VEGAN AND KILLING IT!!!

Hey everyone!!

I haven't posted on here in a long time....But that is because I have been focusing on my youtube channel Vegan and Killing it! There are heaps of vegan recipes there like rose water and raspberry donuts, Oreo brownies and heaps of other vegan treats!

Have a squizz by following the link below and if you would like to know when new episodes come out subscribe to the channel!

Lots of love
Rhi

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKAHza1T16RM7lBwbF6LENA/videos

Raw Cherry, Sandwich cookies

I just had my wisdom teeth out! WAH.

It has been pretty ok for the last 2 days but I am weaning myself off the hard drugs and it is really hurting today :(

Since I have a whole week to recuperate, I thought why not get back to this blogging thing?

I made these this morning but realised I couldn't even eat one. SO SAD! I tried mushing one up in my mouth but it hurt too much and I hasd to stop. Back to my Jelly and Yoghurt for a few more days I think!

Raw Sandwich Cookies with Cherry Cream and Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

Biscuits:

1/2 cup oats - blended into flour (just whack in a high speed blender for a couple of mins.)

1/4 cup raw cacao

10 Mejool dates

Vanilla extract 

Pinch salt 

Cherry Cream:

1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight 

1/4 cup agave 

1 cup fresh or frozen cherries 

Vanilla extract 

1/2 cup  melted coconut oil 

1 1/2 tablespoons lecithin granules

Chocolate Ganache:

2 tablespoons raw cacao

1 tablespoon agave 

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
Pinch of salt

Method:

In a food processor place all ingredients for the biscuits, blend until combined and starting to come together into a ball.
Roll out the ball on some grease proof paper with a rolling pin and cut with a cookie cutter or rim of a water glass.
Place in dehydrator and dehydrate for 3 hours.
If you don't have a dehydrator place in the oven at the lowest temperature until the cookies become firm and dry. 

For the cream, add cherries and 1/2 cup water to blender and blend until smooth, probably 2 or 3 minutes. Once smooth add agave, vanilla and cashews and blend for several minutes.
While that blends, combine melted coconut oil and lecithin granules.
While blender is still on, open lid and pour in coconut oil mixture carefully. 

Place mixture in a large bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours. 

Once cream is set, cover one cookie in a thick layer of cream and squash another cookie on top.
For the ganache, just combine all the ingredients and mix well.

Dip or drizzle the biscuits with ganache and top with a cherry, refrigerate for 30 minutes then eat!

I used a disposable piping bag to pipe the cherry cream in but you could just smear it on with a spoon.

You could easily make them any flavour you wanted really. Strawberry would be yum!

Coconut and strawberry muffins

When I was a kid I never understood what was so good about doughnuts and muffins. They were just kind of dry to me and I would rather have eaten a piece of cake........
BUT things have changed, I still don't really love doughnuts (I would be happy to take suggestions for awesome vegan doughnuts in Melbourne to change my mind) but I absolutely LOVE muffins. The more full of fruit the better. Preferably without chocolate chips but I am really not going to turn any muffin down these days.

These little guys were quick to whip up and really soft straight out of the oven.
Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, egg replacer (1 teaspoon powder mixed with 2 tablespoons water)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 cups rice milk
About 8 chopped strawberries
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1/4 cup shredded coconut


Method:
Combine melted coconut oil and sugar in a bowl and mix well. In a mixing bowl place, flours, baking powder, coconut, vanilla and strawberries. Warm rice milk in the microwave for a minute. If the milk is too cold it will make the coconut oil set and go lumpy.
Add sugar and oil to flour mixture then mix in rice milk and egg replacer. Mix only until combined.
Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.

Top with soy cream cheese. I used 3 Tablespoons of Toffuti cream cheese with some vanilla essence and a squeeze of lemon. Beat it with mixers and about 1/2 a cup of icing sugar. Top muffins with soy cream and a fresh strawberry.

Obviously you can use any berries you like. I think blueberries would be awesome and if you want to use frozen berries that would be fine too.

I just did my first session back at Bikram yoga for about 6 months and I honestly feel amazing. The teacher was great and he explained things in a way that just made sense to me. I am really looking forward to my next class as I think I can really improve with this awesome teacher! 

