A bit about me with a recipe to boot!

Day numero 17 on the Vegan MoFo calendar and I'll admitt, I've been pretty slack for the most part (exciting news for me though - I was mentioned here on the offical website for my crazy awesome-ness Mango Weiss Bars). YAY!
So what have I been doing instead of blogging to you guys? Well Brock and I are still doing bits and pieces in our new place (I'll be sure to show you all the pretty pics once our place is looking pretty), I've been training more (got another great protein recipe for you all soon), getting out in the SUNSHINE more (so of course why would one spend time blogging when the sun is out?), as well as work, college, the usual.

Anyways, I thought I'd do one of the MoFo questionaires I've found floating around in cyber space (I did a different one a few months back you can read here) as I have a strange obsession with these sorts of things. Here to open the can of worms on myself so you can all learn something about me that you didn't perhaps already know... here goes nothing:

What is one food you thought you'd miss when you went vegan, but don't? ooo always a tough one... the first time I had a beef kebab I was hooked, until later I stumbled across the humble FALAFEL which is ten times better, and now I suppose my kebab resembles a dark green leaf of sorts filled with vegies and a raw dip!

What is a food or dish that you wouldn't touch as a child, but enjoy now? I think I could answer this the other way round more easily; "what did I enjoy as a child but wont touch now?"... a long list that one

What vegan food or dish do you feel like you should like but you don't? as a rawie (or high rawie) I'd have to say DURIAN. I tried it once and thought it was absolutley horrible; but apparently "that's how everyone reacts when they first taste it"... and they later fall in love with it (and the onion-scented, slimy, gooey massive spikey tropical fruit it is). Yum?

What beverage do you consume the most of each day? filtered water

What dish are you famous for bringing to gatherings? anything sweet I think... can I pass that one to close friends of mine?

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)? food-combining rules I do; eat melon ALONE, dont eat fruit after anything else, try not to eat anymore than 8 or 9 bananas in a day (been known to hit 20+ easily and can do more but being my favourite fruit I need to limit my numbers or I'd eat nothing else), juice on an empty stomach, dinner has to look pretty on a plate (is that a rule or just a preference?)...

What's one food or dish that you eat too much off when it's in your home? bananas hands down. Minor problem - they're always in our home! (love it!!)

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available repackaged? hommous, activated nuts, buckwheaties, raw bread, raw ice cream

What ingredient or food is worth spending extra money on to get the good stuff? organic bananas, organic mangoes, organic extra dark chocolate, tomatoes, brazil nuts (there's only one brand I'll eat of them these days)

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favourite snacks? always a snacker, always got food with me and happily snack on bananas, green smoothies, protein smoothies, nuts and seeds, raw bars, organic licorice lately, dried dates, figs and goji berries

What are your favourite vegan pizza toppings? not sure I've got any really... well I suppose I could say sundried tomatoes, spinach, chilli, sweet potato

What's your favourite fruit and vegetable? um need I answer that? BANANAS! And carrots dipped in halves of avocado. OH and mushies - but they've gotta be big and soft.

What is the best salad dressing? Maya's rich and spicey tomato relish from the cafe, a simple flax and orange with cumin, or try this one I made last week; zucchini, orange and hemp (check out the recipe further down)

What is your favourite thing to put on toasted bread? I don't really do toasted bread but coconut oil and nut butter or raw lemon myrtle honey together is the BOMB! As is miso and tahini. Sounds weird - try it!

What kind of soup do you turn to on a chilly day or when you don't feel well? never liked soup except mums home made pumkpin. These days it's the moroccan spiced carrot soup I'd do anything for!

What is your favourite cupcake and icing flavour? again, not a real cupcake fan. If I had to make something up, It'd be peanut butter/chocolate/banana.

What is your favourite type of cookie? peanut butter, chocolate, banana?

