coconut custard tarts !

I brought back a box of Fosters custard mix (vegan) from australia and have been keeping it on display in my room waiting for the perfect moment to use it. The other day at work I was in the pantry and found a stack of little mini graham cracker pie/tart bases that were also vegan and cute so I stole them. I immediately thought about making custart tarts.

This was not fancy at all, and just took 5 minutes to prepare the custard on the stove. I cant really claim that i baked or came up with or did anything really to make these. The only creativity used was instead of mixing the powder with milk, or soymilk, I mixed it with COCONUT milk. and sweetened it with a bit of ethriytol and coconut nectar sugar (both low gi, diabetes friendly). and for good measure put a drop of coconut essence. then once it got thick i poured it into the bases and toped with granulated coconut.


SO DELICIOUS!

skip's famous quinoa fritters

This is a sweet dish that I originally made for a date with a sweet kid. It has since become my signiture dish.

I usually make it with red quinoa, this time I had tri-colour quinoa on hand (normal, red and black). I cook up the quinoa and let it cool a bit.
I mix it up with a bit of flour (usually buckwheat, this time used spelt), some chopped garlic, fake egg mix (olive oil and guar gum or cornstarch), some melty vegan cheeze (daiya mozz here, when in australia use cheezly).

Form patties from the mix and fry them up real quick in some shallow oil.



The first time I made this I served it up with a slice of orange, a pica de galo, and smokey grilled tempeh.

This time I made a berry-wine-balsamic reduction and put that on top, with a dollop of kalamata olive paste, with some blanched brocolli and beets!! totes delicious.

ft lauderdale, Green Wave Cafe

Me (vegan, diabetic) and friend (celiac (glutton-free) and diabetic) and other friend (vegan) met up in florida this week and it was my challenge to find us a place to eat. and holy shit, did I find the perfect fit. I found a place called Green Wave Cafe in Plantation, FL. which is pretty much fort lauderdale. and its is VEGAN, 100% GLUTTON FREE, RAW, and refined sugar-free. what the what right? Its amazing that I found something that totally fit all of our many needy needs.

They had an extensive menu with heaps of yummy looking stuff. We got a chocolate shake, and I had a almond milk coffee (a total dream of mine for places to serve coffee with almond milk). and we all got this awesome BURGER!!! served on onion bread and had a sick cheezy sause made from cashews and it was seriously just great. whadda dream.

a new yogurt attempt

So, after the past couple months of making a weekly batch of coconut yogurt for myself, I looked at the can of coconut milk to find that it has 50 % of your suggested daily fat intake in it. And i thought thats a bit much eh? Ive tried using lite coconut milk but its just doesnt work for making yogurt, its too watered down. So I thought Id try making a yogurt from almond milk!
I knew it would be a bit thin, so I tried making it with some guar gum in it to keep it thick. I did everything the same as my recipe found on this page for coconut yogurt, but with unsweetened almond milk. And it did work! its not nearly as tasty and delicious as the coconut milk, but its nice to know that it works and that the guar gum thing works. I think next time Ill try half coconut milk half almond milk, that way i keep the yummy coconut flavour but reduce the fat significantly.

its just a picture of a jar, but this is it finished! not as white as the ccnut one.

Success!

After a rocky start, my surprise baby in a kombucha bottle (see first post) has become a total success. The mother is having babies left and right, and making up a batch of delicious kombucha weekly! I now have more kombucha to drink than i know what to do with. Totally stoked that this ridiculous mistake turned into a successfully producing kombucha mother. Now if only I knew people in SW florida to give away my babies too...

Autumnal food porn

After not properly cooking for myself for a long time after surgery, today i decided i need to get back into it. I prepared a autumnal feast. Im so full, i should not have eaten it all..

Woo, so I made a quinoa-stuffed acorn squash! (pumpkin if yr an aussie)

Acorn roasted with garlic, rosemary, nutmeg, pecans, cranberries, pinenuts, coconut oil and coconut nectar sugar.

I had the idea to roast it with the coconut nectar sugar as opposed to the common roasting with brown sugar. Ive been trying to experiment with this sugar alternative and have only had one other oppertunity so far, with baking. Same goes for the coconut oil. Its new to me, but it turns out the coconut flavs really went well with the squash, giving it that sweetness without being overbearing.

Stuffing was red quinoa, and tempeh, with some pecans and crans.

kale on the side.

holyy hell, this was ridiculously delicious. will certainly make again.


frying up the tempeh and nutz

roasting

key west

I went to Key West, FLORIDA the other weekend. Tagging along on my parents weekend getaway, I went off on my own to walk the cute streets, go to the state park, and found a vegitarian spot that served VEGAN FRENCH TOAST !!!! ahhhhh whaaaaaaatttt



they also serve a parfait with HOMADE coconut yogurt (vegan!) fruit and granola. STFU. I was totes gunna try their yogurt but they were unfortunately out for the day.

yum yum. the place was called Help Yourself.