As an incentive for everyone to head on over to the VEGAN CHICKIE site, I’ll be giving away a copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals”. Just go to the giveaway post at Vegan Chickie and comment to go in the running. I’ll be drawing a winner on the morning of Wednesday 16th Dec (local NZ time). Don’t forget to update your links and bookmarks while you’re there!

Just a reminder that the site is now located at http://veganchickie.com

Please update your links!

When I started this blog I was just a lowly vegetarian with dreams of veganhood, and so the address vegetarianchickie.wordpress.com was chosen.. it doesn’t seem entirely appropriate anymore since I’ve made the vegan commitment, so, we’re relocating to the more appropriate address:

http://veganchickie.com

Please update your links/rss feeds/bookmarks so that you don’t miss out on anything!

I’m a bit sad to say goodbye to this space, and to say goodbye to my nearly 6000 views (I was so excited to get to 10,000, but now we’ll be starting all over again! SO! To help us out, come over to Vegan Chickie, have a look around, leave a comment and visit often so we can get back the ground we lost!

Thanks everyone!

See you there!

I think this chocolate cake is the easiest cake I’ve ever made, I’d barely even started and it was already baking away in the oven! Delicious too! It’s recipes like these that make me wonder why people bake with eggs and milk at all!

Vegan Chocolate Cake
(The Joy of Vegan Baking)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (188g) unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup cold water

+ the frosting of your choice

Method:

1. Prehead the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a baking pan. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder in a bowl until thoroughly combined.

2.Create a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the vanilla, oil, vinegar and water, mix until just combined. Pour into your prepared pan, and bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

3. Cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

NOTE: you can also use this mixture for cupcakes, in that instance check after 15 minutes to see if cakes are done.

To be honest I wasn’t a huge fan of this mild curry, I prefer my curries to be really rich and spicy and so I wasn’t going to post it, but it occurred to me last night that there are some people who actually love their curries lovely and mild, so I figured I would post it and you can just decide for yourself! Serve with Basmati rice and chutney!

No Hurry Vegetable Curry
(Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)

Ingredients:
1 tbs peanut Oil
2 large carrots, sliced on teh diagonal
1 onion leek, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
8 ounces green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
Salt

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion, cover and cook until softened, about 5 mins. Add the garlic, curry powder, coriander, and cayenne, stirring to coat.

2. Transfer the vegetable mixture to your slow cooker. Add the potatoes, green beans, chickpeas, tomatoes and stock; cover, and cook on low for 7 – 8 hours.

3. Just before serving, stir in the peas and coconut milk and season with salt. Taste to adjust the seasonings.

Another recipe with just an end result photo.. sorry about that! Will make sure I am better prepared with a charged up battery next time!!

This recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking.

I really LOVE this cook book and anyone who is even remotely interested in vegan baking really should get themselves a copy, it never ceases to amaze me. This pancake recipe is SOOO good.. even just thinking about it makes me want to make up another batch! Now if I could just invent a vegan nutella to slather my pancakes with I’d be all set!

Vegan Pancakes
(The Joy of Vegan Baking)

Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (or half all-purpose and half whole wheat)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup non-dairy milk (we used soy)
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons liquid sweetener such as maple syrup or apple juice concentrate (we used orange juice)
Additional oil or vegan butter for cooking (optional – depends on your pan)

Method:
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, oil and sweetener.

Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix just until moistened, a few lumps are okay (Don’t overmix or the pancakes will be tough).

Heat a nonstick pan over a medium head. (add some oil if required but with a nonstick pan you won’t need it)

Pour the batter onto the griddle to form circles about 10cm in diameter. Cook the pancakes for a couple of minutes on one side, until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip the pancake and cook the other side until golden brown.

This recipe makes 8 to 10 (super delicious) pancakes.

I served mine with fresh fruit and some vegan choc chips.. OMG! Delish!

