to the OTHER blog!

Whilst on my travels I will just be updating my blog from my blogger acount.. yep.. that’s right – I’VE BEEN LIVING TWO LIVES! (well.. two identical lives)

 

SO head on over there and subscribe and it’ll make your life a whole lots easier!

 

www.vegiebug.blogspot.com

 

Much love from Vietnam!

X.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Rainbow birthday cake – ie best birthday, cake +picnic ever.

 

 

It was my birthday a little while ago and all I asked of Muffin was to bake me the greatest cake in the world.

THAT’S IT!

Now.. he is a trained chef, so it wasn’t too much to ask, but this was quite seriously the first cake he had EVER baked at home..  (Which I personally find hilarious!) He even photographed the whole process so I could blog about it! Naww! This one’s a keeper.

So, did he fulfil his task? …. well you take a look and judge for yourself!

(ps, the answer is hell yeah)

 

 

Muffins cake-a-makin space.

Rainbows coming into action.

Holy colour – fresh outta the oven. (blue caused him issues!)

He chose to do a tiered cake because he is a maniac and likes a challenge. He also chose to individually flavour most layers, red was berry, orange was orange (duh!), yellow was lemon and green was lime.

THEY WERE DELICIOUS

and each layer worked well on it’s own and with the others!

 

WHAT WHAT! a girl cant slip in a photo of the picnic sammidge she made?! hahahaha.

ooohhhhh – ahhhhh.

to be honest, the bread I chose wasn’t crusty enough and this went soggy.

Soggy-town = not ok in my books.

Cake = quite ok in my books.

 

Cake decorating time and the anticipation was killin me!

My family came together to create the best picnic ever for me 😀
On the menu was mah picnic sammidge, pasta salad, roast vegetables, cheeses, dips, sour dough bread, coleslaw, stuffed mushrooms, inari, honey joys, chocolate crackles, muffins and sooo much mooorreee! Actually amazing.

MAH CAKE! JUST YOU WAIT…

I love this photo. That’s my Muffin and me! ❤

Lookie here! everyone literally gasped when I cut into it and my young, tiny relative yelled “HOW’D YOU GET A RAINBOW IN THERE?!” awwwww.

Filled with love and more love (and a rainbow).

I was clearly a little excited!

 

The end to a lovely picnic, a lovely birthday and a lovely cake.

Peace out alfalfa sprouts!

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Eggplant Parmigiana with smoky home fries and rosemary vegies. Phew.

I love eggplant. It’s one of my favourite vegetables. It’s so versatile and can be so many different textures. This meal is always a winner in my books because it’s so hearty and the eggplant just melts in the mouth. Sometimes I breadcrumb the eggplant first and fry it off before topping it so it becomes more crispy, but tonight I wanted that melty texture.

Tonight muffin was out in the city and thus I wasn’t going to make this meal as I had previously planned it for two. Then I watched this clip and changed my mind! Alone time is fine, and obviously I should treat myself to a delicious dinner for one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7X7sZzSXYs
(I love this clip. I keep watching it over and over. So lovely. WATCH IT!)

Eggplant Parmigiana with smoky home fries and rosemary vegies:

1 tin whole tomatoes tomatoes
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sriracha
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
1 fresh tomato, diced

3 cloves garlic
4 potatoes, diced into cubes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt
pepper

1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
4 mushrooms, diced
1/2 zucchini, diced

1 big eggplant, cut into two 1 inch slices ( I actually don’t work in inches, I just assumed this was about 1 inch hahaha, use your brain and you shall prevail :D)
splash wine (i used white but red would probably be nicer)
2 slices cheese

serves 2.

First things first put the tinned tomatoes, vinegar, sriracha, chilli, salt and pepper all in a saucepan and leave to reduce. Mash the tomatoes up a bit with the spoon whilst reducing.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Par boil the potatoes until the edges are soft and easily pierced with a fork. When draining, use the colander to shake the excess water away and also rough up the edges a little; this way they’ll crisp up.
Toss the potatoes in paprika, sesame, olive oil, salt and pepper and lay on a baking tray. Throw 3 whole garlic cloves on the tray also. Cook in the oven until potatoes are crisp and browned. About 30 mins.

After about 20 mins, remove the garlic and squeeze into the tomato sauce. It will be rich and almost sweet. DELICIOUS. Add in the fresh tomato now, just to add a little texture and also sweetness.

When the potatoes are almost ready to go, fry the thick slices of eggplant on either side, deglaze with wine and place a lid on them until softened, about 5 minutes. Top with tomato sauce mixture and grated cheese and place under the grill until brown, melty and delicious.

Fry the mushrooms, zucchini and rosemary in a little butter and oil and season with salt and pepper.

EAT EAT EAT.

Read Full Post »

Exploding food.

A question… Is there any particular reason agar agar or vegan margerine should explode in a microwave?!

and by explode – i really mean explode. Like. Loud bang that really scares you and you think you’ve broken the microwave kind of explode!