What is your most-loved weeknight meal? a great big green salad oozing with fresh vegies and sprinkled with dukkah

What is one food or dish you enjoy but can't get anyone else in your house to eat? not sure I've got that problem now living with Brock, same at mums though. Everyone loved my cooking/not-cooking.

So there you go. Hope it wasn't too much of a bore for you guys. If so, here's the dressing recipe I said I had for you guys -

Zucchini, Orange and Hemp Dressing


You'll need:

1 large zucchini
2 small oranges
2 cloves of garlic
tsp hemp seed butter
drizzle of oil
salt to taste

Blend all ingredients until smooth and creamy. Serve mixed well through the salad of your choice.


I had it with a cabbage, carrot, parsley, chives, corn, apple and fennel salad. So good :)

SCREAM Summer!

Ummm... So who's just FREAKIN LOVING this hot weather the past few days?!?! I am that's for sure! I LIVE for this type of weather.

Everything lights up in my world. I can't help but smile and be happy. I want to get more things down. I want to spend all my time outside. I want to see friends, go to the beach, visit markets, be part of the BUZZ.
I LOVE the sound of cicadas outside coz to me, THAT'S SUMMER!

But there's one other thing that screams "SUUMMER IS HERE" to me, and that's MANGOES! (and before you make mention, yes I am well aware that Summer hasn't actually started yet but a girl can dream).

Ok so I've been a HUGE fan of these delicious, juicy, flavoursome beauties since as far back as I can remember. Anyone that knows me also knows that a mango in my hand is as good as gold!

(or 5 mangoes on a plate for lunch will suffice quite nicely also)

So with the warmer weather I wanted to create something cold and delicious... my inspiration of course? The good ol' Mango Weiss Bar. Remember those little guys? My childhood memories involve many a mango weiss bar. Ice cold. Juicy. Dripping down your hand even though it came in a great little plastic wrapper. And that of course meant that when you got to the end there was a nice little puddle of mango juice sitting there waiting to be sucked up :)

So I decided to try and recreate these using all RAW ingredients. Made off the top of my head I didnt measure anything but coz it tasted so good, and is so easy to make, I wanted to share it with you all. The measurements given are rough estimates of course.

You'll need:

Frozen mango (I pre-cut 3 and put them in containers in the freezer)

Flesh from one young coconut
1/4 - 1/2 cup pre-soaked cashew nuts
1/4 cup coconut oil
Agave syrup (drizzle worth)
Coconut water as needed

- Blend your frozen mango until smooth
- Spread it into a small container lined with baking paper

- Blend coconut flesh, cashew nuts, coconut oil, and agave syrup. Add coconut water to help blend it all up, but start with just a little. You can always add more but you cant add less. You're aiming for a completley smooth coconut cream.

- Then smooth this ontop of your mango layer and cover with foil, glad wrap, container lid etc and pop it back into the freezer to set.

When it's ready to eat, cut it into long pieces resembling Mango Weiss Bars.
SO GOOD!

Cut up on my plate ready to be bitten into...

Done! Cold on the teeth. Taste buds in Heaven. Welcome back Summer!

Anniversary Dinner

Happy Vegan MoFo Day 11

A celebratory post this evening for you all -

Tuesday was my one year anniversary with Brock and we celebrated - in style - in the comfort of our own home.

We set up a table in the backyard, donned our best going-out clothes, prepared the last-minute menu and enjoyed one another's company after both working all day.

The Menu:

Fresh chilled Thai young coconut water to begin...


A great big red cabbage salad with shredded carrot, parsley, celery, raisins, sunflower seeds, coconut, flaxseed oil and apple cider vinegar.

A layered lasagna with eggplant, zucchini strips, fresh tomato salsa, sweet corn, shredded kale and mushrooms topped with sliced avocado, chilli flakes and nutritional yeast...


Then onto dessert...

