Vegetable Pilaf

Made with carrot, celery, capsicum, beans, basil, pine nuts and olives with a tomato and onion sauce with wholemeal rice. Extremely filling after an hour at the gym.

Loved the pilaf.

Hated the gym.

Best Burgers in Brisbane

My absolute favourite cafe in Brisbane is called The Green Edge in Annerley. It is a completely vegan cafe and grocery store. In fact, I think I am becoming addicted to all the great ingredients they stock - popping in at least 4 times a week. Because they only serve and stock vegan and are vegan themselves, they are extremely knowledgable and happy to answer all my new-vegan questions like 'how do I make parmesan cheese?' and 'what's the best soy cheese to choose for biscuits and dips?'

From a cafe perspective, it is such a relief to be able to order a dish without asking, 'does this contain dairy? egg?'. They make incredible smoothies, sundaes and (our new addiction) burgers. Last night husband recreated one of their burgers and I literally died. It was so delicious, I made him make them again tonight for dinner. Lightly toasted buns, avocado, chilli mayonnaise, caramelised onion, grilled eggplant, cucumber, carrot, fresh spinach, chutney, soy cheese and an organic veggie pattie. My husband is so clever. I love him.

I just think this photo is so cute

Yes they are both eating scraps of carrot off the floor while husband cooks

Vegan cats?

Bath time for Tuesday

Good Morning Noosa

Yesterday husband I took the SIL's ute to Noosa for the day to pick up another vintage find (go gumtree!!). Normally we head to the Gold Coast for the weekend as that it where a lot of family/friends live but it was nice heading in the other direction for a change. I had heard a lot about Noosa as it is a well known holiday spot for Melbournians. Noosa coastline was absolutely incredible. The resorts that are lined along the coast have incredible ocean views and pools that look like they merge into the sea. We also found an organic grocery store/cafe called Organika. We will definitely be returning in summer to stay at said resorts and eat at said cafe. Noosa = winner.

Homemade newspaper carry bag from Lamington shop

Organic seeds from Organika for our vegetable garden

Cute vintage porcelain cat from Lamington

Daffodil Day

Friday 28th was Brisbane's Daffodil Day - all proceeds went to cancer. It was really cute seeing everyone in Brisbane CBD carrying around a little bunch of Daffodil's.

And my canister collection is growing

Vintage floral canisters to add to my collection (husband is being very tolerant)

New love: gumtree.com

We found this vintage piece of furniture on gumtree.com. It now belongs in our kitchen. I think its adorable. I especially love the cupboard that opens out with a mirror backing as it reminds of one my grandma had. You can see Rainbow hiding underneath it - someone knocked at the door and he hid. He is hopeless.

Vegan Kofta and bean salad

So on our vegan voyage we found a particularly delicious vegan/vegetarian restaurant called Tibetan Kitchen in West End. They do two things extremely well 1) tofu in a coconut and lime curry and 2) delicious Kofta's in a tomato based sauce. Tonight I attempted to recreate the Dal Kofta and I think it turned out quite well (well husband ate about 6, so that's always an indication). I filled my Kofta's with cashews, lentils, onion and spices. I just made a simple tomato and capsicum sauce to dribble over the top. To accompany these balls of yuminess I made a string bean, tomato, avocado and cucumber salad with a honey and mustard dressing.

Bean salad

Naked Kofta's

Saucy Kofta's

Dinner!

(minus the tomatos as I cannot eat them raw, but use them often in salads as husband loves them and they brighten the dish)

Lovers

Its ECCA time

Husband took me to the Brisbane Ecca show (no one seems to know what the Ecca stands for by the way) and it was grand. Lots of adorable animals and tasty treats. The downside was a few thou noisy tired children and cranky parents. We did actually escape the fairgrounds at one point to go to the pub for a quiet drink but we did return for the fireworks. Somehow we spent quite a considerable amount of money considering we only went on one ride (the ghost train) and bought only one show bag (the Moorish nut bag). And yes- it was extremly moorish.

Photo explains all really

New born baby lamb - too cute for words

Puppets! 

Plant based diet

As well as adopting Tuesday, another thing happened in the time I have not been blogging. I became a vegan. My husband and I watched 'Forks over Knives' documentary and promptly decided to give their suggestion of a 'plant based diet' a go. That means I have eliminated all animal product from my diet. I actually thought it would be harder to adopt this new lifestyle but it has been an easy and refreshing change. It has forced me to be more creative with my cooking - researching interesting and delicious middle eastern, asian and african dishes to cook of a night and discovering vegan and vegetarian friendly restaurants throughout Brisbane. As a side note - I have been a vegan for a month now and I have never felt lighter or more energetic. If you get a chance - I highly recommend watching it not to become a vegan but because it is quite an interesting look at nutrition in modern day.

Ruby Tuesday

It has been quite a while since I have written and I apologise BUT I have a reason. And its a very good one.

Meet our new kitten Tuesday. She is absolutely adorable and I am racing home from work at lunch everyday just for a cuddle. Rainbow has been an incredibly excellent big brother considering how much time she spends attacking his tale. Today they slept next to one another on our dresser in the sun.

On another note, I thought perhaps I could show her but after seeing the cat shows in action on the weekend, there is absolutely no hope. My cats (as beautiful and exceptional as they are) are most definitely not show cats. Tuesday would squirm free from the judge and possibly attack their face and there is a good chance Rainbow would vomit due to nerves (he's a bit fragile, that one).

I love them.