Holy Moley! cafe, Greensborough

Many think Greensborough is devoid of any redeeming qualities. In many ways they are right, but not in the case of holey moley! Gourmet coffee cafe. One of the owners is vegan and they have a few funky pies, bagels, sandwiches and fancy shakes available to the hungry vegan. I've been a few times and usually go for the falafel bagel and a choc-peanut butter shake.

It's only a couple of minutes walk from Greensy savers too.

Holy Moley! Gourmet Coffee (They serve Robert Timms coffee which is gourmet for Greensy)

2/134 Main Street, Greensborough, Melbourne, VIC 3088




Vegan yoghurt masterclass

The vegan easy market day, held a few weeks ago, had many great speakers and demos, but only one was deemed worthy of being uploaded by the vegan easy challenge crew. ;) Check it out here.

We'll have naan of that.

With my yoghurt making now perfected, I scoured the internet for recipes that required plain yoghurt and came across this naan bread recipe. The prep is easy. The only problem I had was shaping the loaves, as can be seen in the pic.

"Who? Only a yoghurt."*

I've been out of blogging action for a while due to being busy and not being bothered to blog.

After discovering that inner health plus dairy free is vegan, and snatching up one of the yoghurt makers that ALDI was selling a while ago, I set myself on the task of creating the finest plain vegan yoghurt my suburb had ever seen.

I searched a few sites looking for advice on how to make it and ended up with this thread at veganfitness.net and Bryanna Clark Grogan's page.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients

1.5 litres of malt free soy milk
5 capsules of Inner Health Plus dairy free

Method

•  Bring soymilk to boil and let cool to about 40 degrees celsius.
•  Stir in the contents of the 5 caps. 
•  If you have a yoghurt maker just follow the instructions. If not, wrap in a blanket and keep it in a warm place overnight or even longer. I kept mine going for 36 hours.

It won't be quite like commercial yoghurt, as most of them use thickeners, but it's good enough for me.

Yoghurty enough

* Prizes for knowing where the quote in the post title comes from. First person to answer will receive a firm handshake and/or a pat on the back the next time I see them. Good luck.

Confessions of a vegan supplement junkie (part 1)

My long involvement with the vegan strength crew has led me down a path of never ending experimentation with health supplements. My natural tight-fistedness also kept me on the lookout for cheap suppliers and my inner geek saved me (most of the time) from falling victim to the many dodgy claims of the supplement companies. I thought it was about time to share some of my findings rather than just keep it to myself and a few friends. The first installment will be about protein supplements.

Let me get my basic recommendations out of the way.

My first recommendation is to always go for unflavoured protein and to buy in bulk. The crappy little tubs of soy protein you can buy at your local supermarket are a total rip-off as are the pricey supps which are mostly sugar, oil, "super foods" and other fillers with very little protein per serving not to mention very few servings per container.

Second, don't fall for the marketing hype. For the most part your body doesn't care if the form of the amino acids you consume is raw, processed, "alkalising", "natural" or whatever other buzz words are popular at the moment. It's just another way for companies to try to get more money out of you. If you are concerned about the amino acid profile of certain proteins you can always buy two types and combine them (pea or soy and rice is a common blend) or just get nitrofusion if you are too lazy for that ;) .


Protein powder

Protein is often lacking in the diets of people who eat no protein. Thankfully this is not the case for people who don't make poor food choices ;) . Not too long ago there was little choice available to the vegan muscle man/woman wanting to add a quick and easy protein boost to their diet. Soy and rice protein were the only local options. In recent years it has expanded greatly and there is no reason why a vegan couldn't be knocking back 200+gms of protein a day if they wanted to, which could theoretically be done without supplements if you tweak your diet enough, but why would you bother? ;)


NHS Soy Protein Isolate

I initially started out buying the NHS soy protein (around $95 for 3 kg) from Evelyn Faye Nutrition in the city and it is still pretty good value, gets the job done and doesn't taste too bad.

Bulk Nutrients Rice Protein Isolate

The cheapest source of protein powder in Australia, that I have found, is bulk nutrients' rice protein isolate which can be as cheap as $22 per kg if you buy in bulk. I can't comment on the taste as I've never tried it.

Vital Greens Pea Protein Isolate

My go to protein powder at the moment, mainly for convenience as there are a few cheaper options. The best place to get this is from the Uproar store as the markup is minuscule and the profits go towards actually helping animals and promoting veganism.

Some people think pea protein is revolting, but I don't have a problem drinking it with plain water. I think this might be due to something like the brussels sprouts phenomenon where many people are disgusted by them yet I find them delicious. I think I'm a non-responder to pea protein's taste.

Nitrofusion

When nitrofusion hit our shores a few years ago all the cool kids were using it as it was the ultimate blend of pea, rice and artichoke protein that provided the greatest amino-acid profile of any protein powder on the market. The problem was with the Australian distributors who seemed to hate the eastern side of Australia and refused to send any of the product to potential suppliers in Victoria. Eventually Uproar came to the rescue, providing an insanely cheap source for chocolate, mocha and berry flavoured nitrofusion. It tastes pretty good too. However, it does contain a few filler ingredients like sweeteners which may be problematic for people wanting to control their macronutrient intake.

iherb.com

This is the place to go for vegan protein powders. There are lots of them here. The only problem is that lots of them contain hemp protein and xylitol, which can both cause a problem at customs. Sunwarrior rice protein and a multitude of rice, pea and soy proteins are available from iherb. Take your pick. The prices are practically unbeatable at the moment thanks to the strength of the Australian dollar.

