Vegan White Bean Crepes with Balsamic Grilled Tempeh and Basil "Butter"

A few weeks back, a went to the library and borrowed out pretty much all the vegan cook books on the shelves. The library books can be on loan for about 3 weeks before they need to be renewed, and although I know it's impossible to get through all the recipes in that time, it's nice to have a variety to choose from when I find time to cook.

I usually have a look in the index for main ingredients and find recipes from there. Today I found a super tasty sounding recipe from the book You Won't Believe It's Vegan by Lacey Sher and Gail Doherty. The recipe was White Bean Crepes with Balsamic Grilled Tempeh and Basil "Butter". Sounds super fancy doesn't it?

It was actually a lot easier to make than I thought, and I enjoyed making this recipe because it gave me the chance to practice flipping my crepes on the pan. I feel like a boss whenever the crepe lands back in the pan after being flipped :P

The recipe is super long so I decided to just take a picture and post it up :)

This dish is as yummy as is sounds and even more delicious than my photos and plating up make it out to be. In the end, I was so hungry that I didn't care what it looked like on the plate. I just wanted it in my belly :)

DIY Wolverine tank top

About 3 months ago, I made a DIY batman tank top and since then I have been dying to make another superhero one. I have accumulated a whole bunch of designs that I'd like to paint onto a shirt and I have all the equipment, it was just the time that I was looking for. 

As I am not a very skilled artist, I usually look for fairly simple designs to use for the shirts. At the moment, I'm really into minimalist superhero artwork. I found a great Wolverine poster art that got my attention straight away. All credit goes to the original artist! Find the original artwork and other really great minimalist Marvel posters at Behance.net.

The steps I took to make this shirt are much the same as those for my Bat-stache tank top :) I'm not very good at freehand painting so I made my own stencil out of just normal printer paper. In total, making this top only took about 5 hours which is much less than the Bat-stache one. 

I find these projects incredibly relaxing. I just had my music on next to me and my little heater going too. Can't wait to get started on the next design. 

 

 

 

When he's not in his X-men gear, Wolverine is always wearing a leather jacket, so I thought it would be appropriate to pair the tank top with one too :)

Picnic at Lake Monger

A few days ago, my friend and I organised to catch up for a picnic today at Lake Monger. For the past two days, the weather has been rainy and horrible so we were crossing our fingers for good weather today. Luckily for us, the sun chose the right day to come out and play. 

To complement our picnic foods, my friend also brought some vegan sweet treats from a place called The Herdsman: Inspiring Foods in Churchlands. Apparently this place sells a lot of lovely foods, so if you're in the area, please go check it out. I've never been there before, so I'll have to check it out too :)

I forgot the name of one of the sweets, but it was like a power bar. We could see almonds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pepitas, goji berries and we could taste a lovely coconuty flavour. I'm sure there were more healthy ingredients too. 

He also bought a vegan caramel slice. It was delicious. It was so rich but not in a sickly sweet kind of way. And I felt guilt-free eating it. I will definitely go to The Herdsman and get more of these babies. 

 

 

Our super delicious vegan sweets :)

I've only ever been to Lake Monger once for a fundraising event, so to sit down and enjoy the view was lovely. We chose a great spot where we could see the city. The sky was the most lovely blue and view was just stunning. 

Picnics are a great solution for saving money on food when you catch up with friends. Although, I strongly recommend you wear multiple layers of clothing if you go for a picnic in winter. Even though the sun is shining, the wind can get absolutely freezing.

Photo from here

Cloud Atlas

One thing I have taken away from the speech given at my graduation is the importance of balance. All things in life need balance. Too much of something for a long period of time is never a good thing. Sometimes we get the right balance in life, and other times we have to stop and force the balance. To achieve the latter, we have to be able to know our limits and breaking points in order to prevent burning out. 

There are some weeks when I over commit and plan too many new things that require a lot of energy all in a row. It's those weeks that I feel worn out and drained. I was slowly reaching that point this week, so today I decided to have a really quiet day. 

My something new was watching the movie Cloud Atlas. I had heard a few good reviews and I've been meaning to watch it for a while now. It's one of those movies where the characters are all connected in some way. I love those types of plot lines. Some of my other favourite movies like that are Love Actually, Paris Je T'aime, Crash and Pulp Fiction.

Be warned, Cloud Atlas is a long movie. It's nearly 3 hours in total (including credits). Make sure you're sitting on something comfortable because you'll be sitting for a while. 

I enjoyed this movie. By the second half of the movie, I found myself getting into the story and by the end I was quite moved by it. 

The cast is riddled with big name actors and actresses and what I liked the most was how all of them played multiple different characters. I loved seeing all the actors in different costumes (including the face putty to change their facial appearance), with different accents and doing such a good job portraying different people. 

