Stuff

Herbivore vs carnivore

A great little vid from youtube explains a few things.

Got the big reveal tomorrow. Dress is made, nails are painted. Just need a ton of beauty sleep. Altho speaking of that, two days this week I have been told I am beautiful Walking around the shops yesterday I noticed lots of people looking at me and I was beginning to think I had left my pants off or something then I was stopped and told how fabulous I looked. Then today I met a lady I had spoken with on the phone  a couple of times and the first thing she said was, oh my you are beautiful. So lets hope I can achieve the same greatness tomorrow.
Do I prepare an acceptance speech or practice the " I'm so happy for you" face. Both probably just in case.
I even got a dress finished that has been hanging around the sewing room for nearly 18 months. The problem was the facing. I stiffened the facing not the body of the dress. So today I ripped the interfacing off the facing and ironed some onto the proper bit and it now just needs hems done and its ready to go. Its the most gorgeous piece of fabric too, An Alexander McQueen that cost me $50 per metre. I think that is why it turned into a wadder. I had such high hopes for it and when it didn't go well I was just so disgusted that I couldn't fix it. All that is behind me now and it's back to being loved. Not the dress I will wear tomorrow as it has a bit much cleavage on display for the good folk at the big deal.

Lets get back to the important stuff, food.

Banana and Walnut Bread

Banana and Walnut Bread

Chickpea cutlet with mushroom gravy and leftovers

A butter tofu curry with coconut cream and wild rice

Not sure where this guy came from but he was still there in the morning. That is the end of a teaspoon he is sitting on.

very cheesy

Saturday.
Just a lazy day hanging around the house and making cheese. I defrosted the soy milk I froze the last time I made cheese and apart from needing a blitz with the new bamix stick blender it is fine. I found some white truffle oil yesterday in Southport when I was looking for salt so was able to get it made finally. It is so yummy and exactly like the dairy version except much better because there is no  cancer causing casein or saturated fat. I will be making this a lot. I had enough milk to also make the Dill Havarti and used tofu to make the garlic herb Gournay. Both of these are absolutely delicious and will not last long.

Camembert

Camembert

Herb Garlic Gournay

Dill Havarti

Camembert

Had this for dinner Friday night. Man that quinoa is so nice. I will have to use it more. Its quick to cook and has a wonderful crunch to it. Good for me too apparently :) gotta be happy with that. I stir fried a diced onion, added a couple of cloves of roasted garlic, crumbled up some firm tofu, a cut up capsicum and zucchini. Got all that cooked, added lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg and the quinoa. Cut up a little avocado and threw in some olives. Delicious.

Zucchini, Bean, Tofu, Quinoa stirfry with olives

j

Zucchini, Bean, Tofu, Quinoa stirfry with olives

Zucchini, Bean, Tofu, Quinoa stir fry with olives

Now Sunday.

Got up and made crumbly extra sharp white cheddar with the cashews I soaked yesterday. I was very surprised to find that the rejuvelac I made a few weeks ago is still good. It smelt like lemonade to me so I used it.  I also have the pickling onions soaking in brine to make pickled onions for DH for xmas. Shhh don't tell him he is getting homemade pickled onions for xmas. The man has everything else so I will now go down the food route when looking for pressies for him.
I was hoping to post a pic of dinner last night but the phone and the computer aren't on speaking terms. I think there were harsh words last night when the power kept tripping out during the storm. They will kiss and make up soon I'm sure.
Added a couple of new blogs to the Inspiring Vegans list over there to the right. makes for interesting reading.
Enjoy........

Grrr

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It makes me so mad when people look at me like I am crazy for not eating the 'nice' chicken sandwich I am being offered.
"Are you not feeling well? "
"I am feeling absolutely fine thank you, I just have no desire for dead animal flesh not matter how you present it!"

