Vegan sloppy joes

The end of my blog is coming up fast. It's quite crazy how quickly this year has gone by. So many memories just sloshing around in my brain. Every time I grab one of those memories and look back over it, it's always a good one. Of course my year was filled with lower moments, but I'm going to choose to let those go and just hang onto the good memories, and the lessons that I've learnt from any struggle I've faced this year. This little reflection doesn't have anything to do with the vegan sloppy joes that I made today, but I thought I might share it anyways. 

So if you've been following my blog and Instagram, I'm sure you'll know how much I love burgers, and good ol' American food. Hence, I thought it would be fitting if I try and re-create the classic sloppy joe - vegan style. As a kid, I would always watch movies and TV shows where school kids eat sloppy joes in the cafeteria, but to be honest, I never really knew what they were until my later years of high school. Mince meat goodness in a bun. That's basically what it is. Don't get me wrong though, I think that sounds delicious!

I decided to make a vegan sloppy joe today because, number one: I've never made one, and number two: I've just found out that my local Weigh 'N' Pay store sells Textured Vegetarian Protein (TVP). TVP can come in different shapes, but the one that's available near me looks like dried mince meat. You just add moisture (i.e. water, stock etc) and it becomes like mince. It's actually pretty tasty, and has good texture too. It's super easy to cook, and I think this will be a winner for any future recipe I cook up which requires mock mince. Yay, I'm so happy I've found another vegan product! Happy days :)

Vegan sloppy joes, topped with coleslaw and a side of corn and snow peas.

Vegan sloppy joes
(Adapted from Hell Yeah It's Vegan)

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 c mushrooms, finely diced
• 2 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp dry mustard
• 1¼ c TVP
• 1 c water
• 1x 400g can crushed tomato
• ¾ c ketchup
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• soft sandwich buns

 Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, saute pepper and onion in oil until onion is translucent.
2. Stir in chili powder, garlic and mustard.
3. Add TVP, water, crushed tomatoes ketchup, and soy sauce; stir well.
4. Cover and bring mixture to a boil.
5. Reduce heat, simmering for ~10 minutes covered.
6. Remove lid and simmer for ~20 minutes more, stirring frequently until most of liquid has evaporated.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve hot on toasted sandwich buns, with onion slices and nutritional yeast if desired. I added some vegan coleslaw onto mine.

Fry's Family meat-free chicken style burgers

In my opinion, the vegan world in Perth, Western Australia is expanding. Yay, let's celebrate by eating some vegan beignets that I made yesterday!!

No but really, I have seen so many more vegan products become available since I first started my vegan ways two and a half years ago. To be honest, I don't know if I'm just getting better at knowing where to look, or if veganism is actually becoming a more well known lifestyle choice. Either way, it certainly seemed like more food companies are getting on the vegan band-wagon and producing more food for us herbivores. 

Don't get me wrong, I love eating clean and making everything from scratch, but let's be honest, I'm not a cooking machine who can be in the kitchen all day long pumping out super healthy meals. There's just too much chopping involved. Seriously, prep can take so long. Especially if you need time to marinade something. Sometimes it's nice to have something pre-prepared which doesn't need much effort to cook up. Well, turns out there is just the thing in the freezer section of my local Woolworths 

I stumbled upon a range of meat-free vegan products made by Fry's Family (more information at the Fry's family cause here). They had an extensive range of savoury mock meat frozen goodies at the grocery store, and they have even more which isn't stocked in store. I bought a box of the Chicken Style Burger patties and whipped up a chicken and coleslaw burger. I really enjoyed the patty. It was crumbed and actually tasted a bit like what I remember a chicken patty tasting like. I really look forward to trying out more of their products. I think I'll just stock my freezer full of it all. That way if I need something quick and easy I can just grill me up or oven bake something delicious, stick it inbetween two slices of bread and BOOM, one very happy vegan. 

Vegan coleslaw dressing

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegan mayonaise (I use Praise mayonaise)
• 1 tablespoon plain soy milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup shredded cabbage (white or pruple or both)
• 1 small carrot, grated

Dircetions

1. Combine the mayonaise, soy milk and lemon juice and whisk together. 
2. Add the cabbage and carrot and mix well. Refridgerate until use. 

Makeshift on William and The Moon Cafe

I had a really good day today. A large reason why is because I met a lot of lovely, happy and chatty people today and their good vibes brightened up my day. I donated blood today and the lady who was taking my blood told me all about her trip to Vietnam. It sounded like her had the most amazing time and it just made me so happy to see someone reminiscing about their favourite memories. 