If you have the time and you're into drama/sci-fi then I say commit to this movie. It's good, and if you're a Tom Hanks fan like I am, then I'm sure you'll like it. I give it a 7/10. 


P.s. I was just on YouTube listening to one of the songs from the movie and it turns out Cloud Atlas is a book. I might have to go hunt down the book and read it.

Sinabro, Northbridge

Some of my nursing girls and I went out to a Korean BBQ buffet at the restaurant Sinabro on Francis St in Northbridge. I have probably walked passed this place half a dozen times, but never really noticed it until today. I love that trying new things is opening my eyes to all the lovely things here in Perth that I've never really appreciated. 

Since changing to a vegan lifestyle two years ago, I've only ever been to a Korean BBQ once, and when I was there, the only things to cook that were vegan friendly were a few veggies. I ordered a cold noodle dish that was incredibly starchy and super difficult to chew. Ever since then, I haven't gone back to Korean BBQ because I didn't think there would be anything for me to eat. 

I was hesitant about going to Sinabro, but I saw a photo on Urbanspoon of people cooking tofu, so I figured it was worth giving a try. 

I already love buffets, so a Korean BBQ buffet is just awesome. There was so much vegan friendly food! There was tofu, various Asian vegetables, capsicum, mushrooms, noodles, sweet potato and pumpkin. There was also another buffet section where they served cooked dishes such as noodles, meat and sushi. There was vegan friendly tofu and wakame sushi too. 

The BBQ grilling plates also had a steamboat bowl in the middle to cook the noodles and vegetables. I though that was pretty nifty. 

The food was lovely and I'd go back in a heart beat, but the thing that made my night was laughing with the nursing girls. I had such a great time at dinner that I even kept laughing as I was driving home. 

We didn't just have a few giggles here and there, our laughs were like "aaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha" at maximum volume. Just seeing everyone laughing hard made me feel so happy.

The way I see it, when people laugh hard, they are letting loose and being 100% themselves. I think it's one of the most beautiful things to witness.

Vegan cosmic cookies

While I was Googling healthier substitutes for white flour a while back, I came across something called Kamut flour. It is a good choice for baking because it has a higher protein content than normal white flour and will not make your baking heavy or dense like spelt flour does (more info here and here).

I bought a bag of kamut flour months and months ago, hoping to make a yummy cake but alas I never got around to it. Over time the poor bag of kamut flour had gotten pushed to the back of my pantry. That is, until yesterday when I found a super healthy cookie recipe that includes kamut flour. 

It was one of those rare moments when I find a recipe with a mega long ingredients list, and I actually end up having most of the ingredients in my kitchen. 

My brother asked me today what I was going to do as my something new and I told him that I'd be making cookies. His eyes lit up, but then I quickly told him that they'd be healthy cookies. He paused for a second and unexpectedly said, "doesn't matter. It's all the same". Lol. What 12 year old likes healthy cookies? He's s special kid that boy. Love him to bits.

I made a few variations of the recipe that I found on the website Food Doodles. The original recipe is from Planet Organic Market.  

As there are so many ingredients in this recipe, there's just so much happening in each bite. All the different flavours work well.

I rolled out my cookie dough so that the cookies would be thin because I like them crunchy, but they would taste just as good if they're thicker. 

I'm pretty sure these babies are jammed packed with so much goodness and energy. Get baking and enjoy these guilt-free cosmic cookies. 

These cookies also got the thumbs up of approval from my little brother. The boy who loves his vegetables non-existant and his junk food deep fried or covered in sugar :P

Vegan Cosmic Cookies

Makes about 36 thin cookies about 5mm thick.

Dry ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• ½ cup spelt flour (I used plain flour because I didn't have spelt. It still worked well, but spelt would be healthier)
• ½ cup kamut flour
• ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds or pepitas (I used 1/4 cup of sesame seeds and 1/4 cup dried pineapple pieces chopped)
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ¼ cup chia seeds
• ½ cup sucanat sugar (I used low Gi raw sugar)
• l tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ¼ cup raisins

Wet ingredients:

•  1/8 cup blackstrap molasses
• ½ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 18 C (350 F).  Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. In a very large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients from the oats to the dried cranberries.  Stir and set aside.  
3. In a medium sized bowl stir together the molasses, melted coconut oil and milk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a large wooden spoon just until all the ingredients are combined.  
4. Using a 1/3 C measuring cup, scoop dough and place 9-12 cookies per baking sheet.  Gently press the cookie dough down to the thickness that you like. I used a cookie cutter to make then all even in diameter.
5. Place on sheets and put in the oven and bake for 24-26 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes before removing the cookies from the sheet and placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes: You might want to warm the milk slightly before mixing it with the coconut oil and molasses otherwise the coconut oil will solidify fairly quickly once mixed.  This is not a problem if you’re using any other kind of oil.