Hey guys! I’m no longer blogging under this name. If you would like to follow along with me and get many more tasty recipes, please come on over to Melodramatic Adventures. That’s where the party is at, and the after after party.
Happy Thursday!
an instant of life captured for all eternity
This weekend was a really fun one. On Saturday we went to Museum Africa, a great museum filled a lot of mismatched things, the free entrance was what inspired us to go check it out, but the architecture and photography was what got my little heart racing, and because we were kind of close to the airport we decided to pop in and go look at planes taking off and landing. I love airports, I love being in one seeing people arrive, the excitement on peoples faces and the memories it brings back, of my dad taking me to the airport when I couldn’t sleep as a child.
^^ The entrance to the museum. It has carved busts on all the pillars. Some of them have been knocked down, but its still an impressive entrance.
^^ Wooden busts.
^^ This is such an impressive museum, filled with amazing things.
^^ The architecture is just wonderful, and really nice to look at.
^^ Robot wars? Or just really cool art.
^^ Portraits of people on one of the coolest walls, I ever did see.
^^ Camera family tree?
^^ I would ride this thing all around the neighbourhood!
^^ This was insanely creepy. The blood on the floor, the whips, the tyre swing and the grave that kept flashing on the screen.
^^ Carl is all about the surprise photo these days, and my mouth seems to be open the whole time.
^^ Really artsty photo, we really embraced our pretentiousness here. I call it Reflections.
^^ Check out my new house! Just kidding, but I get the surprise photos now.
^^ Just look at this place, no wonder my mouth cant seem to close.
^^ Surprise photo and my open mouth.
^^ Reflection photos. I just need a pipe.
^^ shadow play!
^^Trying to take a photo of this photo-ception, was difficult indeed.
^^ The mirror selfie worked out a little better, I don’t know what Carl’s face is doing.
^^ I really liked the look of this wire face.
^^ Its like everyone seems to have spotted something behind me.
^^ This kaleidoscope was really fun. I felt really dizzy when I tried to crawl out.
^^ The Carl face take over.
^^ A collection of cameras
^^ Hmmmm what do these photos mean?! I don’t know what he’s thinking.
^^ Sneaky Self timer photo.
^^ So many things to look at!
^^ The observations deck at the airport.
^^ planes!
^^ Yummy sandwich!
^^ We’ve been rewatching friends! What a fun show
What did you do this weekend?
The Vegan Experiment
This Week has been a good eating one for my little guinea pig (Carl), the complaints have been on the minimal and the food has been really good. With Carl’s long list of allergies, I’ve been having to get creative with meals. We did eat out a couple of times, which has been a rather fun time, except when the waitress gave him chips instead of a salad and he paid the price for eating them, with some severe hives.
Here’s what we’ve been eating.
^^ Baked Beans, butternut and veggies wrap with a side salad.
^^ Falafel burger with hummus and chips. The bun was amazing the burger was really meh. It kept falling apart and it wasn’t cooked in the middle. All the tastes didn’t work well together either. The fries, were out of this world delicious.
^^ Vegetable pasta sauce, over whole wheat noodles.
^^ Popcorn of course.
^^ Lentil loaf, butternut biscuits and a gravy. Not shown steamed broccoli and cauliflower.
^^ Falafel, baby marrow linguine and spinach with an out of this world hummus. Yum!
^^ Yummy food. We were having a bitching session about the bank and how unhelpful they are.
^^ Happy burger face.
^^ Vegetable chowmein.
^^ Butternut Biscuits. So good.
Have a great weekend. Don’t have to much fun. Just kidding have all the fun!
Deconstructed Sushi Bowl with a Ginger dressing
A love a good salad bowl, this one sure is filling and bursting with flavour. Its also a snap to put together, and its a great way of getting rid of leftover rice.
Now I’m not a big fan of leftovers or rice, I actually might have a phobia towards rice, thanks to my Aunt, that always told me if I ate rice I would get big boobs. For some reason this traumatized me for years. Apparently not eating rice works too. The leftovers thing, well I just don’t like having a lot of food clutter in my house, by food clutter, I mean ways of getting me to over eat and regret it, so I like to make perfect amounts of food, so I don’t pig out in a day. So obviously rice is the one thing, that can clutter up my house and I won’t eat it, unless its jazzed up to be a delicious and easy sushi bowl.
This is a versatile recipe, that can be made to your taste. I added avocado to my bowl, after I took a photo, and it made a delicious sushi buddy.
DECONSTRUCTED SUSHI BOWL – serves 1 or how ever many you want to make.
Ingredients
- leftover brown rice
- grated carrot
- chopped cabbage
- chopped cucumber
- red pepper sliced
- green pepper sliced
- fried tofu
- 1 nori sheet, chopped
- fresh coriander, chopped
- flax seeds or sesame seeds – optional
Ginger dressing
ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp liquid sweetener (maple)
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
Directions
Place everything in a jar and shake until combined.
