I survived tofu!

That’s right!! That weird-ass scary spongy stuff that is made of fermented soy beans… Hmmm!!

Last night Shannon & Tim impressed Litha and I with a delicious vegan dinner – topped off with some tasty vegan organic wine!

I admit I didn’t take any photos of the food (although Litha took a couple, and I will add these when I get them). I was just too busy drooling and shovelling food onto my plate and into my mouth to remember snapping pics!

AMERICAN-STYLE DINNER AT SHANNON & TIM’S

Salad

Spinach, Strawberry & Toasted Pecan – totally delicious, the dressing was also great! Strawberry in a salad = genius

Main

Baked “Chicken” Drumsticks – must admit, fake chicken is something that is very foreign to me and the jury is still out!!

Tofu, 2 Ways: Kentucky Fried & Blackened – tasty! Steaks of tofu were done schnitzel style, dipped in no-egg and coated in seasoning before being pan fried

Baked 'chicken' drumsticks - complete with a stick as a bone!

Sides

Baked Mac & “Cheese” with Breadcrumbs – a rich creamy dish, I’ve never had ‘real’ mac & cheese (does anyone remember that Friends episode with Joey?!!) so it was good to try a ‘classic’ dish

Mashed Sweet Potato – sweet potato/kumara/yam is da bomb!

Sauteed Silverbeet with Citrus & Sultanas – a sweet, super tasty way to eat greens. Shannon grows the rainbow stuff, it’s so pretty!!

Maple-Flaxseed Cornbread – this was great! So amazing that Litha polished off 3 pieces and took another 2 home with her (hang on Litha, that sounds awfully similar to L-whacks ‘very delicious’ banana cake incident)

Shannon has very kindly shared the recipe with me, and said it’s ok if I post it.

MAPLE-FLAXSEED CORNBREAD

Preheat yo' oven to 190-200. 

1 C Flour

1 C Polenta

1tsp Salt

3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2/3 C Sugary Stuff (Made up of whatever combo of dry sugar & Maple Syrup that you wish- I usually do 1/4 C maple and the rest dry raw sugar)

1 "egg" (made up of 1tbsp ground linseed and 3tbsp of hot water, stirred and cooled until it becomes egg texture)

3/4 C Soy/Oat Milk 

1/3 C Veg/Canola/Other mild-flavoured Oil 

Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Then mix the Sugars + wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet ones to the dry ones until just combined. 

Pour into a spray-oiled or baking paper-lined 8x8 or 9x9 (I don't know what this is in metric) dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean and the edges are goldeny brown. 

Cool and feed this to whoever you want to be your future husband**

PS. Alternatives include: adding 3/4 C - 1 C corn kernels, or finely diced different coloured capsicum or jalapenos. You can also add paprika, smoked paprika, or some sort of chilli powder to give it a bit of a different taste.

Dessert

Peach Raspberry Crumble with Soygood Ice Cream – a-to-die for dessert! I’ll have to find out where this fruit was bought as it was so flavoursome!

Peach Raspberry Crumble with Soygood Ice Cream

BIG thank you for Shannon & Tim for having us over last night. It was great to try some new vegan food, and to step out of the comfort zone food-wise.

I’ve loaned Shannon my two vegan cookbooks – Appetite for Reduction, and Veganomicon and I have borrowed Vegan Pie in the Sky and Vegan Diner which I shall enjoy thumbing through!

And finally, Shannon & Tim currently have 3 cats (2 they own, 1 foster kitten) and 2 dogs (2 hilarious staffy's). Olive and Jenny enjoy some play fighting, and Litha got a great action shot of them!!

Cat fight!

**Shannon wooed Tim with her wonderful corn bread baking skills, and a magazine that published their story, called it ‘The Recipe for Love’…