Vegetarian Chatter

cherished1 - I grew up on the Sunny Coast, in Mudjimba (I see everyone else thinking "where???"). Our deli was in Paciffo. It's still there (Soul Foods) but the new owners are probably not completely understanding of the name. Still a few of my old recipes on the menu, as far as I know. I'm visiting up Gympie way at the moment, coz my folks moved up here. It's a foodie paradise - NOT! And some areas of QLD are definitely entrenched in the 70s, or possibly a parallel universe. A friend of mine was visiting on a cattle station, and the owner said the fridge was full of food, help themselves. Well, the fridge was full of steak. She asked if there was any salad, to which he replied, "yeah, there's some eggs there..." Priceless.

I saw that Cook and The Chef the other night too, just briefly. I have to give Simon credit for being a vego chef. It's a hard industry to be in, and be successful, when you're vegetarian. It involves so much knowledge and handling and tasting of meat, and you really have to just not make a big deal out of it or you get so much flak. At least in my experience, anyway. I've had to prepare and taste so much stuff that I really didn't want to, so bravo to him for not gagging on the tripe! Or maybe he did, and it's in the out-takes!

Does anyone else have Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian book? It's so great, even without photos. I'm such a fan of gastroporn and beautifully styled food and everything (I'm a graphic designer too), but her books are so nicely written and there's all these little stories about where the recipes come from...

I must dig out some vegan cake recipes for you all when I get home next week! I'll need some sweet treats and cheering up too as I'm going to be embarking on an elimination diet for me and DS (coz he's so hyper-xtreme-turbocharged it's scary!) and it's going to be such a challenge for me, getting thru even a week with no spices and no broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, onions... blah blah the list goes on. Depressing!

NaNa, I have a great elimination diet cookbook - you probably don't need it, but if you want to PM your address I will happily post it to you. It just has really good ideas for the basic stuff (some of it is junk) I bought it in an op shop for $1, so not too precious about it!
I'd be a great vego chef, I reckon, because I did love meat when I ate it, and it was really hard for me to give up completely - had a gradual 2 year wind down time! Now, I don't feel like I need it to make a meal complete, obviously! And I have never ever craved it, but, if there were some way to make it ethically agreeable (a contradiction, since there isn't) I'd go back to it, I think.
Do not tell my mother or MIL any of this!

Hi Girls,

Not much to contribute but wanted to drop in and say hi. Have been snacking on turkish bread and dips the last few days too tired and lazy to be bothered which is really bad, I know. Going to make a chickpea and potato korma for dinner though.

Urgh.. do you eat fish? um no... :rolleyes: I think we have all been there. Mum has finally stopped offering me prawns at xmas time, and DP's mum has given up too("go on love, have a chicken leg I wont tell anyone" :doh:)
Hope your all well*

My brother and sister still haven't given up offering me BEEF!

But they're lame :rolleyes:

Hello my fellow BBer's

NaNa Gympie is surprising sometimes! I've been there a few times and had to eat something, if all else fails we order garlic bread, chips and a salad! :rolleyes: I'm not sure where your old cafe used to be... Give me more info, I'd love to check it out... I didn't get to make the beetroot dip on the weekend, dh 'bless him' surprised me with a fresh juice and used it all up :p I'm off shopping tomorrow as there is nothing in the hosue to eat and I've resorted to packet pasta for dinner :redface:

SnugBug You make me laugh with almost every post you make, dh and I use the word lame (with love) all the time and it cracks me up :lol:

Peach* :hello: hello honey! your Korma sounds YUMMMO, I love korma, good to hear from you

OK now for my question... Does or has anyone grown Kefir at home? I understand you put a culture in a jar or something (if so where do you get that from) and than add other stuff like milk etc... I really don't know much about it but I understand it's a good probiotic and the vegetarian dairy free probiotic I buy is expensive so I'd like to grow kefir if I can and would it work using oat milk or rice milk or do you need to use regular milk??? Thanks to anyone who can help with this :)