In a bowl add rice and arrange the vegetables on the top. Sprinkle with sesame or flax seeds. Pour over desired amount of dressing. Serve Immediately.
an instant of life captured for eternity
Hello lovelies! I hope everyone had a great weekend and start the week. Mine has been terrible, we had an attempted break in the other day, and I’ve been an emotional wreck ever since, hence my absence.
Its strange how the brain, takes you to the what if’s. This is what happened. I was home alone by myself, when I kept hearing a soft scratch at the door, I wasn’t really bothered by it, because I just assumed it was one of the dogs, but for some reason I decided to go check what was going on. I looked out the window and could see a man standing at the door, bending. At this point of time my heart was racing and for some odd reason I just opened the door. What I saw was a man standing with a knife and crowbar, trying to break open the security gate. I started breathing heavily and slammed the door in his face. The thing that freaked me out the most was that he didn’t run away instantly, its like he was still contemplating if he could do this. A minute or seconds went by and I saw him jumping over the barbed wire fence without any trouble.
I called Carl and he came rushing home. The police arrived an hour later and told me to by a gun….Yes, a gun. They left without even asking anything, they just told me to get a gun and that I should have chased after this guy.
I’ve been really scared for the last couple of days, first of all I think I didn’t react like I think I should have and every smallest sound makes me jump. Thinking about the what if’s is driving me crazy, but a friend told me you can’t live in fear, you just have to carry on.
So here I am carrying on, and looking on the bright side. In two weeks, I’m marrying the love of my life, we’ve decided we want to be together, we love each other completely and we can’t afford to waste money, in our attempt to get out of this country. So we’ve decided to just go get married, we want to write vows for each other and read it to each other at our honeymoon spot, and maybe on our 1 year anniversary we will have a little ceremony with friends and family.
^^ This looks like a weird family collage, but I get to marry this unbelievably handsome fellah, when I’m just so weird. Look at that haircut. Gosh, its good.
Happy Wednesday.
The Vegan Experiment
This week has been way better on the vegan front for Carl. I’m finally feeding him enough and not acting like he’s a glutton. He also said that his heart pain is gone, which is phenomenal.
This is what he’s been eating this week.
^^ This de-constructed sushi bowl was amazing.
^^ Pancakes filled with creamed spinach, tomatoes and a balsamic reduction. The best thing ever!
^^ I didn’t feel like making dinner, so I made some beans and rice.
^^ Fruit salad, granola, and a crumbed eggplant and hummus sandwich.
^^Vegetable Red curry with brown rice.
^^ A delicious breakfast of tofu scramble and sweet potato home fries.
^^ Grilled mushrooms, kale slaw and a couscous salad.
^^This was called a chimichanga, but it was more like a curry wrap, it was really disappointing.
Happy Weekend everyone! I hope you have some delicious food adventures.
Pancakes Filled with Creamed Spinach, Tomatoes and a Balsamic Reduction
I’m a big fan of savoury pancakes and the South African Dutch pancake makes a perfect stuffing pancake. Similar to a crepe, but with a thicker and fluffier, consistency, its holds the creamy creamed spinach perfectly. You can also overstuff this bad boy without any problem!
Just like the name of this recipe, this meal is a mouthful, and will keep you satisfied and full. Its a perfect any time meal, that will impress your friends. The cherry tomatoes adds a little freshness to the pancake and pairs wonderfully with the creamed spinach. Drizzle with a little bit of balsamic reduction for a little bit of pizazz!
PANCAKES FILLED WITH CREAMED SPINACH, TOMATOES AND BALSAMIC REDUCTION – serves 2
Ingredients
Pancakes
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp oil
- pinch salt
- 1 cup non dairy milk
Directions
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, until you have a lump free batter.
Heat a large non stick pan, over medium to high heat.
Slightly grease the pan.
Spoon a ladle full of batter into your pan, swirl it around until you have a rather thin large disk. When the pancakes start to show little holes all over flip and cook on the other side. Continue with rest of the batter. Set aside.
Creamed spinach
Ingredients
- 2x 200g bags of spinach, steamed, cooled, drained and chopped
- 1 small onion, grated
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp all purpose flour
- 4 tbsp margarine or coconut oil
- 2 cups non dairy milk
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast ( optional)
Directions
Melt the margarine in a medium sized pot over low to medium heat.
Add the flour and make a paste.
Slowly add the non dairy milk, whilst stirring the whole time, until you have incorporated all the milk. Keep stirring, until you have a lump free sauce, add the spinach, onion, garlic and nutmeg. Cook for 2 more minutes, while stirring.
Remove from heat and season.
Balsamic Reduction
Ingredients
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
Directions
In a small saucepan bring balsamic vinegar and maple syrup to a boil. Reduce heat and let it reduce to 1/3 cup about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
Assembly
- Pancakes
- Creamed spinach
- Cherry tomatoes halved
- torn basil leaves
- Balsamic reduction
Directions
Fill your pancakes with creamed spinach. Fold arrange tomatoes around the pancakes and garnish with basil. Drizzle balsamic reduction. Sit back and admire your beautiful creations. Now. Stuff your face.
