Passionfruit Star Bisuits

I've been so slack lately, but very busy, I assure you, so here is a few posts to get going again.

I got a wonderful new vegan cookbook from a friend and was so excited by it's contents. It's called "Wild Vegan" by Angela Stafford. Inside was a simple recipe for passionfruit star biscuits.
They were delicious, a simple sugar cookie but adding passionfruit pulp makes them so much more interesting. Definitely will make again. (I cannot put the recipe here as it is copyrighted).

Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins!

After a bountiful crop and the obligatory giving away of as much as you can, I made many things with pumpkins. Firstly pumpkin and sweetcorn soup. I found a whole 400g tin of corn, juice and all makes the best tasting soup.

Next pumpkin pie. This was simply putting pumpkin puree mixed with sauteed mushrooms, onion and asparagus a little rice milk, chopped almonds and nutritional yeast into a precooked shortcrust pastry case and put into a 190C oven until golden.

Also I made pumpkin muffins. Another of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's amazing recipes. These really are The Best Pumpkin Muffins.

Finally, today I am trying my hand at pumpkin bread. This is made with the no-knead recipe by substituting 1 cup of the water with pureed pumpkin. I also added some pumpkin seeds to the top.

My notes for no-knead bread.
To make it even easier, I do the dough before going to bed.
The next day I won't touch it until I am going to make dinner.
I omit all the tea towels and just put the dough in a greased bread tin, sprinkle seeds on top (or not. I like sesame as they toast wonderfully when the bread is baked) and leave it until later that evening (typically after children are in bed). This gives the bread almost 24hours to rise which is key in a bread with little yeast.
Bake at 190-200C for half an hour covered with foil, then another half hour with the foil removed.
So if you want fresh bread without the effort, this is perfect!

St Paddy's day creations

Well, feeling in the mood for baking I tried a two color biscuit from the Coles Easter magazine. The only change was to use non-dairy margarine. They were easy to make and look fantastic. I used a shamrock to cut out the centre.

Next up was a pasta lunch.
Sautee a few asparagus and mushrooms (I used oyster, they are awesome!) in some olive oil
Add some milk, and 1/2 cup of veg broth (I used veg-chicken) along with some chives, ground celery seeds, onion powder, pepper and nutrional yeast.
Simmer until reduced a little.
If you need to thicken add some cornflour mixed in a little cold water.
Don't thicken too much though. You want to add the pasta to the sauce so it is all coated, this also thickens the sauce.

Lastly, our 'green' item. This was simple. Choc cupcakes with peppermint frosting! These are the same ones I have made before from "Vegan Cupcakes take over the world". I love choc-mint and this is perfect. I added some edible green glitter, so they look great too.

Filled Omlete

Mmmmm, vegan omelet. My lovely husband has perfected another egg like, but egg free dish. I will post the recipe asap.

Vegetable Garden

The patches, with the pumpkin vines at the front



After all the wonderful rain we have been getting, out vegie patch is over run with pumkin and watermelon vines. The other patch has some healthy corns and stawberries which are producing and a single carrot which was all that servived the ants before all the rain.

The pumpkins grew from seeds from a pumpkin I bought. So I will be looking forward to posting lots of delicious pumpkin recipes as they start maturing.

Snobby Joes with a twist

Not being too familiar with sloppy joes, I tried the PPK version of "Snobby Joes". But instead of serving it on a roll, I served it IN a roll. A similar idea to getting a big cob loaf and using it to put your dips in. I made some bread rolls and cut of a little hat, pulled out the inside and filled it with the 'Joe' mix. The mix was delicious, but taking note of comments on the site I reduced the chilli, also I don't think my girls would handle anything too spicy. But it was delicious.

Egg free scrambled eggs

That's a typo you say. It's not! If you have ever made tofu scramble the key to making it truly taste like scrambled eggs is a wonderful spice. BLACK SALT. What gives this salt its egg like fragrance and taste is the sulfur content as it is a volcanic mineral. If you can find it (we found some in an Indian spice market in Canberra) get some and make my husbands wonderful super quick tofu scramble.

Ingredients:
Packet firm tofu. Drained and squeeze some liquid out.
1 tsp black salt
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
pinch ground cloves
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp pepper
olive oil for frying

Method:
heat oil in pan
crumble the tofu into the pan
add remaining ingredients and mix well trying to keep some chunks
fry for about 5 mins continually stirring.
Remove from the heat when the mix started to brown
serve on your favourite toast