Chez - I know you can do kefir with soy milk, we used to do it in Melbs all the time. I think we left our kit down there though :doh: so have never done it here in Brissy.
I made pizza last night - usually anything dough related is DH's domain, but he is so LAME that he sprained his wrist in a bike stack the other night and can't knead. Anyway, it turned out really well, and I am chuffed. While I had the apron on, I also made some apple and cinnamon muffins, and this chocolate slice:

Nanna Kath's Crunchy choc slice:
200g tea biscuits (I used McVities Digestives)
1/4 cup golden syrup
60g Nuttelex
150g chopped chocolate

Melt together syrup, nuttelex and chocolate over simmering water. Stir in broken biscuits. Pour into tray, refrigerate until set.
So I was thinking I could probably add chopped glace cherries and desiccated coconut. I was also considering adding some whipped silken tofu, because the vegan chocolate makes it SO rich, and the tofu might take the edge off it. I'll experiment, and advise. :D

NaNa - Love your avatar!

Krys - thanks! They did a great job of it, and it looks surprisingly like me (but my beret is black!).

Cherished - do you know the BiLo in Pacific Paradise? Around the corner towards the school there's a dentist, Soul Foods and a post office. I haven't been in there since we sold it tho, so I can't say how good it is anymore! I went past it the other day and it felt so wierd to see my design painted on the front window and all the signs... The only place in Gympie that's above the average is probably Emilia's deli. Though it's not really a deli anymore, since they don't have cheeses or anything as of last week!
snugglybean - thanks for the offer of the book. I'll see how I go when I'm back in my little kitchen, but I think I'll be ok. I'll definitely let you know if there's something I'm struggling with tho! Because DS is still BF, I'm unsure how much I need to eliminate in order to really have the effect I'm after. I think I will die without spices! Cooking for him will be less difficult, but I need to make sure it's nutritionally balanced and still at the right texture for his finicky tastes! He is such a pain when he's teething, spitting out anything he doesn't like the feel of, even if he loves the taste.

On our recent trip overseas, my DP (who is a carnivore but only when eating out) got so frustrated with everyone automatically assuming that vegetarians eat fish that he started losing it and ranting at wait staff in french about how fish is not a vegetable... bless him. It took him long enough to understand my plight! I don't think I'll ever manage to make him convert, tho.

Well its been quiet here! How is everyone going? We are all sick in my household so Ive been trying to cook things with lots of garllic and chilli to flush it out. Tonight made a big vegie and lentil pasta and put a whole bulb in and so much chilli I could barely taste anything :doh:
Last night made sushi for dinner, which was tasty and the good thing about making it at home is its so cheap to gorge on.
Cherished1- What is kefir??

So I have a confession to make... dont judge me :redface: Ive never tried tahini. So I got a jar at shopping the other day and opened it and.... it tastes almost like peanut butter, is this what it should be like???
Hope your all going well :)

Hey Peach - watch out, tahini can be a bit addictive! It does taste a little bit nutty, a bit like sesame. Start on the lighter coloured one, then if you're feeling hardcore, move to the unhulled stuff, it has like 10 times more calcium.

I am quite happy to eat it out of a jar with a spoon. :D

I really don't like tahini. But I know many people love it.
I have heard along the grape line that there is now a soy condensed milk. Someone found it in a Woolworths in Brisbane. Thought you vegan cheesecake lovers would be interested. :)
We had a BBQ in the park today and got lots of side comments about the nice smell - always good.

Oh excellent! Thats what we need in this thread- a triple tested veg cheesecake recipie. What park did you go to?
Snuggly- Should it be oily??

OH MY GOD!!! DP just realised I had the oven on.... um 3 hrs Ive had apples in there on 200degrees baking for DD...woops!

yes, tahini should be oily. Give it a good stir coz it's always thick and sticky at the bottom of the jar! Tahini and honey mixed together is pretty awesome... unless you're of the vegan orthodoxy that doesn't include honey. I always have some in the house, but DP is from Lebanon so it's a pantry staple. Can't have hommus or baba ganooj without it. It makes a good substitute for peanut butter, so I used to use the tahini-honey mix at the childcare centre because nuts and nut products were prohibited. Sadly, sesame seeds are not on my list of suitable foods in this stupid elimination diet. I'm hating it already, and I haven't even started properly! argh!