Due to my first thought (layered choc mousse/coconut cream/berries/etc) turning into something not so yummy, I was lucky to have had Maya's Moonlight Shadow brownie in the fridge waiting to be eaten... and it teamed up perfectly with my home made coconut ice cream (recipe found here) topped with cacao nibs and agave syrup...

...served with cacao-dipped strawberries... some also dunked in coconut.



Everything was DELICIOUS. Our evening was BEAUTIFUL. And we each gave each other a photo frame with a photo of us as up until now, we never had one. Now we have two.

Happy Anniversary babes xx

What a Cruelty Free Sunday!

Wow-wee what a stunning Sunday we had yesterday! Weather that made the CRUELTY FREE FESTIVAL all the more fun to be at.

I've been to the festival for 3yrs running now, always as a volunteer, and along with the Vegan Expo mid-year (that I wrote about here), I absolutley LOVE this thing! Outdoors, sun shining, loads of people about, plenty of friends also spend the day down there and I'm always meeting new folk too. Great music - Rachael Brady from the Blue Mountains who I LOOOOOVE was playing again this year - cooking demonstrations, talks, and a new speed dating setup for all the single vegans out there proved to be alot of fun (said those who participated of course)

I got down there just before 11am and helped out on the Tea and Empathy stall with (Tantalising) Tam for a few hours having a ball. We were both UBER EXCITED getting there; it's our PLAY DAY OUT! We sold LOADS of cupcakes, cookies, scones, chocolate crackles, and muffins that were kindly baked by beautiful people to raise money for the Vegan Society, and we mucked around with everyone that stopped for a chat.


Maya and Grant were doing green smoothies and fruit at their stall and having a BLAST! The Animal Liberation crew had their stall as usual selling lots of educational and in-your-face merchandise. The famous Funky Pies sold out as they do every year. Addiction brownies were on everyones lips. And The Cruelty Free Shop stand was buzzing with newbie-vegans OVERWHELMED with their amazing range, and oldie-vegans shopping for their stapels (I got an old fav of mine that's not raw; a rich chewy chocolate covered liquer-type apricot. OMG).

Check out the HUGE jar of sprouts on the table!

My mum stopped by about lunch time which was nice. We tip-toed around squelchy muddy grass patches, up and down through the market stalls grabbing a few things that caught our eyes - I got a new mineral makeup to try and some raw olives from Conscious Choice which I cant wait to try out, and mum bought herself a box of hand made vegan rum balls that look incredible!!


Then early arvo I was then making badges with the kiddies - don't you just love the collection I was adding too on my shorts?




Like the middle one? Hand written by me; Peace, Love and Mung Beans :)

So again, another year done and dusted. Loved it.

And then to make the most of the GLORIOUS sunny weather, Brock, Tam and I went on down to do the Spit to Manly walk.

Through bushes, rainforest-like trees, cool coverings and hot dry open spaces. We walked across sandy beaches, through ice cold puddles, up and down sandstone steps, and admired each and every view that opened up.

The fresh air was ENERGISING.
The warm sunshine was BLISSFUL.
And the conversations had along the way - humerous.

It took about 2hrs to get down to Manly where loads of people were out and about also making the most of the sunshine. We did a slow U-Turn and began our ascent back up Sydney Road to Tam's place.

And when we came up to Balgowlah, on the side of the footpath, I spotted about 20 heads of KALE planted right infront of the local newsagency! After close to 3hrs of solid walking we were like 3 hungry kids in a lolly shop!

Epic weekend indeed!

Open For Business

MoFo Day 7 and I'm SO EXCITED to be heading off for the Cruelty Free Festival in Central in a few hours! There will be BIG blog piccies from that later on for sure!!

For now though I've got a few mouth-watering temptations for you to salivate over.
Yesterday was the RAW CAFE at Taste Organics that I help Maya out with every month and another great day it was...

Chocolate Lovers Dream Pie - chocolate base, white chocolate layer, dark chocolate layer, cacao nibs and oozy goozy choccie sauce. Yep definatley a chocolate lovers!!

