handwritten.  He refused. We asked to speak to the manager and he said that he was in charge for the night. We complained that it didn't say anything on the voucher about having to use the full amount and he continued to say that he couldn't do it. I explained that I have had plenty of vouchers for nice restaurants and have never had this issue. We stood there dumbfounded and angry. He said to pay cash and come back another time. I lied and said that we didn't live in Melbourne, not sure why I was just so frustrated at this point. I explained that if my mother was told when she purchased the voucher that perhaps she would have got two $50 vouchers but she wasn't advised.

The bill came to $54 and Toby offered to pay the $4 cash so we could get a $50 voucher back to make it easier.  He eventually agreed to go look in the office and returned stating that we were really lucky he was able to find another voucher. We gave him the $4 and the whole time he was filling it out, he continued to complain that we should have just paid cash. Toby said 'that's ok, it's all sorted out now' to try to get him to stop arguing but he just had to have the last word. Our whole argument went on for at least 10- 15 minutes, it wasn't just what he said but they way he treated us like we were idiots. Also it would be different if we had spent $95 or something and were asking for a $5 voucher, but we only spent half of the voucher.

So I went home fuming. I've been to Shakahari more times than I can count and given it good reviews here and here and here.  Also I rarely get annoyed at restaurants, I'm the type of person who doesn't even complain when I find hair in my dish.(It's just hair, right?) So I googled consumer affairs policy on gifts cards and vouchers and discovered that it clearly states that gift cards (and vouchers) can be used more than once.

It left me feeling so frustrated that I'm thinking about donating the $50 voucher to someone else.  It's such a shame too because I was planning on celebrating my birthday there in a couple of months but I really don't want to go back. 

I actually had another issue with their customer service when I tried to make a large booking for my birthday a few years ago and they gave me a hard time about it. For example, the woman continued to state that perhaps my friends would cancel or not show up at the last minute before insisting that we all arrive 5.45pm (15 minutes before they open) and that we pre-order our meals because there was too many of us.  We followed her instructions, arrived at 5.45 and was told quite rudely that the restaurant was shut and then they messed up my pre-order and we ended up sitting on two different tables. I really had thought that there customer service has improved since then, but maybe not.

 

See other non angry reviews from Veg in the West, Vegan about town, wheres the beef and easy as vegan pie.

Shakahari Vegetarian Restaurant

201-203 Faraday St

Carlton

Vegan Vienetta Style Ice Cream Cake and Rishon Foods

Every time we got to Monk Bodhi Dhama we have to go to Rishons Foods.  We even avoid going to MBD on Saturdays because that's when Rishon Foods is closed.

Rishons (as we call it) is a Jewish supermarket which sells all sorts of vegan goodies that you can't find anywhere else like nutty chews, which are like tiny vegan version of snickers bars.

Pic taken from Amazon:

They also a variety of gluten free products and heaps of vegan ice cream alternatives like Minies.

But perhaps my favourite is the vegan style Vienetta ice cream cake which isn't always there. It generally comes in two varieties and I was pleased to see that it is g/f. Unfortunately this time we accidentally chose the mocha one which has real coffee in it. Unlike Toby, I hate coffee! It upsets my stomach quite badly and gives me heart palpitations plus I don't really like the flavour, But Toby and our friends Ann and Adam enjoyed this.



Next time I'll buy the regular vanilla variety which tastes exactly as I remembered the vienetta style ice cream cake, although it has been about 8 years since I tried the real thing. I love the thin layers of chocolate between the ice cream.

Check out Cindy's description and picture of Rishon Foods here


Rishon Foods
23 William St Balaclava
9527 5142

Remember it's closed on Sat!

Lazy Ice Cream Toppings: Mint Slice Biscuits and Halva

I'm obsessed with these Leda Minton biscuits, they are my fave g/f biscuits and taste exactly as I remember mint slice biscuits. Although, it's been so long that I can't really remember!



I came across these chocolate mint ice cream balls recipe on kidspot but I couldn't really be bothered making them into balls or covering with chocolate so I just used their recipe as a guide to combine these biscuits with ice cream. This is the laziest thing I've made in a while.

Just mix 1 scoops of softened vanilla ice cream with 4 crushed biscuits.



And that's it!



I love a bit of crunchy texture in ice cream, so I think it works perfectly and tastes great, although it does soften the mint flavour. It's really awesome when you can't decide if you want biscuits or ice cream!


