Our ANZAC Heros

It has been a beautiful day for remembering our ANZACs.  

This morning was a little chilly at the traditional Dawn Service, but the sunrise was crisp and clear and the sound of the lone bugler playing the 'Last Post' was haunting and beautiful.  I can never hold back the tears once that bugle begins.  

Our other great ANZAC tradition, Anzac biscuits were originally baked by wives and mothers of our brave soldiers who were shipped off to war during WWI. Once they are baked, they do not spoil easily and were therefore perfect for packing up and sending off to the troops.

We all love them but still, I bake them just once a year.   Todays batch was in the oven early and there are just a few crumbs left...

Ingredients: 

1 cup organic plain flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup dried coconut

1 cup soft brown sugar

125 g vegan margarine

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda

spring water, as required

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 175 C

Mix the flour, oats, coconut and sugar in a bowl. Melt the margarine add the golden syrup then the bi-carb soda and stir well.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the golden syrup mixture.  Mix it all well, adding water if needed.

Place walnut sized balls onto a greased oven tray and bake for about 15 minutes until beautiful golden brown.

Cool on a wire tray.  They will harden as they cool. 

The simple things in life...

I think I have mentioned before, my delight in heading out for breakfast with my mates after our Saturday morning run and filling up on eggs and toast.  And how I have yummily accepted that baked beans is my new vegan treat after a run.

Well, things have changed.

This morning I bit the bullet and whipped out the silken tofu and made me some scrambled!

I have been searching through the scrambled tofu recipes on the internet and to be honest (sorry to all those out there who have posted their favourite's) they have all turned me off.  But this morning I thought that I would just prepare them the way I used to do my eggs.  Simple.  I can now say that I am a scrambled tofu fan AND I am going back for seconds as soon as I have finished posting this.

Scrambled Silken Tofu with Spring Onions.

Ingredients:

150 g silken firm tofu

4 small spring onions

freshly cracked pepper and salt

a little olive oil for frying.

dark rye toast

Method:

Slice the spring onions.  Break up the tofu. 

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the onions and fry until just soft then add the tofu and leave it alone for a while until it starts to brown.  Add pepper and salt.  Move the tofu around a little in the pan to brown it all over - actually it doesn't really brown, it just colours up a little.  

Et voila!  It tastes as good as scrambled eggs!

A change is coming...

There is a change in the air.  Mornings are becoming so much cooler and are staying dark longer.  The birds are behaving differently and singing a little sweeter.  Spiders are disappearing as the flies and mosquitos become fewer and further between.  It is my favourite time of year in the desert; that short time between summer and winter, our only two seasons.

It is Good Friday and I managed a sleep in this morning.  And once I was up I just had to get outside!  Beautiful sunshine with a slight coolish breeze, just perfect for a walk along the bike path out to the Desert Park.

The wildflowers are out for their first bloom before winter, pretty blues and yellows between the browning grass, and the eucalyptus trees heavy with every shade from white, yellow through to pink and red flowers.

The citrus trees are laden with ripening fruit after such drenching rains all year, the neighbour's mandarins are already dropping over our fence.  They are sweet and juicy, yum!  There are baskets of lemons out on the footpaths with hand written "Help Yourself" signs, so I did.

When I finally returned home 2 hours later,  breakfast time was well passed and it was nearly time for lunch so I popped on a pan of brown rice and black quinoa for a rice tabouli.  And with my juicy lemons I whipped up a creamy hommus, made with organic and home grown ingredients, to go with it.

Creamy Hommus

Ingredients:

1 can Chick Peas, drained

2 tablespoons tahini

1/2 cup spring water

tablespoon pure olive oil

4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

the juice of one large lemon

salt and pepper

Method:

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend until creamy smooth.  Taste and add anything you think it needs more of.

Tabouli inspired rice salad with Goji berries

Ingredients:

1 cup short-grain brown rice

a handful of black or red quinoa

2 cups water

bunch of parsley

3 or 4 spring onions

3/4 cup of mixed almonds, sultanans, walnuts, goji berries and dried blueberries

1 grated carrot

1 finely diced red capsicum

5 semi dried tomaoes, diced

Method:

Bring the rice and quinoa to the boil with the 2 cups of water then turn to a simmer for 10 minutes or so until the water has absorbed to almost the level of the rice/quinoa.  Put on  a tight fitting lid and turn the heat off.  Do not take the lid off again for at least 1/2 hour.  Don't be tempted, leave it to absorb all the water.

Chop the parsley, spring onions and other veggies and place in a large bowl.

Make a salad dressing (mine is below).

When the rice has cooled a bit, mix it with the other salad ingredients. 

Sweet mustard & lemon dressing.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons pure olive oil

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon golden syrup or honey

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients together.  Mix with the salad.

Banana Republic...

