How it all vegan!

Last year I got a couple of vegan cookbooks from my mum for Christmas. One of them is full of colourful photos and looks pretty impressive, but the recipes are basically just "regular" recipes made vegan - using a lot of meat and dairy substitutes, you know, that old chestnut! But the other book is good enough to blog about! All the recipe's are original and look delicious, even though I haven't tried any of them yet :P but I will!! This noteworthy book is called 'How it all vegan', written by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer.

The book also has a friendly yet informative introduction to veganism, it lists substitutes and no-nos and even has a section on 'what to do if mum is worried about your diet' :P

I'm really really looking forward to trying some of these recipes!
They have a recipe for 'basil pesto' that is so unlike any other vegan recipe for it that I've seen, to make it clear - the other book that I mentioned before had a recipe for 'basil pesto', it was just pine nuts, basil, oil and salt, whoop de do! Like I haven't tried THAT before. Yes it's yummy, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to take Parmesan cheese out of a recipe to make it vegan!
But the recipe in 'How is all vegan' has another few ingredients in their basil pesto which sound really interesting! I'm dying to know how it will taste!
And their salad section, my goodness! Every single recipe sounds amazing!

Hopefully I get around to making something from the book soon and remember to blog about it!

:)

Vegan/gluten-free soup and fruit crumble noms

Last night I made pumpkin soup for dinner and I thought I'd share the recipe because it was soooo yummy! We've just eaten the rest of it for tonight's dinner, Charlotte ate a huge bowl of it and said it was "the best dinner ever" :P she didn't even eat her toast - which she normally dunks into soup before telling me her "belly is full".

So here's how I made it! (I didn't take a photo, but I bet you can imagine what pumpkin soup looks like, hehe).

Vegan "creamy" pumpkin soup

* 1 small brown onion, quartered
* Olive oil
* 1 teaspoon raw sugar
* Half a butternut pumpkin, cubed
* 2 large potatoes, cubed
* Massels "chicken" stock (vegan), to cover
* Half a can of coconut cream

- Cook onions in oil until soft, then sprinkle the sugar over the top and brown.
- Put the pumpkin and potato in and stir
- Pour stock over, until vegetables are 'just' covered
- Bring to the boil and simmer for 20+ minutes
- Puree (I used a stick mixer) and mix in the coconut cream while the soup is hot
- NOM!

Alternatively you could roast the pumpkin and potato beforehand, it intensifies the flavours a lot, I always forget and run out of time!

After our soup I made some dessert, I didn't want something too calorie heavy so I settled for some stewed apple and rhubard with a "crumble" over the top.
Here's how I made it:

Vegan apple and rhubarb "crumble"

Fruit:
* 3 stalks of rhubarb (an average bunch)
* 2 small apples (with skins, you could peel them)
* 2 teaspoons Stevia (or sugar)

"Crumble"
* 50g flaked almonds
* Dessicated coconut
* Raw sugar

- Cube the rhubarb and apple and boil with stevia
- Puree when cool (I used a stick mixer)
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- On a flat oven tray lay out flaked almonds, cover with dessicated coconut and sprinkle with raw sugar
- Put in a 200 degree celcius oven for approximately 5 to 10 minutes, watch it! When it's golden brown, pull it out asap!

- Put some puree in a bowl and sprinkle with crumble, yum!! It was delicious! The toasted coconut was especially yummy :)


Have you tried anything new lately?

- Morgan

Fried gnocchi!

In a previous post I mentioned Nigella's 'Rapid Roastini', or fried gnocchi.
The day after I wrote about it I went to the shop and bought some packet gnocchi and promptly went home to fry it!
And I must say it was absolutely delicious is every way! I slightly ruined it by adding salt to it while it fried, note to self - packet gnocchi is sufficiently salty on its own.
Charlotte didn't like it, (wow what a shocker) but Ben and I did. Ben had it as "roast potatoes" with some chicken kebabs, and I made a vegan creamy mushroom sauce to go on mine - it was great to eat like pasta too!!

 It was unbelievable filling too, but I suppose gnocchi is normally too. Maybe I was just very "satisfied" :P
Man was it good!!

For my "creamy" mushroom sauce I used:

Olive oil
200g sliced button mushrooms
1 teaspoon of Masterfoods 'bush spice'
2 dessert spoons of coconut cream

- I simply fried the mushrooms in olive oil and bush spice until they were soft and browned, then put the coconut cream in and mixed until combined.
NOM!
I was so good I almost cried...Hehehe

Oh and Nigella said she also 'bakes' the gnocchi, if she's feeling lazy. I understand Nigella, I understand! :P

Honey Crackles!

It's been years since I've eaten honey crackles, or honey joys, but on a recent outing with a friend I discovered them again - and omg yummmmmmm!

Here is the recipe I based mine on, except instead of butter I used Nuttelex. I used normal corn flakes, but you could always use gluten-free ones if you have issues with gluten. I'm ok if I just keep it to a small and occasional thing :)

And here are some pictures of my honey crackle makings!

Excuse my grubby oven tray, I think it's almost time for a new one, I can never get them completely clean and it bugs me! Do you have the same problem?

I made 10 honey crackles and they were all gone in the same night...This is why I don't bake a lot, otherwise we'd be the size of houses!! But happy, hehe.

What do you love to bake?

- Morgan

Gluten and Dairy Free Chocolate Banana Bread Noms!