I went to the interview yesterday and they say I am the red hot favourite to take the job. We will see.
The award luncheon is on next Wednesday and it will be announced then.
What to wear?
Should I have an acceptance speech ready?
Far out how did I get into this situation.

Got in some retail therapy and stimulated the economy some after the interview so came home late but happy.

http://vegan.com/dairy-free/

This is a lot of good info for anyone thinking of going dairy free, like the entire world should.

Sunday bloody Sunday

The beginning of a new week or the end of the old one?
Depends what side of the fence you sit upon.
For me, Monday has always been the start of the week but that is just an employment thing I guess. Sunday is still the weekend and not to be spoiled by being part of the next working week.
Rained on and off all day, started with a storm then just went to shit from there.
A good day to make cheese!
Muenster and Smoked Gouda were quickly put together and I now have two new blocks of cheese to enjoy this week. I can't get over how fast and easy it is to make. I can buy soya milk from the Asian Grocer at Indro and it has nothing but water and soya beans in it so exactly what I would make myself. $3.99 for 2 litres is pretty cheap. I have frozen what I didn't use today for next time. So that takes away the most time consuming part of cheesemaking. Making the milk. The cheese actually cooks in around 4 minutes and thats it folks.
I also got a bag of garlic very cheap and roasted up about half of it. I then made hummus from chickpeas I had in the freezer, and the garlic. Not sure if anyone will be able to get close enough to me to enjoy a conversation with me this week but oh man is that hummus good. With 2 heads of roasted garlic in it it should be!!

I asked DH if we are now saving money on food and much to my delight he showed me a graph of food spending for the last 12 months that clearly shows a huge drop. Huge. Like $600 a month huge. I kid you not. We were spending 1300 a month on food and that has now dropped to $700. This is for 21 meals per week for 3 adults and 2 dogs so 63 human meals a week, 252 meals a month. So averaging this out we have gone from $5.15 per meal to $2.77. Bloody nora. Whoever said they can't afford healthy food is just making excuses. I can't afford the old food we were eating. Onward and upward! So apart from living cruelty free we are now eating a far tastier diet and saving heaps of money doing it. I have never eaten so much cheesecake in my life!

Big week shaping up.
Into the city tomorrow to buy gifts for the GC luncheon. That will take all day.
Tuesday I have an appt teaching a woman to sew. Then I have to prepare myself for Wednesday.
The big interview.
Going for quite a prestigious position with a big outfit that will last for 1 year. I will do massive travel around the state to represent the big outfit at functions I will be invited to attend as a vip guest. I will even be asked to be the guest speaker on occasion. I have the list of criteria they are looking for so will need to study up. Then Thursday probably have to go to the GC to look at units. Maybe Friday.
I cut out 3 shirts and 3 skirts today so will now have to be sewing them up.
What to have for dinner.
Hmm
It will have to involve zucchini as I have a few of those now. Might make that frittata again. It is easy to put together and also good for lunch.

From Pinterest

All of these companies are now off my shopping list. Bastards. They should be off yours too. You'll just encourage them otherwise. One thing that I read that really got to me "you wouldn't ask your best friend to drink shampoo" with a small dog standing in front of a bowl of shampoo instead of water.
 It has to stop. We cannot continue down this road of torture to animals.
Fuck I hate humans.

Vegan Freak - being vegan in a non vegan world. Bob and Jenna Torres.

Got this book in the mail yesterday and just keep cheering page after page. I especially love this passage from it:
To be vegan is to have the guts to deny the fairy tale of the harmless animal product.
To be vegan is to deny the psychological distance between the flesh in the styrofoam tray at the supermarket and the someone- not the something- who that meat came from.
To be vegan is to live fully and honestly with yourself about how animals are treated, and it is about your not taking a place in that exploitative system to the greatest extent possible.
Veganism is not only an affirmation about how we want the world to be, it is a lived form of protest, and our reminding people that everything is not quite right when it comes to how we treat animals. A form of everyday heroism in a world gone terribly wrong, veganism is your refusal to participate in a system that is ethically bankrupt. It is bravery in a time of cowardice.

