Vege 2 Go

Cindy has already beaten me with a review of this brand new restaurant, so for a proper review go there.

Vege2Go is pretty close to my house, so I was super excited to find a veg restaurant in East Brunswick. So much so that I sampled it when I was super poor by putting it on my credit card. I decided to surprise Mr T with take away food. The food all seems to be healthy home cooked Italian food with an emphasis on take away. I don't think it's fair to judge it quite yet because I only sampled a few things. But here's my thoughts on the few things that I tried. The salads (beetroot and rice) and the white bean and chard dish were all ok but not amazing.


The lentil soup was my favourite. It doesn't look tasty, but it was full of flavour and just the right amount of salt/stock.

I also sampled the vegan calzone and the vegan choc raspberry cake. The calzone tasted good but was very dry. You could tell the cake was made by non-vegans who might assume that vegan cake has to be different texture wise. The cake tasted good but it's texture was far too rubbery for me.

But I will be back, because it's great option for healthy take away food that doesn't cost too much. Plus I've heard good things about their quinoa dish.

Super Living Expo

I have lots of things to post about but not much time to blog at the moment. But I just wanted to quickly remind you that next sat is the Super Living Expo, which used to be called the Cruelty Free expo. It is held at the Northcote Town Hall. There will be cooking demonstrations, all sorts of stalls including crumbs bakehouse (that make the yummy vegan cakes/muffins that seem to be sold everywhere lately), soul veg (which is an awesome vegan catering company that makes vegan 'cheesecakes'), music from Steve Kilby (from the Church), relaxation and pampering workshops, and much more.

For more info go here

Introducing a new cat friend

This is BB. She is my dad's cat but will be staying with us for a little while my dad moves interstate. The poor thing has had about 12 moves in about 3-4 years since she was born, the last move consisted of 12 hours on a boat. She has only been staying with me for a few hours and has already ate, drank, used her litter tray and become acquainted with my knee. I've also noticed that she wags her tale like a dog when she is happy. I have seen other cats wag their tales but not like this, it's almost violent the way she flicks it around.

I'm trying not to get too attached!

Mrs Fields eat your heart out

These cookies are incredibly chewy and almost brownie like just as Isa promises. They are quite rich and have filled our tiny apartment with the best smell ever. I have eaten about half dozen just to test each batch to make sure they are ok and Mr T just got home and has tested a few too just to be on the safe side and we have about 35 left.

Poor Man's Paella

With Claire commenting about making paella for Christmas and her recently making it for us, it was fresh in my mind when we menu planned this weekend and Mr T decided to give it a go. Unlike other paella recipes though it doesn't have saffron because we are too poor to buy it. We also decided to use brown rice because it more filling and better for you. I'm sure it is not traditional at all but it was yummy and very simple to make. The only problem was there wasn't enough for leftovers tomorrow.

4-5 tablespoons of Olive oil (we like our olive oil and our pan is not Non-Stick)
2 cups brown rice
1 large Onion; chopped
2 large Garlic cloves; crushed
6 cups Vegetable Stock (we use Swiss Nature because it is worth the extra price)
1 Lemon; cut into wedges and rind grated
1 large green capsicum, chopped
1 can of artichokes; drained and quartered
1 can of kidney beans; drained
1 can of butter beans; drained
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika-adjust to your liking (we actually forgot to add it and it was still yummy)

Heat the oil. Add the brown rice, capsicum and onion and stir until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic, stock and rind. Bring to boil. Add beans. Bring to a boil again. Cover with a lid and simmer for 30-40 minutes minutes. Add artichokes and paprika and then turn off and let it sit covered for 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with lemon wedges.

Serves 2 and a half (Mr T eats a lot)

Do you like our fancy use of the newspaper?

Food Co-Op

I found a organic food co-op in Brunswick, yay! The way it works is several households all put their money together to buy bulk organic fruit and veg. It cuts out the middle person, saves money as a result and travel time. On Fri I picked up my first box. I decided to try a $20 box to see how it goes. If it is not enough I can get a $40 box next time.

To give you some idea of what types of things you get, I took this pic inside my fridge:


I also got about half a dozen potatoes and there are more kiwi fruit and apricots in the egg section of the fridge. What you get changes all the time depending on cost and what's in season. I was impressed that there are about 4-5 zucchinis in the box but wish there was more greens and more variety when it comes to fruit. Mr T and I are thinking that we might get fruit and veg from the food co-op once a fortnight and the other week go the market where we can also get grains and legumes and other items.

It is going to have to change the way we do things though. Generally Mr T and I sit down on the weekend and plan a weeks worth of meals. We generally find a couple of new recipes to try each week in either our cookbooks or online and then go and buy the ingredients to make those and other tried and tested meals. This time we need to do the opposite and plan the meals based on the ingredients we have. I have to admit it freaks me out a little. I know that most people reading this probably think the opposite as almost every blogger I know tends to just make recipes up out of thin air but I like to at least have some sort of recipe to start with. Thankfully, Mr T does most of the cooking and is more creative than me. But on the two nights that I am going to cook I am clueless as to what I will make. I am also unsure how I will go spreading out the veg over the week. Any one have any easy recipes using zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, apricots and/or carrots?

Weird food combination trial 1

As per my request Mr T made Green Gourmet Giraffe's Peanut Stew with Bananas.

This recipe rocks and banana does actually go quite well with Parsley. The stew is yummy by itself so even if you aren't adventurous you can make enjoy it minus the Banana salsa, but the salsa adds something special to the dish. I've added it to the huge list of things that we should made again.

Next on the list of combinations to try is either Strawberries and Coriander or Mint and Mustard. Or maybe I will try to participate in time for the latest They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT) #7: caramelized cauliflower and Cocoa.