Quick and easy felafel wrap with mint and cucumber yogurt.

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Hi. I'm Veggie Mama, and I like to cut corners.

While I've no doubt a made-from-scratch felafel would be gorgeous, juicy little balls packed with mouth-watering flavour, I've never had cause to make them by hand. Yet.

For my various felafel needs, which admittedly to this date have been few, I turn to the trusty little yellow box that I've no doubt pleased thousands like myself over the years. I don't know who makes them or where they come from, but they make their way into my basket from time to time and make very satisfactory little felafel thingies for my wraps.

One thing I do insist on, however, is the making of my own mint-cucumber-garlic-yogurt concoction either as a dressing or dipping sauce. The flavour is just never the same when you get it out of a tub. The tubs are good... especially at parties when I'm vulturing around the buffet table, but at home I like to be able to whip a bit up myself.

And look at these felafel babies. Suit my purpose perfectly!

 On a soft wrap, I grate some cheese, and add chopped tomato, red onion and lettuce. The more like a 2am kebab, the better. I usually put hommus too, but I didn't have any - gasp!

I make the felafel according to packet directions but I'm lazy and I don't roll them into balls. I spoon them out onto a greased tray like little flat cookies and bake until set.

For my dressing, I add one minced garlic clove and one diced lebanese cucumber to 200g natural Greek-style yogurt with a handful of chopped mint and a lot of salt.

Yum.

Now here's the part where I ask you if you've got an awesome felafel recipe to share, in case one day I decide to shed my lazy ways - I know there's got to be something out there that will make me cry with joy! Felafel FTW.

*disclaimer: Just like I've no idea of the company of origin of my friendly yellow felafel box, they haven't a clue who I am. I paid my two bucks for it like anybody else in the supermarket. I just like it, is all, and I share what I like xxx

Easy peasy rice paper rolls

Sure these are super-simple, but if you've never made them before, you might shy away thinking they're too fiddly.

They're not. They're SO not.

All you need is a bit of bench space, some pre-sliced veggies and pre-soaked rice noodles and you're ready to roll. You could add anything you like to these babies, but I tend to stick to the tried-and-true carrot/cucumber/capsicum trio. I'm thinking next time of maybe adding some marinated tofu batons to give them a bit more oomph, but I truly love the fresh taste of crispy veg and am not usually in the mood to have it overshadowed.

Don't ask me to pop in non-marinated tofu. I'm just not ready.

Oh and the dipping sauce is the funnest part of this. You could mix together some soy, lime juice, brown sugar and chopped chilli with a little coriander/cilantro, or you could just smother them in kecap manis like we do and roll about moaning over how good it is. I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but sweet soy sauce is one of the greatest condiments of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Ingredients:

rice paper wrappers
rice noodles, soaked according to package directions
assorted veg, julienned
fresh herbs - I use coriander/cilantro and mint. And lots of it!

Directions:

1. I usually soak the rice paper wrappers in a shallow bowl of warm water until pliable. I also just saw on TV this is too much soaking, and you should just splash water on them and spread it around until it soaks in. I've not tried it, but it sounds good. Either way should be fine.

2. Line up your noodles, veg and herbs just a little ways up from the bottom of your wrapper, and away from the sides.

Like thus.

Then carefully fold the empty bottom part of the wrapper over the filling and gently fold in the sides. Don't be afraid to grip your contents fairly firmly with your fingers or you'll just squash the whole thing and end up wrapping it like Veggie Dad does. Don't do that.

Continue rolling, ensuring the sides are tucked in and press down the final edge to seal. I like to then rest it on the seal to help it stick together while I make the rest.

Et voila:

Dip. Eat. Moan. Make some more.

You know you want to.

Kid food: lunch

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And so the kid who will only eat bread and crackers continues. All fruit that is not blueberries, grapes or sultanas are wilfully flung to the floor.

Anything that does not look like a sandwich or a rice cake follows suit. However, we shall persevere, simply because I like making interesting combinations, and it saves me making my own lunch if she's not into it. The trick is catching it before it makes it to the floor! 

First cab off the rank is the ever-loving Saos. Who knew something I envied in other people's lunchboxes as a kid would reappear in my life with such a vengeance. I'm partial to a couple with vegemite these days too.

Rockmelon was flung. Fruit stick was not.

Not so much a fan of the fruit stick, the ingredients list was a mile long and I think I'm just going to figure out how to make my own. Good for convenience and travelling though! And for something different occasionally.

homemade hommous on pita bread, sultanas and nectarine. One lonely apricot. Loved the sultanas, chewed on the apricot for nine hours, hurled the apricot. Sheesh.

I dutifully made roasted pumpkin, eggplant and sweet potato for my little lass, hoping they would catch her eye as finger food. Her eye did nothing but look at me witheringly. I had the last laugh by using it as a dip/sandwich spread for several days. She ate the lot.

But the pawpaw... are you kidding me?

This little face looks like she'd love cheese cubes and tomato with her vegemite Saos, right?

WRONG.

And finally, one of our favourites - baby burrito and sour cream. Loved the bean-and-cheese filled wholemeal tortilla, loved face painting with the sour cream, loved lobbing the kiwi fruit at the cat.

I have eaten a wider variety of fruit this week than I have in my whole life. I don't like fruit. But I also don't like waste, so while my kid sticks to blueberries and grapes, I'm incidentally getting vitamins and minerals. I'm chalking this up as a win!

