The Healthy Party Girl

One meal I never skip is breakfast. These days I wake up hungry and struggle to function properly until I have had breakfast, and I’m not afraid to admit I’m a bit of a zombie before coffee too. If I go for a run before eating it has to be the “foot out the door before my stomach wakes up” kind of early run. I have breakfast phases but I try and mix it up when I can. I always get annoyed when people are so narrow-minded to question what a Vegan eats for breakfast. I eat cereal or toast like the rest of them, but I have soy milk and Nuttelex, and a few way more interesting things too…

Avocado & tomato bagel

I love a bagel, usually with Better Than Cream Cheese but am also partial to a bit of tomato and avocado as well. Bagels are quite dense, and calorie heavy, so not for everyone. Other toppings could be PB&J, or anything that goes on toast. Until they create a Vegan smoked salmon, my old favourite breakfast is a thing of the past.

Millet, pepitas, almonds, bran, psyllium & raisins

Once when I was staying at my parents’ house, I raided the cupboard for breakfast and found a bunch of random healthy stuff, so I threw it all in a bowl and had it with rice milk as some kind of crazy cereal. Slivered almonds, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), oat bran, millet, psyllium husks and raisins made for quite an interesting mix. Not bad though, could have done with some fresh fruit and/or soy yoghurt.

French toast with grilled pear

If you have bread, non-dairy milk and egg replacer, French toast is easy. If you have cinnamon sugar, maple syrup and pears then French toast is awesome! I just grilled (broiled?) them with brown sugar until they were slightly caramelly and they were perfect with the toast. I think I actually used extra thick raisin toast for this, which made it even better.

Grain roll with spinach, avocado tempeh & cheeze

I am pretty much the Queen of the epic breakfast sandwich. In this case I wasn’t making it to ease a hangover but use up some leftovers, so half a grain roll with sliced, fried Tempeh with Tofutti American cheeze slices on a bed of baby spinach and avocado. Not bad for something thrown together and has a good mix of carbs & protein. Would prefer it with tomato or some other Vitamin C to help absorb the iron from the spinach.

One of my breakfast phases was wholegrain porridge, with various topping from maple syrup to fruit compote to walnuts & banana, but in this case I had stewed apple and sunflower seeds. It’s a great start to winter and for summer just have fresh apple on untoasted muesli and it’s pretty much the same.

Waffles!

My waffle iron comes with a recipe book that has a bunch of different mixtures which are all easily Veganized.  Serve with fresh fruit & maple syrup and it’s easy to impress a guest or yourself. My waffle iron is Sunbeam brand (I think) and they retail for around $20-50 depending on which model you get.

Facon, avocado, tomato, mushroom & toast

Breakfast fry-ups are something I share with my brother B, except he has eggs and bacon, I have tofu & facon, everything else is pretty much the same. If we can be bothered we get hash browns too. An awesome weekend breakfast, or put it all in a sandwich (except the mushrooms, really) or a bagel (maybe add cheeze and tomato sauce) and have an epic breakfast sandwich!

Now try and tell me that I am missing out on awesome breakfasts, eh? I get to have healthy breakfast, hearty breakfasts AND treat breakfasts. I never feel like I’m missing out. Ever.

What’s your favourite breakfast? What do you actually end up having most days?

Everyone needs an emergency back-up post from time to time and this one is mine. 20-30 posts in a month is  a lot of work and half of the struggle is finding topics to blog about and the time to blog about them. Lucky in my VeganMoFo blogroll I have 800+ blogs to steal borrow ideas from, so if you see this post it means I didn’t have time to write one ;)

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
I haven’t experimented a lot with non-dairy milks but soy and almond have been great so far, especially the low fat varieties.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning/planned to cook?
Pumpkin/pecan pie, candy corn, seitan.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Nothing.. or sea salt! Or caramel, possibly with crushed nuts… Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs anyone?

 4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Once I made bread and mixed up the salt & sugar. Even though it tasted like Playdough I drowned it in jam and ate it anyway because I was too proud to admit defeat.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Dill pickles and ginger! Also the Japanese side-dish pickles. Also the pickles in burgers and cocktail onions and beetroot… umm… a lot?

 6. How do you organize your recipes?
I don’t. I have a couple of books, a few bookmarks and a few magazines but that’s it. I’m not a big recipe person.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
I live in an apartment and we have rubbish and recycling collection only. I had an incident with an Insinkerator once I don’t want to talk about.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Wholemeal bagels, Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Tropical Fruit Salad (hah! cheated)

