Straight edge, and proud.

So I feel like this is the best place to put this, as I personally see my veganism as much more than a diet it's a philosophy for living well. I also think that my straight edge stance reflects this.

Straight edge is the basic beliefs that drugs and alcohol are not needed and should be rejected. That one should live against the grain of popular society and live by rules and standards from themselves and not the ones dictated by society.

Much alike veganism, I am constantly finding people who seem to have a go when you mention the word 'straight edge' or when you say "No, I don't drink alcohol."
WHY, why do you feel the need to badger on about it? No, I don't smoke, drink or do drugs. I honestly never thought this could be considered a bad thing!
Yes, I eat sugar, if someone spiked my lemonade that doesn't count as an edge break, having to take medicine for surgery is not an edge break, having a red bull is not an edge break, having sex before marriage is not an edge break *insert obvious answer to stupid irrelevant question here*

This is more of a vent than a productive post, but at the end of the day. I guess this is my blog!

“When a slave was drunk, the slaveholder had no fear that he would plan an insurrection…. It was the sober, thinking slave who was dangerous, and needed the vigilance of his master to keep him a slave.” -Frederick Douglas

Banoffee pie

Crust:
You can either make a digestive biscuit crust or a plain one, this time around I opted for plain
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soy milk

Preheat oven to 180C
Mix dry ingredients together and then add wet ingredients quickly mix until dough - like
Roll out on a flat floured surface and then place into a 9inch pie tin.
Neaten edges and prick the bottom in at least 7 places with a fork on the bottom of the crust.
Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown and set aside


Banana toffee mixture

2 bananas
100ml milk
4 tbsp caster sugar
3 tablespoons of agar agar powder (optional but preferred - toffee will hold better)

1. Blend the two bananas with the milk until well combined and smooth
2. In a pan over high heat melt the caster sugar. Don’t stir, just gently tilt as it melts to a dark caramel colour
3. Add the banana milk mixture to the toffee, stirring until the toffee melts back into the bananas
4. Add agar agar powder and cook for a further minute then take off heat
5. Pour into the pie case (immediately) and freeze for 20 minutes or refrigerate for a few hours.

Cream
300ml coconut cream fat (separated from rest of can) To do this refrigerate canned coconut cream overnight and scoop out (and use) the thick white fat from the top of the tin. You will probably need about 3 tins.
1 tbsp camp coffee (optional, vanilla essence will work fine)
3/4 cup of powdered sugar.


Beat coconut cream and sugar on high for about 7 minutes until well combined gently fold in vanilla essence or camp coffee.



To assemble rest of pie:
cut up another two bananas into generous slices and cover the banana toffee
place cream on top of this, no need to be neat

For a fancy extra you can either add some powdered instant coffee or coco powder on top of the cream or large chocolate shavings, Enjoy!

choc-mint cheesecake!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted! I was robbed just over a week ago now of all my technology, and I have only just replaced my laptop.
I come bearing choc-mint cheesecake goodness!!!

Yes, I realise that is not actually mint on the top of the cheesecake. But I figured for photo purposes there had to be some green in the picture!

You will need:

Crust:

20ish Digestive biscuits, crushed

1/2 cup dairy-free margarine, melted. I used nutellex.

3 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons of raw sugar

Method:
Combine all of the above ingredients until mixed well
Tightly pack crumb mixture into either a spring form pan (just on the bottom) or in a tart casing
Place into fridge while you make the cheesecake mixture

Cheesecake:
1 tub of tofutti cream cheese
150g of firm tofu
5 heaped tablespoons of stevia sweetner powder (or sugar of choice)
3 heaped tablespoons of corn flour
1/3 cup of soy milk
1 tablespoon of canola oil

** for choc mint you can do a few things, you can use a few tablespoons of a mint liquor or mint extract (for these options you will also need to add about a tablespoon of cocoa to the mix) or get your hands on a few vegan chocolate mints and put these with the cheesecake mixture. Or you can forget the whole mint thing and go for a really chocolatey cheesecake!

Method:
Blend until smooth - it's that easy.

Place blended mixture onto biscuit base and bake in 180c oven for about 45 minutes or until the outside is cooked and the center is still a bit wobbly.

Place in fridge for about 4 hours before cutting and eating.


For the topping on mine I have also added some dark and white chocolate shavings.
To get the larger shavings you need to scrape a knive along a block of chocolate towards yourself.


