Hello! It's been about five months since I last blogged, shame on me. I have no valid reasons other than I am incredibly lazy :)

But I figured since I am attending Vida Vegan Con, a conference for vegan bloggers, I had better start blogging again! And fortunately I made something worth posting about :)

On the weekend I went to Pure, one of my fave cafes (although I am sad to report that they have added chicken, beef and bacon to their menu). While paying for my pancakes I noticed some Raw bars and I purchased two of them, Sesame Nougat and Lemon Macadamia. The sesame one was indeed very sesame-y and was soft like fudge. The Lemon Macadamia was delicious and so lemony.


But, they were $5 a pop and it occurred to me that I have made bars similar to them before so why not again? Mine aren't Raw as I just used what I had on hand, but they are yummo.





Lemon Macadamia Cherry Bars

Happy end of VeganMoFo, everyone! This month has flown by (as it always does) and it was FUN! I have saved the best until last, today I will be sharing a bunch of photos of my 3 cats and vegan food!

I've done similar posts in previous VeganMoFos (here and here) and you guys probably know Maya and Myena well but this year we got a new kitten, Molly, introduced on the blog here and featured in a vlog here.

Sometimes they're all circling and I managed to get all of them in this photo (Maya is just up in the top left corner)



Maya and Myena are both about six years old now and they have mellowed out a lot. They used to be keen to investigate any food I photographed but these days they sit back and let me photograph.



On the other hand, Molly thinks food photography = meal time! She is always up in everything and doesn't understand why all the foods are not for her!

Actually, I made beet burgers but I just wanted an excuse to link you guys to one of my favourite songs. You should have it playing while you read this post ... go on!

Quarter Pounder Beet Burgers

I first heard of this recipe from the PPK via River who is such a clever and creative cook - she made some in the shape of dead men for Halloweegan! I am not so creative and stuck with rounds *sad trombone*

The recipe is already soy free and easy to make gluten free by using gf bread crumbs. I am loving all these burgers recipes lately that are rice and lentil/bean based.

The mixture looked a bit like mince and smelt just like the burgers my parents used to make us, herby and oniony without that awful metallic-blood smell. I remember loving those burgers and it's when I first discovered that the best condiments for a burger are tomato sauce and mayo.


I don't have a cast iron pan so I just used a new frying pan and managed to get a bit of colour on these burgers. Also, I made them a lot smaller than suggested because they had to fit on my little Schar Panini buns.

What a stack! These burgers were so mini and cute but still so filling and full of flavour. The texture of the burgers is soft but with a nice graininess thanks to the rice. They went well will all the toppings and they're also really good minus the bun but with extra salad which is how I will be enjoying a couple of these today for lunch.


I will leave you with a beet burger close up and I hope that you'll give this recipe a try if you're in need of a burger-fix!

I got a bit ahead of myself and thought today was the second last day of VeganMoFo only it's not, which is ok, this has been a lot of gun (as usual!)

Today I want to show you guys some rolls I've been making that are vegan, gluten free, soy free and easy to bake.

Sweet Potato Damper Rolls

The recipe comes from Allergy-free Cooking for Kids which I mentioned last VeganMoFo. The book is divided up into dairy free, egg free and gluten free but a lot of recipes also cross over and a lot are vegan, like these rolls if you sub the butter for vegan margarine.

They contain about half a cup of cooked and mashed sweet potato, giving them their lovely orange hue.


I want to share the recipe but won't since it's from a book. I've been working on my own version because they rely on a store-bought gluten free flour mix and I want to come up with a recipe that anyone can make even if you don't have access to packaged gf flour mixes. So stay tuned ;)

The first time I made them I served them alongside some stew cooked up in the pressure cooker. This is the African Sweet Potato Stew from Vegan Planet - you can find a version of it here.


Yum! This almost makes me miss winter... almost ;)

Thanks to everyone who commented so positively in regards to the vlog that I shared yesterday - you're all so lovely and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'll be sure to do some more in the future :)

As for today, I've made a bunch of cookies this year and thought I'd feature them all together.

Linzertorte Thumbprint Cookies

This recipe is from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. The combination of hazelnut and raspberry was calling to me and I had to give in. I replaced the flour with 1C brown rice and 1/4C of both potato and tapioca.


These were fantastic, I loved the hazelnutty flavour thanks to the hazelnut butter as well as the chopped nuts and the raspberry jam was the perfection filling.


Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies

The photo of these was labelled as "Chocolate Chip Something Cookies" for a while because I couldn't remember what they were but after flicking through VCIYCJ this morning, I realised they were the Choc Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies. I replaced the oats with quinoa flakes and flour with 1C brown rice and 1/3C of both potato and tapioca.

They turned out very soft, oily and sweet but they had a really good flavour.


I decided to try making them again but this time reducing the sugar and oil and while they still tasted ok you can see they turned out with lots of cracks on top

Cookbook Haul Vlog:

Mentioned in the vlog:

I got two new cookbooks this week! The first is Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner. I have been hearing good, good things about this book and we're really excited to starting making some of these recipes.

And as most readers will know, my favourite cookbook ever is Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero so I was really excited to pre-order her new book, Vegan Eats World! The Book Depo sent my copy out early and it looks fantastic! It's hardback, with lots of photos and I can't wait to sit down and bookmark the heck out of this book!

Have you guys treated yo' selves to any new cookbooks, lately?

I'm back with another amazing meal from Appetite for Reduction!


Butternut Coconut Rice

I wasn't sure about this recipe because it contains butternut pumpkin but the idea of coconut + rice was too good to pass up. The recipe is already gluten and soy free so I didn't have to make any changes.

Broiled Blackened Tofu Mushies

This recipe is originally for tofu but mushrooms worked really well, to make it gluten free I left out the tamari and added some extra salt.

Both of these sides were full of flavour and nice and spicy. And all of these elements went really well together, yum. Like salad I posted about yesterday, this is another meal I want to make again and again.

Thanks for the suggestions yesterday, I'll be trying out some of your fave AFR recipes :)