Sweet Mushrooms..mmm..

I'm lovin my whole frozen stuff at breakfast at the moment, so today I whipped up another frozen treat. It's soaked cashews and dates blended with a little vanilla essence, a splash of maple syrup and a frozen banana. Yummo, it was more of a dessert really but still uber-good for brekkie.

After a long work day (!) i had a small salad with baby spinach, mung beans, sweet potato & flavored tofu and topped with my delicious mango chutney.

I spent the morning making the mango chutney & boy it is so good. I use to think chutneys looked disgusting but I am such a changed girl, now I'm obsessed!! I could eat jars of this thing seriously

Anyways I was extra hungry after my small salad so I had some more of my bliss balls from the other day, they were still good.
That day mum had picked up some extra large mushrooms, I'm talking about monster, mutant mushrooms they were huge and oh so delicious. I grilled them after filling them with a sweet potato mixture and some more mango chutney!! It was pretty good though the sweet potato kind of overpowered my beloved mushroom.

I was seriously craving some cold goodness after dinner and opened my freezer, to my relief finding some forward thinking genius (thanks mum!) had purchased some vanilla soy ice-cream, I then proceeded to eat a large bowl.
The name doesn't lie it's so good!
Peace.

YUM!

Today was very food focused, apart from a five hour gap in which i had to go to stoopid work- which was boooring.
Last night I chucked cut up mango and vanilla soy yogurt in the freezer, thus creating my breakfast for the morn. I think I'll call it mango & 'cream' bowl, it was sooo good! On top I sprinkled some brazillian nuts which had been food processed cause I love eating them all ground up. It was such a yummy breakfast and good for cooling me down cause it is so hot down here.
For a snack I tried the Kitz bar I posted about yesterday, it was Goji Berry and Choc Chip flavor and it was divine, I liked it better than the apple, vanilla and cinnamon one I tired. The buckwheat kernels just made the bar really crunchy and delicious I'm definitely getting more of these A.S.A.P.

I was hungry for lunch after work, mum wanted me to use up the tofu in the fridge that I'd opened the other day. I didn't know what I felt like but after seeing a jar of all natural crunchy peanut butter sitting on the bench I decided tofu and peanut butter would be a dynamite combo, so i spread it on top with some of the ground brazillian nuts from this morning that I hadn't used and tossed them in the grill.
I then proceeded to cut up mushrooms (I LOVE mushrooms) with spanish onion and baby spinach which I lightly cooked in the fry pan and ate alongside some raw green beans.
My nutty tofu, which I'd been expecting to be brilliant (after all what isn't brilliant when peanut butter is involved?) wasn't all that great, it tasted a little bland but I'm determined to try again with some other ingredients added, maybe tamari or something, any suggestions??

Dinner was *drumroll please* ....seitan!
A BIG thanks to Theresa from The Tropical Vegan for supplying me with the recipe. It was brilliant, so yum, not at all what I expected it to taste like, but really, really delicious all the same. And so filling too. I enjoyed my seitan with some cut up carrot sticks and kalamata olive and cashew dip, as well as some snow peas.
Now I'm off to do a quick bike ride and read something- i don't know what yet.
Catch you soon, keep smiling :)

Feedbag(&more)

Jack is fine- thank gosh! The vet said the tumor was as big as a football and weighed almost 4kg! Jack has to stay at the vet a couple nights and Kira is missing him terribly but at least he's okay, thankyou all so much for the support.
Today was so productive, as much as i love chilaxed, lazy days i always feel great at the end of a day when i know i've achieved some much needed stuff. It was a shopping day (the best kind of day!) i found a new school bag at David Jone's which is so cute, it's called a feedbag and ever one bag bought feeds a child for a year. It's reversible and really big, so very useful for my school stuff.

I also found these raw food bar things that are so cool, there my version of the larabar since i've yet to be able to get any! I ate an apple, vanilla and cinnamon one today and am saving this bad boy for tomorrow:
I also watched the Frost/Nixon movie at the Arts Centre, it was so well done! The acting was amazing, especially the man who played Nixon, he was so incredible. Dinner tonight was a mish-mash of things we needed to get rid of in the fridge. I had carrot sticks dipped in this delicious kalamata olive and cashew dip with corn, asparagus and grilled mushrooms filled with homemade 'cheeze' (it's basically nutmeat but it tastes really good!)

Anyway I have to jet, I have to hurry to work before I'm late. Have a fantastic day
Oh and p.s expect to see some seitan being made tomorrow-yeah!

Taking my mind off my dog...

I'm extremely anxious today because my puppy Jack has to go in for an operation. He has a tumor on his spleen, i'm so super-worried that he won't make it out, and praying he'll be okay. I took pics of him this morning, he looked so adorable all shaved...


















This is my other doggy Kira, she is so dopey I just love her!









Anyway trying to take my mind off him I decided to jump on the computer and mess about. I remembered a while ago my friend and I were youtube-ing it up, you know just playing around watching stoopid stuff and we came across this little brainteaser. Supposedly it was tested on professionals and 90% of them got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers. It is really funny and hard I got all wrong answers lol! I don't know if that means I'm smart or stupid but it's fun all the same. I tried to put it up on the blog but it took for....ever, so here's the link, you should check it out, very interesting.

