Waking up and eating

"Now," the man in black said, laughing. "Oh, now. We make great magic together, you and I. You kill me no more than you kill yourself."
- The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The fuse for the oven is blown so we've been without cooking abilities for the last 2 nights...still waiting on the electrician to come since it's one of those really old fuses that make no sense. Other than that though the new flat is great.


That's a terrible photo of our backyard from my bedroom. One lemon tree with more lemons on it than tree, 2 very sour orange trees and a grapefruit tree...awesome! Also a bonus is that the sun is out this morning. I'm solar powered so I feel more alive on sunny days.

I often have breakfast at work during the week since I've come straight from training so I need a variety of quick, easy, filling and delicious meal options that don't require much effort at the time and I can preferably eat at my desk. I love the taste spelt flour gives to baking and I am in love with the spelt flour muffins they make at Kokako so naturally I had to make the Blueberry Ginger Spelt Muffins from Vegan Brunch (I bought a copy via The Book Depository...free shipping and much cheaper prices than books here anyway? How is that possible?).


I only had mixed berries so I used those and I've never seen vanilla soy yogurt in my life. It's hard enough finding plain soy yogurt anyway so I used a berry-flavoured one which seemed somewhat fitting! Also, I made mine texas sized...perfect for breakfast with a piece of fruit. They were SO good.

Another recipe I tried from Vegan Brunch was Chocolate Beer Waffles. I had my friend C over one day and his main hobby seems to be drinking (okay, not really but he does like beer...a lot) so, well, beer and chocolate seemed the perfect mix for a lazy brunch.


My mixture came out pretty runny but I thought I'd give it a shot cooking it anyway...nope definitely too runny. Once I added a little more flour though they were perfect...kind of like a chocolate beer brownie waffle! More of a dessert than a brunch but hey, everyone deserves to treat themselves sometimes.

Since we seem to be on the topic of breakfast/brunch, I've also been having the odd green smoothie...


...very tasty but definitely not good on my stomach before going for a run! Better to save it for afterwards...

Digging up family memories

He smiled at me like a dark prophet telling some simple truth which I had always known but never before heard in words
- The Favoured Child by Philippa Gregory

There was a time when us kids would avoid going to our parents house and having to be around family but lately we've been regularly coming together (well, not my eldest brother and his wife in America but that goes without saying...they do tend to call on the nights we're all together though) for dinner. Mum secretly loves the opportunity to cook up a storm especially 'cause she can make dessert!


Stir fried veges with crispy tofu...super quick, super healthy and super delicious!


Pear crumble with homemade custard and chocolate lite licks ice cream.

Sometimes it's my job to come round and cook dinner for everyone! I made one of my quick and easy favourites, nachos.


This batch was not nearly as spicy as I'd normally make them as my parents aren't good with hot food but it was still delicious.

One of our family favourites is vegetarian shepherds pie adapted from one of the Meals Without Meat books by Alison and Simon Holst.


Served with some stir-fried veges and it's the perfect warming winter meal.

One of the best parts of dinner at the parents is that Mum often will make us dessert! This is an old favourite of hers, apple butterscotch pudding.


Apparently Mum used to make us this when we were little kids...my brother fondly remembers it but my memory is clearly a little lacking. It's SO delicious though that the four of us polished off the whole pudding in one sitting! Definitely a keeper (now to see if I can prize the recipe off Mum!).

Welcome to the kitchen

Wall Street and the City of London had plenty of money to fund new ideas, but only if they were easily understandable ideas, ones that merely modified what could already be done.
- Electric Universe by David Bodanis

I finally got around to cooking properly on Tuesday night but I was still feeling fairly drained so it was a pretty simple meal - a good old tofu stir-fry using a block of pre-marinated tofu.


It made enough for 3 serves so I had leftovers to look forward to for lunches for the next couple of days. Always good!

The following night my friends S and E took me out to Sunflower Cafe, an asian vegetarian restaurant in town with a variety of mock meats. I'd never been to a restaurant serving mock meats before so I had to order one of the fried chicken stir fries just for the hell of it. Turns out it was very delicious!


Can't remember everything else we ordered but it was all really delicious and filling. I even managed to score leftovers of the chicken dish to take home (more leftovers...yay!).


Afterwards we went back to S's place where we devoured vegan chocolate cherry cupcakes that S had made and chocolate-dipped orange peel alongside copious amounts of tea and gossip. I haven't had such a good night in a long time (or felt quite that overly-full)!

I also met my Mum in town during the week and took her out to lunch at Revive as a very belated Mother's Day present (she's been overseas...that's my excuse!). I ordered the hotpot of the day which was Dahl Aloo with potatoes and brown rice and the German style slaw on the side.


I love all the colours in the slaw...it's like eating a rainbow straight off your plate! And just because everyone deserves a treat now and then, we had bliss balls to finish...perfect :)


I wanted to post some photos of the house and garden here but it's been raining non stop which made my race yesterday a mudbath! Looks like more rain is forecast for the up coming week too...fun times!

Here we go again...

In the aftermath of your visit, I am moving slowly, as if I'm swimming underwater. I had hoped to see you because I am selfish, but now I wish you hadn't come...I am no longer a source of protection for you, but a source of pain.

- Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

It was Dad's birthday last weekend so that called for a little celebration. And what do all celebrations need to have? Good food!

For dinner I made a vegetable and lentil lasagna with whatever I could find in the kitchen. I haven't made (or eaten) lasagna since I last was living at home and this made me wonder why since it was so simple and quick...plus it freezes really well for leftovers.


Instead of cake I opted for one of my favourite recipes, Celine's Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. I couldn't find the recipe on her website any more but luckily I had a copy stowed away. This time though, I made Chocolate Almond Butter Pie with a chocolate crust.


So delicious! We all went back for seconds even though we knew we were well and truly full. It's so rich I don't know how we even managed it but life is too short to waste good pie!


On another note, I moved into my new flat on Friday so you can expect to see some decent food coming out of my kitchen shortly!