Vegetarian Chatter #2

I have news... well, a basic recipe anyway! Spoke to my sis about vanilla slice and she said it's simple, just blind bake two sheets of puff pastry and make up some very thick custard using whatever method you use to make vegan custard (she's in the middle of moving house so didn't go into details but I assume you can get vegan custard mix and make it up with soy or rice milk? I'm not a custard fan so have never looked into it). Put the custard between the two layers of pastry and put icing on top - lemon, plain, chocolate, whatever flavour you want (don't forget the passionfruit pulp if you like that too!) Oh, and the custard needs to be sweetened so add sugar to it when it's being made. Set it in the fridge and away you go :) rumoured to be very yummy!

Aparently it's a messy job cutting it and the best way to cut it is to use a hot knife.

Most commercial custard powders are vegan. They seem to need more sugar than the recipe recommends though. The other option is Cottee's vanilla pudding mix. I make that up with Bonsoy (speaking of which, what happened with the recall? We were away) a little thicker than normal, for my vanilla slice :D Vanilla slice is on my top 5 of things I miss.

I made a cookies and cream cheesecake on Wednesday. Had to take something to a party for Thursday night, and Wednesday was so hot that I couldn't even LOOK at the oven, let alone turn it on! Recipe still needs some perfecting, so might tweak it a bit and get back to you. Base was basically half packet digestive biscuits, 60g melted chocolate, 1 tbsp vegie oil, and a few drops of water. Pressed into spring form tin, chucked it in the fridge while I made the filling.
Filling was 1 packet silken tofu, 1/2 tub tofutti cream cheese, pinch salt, full packet Oreos (guilt guilt guilt!) ground up, 5 tbsp icing sugar, dash of vanilla essence, and 2 tsp cornflour in a soy milk slurry. Wizzed it all up and poured in the mould. Chilled overnight.
Unfortunately the Brissie weather made it a bit oozy at serving time, but if serving straight from the fridge, it is perfect.

Dinner tonight is moroccan apricot chickpeas with lime and pistachio couscous.

Hi girls Cooking Without also has a a recipe for vanilla custard p. 181

600ml soy milk
1/8th tsp stevia
4 tbsp unbleached corn flour
1tsp vanilla extract.

Place all ingredients into a pan and beat to blend in the corn flour, bring to boil, stiring constantly and simmer for 2 minutes.

I've never make it before but though anyone wanting to try out the vanilla slice might want to make the custard?

good job with the custard options gals :) I'm pleased someone knows about them as I'm lousy like that!

Yum, yum, yum....


Thanks SFP for the recipe. Sounds great, and not too difficult to prepare. Thanks for your recipe too, Cherished (how is bubs?)

SB, yet again you have me salivating! DH and I used to be serious Oreo addicts. The cake sounds delish. I will try that.

I have a yummy recipe for Lemon Baked Cheesecake:

BASE
125g nuttelex
200g McVities Digestive Biscuits, finely crushed
2 tbs soft brown sugar

FILLING
2 containers of plain Tofutti cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
4 tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
2 tbs cornflour

METHOD

Base - Brush a 20cm spring form tin with melted nuttelex or oil and line with non-stick baking paper;
Melt nuttelex in a pan, add the biscuit crumbs and mix well;
Stir in the sugar;
Press half the biscuit mixture into the base of the tin, and gradually press the remainder around the sides, using a glass to firm it in to place, but not all the way to the rim;
Refrigerate for 10-15 mins.

Filling

Process the cream cheese in food processor, add sugar, lemon juice, salt;
Process again;
In a large mixing bowl, whisk water and cornflour until it forms stiff peaks;
Fold the cream cheese mixture into the cornflour;
Pour in to crust;

Bake in a pre-heated 180 oven for about 45 minutes, until golden brown. Then leave in oven for 10 minutes with oven turned off;
Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Hello Ladies,

How is everyone going?

Thanks for posting your cheesecake recipie Aliash. Would love to try it, considering I cant even get muffins to work out in my oven maybe I should wait till we move(which isnt really on the horizon)

Snugglybean- I was going to make apricot chickpeas that you mentioned ages ago but the only tin stuff I could find was apricots in syrup, would that be ok to use? Oh yum that cheesecake sounds delish.

