WE ARE STILL ALIVE and eating far too many noms to post on here all the time. Here are a few breakfast-lunch-dinner-snack noms I have whipped up lately.
Buttermilk scrambled eggs
Roast Vegetable toasted focaccia
Honey, banana, cinnamon and nutmeg smoothie
Porridge with sultanas (I LOVE THESE), banana, milk and honey
Tomas.
The other day I made hom nom nom nom nom ommus.
The best one you’ll ever taste.
To get 1 cup of chickpeas from this:
To this:
…soak them overnight then boil for about half an hour.
After that, you have to get rid of the skins as they don’t blend well in the dip.
To do so, grab a chickpea and squeeze it over a bowl.
Discard the skins..
My mum just bought a ‘thermomix’, which in turn opened a whole lot of culinary doors for me as I am now the proud owner of a hand-me-down food processor & blender that she now doesn’t need thanks to her wonder-machine. We have been busy making smoothies and dips all over the place now that we have the appliance to do so! Yay!
ANYWAY the skin-less chickpeas go into the food processor
Then the juice of a lemon
Two chopped garlic cloves and a bit of tahini.. I used a bit much because I was trying to use up the jar but next time I’ll use about 1tsp.
GO BLENDER MAGIC!!
Not the desired consistency, get a spatula and srape it off the walls of the blender
perfect hommusy goodness!
into a bowl with some colour-contrasting PAPRIKAAAA on top.. and some mint.. and some crackers
THIS IS THE GOOD SHIT !! :)
Here at WeEatBetter, we looOOoove wanky food words such as ‘fusion’. Most commonly used to describe the marriage of two or more different cuisines or cooking styles, ‘fusion’ has become a prominent buzzword in the incredibly wanky food industry. /end rant
SO
Today I made an asian coleslaw salad .. not really ‘fusion’ as such but seeing as I am not asian and I am cooking asian food.. let’s just call it that for lol’s sake, shall we?
INGREEDIAANNTSSSS
Wombok cabbage, sesame seeds, carrot, cucumber, lime, pickled ginger, enoki mushrooms & tofu found on a spontaneous trip to box hill in search of healthfood stores (what?), soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce & rice wine vinegar.
FRYING UP MAH TOFU .. and sneaking cubes along the way. I was kind of apprehensive to use the gas as we have had a few incidents of random fire hurling from the stovetop in the past few days, which could have - but didn’t - ended up with some singed eyebrows.
I am a big fan of pre-packaged, pre-marinated, pre-cut, you-don’t-have-to-do-anything-just-eat-it tofu. omnommm
Wombok cabbage - the best kind. Sliced finely
Self explanitory carrot grating!
Removing the pith (say it) from the cucumbers as to not result in a SOGGY SALAD!
salad baby is coming together!
Nawww, I’ve fallen in love with enoki mushrooms.. cute as buttons and good for stirfrys etc.. And seeing as I only used 1/4 of my $2 bunch, I’ll be eating them for a good week!
Glass bowl illusion!
Next, pickled ginger (I could eat this shit straight from the jar MMMMMM) and sesame seeds.
SALAD DRESSING! Don’t even ask me what amounts of everything I put in.. no idea.
Vague recipe of mazing salad dressing.
Finished (minus salad dressing - again, no one likes a SOGGY SALAD!!!)
Ta daaa! ASIAN FUSION COLESLAW SALAD!
- Stef
Sooo, lack of posting.. awkward..
We will be back soon - I promise! We are rather busy at the moment - Tomas is in his final few weeks of uni and I am slaving away in the deli, as per.. We haven’t cooked anything for a while! Mainly living off mi goreng (cough Tomas) and free soup/bread from my work. French toast for dinner? OK, why not!
Lazy, I know. :D
IN THE MEANTIME
Here’s a photo of my friend making cannelloni - through cannelloni.. what?
