Sesame Port Cookies

Isa and Terry have done it again. Made my life complete, I mean. If you’ve never bought one of their vegan cookbooks, it’s never too late to try, and I promise you won’t be disappointed. For anyone new to veganism, considering the lifestyle, or who simply wants junk food with less of the saturated junk inside, look no further than Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (shelf sister to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World).

The only problem I have with this book is that I’m so busy in the kitchen that I’m not getting any actual work done.

So there.

It’s all fair and good to check the air miles on your organic roma tomatoes, but the animal industry is probably the worst food-related offender of the environment and the standards we all claim to want upheld. If you’re veggie for the environment, these shirts are for you!

Love the Planet Go Veg Shirts

Love the Planet Go Vegan T-Shirt

Healthy and Kind T-Shirt

Do you have an idea for an awesome vegan shirt or sticker slogan? Leave a comment and let me know!

The Vegan Shirts

Vegan Rocker Brown and Red by Veganista
Design custom tee shirts at Zazzle

Rocker Pink Vegan by Veganista
Make customized tee shirts at Zazzle

Buttons, Keychains, and More!

Red and Blue 1980s Rocker Vegan by Veganista
Design custom buttons on zazzle

Pink and Green Vegan by Veganista
See other Vegan Keychains

Rocker Blue Vegan by Veganista
Browse more Vegan Bags

Vegan Rocker Blue by Veganista
Browse more Vegan Mugs

Okay, okay, so my main point of this post is to encourage everyone (omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans alike) to purchase Isa Chandra Moscowicz’s latest book, Vegan Brunch. It just happens this very simple but also delicious recipe for a fruity chocolate smoothie goes great with brunch.

See the muffin in the smoothie picture? That’s a blueberry ginger spelt muffin from the book, and it’s good too. They aren’t too sweet like muffins often are, and the texture is both gooey and nutty with a sweet grainy mouthfeel (what a word, what a word…). Key ingredients include blueberries and crystalised ginger (though I’ll admit I added a bunch of powdered as an alternative). It’s a good one for anyone who likes some sugar in the morning but not in epic proportions.

More Vegan Brunch Recipe Photos

…but if you do want some seriously sweet heaven in the A.M. hours then the banana flapjacks (a form of pancake in the US as opposed to the rolled oat bar in the UK) are the treat for you. Served here with some non dairy butter and fresh blueberries, these babies are pretty fab.

And here we have the Vegan Vidalia (sweet) Onion Quiche, a tofu dish for even the most devout of quiche fans.

I’m pretty sure if this was thrown in with a random pool of food pictures, “this looks vegan” isn’t the first thing a random browser would think. Probably two of the greatest recipes in the collection (based on the fact that I’ve cooked maybe ten), the vegan omelette and the vegan sausages are pure genius.

Does the omelette pretend to be an egg? No, not really. It’s heavier and smoother, but the general taste isn’t that far off. Methinks this will be the foundation for some amazing vegan “egg” dishes in future. I’ve already got my imagination cells set on a few, so watch this space.

Do the “sausages” pretend to be sausages? Well, this one can be argued. Sausages come in a variety of shapes and textures, with a gazillion recipes for herb and spice mixes to flavour. In fact, it seems most of the flavour of sausage tends to come from what’s included with the meat as opposed to the meat itself. With that thought in mind it’s really the texture you’re after, and gluten is the vegetarian/vegan answer. Shown above are the cherry sage sausages from Vegan Brunch, in which a main ingredient is gluten flour (and almond okara- my own addition). I’m already planning a Cumberland version!

Oh, and the smoothie recipe.

One Less Plastic Bag Totes

One Less Plastic Cup Mugs

Everyone could use another coffee cup, right? I just lost another one last night when I set it on the floor from the height of my waist. Clearly a the surface I expected had vanished. Imagine an entire world of people like me, combined with an environmental push to reduce waste, and you must realise the gift giving potential in these great mugs!

Still, I think Mother’s Day is a tough holiday in terms of shopping. While I am not against the typical stuff, if I am to give a gift to anyone I want it to be unique and suited to them personally. Otherwise I would rather not give a gift at all. That’s why I thought I would make a list of some unique and unusual Mother’s Day gift ideas for mothers who enjoy time in the kitchen!