Cherished- How are you going? I seem to be seeing you around everywhere these days ;)

Hi to Littleones,Tronica and any lurkers :)

Things here are ok, we have been sick which is so rubbish. Ive started taking a multi too, just feel like maybe I dont eat enough good stuff and especially with BF DD I want to make sure Im getting everything I need.
Hope your all well*

Hey girls, hope you are all going well.

Aliash, I read all of 'Becoming Vegan' - cover to cover, it is such a great book! I recomend it to anyone - even if you are just vego, it's written really well. It is, however, now 10 years old - so I hope they do an update. I'm sure science would have changed over that period. One thing I noticed wasn't mentioend in vegan health was good bacteria - I decided to start taking 'Fast Tract', which has much more of the good bacteria than yoghurt ever could. I feel good but hard to know if that's the sole reason for it.

I've started fulltime work whilst completing my phd which is busy; not having as much time to sleep or do much else. Perhaps it's a good trial for a baby? ;)

I've also been overjoyed by AF coming this week! I have PCOS and have only gone off the contraceptive pill since 1 Jan. I followed and recorded cervical mucus and thought I had a fair idea of when I ovulated, and I was right! Exciting for me because I had the impression it would take much longer to ovulate and was told I'd likely need Clomid to conceive. Perhaps I can avoid that and just get there naturally. Yay! My cycle may be about 45 days long, but at least it exists which is more than I expected.

:)

Respect Tronica! Phd and full time work is insane. Thats great you can track your cycle, best of luck with it all*

So I completely forgot in my post before, I need more lunch ideas for DD pretty please? I feel like I am just feeding her the same things. Keeping in mind I am very lazy :) TIA

Been quiet in here lately!
On kids' lunches, Peach, I've been going made for bean spreads lately. You can use soaked or cooked beans, and blend it up with some flaxseed oil, olive oil and water. I often also add a flavouring, like lemon myrtle, or a bit of chutney. It adds a good boost to your sandwiches.

Dinner tonight was mushroom risotto with a mix of forest mushrooms, roasted tofu and a rocket pesto. Yums. DH wanted something really carby after his 100 mile ride today.

We've been going crazy on smoothies too, because we've had heaps of bananas lately. And avocadoes have been cheap, so we're buying 10 at a time!

I also made up a roast vegetable and couscous salad - just chucked heaps of vegies in a roasting pan at 220, stirred them through uncooked couscous, then added 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, then the boiling water. Covered and fluffed through with flawseed oil and pistachios. That will be lunch tomorrow.

I love food.

Oh, in other news, it's DH's birthday tomorrow, so I have bought him a breadmaker! Prepare thyselves for a barrage of questions!

Hey Audax!

I hope your DH has a great b'day. I love my bread maker.
Congrats on your pregnancy! Beautiful, wonderful news. I am very happy for you.....:D
We have been getting beautiful, sweet, local bananas for under $2 a kilo lately. Love it!

Yum, I wish I could join you for lunch tomorrow! Sounds great. You are such a good cook.

Hi Peach and Tronica

:hello: Hi chickies! I haven't been in here for aaaaages! I've been lucky to eat anything because I just haven't felt like anything even though I was starving! I've just started to get my appetite back over the last week and enjoying food again YAY.

Audax I still love our bread maker, what brand did you get, yell out if you want a couple of tested recipes

It's a Ronson. Hit me up with all your best recipes! I will at the very least start getting the good ingerdients together.
We just went to Mrs Flannery's and spent $35 - this has to be a record breaking minimum spend! Mostly on snackies for the weekend - we're going camping. We're pretty well stocked at the moment for all our beans and nuts. Except pine nuts - my $25 worth from this time last year finally ran out. Have to go back to Mick's Nuts in West End for some more. They are the best.

Hi girls,

This is a great bread for toast or sandwhiches

1 1/4 cups pure water
2 TBSPS extra virgin olive oil
2 TBSPS maple syrup (can substitute)
2 TBSPS Soy milk (can substitute)...*I used organic Oat milk
1 tsp sea salt*I used regular table salt
1/2 cup organic flax seeds
3 1/2 cups of organic spelt flour (unbleached as finley milled as possible)*I used 1/2 wholemeal spelt and 1/2 white spelt flour
1 1/4 tsp yeast

Put it into the bread maker in the order listed, I cooked it on the wholemeal setting, medium crust and 1000g loaf size

I have another one which is crusty on the outside and light and soft in the middle which is great for soups and stews and I have another one I love which is great to add herbs to etc and eat it with a fresh salad, if you are keen for those let me know.

