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!