Treats for the hairiest love in your life*

* I'm referring to your canine companions, so if your lover resembles that notorious Fabulous Diamonds album cover they may not appreciate the gesture...

I've been interested in creating home-made treats for my dog for a while now. Her diet is almost completely meat-free, mostly because I feel a bit weird buying raw meat and having in my fridge. She's an older dog, so doesn't need that much protein, and I try to give her fresh food where possible. I order a dry vegan packaged dog food over the internet, and this tends to make up the bulk of her meals, with fresh cooked veggies and grains mixed in. She also has flaxseed capsules and glucosamine (from shellfish) daily for her joints. When it comes to treats, very occasionally she might get a raw hide chew or some smoked roo meat, especially if she's just come from the groomers (a traumatic experience at the best of times!) but now I've done a bit of research and have started coming up with recipes for biscuits using healthy, whole food ingredients that are protein packed and free of any nasties.

A little while ago I wrote up two of these recipes to be included in the Loophole zine. Suzie (my 12 year old cocker spaniel/poodle pound pup) really enjoys both of these, and I feel good knowing I've got control in ensuring my dog gets the best. I also included a list of foods people should avoid giving their dogs, because it's important that if you want to start making your own dog food, you do it right and don't accidentally end up poisoning your pup with the best intentions.

"Cheesy" chic pea mint biscuits

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cups chic pea flour (or 1 cup chic pea, 1 cup oat/plain flour)

2 tsp stock powder/salt

2 tsp dried mint, chopped

2 tsp dried parsley, chopped

1 tsp garlic flakes

2 tbs ground flaxseeds

3 tbs olive oil

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the oil and rub to form fine crumbs. Make a well in the centre and add enough water to form a stiff dough. Press the dough into a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes at 210C. While still warm slice into small bars.

Tomorrow I leave for New Zealand for a two week tour of the North and South islands. If anyone has any recommendations of places to visit, and more importantly, places to eat let me know!

Barley, quinoa and amaranth with roasted vegetables and giant white bean mash

Dinner from a few nights ago - a warming, nourishing bowl of protein packed mixed grains, herbed roasted zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic, topped with giant white beans, garlic and rosemary (Henry's white beans-style) and fresh rocket. I'm so into grains, it's not funny. I used my rice cooker to prepare the grains, throwing them all in together with water in a 1:2 ratio and let the machine do it's thing. The lighter amaranth and quinoa tend to coat the lid and make clean-up more work, but as I have a history of leaving pots on the stove to catch fire I think this is the safest way to go about things...

Tofutti: A spoonful of heaven

What's my idea of heaven? For a start you could put me in a room with a tub of Tofutti Premium frozen dessert and lock the door. Don't worry about a spoon, it just wastes time. This stuff is incredible. INCREDIBLE. If you haven't tried it, track down a tub NOW and stick it in your eating hole. It's not something you'll find at your local supermarket if you live in Australia - Kerry, Eva and I picked this up at Rishon Kosher grocery store in Balaclava. They have a few flavours to chose from, each more tempting than the next: Fudge, Vanilla Almond Bark, Better Pecan. We went for the Better Pecan, so named for it's uncanny likeness to butter pecan it was spooky. The creamiest non-dairy ice-cream I've ever eaten, this was rich and smooth, with thick ribbons of maple syrup and cinnamon running through it, and a generous number of whole pecans (you can see a very flattering photo of me chomping down on one in the last photo). The tub cost around $6 and was more than enough for the three of us, and considering you pay about $3 and upwards for a scoop of gelati, this is super value. Oh man, I want some more! Heaven is only a train ride away!

Dinner to welcome the out-of-towners

I still miss my Newcastle family like crazy, so when they come down to Melbourne for a visit I make sure I pull out all the stops. Kerry and Eva were here last week, and on their first night in town we organised a big dinner party at our cozy home, just us and eleven of our closest friends. Food and copious amounts of alcohol, juice and ginger beer were supplied by guests. Tim fired up the oven for a huge batch of roasted potatoes and sweet potato. I made a leek and mushroom pie, and jaffa cake for dessert. Fjorn brought Szechuan eggplant san choy bow, our housemate made spicy beans and rice with fresh coriander, and Mark brought tiny rainbow choc chip cookies. There weren't enough plates to go around, and come guests had to eat off our red plastic TV dinner trays, but I'm pretty sure no one went home hungry.

