Vegan shopping heaven

I love cooking and making our food from scratch. Obviously. But I get such a thrill out of being able to buy food that I actually want to eat, rather than standing depressed in the middle of a food court with little to no options or settling for an unimaginative vegetarian pasta or salad.

On a wonderful friend's recommendation, I recently went to About Life Natural Marketplace in Rozelle, Sydney. It is a whole foods/health food supermarket with a cafe attached. They have quite a lot of vegan products that I see (drool over) on American blogs such as Amy's Kitchen products.

The thing that really impressed me was the amazing array of ready made raw desserts, such as tiramisu, cheesecake, energy balls and chia puddings. They also have a fantastic selection of drinks such as green smoothies (with all of those vegan super foods added!), vegan sweet slices, snacks, salads and other meals.

This raw tiramisu was the highlight. 

I must try to replicate this. 

I'm looking forward to going back there for a meal and more raw desserts.

Here are a few of the other random goodies we bought:

Afterwards, we popped into The Cruelty Free Shop. Total treat!

Details: About Life Natural Marketplace, 605 Darling Street, Rozelle NSW

Healthier vegan baking

There are definitely times when only white flour and sugar in baked treats will do. 

However, lately I have been dabbling in healthier vegan baking. 

Sylvia loves sweet foods as much as I do and is reluctant to try new foods at the moment. I have got into the habit of making a healthy sweet treat each day or second day, trying to load it with nutritious stuff. 

I feel better about her eating these kinds of sweets, even if she has had little for dinner (or a Vegemite sandwich!). And of course, it's good for the rest of us too!

I have found some great recipes on other blogs.

These healthier homemade pop tarts were lovely. The dough was a bit fiddly to work with, but worth it in the end. Anything with sprinkles is a winner with Sylvia!

 

Some other favourites are chocolate coated pretzels, spelt blueberry muffins and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. 

I am quite obsessed with spelt flour at the moment. These chocolate pumpkin spelt muffins are lovely and light, veganised from a recipe I found online (recipe below).

 

I recently bought Whole Grain Vegan Baking. It's a gorgeous book. I only wish I had more time to make everything in it! I'm really enjoying trying the different flours in these recipes, such as barley flour. 

Here are a couple of things I've made from it so far.

Hearty barley fruit bread

Savory barley and potato scones 

I'd love to hear some other healthy baking ideas!

Chocolate Spelt Pumpkin Muffins (adapted from this recipe)

3/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour
3/4 cup white spelt flour
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground flaxseeds
6 tbsp water
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 cup pumpkin purée

Preheat over to 180C. Line/oil muffin pan.

Whisk together flaxseeds and water and set aside.

Mix together flour, cocoa, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

Make a well in the flour mixture and add flaxseed mixture, maple syrup and oil. Mix until combined.

Fold in the pumpkin puree until just mixed in.

Pour mixture into muffin pan and bake until muffin tops are firm, around 20 minutes. 

Vegan Wedding Cupcakes

Recently, I made some cupcakes for a family wedding. 

It felt like quite an honour to make these for such lovely people on their special day. I took a lot of care making them with this in mind, and I am pretty proud of how they turned out!

I spent the day before the wedding making all the cupcakes and icing, and iced and decorated them on the morning of the wedding. An ambitious task, especially with a baby and a three year old, but I really enjoyed it!

All the cupcake recipes are from the brilliant book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I made pistachio rosewater, lemon macadamia, chocolate orange and coconut lime.

 Congratulations Claire, Ben and Aaron!

101 uses for besan (chickpea or gram) flour

Well maybe not that many, but a couple of uses ...

I have used besan flour before to make French toast and omelette, but lately I have been experimenting with it in a few new recipes. It has a beautiful nutty flavour and is rich in protein. 

These dosas from Vegan Magic are really delicious. 

I was overjoyed when Sylvia liked these! They can be eaten as an accompaniment to a meal or even used as a wrap. 

I leave out the carrot because Sylvia prefers them plain. I also substituted plain flour for the rice flour once, and they turned out fine. 

