I have chooks!

I've been trying to find chooks not from a hatchery for a very long time, I wanted chooks who I could be sure were bred and raised nicely. Not on a huge scale. I finally found a lady locally who breeds chooks on a small scale, so I bought two 10 week old Rhode Island Red x Sussex hens from her, Dixie and Marceline.

For the moment they're in a 2mx1m pen as they can jump through the back fence. Once they've grown up a bit more they will be free ranging. Although I do let them out and about supervised now that they're getting friendlier and easier to catch.

So in another 10 weeks I should have eggs!

Vegan Sushi

Since moving to the country a year ago I've been really missing good sushi. There's only a few sushi places around and they don't have many veg options so I made my own and its the best sushi I've ever had!!!

I made two sorts of hand rolls, a plain cucumber and;

Vegan 'egg' hand roll sushi filling recipe

Tofu
Vegan Mayo
Chilli powder
Finely chopped Shallots

Crumble the tofu then mix with vegan mayo, a pinch of chilli powder and the shallots

Then I decided to get fancy and make some inside out sushi! I used the same 'egg' filling, except I flattened the sushi rice on a sushi rolling board, put the nori on top then another layer of rice and roll as usual. The avocado 'cakes' (I'm not sure their proper name!) were just a matter of slicing the avo, making a little cake of rice and wrapping it up with a little strip of nori.

Sweet Potato Hash Browns

My new favorite food is sweet potatoes! Ive been making everything with them, my favorite was the hash browns. So simple and crunchy and delicious! Just mix 5 eggs worth of no egg in with coarsely chopped sweet potato (I used my brand new minty green food processor!), mould it into the desired shape, pan fry and enjoy! :D

Autumn Quinoa, Pumpkin and Beetroot Salad

This salad is the perfect salad for Autumn,  the colours, the mix of cold and warm ingredients and the goodness! Most importantly, it has lots of stuff in it to help boost the immune system to prepare us against those pesky colds that show their faces at this time of year. There is so much goodness in one bowl of this that I feel instantly better after eating it.  It's also extremely tasty, the mix of the sweet beetroot and pumpkin along with the nutty quinoa and pumpkin seeds is just divine.

 What exactly makes this so full of goodness?
Firstly, Quinoa is a super food. It contains every single amino acid so is super high in protein! Its also a source of carbohydrate, iron and calcium.  It's one of the crops NASA will possibly use for a Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration spaceflights. Luckily it's really tasty too!

The humble pumpkin is considered a 'super food' by some. It contains some of the highest levels of bio-available carotenoids. Carotenoids have been shown to decrease risk of cancer, heart disease, macular degeneration, stroke, have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities and even slow the ageing process!!

Let's not forget beetroot which is high in Iron and Magnesium and has even been said to help boost the mood and fight depression! Rocket and Spinach are also high in Iron, Folic Acid, Vitamins A, B, C and Vitamin K!

This is simple, tasty and packed with nutrients, need I say more?

To make it you will need;

1/2 a Butternut Pumpkin
1 cup of Quinoa
Pickeled Beetroot
Rocket leaves
Baby Spinach leaves
Red Oak Lettuce Leaves

How to make it;

Scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin, pop them into a strainer and rinse them removing any of the stringy bits
Chop the remaining pumpkin up into little cubes, about 1.5cm x 1.5cm.
Put the pumpkin cubes on a baking tray and bake for 15mins at 180 degrees celcius, then add the seeds and cook until they start to pop. Cook the pumpkin cubes until brown and soft.

Meanwhile, boil the quinoa in a saucepan for 5 mins, then strain the water.

Chop up your pickled beetroot, rinse your Lettuce leaves and put them into a salad bowl along with the strained quinoa, pumpkin cubes and seeds. Toss and enjoy in the sunshine!

Free Gift Tags!

This is my early christmas present to everyone - some downloadable gift tags with illustrations I've done. There's a little raindeer, a snowlady and a little girl with a santa hat.  You can download the file here. They're all ready to be printed out! And of course a preview;

Let me know if you download them and what you think!

Merry (early) Christmas from Ari xx

Vegan 'Prawns'

Three generations on my Mum's side of the family are allergic to shellfish. So as a child I wasn't allowed to eat them and then I became vegetarian age 13. But I've always been curious because people rave about prawns. My late grandmother used to sit up with a glass of beer and a bowl of garlic prawns. She absolutely loved them. I really wanted to see what all the fuss was but obviously I'm not going to eat a prawn. One because I could never eat an animal and two because I would probably die. I was in luck though! Loving Hut were selling 'Vegan King Prawns'. I had no idea what one should do with prawns so I cooked up some fettucini then stir fried the prawns, onion, carrot, zuchinni and asparagus. Voila! They were really yummy. A little creepy because they look so real - not something I think I could get used to! But I enjoyed them. I might do garlic ones for christmas to wash down with some beer and remember Nanna.

Doggy Coats for sale!!

I'm selling some of my hand made doggie coats on my Etsy. I'll be donating $5 from each sale to Australian Working Dog Rescue http://www.workingdogrescue.com.au/ so please check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/chocolatetoxicity