If you haven't tried it, you def should try a class. Its the best work out ever!! 

Now I won't even feel guilty eating one of these muffins ;)  (Apparently you burn between 700-1000 calories in a class!)

Garden veggie tart!

I love it when you don't think there is any food in your house or at least not enough to make dinner with, then you scrounge around and make something really beautiful without having to leave the house!
This is almost what happened today. My Boyfriends Mum provided me with the freshest and tastiest array of vegetables from her garden last night when we went out for dinner. I knew I wanted to use these tonight but at first couldn't think of a way to use them up. I found some puff pasty in the fridge and came up with a plain old vegetable tart. What a better way to taste all those veggies. I wanted to make it really simple and just make the veggies the main event.

Obviously you can use what ever vegetables you want but I used:
*Zucchini
*Eggplant
*Tomatoes
*Basil
*Green capsicum
*Garlic
*Spanish onion
*Kalamata Olives

I used some vegan puff pastry (borgs) and made a score with a butter knife about 2cm from the edge around the whole perimeter of the pastry. This will make the outside rise. Then I layered on the thinly sliced vegetables, avoiding going beyond that score line. Finished it with some good quality olive oil, a grated clove of garlic and pink salt. Bake it in a moderate oven for about 25 minutes.
If the tart seems to be soggy in the middle but browning on the outside too quickly you can place the tart on a cooling rack and return to the oven so the base can cook through.
Once cooled Top it with some soy cream cheese and a handful of fresh basil!

Very berry breakfast quesadilla

So I moved house!!!
I have sooo much more room for activities and I am so excited to try out all the new possible positions for taking excellent food photos.
My kitchen is about 3 times the size of my old one and it makes cooking so much more enjoyable. I can spread out and make as much mess as I like. ;)

I Made myself this breakfast in my new digs this morning. So quick and easy and uber tasty.
I usually make these 2 ways. The healthy way for me and the more indulgent way for my boyfriend. I will give the recipe for both.

Very berry breakfast quesadilla

Ingredients:
1 large tortilla
4 strawberries
5 raspberries
half  banana
1/4 cup blueberries
1 1/2 Tablespoon peanut butter (home made is best)
1/2 teaspoon stevia powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:
Spread peanut butter on half of the tortilla. Place all cut fruit on the peanut butter making sure the blueberries are stuck down with the peanut butter so they don't roll off. Sprinkle on stevia and salt.
Fold tortilla in half and place on a hot dry frying pan. Flip once lightly browned. Cut into 3rds and eat. You can serve with coconut yoghurt!

Indulgent changes:
*Add an extra tablespoon of peanut butter.
*Instead of stevia powder use 1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar.
* Fry off in a Tablespoon of coconut oil until golden brown

I love photographing fruit!!!


Yall wanna see a photo of my new dining room? Thats right I have a separate dining room for having dinner parties! (small ones, I only have 3 chairs) eep so excited

Super cute isn't it!

Ok back to the Quesadilla.... Here it is after it is cooked.

Raw lemon and Blackberry cookies!!

Oh I am so excited to be back on here. 

Chrissy and New Year have been extremely hectic and I have loved being off work for 3 weeks.

I have been on holiday up in New South Wales in Byron Bay. It was such a great holiday. 

We ate sooo much incredible food and drank many a Margarita. The weather was perfect most of the time so we went sea Kayaking and lots of bike riding. It's good to be home now because that means I can cook again with my brand new..... dehydrator!!!!!! Like a big, bad ass dehydrator I got from my parents for xmas. It's way legit.

So far I have made a million Kale chips, (They are a trap. I use a whole bunch of kale and can eat the whole lot in one sitting once dehydrated) Dried nectarine and dried pear. I haven't had a whole bunch of time to get to use it so today I am trying out these cookies. 

They get the beautiful colour from Blackberries I added. These little gems are in season in Australia right now so paired with lemon they are perfect, and they look cute. 