I have been pretty slack lately with keeping up with the blog, and with making healthy food choices in general. Things have been busy, and when we are busy we are more likely to eat the vegetarian foodie equivalent to fast food. Fast food to us is still home made and vegetarian but is more likely to be home made nachos or pizza than something healthy and nutritious. It really just comes down to not making a food plan for the week, when we are making the dinner decision on the way home from a long day at work we are much more likely to make bad food choices than if we have our meals all planned out and our groceries all bought on the weekends.

Anyway! I was reading through another vegan blog on the weekend and I came across the 30 day vegan challenge, the official challenge is already part way through but I figured it was a good opportunity for me to start becoming more serious about veganism and about food in general.

So, here we are part way through day one. I had corn thins with nuttlex and vegemite for breakfast (this is hardly nutritous!) and lunch was a wholegrain sandwhich with avocado, beetroot, lettuce, cucumber and carrot with a glass of orange juice.

Dinner tonight will be Beatrice’s Vegetable ‘Stoo’ with dumplings, with just a couple of changes to transform it from vegetarian to vegan. I’ve been craving it all afternoon and can’t wait to give it a go! Thanks Beatrice!

I’ll be using vegan month as motivation to get back into the swing of sharing recipes etc on the blog as well so hopefully there will be many more entries in the coming weeks.

So we are finally back from the holiday of a lifetime.. our dearest apologies for the blog drought!

Here is what we have been up to since you last heard from us:

We tramped from Sydney to Hervey Bay for a family Christmas where my family scoffed down prawns the size of bananas and I shielded myself from the seafood spray with various lettuce leaves. We flew to Cairns and then drove to Port Douglas where we met with friends from all over the country to have a holiday before our rainforest wedding. Vegetarian food choices in Port Douglas ranged from surprisingly fabulous (Java Blue Cafe) to disappointing (Nautilus Restaurant) to downright disgusting (Sakinayah House Restaurant) but we were having so much fun lounging by the pool and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef that it didn’t really matter anyway.

The wedding itself was held at Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree Rainforest, bare chested chef was suitably clothed and I – in usual bride fashion – wore a white dress. It wasn’t quite your typical wedding (I wore sneakers under my dress and the groom took my surname instead of the other way round) but the day was wonderful and the food was fabulous – naturally!

After all the fabulousness of a rainforest wedding, we flew to Fiji to start our honeymoon (hubba hubba!). We stayed on Mololo Island at Likuliku resort where the head chef at the restaurant created 2 special vegetarian menus just for me each day – I was in heaven! At Lunch and Dinner each day I was brought over a new menu, 3 courses at lunch and 4 at dinner, with 2 or 3 choices for each course as well. It was incredible! I was in vegetarian foodie heaven! Unfortunately on day five – after foolishly drinking ‘filtered’ water instead of bottled water – I was struck down with food poisoning and remained in bed for two and a half days unable to eat or move. All that delicious vegetarian food was waiting for me at the restaurant and I just couldn’t eat it!

While I was bedridden the storms started, it rained for two days straight and on the third day the manager of the hotel came to our door and advised us that we were about to get hit with a cyclone and we had to be evacuated from the island. We had 20 minutes to pack all our stuff and make our way to the helipad where a boat would come get us (you think I am making this up don’t you??? I wish I could say I was!).

I was pretty weak by now, and still very sick so bare-chested chef did all the hard work, we packed all our belongings and off we went to the boat in the pouring rain (me still very pale and shaky – having trouble even holding up the umbrella in the wind). We climbed aboard the tiny ten man boat and they took us out into open water to wait for a larger boat to come and get us. We waited for over an hour and a half for that boat and I can tell you, it was a very scary time! The storm was raging, the sky was black, we were drenched from head to toe and I was having a very rough time keeping myself from being sick, in fact it was probably only the fact that I hadn’t eaten in over two days that kept me from feeding the fishes.

