Vegan in Las Vegas

What do 2 vegans do in Las Vegas?
Elope, of course!

A Very Vegan Xmas courtesy of The PPK

The best vegan moussaka you will ever eat

A few days ago I accidentally saw a tv show by Master Chef's winner Julie Goodwin called Home Cooked. In this particular episode she was making moussaka. I love a good moussaka and the best one I have ever tried is in Veganomicon but the only problem is that it takes AGES to make and assemble. Julie's recipe takes about 20 minutes to prepare and about 30 minutes to cook. It seemed pretty simple to veganise, so I gave it a go a few nights ago and was super impressed with the results.
The recipe goes a little like this......


2 medium eggplants, cut into 1cm thick slices
salt
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 pack sanitarium vege mince
1 brown onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup red wine or veg stock
1 can whole peeled tomatoes


Béchamel Sauce
3 Tbs Nuttelex
3 Tbs  plain flour
1.5 cups water (or soy milk if you like)
½ cup nutritional yeast


Salt the eggplant slices on both sides and lay between 2 layers paper towel for around 15 minutes. Wipe carefully with fresh paper towel to remove salt and liquid that has been drawn out of the eggplant. Fry in batches in vegetable oil over medium-high heat until browned; drain on paper towel.


In the same pan, add a little more oil and brown the vege mince, breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon until crumbly and browned. Add the onion and garlic and cook for a further minute. Stir in cinnamon and allspice and cook for another minute. Add tomato paste and stir to combine. Pour in canned tomato  and red wine/stock and cook until the liquid has evaporated and the meat sauce is quite a dry mixture; around 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180° C /160° C (fan forced).

Melt nuttelex in a medium saucepan and stir in flour. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until thick, smooth and coming away from the sides of the pan. (This is called a roux.) Add a little of the water/milk and stir quickly; the mixture will form a dough immediately. Keep stirring and adding water/milk a little at a time. Once all the milk is added, stir (using a wire whisk if there are any lumps) and allow the sauce to thicken and the flour to fully cook. Stir in nutritional yease. Taste and add salt if required.

To assemble, place a layer of eggplant slices into the base of a 24x36cm baking dish. Top with half the "meat" mixture. Repeat with eggplant and sauce and finish with a layer of eggplant slices. Pour over the béchamel sauce and sprinkle with breadcrumbs, almond meal and some pine nuts. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

I'm definitely more of a Poh fan but Julie has won my vote with this recipe!

Product Review - DAVROE

While we are on the topic of hair, here is what I use on my crazy locks

Davroe are an Australian made and owned company who show that they care about their customers and the environment by using sustainable, recyclable packaging. Their ingredients are natural plant and mineral based and don't contain and harmful chemicals or cheap and nasties like SODIUM LAURYL SULPHATE,  PARABENS (which have been linked with some form of cancers) or PETROL CHEMICALS (which are a crude oil by-product).

Davroe are a 100% vegan friendly company. This means they don't use any animal ingredients or by-products AND they are against testing on animals too!

So now that their bio sounds great, how do their products rate? I would give them a 10/10 for sure. 

I have been using the smooth senses range for about a year, I was a previous De Lorenzo user, but am definitely a Davroe convert now. 

As a girl with a crazy pseudo afro I have to straighten my hair every day and with that amount of abuse you would expect my hair to be falling out and damaged as hell. NOPE! I use the Thermoprotect on my wet hair before I blow dry and iron it to give it that extra protection and to style my new short cut i use Fibretex which gives it fantastic texture and holds nicely. If my hair starts feeling a bit dry i put on a replenish treatment. EASY!

All of these products smell so good and unlike the DeLorenzo which left my hair greasy, I only have to wash my hair every other day now. 

Davroe is amazing. Check out their website and see which product best suits you. It is salon grade shampoo, so it will be a little more costly than supermarket brands but it is definitely worth it.

Sunday's scraps

What else is there to do on a Sunday except sleep in and have a massive brunch to put you in a food coma for the rest of the day

Vegan in The Mountains

On Friday night we headed to Katoomba for a show and decided to stay the night. For dinner we headed to Katoomba Street - the main drag, and checked out the local restaurants. We chose the Three Sisters BBQ Chinese Restaurant who had a good veg*n selection.

I got the Satay Gluten and vegetables and the boy had sizzling vegetarian Mongolian Lamb.
Both were generous portions and filled us up quite nicely.
The satay was just the right amount of spicy for me but I found the lamb to be really rich. It was really cool to see it come out sizzling on a hot plate though.

 

Vegan Paella

I have never made or eaten a Paella before, so I had no idea how this was going to turn out. Well, it turned out to be a delicious success so I will share the recipe with you.

