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.

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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.