WIAW - Dragonfruit & Chia Pudding

To be honest - this is what I ate on Tuesday.... last week! 

I am particularly in love with making 'pizza' like this.
Smoother a piece of lebanese bread with chili flavour hummus, top with piles of fresh baby spinach leaves & pour on a mini can of BBQ flavour baked beans. 
Bake for 15 minutes - OH MY YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But the real reason I added this to WIAW was really just because I wanted a good excuse to share with you this awesome 

Dragonfruit & Chia Pudding that we had for dessert!

You'll need:

1 pink dragonfruit
165ml lite coconut milk
1 Tablespoon coconut sugar
1 Tablespoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla

Remove the flesh from the dragonfruit and place in a blender with all the other ingredients.
Blend til smooth.
Pour into serving dishes and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour. 
Sprinkle with coconut if desired.
Store in the fridge til ready to serve.

Makes 4 small servings.

Question of the day -
Have you made a chia pudding before? What is your favourite flavour?

Pizza Couscous Timbales

 

It is with a little bit of a frown that I share with you my last official recipe for "My Great Vegan Bake Off as part of Vegan Mofo.

Can you believe a month has past already?!? I felt like it went really quickly!

There are still so many recipes that I wanted to share! And I'm sure in time I will...

But for now here's some comfort food! :-)

PIZZA COUSCOUS TIMBALES

You'll need:

2 cups wholemeal couscous (pre-cooked)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon Italian herbs
1 teaspoon minced garlic

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.
Lightly oil spray ramekins. (2-4 depending on how many you want to make and if you want them to be large or small.)
Scoop spoonfuls of mixture into the ramekins and press down firmly.
If desired, spread more tomato paste over the top.

Bake in a preheated 200C oven for 15-20 minutes until warmed through.
Flip out onto a plate (be sure to wear an oven mit!). They will slide out of the ramekins really easily and hold their shape nicely.

"Cheese"less pizza bites

 

I can't resist the urge to continue with the finger food recipes!!

I just love how easy & tasty vegan finger food is!

"CHEESE"-LESS PIZZA BITES

You'll need:

Mini pizza bases
Tomato paste
Italian herbs
Creamed corn
Nutritional yeast

You can use store bought pizza bases or make your own.
Lay the pizza bases on a lined baking tray & spread with tomato paste. Top with Italian herbs (you can use just oregano if you'd rather).

Pour a thin layer of creamed corn over the top of the tomato paste, followed by a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Slice and serve :-)

 

Submitted for Healthy Vegan Friday.
You can add your recipe at these blogs:
carrie on vegan

veggie nook

greenthickies 

Kids Lunchbox Club - Pizza Sandwich

All kids love pizza right?!?

But they aren't exactly the most convenient thing to take to school the next day when there is leftovers...

That is...... until you make a pizza sandwich!

I know this isn't a real recipe - its more of an idea! A great idea if you ask me! 
The kids will love it and its far less messy!

Slap two slices of pizza together (make sure they are roughly the same size) and then wrap them up ready for the lunchbox!

They won't bring this 'sandwich' home from school uneaten that's for sure ;-)

Potato Lattice Pizza

This has become a favourite for my hubbie recently.
Its such a great way to top a pizza! I love making vegan pizzas that don't use processed vegan soy-cheese.
The smell of this cooking is just so delicious!


Top a pizza base with tomato paste.
I love the Bazaar wholemeal bases.

Sprinkle with torn fresh oregano leaves & chopped spring onions.

Cut a few roasted potatoes in thin slices. **
Layer on top of the pizza.

Squeeze BBQ sauce over the top of the potato slices in a lttice shape.

Bake at 200C for 20 minutes.

Of course you can add other toppings underneath the potato if you desire!


** I find it really handy to roast some extra potatoes when I can and leave them in the fridge. They can be used for so many different things if they are already cooked.
Options like this - potato salad, chopped and added into a leafy salad, they can be warmed up quickly and topped for an easy lunch too.

Easy Lentil Pizza

I'm a big fan of vegan pizza!

This is a non-traditional version of pizza that just tastes amazing!

As much as I LOVE my pizza cheeze sauce, sometimes I feel like its too much work (and washing up) when I want a quick pizza.

This pizza is easy to prepare, which is always an added bonus....

Simply top a pizza base (either store bought, or home-made) with:

- tomato paste

- dried oregano 

- heaps of spinach leaves

- a drained tin of lentils

- roasted sweet potato (can omit if you don't have any pre-made!)

- roasted eggplant (I used store-bought from a jar)

- sliced spring onions

Place in a preheated 200C oven for 20 minutes.

Slice, serve & enjoy!

Who knew a cheese-less pizza could taste so good ;-)

Kitchen Experiments

I have been doing more home cooking this past week. Here's some of the adventures that I had in my kitchen!

First time using the cooker pressure that I picked up "on special" ~woo-hoo~ just a few weeks ago. Beans in 15 minutes - definitely a winner!!!

Perfect beans - not mushy and fallen apart! I find that although the slow cooker is a great way to cook beans they often lose their shape. Very pleased with the result from the pressure cooker! And seriously.... 15 minutes!!!!!!!!

Sprouting

Whilst hunting in our Christmas storage to get some wrapping paper out, I couldn't resist getting this magnet out too! I'm not a fan of magnets on the fridge because I find they scratch the surface and make the fridge look older sooner..... but these are my only two exceptions to the rule!!!

Fresh batch of soymilk from my soymilk maker being turned into tofu.

After adding the coagulant the soymilk turns into a 'curds and whey'.

Scoop out the solids and put into a tofu press lined with cheescloth.

Gently press out the water and add a weight to set the tofu.

Just 10 minutes later - perfectly set tofu!

Super fresh and super tasty!

I was so impressed!

This is the first time I've ever made tofu from scratch and I will definitely be doing this again!

Next in line on the cooking list was a home-made pizza base.

This recipe is using chickpea flour, also known as besan flour.

Add 1 1/2 cups of chickpea flour, teaspoon mixed herbs, 7g yeast, and 1/2 cup warm water. Let sit for 1/2 hour.

The yeast makes the dough raise. 

Spread dough out in the shape of a pizza. 

I found the dough was still quite sticky and didn't hold its 'raise'. It was quite tricky to spread it also. But I got there in the end.

Bake for 15 minutes - could of done with slightly less time in the oven!

Making 'cheeze sauce' for the pizza. 

Mix 1/4 cup nutritional yeast with 1 tablespoon cornflour and 3/4 cup soymilk. Microwave for 1 minutes until the mixture thickens. Pour over your pizza and bake as usual.

Mmmmmmm vegan pizza!

The base held together well even with all the toppings on it! It was a little dry but still quite tasty.

Putting my new FOK cookbook to use baking banana bread!

Really delicious, super moist and surprisingly sweet despite having no sugar!

The only problem with so much cooking is all the washing up that it makes!!!! Washing up is my least favourite household chore!

But with delicious food like this..... it's oh so worth it!