1. T-Shirts for cooking moms

Here are some great cooking related t shirts, a perfect and unique gift idea for any chef in your life (especially the ones who either have all the coolest kitchen gadgets already, or the ones who are so darned picky that you wouldn’t dare try to buy them any new utensil or machine). A tee is something that appeals to just about everyone, and on Cafepress you will find a huge selection of shirts beyond anything your own imagination could have cooked up in a million years! Here are a few favourites:

Peace, Love, Bake Raglan Tee. Perfect for the mom who loves to bake, this girly raglan features a hand giving a peace sign, a heart, and an oven, all in hip brown and pink colours (I must admit I’m really into that scheme).

I Should Be in the Kitchen Retro Ringer. This reminds me of a completely inappropriate joke a friend shared with me a few years ago, which goes something along the lines of “Why doesn’t a woman need to wear a watch?” The answer, in all its political correctness, is “because there’s a clock above the stove.” Not able to believe that anyone could possibly say something like that and be serious, I found humour in the audacity of it, that anyone could ever find it funny for any reason other than how bleedin’ stupid it is. Needless to say, that joke actually has a good connotation for me because of the feminist who told it and because, yeah, my arse does belong in the kitchen!

Beware. I’m a Kitchen Nightmare Women’s T-Shirt. This one describes me to a tee (har har), and I’m sure it would suit a lot of moms out there, too! My suggestion, however, is not to give this to any mom who doesn’t have a good sense of humour… Boy does this design describe why the “messy” exists in the title of this blog.

2. Make your own mug set for mom

Edamame is my Homeboy Coffee Mug. Show your love for soy with this awesome edamame coffee cup, perfect for veggie moms the world over!

Tofu Buddies Mug. Featuring a distinct Japanese illustration style, this adorable tofu mug will suit any playful mom who loves her daily dose of soy!

Lots of Donuts Large Mug. Ideal if your mother is a police office, I suppose! This mug is the perfect accompaniment to something sweet!

3. A gift basket of baked goodies..

This is a cool idea for a Mother’s Day gift basket, a very cool idea. The baking diva behind this fabulous concept lets you choose from a selection of different goodies for inclusion. You would of course have to contact the seller to ensure that all ingredients met dietary requirements, but what a cool Mother’s Day gift idea! There’s only one available, so be quick…

4. All messy cooks need an apron (or 12)

Veggie Lover BBQ Apron. The perfect gift idea for a mom who’s keen on her veggies and wants to inspire the family, by force or not, to also enjoy vegetable-goodness!

Kiss Me, I’m a Vegetarian BBQ Apron. This is so much better than “kiss the cook,” by a long shot!

Vegetarian Revolution BBQ Apron. If you’ve got a veggie mom who’s stylish in the kitchen and out, this trendy Russian styled vegetarian revolution apron is fab!

5. Make your own cookbook for mom

I’ve blogged about this before, but I think it’s so cool that it’s worth another mention. You can read my other post about making your own cookbook here.

So there you go, a few ideas for something other than flowers for mom on Mother’s Day (not that I have anything against flowers, mind you. They are very nice). Cafepress is a mine field of great gift ideas, so go have a look around there if you’re still not feeling inspired!

Thoughts?

In essence, I believed (and still do to a certain extent) that the concept of organic was a sham. This doesn’t mean I’m against organic. Quite the opposite, in fact! I just wish the standards were higher and regulations were strict, that it wasn’t up to private organisations to set different standards.

But c’est la vie. People don’t seem to care about what’s going into their bodies enough to really give a rat’s arse.

So. Abel and Cole.

The veg box

I ordered the small deluxe organic box, a box which features a variety of 8 or so different vegetables. At the time of writing this cost £12.50, a little pricey but not completely beyond affordable. You can see, in the picture above, the small deluxe organic box in the upper left corner. The other box is full of additional goodies which I ordered.

The other goodies included blood oranges (A++), bananas, free range eggs, and bean sprouts. I also tried the peanut butter, Sojasade blueberry soy yoghurt, and some soy sausages. The entire order was in the £25 ballpark, far more than I’d pay for the same stuff than at Tesco, but it just felt better. Cheesy, I know.

