Gluten Free Lifestyle Bakery Giveaway

Lifestyle Bakery kindly offered to send me some of their products to sample and to offer an extra package to one of you lucky readers. All of these products featured here are both gluten free and vegan. Toby was impressed that there wasn't any weird preservatives in these products too.

The first product that I tried was their mulitgrain buns, you can eat them plain but I preferred them toasted. We chose to eat them with vegan sloppy joes. The buns kind of reminded me of damper, although it has been a long time since I had damper.  They did become a little soggy after a while but had a good taste. Whilst I enjoyed them, this was probably my least favourite product but then I'm yet to have a gf bun that I have thought was close to regular buns, I guess it's one of the harder gf things to replicate. I used to prefer crusty buns whereas gf buns tend to be quite soft.

Next up I tried their award winning chia seed toast. I was relieved to discover that all of their breads were already sliced since most gf bread are not and I hate slicing bread. This was my favourite. I decided to make a toasted sandwich out of it using tomatoes and cheezly. It went a nice golden brown, was not tiny like other gf toast, had a pleasant flavour, was quite filling and as an added bonus chia seeds are healthy! I will certainly be buying this again.

Next up was the plain white toast, this was slightly burnt (my fault), but I was pleased to see that it could go so brown as other varieties of gluten free bread struggle to go brown and have that lovely toasted texture. This did closely resemble the taste of regular white toast although had a slightly different texture inside, basically it crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside but that's not an unpleasant thing. It is mostly made of maize, soya, potato and rice flour. Doesn't it look like regular white toast?

I was so excited about the pizza bases, we tried it with shredded smoked tofu, tomato paste, pineapple and cheezly. This was probably my second fave of their products.

The texture was quite bready, like a thick pizza base and again quite filling and without any unusual weird flavour. Toby and I agreed that we preferred this to other gf pizza bases we have tried at home.

Next up I used the bread crumbs to make these tvp burgers (replacing the flour with a mixture of bread crumbs and chickpea flour). I wasn't a massive fan of the burger pattie flavours but thought that the bread crumbs worked and tasted pretty similar to regular breadcrumbs. This one pictured had bread crumbs inside, but the others had extra breadcrumbs on the outside and BBQed well (more on that later).

Lastly I tried the fruit toast. I'm not a huge fan of fruit toast but this had a nice subtle cinnamon flavour and again was super filling, I only needed 2 slices to fill me up.At first I just had it with margarine (nuttelex) but when I run out tried it with coconut oil which worked really well with the flavours.

To enter the giveaway all you have to do:

• Like the Lifestyle Bakery page on facebook and/or twitter 
• Leave a comment here answering the question: what is your favourite sandwich filling? and telling me which page you have liked/followed. 
• Winner will be announced on Sunday 29th May night so you have until Sunday 29th at 1pm (eastern standard time) to enter. 
• Entries restricted to people in Australia.

And number generator decided that comment 20: Maree is the winner.

I will forward your email address to lifestyle bakery so they can arrange to send you your package. Congrats!

Lifestyle Bakery kindly offered to send me some of their products to sample and to offer an extra package to one of you lucky readers. All of these products featured here are both gluten free and vegan. Toby was impressed that there wasn't any weird preservatives in these products too.

The first product that I tried was their mulitgrain buns, you can eat them plain but I preferred them toasted. We chose to eat them with vegan sloppy joes. The buns kind of reminded me of damper, although it has been a long time since I had damper.  They did become a little soggy after a while but had a good taste. Whilst I enjoyed them, this was probably my least favourite product but then I'm yet to have a gf bun that I have thought was close to regular buns, I guess it's one of the harder gf things to replicate. I used to prefer crusty buns whereas gf buns tend to be quite soft.

Next up I tried their award winning chia seed toast. I was relieved to discover that all of their breads were already sliced since most gf bread are not and I hate slicing bread. This was my favourite. I decided to make a toasted sandwich out of it using tomatoes and cheezly. It went a nice golden brown, was not tiny like other gf toast, had a pleasant flavour, was quite filling and as an added bonus chia seeds are healthy! I will certainly be buying this again.

Next up was the plain white toast, this was slightly burnt (my fault), but I was pleased to see that it could go so brown as other varieties of gluten free bread struggle to go brown and have that lovely toasted texture. This did closely resemble the taste of regular white toast although had a slightly different texture inside, basically it crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside but that's not an unpleasant thing. It is mostly made of maize, soya, potato and rice flour. Doesn't it look like regular white toast?

I was so excited about the pizza bases, we tried it with shredded smoked tofu, tomato paste, pineapple and cheezly. This was probably my second fave of their products.

The texture was quite bready, like a thick pizza base and again quite filling and without any unusual weird flavour. Toby and I agreed that we preferred this to other gf pizza bases we have tried at home.

Next up I used the bread crumbs to make these tvp burgers (replacing the flour with a mixture of bread crumbs and chickpea flour). I wasn't a massive fan of the burger pattie flavours but thought that the bread crumbs worked and tasted pretty similar to regular breadcrumbs. This one pictured had bread crumbs inside, but the others had extra breadcrumbs on the outside and BBQed well (more on that later).

Lastly I tried the fruit toast. I'm not a huge fan of fruit toast but this had a nice subtle cinnamon flavour and again was super filling, I only needed 2 slices to fill me up.At first I just had it with margarine (nuttelex) but when I run out tried it with coconut oil which worked really well with the flavours.

To enter the giveaway all you have to do:

• Like the Lifestyle Bakery page on facebook and/or twitter 
• Leave a comment here answering the question: what is your favourite sandwich filling? and telling me which page you have liked/followed. 
• Winner will be announced on Sunday 29th May night so you have until Sunday 29th at 1pm (eastern standard time) to enter. 
• Entries restricted to people in Australia.

And number generator decided that comment 20: Maree is the winner.

