Just juice

I am busy packing and cleaning our flat at the moment and haven't had the energy to post :) (Did you know my kitchen door was painted cream? I sure didn't.) I shall return soon I'm sure. But here is an unintentionally festive juice: 2 carrots, 1 lg beetroot and 2 large leaves of a silverbeet. I got the star shaped ice cube tray as a fun gift from my dad and stepmum :) It's silicon and it pops out so easily! I'm already thinking chocolates or flavoured ice blocks...

Date day!

Today Nadine and I had the day off together (yay!) so we decided to have a date day rather than just sit around watching telly which is what we usually end up doing.

First there was breakfast. I made buckwheat pancakes again, but we had no maple syrup so we squeezed a lemon over the top and melted a little bit of margarine on them. Delicious. I also used straight buckwheat flour, not half and half. Didn't make a difference at all, I thought they might be a little dry but nope. Perfect. I topped them with some fried sliced banana.

Nadine drinking yummy cocktail

I got to choose the restaurant, so I picked Ginga Japanese restaurant because we haven't been there for ages. We started off with a cocktail - sake, gin, ginger ale, lemon and pickled ginger slices. Mmm. The sugar in it kind of gave us a headache though, haha. That's the problem with giving things up! 

Nadine ordered the bento. Clockwise from left: PLain rice with black sesame, vege tempura (eggplant, sweet potato, carrot, zucchini and capsicum) steamed vege and tofu, inari zushi and an egg sushi, Ignore that we didn't eat it haha.

We of course has edamame on the side. Can't go to a Japanese restaurant without edamame!

I had this massive bowl of veges in broth with some bean thread noodles, rice, miso soup and pickled things. Yuuuum.

The glands in my throat have been acting up over the last few days (tmi? Ha) so I ended the lovely day with a green juice :) Silver beet, carrot, orange, ginger. Hopefully it all goes away because I can't afford any days off work!

While we were in the city we walked past a little cafe that said they had vegan sweet options on a sign outside so after lunch we went and had a delicious piece of (sugary!) cake. It was chocolate with mint icing. And we found beetroot in it. It was pretty good. I forgot to take a picture though :)

I got my juicer out of hiding

Want a drink so potent it'll make your eyes water?

The last few days I've been feeling a little lethargic and gacky in the throat. Uhh, nuh uh. No way am I getting sick - haven't been sick for years and don't intend on starting now.

Potent Juice of Doom

Juice together, in order:

2 cm chunk of ginger

1 large garlic clove

1/2 a small onion

1 red sweet chilli or a chunk of capsicum (red or yellow)

2 med-large carrots

1 lemon or 1 small orange

Drink up! It's pretty spicy from the ginger, I liked the version with the orange better, it took the edge off a bit, but both were delicious. I'm going to keep this up for a couple more days and I'm pretty sure I'll never ever get sick again.

Don't want Allium spp. breath?

Chew a fresh sprig of parsley! I got no complaints from my girlfriend ;)



I've always wanted a juicer!

I made 'vegan takoyaki' for dinner last night. We had them with mayonnaise drizzled on top, with a side of stir fried vegetables (brocolli, carrot, cauliflower, mushrooms, onion, garlic) in a peanut butter/soy sauce/miso paste sauce. It was a little bit salty but really good. Next time I'll put less miso in, I went a bit overboard.

Miso/Peanut stir fry sauce

Serves two

About 2 large tbsp crunchy peanut butter (or whatever peanut butter you like best)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp miso paste (I used white miso)

Mix together until it's a paste/liquid. Add to vegetables which have already been cooked a little bit and stir. Add water until it's the consistency you want. (I made mine a bit too watery last night, I ended up finishing it as a soup, sort of). Serve vegetables as a side, on top of rice, on top of noodles, whatever :)

I found the recipe for vegan takoyaki here. They aren't exactly like real takoyaki, but then again, I haven't eaten real takoyaki for a long time now so who am I to say? Anyway, they are really really good! Even though they are deep fried (well, I deep/shallow fried them - I don't have a proper deep fryer) they don't seem too oily and heavy. The tofu batter sort of comes away from the mushroom to form a kind of puff. Totally awesome. Except you need to use a knife and fork at first because when I bit into it it kind of exploded hot liquid. They are a little fiddly, but totally worth it when you have time. They could be made earlier I reckon.

I blended the tofu in my food processor to make it as smooth as possible, and I used white flour because it's all I had. Next time I'll use wholemeal, I think it'll taste even better. :)

I found this gem at the local salvation army. Actually, I found about 3! I've always wanted a juicer but they are just too expensive. I never thought of looking in op shops, I've always been a bit wary of buying electricals from them. However, this one was only $10 and I figured if it didn't really work or exploded, I wouldn't lose too much. There were other newer models there but this one actually looked the best and still had all the bits.

I tested it yesterday and it works fine! Only thing is, every couple of carrots the pulp blocked the whatsit (no idea what to call it) and the motor would stress out and...spark a little. So I figure I've just got to stop it as soon as the thingee gets blocked, and unblock it! So it's probabaly a little more time consuming than a brand new one, but I just want to try it out. I guess that's why it was donated.

I made carrot and ginger juice first. I put way too much ginger in though, but look at that orange!

I've been thinking of doing a short juice detox one day soon. Maybe when it gets a little warmer. Just to rid the body of any toxins :) Alcohol, sugar, etc. I shall see.