I wanted bananas and avocado

Two of my biggest complaints in this country are the quality of both bananas and avocados in store. They are unpredictable at best and less flavourful than cheap buffet food, errr, also at best. I have little positive to say about the matter. Abel and Cole at least was able to offer me an improvement on one of them items, that being the avocados. They’re not perfect (nothing is like a fresh avocado in Chile or New Zealand, where they grow), but after a few days’ ripening they are very yummy. The bananas, on the other hand… well, they’re just bananas. They’re not terrible, but after eating them fresh in SE Asia, no one’s going to feed me a banana that can even compare to superior banana-dom.

Everything else? Very good. The quality of the fruit and veg which I received were great and I have since received two more quality deliveries from the company. My only complaint is that they are out of peanut butter for a few weeks, something which actually made me decide to try Riverford’s vex box next week (not the primary reason, but I wanted to try Riverford anyhow).

The good and the bad

The good:

• Attention to detail (you can say what fruit and veg you dislike and they won’t include it).
• They stock peanut butter that rocks (too bad it’s now out of stock, because it’s hard to find non-crap PB in this country).
• They gave me a free bottle of olive oil for joining, and my friend £10 for referring me.
• They sell soya yoghurts which I can’t get in a shop close to where I live.
• Free delivery with order of £8 or more.
• Very clean and informative site, along with a fun newsletter with recipes and facts (delivered with your order and also viewable online).
• They offer some foods I’ve never found in Tesco (like salsify).
• They focus on seasonality.

The bad:

• A little on the pricey side.
• You can’t choose delivery day nor time.
• They are out of peanut butter.
• Doesn’t seem like they are marketing to the masses, but to a small group that’s already converted. I’d love to see companies like this really push on a national scale with a national advertising scheme.

Conclusion

Will I order again? Yes, more than likely. I’m still going to try Riverford out next week to compare, so we’ll see. But Abel and Cole sells some stuff that Riverford doesn’t, so are already ahead of the game in that department.

Abel and Cole is pricey, but in a way that’s something I like. I don’t believe price necessarily dictates quality (hey, I run a business so I know there’s a wee bit of psychology behind this stuff), but I believe it does dictate how you treat what you buy. If you buy an expensive t-shirt, you’re going to make sure you don’t wear it when you’re deep frying. If you buy expensive food, you’re going to make sure you don’t let it go to waste and you’re going to make sure you bloody well enjoy it. This forces me to eat not what I’m craving at the time, but something that will take thought and effort. And I believe effort in the kitchen is important because your food should be a creation of which you’re proud and you respect.

That’s not to say I’m not still topping up with the odd off-season goodie at Tesco to make that special new recipe idea I’ve had floating around in the grey bits…

What is a TasteBook? It’s a high quality, hardback cookbook which you can personalize with your own recipes and pictures. It makes a cool housewarming gift and offers a new take on homemade gifts from the kitchen. Whether you want to add your own recipes or search from a selection of over 20,000 other awesome recipes for your TasteBook, you’ll never run out of ideas!

This is the coolest idea. Seriously. TasteBook gives you, the amateur chef without a publisher’s printing budget, the ability to make your own cookbook. This is a fabulous thing, whether you’re looking for cool housewarming gifts, gifts for a cook, or a way to catalogue all of your own personal favourite recipes in a more organised manner than, say, a pile of scrap paper in the corner. The only downfall I can see at this point in time is that they don’t yet ship outside of the United States.

What if you’re less of a practised chef/recipe writer and more the type of person who likes to find the perfect recipe in the never ending field of recipes already out there? No problem! TasteBook has partnered up with the delicious epicurious.com to offer over 20,000 recipes, including ones from Bon Appétit and Gourmet magazine. TasteBook allows you to search and add recipes from a huge catalogue of well-known chefs, magazines, and recipe websites. As mentioned these include, but are not limited to, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, and a whole host of celebrity chef personalities. You can even connect to your epicurious.com recipe box and import recipes to your TasteBook.

So what is the final product like then? Your TasteBook will come in a 26 ring binder measuring 11 x 8 1/2 inches, inside of which can be up to 100 high-quality printed 10 1/4 x 7 inch pages of recipes. There are ten tabbed chapter markers (e.g. vegetables, desserts, etc…), which makes finding your recipes that bit easier.