I will forward your email address to lifestyle bakery so they can arrange to send you your package. Congrats!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Tartex

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. This breakfast/snack is so simple that I questioned blogging it but I've lost my blogging mojo lately so it's either this or nothing at the moment.

I'm fond of tartex, as you may remember from my greasy crazy fried tartex experiment. If your not familiar tartex it's a brand of vegetarian pate from Germany, they have a wide range of flavours too! I remember when we were leaving Germany we had some in our hand luggage and a security man stopped us and said that we shouldn't have it since it was over the liquid limit but they would let it go since they also loved tartex. I even saw it sold in a large chemist!

So this simple lazy pairing involved tomatoes from our friend Troy's graden which were friggin out of the world. Seriously who knew that such tiny tomatoes could be bursting with so much flavour? 

And some shittake asia tartex, which is out favourite flavour so far. Anikee (from radical grocery) swears the pesto flavour is the best but we haven't tried it yet. And a tiny bit of shaved cheddar cheezly all served on some g/f toast. Seriously this was perfect!

What is your favourite tartex flavour?

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. This breakfast/snack is so simple that I questioned blogging it but I've lost my blogging mojo lately so it's either this or nothing at the moment.

I'm fond of tartex, as you may remember from my greasy crazy fried tartex experiment. If your not familiar tartex it's a brand of vegetarian pate from Germany, they have a wide range of flavours too! I remember when we were leaving Germany we had some in our hand luggage and a security man stopped us and said that we shouldn't have it since it was over the liquid limit but they would let it go since they also loved tartex. I even saw it sold in a large chemist!

So this simple lazy pairing involved tomatoes from our friend Troy's graden which were friggin out of the world. Seriously who knew that such tiny tomatoes could be bursting with so much flavour? 

And some shittake asia tartex, which is out favourite flavour so far. Anikee (from radical grocery) swears the pesto flavour is the best but we haven't tried it yet. And a tiny bit of shaved cheddar cheezly all served on some g/f toast. Seriously this was perfect!

What is your favourite tartex flavour?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

The desserts on Elana's Pantry look amazing but the idea of importing some sort of special blanched almond flour just seemed a little too extreme even for me. So I was grateful when Toby come across blanched almond meal in Brunswick IGA. It wasn't cheap, it cost a little over $11 for 500 grams. I was a little worried though, I didn't want to buy some super expensive almond meal which didn't work in her recipes. Particularly because she says that you need to use certain brands of blanched almond flour since others don't work with her recipes.

I used lindt dark chocolate and cut it into tiny chunks and made her famous cookies.

Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies from Elana's Pantry

2 ½ cups blanched almond flour

½ teaspoon celtic sea salt (i used regular sea salt)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Form ½ inch balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet
5. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes
6. Cool and serve

Makes 24 cookies

I put them in the oven for a few minutes more than the recipes asked for but they were still quite soft so I was a little skeptical but after cooling for what seemed like forever they eventually firmed up and had a soft but wonderful texture kind of like mrs field cookies. Although, I made one mistake with this recipe and used dark agave. I thought that dark agave and regular agave were interchangeable in recipes but it turns out that dark agave has quite a strong flavour unlike it's neutral counterpart. So while these cookeis were delicious the dark agave really overpowered the other flavours.

To make up for the strong flavour I made some ice cream sandwiches to take to a friends house. I actually made ice cream to put inside but couldn't find the crucial part of our ice cream maker so had to settle for so good chocolate ice cream inside. I think the chocolate ice cream was a bit too much and I'm not really sure if our friends enjoyed them.

But I have high hopes for the recipe with regular agave and plan to make them properly very soon because the texture is so bloody awesome for a gf baked good and I can tell that they will taste great without the strong agave flavour.

In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for dark agave recipes?

The desserts on Elana's Pantry look amazing but the idea of importing some sort of special blanched almond flour just seemed a little too extreme even for me. So I was grateful when Toby come across blanched almond meal in Brunswick IGA. It wasn't cheap, it cost a little over $11 for 500 grams. I was a little worried though, I didn't want to buy some super expensive almond meal which didn't work in her recipes. Particularly because she says that you need to use certain brands of blanched almond flour since others don't work with her recipes.

I used lindt dark chocolate and cut it into tiny chunks and made her famous cookies.

Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies from Elana's Pantry

2 ½ cups blanched almond flour

½ teaspoon celtic sea salt (i used regular sea salt)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Form ½ inch balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet
5. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes
6. Cool and serve

Makes 24 cookies

I put them in the oven for a few minutes more than the recipes asked for but they were still quite soft so I was a little skeptical but after cooling for what seemed like forever they eventually firmed up and had a soft but wonderful texture kind of like mrs field cookies. Although, I made one mistake with this recipe and used dark agave. I thought that dark agave and regular agave were interchangeable in recipes but it turns out that dark agave has quite a strong flavour unlike it's neutral counterpart. So while these cookeis were delicious the dark agave really overpowered the other flavours.

To make up for the strong flavour I made some ice cream sandwiches to take to a friends house. I actually made ice cream to put inside but couldn't find the crucial part of our ice cream maker so had to settle for so good chocolate ice cream inside. I think the chocolate ice cream was a bit too much and I'm not really sure if our friends enjoyed them.

But I have high hopes for the recipe with regular agave and plan to make them properly very soon because the texture is so bloody awesome for a gf baked good and I can tell that they will taste great without the strong agave flavour.

In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for dark agave recipes?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Beetroot Pepperoni and Pizza Base Comparison

As soon as we received beetroot in our food co op box last week, I thought here is my chance to make the beetroot pepperoni, I've been intrigued by the idea since I saw it on diet dessert and dogs.

