Getting ready for Samhain

It’s nearly time for Samhain in the Southern Hemisphere, and this year we will be celebrating those we've loved and who have passed on with a Samhain Supper at my home.

I decided that rather than a bring a plate, I would ask everyone coming for a flat fee, and with that I will do all the cooking. It’s amazing, everyone thinks I'm nuts but I am really excited about cooking for a crowd. The other thing is that I also can then be sure that my family can eat everything that’s served without a problem :)

So this meal is being served backwards. That’s right, we are starting with dessert, which is a Chocolate Fountain, with fresh fruit and as a sop to the carnivores, Marshmallows. Maybe

Next up is the Main Meal, and I’m going for the ultimate in warm comfort food. We will be having supper on the patio, and I do think that it will probably be cold.
So, the taste test for Main meals has started. 

No 1.............

To blow my own trumpet, this really turned out well. The cashews added a really nice bite to the mix. and the eggplant added to the overall flavour without being all that visible - pretty good as my husband doesnt like eggplant.
The sauce is very rich, and oddly enough, seems almost buttery, which makes it very lucious , but without the added kilojoules
All in all, I think this had made it to the short list for Samhain :)
I'm one happy little pumpkin!!!


Mushroom Stroganoff

1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion sliced
1 Carrot diced
1 stick Celery, diced
2-3 cloves garlic crushed
250g small white mushrooms
250g Small Portobello mushrooms
1 med eggplant, cup into large dice
1 cup red wine
1 tin canned chopped tomatoes
2 cups Stock (I used Ina Paarmans Chicken Stock, vegetarian but not vegan)
2 Tbsp Cornflour
1 cup raw cashews
 Sour cream or Greek yoghurt

Fry onion in olive oil over a med heat for a few mins until it starts to soften. Add celery, carrots and garlic and fry for another 5 mins. Add mushroom and eggplant, fry until beginning to brown.

Add the red wine and allow the alcohol to cook off. Add the tomatoes and stock. Allow to reduce until about 1/4 of the liquid has gone. Mix cornflour with a little water. Add, mixing to the pot.

Add cashews and cook for another 10 mins.

Serve with Mash or noodles, top with sour cream or Greek yoghurt (double cream plain yoghurt has only about 8g fat per 100g, so I think it’s a great way to get flavour if you are going low fat :)

I have been trying to up my protein because of my weight training, so I just added about 1 cup of cooked white beans to the final few minutes of the potatoes, and then mashed as usual. You could also add some Danish feta to the sour cream/yoghurt topping to get some more protein, but this is a very rich dish as it is, so you may end up overdoing it!!

And so it starts

One of my reasons for starting this blog was to have accountability in my path towards health.

But that got me thinking, isn't it sad that I am more likely to stick to a healthy lifestyle if I have people watching over me, and that my own opinion is not enough to keep me on the straight and narrow. I suppose that is a thought for another day, I just cant contemplate the inner working of my motivation right now.

However, its working to use the blog to keep me going to gym, because I did a great workout today.

I used to train weights and know how beautifully it can sculpt my body, so I have found a beginners program to start with. Please not that although I find Nicole inspiring, I have no desire to get that "bulky" but her programs are a great starting point, and so I will be following them for the next few months .

This is her website, if anyones interested. Fitness with Nicole. Take a look at the downloads and you'll see what Im doing!!

No food today guys, Brett took the camera to work so I cant take pictures, and thats almost as fun a part of food blogging as the recipes

Sweet sweet Public Holidays

I LOVE Mondays that are public holidays , it feels so decadant to be able to loaf around and not contemplate work.

Today Brett feels the need for nutrients, so for him that is Raw Food. We have been trying to incorperate more raw food into our diet, and todays lunch/supper is from Kristen Suzanne's EASY Raw Vegan TRANSITION Recipes

We are having the Protein Pesto Pasta, to which we've added our own twists. To start off with, I havent been able to find Hemp Seeds, so we're leaving those out, and secondly we added lots of extra raw veggies, for bulk but also for flavour. Instead of hemp seeds we are using raw pecans, and that is going to affect the amount of protien in this dish, but I have no idea by how much, and no desire to look it up.

Protien Pesto Pasta


250 g uncooked pasta
3 cups tomatoes diced
250 g white mushrooms halved
200g fresh Broccoli cut into small florets


Pesto
4 cups Fresh Basil
1/2 cup raw pecan nuts

2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic crushed
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
1/2 Himalayan rock salt or to taste
1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 c olive oil


Cook Noodles as usual. Place in a large bowl and add the tomatoes, broccoli and mushrooms
Place all pesto ingredients except olive oil in food processor with the s-blade attachment and process briefly.
Leave Motor runnning and add the olive oil in a steady stream. Do not over process. Add pesto to Pasta and Veg and toss gently before serving.

This was almost perfect. My only complaint is that I really dont think it needed the Balsamic, so I'm going to try leaving it out next time.

Tomorrow its back to work, and I have the feeling this is going to be even better tomorrow after the flavours have had some time to develop!!

