Eats Of The Week #4

This week I had:

Banana oatmeal made with chopped banana. I also tried adding cocoa powder to it and it reminded me of brownie batter. I prefer making it with oats though as I found it was a little too thick for my liking

I also had the Carman's Honey Roasted Nut oatmeal with the Vitasoy High Calcium soy milk and it was delicious! I microwave it for 90 seconds, stirring at 45 seconds and then at the end of the 90 seconds. I then put it in for another 30 seconds and stir quite vigorously. The stirring is really important for it to get really creamy. Really nice, not too sweet and has decent pieces of nuts as well. I've also had the Fruit and Seed one and I think I like the fruit one a little more as there is a nice contrast between the fruit and seeds and you can always add chopped nuts in.

I was also pretty obsessed with making vegan desserts this week. I made Not Quite Nigella's bliss balls and they were revolutionary. They are quick, no bake, healthy and super easy and fun. The only change I made was I didn't add any extra honey/agave as I knew the dates and sultanas would be sweet enough for my palate. I would also try rolling them in almond meal as a reader suggested.

I also made some raw vegan chocolate brownies from here. They were so more-ish and addictive, everyone in the family loved them. The icing was incredibly rich and creamy using just avocado and the date & walnut combination was the perfect pairing. I used 2 tablespoons of honey but in the future I think I will use 1.5. 

I also tried making coconut butter by putting dessicated coconut into a food processor. I knew it would be hard but after 25 minutes of trying, the coconut still hadn't turned into a buttery texture and simply looked like flour. I tried to salvage it by adding 2 handfuls of walnuts to provide some oil to help it bind and it was essentially walnut butter with very fine coconut bits throughout. I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you had a high speed blender. 

I also made a chicken green curry this week. I heated a pan with a tablespoon of oil, added 2 tablespoons of Mae Ploy's green curry paste. Then added 2 cut up chicken breasts and about 2.5 cups of frozen vegetables, 1.5 cups of salt reduced chicken stock. Then brought it to a boil and after reduced the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Towards the end I took out some of the liquid, added light coconut milk to combine the 2 and poured that into the bowl so the coconut milk wouldn't separate. Next time, I would add the vegetables in later as I found they softened too much. I would also use less stock (only 1 cup) as I had to add corn flour after to thicken it. 

Also went to Seoul Ria this week for a quick feed. Free Banchan! My favourite is the tofu skin but the raw onion was delicious. I didn't care much for Nokdumuk, Korean mung bean jelly. The 'Fruit Salad' was also surprising as it had a combination of fruits and vegetables in a sweet sauce.

I normally order the sundubu jjigae, a soup made with tofu, egg and seafood but decided to try the soybean paste stew with seafood and tofu. It was delicious but a little too salty. It tasted a little like miso soup. 

We also got the chicken bulgogi, which I preferred out of the two. The sauce was very flavoursome and coated the rice wonderfully, the chicken wasn't tough at all and the vegetables still had some crunch to them. Would recommend! 

Eats Of The Week #3

I should probably mention I have uploaded so many posts today because I am moving a lot of it over to this new blog and re-writing some of it. Luckily, I didn't have too many to do.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled out 2 weeks ago and I was eating a lot of scrambled eggs, lots of avocado with very soft veggies, mashed banana, oatmeal and soups that week. I've got 2 more teeth to go, the actual process didn't hurt but I would take painkillers before the anaesthetic wears off. Here's a look into some of the things I made.

I made this incredible soup. I roasted 1kg of normal tomatoes, 1 onion and 2 bulbs of garlic (had tomato and garlic left over). I then added this, 3 cups of Massel vegetable stock, 2tsp garam masala, 2tbsp tomato paste and then added light coconut milk at the end (TLC brand, which is quite good!). Then blended it

I didn't have tin toil for the roasted garlic so I put the bulbs in muffin tins and drizzled some oil on the top.

I was really inspired to make more vegan meals and desserts after visiting Sadhana Kitchen in Enmore a few weeks ago and being blown away by the raw, vegan lasagne and hazlenut cheezecake. Both tasted better than regular lasagne and cheesecake and I already have a list of similar places I want to try.