Triple choc cupcakes and gluten-free shortbread

It may have been a while since I last posted something, but that doesn't mean I haven't been getting up to all kinds of deliciousness! Sunday before last Tim loaded up his car with an embarrassing amount of our unwanted clothes while I raced around putting the finishing touches on some treats to take with us to the Coburg Primary School car boot sale. The aim of getting up so early was to try and raise some money for our upcoming trip to New Zealand. Poor organisation, lack of sign-posting and small turnout meant we didn't get as much money as we would have liked (or get rid of enough stuff - our shed is full!) but we did have a really good day out in our community, and I'm hell proud of the delicious baked goods I provided - incidentally they looks so much better than anything at the "normy" bake sale table!

And what did I bring to this party? Triple chocolate cupcakes and gluten free almond shortbread hearts with royal icing and pink vanilla sugar. For the cupcakes I used the basic chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan cupcakes take over the world. I really like this recipe - it's straight-forward and doesn't require any weird or expensive ingredients and every time I've used it the results have been stellar. The cakes are soft and light as a feather with a strong but not over bearing chocolate-y taste, delicate crumb, and they aren't too sweet - which is a blessing because the frosting that went with them was insanely rich and sweet. This recipe came from the Vegan family cookbook and uses an unusual technique of beating icing sugar into melted chocolate to create an intense, smooth frosting that reminded me of little Cadbury snack cakes I used to eat as a kid. On top of that was a sprinkle of grated dark chocolate (Lindt 85% cocoa).

The shortbreads were a much lighter affair - quite literally, as these cookies melt away in your mouth. That may have something to do with the fact that they are mostly made of Nuttelex but please don't let that deter you from trying these gorgeous, versatile cookies. They may be rolled out and cut into whatever shape you desire, decorated in an endless number of ways, and I think the dough would even work well as the cookie part of a melting moment biscuit. The recipe came from a nifty little book called Sweet alternative. All the recipes are gluten, dairy and soy free. Everything in it looks divine, though sadly many of the recipes rely heavily on eggs so are out for me. The shortbread however is just one of several beautiful looking desserts within this book. I bought my copy for ridiculously cheap so if you see if around any where grab it. I iced them using the Royal icing recipe from The joy of vegan baking - an exceptional icing recipe that gives crisp, flawless results.

Triple chocolate cupcakes

Basic chocolate cupcake recipe

(From Vegan cupcakes take over the world)

Makes 12

1 cup rice/soy milk

1 tsp apple cider/white vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plain flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 180C and line your muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together the milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and extract to the milk mix and beat until foamy. In another bowl sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add the dry stuff to the wet stuff in two batches and mix until no large lumps remain. Pour the batter into the the liners, filling 3/4 of the way and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Once done transfer onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate frosting

(From Vegan family cookbook)

Makes a hell of a lot of frosting

3 tbs Nuttelex or coconut oil at room temp

70g dark chocolate

3 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup rice/soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

ice water

Melt the chocolate and Nuttelex/oil either in the microwave or double boiler and pour into a medium sized bowl. Fill a large bowl 1/3 full with water and ice cubes. Add the icing sugar, milk and vanilla to the chocolate mixture and place the bowl over the large bowl so that it sits in the cold water. Make sure NONE of the water gets in to the chocolate bowl. Beat the frosting with an electric mixer until it firms up and turns a paler colour.

Frost the cupcakes with as little or as much frosting as you desire, and top with a little grated chocolate.

Gluten-free almond shortbread hearts

(From Sweet alternative)

Makes 12-20 depending on the size

200g/1 cup Nuttelex

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour, plus 1/2 cup extra

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/2 tsp xantham gum

pinch of salt

Cream the Nuttelex, sugar and vanilla until creamy and fluffy. Sift 1 1/2 cups flour with the remaining ingredients and add to the sugar mixture. Fold until well blended using a wooden spoon. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a tray with baking paper. Tear off two large sheets of grease-proof paper and lay one down on your clean work surface. Unwrap the dough and place it on the paper. Knead the dough a couple of times. If you find it is too sticky knead in a little of the extra flour until it reaches a workable consistency, using a little or all the flour if you have to. Place the second sheet over the dough and roll out to 1/2 cm thickness. Cut out shapes using a floured cutter and place the shapes on your tray. Continue rolling out the dough and cutting until all the dough is used. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until very lightly golden. Let them cool slightly on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack. Make sure cookies are completely cool before icing.