Because it's such a simple recipe, I thought I would also share my latest ice cream topping: halva. Simply crush halva and serve on top of ice cream. My previous neighbour Sarah served this to us once and I've been hooked since. Halva while sweet has a slightly bitter flavour which works well with sweet ice cream. Here it is with chocolate halva but I think halva with nuts works best.



What's your fav lazy ice cream topping and what is your fav way to serve halva?

Nut Milk Bag and Peach Almond Ice Cream

Nut bag, Nut bag, nut bag! Yes I know it sounds dirty, so stop giggling so I can tell you about it.

I think technically they are called nut milk bags, but I called it a nut bag much to the amusement of friends. I've been wanting to get one  since I started reading about making your own almond milk but figured would be too tricky to hunt down. So I was quite happy to discover this asian style version for a couple of dollars at the IGA in Carlton:

Toby tells me that it usually intended to cook fish in chinese style soup. But I figured it's probably the same as a nut bag.

I made this:

Peach Almond Ice Cream from Elana's Pantry:

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight, discard soaking water
1 cup water
3-4 peaches
5 dates
4 drops stevia (I used agave)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Place soaked almonds and water in Vitamix (I just used a regular blender)
2. Blend on highest setting until smooth, about 1 minute, add a bit more water if blending is a challenge
3. Remove almond mixture from Vitamix and strain through a fine mesh paint strainer bag, discarding solids
4. Place almond mixture in rinsed out Vitamix container, blend in peaches and dates on highest setting until smooth
5. Blend in stevia, vanilla and lemon juice
6. Place mixture in ice cream maker and process according to instructions

The almond milk was so  smooth! It made a nice healthy ice cream, but it made far less than I am used to. Also I think it would have been better if i cooked the peaches first and I think it could have been sweeter. I've wondering if there is a pattern developing that replacing stevia with other sweeteners doesn't work or that I am just used to really sugary desserts.

I'm sure you will be seeing more recipes which use the nut milk bag  soon.

Mini Potluck

Bec and Craig had a small potluck a few weeks ago at their house. I ended up making two desserts since it was far too hot for Toby to stay home and prepare a savoury dish. I made these raw frozen cookie dough bites from Sketch Free Vegan, except I made a few substitutions which make them not raw.

Frozen Cookie Dough Bites from Sketch Free Vegan

Dough:

1 3/4 cup cashews ground into a flour (don't soak unless you are able to dehydrate them)
3/4 cup oat flour
2 tbsp agave
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil
Pinch of salt

Raw Chocolate Chips: (I just used regular choc chips)

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup carob powder
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
4 tbsp agave nectar/maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Coating: (I used the vegan ice magic)

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
2 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract

First prepare raw chocolate chips by combining above ingredients, you will be left with a doughy consistency. Spread out on a flat pan or plate and put in freezer for at least an hour. Then, cut into small chips.
Next, prepare the cookie dough filling by combining above ingredients, then mixing in chocolate chips. Then form into a flat slab about 1/2 inch thick and freeze for 15 minutes. Once frozen, cut into small bar sizes (enough to take 2-3 bites out of it) and skewer each one with a small toothpick.
Prepare chocolate coating by combining all ingredients in a small bowl.
One by one, dip each bite into chocolate, place on a flat tray and freeze for 1-2 minutes. Dip again in chocolate and top with chopped cashews, or other desired topping. Freeze until frozen. Makes 24 bites.

They were tasty although not quite as amazing as I expected because they were too coconuty. However, that could have been all of my substitutions, for example using the vegan ice magic was a bad idea and I think I used the wrong type of coconut oil. Also, they didn't really freeze properly and didn't look as pretty either:

 

I also made Blueberry Chia Pudding from my new ebook Desserts without Compromise. This was my first time using chia seeds and I was pleasantly surprised, it kind of resembled tapioca pudding when soaked. I substituted the stevia with about 1/4 cup of maple syrup. This was quite simple and quick to make (except for the soaking time). It was refreshing and I loved the lemon zest in it. Although it was not quite as sweet as I am used to desserts being. We gave the leftovers to our friends Adam and Sarah and they said they thought it was just sweet enough, so I guess it just depends on your preference.

