Banana Nut Coconut Cake

More than just your average banana cake!

The original recipe had four bananas in it - imagine how many vitamins would be in that! Seeing as I don't eat much cake, and there's only two of us, I halved it. The full recipe is available here. I got mine from the American allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner iPhone App... safe to say I'm obsessed with recipe applications ;-)

Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/2 bananas, mashed (reserve the other half for the frosting)

1 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup shredded coconut

FROSTING

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 banana, mashed

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake tin. I used square. no big deal.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together white sugar and butter. Add eggs and mashed bananas.

3. Add baking soda to the flour, and add to the mix alternately with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla, then fold in the pecans and coconut.

4. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Method:

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in mashed banana, pecans, coconut and vanilla. It was a bit thick at this point, so I added soy milk one teaspoon at a time until it was spreadable and mixed thoroughly. You can use regular milk, but I never have it.

It's no oil painting, but it tastes good!!

Banana Nut Coconut Cake

Vegan Blueberry Pancakes

Please don't be frightened.

These are honestly the best pancakes I have ever eaten, and I'm a stickler for traditional recipes.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup soy milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil.


METHOD

1. Combine the four dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Add soy milk and vegetable oil, stir until mixed. I used half regular, half vanilla soy milk. If you don't have vanilla, you can add a splash of vanilla extract.

3. Heat a pan over medium heat, and grease.

4. Spoon mix into the centre of the pan, and sprinkle on a few blueberries. or cooked apple pieces. or strawberry. or whatever the hell you want!

5. Flip when you see bubbles appear, and the underside is brown.


They are honestly so good, and have no cholesterol. You can also keep the batter in the fridge for fresh pancakes every morning!


Recipe from here

Roasted Pumpkin and Pea Risotto with Parmesan and Ricotta

Roasted pumpkin is not just my favourite way to have my favourite vegetable - it's probably my favourite food ever.

And I've had such poor versions of it when dining out that the only place I can guarantee satisfaction is in the Veggie Mama kitchen.

If I had my way, I'd eat pumpkin-flavoured everything, and put pumpkin in all dishes it doesn't usually belong.

Thankfully, pumpkin works exceptionally well in risotto.

Yum, right?

Risotto is super-easy, and just about every recipe you see will be the same. The only thing that changes is what you put in it. I just happened to have peas in the freezer and figured, "hey, they'll do", but it could have been asparagus, corn, red capsicum, anything.

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's first book The Naked Chef, but I always tweak any recipe according to what I have in the cupboard, and whatever works for me.

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

1 litre stock (I used homemade this time)

1 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1/2 head celery, chopped

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

400g risotto rice (carnaroli or arborio)

100ml white wine

1 tablespoon butter, to taste

1/2 cup cream

Handful of freshly grated parmesan

METHOD

1. Heat the stock in a saucepan and keep it on a simmer.

2. In a separate pan, heat the olive oil and butter. Add the onion, celery (I used celery salt instead), and a pinch of salt and cook the vegetables gently about three minutes. Add garlic and cook another two minutes.

3. When the vegetables have softened, add the rice. Turn up the heat, and don't leave the pan alone.

4. While slowly stirring, fry the rice. After two or three minutes, add the wine and listen to it hiss :)

5. Pour yourself a glass - there's so much stirring you ain't going anywhere.

5. Once the wine seems to have been absorbed, add a ladle of hot stock, and turn down the heat. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock once they are absorbed.  Don't rush this, or the centre of the rice granules will be hard and gross. Not a good look, particularly if you're trying to impress the in-laws.

6. After 15-20 minutes, check the rice. You want it soft and creamy. When cooked to your liking, take the pan off the heat and add the butter, cream and parmesan.

7. You want it oozing in the bowl or plate, so make sure you've added enough stock. Under no circumstances is it to be stiff or gluggy. ugh!

8. Top with freshly cracked black pepper, parsley and crumble some ricotta over. 

Veggie Stock

Every chef worth their salt makes their own.

Sometimes though, that friendly little tetra-carton means one less thing to wash and far more space in your freezer.

I do both, but have to say when it comes to speediness, that little liquid-filled box is my go-to man. However, I do have a little bag in the freezer in which I collect onion odds and ends, carrot tips, mushroom stalks, whatever's going.