Roundtable Salad - greens, cherry tomatoes, activated pepitas, sprouts, the BEST chilly/curry/flavoursome tomato sauce and a delicious garlic and chive cheese/dip that always surprises customers who think it's dairy. Love those questions :)

Served with crackers but this month we had a new variety - Rosemary Almond and a Spicier version that also differs in colour (both from a new company called The Goodness Company)

This is my all time favourite - Moonlight Shadow - a chocolate spiced moon brownie with THE BEST vanilla ice cream known to man kind. I'm not kidding!

Another newbie this month - on the left is a Chocolate Mint Slice, and on the left is a chewy Goji Cookie. Both delicious.


And then this was the SURPRISE this month. There is always one brand spanking new dessert on the menu that noone knows about unless they come to the cafe. It was the MESSY COLADA! A light, soft, creamy Chocolate Mousse served with a fresh orange slice, orange chocolate pieces and finished with a rich chocloate sauce.

Sunset Parfaits

MoFo Day 5 peoples!!

Last night Brock and I went to Dad and Gails for dinner which is always FAB! I love to see what gail prepares as she herself knows very little about RAW cuisine but as a MAD foodie nonetheless, she's always up for the challenge.

Unfortunatley I forgot to take my camera to snap pics of the amazing presentation, but a quick run down of what we ate...

- Assorted nuts to nibble on...
- Glasses of fresh watermelon juice (which I thought would upset my tum tum with other food combos but after a little sip that was INCREDIBLE, I had a glass and was very pleased with no nasty side effects)

Then we had:

- Shredded cabbage and carrot salad with snow pea sprouts...
- A big green leaf salad with celery, cucumber, radish and herbs...
- A bowl full of THE BEST heirloom tomatoes I've ever had!! with baby onion, basil and shallots...
- Soft, smooth avocado halves with tomato salsa in the centres...

And the the piste-resistance (for which I found Dads camera coz this just HAD to be seen to be believed)... DESSERT!!


Watermelon, mango and mulberry parfaits with frozen melon balls and fresh juicy, tasy fruit to go with it. Oh my god! She did well.


Very well.

POW POW Protein POWder

Happy Day 4 of Vegan MoFo guys! If you havn't had a chance to check out the official website I STRONGLY suggest you do. If you LOVE delicious food it's the palce to go. Made really easy to navigate and loads of food pics from all over the globe (mainly cooked vegan but still FAB) it's raw chocolate for the eyes.
So it's Market Day today but the weather is cold and rainy so with my day off I've opted to stay in doors and get some study done (so far I've made myself a green smoothie, just poured a mug of tea, written out my food diary, emptied the bins, uploaded photos and cleared one of our fridges, salivated over pictures on Vegan MoFo, and now I'm blogging... yet to get to that study).

So anyways, EXCITING SHOPPING NEWS! Last week I finally bought a big tub of SunWarrior Raw Vegan Protein. And I say FINALLY coz I've been wanting to try since I first read about it, but for me to order things online I'm either in the mood or I'm not (watch out if I am!), and so when Taste Organic up the road from me decided to get it in and stock it on their shelf, well, they made things very easy for me. I got myself the natural flavour for several reasons; (1) it's got less to it obviously (2) it would be the easiest to incorporate into whatever I fancied without having everything taste like chocolate for instance, and (3) i think it's best for my skin (acne) to keep things minimalistic. Lucky I wanted the natural flavour as it was the only flavour left on the shelf!

If you've never heard of Sun Warrior protein before you can read more about it here, otherwise I briefly say that it's 80% pure protein, and therefore the highest raw complete vegan, hypo-allergenic superfood protein currently available anywhere. Not bad hey.

So having finished my little detox/cleanse last Sunday (which went very well infact) I was very much looking forward to trying out my new protein; especially as I have increased my training of late also.
I've now been having protein most days and really enjoying it. It doesn't taste horrible like alot of protein powders can (If you've tried different powders before I'm sure you'd be familiar with that "protein powder" taste. Urgh.