Added 22.3.2011 - Sadly the next day this wasnt great. The mushrooms were a bad idea on my part, they seemed very dry , and made everything else dry as well. I rescued the salad somewhat by removing the mushrooms and adding 1/2 full fat greek yoghurt, but this does need a re-think somewhat as it wasnt anywhere near as good as I expected

Comfort Food part 2

The weather improved yesterday morning, but by evening the rain was back and it was getting cold!! Luckily we had some of the Vegan Sausages I had made, so I decided on more rich yummy food. In a word, Cottage Pie.

I kept it simple, but this was a HUGE hit with both Hubby and Child, so it’s a recipe I'm going to use again.

Oh, one thing about me, I tend to be a wing it kind of cook, so I only really pay a lot of attention to exact measurements when I’m baking, in most other cases it’s more a best guess.

Cottage Pie

Glug Olive Oil
1 onion, diced
2 sticks celery sliced
2 large carrots, sliced fairly thick
250g white mushrooms
4 Vegan Sausages
About a glass of red wine
1 cup Ina Paarmans Chicken Stock (Vegan)
1 Tbs Bisto (Veggie, not sure about Vegan)
11/2 Tbs Cornflour (I started with a tablespoon but added more, the sauce needs to be fairly thick)
About 1 kg Potatoes          
¼ Cabbage chopped
Olive oil/butter and Milk for mashing
1) Heat olive oil, add onions carrots and celery and fry on a low heat for a few minutes. Add mushrooms, fry for about 5 mins. Add Turn up the heat, add the red wine and the stock and reduce for a minute or 2. Add chopped Vegan Sausages

2) Mix cornflour and Bisto with 100ml (more or less) cold water. Add to the pot and stir until its boiling again. You want the sauce to be thick and almost lush, so if you need add some more cornflour mixed with water.
Turn into a baking dish. I like to use a lasagne style dish because I love this with LOADS of mash on top

3) Boil potatoes until, soft, about 5 minutes before they are ready throw in the cabbage. Drain then mash with Olive oil/Butter and milk. Pile on top of the Sausage mix and make at 180c for about 30 -45 mins, until the top starts to brown. Feel free to cheat, I got hungry and stuck mine under the grill for a few minutes to speed things up

 The Sausage mix before adding the mash

I like my mash quite robust and chunky, so I tend to use smaller potatoes and leave the skins on. Also the cabbage does stop you from getting smooth mash, but it does add a nice flavour to the topping. However, feel free to do your mash as you wish...I’m not the type to get precious about someone adapting my recipes

You have no idea how difficult it is to get a
decent picture of Cottage Pie.....

Vegan Sausages

I’ve been a vegetarian for over 2 years now, and one thing I’ve never been able to perfect is the Veggie Sausage.

They end up tasteless, or fall apart, make a mess and are generally painful to behold. I found a recipe a while ago for vegan sausages using Wheat Gluten powder and Nutritional Yeast, but at the time couldn’t find either of these ingredients so gave it up as a bad job.

Now those of you who live on Joburg will know we’ve had a week of cold weather, and that, for me is time for comfort food. And what better than good old fashioned Bangers and Mash with Gravy??

So I went in search of my missing ingredients, and to my heartfelt and utter delight found Wheat Gluten (made by Natures Choice) at Health Shop in Rosebank Mall. It was just below Exclusive books, and a packet cost me R30. I also found nutritional yeast made by Health Connection at the Health Shop opposite Dischem at Fourways mall (about R30 for 1 batch of sausages  ...I know a little pricy, but I was desperate for some sausages.

The first batch I made was an eye opener :) I used Vegan Dads recipe Vegan Dads Homemade Sausages and the texture was awesome, and the base was tasty, and they were amazingly easy to make.

However, there was way too much fennel in here for my liking, and it overpowered what was a fairly good first attempt,

For my second attempt I Googled a bit more and found these Spicy Italian Sausages

I really liked the sound of these, but wasn’t ready to leave the beans out of the sausages as yet,  so I combined both recipes and this is what I came up with.

Vegan Sausages
1/2 cup cooked or canned beans (I used haricots) rinsed and drained.
1 c cold water
2 tsp Ina Paarmans chicken flavoured stock (it’s Vegan, I checked)
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 & 1/4 cups Wheat Gluten
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
2 tbsp granulated onion
1 to 2 tbsp fennel seed, optional
2 tsp coarsely ground pepper, preferably freshly ground
2 tsp ground paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp Himalayan Rock Salt, Crushed
1/8 tsp ground allspice

Method
1) Get everything ready. These are really quick to make so get the water boiling and your steamers ready. I used bamboo steamers, but I’m sure any kind would work.
2) Get 6 sheets of tin foil ready, I made mine about 30 x 20 cm in size. In a large bowl, mash the beans until fairly well mashed. Add the rest of the ingredients in the order they are listed, and mix with a fork

3) Divide dough into 6 or 8 pieces, depending on how big you want the sausages to be. Place one portion in a piece of tin foil, shape it more or less like a log, and then roll up in the foil. Twist the ends like a Christmas cracker and that’s it. Repeat with other sausages.
4) Steam for 30 mins.

These were fantastic. I served them with my Vegan Gravy, which is superb, and Potato Mash. It was comfort food at its best :)