My friend Kate invited me to come out to Northbridge and Perth City to check out some of the events for Makeshift On William and the Perth Fashion Festival. Unfortunately I had to work til evening so we missed a lot of the free events, but we managed to hop on into the enex100 where the Lips & Lashes Bar were applying free fake lashes and lip gloss. For free!! The lady who did my lips and lashes also was a lovely and bubbly person and it was so great just having a laugh with a stranger. 

We then headed out to Northbridge to go and try and collect some of the free things up for grabs. Makeshift on William is a cool idea where you go around to the stores and restaurants and pick up pins, patches and recipe cards. There were heaps to collect and each of the stores had a cool display that you could interact with. The only store that was open when Kate and I got out there was Fi & Co. The girl serving behind the counter was another cheerful person that made it a good night. She told us about the display in the shop where we could put on a head piece and take photos with our heads in the hanging picture frames. We were originally going to just go into the shop, grab our pin and walk out, but the girl told us to check out other parts of the store upstairs and out the back. It was an awesome vintage store and it was so well decorated and everything for display and for sale was gorgeous. 

Kate also took me to The Moon Cafe on William St. I have heard a lot about it over the years, but I've never gone in. The food was modern kind of food, including pastas, pizza (dessert pizzas too!), burgers, nachos and the list goes on. I really enjoyed this place, and it was very busy, so I'm guessing a lot of people enjoy it too. Be warned though, the serving sizes are pretty massive! We ordered a side of fries which in all honesty could feed a family of four. The food was great, and vegan friendly too :) I had the veggie burger which had a tofu patty, roast veggies, lettuce and tomato. It was delicious. 

So many fries!! I finished my fries and we ate half of the bowl before we couldn't eat anymore. Good effort, but food won today.

I'm feeling really blessed to have met such lovely people today. I think it pays off to take an interest in other people, even if it is for a short 15 minute conversation. Give them your time and attention, and in return you'll feel good for making someone else feel special :)

Baked vegan zucchini fries

I am so excited about sharing a recipe that I found for zucchini fries!! They were surprisingly AMAZING!

I can't remember where I first heard of zucchini fries, but I did a search for a vegan recipe the other night and came across quite a few different ones from these following food sites: Trans-planted, The Vegan Pact, Chocolate Covered Katie, and Laws on Wellness.

You might think that it is a waste of time looking through all these different recipes, but I'm all about being resourceful and using up what is in my kitchen before going out and having to buy more ingredients. Plus I like to hunt around and look at all my options before picking one to make. 

I ended up choosing the recipe from the Laws on Wellness website because it was the only one that did not require a vegan egg substitute. Although I have flax seeds at home, in order to use them as an egg substitute, I have to grind them up and I just get too lazy sometimes. Mind you, I REALLY REALLY liked this recipe and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Even though these fries would have tasted fantastic on their own, I didn't want them to be lonely on my dinner plate so I also made up a giant vegan burger using a new veggie patty that I found in the frozen food section of Woolworths. 

I'm always looking in the cold food section of the grocery store to find all of the vegan/vegetarian food items (e.g. tempeh, falafel, vegan sausages etc) but I never stopped to look in the frozen food section. The other week I found some great vegan food as I was searching for vegan puff pastry to make an apple strudel. Along with the pastry, I picked up a box of vegan veggie patties made by the company Syndian. I've never heard of them before, but what caught my eye was how unprocessed all the ingredients were. The ingredients list all pretty much just vegetables and other things that you would find in your pantry like brown rice and spices. There was nothing artificial about it and so I though it was a healthy choice. 

The burger patties turned out to be very tasty. Be very careful to follow the cooking instructions though. With these patties, you are meant to cook them on a pan without thawing them, and it is strongly recommended to not cook them in a microwave. I think it's because there aren't many ingredients that bind the patty together. But if you follow the instructions then they stay in shape. 

This seriously was a great dinner tonight. Try the zucchini fries! If you don't like them (which I highly doubt), then call me over and I'll finish them for you ;)

My burger was a veggie patty on a multi grain bun with lettuce, raw mushroom, tomato, dill pickle, white onion, green relish, tomato ketchup and vegan mayonnaise :)

 
Baked Vegan Zucchini Fries

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain almond or soy milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 large zucchini (mine was about 12oz), cut into any thickness you desire