These fritters from The Kind Cook were also a huge success with Sylvia. 

They are great with the corn, mint and zucchini in the original recipe, but work with most vegetables. Here I used grated carrot, corn, spinach and parsley. 

I am always excited to find such simple, tasty and healthy recipes on blogs. I don't think I'd be able to find and try as many new recipes such as these without my trusty iphone, which I can even manage to use with a baby balancing on my lap and a three year old giving me orders!

I'd love to hear how you use besan flour so I can add it to my list!

Chocolate Banana Quinoa Flake Bake

There are a lot of granolas and overnight oats happening at our place for breakfast these days. So this was a lovely change:

There is something about a baked breakfast that feels so wholesome. Especially when it contains quinoa flakes. Very virtuous, even with the addition of choc chips!

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this, given that I am not a huge fan of the taste of quinoa flakes on their own. This is definitely my favourite use of quinoa flakes so far. 

I used this recipe, using the applesauce option. It's very easy - just mix the quinoa flakes, mashed banana, applesauce, nuts of choice, cinnamon and/or nutmeg, choc chips and put in the oven for around 20 minutes. Or in the microwave for a few minutes. Go and do some other stuff, then you have a beautiful warm breakfast awaiting you! 

I'll definitely be trying vegan versions of some of these other bakes over the winter.

Creamy Millet Apple Pudding

Now that it is starting to get a bit colder, I thought it time to roll out an old favourite tonight - this creamy millet apple pudding.  

I used to make this for Sylvia when she was younger. For a period, she lived on this pudding and her favourite chocolate pudding. 

She is growing up so fast and is quickly becoming more independent, so for me this pudding is a nice warming reminder of her baby days. 

These days when I ask Sylvia if she would like to help me cook, she says: "Sorry mummy, I'm too busy". When I ask her what she did at playgroup, she sighs and says: "Oh mummy, I'll tell you later".

Pass me the pudding!

This pudding also makes a nice change from porridge for breakfast and is a healthy, comforting dessert.
 
Creamy Millet Apple Pudding

1/4 cup dry, hulled millet, ground to powder in a coffee grinder
2 cups non-dairy milk (I use a combination of rice, soy and oat milk)
1/4 cup sultanas
1 apple, peeled and grated
2-3 tbsp sugar
dash of cinnamon

Put the ground millet, milk, sultanas and grated apple into a saucepan, stir and heat over low to medium heat until the pudding thickens a bit, about 20 minutes. Stir every now and then to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or get lumpy. Add in sugar and cinnamon and heat for a few more minutes. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Eat it hot or cold!

Mushroom Pan Bread

I don't know about other people, parents of little ones or not, but some nights I feel lucky to get anything on the table for dinner at all. So when I successfully made this mushroom pan bread mid-week in about an hour including dough rising time, I was pretty happy!

I love rustic breads that don't require lots of kneading and time spent waiting for dough to rise. Having homemade bread with a meal is such a treat. This one is a cross between focaccia and pizza. The bread is soft and fluffy, and the mushrooms make it even more delicious!

Sylvia took one look at this bread and politely requested a Vegemite sandwich for dinner. Then she tasted some, and loved it. She didn't even pick the mushrooms off!

Mushroom Pan Bread (adapted from Rosemary Pan Bread from Cooking with Herb the Vegetarian Dragon by Jules Bass and Debbie Harter)

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp instant dried yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
250ml warm water
approx 2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 - 1 tsp dried thyme

Put yeast and sugar in water and stir until it dissolves. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
 
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. 

Add 2 tbsp oil to the yeast/water mixture. Add this to the flour and stir. Knead for a few minutes until smooth. 

Rest the dough in a covered bowl for about 30-40 minutes until it doubles in size. 

Fry mushrooms, garlic and thyme in one tbsp olive oil for a few minutes. Add salt to taste and set aside.

Preheat oven to 190C.

Punch down the dough and press it evenly into an oiled pan/tray. Spread the mushrooms over the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven and the size of your pan/tray) or until golden and firm in the middle.

Cut into squares and eat while warm!