My usual list is onion, celery (perfect for the leaves at the top), carrot, mushroom, bay leaf, salt, pepper, garlic cloves, herbs and old lettuce. Don't have anything too starchy (potatoes, etc) or anything too cruciferous (broccoli, cauliflower).

Just chop them roughly, quarter the onions and carrots, and throw them in a big stock pot.

Pour over some water almost to the top, add sea salt and cracked black pepper, and simmer for as long as you want. The longer the better!

Cool for a bit and then either use or freeze for another day.

Don't forget to keep your bags in the freezer ready for your scraps, and you can just throw them into the pot frozen as-is. Easy!

Easy Bean Dip

Making beans un-scary, one recipe at a time.

And making deliciousness easy!

Ingredients
1 can red kidney beans
either 1 jar salsa or 1 can diced tomatoes
a quick sprinkle (more if you’re using canned tomatoes) cumin, onion powder and garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh coriander
1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce

Method
Mix all in a food processor.

Easy, huh? You can also make nachos from these, put in a shallow dish and sprinkle with cheese, and then grill. You could add jalapenos, chopped red onion, stir through diced avocado…. the choice is endless.

Cheesy Garlic Potato Bake

I’ll fight you to the death for the last scoop.

Potato bake, otherwise known as potatoes au gratin (French for holy shit this creamy, cheesy potato dish is amazing) has long been a staple in my life. It causes fights, is jealously guarded, and significantly overindulged in on a regular basis.

It is surprisingly easy to get wrong. I know what you’re thinking… potatoes, cream, cheese. What is there to ruin? But we’ve all been there. RSL potato bakes with still-raw slices. Friends’ mother’s tasteless trays of goo (isn’t that the worst? you get all excited when you see its golden goodness, and you dig in only to find it tastes just this side of depressing). Bakes that have funny ingredients in them that shouldn’t be found within twelve light years of the holiness that is au gratin.

Allow me to help.

ooh. Nice, yah?

Ingredients
Potatoes. Lots of them. It actually depends on what size dish, but you’ll probably need four or five decent-sized ones for most rectangle casserole dishes. peel and slice thinly. Please do use the big brown or white ones, the little red ones will hold their shape too much. Still tastes good, but just isn’t the same!
3/4 cup vegetable stock
300ml cream
garlic powder
onion powder
pepper
cheese (amount depends - for this I’d probably use 1 3/4 cups)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 and grease your casserole dish. Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom, and sprinkle quite liberally with the garlic, pepper and onion powder. Sprinkle over a layer of cheese.

2. Repeat.

3. On the top layer, pour over the stock and then the cream before sprinkling with the seasonings, and adding cheese to the top.

4. Bake for at least an hour. You don’t want RSL potatoes do you? I would check after an hour by sticking a knife in the middle. If it slides in easily, you’re good to go.

There are honestly so many ways of making this - poaching minced garlic in milk, adding sliced onion, sprinkling the layers with nutmeg or lemon pepper - but I just wanted to give you a basis. It’s so easy, has tons of flavour, and will probably need a security guard if you’re wanting leftovers the next day.

Enjoy, Miss K x

Spicy Coconut Soup

garlic, ginger, coriander, oh my!



Yesterday I felt ill and couldn’t think of a single thing to eat that wouldn’t immediately make me want to crawl under a rock and die.



Then I realised this is magic soup that would make the birds sing and stars sparkle and nausea recede to whence it came.



I got the idea from a severe obsession with Thai Tom Kha soup. I threw in what I figured it would have, and voila! super soup.

Ingredients

1/2 onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into paper-thin slices, then into strips
4-5 coriander stems, chopped
1 stick lemongrass, sliced. I also pound it with the bottom of a heavy knife to break the strands inside so it’s not so tough.
1 red chili, sliced. I left the seeds in for a little heat.
1 litre/4 cups vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
juice of two limes
1 tomato, chopped or 6-7 cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes look nicer.
2 mushrooms, sliced or halved, depending on size
3 bok choy stems, sliced

Method
1. put stock, garlic, ginger, coriander stem, lemongrass, chili and onion in a pot and cover with stock. bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer.

2. Add coconut milk, sugar and lime juice.

3. Five minutes before you want to serve it, add tomato, mushroom and bok choy.

You can also add whatever veggies you like - carrot and beans would be good!