I've seen kefir, years ago. Probably when working at Tofu Shop... I don't understand the difference between that and laban, or other middle-eastern style drinking yoghurts that I can't remember the names of now! I've made yoghurt with Bonsoy before too, but don't love the texture!

soy condensed milk?? where?? where??

oops about the apples! hope they were nice and caramelised, not carbonised!

What is the elimination diet for if you dont mind me asking and how does it work? Did you say it was for you DS in a previous post?
The apples actually turned out ok amazingly.... thanks to our ****house oven that wont cook a thing, for once it worked in my favour. I scraped the soft apple for DD's brekkie and picked at the yummy caramelised apple leftovers. I give her the one flavour for 5 days but it hardly made any unfortunately, nevermind!

um, yeah, the elimination diet is mainly for my DS. He's pretty hyperactive and can be defiant, doesn't sleep, and had lots of reflux and wind troubles when younger.A lot of his health/sleep/behaviour issues could be attributed to salicylates, or intolerance to them. Or so I've been told by our herbalist/homeopath/nurse. Doctors, MCHN, paediatricians and sleep disorder specialists all told me to try medication like phenurgan (sp?) -of which the side effects are hyperactivity!!- to get him to sleep. Sleep deprivation in infants can lead to diagnoses of ADD/ADHD when older. I'm trying to reduce the chances of DS being a wild child, or at least get some sleep so I can handle it!! The reason I'm trying to start on this low-salicylate diet too is that DS is still breastfed, and apparently there's some transfer thru BM. It's complex... but I'm so glad I might have found a cause to some of our troubles and therefore improve things now.
There's lots of info available, but I just haven't had the time to do much research into it until now because I've been so exhausted and busy. Turbo-baby! He's never slept well, and even though I thought I was doing the right thing by giving him lots of fruit and vegetables, it could be that he has a sensitivity to some of them or is intolerant. It's not an allergy, and therefore allergy testing is pointless.
Salicylates are found in most natural foods but also synthetically produced for food, medication and skincare products. Aspirin is a salicylate. It's also found in Nurofen, which I had used briefly for DS when teething because it doesn't contain sorbitol like infants panadol does, and sorbitol tends to stain DS's cloth nappies.
The things that are high in natural salicylates are all the things I love, like broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, lemons, berries, sweet potato and spices.

NaNa, the cookbook I have has some information on salicylates, amines and glutamates, the big three of food intolerance! I am sensitive to glutamates - they used to make me really sick, but since I've known about it, I can keep it in check, and I can actually eat them pretty easily. I'm also sensitive to dairy, and now that I know about that one, I feel so much better all the time.
Growing up, mum thought I was just a fussy eater - wouldn't eat most vegies. Then, when I lived in Bolivia when I was 16, I ate everything because it was so rude to refuse any food in a nation so starved, and I discovered this world of taste; I ate everything, but my intolerances also started to show up. So all my life I had naturally rejected these foods. At 18 I started an elimination diet, which showed up glutamates as being an issue (although not dairy, oddly enough) So anything with flavour enhancer (MSG) or yeast extract is particularly an issue (also explains why rum makes me vomit, almost instantly! Well, that's my excuse...) but now that I know about that, a strawberry here and there or a few cherry tomatoes is not the big deal it used to be.
That's my story!

I've got the best lentil salad for lunch - brown lentils, home grown cos lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, dukkah, fresh mint, sunflower seeds and a tahini and sumac dressing. Yummm!

Wow, well I hope it works out for you and your DS NaNa.
Snuggly- you are a regular jet setter! It sounds like you have been to some amazing and interesting places. Your lunch sounds delish. I made avo, hommus, tomato and mixed lettuce sandwiches.

Hi girls,

NaNa I do know where you are talking about in Pacific Paradise, I will check it out next time I am there :P the elimination diet sounds like a great thing to do. have you tried chiropractic too?

