passionate vegan

On the Move

2008-10-21T22:23:00.000+13:00

Hey everyone,
sorry for not blogging lately, I had a stressful time at uni. It's all over for 2008 now, thank God.
I have moved my blog to http://hearmeraw.wordpress.com/

Please find me there :-)

Just a quick note

2008-08-20T08:59:00.000+12:00

Everyone enjoyed the baked goods :-). And no one missed the egg- and dairy-laden versions.

1:0 to madeleine and the animals :-)

Cupcakes Galore and Cheesecake Indulgence

2008-08-17T20:27:00.005+12:00

I really wonder, why this blogspot thing is so inconvenient when uploading photos... never mind

Here are the blueberry cupcakes I made for work tomorrow to have a 'belated' celebration, since I didn't go to work on Friday when I had my actual birthday.

I haven't tried them yet but they smelled delicious :-)

Tonight's dinner was a yummy fruit platter, because my tummy was a bit upset so I opted for raw food :-)

Here the next batch of cupcakes/muffins:
banana muffins with walnut and crumble crunchyness

Haven't tried these yet either, but darling boyfriend said they were tasty, but that next time I should add extra walnuts to the batter.

Last night's dinner was a fruit platter, because I had raw foods Saturday :-)

And here comes the Double Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake.
I also made one small portion to sample before serving it at work because it is the first time I made a raw vegan cheesecake and my colleagues are quite fond of the egg and dairy-laden versions :-). But this will convince them.
I have to admit, I tweaked the recipe a bit, so it's not strictly raw. For example, I couldn't afford to pay NZ$ 26 for 250g of cacao nibs and opted for vegan dark chocolate instead. I also couldn't find cherry extract, so I added dried cherries (which are also bloody expensive).
The base of the cheesecake is very delicious and the filling also. Being raw doesn't make it healthy though hehe. Well, I mean it is healthier than a lot of normal cheesecakes, but 3 cups cashews, 1 3/4 cups almonds and 1 cup of coconut oil do eventually amount to a huge fat content. But that's okay. It's an experiment and I'm glad it went well, because this must be one of the most expensive cakes I have ever made :-).

I will report tomorrow how it was received.
My plan is: Feed my lovely colleagues, let them rave about it, then tell them: It's animal friendly, no butter, no eggs, no cream, no cheese. That'll teach even the most stubborn male :-)

so happy...

2008-08-17T10:06:00.002+12:00

Hello to all my readers.

The last week has been frantically busy at uni and I also had to prepare for my 23rd bday which was on Friday. I am so super happy because in the last 3 weeks I made a real effort to loose a few kgs so I could buy a new dress for my bday :-). It all worked out and I feel fantastic now. I now weigh 121 lbs and I feel that's the real me. I haven't been that weight in god knows how many years (probably 10 or so) but now I am so content and happy with myself :-).
Just thought I should let you know. And the most important part I had to change about my eating was to skip the cake for a while. However, apart from that the vegan diet helps a lot with losing weight :-).

so I've gotta go now. Off to the markets. Will do some baking later for work tomorrow, i.e. belated bday cake.

Will show you a photo of the new me, though :-)

Tex Mex Dinner

2008-08-10T19:38:00.003+12:00

Tonight we had chilli con carne, well I had chilli with kidney beans while BF had his meat version. I also made the cornbread and queso from Vegan Explosion.
The bread with a bit too sweat for my liking. It was a nice contrast to the chilli and really yummy but just not as "bready" as I liked, rather "cakey" :-). The queso also needs a bit of tweaking but that's because I didn't have the exact ingredients and my NZ substitutes just didn't do the recipe justice. But I will keep trying. However, I usually use this cheese sauce which is real good!

Anyway, the tasty corn bread:

And the chilli topped with cheese sauce (as it turned out a bit spicy and needed dampening down hehe)

Chocolate-Mousse Heaven

2008-08-10T14:51:00.004+12:00

Oh my god, I cannot tell you how excited I am to have found an amaaaaaazing recipe for a super-delicious, cholesterol-free, cruelty-free, vegan, gluten-free indulgent, creamy, rich and decadent-tasting CHOCOLATE MOUSSE!