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (200C).  Line a 12×18-inch baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the almond or soy milk and mustard together until combined in a shallow pie dish or bowl.  In another shallow pie dish or bowl (glass baking dishes work great too), stir the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper together until well-blended.  Set both dishes aside.
3. Place the flour in a large zipper bag and toss in all of the zucchini sticks.  Seal the bag well and shake up the zucchini until all of the sticks are coated with flour.
4. Taking a few sticks at a time, roll them around in the milk-mustard mixture then coat them in the breadcrumbs, lightly patting the breadcrumbs onto the zucchini if needed.  Try to not to handle the zucchini too much at this point or the breading with fall off.  Carefully transfer the sticks to the baking sheet, spacing them about 1/2-inch apart.
5. Bake for 18-22 minutes until golden brown and delicious-looking. Turn the fries half way through the cooking time so that they are crispy and golden on all sides.
6. The best way would be to reheat leftovers would be to pop them in a 375 degree F (180C) oven for 5-7 minutes until they are heated through.

Blogilates cheap clean eats healthy cheeseburger

Today is my 200th post for 2013! I don't know why, but reaching my 200th post makes the finish line seem so much closer. 

I had a look through my photos from the year and I was so overwhelmed by all the good memories. Even though making sure I have something new to do everyday can become quite stressful, I don't regret starting this project. 

So, for my 200th post, my good friend Nhi and I decided to make another recipe from the Cheap Clean Eats series on the Blogilates website. Today we made the Healthy Cheeseburger recipe.

The original Blogilates recipe makes beef patties, so we decided to make a vegan and non-vegan version. 

I bought some extra firm tofu to make the burger patties, but I recommend using firm silken tofu so that the ingredients can bind together. 

We kinda just winged it for this recipe, but the burgers actually turned out so delicious. We seasoned our burger patties with a store bought Middle Eastern spice blend  and it tasted great with the flavour of the mushrooms and sauce. This is definitely the most guilt-free burger I have ever eaten, and the flavour did not let us down. 

A note to all you people who are keen to try this recipe: it's very very messy. There will be sauce and juice from the mushrooms everywhere, so maybe just eat this with people who don't mind the mess.

Looking very deshellved after cooking, but we were so happy with how these burgers turned out :)

 

Vegan sunflower seed burgers

I am always down for a burger. Any time any place. I don't mind if I'm chowing down on an unhealthy burger every now and then, but it's good when they're guilt free too. 

I have a bag of sunflower seeds in my pantry that have been sitting there for a while. I Googled some vegan sunflower seed burger patty recipes and found this quick and easy one from The Vegan Chickpea. I didn't have any carrots so I substituted them for zucchini and cauliflower. 

I really enjoyed these burgers and they filled the house with such a delicious aroma. 

Since I was already trying to use up food in my pantry, I decided to whip up some white bean hummus to go along with the burger. Such a good combination. Nom nom noms. 

Vegan Sunflower Seed Burger Patties

Makes 4 patties

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of uncooked brown rice
• 1/2 cup filtered water (I used about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup grated zucchini
• 1/4 cup cauliflower (processed in the food processor)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Rinse rice.  In a small saucepan, bring water to boil.  Add rice, cover, and cook according to directions.  When rice is done cooking, set aside. 
   Preheat oven to 200C (400F).  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. Using your food processor, pulse sunflower seeds about 10 times, just enough to break the kernels up.  
3. Add brown rice, zucchini, cauliflower, garlic and salt.  Alternate between pulsing and processing every 10 seconds until mixture begins to clump together.  The key is that you want to keep the texture, but they also need to hold together.
4. Form mixture into 4 patties.  Place on prepared baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, flipping after 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve immediately

You can find the white bean hummus recipe from Vegan Urbanite or you can use any other hummus or sauce in your burger. I also added some dijon mustard in mine for some tang. 

Flipside Burger Bar

There are some meals that can easily be made vegan. One of those is burgers. From memory, I have never been to a burger joint which hasn't had a vegetarian option that could be made vegan friendly upon request. 

Today my friend and I tried out a burger place called Flipside Burger Bar. I did a search for vegan friendly restaurants on Urbanspoon and Flipside was one of the search results. It worked out pretty well because this place is near uni and so we went here for dinner and a catch up.

We got there around 6pm and it seemed pretty quiet. It was a simple restaurant with just one long table with some stools around it for people to dine in. After we had sat down, we watched as the place began to fill up with customers...and very quickly at that. About 90% of the customers ordered takeaway burgers. It's a good thing too because there would not have been enough space on that one table for everyone to eat at.

I ordered The Kenny Burger which had a chickpea and sweet potato patty with red peppers and rocket leaves. There was also Sriracha sauce with all the condiments so I put this in my burger to add a bit of bite. Tasty!!