Peach kefir is a pet you keep in your kitchen :rofl: na just kidding!!! I think it's like a culture you grow in your kitchen and you can keep it going (living) for years, it has probiotic in it etc and you feed it milk etc, I have since found out from snuggly that you can use soy milk and there is a kit you can get???? And it's like other yogurts etc from NaNA... I belive you can use the kefir as a millk substitue or as yogurt etc btw I don't like tahini either :rolleyes: not sure why... I want to like it! maybe I need to use it more in cooking etc etc....

Snugg bugg, I have an allergy to tomatoes too but find I can eat hem in moderation now after cutting them out completley for a few months :p and what were you doing in Bolivia???

krysalyss you must be a messenger from heaven, soy condensed milk! :dance:

AFM well I've been reading skinny B1tch and I am so happy I am already vegetarian! But now I want to be vegan! we pretty much are now except for the cheese we eat but apparently there is vegan cheese out there? I'll post more later on how this transition is going....

Who wouldn't go to Bolivia? :lol: I went there on exchange for twelve months in 1998. I certainly didn't eat many fresh vegies - living at 3800m altitude there's not a heap that grows well, although I lived with a rich enough family that we got the odd lettuce, cucumber or capsicum, all washed in lovely cholera-laden water. Mmmm. I had salmonella poisoning while I was there, so I have a bit of an iron gut now :D One thing they had that I miss like pants was freeze dried potato. They would leave potatoes out in the Andean winter to dry, then they press them (grape-stomping style) then they get all the bits and leave them out to dry some more. Sounds gross, but MAN did they know how to cook it! And broad beans. I fell in love with broad beans over there.

Your right Snuggly- it does sound gross ;)
Cherished1- What is that book about? Ive heard it mentioned before but havnt read it myself(obviously or I wouldnt be asking)

Dinner tonight- Pizza. Couldnt help myself!

cherished - yep, tried chiro too. It had an instant effect on DS's sleep, and I wish so much I had taken him sooner, instead of not trusting my instinct and going thru all the hassle with doctors who dismissed my worries and thought it was all my fault. Apparently I come across as PND when I'm tired! uh... duh!

So I started this elimination diet today with all good intentions. Went shopping for leeks, brussels sprouts, celery, swedes, cabbages, green beans and cashew butter. It was quite a primitive shopping list! Cooked up a big pot of soup with lots of barley and vegies and garlic but it was so booooring!! I just desperately wanted to throw in some spice. I'm such an addict... Hopefully DS will eat it tho.

snugglybean - a friend of mine went to the US for a Camp America type thing, and after a few weeks of eating only the food provided (burgers and nasty stuff), she started getting ill. By the time she got home she was a wreck. Her doctor recommended a version of a "stone-age fusion" diet, which is even more depressing than the elimination diet! No onions, lentils or pulses, no soy, no tomatoes, no corn or gluten, no dairy... low-fructans. I don't think it would be possible to live on that diet as a vegetarian. I don't know how she has survived the last 14 months, let alone still maintaining breastfeeding. Her little boy is the same age as my DS.
It's amazing how diet affects entire cultures, tho, isn't it? Bolivia would have been amazing.
OK, I have to go finish off a packet of cookies and then I'm on this diet for real... :rolleyes:

Hi all,

I have just caught up on the last week of posts.

Tahini - love it. I make a nice sauce with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, water, cumin and parsley. Yummy on potatoes, as a salad dressing,etc. I try to buy unhulled and organic, but I will eat hulled as well (just want to maximise my calcium intake though).

Snuggly - I made your sweet potato and barley stew last night.I used pearl barley,and threw in a bit of pumpkin too.I coated the tempeh in cornflour, cumin, salt and ground corinader. Well, they all loved it. DH was stoked. DD kept raving about how yummy it was, and DS fussy 2 year old loved it too! So, that is going to become a regular in our house.Thanks!

Cherished 1 - All the best on your vegan journey. You'll love it! You can conquer the cheese addiction! Cheese was the hardest food for me to give up but you get over it eventually....

I just bought a great children's book called 'That's why we don't eat animals'.The author is a vegan who was inspired to write it (and illustrate it) after working with young children. It is really beautiful, takes the approach that we are all earthlings, that animals have a family structure too and experience emotions. Also explores environmental reasons for being vego, mentions the Amazon, the oceans and provides info on factory farming without being gruesome or scary.