                   

The hosts made fried rice:

Deep fried tomato tofu which I think was roughly inspired by a Luke Nguyen dish:

And a raw dip, I forgot what was in it, but I gobbled down lots of rice crackers with it:

 

Michael made this yummy quinoa salad which made me realise that quinoa and avocado are friends and Troy made these rice paper rolls with my fav ingredient smoked tofu:

Now on to the rest of the desserts, Cindy made nutella and banana tortillas with a beautiful home made vegan version of nutella:

Fat Fueled Vegan came up with the genius idea of a ginger biscuit version of ripple cake, it was soggy but so delicious:

He also made a banana custard dessert, I forgot what it was called??:

My fav dessert was probably Brunswick Bec's (just to clarify there was there was two vegan Bec's) Lemon Pie, it was sweet and tart and had an awesome gelatinous type texture. So making this for my next family gathering, it's an awesome summer dessert!

And best thing about this mini potluck? Everything was g/f so I could eat it all. I really am spoiled!

Monk Bodhi Dharma 3- G/f options

I've been to Monk Bodhi Dharma twice in a few weeks, both times I couldn't resist the gluten free version of their famous french toast! They can make it with g/f bread which means it isn't quite as thick and crusty but I'm not complaining, I'm just so relieved that they do a g/f option. Also, It still tastes just as awesome. There is no mention of g/f option of the menu, so I was so happy when Em commented on our last post that they can do it.  Thanks MBD, you rock.

The first time we went Toby, also ordered g/f toast so that we could share. He had the peasant beans which were fine, although a tad boring in comparison to the french toast.

The second time, he had the Balinese corn soup. He enjoyed the flavour but felt that there was protein missing.  The second visit was as part of a small veg twitter meet up with notjosh and Cindy and Michael.

Toby loves the coffee there and I'm pleased that they take their tea just as serious. Each time I have sample a different type of green tea, I think the sencha is my fave though. I found the Long Jing a little too bitter.

For other recent MBD reviews see wheres the beef, and easy as vegan pie,

Monk Bodhi Dharma
Rear 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava
9534 7250

Don't Stop Eating Gluten ....

I'm writing this post because I have had a few conversations with people both online and offline lately where they suspect that they have coeliacs disease or are gluten intolerant or they test positive to the coeliac blood test and they state that they will trial going gluten free.

So my response is DON'T STOP EATING GLUTEN NOW!!!!!

Eat lots of gluten and have all of the coeliac tests first including the biopsy. The general consensus is that you need to eat at least four slices of wheat based bread (or equivalent) each day for 6 weeks prior to the biopsy. It's important to know properly because it's a serious autoimmune disease which can lead to other health problems including malabsorption of nutrients, osteoporosis, infertility, miscarriage and small bowel cancer. Also, if you are not eating enough gluten you might get a false positive for the blood test or the biopsy.

The other thing is if you simply decide that you are gluten intolerant without getting tested you could be doing some damage. Since most gluten intolerant people are not as strict about avoiding gluten as you need to be with coeliacs disease. Imagine spending a lifetime eating tiny bits of gluten and then find out you have caused other issues.

Also I'm trying to save others from the situation I was in where I went g/f for a few months didn't feel better then returned to eating gluten and felt worse than I ever had. I then spent a few months feeling really horrible, had horrible fatigue and was constantly sick. I wished someone warned me and then I would have just continued eating gluten.

For more info, see the Coeliac Society of Australia's info here. Rant over, hope you all know it was well meaning!

Lord of the Fries' vegan breakfast burger

Hi, readers!  Long time no see!

 

I have been using  twitter a lot (@brunswickvegan) and was pretty slack with blogging.  

We always go to Lord of the Fries and have blogged about it.  K, now a coeliac vegan, loves their gluten-free onion rings. and the Mega vegan "Chicken" burger is my favourite.

Just before X'Mas, I tried Lord of the Fries' "Tibet" breakfast burger at their Melbourne Central store.  I've never had Onion rings in burger before. It works really well with the sauce and "beef" patty.  It is sinfully delicious and I hope them sell it all day on the weekend! 

However, they are not doing Breakfast at the moment.  It will be back soon according to their Facebook page.

Talking about Lord of the fries, their Northland store, the only branch with a door, has closed until further notice.  I hope they re-open soon because they are my favourite LOTF.

Disclaimer: we recently received a lord of the fries VIP card but are determined to give true reviews despite this card.

.....................

On an unrelated but important note, particularly for the overseas readers: 75% of Queensland is now a national disaster area. That is about 2x size of Texas and 5x that of the UK. Please donate if you can to the flood relief appeal and/or Wildlife Rescue appeal.