I think that is part of the problem right there for most people. It is easier to take the path of least resistance than to man up and say enough is enough. I never thought of myself as particularly brave but I guess I must be. I am happy to put myself out there and do what is right once I am shown what is wrong. Most people do not have the guts to stand up and be counted. They prefer to be sheeple and follow the crowd. Well not this vegemite. I will no longer be a party to animal cruelty and I will no longer be a sheeple when it comes to my food choices. If what I eat, or refuse to eat, makes others uncomfortable then big fucking whoop. Get educated and grow a heart.

Made Flaky unfish Fillets for dinner, very yummy and also made Raw Strawberry Cheesecake which is cooling in the fridge. May have to have some for breakfast.

Flaky unfish fillets

Flaky unfish fillets

Ok so I admit it. I did have cheesecake for breakfast. That yummy looking pink blob is raw strawberry cheesecake!

Breakfast for two. Oats, chia seeds, soy milk, berries, soy cream and raw strawberry cheesecake. Very yummy.

 Back to reading....................

Non Dairy Formulary and tatts

http://freefromharm.org/health-nutrition/groundbreaking-game-changing-vegan-cheese-is-here/

This is a link to an excellent review of this book. I absolutely second everything it says. I would also like to add the Skye is a terrific guy. He  has a facebook page where he helps all of us become much better cooks.
Woke up yesterday and decided I better get a handle on what I need to do for uni. I discovered a couple of things.
I cannot enrol in anything.
I need to enrol in something.
Summer semester at Logan is offering one of my sem 1 subjects and it would be EXTREMELY helpful if I could do it over summer and get it out of the way, leaving me a lighter study load next year.
So I began the arduous task of trying to get early enrolment so this can happen. So far one phone call and one email has resulted in no result. I will continue to wait patiently for something to happen. I have already cancelled one gig I had organised so I can attend Logan. There is one more thing I have to change if I can actually enrol but I will not change it until I have the enrolment done.

Love this one

On a completely different subject, I have been looking at vegan tatts and I am now tossing up between these:

I just love the white!

An even better white one

This would colour up beautifully and I think I like it the most.

Simple and elegant

If I have knocked off your image I am sorry. I just love them all and will def have one of them. Maybe two.

An anniversary, yesterday

but I was too busy to write about it.

So 3 months in I have to say I will never go back to eating dead things. Even the thought of it just nauseates me.

My cooking is so much more interesting and I have a renewed interest in food. I have some really great cookbooks and even make cheese now. You must have decent cookbooks to help you make interesting food. Without them I would have been stuck. Stuck with potatoes and rice. I now have cooked chickpeas and adzuki peas in my freezer. I am planning on making my own tofu as soybeans are so cheap to buy and tofu is not. I have made soy milk so the next logical step is tofu.

I am feeling fantastic. My skin is clear and my energy is high. My only regret is not being vegan from birth. Mum you have a lot to answer for! 

Heading for the Gold Coast tomorrow to get my student card from the uni. Will also see son for lunch and head to the fabric store which is having a sale. Might also call in to the op shop.

Apple and gingerbread upside down cake

Zucchini and banana loaf cooking

Food for starving son

Daisy dog had this very same look when she got left at the vets overnight.

Just love this one!

a chef or just a cook?

I went to a Melbourne Cup do yesterday and apart from the crappy lunch had a reasonable day. I even got second place in the $5 sweep. So the entire day cost very little. Which was just as well as I paid $28 for lunch which consisted of a small assortment of leaves on a plate with a boiled egg cut in two. The cook then proceeded to ask me later if she had given me enough rabbit food? I responded that one day I will cook for her and she will be blown away. Stupid bitch. Prior to lunch she approached me and asked if ham was okay? No. But its sliced ham. No. What about chicken? No. But its organic. FFS are people really that ignorant? I have known this woman for some time and she has cooked for me before, altho badly. Dry, tasteless and completely lacking in imagination best describes her food. Well time will have the last laugh. Once upon a time we were told smoking was good for us. Give it time and the entire world will be gobsmacked that they eat meat. Enjoy your endotoxins people. Yummy bacteria and pathogens. Go for it but leave me and the animals out of your gross stupidity.
I cooked this up on Monday night. Sweet potato and adzuki bean burgers with a thrown together stir fry. Cheap, delicious and quick!