:D

morning girls :)

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OK, I have to go finish off a packet of cookies and then I'm on this diet for real...

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:rofl:

Peach everytime I look at your sig I think how cute your bubs is!!! Not sure I have told you? and NaNa I love that nappie on your little one :p I plan to use modern Cloth nappies and have a dozen of them already... Peach the skinny B!tch book is a weight loss book really and it talks about the effects of meat on the body and the slaughter process etc, it's really horrible to read about :crying: but many people do need that wake up call iykwim

Alisha, that book sounds great! I might see if I can find it on line, did you get it in a store? I mentioned to dh last night about the vegan thing and cheese.... He said he used to eat a soy cheese which was nice but expensive... We chatted about going full on vegan and we are gonna take the transition slowly, ie start buying things that are vegan and experimenting with different brands etc until we find what we like :dance:

oooh, the MCN thread is another one you'll find me hanging out in. That rainbow cover in my ticker is made by Maz, who is a BBer too. Its so hard not to come across as a complete hippie when you're vego, use cloth nappies, don't drive a car, carry bubs in a sling, breastfeed, co-sleep etc... :lol: but I'm so NOT.

I wonder how long before I get sick of eating only pears? Not a huge fruit eater anyway, but I do like cherries, mangoes and peaches a little too much when I can get them!
off to the op-shop to hunt for vintage cookbooks again! Feeding my other addiction...

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Its so hard not to come across as a complete hippie when you're vego, use cloth nappies, don't drive a car, carry bubs in a sling, breastfeed, co-sleep etc... :lol: but I'm so NOT.

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:rofl: Reminds me of something my old boss said - a political point came up, she's gone "well, you could vote for the opposition..."
I raised an eyebrow, and said "I'm a vegan cyclist."

I just made cheesy corn muffins with the kids at work, loaded with vegies, so colourful, so that should be good. I can't believe, working in childcare, the processed JUNK that some kids get shoveled into their mouths. It's vile.

oh yeah... I love my red bike too. Must get a kiddy seat for DS as soon as I can afford it!
I miss cooking for the childcare centre. It was one of the lowest paying jobs I've had, but had the highest job satisfaction level! They asked me to come back, but they don't have a place available for DS... Some of the terrible things that would come into the kitchens and lunchboxes at other centres, I would consider child abuse.
Can someone tell me how I'm supposed to eat kidney beans without at least cumin?? (gee, can you tell I'm suffering here?!) Tastebuds are having withdrawal symptoms already... but DS is happy, so I'll deal with it.
I know I'm not supposed to eat it right now, but does anyone know of a good manufacturer/supplier of tempeh in Melbourne? Ever since Mike sold up at Nectar in Daylesford I've been a bit lost...

oh yeah... I love my red bike too. Must get a kiddy seat for DS as soon as I can afford it!
I miss cooking for the childcare centre. It was one of the lowest paying jobs I've had, but had the highest job satisfaction level! They asked me to come back, but they don't have a place available for DS... Some of the terrible things that would come into the kitchens and lunchboxes at other centres, I would consider child abuse.
Can someone tell me how I'm supposed to eat kidney beans without at least cumin?? (gee, can you tell I'm suffering here?!) Tastebuds are having withdrawal symptoms already... but DS is happy, so I'll deal with it.
I know I'm not supposed to eat it right now, but does anyone know of a good manufacturer/supplier of tempeh in Melbourne? Ever since Mike sold up at Nectar in Daylesford I've been a bit lost...

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Can someone tell me how I'm supposed to eat kidney beans without at least cumin?? .

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Are you at least allowed lime or lemon juice? and any fresh herbs at all? If you really do have to stick to bland stuff I would be looking to make up a salad with sweet stuff like grated carrot and beetroot or perhaps roast some parsnip and sweet pot and much up the beans on the side???