A few weeks ago I helped celebrated Emily’s birthday with some drinks, fine food and good company. We started the night out at Misty Melbourne where we planned to move to Movida Next Door for dinner but were told they didn’t have enough space for our group (or didn’t want to move the tables together - lazy) so I suggested a short walk up to Mamasita which I had really enjoyed last time I was there.
Mamasita is apparently slang for “Hot chick” and perfectly matches most of the people that go there. As you walk up their tiny, steep staircase and squeeze past the line of people cuing up for their table you can feel the atmosphere radiate around you. Due to their no booking policy it is always luck of the draw if you get a table or not right away.
Here is a tip though: walk past the people on the stairs waiting to be seated and talk to the guy in charge. He will usually put your name on a waiting list and call you when a table is free so you can go grab a drink from all the awesome bars nearby (I suggest Lane’s Edge or Lily Blacks).
After a half hour wait (enjoying a beer in a nearby bar - Lily Blacks) we got a call to come on over. The menu is pretty fantastic and lucky for me has a couple of quality vegetarian meals on offer.
I nagged Emily and Jaime until they ordered the corn on cob which is a MUST TRY when you go here. Slightly charred corn drenched in tasty sauce, lime and cheese. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture here but trust me you will want to stuff your face with them.
Last time I was here the awesome waiter (they are all really nice) suggested these savory banana chips with salsa (above) which, despite what you might think, are really tasty and unusual so I ordered them again for everyone to try.
The main meal I ordered was this giant stuffed chili with pumpkin which was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend it for any other vegetarians out there. It makes such a nice change going to a restaurant and not having to choose between salad and a toasted focaccia (looking at you Launceston!).
The food is brilliant, the service is top notch and the atmosphere is awesome. Highly recommend trying the place out.
After the meal we headed off to see a friend DJ at Croft Institute and to grab a few more drinks. Emily and I sweet talked the bar tender into making us a new cocktail (not on menu) which turned out to be delicious (and pretty potent).
It has Green Chartreuse, sugar syrup, Fresh Lemon, Tonic water, dash of orange and something else I have forgotten (Gin?).
Misty Melbourne. 3-5 Hosier Lane, Melbourne. www.mistymelbourne.com
Lily Blacks. 12 Meyers place, Melbourne.
Mamasita. 1/11 Collins st, Melbourne. www.mamasita.com.au
Croft Institute. Croft Alley, Melbourne. www.thecroftinstitute.net
Yesterday I made sooooper healthy chilli beans. It tasted somewhat better than the spaghetti vegetable featured in a below post…
Photo time :
Chip choppen my veggies. .. and arranging them in patterns so I can take wanky photos of them. (One red onion and about 200 grams of butternut pumpkin.)
Chopped punkennnn.
Chopped red onion.
So I just got a new camera (3rd this year after trashing my latest one during a night out) and seeing as I haven’t broken it in yet it actually takes half decent photos.. hence all the closeups.. This one of 1 tsp of paprika (MUST BE THE AUTHENTIC SPANISH ONE NOT THE SHIT SUPERMARKET ONE… prob the most expensive ingredient in this dish) and 1 tsp of cumin - aka my favourite spice evaarrrr.
I fried the onion a little bit then added the pumpkin, spices & a bit of chilli.
I let it cook down a bit then added 4 chopped roma tomatoes…
In the meantime I roasted a capsicum then peeled the burnt skin off & chopped it up
Ta daaa… add it to the pan & stir.
I’m obvs not the cleanest cook….
Getting there… featuring my new nail polish colour <3
Then I added a can of kidney beans, some chopped basil and salt&pepper and my chilli was done.
Just when you thought it was over.
…
…
…
I then made some of THE BEST GUACAMOLE EVERRR :
1 avo, a few tablespoons of plain yogurt, juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper & cumin.
Got some super healthy wholegrain wanky wank wank lebanese pita thingies and put the guacamoleeaaaayyy and some cottage cheese on it…
Then mooshed it all up until it looked appetizing ..
