Thursday, November 1, 2012

A Vegan Tea Party

The day of the tea-party finally arrived!
All my hard work was well worth it! All the girls had a wonderful time.
We painted mini tea cups and played "pour the tea" blindfolded! We had a jewellery hunt instead of a treasure hunt (that's for boys!!!).
I won't post pictures of the girls to respect their privacy - but check out the AWESOME food & activities that we had at the tea party....


Making oreo pops - strong toothpick to hold the oreo dipped in melted chocolate and a few sprinkles on top!

A twist on pass the parcel! We had a talk about making sure we share presents around and think of people who haven't had something yet! It was so lovely to see the girls caring about others and thinking through the clue!


Tea pot bags - inside was a mini tea-cup to paint (as shown below).




Gotta love the craft store! So many good finds!
The girls had so much fun watching each other pour a cup-of-tea blindfolded!



Tea bag crackers!

Tea pot cookies


Fruit flowers!
I honestly wondered if the girls would enjoy the fruit or just go for the cookies and other more appealing food, but they ate all the fruit treats also!
I guess it really does help to make healthy food look appealing!
Kiwi flowers
 Date, raisin & seed balls, okara-coconut cookies, teapot cookies.
Oreo pops and more chocolate date balls (loved by them all!).
These date balls broke my food processor!!!! DEVO! Lucky they tasted so good!


And of course a teapot cake!
The girls enjoyed a range of different punches made from green tea, black tea & various flavoured teas mixed with apple & orange juice & soda water!



 Tea for the mums! (How cool is my teapot set!!!!)


No party is complete without party bags!!!!!
Tea stained ones seemed perfect for a tea party!!!!

Leftover cake makes for great cake pops to take the school!

And a special little treat for the boy who eats 'gluten free' in her class! No-one misses out when I cook!

Ok so I know that technically this isn't what-i-ate-on-wednesday but I finally got around to posting all about our great day on Saturday on Wednesday!!!!
Join in the WIAW fun at the peasandcrayons blog :-)

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL!
"You're worth more than gold" xxx

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A collection of unprocessed meals

Busy weekend meant no time for blogging!

I largely kept to my unprocessed challenge even over this busy weekend. We did go out for sorbet on my daughters birthday - but other than that I've still been sticking to home-made meals & making the most of cooking up large batches!

Below is a collection of what I've had over the weekend:

Raspberry pancakes - same as my blueberry choc oat pancakes just sub raspberries in place of the blueberries.


Making a folded wrap!

Red kidney beans, spinach leaves, corn, tomato paste & some oregano. 

Tasty and easy - my kind of meal!

Oven baked eggplant and chickpea ratatouille served over brown rice.
Purple Mousse


























Soaked oats with mixed berries.






Soaked oats with strawberries and nut/seed milo
Waffles with blueberries and maple syrup
I love how this meal looks so unhealthy & yet it really has nothing bad on it!
Home-made oven baked oil-free fries, with
molasses tofu & eggplant, served with steamed veggies!
Chocolate soft-serve
Roasted sweet potato and cannellini beans served on a bed of spinach and topped with balsamic glaze.
Polenta with red kidney bean bolognese 

I have come to the conclusion that unprocessed food is NOT boring, or plain! And it doesn't have to be time consuming either!

Purple Mousse

Surely by now you know that I'm a fan of the colour purple!
But purple dessert!!! Mmmmm now that's got to be my favourite type of 'purple'! 



 
To make the mousse simply combine the following few ingredients in a mini food processor or blender:

100g soft tofu
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
one pitted medjool date
2 Tablespoons plant-milk (or more if your blender needs)

Blend until smooth and creamy.

Serve!

So easy & so delicious!



Try some of my other purple recipes:
Purple breakfast
Purple pasta

What's your favourite colour? Do you enjoy eating food that is your favourite colour?

Friday, October 26, 2012

Unprocessed - Thursday Week 3


Breakfast - 
Blueberry 'yogurt' with oats. 


Busy, busy, busy doing loooooooooooads of fun things for my daughter's party on Saturday!

Here's some my craft and cooking adventures for the day.
 
I just couldn't get over how gorgeous these little teapot party boxes were!


I'm all for individualism so each of them is slightly different! This purple one is my favourite!




Below is Oreo pops and what will become tea-bag crackers once they have a string and tag attached!
Lunch was thought about at 2pm! 
I rummaged through the fridge and tossed various odds and ends into a salad! Including leftovers which made for a tasty dressing!

I had an early game of netball tonight which meant that I ate after I came home. I wanted something that quick & easy to whizz up.
 

I used more of my massive container of pre-cooked brown rice. I love brown rice!
To accompany my rice (or perhaps the other way round!) I made a quick mushroom stroganoff. Its so easy! Sautee mushrooms, onion and garlic & add tahini and water :-) 

Done and delicious!



More party adventures to come!


FACT OF THE DAY:
The literal translation of the Chinese symbol for brown rice means "rough rice". 

Do you think that brown rice is 'rough'?

 


Thursday, October 25, 2012

WIAW - The week that was verrrrrrrrrry busy!

Preparing for my daughter's birthday party on the weekend has made for a busy start to the week...... and I'm sure the end of the week is going to be even ~busier~.
I have been cooking each meal with enough for leftovers (for either breakfast, lunch or dinner) and it has helped.
I can't work out who's more excited for this party.... her or ME?!?!?!!!!!!
Its going to be a tea-party!
A vegan-tea-party :D
I made the first layer of the teapot cake last night.

Now onto today....
My usual morning rush out the door......
Brown rice with banana and flax seeds for breakfast. Thanks to the large batch of precooked rice in the fridge!

Lunch - more leftovers! Stir-fry
By the way.... how cool are these bowls we have at work!!!???
I think we 'need' some for our kitchen too!
Afternoon tea:
Had at 5pm lol - that's what a busy day in the office will do to you! But that was ok because I didn't leave work til 6.40pm! Thankfully by that time there was no peak-hour traffic to worry about, so leaving late does have its benefits too!
Dinner when I finally arrived home at 8pm - not a bad run up the freeway at all!
But by that time I was ~starving~ and wanted instant food. 
That's right - leftovers save the day again....
Soup!

And then to do more party organising.....
Here's the "tea-party bags" all finished and filled (with vegan goodies of course!).
I dipped the bottom of the bags into brewed tea to give them a very 'tea bag' look!
Stay tuned for more of our tea party adventures!


You can join in what-i-ate-wednesday at the peasandcrayons website!

Question of the day:
Parents out there.... Do you prefer to have your childrens parties at home and organise it yourself, or do you prefer to go somewhere and let the place do the organising?