Finally the ferry came by and picked us up and took us over to the mainland. It wasn’t much better, that ride, but at least we weren’t getting rained on anymore. A bunch of tourists were being evacuated from the islands so the boat was packed to the rafters with worried looking people and we had to sit on the soggy floor by the wall of suitcases and backpacks. When we finally made it to the mainland we thought we were free and clear, until the owner of the ferry stood up on some boxes and told us that Fiji was having the worst floods they had had in 20 years and the roads were closed so no-one could get out! For three days we were stranded at a hotel in Denarau, me still recovering from food poisoning, waiting for the flood waters to recede. Food services were restricted because no fresh supplies were getting through so they just had a buffet twice daily – a frightening experience for a food poisoned vegetarian foodie far away from home! I managed to live on roast potatoes and bread rolls until finally we were free to make our way to the airport and escape. What an adventure!

From Fiji we headed to New Zealand. Within 12 hours of landing Auckland experienced the most spectacular lightening storm they had ever seen and I was beginning to think our marriage was cursed but our bad weather ended there – thank goodness for that! We celebrated being back in unflooded civilisation with a vegetarian degustation menu at The Grove in Auckland which was delicious and incredibly filling. While on the North Island we also recommend: lunch in the vineyards on Waiheke island (hire a car and make a day of it!), Bistro 1284 in Rotorua – try the vegetarian Gyoza – delicious!, the ‘vegetarian restaurant’ on high street in Auckland (green sign) oh so cheap, and oh so scruptuous!

After a week in Auckland we flew down to Queenstown. What an incredibly beautiful place! We absolutely fell in love, and can’t wait to go back, in fact we spent the entire time there trying to figure out a way not to leave, in the end though common sense prevailed, and so here we are, back working like chumps! But I digress! While enjoying the sights in Queenstown make sure you check out

Licks Icecream Bar (next to Beefeater Restaurant on Shotover St) for delicious icecream – so nice we went back twice!

Kinloch lodge in Kinloch had the most incredible ginger and carrot soup! Definitely worth the trip – although if you aren’t a fan of carrot and ginger soup the lake is well worth seeing on its own.

The Skyline Restaurant had the best buffet I have ever had with excellent vegetarian options and loads of variety and even though the trip up there was a bit hair-raising for poor chef who is terrified of heights, the views are absolutely breathtaking! Get there super early to register to get a table by the window and watch the sun set over the remarkables – you won’t regret it!

Sombreros Mexican Restaurant looks like your regular tacky mexican place but the vegetarian fajitas are fabulous.

Hell’s Pizza, sounds ridiculous and looks it too, but they have excellent vegetarian options, (‘pride’ was my personal favourite), and are perfect for a quick bite to eat on your way home from white water rafting or flinging yourself out of a plane.

On an unrelated note – unrelated to food that is – if you are in Queenstown you absolutely have to do the Queenstown to Glenorchy drive, just the most incredibe scenery you can imagine. I would also recommend checking out the Fiordland National Park & Milford Sound. For something required a little less effort contact Kevin for a Segway on Q tour, loads of fun!

Anyway, enough of that – I’m beginning to sound like a lonely planet guide. The point of this post is really just to say “We are back!” and will be back cooking soon enough!

Stay Tuned!

NB: Photos from the wedding day were taken by Shaun Guest at Port Douglas Photography.

We have been pretty busy these last couple of days with meetings and wedding planning so there haven’t been many new recipes. We have been cooking, there just hasn’t been time for updating. Hopefully I will get a chance over the weekend to do some blogging.. We have a garden fresh pasta and a tofu thai green curry ready to go and plans for some more vegan baking this weekend.

Until then…

It was another slack night in the foodie household tonight. We had a meeting with our Aunties and Uncles group in the city and then we spent 40 minutes at a standstill in Sydney traffic because of an accident and by the time we got home it was just too late to cook up our usual storm.. so, dinner this evening was take away mushroom pizza.. not really very good blog material!

We will be back up and running over the weekend though. That’s a promise!

Maybe I should hold a poll of some kind so that everyone can vote on what kind of vegan cupcakes we should make this weekend..