Each TasteBook comes with up to 100 recipes, which can be ordered at any time. This means, for instance, if you order your TasteBook with only 50 recipes then you will still have 50 more pages to order whenever you want (the only additional cost is a small shipping fee of $1.95 for up to 25 pages). Since the ring binder that holds the TasteBook pages can be opened easily, you can simply pop the new recipe pages in where you deem fit. The other benefit to this binder format is that you can take the recipes out whenever you want… so if you’re messy like me then you can just take that single page to the counter to ruin decorate with food stains specimens, rather than the whole book.

If you’d rather choose a TasteBook with recipes pre-selected by the TasteBook team, you can still create your own title for the book as well as choose from one of over 50 different cover images. You can even add some of your own recipes to a pre-selected recipe book and include your own photos for your recipes as well.

So how do you make your own cookbook?

The process couldn’t be much easier if it tried, as it’s all based on a simple drag and drop process (find a recipe you like and drag it into the category you’ve created). You simply search their catalogue and select the recipes you like, or add your own and upload photos to match. Once you’ve added the recipes you want included in the final product, you choose a cover and title for the book. That’s pretty much it, really!

I love the part about being able to include your own photos for the recipes you’ve personally written and and added. This leads me to images of family picnics and holiday dinners from the 1970s, when Grandpa used to wear that silly hat. Talk about a cool and somewhat homemade kitchen gift idea for the whole family, filled with both great memories and recipes!

You can even share your TasteBook online with friends and family and they can then add their own recipes to your book online! The whole concept is just a really cool idea, whether you’re looking for the most cool housewarming gift on the planet or just want to make your own cookbook to house the recipes which currently live in that aforementioned pile in the corner. But (hey, am I sounding like an infomercial yet?) TasteBooks aren’t just for cute housewarming gifts! If you’re thinking about how to make a church cookbook or that sort of thing, a TasteBook could be the perfect solution. Why not give a TasteBook to a chef as a gift (they’re impossible to shop for)? Be creative and you can come up with a whole bunch of cool ideas for these easy to make cookbooks…

Interested? Check out the TasteBook website for more information (and even video tutorials on how to make these personalised cookbooks).

Simple foods like breads and fruit juices should not contain 101 ingredients, most of which I’ve never heard of. When I see something in the ingredients list I’ve never heard of, that product goes back on the shelf so I can look it up on the internets when I get home. Nine times out of 10, it’s a wacky preservative cooked up in a lab somewhere. I will not buy that product. In the US (save havens like Whole Foods and Trader Joes) it is increasingly difficult to find products that are simple and not choc-full of preservatives and other crazy things.

And don’t even get me started on the difficulty of being vegetarian, especially since the FDA doesn’t require dairy manufacturers to list whether or not rennet is used (all they require is “enzymes,” which could of course be vegetable, microbial, or animal). Combine that with the desire to eat foods without a million unnecessary ingredients (I mean, come on, who puts gelatin in yoghurt?! That’s just lazy manufacturing) and suddenly my dinner plate gets more empty and/or my grocery bill sky rockets (groceries are actually far cheaper in the UK, believe it or not).

Needless to say, I am feeling happy to be back home. I’m happy to be back in a society where “I’m hungry” translates to heading back home to get dinner started, rather than an immediate need to feed on the closest available snackfood. I generalise heavily I know, but there’s something to be said for it. How can a person have a healthy relationship with food and their body when it’s all based on instant gratification and no knowledge (nor care) of what’s being put into their body?

To be healthy and happy with your body is to have respect for it, and that respect entails an understanding of the foods you eat and a healthy relationship with that food. I think people forget this, and hence comes the inevitable self-loathing in relation to the body, leading then to the roller coaster of fad-diets which again are another example of instant gratification.

I don’t care what the British say about the French; a healthy relationship with food is the one thing they have down pat, and I wish Americans (and also, increasingly, Britains) could somehow follow their lead.

A few years ago I tried to make these myself, and they were okay, but certainly not brilliant. When I found these vegetarian goodies at Wing Yip in Croydon, I was delighted. I was even more delighted when I tasted them! They’re dead simple (just boil for a few minutes) and taste like heaven. I’m a huge fan of sticky rice and the gooey joy it brings, but my husband is not, so this meant I had a few days of yummy all-to-myself lunchtime treats with no guilt for not sharing.

Available in 3 flavours (peanut, sesame, and red bean), I opted for the red bean because this is what I once tried in the past (and loved). Next time I’ll certainly give the other flavours a try, too!

Thank you Tee Yih Jia for these treats!