Mushroom Bake


Mr T made these yesterday and they were amazing! The recipe is from Garden Of Vegan. The recipe asks for Portobello mushrooms but he just used regular mushrooms. Without giving away the recipe too much I can share that it includes rosemary, oregano and ground almonds. Our tiny little place was filled with the greatest smell.

Tanya explains in the cookbook that: "many friendships have been cultivated and nurtured because of this dish". Before, I read that I was already thinking it would be a great dinner party recipe. The problem with a dish like this is that anything else served would just seem a little too ordinary.

Pasta E Fagioli (Pasta with Bean Broth)

This recipes rocks and I made it up. Ok maybe not but I altered it and I'm sure it is even better than the original recipe. The original recipe is from 'Nonna's Italian Kitchen' by Bryanna Clark Grogan but I got it from the Vegan food website. For those of you who have the cookbook I would love to know what it's like I've never seen it in a bookstore in Melbourne to be able to flick through it. I love the look of Bryanna's recipes online but they always look too labour intensive for lazy me.

Anyway here is my slightly altered version. Next time I will double the recipe so that there is enough for leftovers for Mr T and I.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 x 480 g / 17 oz cans cannellini beans
• 1 1/5-2 cups of vegetarian stock
• 1 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
• 2 T chopped fresh Italian parsley (don't even think about using inferior regular parsley)
• 1 t Italian dried herbs
• 450 g / 1 lb pasta, such as farfalle (bows), penne or ziti

METHOD

Put a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

In a large non-stick or lightly oiled pot, steam-fry the carrot, celery and garlic in their juices for 3-4 minutes. Add the beans, broth, parsley, sun dried tomatoes and herbs. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente. Drain the pasta and add to the pot with the vegetables. Taste for seasoning. Serve in bowls with a sprinkle of parsley and soy parmesan and crusty bread on the side.

Mr Chive



I know I said no more lunch pics, but I had to share this recipe for “Sausage Heroes with Sauerkraut and Carmelized Red Onion". It is so easy and yummy. I'm going to cook the red onion and "sausages" on the sandwich press at work.

I have lots of things to talk about but not enough time to share will post again soon, I promise.

Vegan muffins without sugar and salt can taste great.

These are the full meal muffins from shmooed food and they are easy to make and quite healthy. Even Mr T loves them and he hates blackstrap molasses. My only recommendation is to leave out the rasins/currants.

They are great for breakfast on the run.

Pandan recipes?

I just discovered that Pandan is the mysetrious ingreident in the vietnamese jelly drink that I used to get from Footscray, and had it in soy ice cream at the tofu shop.

I would love to experiment, anyone have recipes for it?

Thanks Dave!

My lunch today: my fat (so they would fit in the tiffin) rice paper rolls with tomato, carrot, coriander, and smoked tofu, and seaweed salad, pickled ginger, salted cucumber and fruit.

When Dave suggested I put tomatoes in rice paper rolls I thought he was crazy. But I decided to give it a try and it rocks.

I love how easy it is to make rice paper rolls, the only problem is Mr T and I find ourselves eating them one by one in the kitchen as soon as we finish making each one instead of making several and then sitting down to eat.

I've decided that they are also better with the sauce inside. These ones have the yummy peanut based sauce from 'vegan lunch box' inside.

Now what else should I try inside the next batch of rice paper rolls? Avocado?

Rice paper rolls and New years eve

We made rice paper rolls tonight. These are Mr T's ones, mine were not wrapped quite as well. We made it from a vegan lunch box cookbook recipe with apple pieces, lots of coriander, baked and marinated tofu, spring onions, and cabbage. They were good and very easy to make and the peanut sauce that went with it was also very good. Mr T's made his with some sauce in it and I think I will make them all that way next time. I will certainly be making rice paper rolls again but trialing other ingredients next time.

Had a great new years eve. Went along to a BBQ with the intention of having dinner there and then going off to another party but we were having so much fun that we didn't leave til about 1.30am. It was excellent. There was probably about 20 people there and yet no meat, no boring typical questions like 'what do you do' and all sorts of interesting people. Lots of alternative creative individuals as opposed to yuppie creative types. Most people bought food along and there was lots of great vegan food. We chatted to lots of people about food, art, music, travelling and lots of other things and ate and ate and ate. It almost felt like I walked into this cool underworld gathering of creative and interesting people many of which were vegetarian. Don't get me wrong many of my friends are creative and amazing but this was different. It kind of inspired me to do something creative unfortunately it didn't help with my desire to work on my thesis. I have to start doing some serious work on it. Any words of wisdom from those who have actually finished a masters thesis when they initially struggled with motivation? I've completed a honours thesis but it was so long ago and I don't actually remember struggling with motivation.