 Zucchini Frittata with capsicum from the fat free vegan. Very yummy and fooled some meat heads.

Crazy chocolate cake

No eggs or dairy and it makes the most wonderful cake. I have not experimented with the flavours yet but I am betting you could take out the cocoa and add in anything you want.

Chocolate cake with cream and strawberries.

I was at a antique and collectible fair last weekend and picked up two of these very pretty plates. Not antique but very collectible.


Crazy Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4  cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

75 ml any vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp white vinegar
1 cup water

Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl.
Mix in the sugar, baking soda and salt.
Make 3 depressions in the dry mix, on large two small. In one small dip pour the vinegar. Pour the vanilla into the other. In the large one, pour the oil. Pour the water all over. Now mix until smooth.
Pour mixture into pre prepared 20cm round cake tin, greased and floured. Bake for 35 minutes at 180c. Test with toothpick to make  sure it comes out clean.
Ice with favourite icing or just dust with icing sugar.
Keeps well if you can manage to hide it from the family.

Cream
I have been using this for about 3 months and I pour it on everything!
1 500g block of soft silken tofu
liquid sweetener to taste. I use maple syrup or rice malt syrup
2 tblspns lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla paste
Blend until smooth and then store in a covered container in the fridge.
Lasts for at least a week. I don't know about any longer than that as it's all gone by then.
Adjust everything to your taste. The lemon juice is there to balance the sweetness. Use the very best vanilla, it's for you after all. Don't use the cheap maple flavoured syrup. Spend the bucks. It's worth it!

Convert me. Cheese. Cruelty.

http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking/

I have put this here because it is such a helpful site. No more guessing.

Cheese.

English Cheddar

Alpine Swiss

Hard Cheddar

Home made Almond Milk

Much success in the cheese making area of my life this week. I made Alpine Swiss, English Cheddar and hard cheddar. The first two are from The non dairy formulary by Skye Michael Conroy and the hard cheddar was from Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner. Both of these chefs are hard working people who are incredibly giving, both in spirit and time. The recipes are practically bullet proof and very quick and easy. The instructions are well thought out and very thorough. I may well become a 300kg vegan if I keep eating what I am making. One ill informed person told me I would become weak and dangerously ill by not eating meat. FFS! She herself is not a well woman and her husband is a chronic diabetic. Yes, the first person I would ask for dietary advice.

I got an email from Pinterest this morning and went over and started looking at the vegan posters. I found lots and lots I liked and there were so many on animal cruelty that I now just want to shut myself off from all the meat heads who just don't get it. It hurts my heart to know what goes on. Does it not impact others the same way? Am I living in such a cruel world that only a small percent of the population are able to stand up and say no more. Are the meat heads so brain washed that they can justify animal cruelty on a global scale. We hear about the dolphin bashing in Japan and the killing of whales in the southern ocean but not the animal slaughter that goes on daily, hourly, every second. Is it really too much to ask that meat heads just get educated about where their food comes from. If they can still eat it after they are shown what goes on then they do not deserve a place on my planet. I feel uncomfortable living among them. The only hope I have is that I can educate those around me. Have the conversations, shine the light into the dark recesses of the meat industry and show that good health comes from ditching the endotoxins, the casein and all the heavy metals just to name a few. If I can get people thinking then get them talking it has to be a help. Quite frankly I don't give a rats backside if you want to kill yourself but for pity's sake, leave the animals out of it.