What I wore Wednesday and Body Image
I’ve been thinking a lot about family lately, and how I would want to raise a daughter. Thinking about how I was raised, and how I was made to feel about my body, and how I never felt like I was slightly pretty, is something I will carry with me forever.
I don’t blame my family, its just the way they are, always joking and taking things way to far. Let me explain, you know those family get togethers? where its suppose to be fun, I’ve never had fun, I was always the target, getting told I’m fat, outrageously pale and I’m trying to be better than everyone else. Even at my parents house I never felt like I fit in, my Mom is the type of woman that will take you out for lunch, and sit their mocking other people, that’s just not who I am. I don’t see a reason to shame others, I never want to make other people feel bad about themselves, and who am I to judge. Till this day, I have to wear a jacket with every thing I wear, because of how I was made to feel about my arms. If you see a woman wearing a jacket during the hottest day, come say Hi, that’s probably me. I’m slowly trying to get myself to go out without a jacket, but I feel so naked and embarrassed, but I will conquer this. One day soon I will walk around without a jacket and feel like a normal person.
Over the years I’ve forgiven my family and made peace with the person in the mirror, because you know what I can’t change it and I sure as hell don’t want to! Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and having beauty that shines from the inside out is beauty that will last forever.
This is what I want to say to my future daughter: You are beautiful, because you are you, never let anything or anyone make you feel any differently. Beauty isn’t just about the way you look, its about kindness, and the way you are. Be kind, positive,never judge and forgive easily, but most importantly just be who you are and accept your flaws, because one day someone will come a long and make you feel like the most beautiful person in the world, and all your flaws will make you just the perfect person for them. Society and magazines tries to tell you what is beautiful, but you know what, who cares. If we were all the same the world would be an awfully boring place, so just be you kid.
Lets get to what I wore Wednesday, that took a little bit long, but lets look at outfits.
T shirt dress – Similar here
Pleather jacket – Similar here
Brown boots – Similar here
having inner beauty that shines out is beauty that will last forever
Mediterranean Couscous Salad
This Mediterranean couscous salad that I threw together over the weekend is really something special. Filled with crunchy vegetables and a lemon this is a perfect recipe for a hot Summers day.
This is a great side dish for picnics or grilling days, it keeps well in the fridge and makes a refreshing lunch.
I served this with grilled mushrooms and kale slaw. Yes, I think I might be in love with kale slaw, but as much as I love kale slaw, I love this recipe just as much. Now that’s love.
MEDITERRANEAN COUSCOUS SALAD – serves 6
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dry couscous
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1 small cucumber, diced
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 1 cup chopped spinach
- 1 small yellow pepper, chopped
- 6 radishes, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- lemon zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
In a large bowl add the couscous and boiling water, cover with dishcloth making sure non of the steam escapes. Let sit for 10 minutes. Remove cloth, and fluff up with fork. Let cool.
Add in all the ingredients, taste and adjust salt and pepper according to taste.
an instant of life captured for eternity
Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a magical weekend and if you celebrated the 4th of July you had a lovely time with family and friends, we actually saw some fireworks being shot off on Friday, just a couple, but I did tell Carl we should go make friends with those people.
Carl really wanted a haircut to look more professional and like usual I got bullied into cutting his hair, after endless explanations of what he wanted and googling photos, I finally gave in and just cut the man’s hair. I’m just going to float my own boat for a second and say, I did a great job!
^^ Carl asked me to take some photos of him looking professional for a couple of websites. Somehow he forgot how to smile and ended up looking like this. He was also doing strange things with his neck and head, we finally got one natural looking photo. Its not this one.
^^ This is how you get someone to relax. Compliment them.
^^ Get silly! Hide your daughters!
^^ Number one!
^^ I saw a dog and needed to go stroke it. So fluffy!
^^ A wanted poster on the fence to a park……I don’t know what worries me more, the fact that its a wanted poster, or the fact that so many people think or think they will see these guys.
^^ Its so dry.
^^ Seems like a lovely place to think…if you’ve seen those murderers around.
^^Pretty clouds on a hot Winters day.
^^ He looks like a young lad, without his beard.
^^ Photo bomb!
^^ I love this wall!
^^ Thumbs up for Darwin!
^^ This is actually a broken down reservoir that’s been beautified.
^^ Before and after.
^^ Soy chocolate milkshake. This milkshake was just okay, but it did clear up any suspicions I had about having a sensitivity to soy. This gave me sever stomach cramps. Carl thinks my body hates me, this coming from the guy that’s allergic to potato and peanuts.
^^ Waiting for my milkshake.
^^ Maybe I should just stick to water.
^^ Carl taking a photo of me taking a photo of him.
^^ Reservoir!
^^ I’m going to miss this view.
How was your weekend?
Simple Vegan Cooking 