Today I spent some time working on a recipe for banana cake, and in order to get a nice moist vegan cake without using too many bananas (at $13.00 kg, I was reluctant to buy them at all!), I decided on adding dates to the mix. 

So I wrote up the recipe and rode uptown to buy some fresh ingredients.  Town was crazy!  Hundreds of people on a shopping frenzy!  I had to duck and weave down the aisles; empty shelves everywhere meant I had to run across the street to our other supermarket to get all I needed!

Of course, it is the day before Easter and shops will be closed tomorrow. It always amazes me that people ‘panic shop’ on these days.  One day!  The shops will be shut for just one day!

However, I bought what I wanted and headed home to bake.  I have to say that the cake is lovely; moist, fluffy and delicious!  But my decision to make a lemon icing to top it was not one of my better ideas.  It wasn’t a bad icing but wrong for the cake I had made.  Next time, when bananas are back to a reasonable price, I will team it with a caramel sauce.

Ingredients:

125 g vegan margarine

2/3 cup soft brown sugar

3 ripe bananas

1 teaspoons bi-carb soda

½ cup dates

½ cup water

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

100 ml soy milk

 Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C

Place the water and dates into a small pan and bring to the boil.  Add the bi-carb soda, stir then turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly.

Mash the banana.

In a mixing bowl, cream the margarine and brown sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Stir in the banana mixture and then the date mixture and mix them well.

Now fold in the flour and baking powder, adding soy milk as required.

Pour into a well greased and floured tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Belle Époque

I had a lovely catch up with my mate, Jenny, today when we met up at the local garden nursery/café for a cuppa n cake.

Can’t fault the cuppa or the service but... the Vegan Banana Cake?  I am pretty sure it had a cream cheese icing (vegan? and it came with cream or ice cream – no thanks!) and the cake itself was as dry as a dead dingo’s donga!

So, I decided that I would experiment with banana cakes at home and come up with the perfect vegan variety ‘sans’ dairy icing.

I headed to the local grocer to buy some bananas… $14.00 per kilo!!!  Just one banana was going to cost me $3.30.  I came home banana-less.  Now I understand why they were a bit stingy with the bananas in the banana cake.

Which all brings to question, how do you live the vegan lifestyle when you live in a desert town that is 1600 ks from anywhere, where retailers can charge you anything they want for their produce.  After all, where else are you going to go to buy?

I don’t know if any of you know much about Alice Springs but, it is a town of only 25,000 people and it is the most populated town for a thousand miles in any direction.  We have the same duopoly, Coles and Woollies, that the rest of Australia has in terms of grocery shopping and we apparently have the same ‘sale items’ every week.  However, by the time they get to us we have less than fresh green groceries, because they arrive on the twice weekly rail service, and we have to pay $$s more for them.

~"~

I loved the home I grew up in.  I had a great mum and dad, six noisy, funny and totally annoying siblings, cats, dogs, and fruit trees! 

We had fat, juicy peaches and apricots every year.  I would wake up during summer holidays and put on my old holey clothes and go climb one of the peach trees at the side of the house and eat… all day… yum…

The almonds and plums were our second-choice treats and the stolen grapes and mandarins from over the Croller’s fence were a bonus!

The smell of stewing fruit seemed to fill the house in the summer months.   Mum always had her crop of tomatoes on the go and I can still close my eyes and taste those cheese and tomato sandwiches that she would make up in the morning, throw them in the esky and into the back of the station wagon and drive us all down to Brighton Beach for the day.  We would get there well before lunch and stay until the sun was setting.  I was brown and freckly, my hair like straw. Was I happy?  Hell yeah!

~"~ 

My kids haven’t had the stable home life that I had.  Ebony, my eldest, once remarked “I went to nine schools.  NINE schools”…

I haven’t been the mother that mine was.  I’ve planted a few herbs in the numerous houses we have lived in.  They always do well and we have used them in our every day cooking.  I’ve even started a herb garden in my current home.  But I have never made my children a sandwich using my homegrown tomatoes; they have never eaten fruit we have grown in our yard. 

Some of Lewie’s strongest memories are of climbing the same fruit trees that I did, at his grandparents’ house, and munching on the fresh fruit and smashing open those almonds with his beloved grandpa, hammers in hand.

Today, with just a couple of days until Easter break, Lewie and I are planning on building some raised garden beds for tomatoes, capsicums, spring onions, cucumber and butternut vines and we’ll check out what else we can expect to get a decent crop from in the desert.

I’m excited!

Have I gone too far?

Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative—and fatal—health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for “Peace on Earth.” 

—Preface from Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm, 

by C. David Coates 

Its not about what you give up...

These days, most people understand one's decision to give up eating animal flesh.  In fact, most people are quite supportive of my 'little quirk'.  However, the concept of Veganism is a little harder for most to come to grips with.