Royal icing

(From The joy of vegan baking)

1 1/2 tsp egg replacer

2 tbs water

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

food colour of your choice

In a medium bowl beat the egg replacer and water until very fluffy (about two minutes). Beat in the lemon juice and almond extract. Add the sugar and beat at a low speed until smooth. Add your colour, a tiny bit at a time until you reach the desired hue. Spread the icing on your cookies with the back of a spoon or gently dip the cookies into the icing. I sprinkled my cookies with a little vanilla sugar and pink sugar while the icing was just tacky. These may take several hours or overnight to set so be careful how you store them to avoid squishing.

Lunch at Las Vegan Nirvana

Just some gratuitous photos of my lunch the other day at Las Vegan Bakery. The place is hardly ever open so when I make lunch plans with a friend I haven't seen in a while, I take the opportunity to get out somewhere I never get to go! This is my second visit to this little bakery/cafe on Smith St, and so far it's still up there with some of the great vegan eateries this city has to offer. The portions are generous, the prices are more than reasonable, the staff are friendly (if a little scattered and disorganised at times), there's free unlimited Bonsoy chai tea refills and the food is always fresh and flavours true.

My pal Jennie had the rice balls and salad with satay sauce (pictured) while I had what I had last time I was here, which you can see here. It was just as good as I remembered it to be, the satay sauce was thick, creamy and really tasty. The salad was fresh and crisp and the tofu and tempeh in my wrap were also nice and crisp. The rice balls were delicious, full of little surprise bits and flavours and reminded Jennie of Gado Gado.

Despite all pleads and warnings from our bellies that we were beyond full we went ahead and ordered a muffin each. Jennie went with the sour cherry while I had the Jaffa Bacci (pictured). These were a little disappointing - my muffin was on the dry side, not very chocolate-y and I couldn't taste any of the promised orange flavour. The hazelnut halves on top were nice, but these really didn't compare to anything I can do at home, or come anywhere close to the gluten free almond and berry muffins at A Minor Place, my Holy Grail of muffins. Still, at the end of the meal, the bill was most agreeable, even if my full stomach wasn't.

Las Vegan Bakery

22 Smith St Collingwood

(03) 9451 9001

Tuesday - Friday 11am-3:30pm

Rich lentil Shepard's pie with dirty potatoes

Not literally dirty potatoes, who do you think I am? These I dubbed "dirty" mashed potatoes because I sullied them up with some yummy mix-ins including LSA (linseed, sunflower seeds, almonds) and homemade 'bacon' bits (sans bacon) which I'll tell you all about in a second.

Now this lentil pie was created on a whim and has no set recipe, which is unfortunate because I wish for you all to taste how rich, flavoursome and satisfying this was. My experiences of vegan Shepard's pies have usually involved TVP in place of mince, but I found the lentils gave a much more traditional, true flavour and thickness to the filling.

I made the pie by cooking about 2 cups of dried brown lentils until tender, then draining them. In a large pot I sauteed a finely diced onion and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic until soft. Then I added a diced carrot, one chopped field mushroom and a small handful of shelled edamame (green soybeans, totally optional but I had some in the freezer) and fried for a minute or two, stirring constantly. I then added the lentils and about 2 large tablespoons of tomato paste, stirring to combine. Then in went some veggie stock (enough to float the lentils), a sprinkle of gravy powder (or corn starch to thicken) and a large handful of frozen peas. I let this simmer on low with the lid off while I prepared the potatoes.

Four or five peeled, roughly diced potatoes went into a pot of boiling water to cook until tender. Once done they were drained and put back in the pot. A little rice milk, margarine, salt and pepper were added and the potatoes were mashed. once smooth I stirred through a generous sprinkle of LSA and a handful of homemade bacon-style chips.

The chips I based on this recipe from Tofu for Two. It seems though that soy flakes are equivalent to hen's teeth in this country as I have not seen them anywhere (and believe me, I've looked!) so I decided to substitute rolled rice flakes instead. As a result these ended up being a little tough on their own, but soften up when stirred into other things. I think they make a nice alternative to those fluorescent pink things you get at the super market.

Once the filling thickened up and created its own rich gravy I assembled the pie - a layer of filling topped with some mash and a final sprinkle of 'bacon' bits. Twice as much filling to mash is a ratio I like. Into the oven it went at 200C for 20 minutes or so until the potato started to crisp up and brown. Done!