I found it in the July issue of Shape (American issue) and oh my god I am just going crazy here - that's how good it is. The secret ingredient is Avocado and to be quite honest, I had my doubts at first but I thought I might as well try it. And thankfully I did. Unfortunately I haven't got a pretty picture because I just stored it in the fridge in a plastic container due to the lack of a nice piping bag to make little flowery-type dollops, but never mind, it's delicious anyway.

So here's the recipe:

It's very creamy and rich so it's probably enough for 6 people. If you're trying it, you might want to half it. However, it apparently keeps for a week in the fridge (well certainly not where I live hehehe) and 1 months in the freezer so I put 2 portions straight in the freezer (chocolate mousse ice cream anyone?) and 3 portions in the fridge. 1 was devoured straight away (OMG!!!)

- 2 large Avocados --> scoop teaspoon-fulls into a mixing bowl; add
- 155ml (1 cup 2 Tblsp) maple syrup
- 3 Tblsp agave nectar (the original recipe asks for organic evaporated cane juice but that's to complicated for me hehe)
- 2 Tblsp coconut oil (melted)
- 2 Tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tsp balsamic vinegar (no joke)
- 1/2 Tsp soy sauce (no joke either but I might omit this next time)
- 1 cup good cocoa powder (I only had 200mls left but that was enough as well. I bet more wouldn't do any harm though hehe)

Blend all the ingredients apart from the cocoa. Sift cocoa on top, stir in slowly (do avoid the cocoa 'dusting' everywhere), then blend in fully. That's it! It is quite creamy and dense, so next time I will try beating it with an electric whisker to get some more volume into it and make it a bit fluffier, but gosh, the taste is divine either way!

The magazine recipe had raspberries as a serving suggestion which looked very pretty. I could also imagine, piping the mousse onto a plate in some kind of pattern and then serving it with something like banana slices (banana split anyone???) or so. I'm not quite sure whether the berry combo would work for me, but do give it a try.

The recipe was from a women called Renée Loux.

Now I hope, you'll all run to get some avocados. If you don't, no you have to!!! :-)

All the best and enjoy the mousse!!!

8.30pm: I have just tried some of the frozen mousse. I can't quite make my mind up which is better, frozen or just chilled, it's both divine!

Here some pics of the bounty from the vege market this morning. I paid around NZ$35 for it, which is aroun 17 Euros or $24 US.

(Excuse the eggs, I don't eat them but my darling BF does, so at least by buying free range from a farmer, I feel a bit better about it hehe)

Sweet alternative

2008-08-02T21:42:00.002+12:00

I just enjoyed a lovely dinner when a friend came over tonight. We had a variety of things, including seeded cruskits, white bean dip, salad, pickles and some stuff for the two (including BF) omnivores.
Unfortunately i forgot to take photos - woops.

Anyway I bought a cookbook today - haven't bought one in ages (vegan cookbooks in NZ normally come from the US which adds to the already high price of books, so I tend not to buy them).
But I found this book on sale called 'sweet alternative' - more than 100 recipes without gluten, dairy and soy. I'm okay with gluten and soy but have some gluten-free friends, so it would be great to find some yummy recipes.
Eggs are used in the recipes in this book but I have my trusted egg replacer which is gluten free, so I'm all set... :-)

And I am in cupcake mood anyway so I might whip up some yummyness sometime next week. With photos and all that...

Body and Mind

2008-07-30T20:43:00.002+12:00

After 5 months of being vegan, last week I told my (vegan for 7 or so years) friend that I haven't been sick since - so last weekend we both got a cold... how's that???
Never mind, I'm doing fine. My spirits are up, just my body hasn't quite caught up yet, but it's getting there.
I really miss running. My last run was a week ago. The weather kept me from doing a long run on the weekend and then came the cough...
I'm hoping to do an easy run this weekend and slowly get back into a 4 runs a week routine.

I have started making sushi with brown rice now after discovering short grain organic brown rice at my favourite Organic store. It's not quite photo-ready yet as I still have to work out the right amount of sushi vinegar to make it stick properly, but it definitely convinced me and will take over from white rice.

Uni is going okay. It's quite busy but I feel good no matter what. One thing at a time, that's the way to go...
I'm still refusing to pull night-shifts in order to get assignments done but I can see myself having to face them this trimester... We'll see.

