French Toast

Those 2-for-deals are almost always welcomed, unless it’s bread. It’s kinda hard for two girls to finish two loaves of bread in a week, and I don’t particularly enjoy freezing it as I don’t own a toaster, and microwaved bread doesn’t remain soft once it’s cooled down! 😦 So I made some french toast this morning, while reminiscing of the AMAZING OH MY HEAVENS Cinnamon French Toast from Pick Me Up (as above) while I was in Chicago two autumns before. While Monk Bodhi Dharma does an equally tasty version with caramalised banana or poached pear with a pistachio cream cheese (can be made GF), it does require a significant amount of resources for one to obtain it!

Following both Usually Vegan and Vegan Dad‘s French Toast recipes, I mixed up a 9cm square of tofu, 1 cup of non-diary milk, 3 tbs agave syrup, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tbs oil, bit of salt and lots of cinnamon in the food processor. I made the mistake of dipping too many slices of bread at a go, resulting in soggy bread that took forever to cook as my pan could only fry 3 halves at a time. Halving the slices was a good idea, as it was a lot easier to flip. The first slice resembled scrambled tofu as my pan was too hot and I waited too long before flipping, hoping to flip when it one side resembled toast (like cooking pancakes). I found it easier if I kept the heat to the lowest, flipped it after about a minute when it had JUST begun to brown. It didn’t stick, and then flipped it back to brown after the second side had just started to firm up. This made 7 slices of French Toast.

Baked Portobello and Cheeze Sammich

I recalled making Oven Roasted Portobello Sammiches two days after the amazing Mac N’ Cheeze as I had a lot of leftover cheeze sauce. It did not disappoint. The combination of portobello, Cheezely, spinach, rocket and cheeze sauce was perfect.

All I did was marinate the mushrooms in some light and dark soy sauce, dried oregano and basil (perhaps thyme too?), garlic, black pepper, and olive oil, thinned out with a bit of water. Baked at 200C for 15 minutes, top with Cheezely, and back in the oven till it melted. Juicy mushrooms :9

Sustainability Day Cake Stall

Our Sustainability Day last Wednesday on campus was a great success! There were lots of people looking, trying, buying and learning! It was a disappointment that there were NO vegan-related stalls as it is the easiest and most efficient way to treat the environment better; it far outweighs buying greener products, or buying re-fashioned clothes! This was our TAFE conventional + organic + vegan + GF cake stall, one of three on that day.

My vegan contributions that day included this chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and oatmeal raisin cookies. Steph made coconut jam slices while Jo U made the cutest chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW in rose-printed muffin liners!!! The Eating Up The World booklets that she included was picked up by some girls, which was amazing! It made me almost forget about the annoying people who came up to me and said “I don’t care about being vegan!” when I told them what vegan options were available. Yeah, there needs to be some serious animal ethics education here.

Prue also made a vegan raw fudge ball – dates, pistachio, rosewater and cashews. So rich! I love pistachios, but never use them in baking/cooking.

We also had a textile/craft stall of handmade goodies – screenprinted totes, notebooks, tea towels, brooches, etc. I sold one cute matryoshka brooch! The girl in the middle (sorry I forgot to ask for your name) made raw balls and raw granola, full of sprouted and activated and dehydrated awesome things like seeds, buckwheat, etc. Again, no money. 😦

Talented Jess manning the succulents stall in saucers and mugs from op-shops all around. (She also made killer caramel slices that garnered her a returning customer!!) It was such a delightful stall! And we made quite a bit of money which will fund our graduate show (because we won’t be getting much from the uni because they do not support our private graduate showcase).

Chocolate Ganache
(adapted from a PPK)

Bring 2/3 cup soy milk to a boil, then lower heat and stir in 8oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (half a block of chocolate) and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Remove from heat and mix until smooth. Pour over cake, leave to cool until harden.

Las Vegan Brunch

Definitely one of those run-a-million-errands-and-eat-brunch-too Sundays; get petrol, eat brunch, buy bread and milo (forgot the juice), buy coffee beans and return library books. And squeeze in a stomachache while we’re at it >.< It was mostly agony from activity 2 onwards. But am glad that we managed to visit Las Vegan on its first Sunday opening, and it was buzzing! I am so glad that those odd operating hours are over! I haven't been there in a while for no more than chai and cake, so was nice to enjoy some savouries.

On the Specials Board today was 2 types of Pancakes – Sour Cherry or TempehCon. Smoky tempeh bacon! It was really tasty but such a pity with only a few teeny slices! Sandwiched between each pancake was maple syrup, which was such a lovely balance between sweet and savoury. I have Vegan Brunch, so will have to make this again, but not till I find some Liquid Smoke…

Ger had the schnitzel with chips. Love the hand cut chips! The deep-fried crumbed mock meat was teeny and a tad stodgy with the oil (perhaps not hot enough?) but I loved the texture and its junk food nature that I hardly ever get to eat!

My schoolmate Maddie was working there so was nice to see the place all happy and people nomming on those amazing fried rice balls.

Where’s The Beef gave a positive review on their recent visit (though our salad was certainly not as generous!) and Easy As Vegan Pie‘s photos reveal saucy burgers are to be had. I still adore those rice balls.

Las Vegan Bakery
http://www.lasvegan.com.au/
22 Smith Street, Collingwood
Hours: Sun, Tues & Wed 11 – 3pm, Thurs – Fri 11 – 3pm, 5.30 – 9.30pm, Sat 9.30 – 3.30pm, 5.30 – 9.30pm