Gee my brain is in overdrive :o thinking about how to wean out not only cheese but sugar too. I am planting a stevia bush (once I order it with my other herbs) and I'd love to make my own crushed tomatoes and stewed fruits, jams etc (with stevia instead of sugar) from the produce that I grow and other organic produce from the local markets. Does anyone else do this? I'm thinking about getting heaps of jars so that I can make my own pickles too etc etc etc... It's a lot of work really but worth it to get away from all the sugar out there (yes this is skinny B1tch motivated too) but I really think it's a great thing to do and I had planed to use the stevia as my sugar anyway once I had planted it so I haven't completely gone mad :rofl: Having said that it will probably be a few years before my garden is producing enough to be self sufficient anyway so I would need to be buying more stuff from the markets hmmmmm :think: On that note has anyone made flour from arrowroot or used arrowroot flour to make bread or in any other baking? I am planting some and want to use it for flour too :p

C-Rish'd - get yourself on the freecycle list for Brissy (there might be asunny coast one) glass jars are offered all the time. And do it - I would PAY for home grown bottled goodness!

Thanks snug bug, there is a freecycle for the sunshine coast :) I should start collecting jars now... I think my transition will take a while (off the sugar anyway) at least until my cupboards are empty of what is in there now! I think it's safe to say though that by the time my bubs are eating solid foods (when I have a bub) I will be completely converted to a sugar free, vegan diet :p

Hey Ladies :)

Aliash- That book sounds really good. Can I ask where you bought it from? DD's book collection is going strong (already :rolleyes:) and sounds like it would be a good addition.

Cherished- Thank you! I have to update my ticker photo soon though that one is a bit old...might do that tonight. What do you eat chees mostly in? We dont eat alot of it but I cant seem to say no on pasta. We get rennet-free cheese but still, it would be good to give up entirely. DP has told me there is no way he would give it up :rolleyes: Good to hear you are getting some inspiration from 'skinny *****'. Another book to check out!

NaNa-I had a giggle about the hippy thing. DP and I have an ongoing song/joke called "your a dirty hippy" which we sing to each other and DD, goes like (DP singing)" Mums a soy-milk chai drinking dirty hippy!" Then me "Dads got dreads cos he's a dirty hippy" and pretty much I cant say anything without being called a 'dirty hippy' lol today was saying I want to go to spotlight to get microfleece to make re-usable liners and that turned into song... you can imagine I havnt heard the end of it since coverting to cloth. Stoked though, but thats for another thread I think ;)
Did you find any good cookbooks? As for stuff people feed their kids its insane. I grew up in one of those families... KFC was the best treat ever, lollies, etc. Its horrible what little ones get fed.

Snuggly- Do you get in the kitchen and cook much stuff with the little ones?? Does being veg ever come up or do you just not mention it?

Hope your all having a great night :)

Hi Peach you lil' hippy ;) I think we all have a little inner hippy :D on the sunny coast there are heaps of them ;) we eat cheese on home made pizza (and bought pizza actually!) and we eat it on toast, sandwiches, crackers, salads, yes on pasta & lasagna, all bar the pizza I guess can (and often we do) have without cheese but my home made pizza is my all time favourite food and will need a good substitute to give up cheese...

Hmmm. When we were in canada we ate vegan cheese and Ive heard you can get it here(although the dude I used to know who ate it lived in west end so not sure about the sunny coast) It melts, so if its only your pizza you would need it for, if you found it you would be laughing.
And yeah thanks haha Im a dirty hippy but I conceal my weird ways quite well, I blend into society easily... well most of the time ;)

The best vegan pizza I ever had was in Murwillumbah. The movie house there makes pizza and you sit on bean bags eating it and watching the movie. So awesome. Anyway their pizza had macadamias which make a nice cheese substitute because they are so buttery. Yum!!! Plus eggplant and lots of other goodies.

Oh, krys, I went to that pizza place, like a thousand years ago, but i had a cashew cream on my pizza instead of cheese - blew my mind! I was sufficiently inspired to experiment with nut milks - especially when I lived in the Czech Republic and was basically getting paid to experiment with dairy free cooking on an unlimited budget! I made a really nice soy-almond strawberry ice "cream" one time, but I tweaked the recipe so much that I'd never be able to make it again, even though my boss asked me to!
ChezDogg - Cheezly is what you want on your pizza, it's exxy but will do the trick. Failing that, tofutti mozzarella style slices are okay, and as a last resort, kingland cheddar.
Ali - I am stoked that the tempeh went down well at your place! DH has been nagging me to cook that again, but our pantry is a bit bare at the moment, so I'm just workign with what we've got!

