Healthy Morning Chocolate Shake

I've never been a good breakfast person. I know it's the most important meal of the day, but I'm just not a toast or cornflake kinda girl. Breakfast smoothies I do love however, they're easy, take less than 5 minutes to make, drink, and wash the dishes, and are delicious. And healthy. Enjoy! (The paper straws are the Spring Stripe Mix Pack!)

Ingredients:
1 quite ripe banana
1 cup almond milk (or your favourite milk)
1 tablespoon raw cacao powder (or to taste)
1 teaspoon tahini

Pop the milk & banana in your blender and whizz up for a few seconds. Next add the tahini and cacao, then blend until smooth! (If your banana is a good ripeness level it'll already be pretty soft, if it's still a bit hard I like to squash it a little before popping it in to make sure it blends properly. Also if it's underripe you may want to add a sweetener like honey or agave.)

Notes:
I love this drink because to me it's just as satisfying as a chocolate shake, however you don't get the crazy sugar buzz and crash.
The health benefits are great too - bananas are a great source of carbohydrate and protein, they're low GI and contain lots of great vitamins. They're fantastic for being filling and helping you feel full for longer.
Raw cacao can easily be substituted for regular cocoa powder, however raw cacao has more antioxidants than regular cocoa! I use Loving Earth brand.
The tahini I add because it gives a great silky smoothness to the shake, kinda how chocolate syrup does in a regular milkshake. It's an optional extra, but I think it works really well.

Enjoy! x Penny

Pinterest Picks: Sweet + Vegan

Two admissions. First, I'm an aspirational vegan. I only cook vegan foods at home, and I used to be vegan, and I completely respect and admire those fine people who stick to an all vegan lifestyle. However, I'm very lazy about it, especially when it comes to cakes & sweet treats at cafes and restaurants. Can't resist them.

Second admission: I adore Pinterest. I am very careful to try to credit my Pins properly, and I just love the way that clicking on beautiful Pinterest images can link you to the most amazing websites via beautiful images (it can also link you to some awful Tumblr pages and error messages, you Pinterest users know what I mean!)

So, one + two equals it's time to do some vegan baking! All the above DELICIOUS looking sweet treats are from my Sweet Vegan board, and I really gotta get onto these recipes! YUM!


Images/Recipes:

1. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Tartlettes by The Knead for Speed
2. Raw Strawberry Dreamcake by A Dash of Compassion
3. Vegan Cloudberry Cheesecake by Seitti on Flickr

Ham and Pea (and pasta!)

Bow Wow Embossed Greeting Card by Ham and Pea

Literally, how cute is this card? I love pasta, I love the shapes & sizes and the winter-time-comfort-factor yumminess. I usually try and sub in some rice noodles sometimes. I like the skinny little vermicelli rice noodles? They're good.

The cutest thing about Ham and Pea (apart from the name!) is the fact that all the cards feature pasta somewhere in the design. YUM!

Ham and Pea
shop : blog : twitter : website


I totally just made my own big batch of lentil & walnut bolognese using my recipe (found here). How cute would Ham and Pea's cards be as Pasta Party invites? Very cute.

Side note: I have been wanting to cook this recipe for vegan mac & cheese for so so long. Maybe this week.

manchester press cafe, melbourne

Manchester Press is the hottest new cafe in Melbourne - it's only been open a few weeks, and already I've heard so much about it! It's run by the same people as Loco Cafe in Elsternwick which is one of my favourites, so I was quite happy to go there for lunch.

It's down a little laneway of Little Bourke Street in the camping store district, and it's inside a building that used to be an old printing press office. So the decor is very reflective of this - lots of typography, cute shelves, tables made out of old printing equipment. Plus, amazing artwork by Montgomery. And a massive bowling pin.

The menu's short & sweet - just a few bagels, salads, and a couple of breakfast things. And, the bagels are $12. So, my buddy Deb and I said to each other, it better be a good bagel for $12. And it was! I got a guacamole, fetta, tomato, pinenut & rocket bagel, and it came with a really delicious salad (yes, there is a bagel underneath!) We were very happy campers.

I love me some coffee (hot chocolate) art. Cute!

The staff were all lovely, very hipster-chic.

If, like me, the promise of awesome coffee & a great space makes you speed down Rankins Lane you might not see their words of wisdom until the way out... Very true.

Manchester Press
8 Rankins Lane
Melbourne

meat-free monday: tofu don

Something that I don't mention so often on the blog is how much I love cooking. I am also very passionate about vegetarianism and veganism. A vegan diet is way better for the environment - the production of meat/dairy consumes far more resources than the production of vegetables/grains.

Meat-free Mondays is a great idea, to encourage people who might ordinarily eat meat every day to go vego once per week. I thought I might make this into a fun weekly (or every few weeks) blog post and share some of my favourite meals! I always feel much better when I stick to a healthy, well balanced vegan diet (sorry cheese & icecream!) but we can all try going vegan once a week, it's fun!