I made some zucchini pasta with a creamy avocado sauce which was essentially 1/2 a mashed avocado, lemon juice and S&P with a side of pumpkin fries. I used 2 small zucchini and a grater. This was surprisingly filling and satisfying. I do love me some avocado though, especially as a butter substitute.

I also made possibly my favourite soup, ever. It's a simple, no frills, hearty chicken & vegetable soup, which I adapted using this recipe. 

I heated 1 tablespoon of oil and added 1 sliced leek and 2 cloves of smashed garlic and stirred it for a few minutes. Then added  2 small zucchini, 1 carrot, 2 sticks of celery and let stirred it. 

Then I added 1 1/4 cups soup mix, 2 chopped chicken breasts (around 600g), 5 cups salt reduced chicken stock (woolworths select brand), 2 cups massel vegetable stock and 1 cup water. Turned the heat to high and let that boil. 

After, I reduced the heat to low and let it simmer uncovered for 1hr. At the end of that hour, I added in another cup of water as the stock had reduced a little. Seasoned with S&P.

The chicken was incredibly tender and all the flavours worked so well together. It was exactly what I needed when I was sick. It's incredibly healthy, filling, tasty, versatile and makes around 6 serves so it's quite cheap as well. I would highly recommend trying it. 

Eats Of The Week #2

Strawberry, Goats Cheese & Avocado Toast

Cut up 1 thick slice of bread (mine is a rye sourdough) but you can use just sandwich bread but please use day old bread (it's crunchier/yummier when you toast it in the oven)

Smash some avocados and layer it on the bread, cut some strawberries lengthways and place it on top then place some pieces of goats cheese on top

Pop it in the oven on high and it should be ready when the goats cheese is a golden and sides of the toast are browned.

Enjoy! It is delicious and very beautiful

Chicken & Pesto Pasta - sorry I forgot to take a picture but this is my favourite pasta recipe! Adapted from here

1. Cook 1 chicken breast (cut into smaller pieces). Cook spiral pasta (add a bit of salt to the water). Once chicken is fully cooked leave aside. Drain the pasta (leave a little liquid)

2. Heat a pan with oil, then add large tablespoon of minced garlic. After browning the garlic for a minute, add a can of coles tomatoes (mixed herb) and let it reduce down. Then add a large bowl of kale to the tomato mixture and let it simmer for a bit longer.

3. Distribute pasta into bowls. Top with tomato sauce mixture and add however much pesto you want to each and mix. Then top with ricotta and parmesan. I really like the Sacla Classic Pesto

Me & Art

I've been obsessed with brunch places lately as you can tell from my previous posts. This place is seriously cute and all kinds of lovely.

The outside:

As you walk in, there are lots of little tucked away spots for you to sip on your coffee and have a bite. 

As you keep walking through the place, there is a courtyard with lots of seating areas.Such a welcome surprise (especially since the day was gorgeous and sunny). 

Breakfast menu

Soy cappuccino

My coconut chai latte, I normally don't drink coffee but the coconut milk and chai suckered me in. This was delicious and the coconut was just perfect (the coconut was quite mild, just an aftertaste and not overpowering)

I got the chia trifle which was chia seeds in coconut milk with berries and coconut yogurt. I was expecting a dollop of coconut yogurt on top which I really wanted to try. You can't taste the coconut yogurt or milk which is dissapointing and I only got through half as I didn't taste any flavour except the berries which were nice and necessary. Sadly, I wouldn't recommend this and I would go for the bircher which I have heard good things about. 

My sister got these cocoa and cinnamon buckwheat pancakes with banana, berries, nuts and seeds, maple syrup I think. I really liked these! The pancakes were fluffy and not at all chewy and the syrup is nice but a little sweet at the end once it's totally saturated with it. My sister thought they were filling but I couldn't really detect any nuts, I'm not sure if they are hidden under the bananas.

The lunch menu. I must go back for the Thai vegan pie (drooling!) and the tofu cashew sour cream sounds interesting

Pros: The service! I love everything on the menu and I wish I'd taken a photo of the drinks because some of the smoothies and milkshakes sounded incredible. Very convenient to get to, it's only a few minutes walk from central station.  Prices are very reasonable.