Enjoy :)

Cookies n Cream Cupcakes

You will need:

1 cup soy milk
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/5 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup oreos - chopped coarsely

Preheat oven to 180°C and line a muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK). Mix in the sandwich cookies. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

1/2 - 3/4 cup of nonhydrogenated margarine (I used nutellex)
3 1/2 cups of icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. plain soy milk

Beat the shortening and margarine together until well-combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and the soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until light and fluffy. Just fold in chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs to make it match the cupcakes. If not fluffy enough, add more icing sugar and beat.

Smear or pipe onto cupcakes and then sprinkle with crumbled oreos.


ENJOY!

Gluten free Onion Rings

This one is nice and easy

You will need

2 Large white onions, cut into thick slices and pulled into individual rings
Orgran rice crumbs - a whole packet
2 cups of corn flour
1 cup of water
 Oil for deep frying

Heat oil on High until drops of water dropped into oil spit.

Place 3 bowls on your kitchen bench
In the first bowl place 1 cup of flour
In the second bowl place 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water, this should look like a pancake mixture, if not, adjust amounts accordingly.
In the third bowl, place the rice crumbs.

Rinse the onion rings and then individually place each slice in the first bowl, the second bowl, and then into the third bowl, they should be very well covered in crumbs.
Place crumbed onion ring into the oil and cook for roughly 5-8 minutes or until browning.
Do this for every onion ring until cooked.


Enjoy.

Vegan macaroni cheese and garlic toasted turkish bread.

Macaroni

Sauce:
3 tablespoons of nutellex or vegan butter of choice
4 tablespoons of flour
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce
3 tablespoons of american mustard
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
5 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes
1 1/2 cups of soy milk

Melt nutellex over heat, add flour and whisk until completely blended in
add soy milk, tomato sauce, mustard, lemon juice and yeast flakes and whisk over heat until thickened.
If you would like this to be thicker add more flour, if you would like it thinner, add more soy milk - pretty easy concept.
Note: I like to add a few drops of yellow food colouring when feeding this sauce to omnis/children. It works as a placebo, the more yellow the sauce is, the more 'cheesy' it will taste.

Add this sauce to boiled macaroni elbows (shells are pictured, and I used 1 cup of pasta) and season with salt and pepper, if you would like to make this into a complete meal, like pictured, add 2 cups of chopped, steamed vegetables. This is a great way to get kids eating their vegetables! Pictured is steamed : Cauliflour, Peas, Corn, and Carrot, but you can add whatever is in the fridge.




Garlic toasted turkish bread:

2 turkish bread rolls, cut in half as you could cut a bun to add filling (I use the rather flat long ones, but anything goes)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped/minced
1/4 cup of olive/vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of finely diced parsley or other herbs
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (optional)

Combine oil, garlic, sesame seeds and herbs in a cup
Spoon and spread mixture over turkish bread onto the exposed cut part of the bread bun

toast in a sandwich press on on the pan until golden brown and starting to show signs of slight burning on each side - serve immediately

Mothers Day Coconut Cream Crepe with Berry Sauce.

I hope you all spoilt your mothers on Mothers Day! This is what my mum got on her special day.

Recipe makes roughly 4 crepes

Crepe:
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of soy milk
1/3 cup of nutellex or vegan butter, melted
additional water to thin mixture if needed

Method:
Mix ingredients together until smooth
Heat a frying pan and gently oil with some extra vegan butter.
Pour roughly 1/2 cup of the mixture into the pan and move pan around to cover batter mixture over a majority of the pan. Cook through and flip as you would a pancake - set crepes aside.

Berry Sauce:
1 cup of frozen(or fresh) mixed berrys
1/5 cup of water with 2 tablespoons of cornflour added
4 tablespoons of sugar

Method:
Place sugar and water(with cornflour) in a pot and gently boil until sugar is dissolved, add berrys and cook for 5-10 more minutes until sauce is berry coloured.

Coconut filling:
1 can of coconut cream, separated (place in fridge for a few hours and skim the white cream from the top half of the can, use this)
1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
1/2 cup of icing sugar or powdered sugar

Method:
Beat cold coconut cream with other ingredients until thickened. You can always add mixture to the freezer to harden, but keep in mind this will melt further if let to sit in the crepe on it's own.




Compile your crepes! Wrap coconut cream into crepe and top with berry sauce. I accompanied mine with an orange juice and a lovely Sweet Williams rice crackle chocolate bar!