Veganessentials.com

You can't look past this site either. It has a great range of proteins and prices comparable to other online stores. Best of all it is a fully vegan company that stocks heaps of great stuff that you can't find at other places and you know for sure that it's vegan unlike other sites that don't bother doing the research to confirm if products are really vegan.

Protein Bars

Clif Builder's bar

A few years ago these played a big part in me getting stronger and also fatter, when I was sometimes eating three a day. They are more accurately described as chocolate bars with added protein as there are more carbs than protein. You can get these from uproar, Vegan Essentials and iherb.

Organic food bar - Protein

If you are after an overpriced and disgusting protein bar that contains kooky, mumbo jumbo, ingredients (i.e. biodynamic foods) then this is the bar for you. If however you are after something that actually tastes nice, go with the builder's bar or make your own.

Protein Bar recipes

Veganfitness.net has a great thread with protein and energy bar recipes that you could try out. Vegan kettlebell guru, Mike Mahler, also has some cool recipes on his website for bars, cookies and shakes. Check them out.

If you'd like to calculate your protein and macronutrient intake, check out cron-o-meter and sites like nutrition data and the USDA nutrient database.

Well, that's all for part one. Let me know of any other protein bargains you have found or if you have any good protein bar and shake recipes. Now, off to the gym with you!

Video of the day
Rocky IV training montage

Gluten Free Choc-orange and Cashew Fudge

Long time no post. My recent return to study and a lack of blogspiration has been my undoing. I'll try to remedy that in the coming weeks.

My uni is only a short walk from Smith street so I've been checking out Las Vegan (never disappoints) and trippy tacos (trippy fries was not vegan or even vegetarian last Thursday. WTF?!) regularly and have hiked down to Soul Food (vegan breakfast good, chickpea salad puke-inducing) and FOE (too many hippy types and their cow and chicken hating ways pisses me off, particularly when I'm hungry) but won't be going to the latter two for a while.

Anyway, let's get to the business end of this post. I'm a sucker for any new vegan products that come out, like the soy condensed milk that came out last year, but am lacking when it comes to actually making something out of them. I've had a can of the condensed milk sitting around for a few months and I'd singled it out as the focus of my next big, lazy, recipe. I googled condensed milk recipes and found an easy one for fudge. Basically, microwave the contents of a can of the condensed milk with a broken up block of chocolate (I used the Lindt 70% and a few tablespoons of cacao powder) until it's all melted and then add a splash of orange extract and some chopped nuts (I used cashews). Pour into a tray and chill for a few hours. I chucked it in the freezer to speed up the process.

Not much to say about this other than it was sweet, chocolaty and fudgy.


NEW VEGAN FIND (Villa Reale: Pesto alla Trapanese)

I was at the Heidelberg Leo's a few nights ago and found a few vegan pestos. They are from Italy and pricey ($8.80 for a 180g jar). I mixed some into a bowl of rice pasta and was blown away by the taste. The ingredients are so basic that I intend to make some myself when I eventually buy my dream food processor.

GF Black Bean brownies

I'm always thinking about ways to incorporate beans into a sweet dish and stumbled upon this recipe at veganfitness.net for black bean brownies. I modified the recipe to make them GF and easier to make. Luckily Melinda's GF brownie mix is vegan. All I needed to add was margarine, which I made myself, and a tin of black beans.

I basically followed the packet instructions and used mashed black beans as a binder instead of  no-egg.
 
My margarine recipe is a blend of several I found on the net.


Vegan margarine recipe

1 part water (I used 1/4 cup)
2 parts oil (I used 1/2 cup)
Enough ground soy lecithin to emulsify the mix (About 2 tablespoons)

Blend the oil and water and add lecithin. Continue blending until it resembles a soft margarine. Add some turmeric if you want to make it yellow.

I made these for the "super duper vegan picnic" that was held last weekend and everyone who had a taste was a fan. They probably would have thought less of me if they knew how easy it was.

GF gingernut biscuit cake

A few weeks ago Craig and Bec held a potluck at their place and I re-invented the choc ripple cake to make it gluten free. This was done by substituting the choc ripple biscuits with LEDA gluten free gingernut biscuits.

The cream was made with 2 cartons of morinaga tofu, which I found in the Asian foods section of safeway/woolworths, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, caster sugar and a splash of soy milk. N.B. Make sure the blender is running while you pour in the oil.

I added the final touch by dusting it with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar.

The end result. Photo: courtesy of K from In the mood for noodles

This dish is a total winner for anyone looking for a mushy, high sugar, treat i.e. everybody.

GF Lentil Loaf

For Lisa's Christmas potluck I made the lentil loaf from CPG's, The Vegan Table, but with a GF twist. I was pretty happy with the outcome.


Ingredients

4 cups water
2 cups brown lentils
1 to 2 onions
3 garlic cloves minced
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup GF corn crumbs (orgran brand)
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
1 to 2 tablespoons tamari
1 to 2 tablespoons GF vegan worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Oil a loaf tin.

Boil and simmer lentils in 4 cups of water until soft and thick. About 1 hour.

Sautee onions and garlic in some oil until onions are soft. Set aside in bowl.

Once lentils are done, take off heat and let cool for 30 mins. Combine with onion/garlic, 1/4 cup ketchup,  corn crumbs, walnuts, parsley, thyme, tamari, Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Combine and adjust to taste.

Press into loaf tin and spread 1/2 ketchup on top. Bake for 45 mins.