As for my eats today they weren't too exciting. I'm loving the summer fruit at the moment so breakfasts have consisted mainly of mangoes, plums, cherries and other scrumptious stone fruits. I wanted to make these millet burgers from Vegan: Over 90 mouthwatering recipes for all occasions and i finally got around to it today.












They did not work at all, but i think that was due to my horrible cooking skills rather than the recipe. Not that they didn't taste good- they were pretty yum but they practically fell apart when i tried to take them off the tray.












On lots of blogs seitan has been a feature of late and I've been dying to try it. Is it very delicious>does it taste anything like tofu or tempeh? Anyway I'll keep you posted when I do make it (hopefully soon!) and weather or not it was a disaster. Oh and thanks for all your comments on my previous post about my career options- i tend to stress prematurely about most things! I'm such a stress head I'm trying to do more yoga to balance myself out a little more. I'm only up to like the second chapter in my ethics book but so far it's been très impressive, very interesting.
Peace Out All!

Lottsa beans?

Holidays are going so quickly, aren't they? only three weeks left now and I'm in my final year of high school which is kinda exciting but kinda scary.
Throughout my life I've always had a different career path in mind, from journalist to teacher to nutritionist or occupational therapist and like a zillion others, but this year (the one year it really counts) i have no idea what i want to do????? When I went to an open day at the University of Queensland the courses that really inspired me were like philosophy and literature, but i don't really know what career path these can lead to except teaching? Anyway to see if I really was interested I bought this book by Dwight Furrow which explains the key concepts in philosophy for students. I'll tell you how it's going...











Onto the food:












Morning tea was a new bar I found called Oxi-Plus, which I thought tasted alright a little too much dried fruit but okay.














Then at lunch I tried an extremely modified version of the Edamame Three-bean salad from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. I got back from work all prepared to make the real version and realized we were out of corn, basil, most of the ingredients for the dressing and chickpeas (shock!), so I settled on a baby spinach, kidney bean, mung bean and edamame variation with a little olive oil tossed in.














Then afterwards I had one of my bliss ball things, i don't really know what to call them, they're a variation of a myriad of different dessert ball recipes. I used soaked dates, coconut, tahini, carob powder, soy protein, agave nectar and almond meal. They were really delicious!
Anyway I'm off to do some much needed yoga, ta ta!

Pancakes & Babies

Since it's school holidays my sleeping patterns have been so out of whack, i've been going to bed like past 12 and waking up after 8 most days which is so unlike me usually it's like 9 to bed and wake before 6. Anyway that's beside the point, today was a very luxurious Sunday morning, I rolled out of bed around 9 and mum decided to make breakfast (yeah!).

She somewhat altered (okay altered quite a bit, she can never make a recipe without adding her own bits in) the banana-pecan pancake recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. She used spelt flour and flaxseed oil and almond meal and i don't know what else, then we topped them with the most delicious mango, it was such a treat and soooooo delicious.

I was extra tired all day because last night i was up till around 3 watching JUNO with commentary. This dvd was a christmas present from my cousins because they know how much i love it. I'm just in love with the dialogue it's so witty and fresh and ellen page and michael cera do such a great job, the commentary which was by the director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody was really interesting.












Before my midnight viewing of that film I spent a very relaxed night watching La Vie En Rose (a French film about the life of the French singer Edith Piaf) and reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck, it's my first novel by Steinbeck which is kind of weird because you'd think I'd choose of men and mice cause it's probably his most famous, but I'd thought I'd give this one a try i have no idea why.














I just realized that wasn't a very food-y post so I'll quickly mention that I'm planning to try the Edamame Three-Bean Salad from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch today sometime and hopefully bake something absolutly decadent and fabulous as well, which I will post about tomorrow. I'll leave you all with one of the many awesome quotes from Juno and the wish that you all have an amazing day.

You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events ~ JUNO

Christmas, New Years and Nuggets all rolled into one neat package

I've had a blog break since just before Christmas cause I've been super busy and up at the Sunshine Coast (that's not where I live) visiting rellies. anyway i'm back and ready to post about my food eatin again!

By the way loved everyone's christmas posts I read so many and they were really great, I'd love to live in the States just to have a traditional white christmas with snow and sledding and ice skating and all that jazz. Down here it has been sweltering hot like everyday! Anyway enough with my complaining here is some food....














This is a delicious antioxidant salad from the Healthy Skin Diet, it's got baby spinach, grated carrot, grated apple, raisins, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and a tasty apple cider vinegar/ mango chutney dressing which complements the sweetness of the salad oh so nicely. On the side I had nutty nuggets from this really cool cookbook called BJ's Yummy Vegan Recipes, I bought it from this little vegan restaurant I discovered which serves the most amazing adzuki bean patties and vegan ice-cream, anyway back to the point the nuggets were delicious!















Later on that day I tried an organic food bar called Active greens, which was okay but nothing too special anyway hope everyones new years were great
talk to you soon