Today I made banana bread, here's how I did it!

This is the original recipe, but I changed it a bit :)

Ingredients:

• Nuttelex to grease pan
• 2 cups gluten free self-raising flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) rice milk
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 50g nuttelex, melted, cooled
• 1 overripe medium banana, mashed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush an 11 x 21cm (base measurement) loaf pan with nuttelex to lightly grease. (I just used a small/medium rectangular pan).
2. Sift the combined flours and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the center. Place the milk, eggs, melted nuttelex and banana in a medium bowl, and stir until well combined. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.
   

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

NOM!
I forgot to take a photo of it before we ate some, it was sooooo good!

Give it a try! :)

- Morgan

Gluten and Dairy Free Chocolate Earthquake Cookies!

I was kinda sick of making my silly "I'll put some of this in, and maybe some of this, and maybe some bats blood" cookies :P - soooo I looked up cookie recipes on Taste.com and found Chocolate Earthquake Cookies, they are ALL types of yummmmm!!

I changed the recipe slightly, so they were gluten and dairy free - so here's what I did!

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 100g nuttelex, chopped
• 3/4 cup raw sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/4 cups gluten free self raising flour, sifted
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/4 cup pure icing sugar

Method

1. Place peanut butter and nuttelex in the microwave until melted.
2. Stir raw sugar, egg, flour and cocoa powder into mixture.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 2 baking trays. Line with baking paper.
4. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into 24 balls. Sift icing sugar onto a plate. Roll each ball in icing sugar. Place balls, 6cm apart, on prepared trays. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, swapping trays halfway. Cool on trays. Serve.
   
   Makes 24 :)
   
   
   Please, please go and make them immediately!! 
   
   
   I mean like now!!!
   
   
   Hehe :P
   
   
   - Morgan

Minute Microwave Cookies!

So because I have no oven at the moment *cries* and have no idea when I'm getting one, I thought it was time I looked into 'microwave cooking'. 

The 5 minute 'mug' cake I made last week worked a treat!

But the thing I miss the most, the thing I did not think would work....

COOKIES!

I took, and you can too, my favourite cookie recipe, shrunk it down a bit, placed it on baking paper on my microwave plate, cooked it for one minute, (yours may take less or more time, go by 30 second cooks, then check), and hey presto, MICROWAVE COOKIES WERE BORN!

Well no, actually I got the basic instructions here. :P

(The one on the right TOTALLY looks like a sleeping pac man! Lol!)

Yummmmmm!

Let me know if you have any wonderful microwave recipes please!!

I hope I get an oven soon :/ 

Have a great day!

xox

Mississippi Mud Cake = Omg YUM!

So it was my partner's birthday last week, and my mum suggested I make him a cake. I agreed and said it had to be a chocolate mud cake because that's his favourite. But you see, I've never made a mud cake, so I was a little nervous as to how it would turn out.

I found this recipe and decided to try it. I had to make 2 cakes because I didn't have a deep enough cake pan on hand. But needless to say it was the BEST mud cake EVER!!

So if you like mud cake and are into baking, PLEASE try this recipe! Next time I make it I'll be making it wheat and dairy free, which is the way my tummy likes it best :)

I'll attach a picture, sorry it's not the best quality, it's off of my phone.

Have fun! :)

Rainbow Cupcakes!!

My icing colours finally came! :D
Yay!!!!!!!!
I used this recipe and this tutorial to make these wonderful, and might I mention DELICIOUS, cupcakes!

They were surprisingly yummy, and the fun colours were just a bonus! Please try this recipe, with or without the colourings, they were just sooo delicious!!
HUGE thanks go to Kaylah over at The Dainty Squid's blog!

Enjoy! :)

Gingerbread Expression Cats!

In short: today I wanted to bake gingerbread men, we had no "men" cookie cutter, but I found a cat one instead!

I made the gingerbread "C" for my daughter Charlotte. The last picture is of Charlotte holding her toy lion she got from my best friend the day she was born, you can stick half your pinky finger in its belly button, so I just call it 'the belly button lion'! Charlotte has a new-found attachment to this toy, which is wonderful!! She carried it around all day!

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Vegan Peanut Butter Pillows!

I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Pillows on the dainty squid's blog. I HAD to bake them straight away!! But I seem to have made too much peanut mixture for the cookie dough, so the peanut mixture came through. I also think I made the cookie dough too dry. Hopefully next time I make them they'll look as pretty as they're supposed to! They taste pretty darn good anyway!

I also made a few peanut-butter-free cookie balls for my daughter, who isn't old enough to have peanuts yet.
Enjoy the photos!

Yummmmm.....

Smanna Cookies!

My good friend Smanna is on a trip across Australia at the mo, you can follow her at Unitramps.com.
Her and her partner are riding their unicycles from Darwin to Adelaide, and will be gone for 8 weeks +.
So before she left she gave me her famous cookie recipe! Because I don't think I could've gone 8 weeks without any!! Although I probably have before...But that's not the point!!

Anyway, I baked some today and thought I'd share some photos.

Yummmmmm....... :D

Baking Goods :D

I bought some edible hearts today! For le baking!

I'm not waiting on some very important purchases, (including some amazing food colourings), to arrive from Amazon and I'll be ready to bake up a storm!!

I also bought something that contributes greatly to my sanity:

My favourite magazine :D