A friend of mine has asked me to dinner at her place on Easter Sunday and she is really excited about planning a vegetarian meal for me.  She is really going to some trouble to make this a meal to remember and I am so grateful.  "You eat cheese and sour cream don't you".  More of a statement than a question.

"No, I don't.  I am vegan.  No animal products".

"That's ok, I can make it with yoghurt instead".

Now, I have opted to take on the whole Buddhist approach with this one.  I will go with the yoghurt because my dear friend is being so generous, and she is a great cook.  I hope that I can help her to 'get' Veganism one of these days.

Other people have asked, "How can you give up butter, eggs, milk, honey".  And at first I wondered the same thing.  How do I give up some of my favourite foods?  Eggs on toast after a Saturday morning run has been something I have looked forward to for a few years now and real butter on a vegemite sandwich is a treat I have craved whenever I have travelled overseas.  Honey was the last to go from my diet and I hung on for weeks until I remembered a great (and cheap) alternative in golden syrup.  And there lies the secret!  'Remembering'.

Golden syrup was always in the cupboard during my childhood.  So were baked beans, peanut paste, crumpets and tins of tomato soup.  The list doesn't stop there; fabulous comfort foods that are not only vegan but are also very good for you!  

Baked beans on toast now serves as the post-run breakfast and it brings back delicious childhood tastes and aromas.  Peanut paste on a crumpet with a steaming cup of tea, made with soy milk, is every bit as nourishing and fulfilling as a vegemite sandwich.  And there is nothing quite like a bowl of tomato soup to warm you up after playing in the rain.  That is, running in the rain.  I'm grown up now.  I don't 'play'.  Much.

Breakfast this morning was peanut paste on crumpets and as I have had a busy day and guests coming for diner, I am whipping up some vego burritos.  Yummo!

I am not trying to replace animal products; I am changing my diet to improve my health and my life.  I still have wholesome, comfort foods and I still enjoy a beer or a wine.

So, for me, it isn't about what I have given up, its about what I am gaining; a feeling of wellbeing that I haven't enjoyed in a long time, a smaller tummy and a leaner body, a joyful return to the kitchen to cook with love, the beginning of my blog which I am already loving. 

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day...

It is my observation that my dear son, Lewis, has developed an unhealthy liking for junk food and too much meat.  So, the other morning, when he and his lovely girlfriend got up and cooked chicken schnitzel and chips for breakfast, I new it was time I said and did something.  

That night I cooked a satay marinated tofu with stirfry veggies and rice and insisted that they eat it.  They did, and they loved it.  Last night it was again tofu and veggies but in a coconut curry sauce.  Another hit with the kids!  

But yesterday I also spent some time making a chocolate toasted muesli (vegan, of course) that is to die for.  So I just had to pass on my 'easy as' recipe, 'cos I know you all have some kids and partners that will love this...

Ingredients:

800g organic raw muesli (with coconut)

125ml water

125g soft dark brown sugar

100g 70% cocoa cooking chocolate

50ml pure olive oil (not virgin)

3 tblspn golden syrup (or maple)

1/2 tspn cinnamon 

sea salt

Pre-heat the oven to about 180 C

In a small saucepan add the water and sugar and heat until the sugar has melted.  Add the oil and chopped chocolate and mix until it is a smooth paste. 

Add this mixture to the muesli in a big bowl and mix it well until the muesli is totally covered in chocolate.

Now spread the mixture into a large non-stick baking dish and bake it for about 40 minutes, taking it out and stirring it well every 10 minutes.

I am about to have mine served with vanilla soy yoghurt and raspberries sautéed with soft brown sugar.  Oh my!

Small beginnings...

18.04.2011

Ok, this is the beginning! 

I’ve made the decision to write a blog where I can write for myself rather than bothering all my poor friends and family on Facebook with every thought that pops into my head. 

I have had a seriously busy and interesting few years, taking up running and actually running the New York City Marathon in November last year.  A series of job changes but all with the same theme, moving house, surviving pneumonia , becoming vegan , enrolling back at uni to finish a teaching degree and now laid up and developing cabin fever due to 3 stress fractures in my foot.  Running may be a great form of exercise but you just have to be a bit sensible about it. 

Anyhow, not being able to run for a while and being on a two-week school break means that I have time to get this blog started along with loads of cooking and baking and hopefully convincing Lewis and Kerrie-Anne that less meat and dairy in their diet can only be a good thing.

My challenge is to make vegan meals and treats that not only I love, but also that others might prefer to eat rather than their usual meat and dairy varieties. 

I started off today with a fabulous breakfast that has turned out to be quite a hit, which I will share with you.

So I guess I have officially started my blog.  Oh, one thing… my camera was recently stolen.  You may have to put up with poor quality pictures from my phone until I buy a new one.     Sorry ;~(