Today I went to the bar where I'll have my 23rd birthday party. The headchef is pretty much part of the family (boyfriend's sister's partner, i.e. 'brother in law' if both of us couples were married hehe), so he will accommodate my few wishes of vegan as well as glutenfree dishes :-). Don't you just love 'being different' :-).

But I'll make it as easy as possible for them (this will also keep them from making stuff-ups hehe) so I need to organise my invitations etc. and get the ball rolling.

Right, gotta go now, work on my psychology assignment :-)

Recent food adventures

2008-07-29T17:55:00.004+12:00

A sunday lunch with the 'family'
homemade breads and salads...

and coconut cupcakes as well as date truffles... yumyum

I have become addicted to sushi again and have been filling my lunchbox with sushi variations over the last few weeks, but see for yourself :-)

My first inside out sushi

Vegan Burger at Burgerfuel

Damn good!

Vegan hotdog with vegan sausages from an Asian foodstore, lettuce, fried shallots, left over tomato sauce (pasta sauce) - it was good :-)

BF and I had a mix and match dinner . I had some fried tofu sticks, bean dip, salad, vegan ham and bread chips

Apologies

2008-07-03T21:29:00.002+12:00

Apologies for not writing for aaaaage but I had soo much on, I just didn't find the time.
First of all, there was uni - doing 4 papers really took its toll and was quite stressful.
Secondly, I worked about 12 hours a week, trying to get some more $$$ :-)
Thirdly, I trained for a marathon which required about 6-8 hours of running a week.
Finally, and most importantly, my darling boyfriend also wanted my attention and I have to admit he was somewhat deprived of it as of recently.
But now, everything is back on track.

Number 1: The trimester is over, I achieved 2 A- in my Psychology courses as well as 2 As in my HR and my Accounting paper, so I'm over the moon. especially, because I managed to keep the As coming despite all those other commitments.

Number 2: I'm still happily working away, our team is growing and my colleagues are just amazing. I assume, I am one of the few people on this planet who actually looks forward to going to work :-).

Number 3: I ran my first marathon on June 22 in 4 hours 35 min 39 seconds and am really proud of it because the weather was absolutely horrendous, so finishing in just over 4 1/2 hours was fantastic (headwind, hail, rain, cold, we had it all)

Here you can see me (on the right in the blue top)

Number 4: Boyfriend and I had a good talk about *us* and will both make more of an effort - for me that means making time for being together and doing stuff outside the house even if that means sacrificing a bit of study time or so.

Finally, I am still passionately cooking away, creating some yummy vegan dishes. Just last night we had pizza and I topped mine with vegan nacho cheese sauce made from cashew nuts blended with water, pickled peppers, paprika powder, onion powder, lemon juice, garlic, savoury yeast flakes, salt and pepper (then boil the sauce until thick and creamy).

On Saturday we'll be having a midwinter Christmas party at a friends place. While there will be staple Christmas foods such as ham and pavlova, I will also provide plenty of vegan delights such as vegan German Stollen (a Christmas loaf/cake thingy), vegan dips and breadchips, bread/buns, salad, roast potatoes and veges and drinks.

Okay, that's me for now.

New Experiments

2008-04-28T22:51:00.005+12:00

Thanks to Mihl for her recipe for Blackforest Truffles, they were so utterly delicious!

Everyone at my work loved them and nobody "questioned the ingredients". Very decadent!

Pasta with Tomatosauce (very nice one hehe) and walnuts

Our favourite buns:

Pasta with creamy pear sauce and walnuts

3 types of Anzac biscuits: Cashew-Ginger, Chewy, Peanut Butter

Potato Roesti with Veges

First ever home made spring rolls

Baking again

2008-04-22T16:22:00.004+12:00

It was time to do some baking again, so here the results

Multigrain 6-seed buns (haven't sampled yet but will do so tonight yay)

Delicious vegan chocolate walnut brownie with boysenberry sauce and chocolate drizzle. Oh yum!