Beetroot Pepperoni from diet dessert and dogs

3-4 very small fresh beets, peeled and sliced extremely thin

1 Tbsp (15 ml) extra virgin olive oil, preferably organic

2 Tbsp (30 ml) Bragg’s liquid aminos OR tamari OR soy sauce

1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable broth

1/4-1/2 tsp (1-2.5 ml) liquid smoke, to your taste*

1 tsp (5 ml) apple cider vinegar

2-3 drops plain stevia liquid or 1/4 tsp (1 ml) sugar

1/4 tsp (1 ml) garlic powder

1/4 tsp (1 ml) onion powder

1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground mustard

1/4 tsp (1 ml) fennel (ground is preferred)

1/8 tsp (.5 ml) sage

1/4 tsp (1 ml) smoked or regular paprika

Preheat oven to 325F (170 C).

Place everything except the beets in the bottom of a 9-inch (22.5 cm) square glass pan or a casserole dish and combine well.  Add the beet slices and toss to coat them all; spread them out as well as you can (overlapping slices is okay). 

Bake the slices, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and flip them over and around to re-coat them with marinade and switch the bottom slices to the top and top to the bottom as much as possible. Continue to bake and stir them up every 10-15 minutes until they have absorbed most of the marinade, are very soft, and begin to curl and crisp at the edges. Remove from oven and set aside until you need them for the pizza.

It was a bit time consuming to make, cooking for at least 60 minutes in total before it was ready and didn't taste exactly taste like pepperoni but had a lovely salty/smokey flavour.

We used half of it on our cream cheese pasta leftovers and then I had to make pizza. We both preferred it on pizza as it become slightly crispy. I purchased two ready made crusts to make the pizza. The Dovedail rice chia pizza bases from the health food store and the simply wise pizza crust from coles. The dovedail package contained 2 bases and the simply wise packet contained 3.

Here is the simply wise ones, which are smaller than the dovedail ones. I put the same topping on each pizza- Leggo's pizza sauce, cheddar cheezly, beetroot pepperoni slices, smoked tofu, pineapple pieces and capsicum. The toppings were a surprisingly good combination. The instructions said to bake the bases for 7-10 minutes but I ended up baking them for about 20 minutes.  These pizza bases are made from mostly rice flour, tapioca and potato starch. They also contain herbs in the actual base which we couldn't really taste.




They are thinner and kind of crunchy and Toby I agreed that we preferred this option as he said 'it's not bad for gluten free pizza'. Although it still kind of still felt like it was slightly under cooked in the middle.




I've used the same size plate so you can see the slightly bigger size difference with the dovedail bases. There are not as many ingredients in these as they mostly consist of rice flour and chia seeds so they appear to be the healthier option.






And here's an inside shot. The instructions didn't say how long to cook for, but I cooked these for about 20 minutes. These were fine, but in comparison they were quite doughy and kind of felt like we eating pizza on top of warm bread.



The simply wize bases were $6.45 from coles and I think the dovedail bases were a similar price if not slightly more.  While the dovedail bases were slightly larger in circumference and thicker there was only 2, so the 3 simply wize ones work out to be better value.  In our mind the simply wize were superior in terms of texture and they are also more convenient too since most coles seem to stock them in the health food section. We will definitely make them again. I'm embarrassed to say that we ate all 5 pizzas on Friday night but were extremely full. I think that 3 would be fine served with some salad and/or garlic bread for 2 regular eaters. Since Toby doesn't count :P

As soon as we received beetroot in our food co op box last week, I thought here is my chance to make the beetroot pepperoni, I've been intrigued by the idea since I saw it on diet dessert and dogs.

Beetroot Pepperoni from diet dessert and dogs

3-4 very small fresh beets, peeled and sliced extremely thin

1 Tbsp (15 ml) extra virgin olive oil, preferably organic

2 Tbsp (30 ml) Bragg’s liquid aminos OR tamari OR soy sauce

1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable broth

1/4-1/2 tsp (1-2.5 ml) liquid smoke, to your taste*

1 tsp (5 ml) apple cider vinegar

2-3 drops plain stevia liquid or 1/4 tsp (1 ml) sugar

1/4 tsp (1 ml) garlic powder

1/4 tsp (1 ml) onion powder

1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground mustard

1/4 tsp (1 ml) fennel (ground is preferred)

1/8 tsp (.5 ml) sage

1/4 tsp (1 ml) smoked or regular paprika

Preheat oven to 325F (170 C).

Place everything except the beets in the bottom of a 9-inch (22.5 cm) square glass pan or a casserole dish and combine well.  Add the beet slices and toss to coat them all; spread them out as well as you can (overlapping slices is okay). 

Bake the slices, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and flip them over and around to re-coat them with marinade and switch the bottom slices to the top and top to the bottom as much as possible. Continue to bake and stir them up every 10-15 minutes until they have absorbed most of the marinade, are very soft, and begin to curl and crisp at the edges. Remove from oven and set aside until you need them for the pizza.

It was a bit time consuming to make, cooking for at least 60 minutes in total before it was ready and didn't taste exactly taste like pepperoni but had a lovely salty/smokey flavour.

We used half of it on our cream cheese pasta leftovers and then I had to make pizza. We both preferred it on pizza as it become slightly crispy. I purchased two ready made crusts to make the pizza. The Dovedail rice chia pizza bases from the health food store and the simply wise pizza crust from coles. The dovedail package contained 2 bases and the simply wise packet contained 3.

Here is the simply wise ones, which are smaller than the dovedail ones. I put the same topping on each pizza- Leggo's pizza sauce, cheddar cheezly, beetroot pepperoni slices, smoked tofu, pineapple pieces and capsicum. The toppings were a surprisingly good combination. The instructions said to bake the bases for 7-10 minutes but I ended up baking them for about 20 minutes.  These pizza bases are made from mostly rice flour, tapioca and potato starch. They also contain herbs in the actual base which we couldn't really taste.




They are thinner and kind of crunchy and Toby I agreed that we preferred this option as he said 'it's not bad for gluten free pizza'. Although it still kind of still felt like it was slightly under cooked in the middle.




I've used the same size plate so you can see the slightly bigger size difference with the dovedail bases. There are not as many ingredients in these as they mostly consist of rice flour and chia seeds so they appear to be the healthier option.