Put some spinach on top, then wrapped it into a kebab looking thing..
This is so much better than what you get at 4am from the greasy kebab shop.
- Stef
I am learning Japanese (somewhat unsuccessfully) because in only a few months time some friends and I will be traveling around Nihon (Japan) in shinkansen (Bullet trains) and eating delicious Bento in spotless parks. Stef won’t be coming (boo hoo - more sushi for me!) but she has been before the lucky girl. Part of the reason I am so excited to go is all the delicious food I will get to eat!
We have been having some dinner parties with close friends lately and Natalie has been tempting us with stories about all the tasty Japanese food she can make so finally one freezing Tuesday night we were invited to feast: Japanese Style.
For starters Nat had prepared some of the best sushi I have ever eaten. Fresh, flavorsome and beautifully rolled.
Stef and I naturally gorged ourselves on the vegetarian rolls (Cucumber, Avocado, tofu) that were served with pickled ginger (I don’t like it but Stef cant get enough), wasabi and soy sauce. Just check out how nicely rolled they are.
While we stuffed our faces our understanding hosts continued to slave away preparing more scrumptious treats. Rose made some sweet potato and normal potato balls which were dipped in egg then flour all ready to be fried to a nice golden color.
Natalie’s salad was amazing. Baby spinach leaves with avocado, sesame seeds and a wasabi and soy sauce dressing. Definitely requesting this one again.
We also had Miso soup made from scratch which was 100% better than powdered kind you might find at supermarkets.
A personal highlight though had to be the tempura veggies. Crunchy, tasty mixed tempura (Onion, Carrot, Sweet Potato) and something I had never seen before but will definitely give a go sometime soon: Tempura sea weed.
All up it was an amazing feast and I can’t wait to try some of these out in Tokyo.
On numerous trips to our local el-cheap-o green grocer (if you could call it that.. perhaps brown/green/purple and sometimes on the brink of decomposing would be a more fitting description..) the ‘spaghetti vegetable’ has caught my eye. ”Great for the diet conscious” says the label. “Mmmm healthy pasta!” says I. Into my basket spaghetti vegetable goes.
Personifying my healthy spaghetti friend.
Upon further googling I decided to pierce holes in my spaghetti veggie so he didn’t blow up during cooking. Straight between the ‘eyes’.. I’m a vegetable murderer! :/ (note Tomas and I are both veggo)
Obvs stoked to be in the microwave.
After about ten minutes in the microwave, I cut my slightly squishy vegetable in half and scraped out the ‘spaghetti’ with a fork… kind of apprehensive at this stage.
Mmm — doesn’t that look appetizing!! ..
So I served my spaghetti with my favourite Bertolli Five Brothers pasta sauce (we usually use it as a pizza topping.. more on that subject in a later post, no doubt.)
Imagine the taste of squash that has been par-cooked and then squished through a potato ricer. There you have spaghetti vegetable!
I don’t think I would use it as a substitute for pasta in the future, but could see spag veg working well in a salad or as a zucchini-fritter-style-burger-thing.
Stef and I were getting ready to go to a friends house party last week to celebrate the wrap of her short film which I had worked on. We decided to have a couple of pre-drinks before heading off and of course cooked up a feast to go along with the drinks.
Drink: Pims Cups (someone had left half a bottle at our house; the fools)
Feast: Free range poached eggs on top of a bed of home made salsa, wilted baby spinach leaves and butter fried mushrooms all served on toasted focaccia bread smothered in lime and chili aioli. Topped with black Volcanic ash salt.
Home made Salsa:
1/2 spanish onion, diced
1 avocado in nice small pieces
1 tomato, diced
olive oil, small pinch of chilli and sea salt
Pims Cups: (In each glass)
2 slices of orange with skin
1 long slice of cucumber
A good splash of Pims Number One
Ginger Beer