So for brekkie at work the other morning I experimented and made myself a big tasty thickshake - Frozen bananas, acai, carob, and protein powder. Mmm-mmm! So good. Sucking it through a straw, it tasted better than a Maccas thickshake at 3am on a Sunday morning when you're craving shit from drinking all night long! Oh the memories...
It filled me and I was on my way to a great day!

How are your morning lately? What do you guys eat for brekkie? Anything NEW and EXCITING you've been trying in spirit of Vegan MoFO?

There's never enough crumble

Ok guys so guess what? It's Vegan MoFo! VEGAN MONTH OF FOOD and over the years it has gotten bigger and BIGGER that countries all over the globe participate and blog about vegan food non-stop, day and night, for the whole month of November (like we don't do that all year round anyways). And I'm UBER excited! I commit to sharing as many simple tasty quick delicioussly VEGAN recipes with you as possible (raw of course - although I'm not totally 100% raw at the moment as I'm experimenting with my digestion and such... another story).

And to start the ball rolling I thought I'd share what I made for Brock's birthday last week (during "Brocktober" as he likes to call it). Now admittedly, it was a simple meal due to a hundred other things I had going on (along with a migrane that day), but a birthday is special, so it had to be special! I think it's cool to also show you guys that raw doesn't always have to be tricky to taste damn good.

Close friends of ours, Mitch and Sheree came over to dine with us, so Sheree and I were whipping up what we could find in the kitchen, while the boys watched gruelling workout videos on YouTube. Go figure.

The Menu:

Crisp carrot sticks drizzled with agave syrup and sprinkled with raisins, coconut and sesame seeds.


Garden fresh crunchy asparagus spears in a flaxseed oil and fresh garlic dressing. OMG.


A melange of greens including fresh kale, assorted lettuces, celery, cucumbers, and avocado, finished with fresh herbs and spices. Along side broccoli florets covered in warm coconut oil and nutritional yeast flakes (can you see these babies hiding in the background?)


...Melange salad topped with pepitas, sunflower seeds, flax oil and a whole squeezed lemon


And then of course DESSERT. I had so many ideas but not wanting to be in the kitchen for hours (with my migrane) and with limited supplies I remembered a box of apples we had in our spare fridge (yes Brock and I need a spare fridge for the amount of fruit and veg we eat).


So my little mind immediatley thought APPLE CRUMBLE! "I've got some nuts, the apples, spices... I'll just go buy raw ice cream this time... get some dates... Easy!" (yep, that's how my little mind ticks)


So I layered some crumble, some apple filling and then some more crumble into individual glasses, then topped them off with big dollops of vanilla ice cream.

We also had some chocolate crackles I had left over from the batch I made for college. Think of them like our "after dinner mints" (only lacking in mint). Our evening was really nice. Sheree and I initially thought to go on a picnic but as the weather turned last week, our little picnic ended up being on our living room floor. But the perfect place to be with a belly full of good food in on your floor at home is it not?

So going on memory here guys, my wham-bam-thankyou-mame-APPLE CRUMBLE recipe is something as follows...

Chop up 2 apples and throw them in the blender (or food processor) with a few medjool dates, a pinch of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of salt (trust me it makes the sauce) and a drizzle of water, and blend it all til smooth.

Slice, dice, cube, grate (however you want) 3 or 4 apples. Pour your sauce over these and mix them through well.

For your crumble, pulse equal parts nuts and medjool dates until crumbly.

Then layer as you wish. And ENJOY!

I did crumble first, then apples, then more crumble - coz let's admit, there's never enough crumble!! Bung it in your dehydrator or low heat oven to warm it up a bit, or just never stick it in the fridge once you've made it.

Ice cream to serve (of course) and let your taste buds go nuts!