I also recently tried the Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup with Caramelised Cashews, a recipe (slightly changed) from Tofu for Two.
It was so good and even omni-BF loved it hehe

From the same website also comes the Hazelnut Mashed Potatoes which I had with lots of vege

Dinner Party

2008-04-19T09:17:00.003+12:00

Delicious Vegan Walnut Cake

Vegan Cardamom and Pistachio Baklava

Dinner Rolls and Multigrain Bagels

White Bean and Rocket Dip with Pine nuts

Carrot and Cumin Dip

Holidays going by way too fast

2008-04-18T07:18:00.002+12:00

Yeah, I haven't posted in aaaages. I am on uni holidays at the moment but the last two weeks leading up to it were more than stressful. Anyway, time to post some more food pics. one day I'll hopefully have enough time to actually write more about them as well.

How can people not be vegan?

2008-04-05T20:52:00.002+13:00

Since I became vegan 7 weeks ago I have discovered all these great dishes. My cooking is so much more varied without meat and dairy - as ironic as it sounds. Mainly in terms of ingredients. And I just love love love the food and I enjoy it a lot more, because it is such a great experience for my taste buds. So here my recent creations:

Vegan Burger: Because the buns were a bit small, I had the tofu on the side (fried in a little sesame oil with garlic, soy sauce and maple syrup). On the buns I placed hummus, soy cream cheese, two flat cap mushrooms, avocado, tomato slices and tomato chutney. Side salad to go with it. Wow! Yummy!

My favourite fruit loaf: Packed with dried fruit and wholegrain goodness. No oil or margarine, just a little brown sugar. Instant energy :-)

This is my toasted muesli. I make it for my boyfriend, he loves it. It is actually vegan because I use margarine and brown sugar for the coating. Not too much coating but I prefer plain muesli, so BF gets to eat it all :-). It's packed with nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts and cashews), oats, coconut, seeds and some dried fruit.

Today's rainy-saturday lunchtime pancakes. I have written about them before but here's the photo. The gloss comes from margarine and maple syrup. Oh the delight! Even omni boyfriend liked them alot, despite their healthy appearance due to oat bran and wholegrain flour hehe. but don't tell him :-)

And finally, after running 18km this evening, I treated myself to this fabulous salad: lettuce, avocado, pickled peppers, tomatoes, sprouts, grilled sweet potato, fried tofu and sunflower kernels. Fresh dates and 4 pieces of dark chocolate for dessert :-).

How can people not be vegan?

More vegan delights

2008-03-31T18:41:00.003+13:00

Alright, here's what I've been up to lately:

Delicious Vegan Capsicum-Cashew Lasagne

Looks a bit unhappy :-). It's layers of polenta, tomato puree and pesto all baked in the oven. Didn't quite stick together but tasted good :-)

Vegan Kebab: Lebanese pita bread, lots of lettuce and other salad stuff, falafel and vegan aioli (made with silken tofu)

My first vegan pizza: used pita bread for base, then tomato puree with salt, pepper, oregano and a splash of olive oil. Topped it all with rocket, mushrooms, zuccini, tomatoes, corn, avocado, pickled capsicum and vegan mozzarella. Delicious!

Study Group Breakfast

2008-03-25T20:25:00.002+13:00

Today some friends came over for a study session but first we had breakfast :-)
Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the really yummy oatmeal pancakes we had. They were soooo good! They tasted healthy but still delicious and not "wholesome alternative vegan" as some Omnis might thinks :-). Recipe further down.

So we had a "variety of bread" including the gluten-free bread from yesterday, as well as some wholemeal rye bread and some hot cross buns. We also had fruit salad, muesli and of course the pancakes. With yummy maple syrup and homemade rhubarb and fig jam.

There's the homemade toasted muesli :-). with heaps of yummy nuts

Here the recipe for the pancakes:

Mix 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of raisins, 1 tblsp maple syrup and 2 1/2 cups of oat milk and let it soak for 15 min.
In a bowl sift together 1 tsp egg replacer (or enough to replace 1 egg), pinch of salt, 1 cup wholemeal flour (or whichever one you like), 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tblsp baking powder and about 2-3 tblsp of raw sugar.
Then add this dry mixture to the milk mixture and combine well.
Beat in 3 tblsp of sunflower oil.

Then fry in batches.