Raw lemon and blackberry cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup soaked raw nuts. I used almonds and cashews (Soak for at least 2 hours but over night is good)

1 cup coconut flakes (try getting moist coconut)

2 tablespoons sweetener such as maple syrup, agave, raw sugar (I used stevia powder)

1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil 

lemon rind of two lemons and juice of 1 

1/4 cup coconut flour 

3/4 cup blueberries or other berry 

pinch of good salt

Method:

Place soaked nuts, coconut flakes, sweetener, oil, lemon juice and rind and berries in a food processor and process till wet, lumpy texture. Add in 1/4 cup of coconut flour and blend together. The mixture should come together and form balls in the mixer. If the mixture is too wet add more flour. Only add a small amount at a time as coconut flour soaks up heaps of moisture. If you add too much the cookies will crumble. Roll into cookie shapes and dehydrate at about 45-50 degrees celsius for about 2 hours

Anyone got some good dehydrator recipes to share with me?? I also need some of those flexible sheets you can put food on in the dehydrator. Anyone know where i can get those?

When I was in Byron Bay I tried some of these fruit leathers that were made of pureed fruit. Just pureed fruit and then dehydrated. They were really delish. I think that will be my next mission with my trusty dehydrator! Im really getting my collection of bad ass kitchen gear together now, with my Vitamix and my awesome food processor and now my dehydrator. Im basically a professional! lol

XX 

Vegan salami, tomato, and basil pasta bake.

Today we went to the Word vegan day festival in Melbourne.

Thank goodness it was a little less busy that last year. They moved half of the exhibitors into a separate section this year and it really made a big difference.

I basically just ate my face off for a few hours. lol

My boyfriend got a huge burger with loads of cheese and sauce. It looked like it could do with some lettuce but he said it was nice. I had some little 'fish' balls with an amazing creamy potato salad and a slice of buttered bread. It was really nice.
We then headed to Half pint dairy and bought a mini tub of their honeycomb ice cream. It was definitely the best vegan ice cream I have ever had. It was incredibly creamy and so sweet. We also bought a tub of their vegan butter which was great too. I can't wait to have some slathered on a piece of toast with Vegemite! :)

After eating every sample on offer and having a browse through the rest of the stalls I came home to cook this pasta bake for dinner. See always thinking about food. 

Vegan salami, basil and tomato pasta bake

Ingredients:

1 pack Cheatin vegan pepperoni * 

3 Large tomatoes

1 punnet cherry tomatoes 

1 handful basil leaves 

olive oil for frying onions and garlic 

3 cloves garlic 

1 large red chilli 

1/2 red onion 

2 teaspoons dried italian herbs 

3/4 cup water 

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 

1/4 cup nutritional yeast 

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 stick parmesan style cheezly* 

1/4 stick mozzarella style cheezly*

3/4 bag penne pasta

Lots pepper 

salt 

Pesto:

2 big handfuls basil leaves 

squeeze lemon 

3 Tablespoons olive oil 

1/4 cup water 

1 clove garlic 

Nuts or seeds- Seriously chuck in a handfuls of any nuts or seeds you have lying around. I used a Tamari seed mix that had pepitas and sunflowers. 

Method:

Placed chopped onion and garlic in a pan with a glug of oil and fry on a low heat. When onions turn transparent add in chopped salami and chopped chilli and fry lightly. Add dried herbs and torn basil. While frying, chop tomatoes and halve cherry tomatoes. Add to pan with water, vinegar and yeast.

Place pasta in a pot of boiling water and cook for about 4 minutes until only slightly cooked. Drain and add to pot with tomato and salami mixture. 

Either transfer to baking dish or in the same dish if it is oven proof, grate cheese on and sprinkle bread crumbs. 

Bake, covered in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. Removed lid and bake for another 5 minutes. 

While baking prepare pesto. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and season well. 

Serve pasta bake in bowls and spoon on a big blob of pesto. 

Eat! 

I made this pesto quite runny so it would mx into the pasta well. Normally I wouldn't add water.

Pre- baking cheesy goodness shot!

Post baking cheesy goodness shot!!

My mouth is super garlicy after eating this and it is ok with me!! Think I might go back for seconds!

*If you want to buy the salami I used or any of the cheeses I use, you can grab them online from 

Vegan perfection. They also have a bunch of awesome sweets and other dairy alternatives.  http://www.veganperfection.com.au/

Have a jolly good week everyone! xxx