Vegan Ice Magic In Minutes

I used to love ice magic or magic shell as it appears to be called in the US but Toby has never had it. For those of you who aren't familiar it's a chocolate topping that hardens when put on ice cream to make a nice crunchy topping. I've been admiring a few recipes for vegan magic ice cream for a few weeks including Vegan Dad's recipe but quickly settled on this once because it is easier and I figured coconut oil was better for you. I had a hard time finding coconut oil but eventually found it at IGA (in Brunswick) so could give this incredibly simple recipe a go:


HomeMade Ice Magic or Magic Shell from the Accidental Vegetarian

1 cup coconut oil

about 1-2 cups semi-sweet, bittersweet, or dark chocolate chips or chunks

1. Melt the coconut oil over very low heat in a small saucepan.

2. A little at a time, whisk in the chocolate chips, until the mixture resembles very thin, chocolate syrup. We needed about 1 1/2 cups.
 
Pour over ice cream and allow it to set, took about 30 seconds:

The accidental vegetarian suggests keeping it at room temperature but I have been keeping it in the fridge for a few days and simply reheating it when I wanted more. I would suggest making half or even a quarter the amount since this makes a lot.

It tasted and felt just as I had remembered it. So making this again and again.

OMG- Vegan G/f Custard Tarts and Bread

A fortnight ago I finally went to a gluten free shop in East Keilor. We wandered in and saw a big sign which read 'fresh gluten free bread- vegan'. The woman asked if we wanted a sample and gave me a raw piece. For those of you are not familiar with gluten free bread you have to eat toast it generally so that it ok to eat. However, this piece was fine it actually tasted and felt like white bread. We didn't hesitate in buying a loaf.  It comes in a clear regular bread bag so I'm still not sure if they make the bread themselves or buy it from somewhere but it is by far the best g/f bread that I have tasted, much more superior than the ones that I reviewed before. They also sold fresh g/f focaccias and bread rolls. Here's a piece lightly toasted with some nooch:

She also asked if we wanted to sample something else and Toby responded that we are vegan. For some reason I was expecting a 'gluten free vegan! are you out of your mind?' comment but instead she started pointing out all sorts of things in the freezer section which were vegan including these custard tarts. I had to stop myself from jumping up and down and squealing!

I would have never checked that custard tarts were vegan. They come frozen so you simply defrost in the fridge then they are ready to eat. They are so delicious the custard is quite creamy and reminds me of the custard in the vanilla slice that we made and the pastry is surprisingly really good, kind of like a soft cookie or puff pastry that has been in the fridge. At a little over $3 for two they weren't too expensive. I emailed the company just to confirm they are vegan too.

Thank you Gluten 3 Living, and Gluten Free Bakery. My only complaint is that the gluten 3 living store is too far. Why is there not a gluten free store in the North?

Gluten 3 Living

1/ 60 Wingara Avenue Keilor East

9336 1088

Pudla (chickpea pancakes) with Tofu Bacon

Yes you read right!

It was my weird idea of a good breaky combo.

It's been a while since I last made tofu bacon and I don't think I blogged the recipe so heres the recipe. I friggin love this stuff:

Tofu Bacon (original recipe from veg web) I had to tweak the proportions though by adding about double the soy sauce, liquid smoke and nooch:


    1 package (about 1lb. or 450grams) extra-firm silken tofu
    2 tablespoons soy sauce   
    1 teaspoon liquid smoke
    2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    1 tablespoon oil for cooking

Directions:

The cooking times seem really important for this bacon to turn out--if the tofu isn't cooked enough it isn't chewy/crispy.

Slice the tofu into strips just under 1/4 inch thick.  Place the oil in a frying pan, and lay the tofu strips in the pan.  Cook the tofu for 10 minutes on one side over low-medium heat before you try to flip the strips--this way, they won't break apart.  Then flip them, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Mix the soy sauce and liquid smoke in a separate dish.  Remove the tofu pan from the heat (after the total of 20 minutes it just cooked) and pour the soy sauce mixture over it.  Shake the pan around to make sure the tofu is thoroughly coated on both sides; put pan back on burner.  Immediately sprinkle the tofu with the nutritional yeast (I only coat one side of the strips, and that seems to be plenty).  Let it cook a minute or so until almost all the sauce cooks off; flip the strips and give it another minute.

Eat & enjoy!  I never plain far enough ahead to marinate tofu or tempeh, and this works really well.  It's slightly on the salty side, but the chewiness, texture, and taste is just right.