Tastes delicious with a bit of margarine and a generous splash of maple syrup :-). Or jam :-)

Easter Dinner Photos

2008-03-25T07:21:00.002+13:00

Here last night's dinner results:

Gluten-free sun-dried tomato bread with sunflower seeds and walnuts

tomato hummus (in the front), home made sundried tomatoes (left) and little nibbles (back)

Home-made banana, date and tamarind chutney

gluten-free rice and nut cake (needs some experimenting with the recipe though, the crust was a bit dry but the nut part was delicious)

Glutenfree Adventures

2008-03-24T16:21:00.002+13:00

Tonight my friends are coming for dinner and one of them is gf. So this morning I made gluten-free bread with sun-dried tomatoes, sunflower seeds and walnuts. Will take a photo later when I cut it. I also made a rice and nut cake which will be served for dessert together with some coconut ice cream.
It's not too difficult to cook and bake gluten-free, I find and I would really love to cut more wheat out of our diet. I make an effort to use only whole grain products and flour in my usual baking or pizzas or so, but in the future I will try to substitute a little more often and cut down the gluten-containing products. For health reasons.

So tonight we'll have an entree of antipasto platter. I'm the only vegan so it's a mix of bread, cheeses, pickels, chutneys, fruit, dips and hummus. For the main we'll have roast potatoes, steamed veges, a green salad and some yuckie meat for the others :-).
For dessert it's the rice cake with coconut ice cream.

I'm really looking forward to it. It'll show my darling BF again that there are tasty vegan foods and that gluten-free isn't the end of the world :-).

On a completely different note, I am totally stressed out with uni and sometimes just thinking of the assessments ahead makes me have little panic attacks. Well I should get over it. I'll try

Carnivore or Herbivore?

2008-03-23T21:04:00.001+13:00

Check this out

Easter Brunch

2008-03-23T18:00:00.000+13:00

Today my darling boyfriend and I enjoyed a late and lazy Easter brunch.
This included vegan hot cross buns (recipe from the vegetarian society), vegan carrot cake (recipe from recipezaar but I used 1 cup of apple sauce - it turned out nice and moist), store-bought oat knots (buns), fruit salad, jam, muesli (BF had toasted muesli which is also vegan) and also vegan cream cheese, tomato, avocado and sprouts for the savoury bread.

It was delicious and afterwards I was absolutely stuffed :-).
Here some pictures (the evil cow's milk is BF's hehehe)

BF was very sweet and went out yesterday especially to get my an Easter treat. He asked what kind of chocolate I was "allowed" these days :-). There were no vegan-friendly chocolate eggs so he got me this very yummy dark chocolate. It's a very sweet gesture (literally) because he's quite keen on omni-food so I really appreciated it.

The toasted muesli:

3 cups of oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup oat bran
2 tblsp each sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and linseed
plenty of nuts (I use walnuts, cashew, almonds and peanuts)

2 tblsp vege margarine
1/2 cup brown/raw sugar
1 tblsp maple syrup

1 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, whatever you like)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a pan or saucepan, heat margarine, sugar and syrup over low heat until sugar dissolves. Stir this into the dry ingredients and mix well until all is combined.
Spread the muesli onto a large baking tray and bake in the preheated oven at 150 degrees C for 45 min, stirring every 10 min.

Remove from oven and stir in dried fruit. Delicious! :-)

Hot X Buns, Carrot Cake loaf, Oat knots

BF's giant Easter egg and creme eggs

Getting started

2008-03-23T17:46:00.001+13:00

After becoming a vegan 5 1/2 weeks ago, it is about time for me to start my own vegan food and cooking blog.
I have found so many great vegan blogs and website and am astonished by all the creativity when it comes to cooking and baking.
I have managed to create some pretty nice dishes myself, such as vegan carrot cake with icing, a super-energy fruit loaf as well as really yummy hot cross buns.
I will make an effort to upload photos as well.

Just some infos about myself:
I am a 22 year old student, doing a Commerce and a Science degree (in my 2nd year).
In my spare time (haven't got much of that at the moment) I enjoy running, exercise at the gym, reading, meeting friends, going out for dinner, dancing, and of course cooking and baking.

I live in a lovely little apartment with my boyfriend who is an absolute meat lover. It's not always easy with us when it comes to dinner because I now have to make some arrangements to cook for us both without having to cook 2 separate dishes.

The result of last night's spag bol was basically spaghetti with tomato sauce and separate meat balls for BF. I had bought some vegan mozarella (NZ$12.50!!! what a rip off!) and it was surprisingly tasty. However, considering the price, it will stay an occasional treat.

Now here's the first photo: