Vegetarian Chatter

YUM Kaz! Need to eat pies and stews and stuff before salad season hits again, abotu 5 mins from now!
Last week I went to a grocer that was having a closing down sale, got a bottle of macadamia oil infused with mountain pepper for $3, DH and I have been having it on everything!

I love cooking with lemon myrtle - one of my sexiest vegan dishes is mushrooms with lemon myrtle polenta:

Boil up your polenta stock (4 parts stock to 1 part polenta) and add 1 tsp lemon myrtle. While that's boiling, I crush up some macadamias with a garlic clove, and toast them. Set aside. Then I fry up some mushrooms, sometimes with a little bit of chilli, but mostly just mushrooms. Pour polenta into stock, cook through. Serve mushies on top of polenta, sprinkle with macadamia crumb.

Dinner was turtle bean enchiladas, avocado on the side, with a tiny bit of (guess what?) macadamia oil! Wouldn't have picked macadamia oil to go with Mexican but OMG! Heaven.

SnugBug, yummy, yum, yum :p and it totally does feel like summer already! I was thinking that about making the stew for lunch today "betta make it while it's still kinda winter" we are already getting into the salads again (not that we really stopped) but the fridge is totally stocked with all the salad stuff... The dish you mentioned tonight sounds light and summery with the lemon myrtle and mushy's are light too, with salad on the side it's sounds beautiful with a glass of white wine ;)

dinner for me tonight was nothing! I am not hungry and dh is at work so I walked on the treadmill for 15 mins, had a little sing-a-along with my mp3 player up full volume and drank lots of water :D

Thumbs up for the glass of wine!
I feel so NAUGHTY! Like I am drinking all the time, and partying. It's true, and it's fun, but after tfour months of being virtuous, I feel so wicked...

The other recipe I was going to post was out awesome Sunday lunch.

Middle Eastern Lentil Soup
Toast 2 tsp cumin seeds in large pot. Add olive oil, chopped onion, fry off for a minute or so. Add 1cm finely chopped ginger, two cloves garlic, 1 cassia stick. Stir it up. Add 3 diced carrots, then chop 5 or 6 or however many tomatoes. Chuck them in. Add some stock, and brown lentils. Cook until lentils soft and your house smells like dirty hippy.
Serve with dukkah toast. Use a half turkish bread. Cut in half lengthways, then slice open. Drizzle tiny bit of olive oil over each piece, sprinkle with dukkah, grill. DH did this, and it looked SO good!

Quite good for the hangover too! (SO wicked!)

Ooooooh I can't wait until I get my kitchen, and I can cook stuff on the stovetop!!!

That polenta sounds nice, I have some lemon myrtle here too ... mmmm, mushies.

My silly dog knocked over my mushroom box, just when I was starting to get some mushies!! Does anyone else grow their own?

I used to work at an aboriginal cultural park in Cairns, in the restaurant there. We used to use a lot of bush spices and fruits and stuff (a few native animals too... bleurk!). I used to love the lemon aspen tarts the pastry chef used to sneak to me... the ones that "accidentally" got damaged before making it to the buffet! So tangy!
Oh, this diet is driving me nuts! Yes, DS was a lot calmer and less hyper, but then someone went and set fire to our car in our driveway, and well, that has a slightly disruptive effect on everything afterwards... and I'm so tired I just want to eat pizza, but the fabulous spelt pizza place up the road doesn't deliver and my bike is busted and I'm just too tired.... oy! What to do...
Anyways, enough moaning. Here's my recipe for a vegan pumpkin and coconut bread/cake thingy. Yes, it has lots of sugar in it. I'm feeling ok about that right now, tho!

Moist Pumpkin and coconut bread
3 1/2 cups plain flour (gluten free also works)
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease & line 2 8x4” loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and cover tightly with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil and turn onto a cooling rack. Tent loosely with the foil and allow to cool completely.
If you don't eat them both the same day they're made, you can always freeze one!

Yum, NaNa, will have to try! I don't know if your spelt pizza place is the same as the one I know, but if so, YUM! I love it there. Can't remember the name though.

I had a bike stack this arvo :redface: Have been to hospy and everything. BUT, when I got home, made up some white hot chocolate (dairy free!) that I found, and OMG, it was the best! So sugary and bad, but just what I fancied, after my first ambulance trip, and ensuing x-rays and tetanus shots.

So, since I'm a bit out of action, need your ideas for one-handed food! (right now tahini straight out of the jar is my fave:D)

I saw your facebook post and thought OMG!!! Glad it wasn't too bad an accident. And what a great excuse for the hot choccie. :)

snuggly - OMGoddess, are you ok?? And your bike? sheesh, what a week and it's only wednesday...
The place is called pizza farro. it rocks my world... the hundreds of rolling pins hanging from the ceiling and the vintage tea-towel curtains are so cool, and the pizzas are just the best ever. But I didn't get there. DP made a zucchini slice (coz I taught him how) and even though I'm not supposed to eat half the things in it, I did anyway. With tomato chutney. Praying DS doesn't have a psycho day today because of it, coz I'm still too tired to deal with it!
I can't think of any easy-to-make-one-handed recipes off the top of my head right now... I'll have to get back to you. I should know some more, since I kept working with three dislocated fingers once upon a time, but that all seems like a lifetime ago!

So far it's been toast with marmalade - this beautiful lemon myrtle maramalade we got at the ekka.
Tahini out of the jar might be morning tea :D

I thought it was Casa Farro, but it's been a while. Anyway, yeah, I loved that place! We should go there when I move back to Melbs!
I spent Sunday dealing with the cops over an incident with a bouncer. And yesterday in an ambulance. So between us, NaNa, we have the trifecta of emergency services in three days! Wild!

What is going on with you girls??!! Did I read right that someone set your car on fire NaNa??!! What the hell??
Oh my god Snuggly, you sound like a gnarly force to be reckoned with... What were you doing stirring the pot with bouncers? Heheh. No good about your stack, good to hear your ok though.

Hi to everyone else, sorry its brief, DD wont sleep or let me put her down so Im one handed today.
Hope your all well**

Holly crap-a-molly! SnugBug I hope you are ok and NaNa I must have missed something... fire...car....:wtf:

Peach sounds like you need a one handed recipe but I can't think of anything but peanut butter on toast :lol: heheh

Kazbah I had thought about growing my own... there is a place I know you can buy the compost but I don't think I will look into it until I have got my herbs sorted and the rest of the garden

I'm OK thanks, but the painkillers are screwing with me. I just feel so useless. I'm home all day but can hardly do anything. I have some sweet potatoes in the cupboard, and would love to roast them up with some capsicums and macadamias in a maple mustard sauce. But can't peel, or chop. Grrrrr!
Oh, and we have some bananas that neeeeed to be made into a cake or muffins or something. But I can't stir! :crying:

We're having a vegan pizza night on Saturday, and I went into mild panic when our normal Cheezly supplier was unavailable! But just jumped on to cruelty free shop and ordered some, to be delivered before then. And a couple of other goodies :D

How did you come off Snuggly?? It must have been a big fall :(

My stomach is about to burst, tonight I made the chickpea cassarole Cherished1 posted two pages back... with a few modifications of course.. added a bunch of field mushrooms, half a capsicum and chilli... OMG you all have to make this, divine! Ive had 2 bowls and am going back for a third. My stomach is screaming no but my mouth wants it so bad. And it was officially my first tahini experience. Probably wont be eating it one-handed out of the jar anytime soon(not pointing fingers:lol:) but it was delicious in a meal.