I was only softening some agar agar with marg to make some icing and it went BBBAAANNGGGGG! – so i did it on the stove instead. I guess the original way is the best way 😀

But really – are there any reasons this would happen that I am unaware of?! Does anyone have a similar story to this one?

Read Full Post »

Sour (but in a good way) Paneer Curry!

Tonight tonight I made my very first curry from scratch. This is a ridiculous fact! My dad was almost ashamed. But not really.
His words were: “WHAT! You’ve never made a curry? You said this was your first curry?! …… WHY?”
my words were: “cause you’ve always made good ones!”
End scene.

Anywho, it was a weird one – but quite lovely. Weird sounds bad, we’ll just say different. Just like I wasn’t a weird child… I was just …. different! 😉

It’s sour from the yoghurt but creamy from the paneer. Result: I like it.

apologies for the photo - hungry and impatient bug.

Slightly sour paneer curry.
Serves many!

½ block paneer, cubed*
½ block tempeh, cubed
6 slices zucchini
4 mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup frozen peas

2 Tablespoons peanut oil
Pinch asafoetida
½ T cumin seeds
4 cloves
1 onion, finely chopped
200g plain greek yoghurt
2 T ground coriander
½ t ground turmeric
½ t red chilli powder
½ t garam masala
salt
200mL water
1cm ginger, finely diced
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt
Sugar

Heat peanut oil in pan until quite hot. Cut paneer and tempeh into 1cm cubes and fry for 2 minutes on each side. The easiest and most fun way to do this is with knife and fork! They will turn golden brown like magic! Magic, I tells ya. Remove from pan. Try not to eat all before meal is prepared.

Using same pan, fry vegetables until tender and then add to paneer/tempeh mix.

To make sauce, heat peanut oil until quite hot. Add asafoetida, cumin seeds and cloves and fry until they begin to (snap, crackle and) pop. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the yoghurt with the coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and garam masala. It will make a lovely yellowy-reddy looking picture!

Add the yoghurt mix to the onions and continue stirring rapidly until it comes to boiling point. This should prevent the yoghurt from splitting. Mine split : | No biggie, yo.

Once boiling, add 200mL of water, or less – depending how thin you want the sauce to be. Add the vegetables and peas and heat through.

Serve with freshly squeezed lemon and adjust seasoning with salt and sugar.
Eat with roti!

*****The paneer could be substituted for root vegetables for a nice change. I think pumpkin would be ultimately delish.

Read Full Post »

Laksa and soy bean Extravaganza.

Yesterday I went to the Adelaide Central Market with my mumma. It is the biggest under-cover market in the southern hemisphere and I am proud to call it my own. (ALL MINE – muhahaha) Nuff on that, we had lunch at Laksa House which is in a little asian food court off china town.

busy busy busy.

It pretty much has the most amazing laksa in the world. or perhaps just Adelaide. Anywhoo. They are lovely there and they even have a cute little sign that warns you that the laksa will contain shrimp and chicken stock unless you ask otherwise. So I got the vegetarian laksa (the only veggie option – but hey, it’s good!) and mumma got the combination one. The small size is $7 and the large is $9(i think). THELARGEISABSOLUTELYMASSIVE. I accidentally bought it once and I think I ate about 1/4 of it and felt distraught at my wasted-ness. The laksa is definitely delish there and is always ready in less than 5 minutes. By that I mean about 3. At most.

For dinner tonight I had 4 types of soy bean! What a versatile ingredient it seems to be 😀 and what a grand vegetarian I am! hahaha. I made miso soup and had a fry up of tofu, tempeh, soybeans and vegies. Nice and pretty simple.

I ate miso soup for a good few months in Canada before I remembered it had bonito flakes in it. Geeeeeeeeeee wizzzzzz, was I upset. So this one (bonito-free!) was just miso paste mixed with water and some nori.

Soy Bean Extravaganza*:

3 oyster mushroom, sliced

1 swiss mushroom, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 birdseye chilli, finely sliced

1 baby eggplant, sliced (homegrown)

1/4 zucchini, sliced

1 slice tempeh

1 slice firm tofu

1 cup soy beans (we buy them frozen)

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sriracha

1 teaspoon dumpling vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

s+p

Method: wok fry:

Fry mushrooms separately until browned and delicious (otherwise they overcook with everything else) Remove from pan and put aside.

Fry onion, garlic, chilli, eggplant, zucchini, tempeh and tofu with some olive oil for a couple of minutes. When pan is hot, throw in frozen soy beans and fry for another 5-10 minutes – or until completely cooked through. Add mushies back and heat through.

Turn off heat and add soy, sriracha, vinegar, sesame oil.

Serve with steamed rice, crispy fried shallots, toasted sesame seeds and miso soup!

* This makes enough for 2… possibly 3. I don’t know how to cook for 1. Coming from a family of 5, it is not in my vocabulary.

Read Full Post »

For the happiness factor.

too cute!

Read Full Post »

Hello world!

Welcome. My name is bug and I will be your guide. Lovely to meet you!

Read Full Post »