And here's an inside shot. The instructions didn't say how long to cook for, but I cooked these for about 20 minutes. These were fine, but in comparison they were quite doughy and kind of felt like we eating pizza on top of warm bread.



The simply wize bases were $6.45 from coles and I think the dovedail bases were a similar price if not slightly more.  While the dovedail bases were slightly larger in circumference and thicker there was only 2, so the 3 simply wize ones work out to be better value.  In our mind the simply wize were superior in terms of texture and they are also more convenient too since most coles seem to stock them in the health food section. We will definitely make them again. I'm embarrassed to say that we ate all 5 pizzas on Friday night but were extremely full. I think that 3 would be fine served with some salad and/or garlic bread for 2 regular eaters. Since Toby doesn't count :P

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Vegan Vienetta Style Ice Cream Cake and Rishon Foods

Every time we got to Monk Bodhi Dhama we have to go to Rishons Foods.  We even avoid going to MBD on Saturdays because that's when Rishon Foods is closed.

Rishons (as we call it) is a Jewish supermarket which sells all sorts of vegan goodies that you can't find anywhere else like nutty chews, which are like tiny vegan version of snickers bars.

Pic taken from Amazon:

They also a variety of gluten free products and heaps of vegan ice cream alternatives like Minies.

But perhaps my favourite is the vegan style Vienetta ice cream cake which isn't always there. It generally comes in two varieties and I was pleased to see that it is g/f. Unfortunately this time we accidentally chose the mocha one which has real coffee in it. Unlike Toby, I hate coffee! It upsets my stomach quite badly and gives me heart palpitations plus I don't really like the flavour, But Toby and our friends Ann and Adam enjoyed this.



Next time I'll buy the regular vanilla variety which tastes exactly as I remembered the vienetta style ice cream cake, although it has been about 8 years since I tried the real thing. I love the thin layers of chocolate between the ice cream.

Check out Cindy's description and picture of Rishon Foods here


Rishon Foods
23 William St Balaclava
9527 5142

Remember it's closed on Sat!

Every time we got to Monk Bodhi Dhama we have to go to Rishons Foods.  We even avoid going to MBD on Saturdays because that's when Rishon Foods is closed.

Rishons (as we call it) is a Jewish supermarket which sells all sorts of vegan goodies that you can't find anywhere else like nutty chews, which are like tiny vegan version of snickers bars.

Pic taken from Amazon:

They also a variety of gluten free products and heaps of vegan ice cream alternatives like Minies.

But perhaps my favourite is the vegan style Vienetta ice cream cake which isn't always there. It generally comes in two varieties and I was pleased to see that it is g/f. Unfortunately this time we accidentally chose the mocha one which has real coffee in it. Unlike Toby, I hate coffee! It upsets my stomach quite badly and gives me heart palpitations plus I don't really like the flavour, But Toby and our friends Ann and Adam enjoyed this.



Next time I'll buy the regular vanilla variety which tastes exactly as I remembered the vienetta style ice cream cake, although it has been about 8 years since I tried the real thing. I love the thin layers of chocolate between the ice cream.

Check out Cindy's description and picture of Rishon Foods here


Rishon Foods
23 William St Balaclava
9527 5142

Remember it's closed on Sat!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Lazy Ice Cream Toppings: Mint Slice Biscuits and Halva

I'm obsessed with these Leda Minton biscuits, they are my fave g/f biscuits and taste exactly as I remember mint slice biscuits. Although, it's been so long that I can't really remember!



I came across these chocolate mint ice cream balls recipe on kidspot but I couldn't really be bothered making them into balls or covering with chocolate so I just used their recipe as a guide to combine these biscuits with ice cream. This is the laziest thing I've made in a while.

Just mix 1 scoops of softened vanilla ice cream with 4 crushed biscuits.



And that's it!



I love a bit of crunchy texture in ice cream, so I think it works perfectly and tastes great, although it does soften the mint flavour. It's really awesome when you can't decide if you want biscuits or ice cream!


Because it's such a simple recipe, I thought I would also share my latest ice cream topping: halva. Simply crush halva and serve on top of ice cream. My previous neighbour Sarah served this to us once and I've been hooked since. Halva while sweet has a slightly bitter flavour which works well with sweet ice cream. Here it is with chocolate halva but I think halva with nuts works best.



What's your fav lazy ice cream topping and what is your fav way to serve halva?

I'm obsessed with these Leda Minton biscuits, they are my fave g/f biscuits and taste exactly as I remember mint slice biscuits. Although, it's been so long that I can't really remember!



I came across these chocolate mint ice cream balls recipe on kidspot but I couldn't really be bothered making them into balls or covering with chocolate so I just used their recipe as a guide to combine these biscuits with ice cream. This is the laziest thing I've made in a while.

Just mix 1 scoops of softened vanilla ice cream with 4 crushed biscuits.



And that's it!



I love a bit of crunchy texture in ice cream, so I think it works perfectly and tastes great, although it does soften the mint flavour. It's really awesome when you can't decide if you want biscuits or ice cream!


Because it's such a simple recipe, I thought I would also share my latest ice cream topping: halva. Simply crush halva and serve on top of ice cream. My previous neighbour Sarah served this to us once and I've been hooked since. Halva while sweet has a slightly bitter flavour which works well with sweet ice cream. Here it is with chocolate halva but I think halva with nuts works best.



What's your fav lazy ice cream topping and what is your fav way to serve halva?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

OMG- Vegan G/f Custard Tarts and Bread

A fortnight ago I finally went to a gluten free shop in East Keilor. We wandered in and saw a big sign which read 'fresh gluten free bread- vegan'. The woman asked if we wanted a sample and gave me a raw piece. For those of you are not familiar with gluten free bread you have to eat toast it generally so that it ok to eat. However, this piece was fine it actually tasted and felt like white bread. We didn't hesitate in buying a loaf.  It comes in a clear regular bread bag so I'm still not sure if they make the bread themselves or buy it from somewhere but it is by far the best g/f bread that I have tasted, much more superior than the ones that I reviewed before. They also sold fresh g/f focaccias and bread rolls. Here's a piece lightly toasted with some nooch:

She also asked if we wanted to sample something else and Toby responded that we are vegan. For some reason I was expecting a 'gluten free vegan! are you out of your mind?' comment but instead she started pointing out all sorts of things in the freezer section which were vegan including these custard tarts. I had to stop myself from jumping up and down and squealing!