Chickpea Tagine with Cinnamon, Cumin and Carrots

Chickpeas are one of the first things that freaked me out about vegetarian food. Closely followed by lentils. Little did I know I was being a complete twat and they actually taste pretty damn good.



I broke my two-photo rule so only have this pleasantly blurry one for your viewing pleasure…

Ingredients
2 tbs olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into thin rounds
¼ tsp dried currants or sultanas. These are optional.
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp cayenne
2 tsp honey
½ cup greek yogurt
3 tbs finely chopped parsley

Method
1. Heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and sauté 2-3 mins, until onion is soft. Stir in chickpeas, carrots, currants, spices, honey and 2 cups water. Cover and simmer 20-25 mins, stirring occasionally. Season.
Divide among 4 bowls, garnish with yogurt and parsley.

We had rice with ours, but it isn’t necessary. Enjoy!

Recipe from Vegetarian times

Blueberry Muffins

Don't kid yourself that these are healthy...

I pretty much avoid fruit at all costs, but with the whole veggie baby thing in mind, it can’t be a bad thing if it makes more of an appearance in my diet. Which is why I try to hide it in things.

Makes 12 sugar-laden goodies! or 6 regular muffin-size ones.

Ingredients
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh, canned or frozen blueberries
Streusel topping (if you don’t mess it up like I did)

Method
1. Heat oven to about 200C. Put muffin cups in each whole of two muffin trays, or you can grease them thoroughly… but who would want to wash them?

2. Make Streusel Topping, set aside.

3. Beat milk, oil and eggs in large bowl with whisk. Stir in flour, sugar and salt all at once until flour is moistened. The batter will be lumpy, and that’s cool. Just don’t over-mix.

4. Fold in blueberries, then divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon topping.

5. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. If baked in greased pans, let stand about 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Streusel Topping.
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons firm butter

Method
Cut butter into ingredients, or rub in with your fingertips until it is crumbly.

Now if you’ve a serious butter addiction, like myself, you will put too much in and ruin the streusel. Instead of being a nice crumbly topping that bakes into a lovely crunch, mine was goo. brown, sugary goo.

Still tastes good, though.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

The ultimate brownie indulgence!

I always bake a little treat for Veggie Husband’s lunchbox every week, so this is the latest effort.
It is impossibly rich.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
60g cooking chocolate
Cream cheese filling… a little further down
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I omitted these)

Method
1. Heat your oven to 180C. You can grease the bottom and sides of a rectangular 13x9 inch pan or you can be lazy like me and line it with a huge sheet of baking paper!

2. Melt butter and chocolate. I did this in the microwave, in a glass bowl. cook in 20-second bursts and stir after every time. Cool 5 minutes If, like me, you use chocolate chips which aren’t designed to melt… it will take forever. I recommend cooking chocolate!

3. Make cream cheese filling, set aside.

4. Beat chocolate mixture, sugar, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. It looked a little anaemic here so I added a tablespoon of cocoa. Beat in flour and salt.

5. Spread 3/4 batter in pan. Spread filling over batter, and you can either drop random pieces of the reserved batter, or drizzle it like I did.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

7. Try to stop yourself from eating the whole thing in one go.

Cream Cheese Filling

1 packet cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Method
1. Beat until smooth. easy, huh?

Recipe from Betty Crocker.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Welcome to my first kitchen fail.

Well, not ever, of course. There’s been plenty of those!

So I had the lasagna in the oven, and everything was smelling good.
The veggies had roasted perfectly, the sauce was lovely and rich, and the bechamel was thick and just right. Everything fit in the pan, and the cheese on top was just getting to that golden melty stage. Perfection!

It wasn’t until about ten minutes later that I realised all the gloriously roasted vegetables were still sitting on a tray in the griller, keeping warm, and NOT in my fabulously constructed lasagna, bubbling merrily away in the oven. Where they should be. Oops.

So with the help of a barbecue flip, a handy plate and a bemused Veggie Husband looking on and more making fun of me than helping, I peeled back the first layer, jammed the veggies in all nice and snug, layered the now-mixed saucy, cheesy, pasta layers back over, dumped some cheese on top and voila! Nobody need know.
see how pretty it looks? mmmm

Anything can be saved in my kitchen!

Ok so for the recipe. I actually tried to pay attention to this, as I never normally measure anything. All veggie strips should be about 1cm thick.