? Does anyone add silken tofu to their soups, if you do what purpose does have other than adding protein, ie does it thicken it up? Also what are your fav vegan cookies you like to make that are quick and don't use an egg substitute either?

Thanks and i hope you are all having a great weekend

I use tofu in soups. It just adds protein. I usually thicken my soups with lentils. You can also add tahini, which just makes it deliciously creamy.

We do have a cookie recipe - we call them Chuck Norris cookies, because they're like a roundhouse kick to your arteries, but they're good!

Cream together 125g Nuttelex and 1 cup sugar, then add 1 tsp vanilla and 2 tbsp raspberry jam. Use a wooden spoon to fold through 1 cup SR flour, 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup desiccated coconut. Then add 100g chopped macadamias (add chopped white choc if you'd like to be very decadent!)
Make it into cookie shapes (any size seems to work) and bake at about 190 for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Hi Girls,
How is everyone going? Not much action happening in here lately :) All is well here, made a delish brown rice risotto last night with grated sweet potato, grated zucchini, heaps of garlic, tomato and tahini(along with secret herbs and spices) had with tortillas. My brother was over and he ate with us which was suprising as usually my family wont have a bar of my cooking.

Hope everyone is well :)

P.S HUUUUUUGE CONGRATULATIONS on your pregnancy Audax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For some reason I cant PM you? SO happy for you!!! :)

Thanks Peach!

Your recipe sounds awesome! I loooooove brown rice at the moment.

DH is making me pizza for dinner. I'm thrilled, because cooking is not something I could handle today! :sick:

Oh a new favourite on top of brown rice- Do the pasta sauce thing(raguletto or dolmio whatever) with what you want in it then 3 soup spoons of tahini. Tastes soooo good!

Dinner tonight for me- Avocado on toast with lime and beer with lime:) A friend gave me a bunch of limes from her tree they are so good Ive been using them with everything.

Hope everyone is well :)

Hey Peach! Long time no see! How are you? :)

Your tahini/pasta combo sounds interesting. I have a lot of limes at the moment. I am going to make a lime cheezecake tomorrow....

I hope you are continuing to enjoy your beer and lime!

Hi Audax!

Hello Ash! How are you?? I am well, nothing too exciting happening :)
cheesecake sounds gooood. I do crunchy lemon muffins so I going to try and use limes instead of lemons.

Hi all!
Winter time, so back into my barley ragouts. Had one tonight with roasted pumpkin and it was ssssoooo good!

Peach, put the lime juice on your avocado too! Yum! We had a party on the weekend, so used heaps of limes. I have also been having them in water to settle my tummy - still a bit churny!

I had brown rice with lemon juice, wakame, pepper and mayo the other day. I just felt like it. (actually, weird prggo craving for lemon pepper tuna, and was an awesome substitute)

I made vegan cupcakes on the weekend for our party, and they flew off the plate! I used a Nuttelex - based icing, so it was a bit shimmery, which everyone loved. I love how often people claim to hate Nuttelex, but then could eat my cake icing off a spoon! Hahaha.

Lime cupcakes would be yummy....

I am really well. DS2 is climbing the walls and chairs and benches now! He is constantly on the go. I bet your DD is too!
Yeah, my cheezecake recipe is lemon, but I figure I can substitute with limes. Your muffins sound interesting. What makes them crunchy? I might have some limes left over, so I might want to try making your muffins.

The undisolved sugar with lemon/ lime suice syrup that goes on top makes it 'crunchy'.

Audax- What is wakame? Thats no good you've been feeling queasy, hopefully it will pass soon and you can enjoy the beautiful pregnant glow :) What goes in your ragout?

Last night had thai take out from a local place we hadnt tried- it was SO good! Best vego dumplings :)

Wakame is the seaweed that goes in miso soup. It's a pretty big hit in this house!

Average barley ragout just has onion, garlic, barley and stock in a 1:4 ratio. Last ngiht I added chopped tomato, roasted pumpkin and fresh basil. But you can add anything, it's always yum.