 9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Being at a party and eating too many lollies, then the amazement on the host parents’ face when I shyly asked if they had any carrots. Love my veg!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
The best I have access to is Tofutti cuties. They’re awesome. Dying to try Coconut Bliss though, I found something similar and it wasn’t vegan, although it was dairy & egg free. Ugh.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
My Starbuck’s 4 cup filtered coffee machine. Followed closely by the George Forman grill at my parents’ house (until I manage to steal it) and my waffle iron.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
The powdered vegetable stock with the bits in it. I forget what it’s called. Also the Japanese chilli powder with black sesame seeds.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Probably my Donna Hay cookbooks.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Strawberry or Raspberry. Boring, I know.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
I have a few that I like to “Surprise, it’s Vegan!” people with, I try to make different things each time.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Seitan because I don’t understand it so it’s a treat food for me. Then tempeh because it’s so hearty, then tofu, but I love them all.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Breakfast! I love breakfast foods. Nothing like a big ol’ veggie fry up, or pancakes, waffles, epic breakfast bagels, porridge, etc…

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
An Oreo branded mini basketball backboard & net that fell off the side.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
A half full bottle of vodka, frozen vegetables and wholemeal pizza bases. Oh, and bread.
Here’s a photo I prepared earlier… I actually had a photo of my freezer contents in my phone, so there. What of it.

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Literally, from the list in my pocket; Bagels, new toothbrush, kitty litter, coat hangers, salad, vegetables, peanut butter, tempeh/tofu, beans in cans, mozzarella Cheezly, Better Than Cream Cheese, coffee, filter papers, kitten food, soy milk.

21. Favorite grocery store?
Habib Wholefoods, Radical Grocery, Macro Wholefoods (gone now), Thomas Dux

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
Heaps of stuff form Donna Hay, I can’t even choose. Turducken might happen one day. Ha.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Actually I don’t read Isa’s. I think that calls for a #badvegan? To make up for it, you may have my Top 5. If y’all would like to recommend me more, go for it.
Easy As Vegan Pie
Vegan Crunk
Carrie on Vegan
Where’s The Beef?
JL Goes Vegan

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Red Vines.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
I bought Kale chips (1 bag for $7.50 or 2 for $10), but I’ve been poor & conservative lately so my protein shake tub, even at the price I get it for is probably the most.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
I’m scared to make seitan, but I’ll get there. Nutritional yeast (the work “nooch” creeps me out), probably agar as well.

I love beer and pizza as much as the next guy. Working at a laser tag centre with a pizza kitchen as a teenager (okay, and working there again now) meant lots of staff pizza heavy with cheese and not much else, maybe some ham & pepperoni (ew). I also had quite an affinity for BBQ chicken pizza for some time during my teenage years… Once I got over that and remembered my lactose intolerance, I didn’t eat pizza for ages and when I did it was a vegetarian without cheese on thin base… so pretty much exactly the same as I would order now if I was getting pizza delivered! The only Vegan pizza place (at least near me), Plush Pizza, closed down a few months ago and I resent having to pay through the nose for a pizza I can stomach at a gourmet shop, and I can tell you that making pizza bases at work with just tomato paste and garlic are pretty boring. 

There was a delivery error at work recently and I scored a bunch of thin wholemeal pizza bases. When we had a “Girls watching the Footy” night, I made pizzas and sweet potato fries and we drank Sailor Jerry & dry. Yum! The pizza was pumpkin purée, with soy cheese and rosemary, baked in the oven and then topped with fresh roquette (arugula). It was pretty awesometown. I was a bit inspired by the Organico pizza at Lucky Coq/Bimbo Deluxe which was my favourite but since I found out they use the brand of soy cheese that still contains rennet, I haven’t gone back for it.

Pumpkin, rosemary & mini-chol with roquette

The next one I made got interrupted, as I had oven issues (like learning how to use it) and then my lift to my dance workshop arrived just as the timer went off, so we ended up sharing it after class. I used a plain tomato and basil pasta sauce as a base and put spinach, mushrooms, red capsicum, tomatoes, olives, pine nuts and crumbled Cheezly over the top. It was heaven post workout. I grabbed a photo before I put it in the oven but because I turned the oven off and ran out the door, it wasn’t as photo-fresh when I got back. Still amazing to eat though.

Before it went into the oven

 Here’s my most recent creation – leftovers pizza. Which I feel is pretty much what pizza was invented for anyway, right? It collected pumpkin purée, zucchini, eggplant,  red capsicum, broccoli, vegie roast, red onion and mini-chol soy cheese. Loved it. Actually found it so filling that I could only eat half, even post-run. I took two slices to a friend to prove I can cook/assemble and two slices to go with my lunch salad the next day. Really happy with how it turned out. I’m a bit fussy with organizing my toppings though, I’d hate to have someone watch me and think I have OCD. Hah.

Leftovers pizza

I also made a garlic pizza last weekend using Nuttelex, garlic and mixed herbs and then just cut it into small triangles and served in a bowl as an afternoon snack with my housemate & guests. So quick & easy. I’m definitely going to keep some bases in my freezer now that I’ve used them a few times with great results. The ones I use are Bazaar Wholemeal bases. Bazaar make individual serve bases as well but I haven’t seen them in wholemeal yet. I tend to eat a whole pizza anyway because it’s mainly vegetables. Just keep me away from the garlic bread, I will inhale that stuff!!

What’s your favourite pizza topping?