Ingredients
1 large eggplant, cut into strips
1 medium sweet potato, cut into strips
2 zucchinis, cut into strips (I only used one today)
Instant lasagna sheets
TOMATO SAUCE:
2 onions, diced,
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small capsicum/bell pepper, diced
2 400g cans diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sambal oelek (you can omit this if you want, I just like mine with a kick)
1/4 cup chicken stock (mine is vegetarian)
1 teaspoon of sugar… don’t forget this! very important.
salt, pepper
1 teaspoon each of dried oregano and basil. you can also layer fresh basil in with your veggies. Yum!
BECHAMEL SAUCE:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
a pinch of salt and pepper
the smallest amount possible of nutmeg. you can add more but i’m a tiny bit afeared of it.
ok.

Method
1. Preheat oven to 220 C. place all veggies onto baking trays, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake about 30-40 minutes, turning halfway, until golden and soft.

Sauce: In a saucepan, saute onion and capsicum in 1 tablespoon olive oil for three or four minutes over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute one minute more.
add all other sauce ingredients, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Bechamel Sauce: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring for one minute, to cook all the raw taste out of the flour.
Add the milk, stirring all the time.

bring to the boil, stirring often. It should be lovely, thick and lump free after about 10 minutes.

Assembly: spray a lasagna pan and ladle some tomato sauce on the bottom. Make a layer of pasta, tomato sauce, vegetables, then bechamel. DON’T melt and forget the vegetables here, like I did.
Keep alternating, ending with bechamel and a good sprinkling of cheese.

See? Ultimate lasagna betrayal. It looked so good I had no idea roasted vegetable lasagna could be so devoid of roasted vegetables.

Bake in 200 C oven about 30-40 minutes.

omnomnom.

Cajun Spiced Portobello Mushrooms

I used to think mushrooms made baby Jesus cry, they were so heinous. Now of course I love them, just like the boring adult that I am.

These mushrooms won’t make anyone cry. They’ll just make you happy.








I believe they started off attempting to be a Tal Ronnen recipe who was featured on oprah.com, but once I found out you were supposed to braise them gently like little mushroom babies for three hours, I quickly adapted it!







Ingredients
Portobello mushrooms, cleaned and cut into strips. (I used about five for two people with leftovers)
paprika
sea salt
onion powder
garlic powder
pepper
cayenne
dried oregano
dried thyme







Method
I laid all the strips out on their sides on a chopping board, and just sprinkled everything over. Then I turned the strips and did the same to the other side. I also managed to dye the chopping board red with all the paprika, so I don’t recommend you do the same… maybe use a plate!



I also made a total mess, but they look good anyway.

I grilled them over medium to low heat, with the cover down on the barbecue. Turned after about five minutes, and grilled for another seven to ten minutes.
They were pretty awesome.

M&M Cookies

Actually the best cookie I’ve made in a long time. Now I bake regularly, and have melted a great deal so am obviously the best judge of this…



This is a Betty Crocker recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which I halved and altered slightly. It happens.

mmm see? You can’t resist, can you.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar (I used 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup golden syrup mmm)
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips. (I used two regular bags of M&Ms. I’m like that)

Method
1. Heat oven to 180 C or 350 F. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until light and fluffy. you can use a mixer, or just get a really huge bicep on one side, just like me. Especially if the butter’s still cold! Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. The dough will be pretty stiff, but that’s how it’s meant to be.
2. On an ungreased cookie sheet (I used baking paper), drop dough by tablespoonfuls or an icecream scoop about 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.
3. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until light brown. The centres may still be a bit soft, and that’s cool. Remove to a cooling rack after about two minutes.

Good for lunchboxes, nondiabetics, midnight snacks

Not just a load of old lentils

Greetings! Now i’m just as scared of tofu and tempeh and all the creepy-sounding, overly-healthy vegetarian foodstuffs as any regular person, which is why I created this site. Here you will find unfreaky food and recipes for vegetables that don’t immediately make you want to cry. Vegetarian food doesn’t have to be boring or hippy-flavoured unless you want it to be. If you do, i’m afraid Veggie Mama just ain’t for you!

I’m also considering growing a veggie baby in the near future, so sometimes the posts will focus on that. Given that these recipes won’t actually impregnate you, go ahead and eat them even if you’re a dude, or just not that into pregnancy right now. They will be delicious and nutritious and occasionally taste just like fake chicken.