Ingredients
1 tbs oil
1 spanish onion thinly sliced
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp regular paprika
1 cup basmati rice (I used Jasmine instead)
small pinch of saffron
500 ml vegetable stock
1/2 red capsicum
1/2 green capsicum
1 truss tomato (de-seeded and diced)
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup frozen peas
100 grams firm tofu (cut into 1 cm chunks)
half a small jar of artichoke hearts cut into thin wedges
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

You will need to pre-roast the capsicums first so quickly chop into strips and de-seed and put onto a roasting tray and drizzle in olive oil. Cook on each side for 10 mins at 165 degrees.
I also suggest adding your saffron to the stock at this point, just to be extra prepared.
While this is roasting heat the oil in a cast iron pot. (We have a fancy new La Chasseur French oven that works perfectly.) Keep on a medium low heat and add the onions stirring occasionally for about 5 mins.
Then add the garlic and stir in for another minute. Add the paprikas and cook for another minute. Add the rice to the pot and coat evenly with the spices.
Pour in the stock and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and let simmer for 20-25 mins or until all the stock is absorbed.
By this time the capsicums should be ready, let cool for a few minutes, peel off the skin and dice.
Add capsicum, tomato, corn, peas and tofu to the rice. Combine well and cover again and cook for a further 5 mins.
I suggest while this part is cooking you toast the pine nuts.
Remove from heat and and stir in the artichokes. Top with pine nuts and enjoy!

VEGAN around the house

We all know how boring cleaning the house can be but it's a chore that has to be done.

You can go down the old fashioned tried and true path of using bicarb soda and vinegar to clean everything but there are other products on the market that are cruelty and animal free.

NATURES ORGANICS are Australian Owned, CCF Accredited and vegan friendly. They have several lines of product including haircare, skincare, bath/shower and household cleaning.

EARTH CHOICE have over a dozen products to help you make the house shine from top to bottom. Dishwashing liquid, cream cleanser, window spray, shower cleaner, laundry detergent and fabric softeners all kill germs without killing the budget. Affordable and available in most national supermarket chains.

After all that cleaning there is always time to pamper yourself. Why not try any of these items...

NATURES ORGANICS SPA SHOWER MILK is a PH balanced bodywash with 4 different scents. My personal favourite of the CREME BRULEE.

For the more masculine vegans there is also SPA FOR MEN aqua energising shower gel.

Don't forget the kids. They can splash around the bath with FUNTIME BUBBLE BATH

ORGANIC CARE hair care range's shampoo and conditioner comes in a plant based packaging and contains NO sles, sls, ales, parabens or petrochemical cleansers. Your hair will thank you for the lack of chemicals you're putting in it and will come off looking healthy and shiny.

Don't forget to look after your skin by cleansing and moisturising every day. The Natural Skin Care Range has a few great products. The face wipes are my favourite. All ingredients are plant derived and perfect for sensitive skin.

Who would have thunk cleaning the house and yourself could be so animal and environmentally friendly?

my top 5 VEGAN essentials

We all know how hard becoming a vegan can be, especially in Australia. Most Vegan cookbooks are from the US and ingredients are listed by brand rather than product a lot of the time. In Australia not many products are labelled as "VEGAN", so a lot of label reading has to be done and unless you know almost every non vegan food additive you are bound to make a few mistakes along the way.

Being Vegan isn't a competition and i'm not the vegan police but just remember to be the best vegan you can be.

So, my lovely vegan friends I shall list you my top vegan items.

Number One and by far the best source of vegan "milk" is BONSOY.

If you're really lucky your local cafe will make you a delicious soy latte with this stuff. Tastes nothing like it's nutty counterparts and doesn't leave that weird coating in your mouth. Can be used in all kinds of baking or just enjoy a glass with a nice choc chip cookie.

Number Two and an essential to every VEGAN kitchen is the non dairy spread, NUTTELEX.

Also gluten free, soy free and nut free. Perfect for baking or just spreading on some toast. Nuttelex has a few different varieties - Original, Lite, Kosher, Olive and Pulse. All of which are found easily in the cold food aisle near butter and milk.

Number Three will satisfy your VEGAN sweet tooth. SWEET WILLIAM are a dairy free, VEGAN friendly company intent on saving all our VEGAN treat cravings. They come in Bars, Spreads, Blocks, Multi Packs, Cooking Chocolate and even Easter Bunnies and Eggs.

SWEET WILLIAM are also Dairy, Nut and Gluten Free, Kosher and Halal. Available at most national supermarket brands and found in the health food aisle.

My personal favourite is the cooking chocolate. Perfect for making cookies with.

Number Four is perfect for making those delicious "cheese" sauces in Lasagne, Macaroni Cheez, Pasta, Casseroles, Nachos and Gravy. SAVOURY YEAST, not to be confused with Brewer's Yeast, is packed full of those wonderful B Vitamins and gives a delicious savoury cheese flavour without the cholesterol. This is usually found in Health Food Stores in the Yeast section.

Number Five is a delicious treat used in a lot of my baking. MAPLE SYRUP comes in pure or imitation form. I use the PURE on pancakes and pikelets and the IMITATION in cooking, especially when a recipe calls for 1/2 cup or more. Pure MAPLE SYRUP is expensive but it's imitation tastes just the same in baking, so save the good stuff for topping crepes and waffles.

Maple Syrup can be found in the baking aisle near golden syrup and treacle.

Of course there are plenty more VEGAN Essentials but these are the items that i use on a weekly basis and are an important part of all my cooking. I hope this helps you find brands in your local store and even if you aren't Vegan these are all still great products to use in your cooking.

Coming up on the next installment of VEGAN HELP-

Stace's favourite VEGAN cookbooks.