I would have never checked that custard tarts were vegan. They come frozen so you simply defrost in the fridge then they are ready to eat. They are so delicious the custard is quite creamy and reminds me of the custard in the vanilla slice that we made and the pastry is surprisingly really good, kind of like a soft cookie or puff pastry that has been in the fridge. At a little over $3 for two they weren't too expensive. I emailed the company just to confirm they are vegan too.

Thank you Gluten 3 Living, and Gluten Free Bakery. My only complaint is that the gluten 3 living store is too far. Why is there not a gluten free store in the North?

Gluten 3 Living

1/ 60 Wingara Avenue Keilor East

9336 1088

A fortnight ago I finally went to a gluten free shop in East Keilor. We wandered in and saw a big sign which read 'fresh gluten free bread- vegan'. The woman asked if we wanted a sample and gave me a raw piece. For those of you are not familiar with gluten free bread you have to eat toast it generally so that it ok to eat. However, this piece was fine it actually tasted and felt like white bread. We didn't hesitate in buying a loaf.  It comes in a clear regular bread bag so I'm still not sure if they make the bread themselves or buy it from somewhere but it is by far the best g/f bread that I have tasted, much more superior than the ones that I reviewed before. They also sold fresh g/f focaccias and bread rolls. Here's a piece lightly toasted with some nooch:

She also asked if we wanted to sample something else and Toby responded that we are vegan. For some reason I was expecting a 'gluten free vegan! are you out of your mind?' comment but instead she started pointing out all sorts of things in the freezer section which were vegan including these custard tarts. I had to stop myself from jumping up and down and squealing!

I would have never checked that custard tarts were vegan. They come frozen so you simply defrost in the fridge then they are ready to eat. They are so delicious the custard is quite creamy and reminds me of the custard in the vanilla slice that we made and the pastry is surprisingly really good, kind of like a soft cookie or puff pastry that has been in the fridge. At a little over $3 for two they weren't too expensive. I emailed the company just to confirm they are vegan too.

Thank you Gluten 3 Living, and Gluten Free Bakery. My only complaint is that the gluten 3 living store is too far. Why is there not a gluten free store in the North?

Gluten 3 Living

1/ 60 Wingara Avenue Keilor East

9336 1088

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Sweet Potato Noodles and Alkaline Foods

I've been really sick lately (nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain) and a new doctor suggested that I change my medication. I'm on medication to reduce the amount of acid in my stomach which normally works but lately seemed to have stopped. I told him that I have also been avoiding deep fried foods and the only 'bad' thing I had been eating was chocolate. He reminded me that chocolate is one of the major stomach irritants (along with coffee, fried food etc) and also suggested that I also try to incorporate more alkaline foods and less acidic foods. I spend way too long reading conflicting info about what are alkaline foods before finally consulting with Lidia who introduced me to this site. So you will start to see more recipes listed here centred around alkaline foods like almonds, millet, lots of green vegies etc. It's in line with my 2011 goal to eat healthier as well.

The hard thing is that both rice and corn are considered acidic. Millet is a alkaline food but they didn't have any at my coles and safeway. Toby stumbled across these sweet potato noodles made with 100% sweet potato flour in the asian supermarket which finally solved our dinner issue..

The texture is a little strange, almost jelly like but they work perfectly well in the recipe for Bitter Gourd and Tofu Stir Fry (we used broccoli and other green vegies instead of bitter gourd) from the Asian Vegan Kitchen. The recipe is not worth repeating since it's a simple stir fry which mostly consists or soy sauce and ginger.

I've been really sick lately (nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain) and a new doctor suggested that I change my medication. I'm on medication to reduce the amount of acid in my stomach which normally works but lately seemed to have stopped. I told him that I have also been avoiding deep fried foods and the only 'bad' thing I had been eating was chocolate. He reminded me that chocolate is one of the major stomach irritants (along with coffee, fried food etc) and also suggested that I also try to incorporate more alkaline foods and less acidic foods. I spend way too long reading conflicting info about what are alkaline foods before finally consulting with Lidia who introduced me to this site. So you will start to see more recipes listed here centred around alkaline foods like almonds, millet, lots of green vegies etc. It's in line with my 2011 goal to eat healthier as well.

The hard thing is that both rice and corn are considered acidic. Millet is a alkaline food but they didn't have any at my coles and safeway. Toby stumbled across these sweet potato noodles made with 100% sweet potato flour in the asian supermarket which finally solved our dinner issue..

The texture is a little strange, almost jelly like but they work perfectly well in the recipe for Bitter Gourd and Tofu Stir Fry (we used broccoli and other green vegies instead of bitter gourd) from the Asian Vegan Kitchen. The recipe is not worth repeating since it's a simple stir fry which mostly consists or soy sauce and ginger.

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Soy Curls

After entering countless blog competitions I finally won something-soy curls from the generous Miso for Breakfast. While i've read about soy curls on various blogs I'm never tried them because they aren't available here in Australia.

First we tried them in some bean nachos, we simply added the soy curls to the pot of bean chilli mid way through cooking.

The texture was quite interesting kind of like soggy seitan, but I discovered that most of the recipes consist of frying them first.

So we tried frying them and then added it to a mixture of fried noodles with some fry's strips and vegetables. This was much better, the texture was still similar to seitan but less chewy, also it's gluten free!

Overall, we enjoyed them and Toby loved the protein factor. Although I'm not sure if we have fully adapted to the texture or managed to cook them properly. We won't rush out to order them from overseas but would buy them again to experiment further if they were available in stores here.