Tofu-don is my standard, go to meal when I am in a rush. A donburi is a traditional Japanese meal of rice & either meat or tofu, which can be adapted in so many ways!

I always keep a pack or two of puffy fried tofu in the freezer (you know, from an Asian grocery) - it freezes really well, and defrosts quickly!

My simple Summer version of a tofu-don is: a layer of rice (brown rice if you have time!), a layer of tofu (I usually chop of puffy tofu, give it a quick fry with some onion, and whack on some plum sauce & soy sauce and any nuts or seeds I have lying around), and a layer of salad. And seaweed, for added health-food points.

The very first picture is white rice, corn, carrots & cucumber in a soy/sesame dressing & fried tofu.

Now that this first rather wordy post is out of the way, I'm looking forward to cooking some yummy things, brushing up on my food photography skillz, and sharing some yummy meals!

so delicious: bluecorn, st kilda

Hello! Things have been feeling a wee bit quieter around here which is so nice - I love this time of year, the Christmas craziness has calmed down, and it's been fun enjoying the sunshine, going for lots and lots of coffees (or, in my case, usually a soy chai), hanging out with friends and family and having fun. At the moment we're busy planning lots of fun new products to be launched in Jan, Feb & March, yay!

These photos are pre-Christmas - from the Pocket Carnival Christmas Party, to be exact. I always feel a bit nostalgic for work Christmas parties, so even if it is just Chris and I in attendance I like to have a party! This year we went to Bluecorn in St Kilda - it's modern Mexican food. Yum. And, their margaritas are delicious! And huge. The one above is mango margarita, it's my fave.

We had margaritas & corn burritos with delicious fillings. I usually get my food without cheese because it can all end up very cheesey otherwise! Mmm.

Usually they only have one dessert option - when we went it was churros with strawberry something, chocolate mousse and chocolate & coconut sauce. I love churros. So good.

Mojitos! So lovely.

If you're around the hood, check out Bluecorn! Yummm.

Bluecorn
205 Barkly St
St Kilda, 3182

happy christmas!

Happy Christmas! Hooray! Our internet hasn't been working for the past week-ish (but was fixed yesterday) so it was a lovely enfored break! I wrapped lots of gifts and stacked them in a pine-tree shape.

Sent lots of Christmas cards (I did them in batches to make it easier!)

And made a table full of vegan gingerbread (recipe is here!)

Now, the once fully stocked shelves of Pocket Carnival are rather bare, and it's time for a holiday I think!

Hope you all have a lovely day, whatever you may be doing.

xx Penny

the OWLS are here!

I know there are many many owl lovers out there - my affection for owls is growing every day. So, I thought a fun new set of cards might be in order!

So far there are 7 cards, although I'm considering doing the 'I Love You' Owls without the text as well, so people can frame it?

Whilst I hope that I don't know anyone who needs one of these cards anytime soon, and same for all of you, it's still a nice card.

The cards all all available for sale now in the Pocket Carnival store, and on Etsy! Hooray!

And. How delicious is this. Vegan Chocolate Brownies, from Dre on a Tray, at the North Melbourne Market. These brownies were so very extremely pretty AND delicious, and almost made up for the super slow market day!


P.S. - did you see the Able & Game new tea-towels yet?
P.P.S. - check out this market that one of our fave stockists, Nook, is doing in Woolloongabba!
P.P.P.S. - our latest newsletter is out! http://pocketcarnival.com.au/newsletter-2010-7.html

love: coco cupcakes!

If I lived in Vancouver I would order some cupcakes from Coco Cake Boutique Cupcakes in a second. But I don't, so instead I must enjoy looking at photos.

Lyndsay blogs photos of all her edible artworks (tell me that cake is not art? oh, you can't!)

I would order these. I want rainbow cake!

Yay cake! Yay Coco Cake!

And now, I am hungry. I think it's time to bake a cake. I'll need some sustenance at North Melbourne Market tomorrow, after all.

my creative space: from above

The past day or so I've been making much lasagne - this is my new favourite thing to make in big batches. We made this last night, there's enough for 12 people! Mmm. Lots of lasagne goodness.

The bolognese is a walnut & lentil combo. Would you like the recipe? It's easy.

Walnut & Lentil Bolognese
1/3 cup split red lentils
2/3 cup brown lentils (I like the little tiny ones).
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
Bring to the boil then cook on low for around 45 mins, or until they're cooked and a bit mushy.

1 large brown onion
a couple of shallots (or a bit more onion)
as much garlic as you feel like
1 leek
quite a bit of olive oil (say 1/4 cup?)
Fry all this oniony and leeky goodness on a low heat until it's starting to brown and go a bit sweet.

Add in around 2/3cup of walnuts that you've whizzed in a food processor until they're a breadcrumb size (you could use hazelnut meal instead).
Add in the lentils, and around 440g tin of tomatoes, and a few olives or a teensy bit of salt. And herbs, if you like.

Let it cook for a bit! This is the quantity for quite a large pot of sauce.

Also - more gift tags!