Muffins sound good. I made yummy apple muffins on the weekend - left the apple in great big chunks, and cooked them on a slightly lower heat than usual, so it went all soft and lovely.

Good evening :)

I dont really like miso- it reminds me of pork for some reason(?) so I dont know if i'd like wakame. Yum apple muffins sound so good, I miss baking Im just so sick of our oven either taking 3 hours or burning anything I cook.
Just ate whole packet of wasabe peas should probably eat a proper dinner :P

My dinner was rice cakes with tofutti and corn relish. I feel SO gross right now.

Upside is that I found dark choc coated blueberries at Mrs Flannerys. One day I might feel well enough to eat them... :sick:

Oh you poor thing! Are you taking anything? Ginger, maxalon? Its the worst feeling hey but it will pass even though it feels like you'll be sick foooorever. Im sure heaps of people on BB have given you lots of good advice already :) And the upside? You have a baby growing in your tummy, YIPPEEEEE!!! :)

P.s made a laksa for dinner tonight. Piglet chucked her whole bowl on the floor and ate a vegemtie sandwich instead *roll eyes*

Yumm, Peach! I haven't had laksa in forever! Awesome idea, will have to talk DH into it.

I got home tonight and he had already cooked a vegie pasta. Perfect.

None of the classic m/s cures are working for me - eating before I get out of bed makes it worse! Lemon juice in water works, fizzy water, and I'm wearing sea bands all the time. And eating sushi ginger from time to time. It doesn't sem to make any difference, but I do love it!

The laksa was inspired by my friend as all Im cooking lately is pasta as its so easy, Im soooo sick of it though.

Audax are you keeping on top of snacks? I found when I went ages without eating thats when I felt even worse.

I didn't cook a laksa but we were in Byron on the weekend and I got one from Asia Joe's. I finished the WHOLE thing and some of my sister's nasi goreng - hardly anyone else at the table saw the bottom of their bowls, but I am eating soooooo much :D

Through the day I usually just have water crackers or rice crackers. Simple carbs seem to help. And sea bands. I didn't think they were doing anything, until I forgot them one day.

Anyone else find it ironic that Smith's Chicken flavour chips are vegan, but Salt & Vinegar aren't? I didn't realise, until some friends brought them round - I thought it was an odd choice to bring to a vegan house, and then was very surprised!

I have two recipes from Friday night.

Lemon Tahini Barley Ragout
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp mustard seeds
2 capsicums, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

Add one by one, in this order, then sweat for a while.

1 cup barley
4 cups stock

Simmer for 45 minutes. Then I chucked in:

1 head worth of broccoli florets
1/2 bag green beans
kernels from 2 corn cobs
however many tomatoes we had left! I think maybe 3...

Squueze over juice of 1 lemon and then stir through 2 tsp tahini.

It was a bit of a "clean out the fridge" meal, but it was sooooooo good. I love barley, especially in winter. Yum yum yum

GF Chocolate cupcakes (I called them "souffle" cupcakes because they rose over the edge of their papers)

1 1/2 cups gluten free SR flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup raw sugar
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs worth of no egg
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp bi carb
1 tsp baking powder

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet. May need more oil if it's not a good pouring consistency. Mix well, then leave it to stand for 5 minutes, before spooning into cupcake papers. Bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I just put a blob of chocolate nuttercream icing in the middle of each and then topped it with Sweet William chocolate chips. They look wicked, and taste divine. I am so proud of myself.

Those cupcakes sound divine Audax!
How is everyone going?
I made homemade chai for the first time last night it was AMAZING!!!! Our house smelt so good.The recipe only made 3 cups which didnt last very long so Im going to make more today. Yuuum :) Planning on making pumpkin and spinach canneloni for dinner tonight which I havnt done before, I have wholemeal lasagne sheets so hopefully it works out. I have a baby-free day today so I can take my time and not rush dinner in her nap or with her climbig up my legs :) Last friday did a tom yum soup, dumplings and sushi feast, delish!

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo? :) How is everyone? Where is everyone?!
Made delish pizza with garlic, mushrooms, olives and avo for dinner last night and had lime syrup muffins for dessert was yummo!

Hello my lovely Peach :hello: and all of my other vego buddies :)

I'm still here, just totally baby brained out! Got my 28 week OB visit today and I'll get back my results for the GD and iron test. last vist at 24 weeks my blood pressure was pretty low so hoping that higher today and the iron comes back OK.