When I was growing up, I struggled to see the appeal of Mexican food. To me it was just nachos and tacos which came from packet mixes and jars, with heaps of cheese, sour cream, over-cooked mince and were pretty much just the lazy teenager’s parent-free meal option. I did partake in the occasional nacho bowl alongside jugs of beer at Uni, but otherwise, Old El Paso left me cold. Mexican went down the bottom on the list of preferred cuisines. Slowly, over the last couple of years, things have changed…

The first seed that got planted was probably when I found the Vegan Quesadilla recipe in Skinny Bitch and decided that maybe Mexican food didn’t have to be the sludgy cheese & sour cream-fest that I thought it was. This became a semi-regular meal option for me because it was so easy. The combination of tortillas, kidney beans, avocado, salsa and vegan cheese was way too exciting, and given I generally had all the inside ingredients, I just had to get tortillas from my local grocer and bang, instant comfort food.

Then I discovered the Vegie-packed bowl at Salsa’s in Westfield Doncaster after a pole session with one of my besties. She was raving about Salsa’s and after I tried this menu item, I was sold. It had frijoles, onion & capsicum, broccoli & zucchini, salsa, salsa fresca, guacamole, coriander & lime rice and I just ordered it without cheese or ranch sauce. Amazing. Pretty much everything you look for in a Vegan meal – carbohydrates, protein, good fats, vegetables and enough food to actually fill you sufficiently.

Vegie packed bowl at Salsa's

Living in Richmond with a guy friend meant plenty of weekends scoping out pre- & post-drinking semi-healthy meals. Taco Bill lured me in with fishbowl margaritas and the Vegetarian Combinacion but after I stopped eating dairy completely, they had much less to offer. Ensalada Verde with a side of frijoles and corn chips with salsa is pretty good for a light meal, or build your own with sides of tortillas, salsa, frijoles & guacamole, unless they have the Vegetarian Fajita on the specials board. That sizzling plate is boss. We ended up going to Taco Bill and Mexicali Rose (a slightly further but better quality option) for work lunches and I started to come around.

Vegie packed Burrito at Salsa's

Meanwhile, a new restaurant opened in Melbourne called Mamasita. No bookings, just rock up and hope to get a seat – but the wait is worth it! A few of us went to try their quesadilla and the well-priced meals and amazing food impressed us greatly, their traditional Mexican menu meant Old El Paso was left well behind in distant memories and replaced with Tostaditas, real Tacos with all sorts of fillings and amazing ‘Comida para la familia’, plus proper Mexican beers and heaps of Veganizable menu options. In fact, last time I went with my brother earlier this year, the waitress was sad that she hadn’t known ahead of time that I was Vegan to offer extra appetiser options. Bless!

Tostada's at Mamasita

In Adelaide I was already seeking out somewhere to get some Mexican flavours while I was over for a conference, and fell in love with Zambrero. Basically, I walked in and they were playing Dashboard Confessional and when I told the server that I’m Vegan he said “no problem!” and told me everything I could and couldn’t eat, wrapped me up a huge burrito and I sat quite happily enjoying a lunch beer and burrito with my happy face on. Then I realised I was hooked… I started searching for a “Fresh Mex” place near me and campaigned Salsa’s to open a store near my house in Richmond. It happened, after I moved to Camberwell. D’oh.

Naked burrito at Mad Mex

But I found Mad Mex, an awesome place to get a ‘naked burrito’ near work (I sit and enjoy a Jarrito soft drink and perve on hot tattooed skaters, it’s Windsor, come on), Salsa’s is still near the studio that I train in, and Taco Bill is near my house in case I really need a fix. But Mamasita is definitely a must-visit when anyone is here from out of town… or just because.

Vegie fajita at Taco Bill

Now, I’m quite happy to admit that Mexican cuisine is my favourite, especially since my previous favourite, Japanese, is so heavy with seafood products and Buddhist Japanese cuisine is a lot harder to find… so that is part of the reason why I’m more interested in travelling to the US and Mexico now than before, when I was all about going to Japan and eating for two weeks and why I love reading all of your blogs about Taco Trucks (hola, Seabirds!), empanadas and cornbread. Plus, playing the computer game Grim Fandango has left me obsessed with Dia de los Muertos, which doesn’t help. I’ve even realised my salads get pretty Mexinspired too…

I was trying to get photos for this post but there are so many pictures of burritos and Mexi-salads and vegie bowls it’s getting silly. Yes, my name is Ceri and I’m a Mexi-holic.

Salsa’s – www.salsas.com.au
Taco Bill – www.tacobill.com.au
Mamasita – www.mamasita.com.au – 1/11 Collins St, Melbourne, ph: (03) 9650 3821
Zambrero – www.zambrero.com
Mad Mex –  www.madmex.com.au

Also… Trippy Taco on Smith St, which I haven’t listed here because for some reason I had no photos… it’s all Vegan and it’s amazing. They even have Vegan dessert quesadillas. Go.