Cons: The food on the menu sounds better than the taste but that could've just been my dish.

I would definitely recommend this place for the coffee and a relaxed vibe and if you want to check out some Japanese art. Also, if you like vegan or healthy food. I'll definitely be back to explore more of the art (I'm not sure if there is more on the second level) and try out the bircher muesli, scrambled tofu, vegan pies and other drinks.

Cornersmith

I've got a list of all the eateries I want to go to and this place has been on it since it got quite popular last year on the blogosphere (maybe when it opened) and it seemed to still generate good reviews so I thought I'd check it out.

I'm guessing this is for when they are really busy but luckily we didn't have to wait but it was quite busy at 11:20 on Wednesday when we went.

Friend got a blood orange juice which tasted like squeezed blood orange.

One of my friends had this Pear, Custard Apple and Cardamom milkshake which was quite milky and rich. Whilst it had a nice flavour and the cardamom wasn't too pronounced, it was hard to finish and it lost it's appeal over time.

I had the soft poached egg over blue lentils and potato with preserved lemon, feta and baby cos lettuce.

I was hoping this would be more substantial and I did get hungry quite quickly after. The egg was perfectly poached however there was a lot of lettuce and lentils. There wasn't much feta and I think I did get a chunk of some but I didn't recognise it and just thought it was a lump of salt that wasn't well distributed. There is a balsamic vinaigrette over the salad and the egg combined well with the lentils but it was quite an ordinary dish and something that could be re-created, I was pretty dissapointed. Next time, I think I would try the porridge if it's still avaliable.

One of my friends had the soft poached eggs with sourdough toast and pear and rosemary chutney, the eggs were again perfectly poached. The chutney was quite sweet and my friend didn't spear much on her toast.

My other friend had the Pasture raised pork salami, chili jam, cheddar and pickles sandwich. Sorry I didn't get a shot of the innards but she said it was decent but nothing special.

On a plus note, service was quite friendly but tables are very small and it was quite busy when we went so the 3 of us had to share a table. Also seating is very limited so I wouldn't come here with a large group of people. There are also seats outside but no tables.

Overall, I thought this cafe was cute but definitely overrated. We all thought the food was underwhelming, although I like the idea that the blackboard changes based on what's in season so we could've just come at a bad time as I've read other blog posts about it and a lot of the food seems really nice. I think this place would be a gem if I was a local and could just pop in to see what's on the menu but I wouldn't travel to visit here. The coffee is also supposedly good but none of us had any coffee that day. It is easy to get to if you don't drive as there is a train station in Marickville and it's only a short walk from there.

The Ground of Alexandria

While you wait you can peruse the grounds which has a florist, vegetable patch and live animals and a lot of seating areas.

Food:

We went on a Wednesday, got there at 11:10 and the 3 of us were seated in 10 minutes which was a wonderful surprise after hearing the long wait times (on weekends). Especially because we made the breakfast menu (which finishes at 11:30) and the lunch menu starts at 12. 

The breakfast menu (there's also a takeaway menu which is on a blackboard as you walk in)

Breakfast Burger

Both my friends had this and enjoyed it but said it was messy to eat as it had a poached egg that dripped everywhere.

Lemon lime bitters 

Turkish style eggs 

I had this and it had 2 perfectly poached eggs, beans in a tomato sauce, pistachios and labna yogurt with a side of buttered sourdough bread. It was delicious and so filling. The beans were perfectly cooked and tomato sauce was quite thick and well spice. It reminded me of baked beans but much nicer especially with the egg and yogurt mixed in and the bread the mop up the sauce. 

Green tea with a cute teapot (made 1 1/2 cups of tea). 

Toilets:

Chicks for the chicks

Rooster for the lads

Overall: I really liked this place and the little whimsical elements, it had a great communal relaxed atmosphere and the food was pretty good but I do think it's a little overrated. I would return though and check out the lunch menu and possibly try the wellbeing breakfast and porridge.