Food wise I'm not sure what I've been eating, my skin is breaking out with eczema :( that means I need to cut out wheat, tomato TOFU and any soy products, and potatos and heaps of other things :rolleyes: so that doesn't leave much! so annoying..... anyway I'm lacking protein cause I'm kinda sick to death of all the beans and lentils etc I've been eating and to be honest can't stand the stench at the other end with all the gas it causes :rofl: yes only my vego friends wil understand what I am talking about hehehhehe so I'm back to loading up smoothies with whey powder to try and get more protein in.

Ok enough complaing from me, how's everyone else doing?

wow, cherished, that sucks about the lower breezes! I am not affected by legumes at all - it's fruits and sugars that set me off.

Thought of you all heaps over the weekend - I was in Melbourne and went to Vegie Bar three times :D We still have some Chocolate Royale cake leftover in the fridge. We got a slice to share, and then ate it on the plane on the way home, while all the other plebs had their apricot biscuits, here we were with this enormous, rich chocolatey thing. It was ace.

My ferritin and haemoglobin were great this week. I am thrilled, I worked so hard to keep them high. Still feel knackered though - maybe not enough B12? Or is it just being pregnant adn trying to do too much (very likely at the moment! Life is flat out...)

Hello All "]
Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Jennah, and I have been a vege for 4 years, although mum tells me that when I was little I asked to not eat meat. Haha. My family were quite supportive when I turned as a teenager.
I am a vege for ethical reasons, and managed to put myself off meat after watching many-a-cruelty videos on PETA.
I try to live as cruelty free as possible, as does my partner and I am into animal rights.
I have no kids yet, but I have been thinking of how they would go, being brought up vegetarians? I would like to hear from some mummies how your children go at school, friends houses etc?
Anyway nice to meet y'all!

Hi :D I haven't posted in this thread before either. I'm lucky beans and lentils don't give me wind either. Audax I love the vegie bar- but the service has always been terrible and my H never wants to go there now. How was the service for you?? We've found lentil as anything good for dining out with a toddler as it's casual and we sit outside with him running around. Have to wait for more good weather.

Our little veggie boy is only 2 so far so no experience with school and friends sleepovers yet. He goes to family day care 2 days a week and is allowed to eat peanut butter and his other nut butter thank heavens because he doesn't eat much else at the moment so a nut-free child care centre would be a nightmare. Another friend of ours whose son has a nut allergy is starting there soon one day a week so I'm going to have to send him more nut free things. Bit hard with the veggie kid as nuts are so good for him. He's such a fussy eater that seeing other children eat chicken nuggets or ham or whatever doesn't interest him at all at the moment so we don't have any hassles there.

meow - I have given kids lentil sandwiches, just red lentil made into a paste and spread on a sandwich. I love to do the same with beans for myself, but I put grown-up flavours in, like white beans with rosemary and garlic. Would he go for that?
I've always had a good experience with Vegie Bar service, whereas Lentil As Anything has been disappointing. Don't talk about it too much, I will get Melb-sick!

As a kid, I was a massive meat-eater. I was really fussy and hated fruit and veg. So my mum and nan laugh now about me being a vegan. Although..... *confession time* I have eaten a few eggs lately. Some friends have chooks, so we are swapping eggs for homebrew beer. So I guess I'm back to being vegetarian for the moment. Hmph. Labels, man!

I was uber-uber-fussy as a kid too. I only ate meat, white bread and fruit. No veg at all except potato till I was 19. Then a few years later I went vegetarian- once I got started on all those new foods I was set.

Those eggs sound like I bet they come from happy chickens so just do what feels right to you Audax. Life isn't black and white and I'm not into labels either.

The lentils on bread sounds delish actually! Well- the beans and rosemary sounds particularly yummy. I will give it a go. E is my reincarnate and uber-fussy too so we'll see. He's only just started having multi-grain tortilla sandwiches again. For a while there he was only eating peanut butter on corn thins so there would have been no hiding lentils on there. I'll try misxing them together and see what he thinks. He happily eats avocado on rice cakes so I think he can have that on his nut free days at FDC.

Mmmmm... avocado on rice cakes. Sounds like first trimester food to me! :D

From the girl who had baked beans on toast for dinner....