Vegan MoFo - Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs

I was looking for a good tempeh recipe so decided to make the tempeh sausage pastry puffs from Vegan Brunch.  These are quite nice & really easy.  It makes quite a lot of the tempeh mix so you can do as I did & just make some squares & use the leftover tempeh in sandwiches - yum.

Bakery Style Berry Muffins

We have had a string of bad luck in our household recently so I haven't been online so much & am a bit behind with blog pots & haven't been doing cooking a whole lot of inspiring food anyway.
But, I have still been doing some baking & this week I made mini berry muffins using the recipe for Bakery Style Berry Muffins from Vegan Brunch.  These are really good, especially right out of the oven when they are crunchy on top.  For some reason my muffins always go soft when stored which I don't like so much. 

By far the worst thing that has happened in our household in the last week is that it looks like one of our cats is really, really sick.  He has gone from a seemingly perfectly healthy cat to looking like he will only be with us for a few more months.  Make sure you give your furry friends lots of cuddles & enjoy them while you can.

Vegan Brunch Toasted Coconut & Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

These are actually the Toasted Coconut and Mango Muffins, but I didn't have any dried mango so I subbed some chocolate chips.  We bought a mini muffin tray for the cupcake kebabs & have been using it all the time since, I didn't make a whole lot of muffins or cupcakes beforehand because they are often too big but the mini muffin pan makes them perfect size for eating with a cup of tea & it makes heaps so you can't really go wrong!

This recipe is super easy & the toasted coconut flavour is delicious, they also feel healthier than a normal muffin with the addition of wholemeal flour & they don't have huge amounts of sugar in them.

Vegan Brunch English Muffins

After reading this post on Easy as Vegan Pie I decided that I wanted home made english muffins for breakfast the next day. I have made crumpets before which are really delicious, but had never thought about making muffins. And it ended up being a rainy Sunday morning so it was perect muffin making & eating weather.

The recipe from Vegan Brunch is really, really easy but I had issues getting the cornmeal to stick to the muffins so I tried doing it for the first batch & ended up bypassing that step in the following batches. Also, the recipe makes heaps!! I cut them with egg rings & I made over 20 so I now have lots of muffiny goodness in my freezer. I ate mine warm out of the oven with nuttelex & blackberry jam - yum!

East Coast Coffee Cake

This cake is goddamn delicious! I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch (man, I love this book) & added in fresh blueberries because I bought lots of punnets super cheap. I had massive issues with the cake batter though, it was incredibly runny - to the point that it was like pancake batter. I added in another half a cup of flour because I thought that the crumb mix would just sink straight in, it was still really runny but it worked out in the end. I think I slightly undercooked it but the cake was so good that we still quite happily ate it.

Vegan Brunch Sausages

I have been doing a lot of cooking lately from Vegan Brunch & after reading all the hype about the sausages I decided to make the cherry & sage ones, but subbed dried cranberries for dried cherries. I liked these but I didn't love them but this may be based on two things.

1, The first time I made them there was a kids party across the road & lots of little girls all of about 8 years old singing that awful song "Sexy Bitch" starting throwing things at my car (fruit & dolls heads!) So being the cranky neighbour I am I went over to complain while the sausages were frying & I burnt them, so they were not so great.

2, I then froze the rest & I just don't think they froze well & were really rubbery. I did like them & thought they had good flavour but I think I am put off making them again, but I do want to try the chorizo sausages.

The second time I had them I served them with a lemony smashed potato & salad. I actually think the smashed potato was my favourite part of the meal, I used nicola potatos & they were delicious!

Baked potato of deliciousness

Tonight I made baked potatoes for dinner. All day I had been thinking about making a stir fry but at the last minute I decided to change plans & I am glad I did because these were the goods - one of those easy meals that is super tasty. I wrapped some potatoes in foil & put them in the oven until soft, & then topped them with avocado, a kind of chilli con carne (which I made up on the spot with the ingredients I had), corn kernels & cashew sour cream.

The cashew sour cream is from vegan brunch & is really good - it says in the book that it doesn't taste like sour cream & it doesn't but it is really tasty nonetheless.

Kind of chilli con carne

1 onion diced
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cups passata
1 tin 4 bean mix
1/2 cup shredded mock chicken (I used a vincents one which has a really nice smoky flavour)
*I also added about 2 tsps of some burrito seasoning that I had in the cupboard, but cumin & paprika would be really nice

Fry onion in olive oil until soft
Add garlic & tomato paste & stir & cook for about another minute
Add seasoning, passata, 4 bean mix & mock chicken, lower heat & leave to cook away slowly while you get everything else ready