After entering countless blog competitions I finally won something-soy curls from the generous Miso for Breakfast. While i've read about soy curls on various blogs I'm never tried them because they aren't available here in Australia.

First we tried them in some bean nachos, we simply added the soy curls to the pot of bean chilli mid way through cooking.

The texture was quite interesting kind of like soggy seitan, but I discovered that most of the recipes consist of frying them first.

So we tried frying them and then added it to a mixture of fried noodles with some fry's strips and vegetables. This was much better, the texture was still similar to seitan but less chewy, also it's gluten free!

Overall, we enjoyed them and Toby loved the protein factor. Although I'm not sure if we have fully adapted to the texture or managed to cook them properly. We won't rush out to order them from overseas but would buy them again to experiment further if they were available in stores here.

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Arancini Experiment

I had my grandmothers funeral yesterday and have been stressing about what to make for the wake for days. I'm only sharing this in case you are crazy enough to google 'gluten free vegan wake food', like I did. I found nothing and so then I googled 'wake food' and 'wake dishes' and 'what to make for a wake' and still didn't find much that was helpful!

My mother arranged lots of finger food, sausage rolls, pies etc for the wake. So I wanted some sort of g/f vegan finger food. All I could think of was rice paper rolls, but wanted something warm since it has been freezing in Melbourne lately. Emily on twitter suggested rice balls which I thought was a great idea but maybe a bit too unusual for my family, this eventually lead me to the idea of making risotto balls which are also called arancini. Thanks Emily!

I saw the Melinda's packaged risotto cakes in store and decided to make them and my own arancini and compare the two.

I was skeptical about packaged food but they were surprisingly great. They can be dairy and egg free options, so I used cheddar cheezly and egg replacer. You still need to cook the mixture on the stove before adding it to the oven, but it was much quicker and easier than making my own.  I think the flavour of the cheezly gets lost, vegan cheese is too subtle. However, Toby and I really enjoyed them, particularly the little bits of vegetables.

And then we ended up making our own. I followed Pip's recipe except I replaced the mushrooms with sun dried tomatoes, used corn flake crumbs and I baked them. I took them to the wake because I was sure that they would taste even better, but they were a tad bland. Yes surprisingly the packaged ones were actually better. I think getting rid of the mushrooms was a mistake. Also, I think I didn't put enough stock powder or something. I meant to serve them with some marinara sauce which I forgot to take. So we ended up serving them with sweet chilli sauce.

Sun Dried Tomato Risotto Balls from Fairest Feed

(Makes about 25)

2 tbs olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 clove garlic, crushed

400g mushrooms, finely chopped (I used sun dried tomatoes)

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

4 - 6 cups water or stock

1/2 cup nutritional yeast (optional)

1 tbs fresh thyme

1 cup rice flour or breadcrumbs (I used corn crispy crumbs-Organ brand) 

oil for shallow frying

Preheat oven to 180°C

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently until soft (about 10 minutes). Add the bay leaf and mushrooms (or sundried tomatoes) and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring until the mushrooms are soft. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains in oil. Add a cup of the liquid and stir until it has been absorbed. Continue adding the liquid, cup by cup until it has all been absorbed and the rice is tender. Discard the bay leaf and stir in the thyme, nooch (if using) and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.

 

When the risotto is cool enough to handle, use your hands to form golf ball sized balls. Roll them in the flour or breadcrumbs and bake til they are crispy, roughly 20 minutes.

I didn't take a picture though since I was up at 11pm the night before making it and it seemed wrong to take food pictures at a wake.

I had my grandmothers funeral yesterday and have been stressing about what to make for the wake for days. I'm only sharing this in case you are crazy enough to google 'gluten free vegan wake food', like I did. I found nothing and so then I googled 'wake food' and 'wake dishes' and 'what to make for a wake' and still didn't find much that was helpful!

My mother arranged lots of finger food, sausage rolls, pies etc for the wake. So I wanted some sort of g/f vegan finger food. All I could think of was rice paper rolls, but wanted something warm since it has been freezing in Melbourne lately. Emily on twitter suggested rice balls which I thought was a great idea but maybe a bit too unusual for my family, this eventually lead me to the idea of making risotto balls which are also called arancini. Thanks Emily!

I saw the Melinda's packaged risotto cakes in store and decided to make them and my own arancini and compare the two.

I was skeptical about packaged food but they were surprisingly great. They can be dairy and egg free options, so I used cheddar cheezly and egg replacer. You still need to cook the mixture on the stove before adding it to the oven, but it was much quicker and easier than making my own.  I think the flavour of the cheezly gets lost, vegan cheese is too subtle. However, Toby and I really enjoyed them, particularly the little bits of vegetables.

And then we ended up making our own. I followed Pip's recipe except I replaced the mushrooms with sun dried tomatoes, used corn flake crumbs and I baked them. I took them to the wake because I was sure that they would taste even better, but they were a tad bland. Yes surprisingly the packaged ones were actually better. I think getting rid of the mushrooms was a mistake. Also, I think I didn't put enough stock powder or something. I meant to serve them with some marinara sauce which I forgot to take. So we ended up serving them with sweet chilli sauce.

Sun Dried Tomato Risotto Balls from Fairest Feed

(Makes about 25)

2 tbs olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 clove garlic, crushed

400g mushrooms, finely chopped (I used sun dried tomatoes)

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

4 - 6 cups water or stock

1/2 cup nutritional yeast (optional)

1 tbs fresh thyme

1 cup rice flour or breadcrumbs (I used corn crispy crumbs-Organ brand) 

oil for shallow frying

Preheat oven to 180°C

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently until soft (about 10 minutes). Add the bay leaf and mushrooms (or sundried tomatoes) and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring until the mushrooms are soft. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains in oil. Add a cup of the liquid and stir until it has been absorbed. Continue adding the liquid, cup by cup until it has all been absorbed and the rice is tender. Discard the bay leaf and stir in the thyme, nooch (if using) and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.