I would really like to not fall directly into the stereotype category of hippy - and most times I don't. I dress pretty conservatively (because that's what's on offer at op shops, and I refuse to bring any more clothes into this world) but there's something about me that's a dead giveaway of my hippy status, although I've never worked out what.

Snuggly- Do you wear sandalwood scent?? Dead giveaway for a dirty hippy ;)

(Yes we use sandalwood soap here)

Thanks snug bug for the cheese list ;)

Now I am totally eating my words about tahini :redface: After reading about it in here again lately I thought I should make a effort to use the jar I had in the cupboard and I loved it in lunch! Not sure why I hadn't used it like this before but I think will end up loving the stuff!

Chickpea & tahini cassarole
Mix cooked chickpeas, cooked rice, tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, basil, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper than add tahini that is mixed with water to make more runny.
Put in an oven dish and back on about 190 for 40mins or until brown... Than at the end sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake for another 5 mins It was YUMO with salad on the side :p

oooh there's a distinctive whiff of patchouli around here! dirty hippies! haha!! (takes one to know one, right? ;) )
didn't find anything exciting at the op shops. It's been a while since I found anything fabulous, but in this neighbourhood there's kitsch-vultures on every corner! I don't stand a chance.
About the stevia... I personally don't like the texture of it. Or the taste. But I grew up in the middle of a sugar cane field (in a family of dirty feral hippies!!), so it's almost in the blood. That, or some nasty agricultural chemicals! The mad cane farmer who owned the property sprayed his crop once without telling us, and we had to pull up the whole permaculture garden that we got most of our food from. I commend anyone able to go sugar-free these days. And I wish maple syrup wasn't so expensive...
There was soy cheese at my local Coles today, but last time I tried it, it made me gag. There are some better ones available, but I haven't had time to look for them!
Um... I really should go make dinner. I'm admittedly unsure about how to do anything with tofu that doesn't involve soy sauce or any other seasonings. I can have lime, parsley, saffron, garlic and chives. oh woe... kill me now! :lol:

Hiya Ladies,

Hope its okay for me to join this fabulous thread!!!

I am a vegetarian, I am not vegan, I have been vegetarian for 15 almost 16 years, the main reason I am a vego is becuase I hate the what meat is, I hate Animals being killed for our consumption, but I also get that its the way most humans live and I still cook meat for my husband and our children, my main reason for not making my kids vegetarian is because I am not a very good vegie I dont eat the 'right' things and have been aneimic a few times in the past, so I dont really trust myself to make the right decissions for them diet wise etc, and my husband well there is no way I could ever convert him LOL

I have a little bit of a vent, hubby and I have been together for 10 years now and still I get invited to his familys house and they often just dont make anything for me, they know full well I am a vego but choose to just let me have bread and salad, I was invited the other day by my SIL and usually she is great but was not happy with me over not attending her dd bday party the day before, she went out of her way to invite me and then when I got there she only had this really gross looking salad and meat lasagne nothing else at all,

I was roapable, and I made it known for a change as I am just sick of it, surely after 10 years they could either make sure there is something or let me know to bring something, as I always will without any fuss at all as I dont expect people to bend over backward just for me,

does anyone else have issues like this with family??? my family are fine as my mum is a vego too, so there is always plenty but to me I think this was really rude and I am just fed up, you know one christmas dinner all they had for me was plain white reg bread and a tub of KFC colslaw ( oh and that was to be shared too ) , I kid you not I am totally serious, I was gutted, I am always really kind to them too so its not a personality thing they are just plain rude.

am I just being silly or what I just dont know what to make of it anymore, any sugestions???

thanks

oh and bare with me I will go back and read through but it may take me a bit to get thorugh it LOL

xxxxx