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 22 mins

So crispy, smokey and salty. I think it's my fav way to eat tofu. Wish I made a double batch to snack on!

I've been curious about these indian chickpea pancakes or Pudla since I read about them on Green Gourmet Giraffe. The man in the indian grocery store asked me why I was buying chickpea flour and I explained that it was to make pudla but he didn't understand, so I'm not sure how it is pronounced.  Like Johanna I followed Nourish Me's posted recipe which is originally from a Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook .

Pudla (chickpea pancakes) with ginger and crushed peas - feeds 2-3

 I left out the chilli, spring onions and tomatoes but they were still delicious.

1 cup of frozen, shelled green peas
2 cups of chickpea flour (besan/gram)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
Good pinch of ground turmeric
Good pinch of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 cups of water
A large thumb of ginger
4 spring onions, finely sliced
A little olive oil, for frying

Cook the peas, in their frozen state, in boiling water according to the packet instructions and drain well. Lightly crush with either a fork or a potato masher.

Sift the chickpea flour, spices and salt into a roomy bowl. Make a well and slowly trickle the water into the centre, whisking in a little of the dry mixture from the sides as you go. There must be no lumps. Lumps are bad. Grate the ginger and squeeze the resulting juice into the mixture, whisk well and stir through the peas and spring onions. Rest, at room temperature, for 30 minutes.

Warm a frying pan over a medium-high heat and drizzle in a little oil. When hot, pour in a ladle of the mixture and cook for 2 minutes. They should be golden underneath. Drizzle the uncooked side with another dribble of oil before flipping and cooking for a further 2 minutes. Eat hot, straight from the pan.

I ended up having some issues getting it smooth because I didn't read the recipe probably so I used my kitchen aid. I was really pleased with them though, they didn't stick and I didn't have any issues flipping them and they made a great g/f breaky option. I think they would be great with a nice curry.

This one was slightly undercooked in the centre but stilled tasted great:




And together:

I liked the combination, although it was definitely missing some sauce or maybe just some tomatoes in the pancakes.  Also, we ate it with hands like a burrito. Toby added tomato sauce but chutney would have been better. I was trying to stay away from acidic sauce so just enjoyed it plain. They were both easy to make but it took me almost 2 hours to make everything due to the tweaking of the tofu and the issues getting the pancake batter smooth.

But will defintely experiment with the pudla again and I think tofu bacon would make the perfect snack for traveling.

Sweet Potato Noodles and Alkaline Foods

I've been really sick lately (nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain) and a new doctor suggested that I change my medication. I'm on medication to reduce the amount of acid in my stomach which normally works but lately seemed to have stopped. I told him that I have also been avoiding deep fried foods and the only 'bad' thing I had been eating was chocolate. He reminded me that chocolate is one of the major stomach irritants (along with coffee, fried food etc) and also suggested that I also try to incorporate more alkaline foods and less acidic foods. I spend way too long reading conflicting info about what are alkaline foods before finally consulting with Lidia who introduced me to this site. So you will start to see more recipes listed here centred around alkaline foods like almonds, millet, lots of green vegies etc. It's in line with my 2011 goal to eat healthier as well.

The hard thing is that both rice and corn are considered acidic. Millet is a alkaline food but they didn't have any at my coles and safeway. Toby stumbled across these sweet potato noodles made with 100% sweet potato flour in the asian supermarket which finally solved our dinner issue..

The texture is a little strange, almost jelly like but they work perfectly well in the recipe for Bitter Gourd and Tofu Stir Fry (we used broccoli and other green vegies instead of bitter gourd) from the Asian Vegan Kitchen. The recipe is not worth repeating since it's a simple stir fry which mostly consists or soy sauce and ginger.

Agave Cinnamon Almond Balls

These are so easy and quick to make, took me about 5 minutes in total. Plus they are healthy, raw, contain only 3 ingredients and are alkaline diet friendly. More on the alkaline thing later. I think quick recipes deserve quick blog posts.

This is based on the raw almond honey and cinnamon balls from Gone Raw.

As the author suggested, you could coat it coconut or something else. The cinnamon flavour is strong, so if you don't love it I would suggest using something else.

Makes 10 tiny balls

Ingredients: 

a few handful of almonds
about 2 tablespoons of agave ( I think you could possibly use a bit less)
cinnamon for coating

Preparation: 

Crush the almonds in a food processor, add agave to make it into thick paste. Pour cinnamon in a little plate, take a bit of almond mixture, roll it into a ball, and coat it with cinnamon.