 

When the risotto is cool enough to handle, use your hands to form golf ball sized balls. Roll them in the flour or breadcrumbs and bake til they are crispy, roughly 20 minutes.

I didn't take a picture though since I was up at 11pm the night before making it and it seemed wrong to take food pictures at a wake.

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Gluten free lunch options

I thought it might be helpful to share some g/f vegan options for lunch since this was one thing I was a little stuck with in the beginning. Generally we tend to make enough dinner so that we have leftovers for lunch for the following day. But when I have training at work or we eat out for dinner than lunch can be a bit more tricky since I can't just grab a sandwich. Here are a few options that I've come across and tried:

Lazuppa spinach and chickpea soup, it heats up in a can which is handy. All of the Lazuppa soups are g/f and most of the veg options appear to be vegan. This was ok, I like the protein addition of chickpeas, but I added more salt and pepper and served it with flavoured rice cakes. I think without rice cakes I would be left pretty hungry.

Rice spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce. I got this from Absolutely gluten free but they are actually made in Italy. I love this become you can just add hot water (or microwave) but the guy at the shop told me it's better when you add hot water. Also, it comes with a little fork and napkin which is great for training or holidays when you don't have microwave access. The noodles itself are quite nice and the sauce is a typical tomato based sauce, it's not amazing but it's tasty and convenient enough that I don't mind. If teamed with a muesli bar then I'm full.

Pattu Potato and Green Pea Curry with garlic papadums. This curry is way too spicy for me, but I enjoyed the garlic papadums. I know there are many varieties of these ready to serve Indian curries, so if you have tried some that are really mild, especially those with rice please let me know.

Other things that I have taken include rice paper rolls, g/f bread (with toaster bags) so I can make toast with g/f baked beans and rice cakes really are my best friend. I have eaten them with cheezly, aussie-mite, nooch, peanut butter and the flavoured ones just plain for breakfast, lunch and just as snacks.

If you have taken other g/f vegan lunch ideas for work I would love to hear about them.

I thought it might be helpful to share some g/f vegan options for lunch since this was one thing I was a little stuck with in the beginning. Generally we tend to make enough dinner so that we have leftovers for lunch for the following day. But when I have training at work or we eat out for dinner than lunch can be a bit more tricky since I can't just grab a sandwich. Here are a few options that I've come across and tried:

Lazuppa spinach and chickpea soup, it heats up in a can which is handy. All of the Lazuppa soups are g/f and most of the veg options appear to be vegan. This was ok, I like the protein addition of chickpeas, but I added more salt and pepper and served it with flavoured rice cakes. I think without rice cakes I would be left pretty hungry.

Rice spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce. I got this from Absolutely gluten free but they are actually made in Italy. I love this become you can just add hot water (or microwave) but the guy at the shop told me it's better when you add hot water. Also, it comes with a little fork and napkin which is great for training or holidays when you don't have microwave access. The noodles itself are quite nice and the sauce is a typical tomato based sauce, it's not amazing but it's tasty and convenient enough that I don't mind. If teamed with a muesli bar then I'm full.

Pattu Potato and Green Pea Curry with garlic papadums. This curry is way too spicy for me, but I enjoyed the garlic papadums. I know there are many varieties of these ready to serve Indian curries, so if you have tried some that are really mild, especially those with rice please let me know.

Other things that I have taken include rice paper rolls, g/f bread (with toaster bags) so I can make toast with g/f baked beans and rice cakes really are my best friend. I have eaten them with cheezly, aussie-mite, nooch, peanut butter and the flavoured ones just plain for breakfast, lunch and just as snacks.

If you have taken other g/f vegan lunch ideas for work I would love to hear about them.

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Gluten Free Bread Reviews

I waited before trying g/f bread, which I stongly advise for newly diagnosed coeliacs. I think it's kind of like soy cheese, if you give up dairy and wait, the soy version seems pretty believable. Also, all of my reviews are for g/f toast, you can't generally eat g/f bread untoasted, it's just not edible. Also please note that while all but one of my reviews are for vegan breads that often the same company has other varieties that are not vegan.

REGULAR BREADS:

Dovedale rice chia bread: This bread is ok and I have found it to be quite easy to get, they even have it at IGA on sydney road. But like many other types of gluten free bread, it's tiny in size. I also find that it never goes properly brown in the centre. But the most annoying thing about this bread is once you put in the fridge (you put most g/f breads in the fridge when opened) it's difficult to pull the slices apart, they kind of stick together and then when you try to pull them apart, I always end up breaking them. It kind of reminds me of white bread and while the crust gets harder, the middle still stays quite spongy.
Country life bread: this is the most accessible g/f bread, you can find it in all coles and safeway stores. It contains both egg and dairy, but I accidentally ate it at when I ordered g/f toast at Pearl Oyster cafe, it was better than I expected but obviously I wont be buying it.

Schar bread: is apparently Europeans most popular g/f bread. I've tried both the pan carre and the rustico and can't tell much of a difference between the two. Both come in a convenient two pack, but it's tiny and I feel like I need to eat 5 pieces to get full. It reminds me a lot of a wholemeal bread, just a slightly bad version. This is my probably my third favourite bread which I buy it a lot because I can get it quite easily from health food stores and melbas fine foods in Brunswick. It does goes brown too and doesn't seem to take as long to toast as other types of g/f bread but it quite vulnerable to breaking. However, it makes great toasties as I discovered at the 'this is why you are fat' potluck.

Naturally gluten free crunch: This takes a long long time to toast but I love the fact that it contains quinoa flour, many of the g/f breads contain white rice flour so aren't the most nutrious. I also love all of the seeds (linseed, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame) and it does remind me of multigrain bread. It is however not sliced which annoys me a little because I'm bad at cutting even slices. I don't love it nearly as much as the Mediterranean version. It also has the added bonus of being regular bread size and it goes brown (eventually). This is probably my favourite regular bread at the moment but is really hard to find in shops near me. I've only seen it at g/f stores.