As always, though, I love hearing what your little ones eat, so feel free to share! Going to increase the spoon stuff in the next few weeks so will report back as to whether she gets it in her mouth as opposed to eyebrows and ears, like usual.

xx

simple but amazing deli sandwich

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Probably the best toasted sandwich ever, and I'm not biased in the slightest. Totally.

The secret is you have to fry it - no pannini press to squish the hell out of it, no toasting under the grill, no putting in a jaffle maker, even though they have their place.

No, for this sandwich, it has to be fried in butter. I'm sorry.

Once upon a time I was so over being underweight I decided to go on a reverse diet. My doctor said I needed to eat more calories than I burned, so I researched for weeks on what foods were calorie-dense and tried to incorporate them into my diet. I ate til I was absolutely stuffed. I was fed up with people making unwanted comments on my weight - something it appeared I had absolutely no control over, and felt awful about, so I thought if I could do something, I would. 

This included making a sandwich like this, frying it in butter, then covering it in mayonnaise.

I'm not going to suggest that this time, but ohmygod it was good. 

I don't do sandwiches, usually. I ate so many of them growing up I got thoroughly sick of them. I find them so unappetising now... unless they're toasted! I usually buy quite dense bread and I don't like sandwiches made like that. So if I can transmogrify the bread into something toasty and delicious, with a melty inside, I'm more likely to eat it.

I usually fill this sandwich with all the gorgeous things the deli counter has to offer, sandwich together with at least two types of cheese, and a lil something extra - in this case avocado, but pesto is perfect. Feel free to pack it with whatever you fancy, but promise me you'll fry it. Promise.

Ingredients:
2 slices crusty sourdough
vintage cheese
feta cheese
avocado
semi-dried tomatoes
fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Spread butter on one side of the sourdough slices.

2. On the non-buttered side (I find it helps if I put the buttered sides together and pile the stuff on top before assembling the sandwich in the pan!), spread avocado and sprinkle with salt. Then add cheese, semi-dried tomatoes, feta and basil. Grind pepper over.

3. Place bottom of sandwich in a buttered frying pan on medium. Place top on sandwich, buttered-side up and cook until the underside is golden and cheese is beginning to melt.

4. Flip and cook until the other side is golden brown.

Meatless Monday - veggie flatbread pizza

I used to be such a deep-dish girl. I don't know what happened, but over time the chewy crust appealed less and less and I was a newly-converted thin and crispy girl. I never went so far that I'd just use flatbread, I liked a bit more substance in my bases.

Well, not any more.

I usually make my own pizza dough, and it is incredibly chewy and delightful. One day I was lazy and put everything on to a pita bread and found out what I'd been missing all these years. It isn't soggy and floppy at all! It really lets the toppings shine and I'd like to take this moment to apologise to flabread pizzas that I never trusted them. I was wrong.

I've written the toppings I had on mine, but go nuts! put anything you like on! including nuts!

Ingredients
1-2 flatbreads per person
your choice of pizza sauce (I just used plain tomato paste on this)
1 squirt each Gourmet Garden garlic and basil, swirled into sauce
thinly-sliced mushroom and zucchini
diced capsicum, onion and tomato
lots of cheese. lots.

Directions.

1. Assemble.

2. Bake.

3. Wish you'd bought pineapple because you really want it on your pizza.



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Fourth of July Coney Island Hot Dogs and a Cherry Coke Float

This is what I was doing this time last year - watching the fireworks over the National Mall in Washington, DC.

I could feel the heat rising through the blanket I on which I was sitting from the concrete below. It had been a super-hot day, the news stations and papers filled with pictures of children sitting in buckets under hoses, and talk of record-breaking temperatures. I had presented my sweaty face to the Lincoln Memorial,

Mr Lincoln, Mr Lincoln!

I had gotten up close and personal with President Obama,

I had watched the annual Independence Day parade along Constitution Avenue - lots of marching bands, baton-twirling and giant-helium-balloon-holding.

I had waded through a throng of patriotic people to be that guy that gets their photo taken with the White House. I also nearly got my head taken off when I stepped a toe outside the barrier keeping people on the sidewalk. At least I wasn't part of the crew getting their photo taken with the back of the President's house...

I had sought refuge in the cool interior of the United States Holocaust Museum, and I had stood on the steps right where Dr Martin Luther King, Jr made his "I Have a Dream" speech. I had looked out over the Reflecting Pool and had visions of Jenny splashing into it in search of Forrest Gump.

Forrest!

 I had also watched the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island on TV from a food court earlier that day (54 hot dogs in 10 minutes, people!), and it was that memory that made me decide what to make to help celebrate this year.

We eat a lot of hot dogs in the Veggie Household - they're one of the few mock meats we truly like. Our concoctions usually consist of ketchup, mustard, onion, pickles, relish and cheese. Occasionally we have chili dogs, and occasionally I like to branch out and try something new on my poor guinea pig husband.

This year I decided on Coney Island Hot Dogs, which are very specific in their preparation. We couldn't help but doctor them up somewhat, although I've made them here in their original veggie form.

Not actually made in Coney Island, but in Michigan, the hot dog is topped with a beanless chili, a strip or two of yellow mustard, and lots of chopped white onion.

And it is good.

Especially when you add extra ketchup and cheese...

And a Cherry Coke Float.

Happy Fourth of July!

 To make the chili:

Heat one 300g packet veggie mince with one can diced tomato and 1/2 cup water. Add 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, a sprinkle of cinnamon, basil and as much chili powder as you want. Add a crushed veggie beef stock cube. If it is still too soupy, you can thicken it with a teaspoon of cornflour in a tablespoon of hot water.

To make the float:

Ice cream. Cherry Coke. Mix.