Basil! The large herd of snails in my garden enjoyed eating my first round of basil seedlings, I'm hoping I can find all the snails and rehome them before these ones are ready. And I know, I didn't actually create these, they created themselves... but I did plant them, that counts, right?

huzzah!

Look what just arrived! New fabric! Organic cotton goodness! Thank you Spoonflower! I love you!

Large scale owls, this is for a personal project, will show you when I am done!

Cake! This cake right here, actually, from Have Cake Will Travel. I made it using a honey/agave combo instead of the specified maple syrup - it's got no cane sugar in it. And it's really good! And vegan! Love cake. It's a dense, chocolatey cake, and the recipe is quite forgiving (I tend not to measure when I bake). If vegan, low sugar cakes are your thing, take a peek at the recipe!

P. S. - the fabric competition this week on Spoonflower is Kawaii themed! I may have even entered, but it's all so so so cute! Love.

chocolate oat cookies from the weekend

Cookie Army! So good - I made some of these cookies last weekend too, but the recipe needed a little tweaking - here is the tweaked version - they're vegan and fairly healthy!

Ingredients
1/2 cup oil (I use olive)
2/3 cup soy milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract

2 & 1/2 cup plain flour (feel free to wholemeal or degluten it)
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

3/4 cup oats
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup dried coconut
3/4 cup raisins/sultanas


Directions
Mix together the first 4 ingredients.
Add in the next 5 ingredients and mix together - it should be pretty thick and pastey.
Add in the final 4 ingredients (feel free to experiment!).
Roll the dough into little balls (about 3.5cm or 1.5inches across).
Put them on your baking tray which has baking paper on it, and bake for around 12 minutes at 180 degrees C. They'll be soft when you take them out, okay?

I think the recipe should make around 30 cookies?

Oh, you can also put a piece of chocolate in the middle!

Also - guacamole! The avocadoes have been good lately.

from the weekend...

Daffodils from the St Kilda Farmer's Market - beautiful!

This weekend has been a combination of relaxing in a bake-y / flowers-y style, and sitting at my computer editing css and html and trying to fix my shop. I love hosting my own online store, yes I do, but this week I broke the fundamental rule of editing stuff online - understand what you're doing before you do it. I really like experimenting and not following instructions - you can get away with this when you're baking a cake or assembling some Ikea, but sometimes not so much with websites.

Fortunately, all of the data in my shop is safe & backed up. Unfortunately, the shop is now in a semi-online, moved state, and will take a few days to get back!

To make myself feel better (and also to create gifts) I made a batch of oatmeal chocolate raisin coconut cookies. Yesterday at the Farmer's Market, lovely Phillippa's Bakery was selling a delicious chocolate oatmeal slice. Delicious, but very buttery & sugary.

I found a recipe in my beloved Veganomicon cookbook and adapted away to make my own yummy, healthier & vegan cookies - I'll post the recipe next time I make them!

This recipe made a large amount of little cookies - thankfully I have lots of people to give them to!

More little fabric squares! But it's not a quilt.

Hope you're all having lovely weekends!

delicious: monk bodhi dharma

Photo from The Weekly Review

I'm always excited when a new cafe opening on my side of town gets rave reviews, especially if it's a vegetarian cafe with a great atmosphere, vegan cupcakes & cute decor! Hooray for Monk Bodhi Dharma. I went there with Debbie & Chris a couple of days ago...

Monk Bodhi Dharma makes yummy vegetarian food (no eggs!), and always have lots of specials to choose from. I got a Mexican Tortilla Soup - it was just a little bowl of good things - rice, soupy stew, avocado, corn chips & chili salsa. Mmm.

Hot chocolate - pretty.

Monk Bodhi Dharma
Behind Safeway
Carlisle St, Balaclava (Vic)

(Visit Lulu while you're there!)

delicious: our kitchen table

Usually when my mum & I go for coffee, it's to Our Kitchen Table in Malvern (just around the corner from the lovely Patchwork on Central Park!)

Delicious cookies & cakes, chai with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top, and super cute decor - hooray!

Our Kitchen Table
134 Bourke Road
Malvern East VIC 3145


PS: Sorry for lack of much happening, I've developed the dreaded Winter it-was-only-9-degrees-the-other-day lurgy!

my creative space

Hello! This week I've been trying some new things. First - new purse design! Hooray! I'll list these in the shop tomorrow, and I'll be sending some little coupons to my mailing list, so if you want on it, send me your email here!

I've also been baking - delicious lemon cake! It's vegan, lovely and moist and very lemony... the recipe is here. I put in a bit less sugar to make it seem healthier.

And finally... I have learned my lesson after the little debacle a few months ago when I designed some fabric for mobiles, AND had it printed without actually doing a test pattern first (oops!)

This is my little tester - it's an old screen print I had from my tote bag making days. This particular little bunny will be going to a super cute 6 month old (she won't mind it being wonky!) but watch this space for softies soon - they will be made of organic cotton and stuffed with natural fibres - perfect for hungry babies.