Zehnder rice loaf, seems to be the it- g/f bread at the moment. It's normal bread size but it does come frozen, and unsliced which just seem like too more work to me. It is actually not a bad bread, it's got a fairly neutral flavour, is a decent size and is perhaps my 2nd flavour bread. It's also a little difficult to get but I have found it at wholefoods on lygon st (brunswick).

Black ruby soy and linseed bread: Black ruby is a g/f cafe in Carlton that sells it's own range of bread. Their breads actually look like regular breads, they are large and various shapes and don't resemble cardboard. I've only tried the soy and linseed bread, while it's another unsliced bread, it was delicious and went brown when toasted. The only downside was when placed under baked beans, it went quite soggy. Cindy has had the pumpkin bread and said it was pretty good for g/f bread. I"ve got a blog post coming up about the place so more about that soon.

Lifestyle Bakery wholmeal loaf. This has been the only g/f bread that I haven't been able to eat. Maybe it's the wholmeal soba flour, but it just tastes disgusting to me, after taking a bite into one piece, I threw out the rest. I found it at piedemontes and would be interested to know if the other flavours were any good.


SPECIALITY BREADS:

Vitality herb and garlic bread: I found this at an IGA in the western suburbs. It is sliced, goes brown, has a lovely flavour and was great with margarine and nooch.


Health Right Garlic Bread: I was so exited to see gluten free garlic bread. It wasn't quite as good as I remember garlic bread due to it's slightly weird and hard texture and I think the flavours of the herbs kind of overpowers the flavour of the garlic but it's still super delicious and vegan and gluten free! I'm so popping this in the freezer for more lazy winter nights.

Schar baguette. We used this to make garlic bread recently and while it took a lot longer than regular garlic bread to cook, it was a pretty good comparison.

Most pictures were taken from absolutely gluten free

I waited before trying g/f bread, which I stongly advise for newly diagnosed coeliacs. I think it's kind of like soy cheese, if you give up dairy and wait, the soy version seems pretty believable. Also, all of my reviews are for g/f toast, you can't generally eat g/f bread untoasted, it's just not edible. Also please note that while all but one of my reviews are for vegan breads that often the same company has other varieties that are not vegan.

REGULAR BREADS:

Dovedale rice chia bread: This bread is ok and I have found it to be quite easy to get, they even have it at IGA on sydney road. But like many other types of gluten free bread, it's tiny in size. I also find that it never goes properly brown in the centre. But the most annoying thing about this bread is once you put in the fridge (you put most g/f breads in the fridge when opened) it's difficult to pull the slices apart, they kind of stick together and then when you try to pull them apart, I always end up breaking them. It kind of reminds me of white bread and while the crust gets harder, the middle still stays quite spongy.
Country life bread: this is the most accessible g/f bread, you can find it in all coles and safeway stores. It contains both egg and dairy, but I accidentally ate it at when I ordered g/f toast at Pearl Oyster cafe, it was better than I expected but obviously I wont be buying it.

Schar bread: is apparently Europeans most popular g/f bread. I've tried both the pan carre and the rustico and can't tell much of a difference between the two. Both come in a convenient two pack, but it's tiny and I feel like I need to eat 5 pieces to get full. It reminds me a lot of a wholemeal bread, just a slightly bad version. This is my probably my third favourite bread which I buy it a lot because I can get it quite easily from health food stores and melbas fine foods in Brunswick. It does goes brown too and doesn't seem to take as long to toast as other types of g/f bread but it quite vulnerable to breaking. However, it makes great toasties as I discovered at the 'this is why you are fat' potluck.

Naturally gluten free crunch: This takes a long long time to toast but I love the fact that it contains quinoa flour, many of the g/f breads contain white rice flour so aren't the most nutrious. I also love all of the seeds (linseed, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame) and it does remind me of multigrain bread. It is however not sliced which annoys me a little because I'm bad at cutting even slices. I don't love it nearly as much as the Mediterranean version. It also has the added bonus of being regular bread size and it goes brown (eventually). This is probably my favourite regular bread at the moment but is really hard to find in shops near me. I've only seen it at g/f stores.

Zehnder rice loaf, seems to be the it- g/f bread at the moment. It's normal bread size but it does come frozen, and unsliced which just seem like too more work to me. It is actually not a bad bread, it's got a fairly neutral flavour, is a decent size and is perhaps my 2nd flavour bread. It's also a little difficult to get but I have found it at wholefoods on lygon st (brunswick).

Black ruby soy and linseed bread: Black ruby is a g/f cafe in Carlton that sells it's own range of bread. Their breads actually look like regular breads, they are large and various shapes and don't resemble cardboard. I've only tried the soy and linseed bread, while it's another unsliced bread, it was delicious and went brown when toasted. The only downside was when placed under baked beans, it went quite soggy. Cindy has had the pumpkin bread and said it was pretty good for g/f bread. I"ve got a blog post coming up about the place so more about that soon.

Lifestyle Bakery wholmeal loaf. This has been the only g/f bread that I haven't been able to eat. Maybe it's the wholmeal soba flour, but it just tastes disgusting to me, after taking a bite into one piece, I threw out the rest. I found it at piedemontes and would be interested to know if the other flavours were any good.


SPECIALITY BREADS:

Vitality herb and garlic bread: I found this at an IGA in the western suburbs. It is sliced, goes brown, has a lovely flavour and was great with margarine and nooch.


Health Right Garlic Bread: I was so exited to see gluten free garlic bread. It wasn't quite as good as I remember garlic bread due to it's slightly weird and hard texture and I think the flavours of the herbs kind of overpowers the flavour of the garlic but it's still super delicious and vegan and gluten free! I'm so popping this in the freezer for more lazy winter nights.

Schar baguette. We used this to make garlic bread recently and while it took a lot longer than regular garlic bread to cook, it was a pretty good comparison.

Most pictures were taken from absolutely gluten free

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