Hope everyone is having a great night*

darn, lost my post before... yeah, things have been a bit too exciting around here. I did post in the punching bag and boohoo thread about it, but to save you the search, someone set fire to DP's car in our driveway on Monday night. Could have been a tragedy, but we're all ok and I'm just now dealing with cleaning up the toxic filth that's left over. Bleurk. I'm still annoyed that I didn't have any gelatine-free marshmallows to toast ;) coz I never wanted a car anyway. DP thinks I'm such a heretic/feral/tree-hugger because I've never owned a car or even had my license, I'd rather ride a bike or take public transport, for much the same reasons I don't eat mass-produced animals! So I'm less than thrilled that 1) someone could have been killed as a result of senseless vandalism, and 2) burning car is not exactly the environmental impact I want to have on my hands. Carbon footprint? Yeah, there's a heap of them on my front porch now. Anyhoo...
snuggly - have you tried roasting sweet potato whole, unpeeled? It's yummy! And you could probly manage it with one hand and under the influence of painkillers! Put it on a tray, and when it's all puffed up and smooshy inside, split the skin and scoop out the good stuff. Oh yeah, Pizza Farro is the same as Casa Farro, but in Thornbury. With different owners, but the same concept and everything. I must get down there for breakfast one day... You coming back to Melbs??

Back to elimination diet soup here tonight. DS has been chucking a wobbly (to use my nanna's term) at me all day. I am dying for some chocolate cake. Purely for medicinal purposes, of course!

oh yeah, mushroom growing kits are neat! I think you can get them from some nurseries, and probably Bunnings if you're that way inclined! Easy peasy to grow your own.

aarghhhhhhh I bought the wrong stock and put beef stock in with my polenta by accident, its all brown and beefy :(

NaNa, That is insane, thank goodness you all are ok and not hurt!

I have eating problems I seriously need to address... Im the biggest over-eater at night, thank god I have almost no saturated fats in my diet or I would be huge. Once again Im about to burst from dinner!

Tonight I made a delish spag bog, found TVP in our local health shop and its the first time in over a year Ive cooked with it, so yum but I couldnt stop eating! Made garlic bread too which our stupid damn oven(blame the oven Peach) burnt the crapola out of.
What kind of mushies grow? Buttons,fields? That would be so awesome, we eat so many mushies here.
Kazbah- That sucks about the stock :( blech.

Awww Kaz that sucks about the beef stock :( I accidently bought a packet of meat vegi pasties a couple of months ago, I hate wasting so they are still in the freezer waiting to be given to my MIL next time she visits :rolleyes:

Peach I know what you mean about over eating... I used to do it heaps along with emotional eating, but I'm pretty good these days.

AFM I am doing my own elimination diet again. I have a list of foods to avoid which cause my eczema... I have pretty much been eczema free for about 10 months now which I am totally proud of! Last year I got tested and found out heaps of stuff to avoid so I did it strictly for about 3 months and than started throwing in the odd tomato, red wine or regular wholegrain bread etc and I was fine so I was happy to have in moderation BUT I've had a bit of a flair up over the last month :doh: so I need to cut out all the bad stuff again. On my list of do not eat is tofu, Pasta, Pineapple, orange, soy products!!! and even strawberries :( Plus much more.... I know it's not that bad but I worry about getting enough protein without tofu and soy??? Any ideas? I can only think of my oat & rice milk & whey powder... What else has really high protein that I can eat more of.

Butting my head in again...

Here are some high protein veg for ya ;)

lentils (18 gms of protein), black beans (15 gms of protein), kidney beans (13 gms of protein), chickpeas (12 gms of protein), veggie baked beans (12 gms of protein), pinto beans (12 gms of protein), black-eyed peas (11 gms of protein), peas (9 gms of protein), spinach (5 gms of protein) and broccoli (4 gms of protein)

And also a 1/4 cup sunflower seeds is 4 gms protein

Tofu is only 11 gms of protein and soybeans is 29... so you should be fine just by incorporating a few of the above (you probably use them already!) And if all else fails... hommus is high in protein for veg ;)