Vegan Mofo Day 12 Spicy without heat! - Mexican Baked Mushrooms

Today's mofo prompt is "Spicy without chilies".

Mexican food is often made with chilies and yet for those who don't like heat 

Mexican food also had a lot of flavour.

Here I show you how to enjoy some Mexican flavours without adding any chili..... 

and for those of you who do like heat you can always add some chili in!

This is a meal idea without exact quantities stated. The reason I do this is because I always like to encourage people to get experimental in their kitchen and enjoy the cooking process. It a wonderful way to realise that creative meals don't have to be time consuming or difficult to make. Whenever I make meals like this I make a comment to my husband "It's not that hard to make quick, easy yet enjoyable vegan meals! Why do some restaurants find it so difficult!"


MEXICAN BAKED PORTOBELLO'S

                            You'll need:

                                   Large portobello mushrooms

                                   Cooked black beans

                                   Can or tub of diced tomatoes

                                   Mexican spice mix/taco mix or

                                       - paprika, cumin, coriander & oregano

                                   Avocado

                                   And a batch of my basic cheese sauce

Remove the stems from the mushrooms.
Place them in a microwave proof container with 1cm of water and heat for 2 mins. This helps to soften them and significantly reducing oven cooking time.

In a mixing bowl combine the black beans, tomatoes and spices.
Drain the water from the mushrooms and place them in an oven proof dish.
Fill the mushrooms generously with the black bean/tomato mixture and bake in a preheated 200°C oven for 15-20 minutes until mushrooms have cooked through and the black bean mixture is hot. 

Pour a freshly made batch of cheese sauce over the top of the mushrooms 

and serve with slices of fresh avocado.

I feel like this meal looks a little fancy and if I got served this 

at a restaurant I'd be more than happy! 

What do you reckon!!! Does it look fancy enough to be a restaurant meal?

Question of the day: 

What meals do you make at home that are a little bit fancy?

Vegan Mofo Day 6 Anti-vegan Inspired - Tofu Pizza Bites

Today's vegan mofo prompt is "The Anti-Vegan"! 

Whilst I don't think that I'd win anyone for the vegan cause saying 

"tofu really can taste delicious", the simple fact of the matter is that it CAN!

So with that in mind, I used tofu to inspire my dish for today.

Most people who don't eat tofu regularly think that it's awful - 

yet how many of them have actually tried good tofu I wonder?!?!?

I have discovered that tofu can either be completely revolting, 

or totally lip smacking depending on how it's cooked and flavoured.

Different types of tofu work in different ways too and learning how each of them work and what they are best suited for is a HUGE contributing factor to how well your tofu will turn out! But explaining the different types is a long post for another day.

I remember discovering baked tofu and how different it turned out from 

cooking it in a pan! It really took my love of tofu to a whole new level! 

I love experimenting with various forms of baked tofu now!

Today - I'm hoping to inspire your tofu taste buds with this simple recipe idea!

I won't specify amounts as pizza toppings can be quite a personal preference ;-) 

TOFU PIZZA BITES

                         
                               You'll need:
                                     Firm/hard tofu (NOT silken)
                                     Tomato paste
                                     Italian herb mix
                                     Nutritional Yeast

                    Drain the tofu and press out any excess liquid by gently 
                    placing a chopping board over the tofu and pressing down 
                    lightly. You don't have to get out all the liquid so don't 
                    stress over getting the tofu perfectly dry. 
                    Slice the tofu into approx. 1cm thick pieces. 
                    Spread with the tomato paste, a sprinkle of herbs and 
                    top with nutritional yeast. 
                    Bake in a preheated 200°C for 20 minutes or 
                    until cooked as you desire.

Feel free to add veggies to your pizza bites if you want to! 

So delicious!!!! 

Question of the day:
What's your favourite way to cook/prepare tofu?

In (and out) My Kitchen - November

IN AND OUT MY KITCHEN NOVEMBER

Well this is a bumper edition that's for sure!
I not only have several things IN my kitchen to show you, but also several things that have gone OUT of my kitchen!

I have been attempting to reduce our clutter & with that comes parting with some kitchen items that no longer are used as frequently as they should be.

These include a bread maker and a yogurt maker (to name a few):

I never had much luck making dairy free yogurt despite several attempts.

And so that brings me to a few new food items that I have in my kitchen to try:
One being coconut yogurt.
This is a new product available at Woolies.
Its delicious! But quite high in fat and a bit costly. 
Unrefined sugar to cook with - replaces raw sugar in recipes. Not necessarily a "new" thing for me, but I do tend to refer to 'raw sugar' in recipes even when I'm using an equivalent unrefined sugar.
I picked up this range of McDougall Right Foods from Coles. I was soooooooo excited that they stocked them! I LOVE that these have no added oils. I haven't actually tried any yet. My husband tried the lentil soup and said it was ok. Again, on the costly side but worth it to have healthy convenience foods for when they are needed. I have the remaining items in my drawer at work for one morning when I don't make lunch!
And peanut butter cacao spread which I also picked up from Coles. 
To be honest, I would much rather just have plain peanut butter. This didn't tickle my fancy! But my daughter LOVES it.

I also have a bag of Mrs Mays snacks. These are soooooooooo delicious. Made using whole ingredients these are a healthy snack and although they look small, just 2 pieces is actually quite filling, so I'm very pleased with how long this bag has lasted us!

In my kitchen is this vegan Christmas pudding that is waiting til next month when it will be devoured! Also purchased from Coles & especially marked "vegan" - gotta love that!!!
Its nice to have a little one for our family when it is time to share a Christmas meal with our extended family. I'm sure I will have enough other food I need to make without adding Christmas pudding to the list!!!!

In My Kitchen is a range of new teas that I have purchased and am looking forward to trying:

In my kitchen is this bag of rocket seeds that I'm waiting to plant. We are running short of pots in our yard. I feel a Bunnings trip coming up soon! 
On my kitchen window sill is this little basil plant that we've grown from a seed :-)
It is due to be transferred to our garden anytime soon, where it can joint the other basil that is growing!

Our pot of basil!

Which brings me to some other things OUT of my kitchen that will hopefully one day come IN!

Capsicum plant

We have several edible items growing around our garden at the moment. Since we don't have any lawn they all need to be in pots. I can take NO credit whatsoever for our garden because I do not have any green thumbs on my body at all! My hubbie does all the gardening work! I'm quite proud of his effort! Its so incredibly exciting to see the produce actually beginning to grow and not just having a plant full of leaves!
Here's some others that we currently have growing:

Tomatoes - if these succeed they will become tomato sauce because none of us actually like eating fresh tomato!

Lemon tree - I really hope this one takes off. I miss having a lemon tree.

Kale - however, it seems that we just can't keep the bugs from enjoying these leaves - then again, I can't blame them! We have been trying to get this to work for over a year now! We have a new cover to put on it and see how we go!

Last but not least, in my kitchen I have some new Norwex cleaning cloths.
For those of you who are not familiar with Norwex products, they are a company that make products that reduce the need for chemicals in cleaning. This includes  a large range of anti-bacterial clothes that use silver particles that only need water for cleaning.
I'm all for cleaning without chemicals so I'm eager to use these more and see how they go. So far I'm really really pleased with them.

WHAT'S NEW IN YOUR KITCHEN THIS MONTH?

Link your kitchen up on the Fig Jam & Lime Cordial blog.