For those who follow me on social media, you would have seen that I completed the Veganuary challenge in January. It was really a interesting challenge that completely opened my eyes to new possibilities in the kitchen.
One new recipe I tried was scrambled tofu. I already liked the taste of tofu and occasionally ordered it when eating out. But I never knew how to cook it properly.
I used to love eating tabbouleh. It is fresh and a perfect side dish for summer. The only problem is that since becoming gluten intolerant, I can’t eat cous cous, which is one of the main ingredients in tabbouleh. For years I have had to say no to the delicious mix of tomato, onion and parsley. But a while ago I saw the idea of using quinoa as a substitute… Whilst I always have quinoa in my kitchen, I never tried this recipe… Until recently.
My street has a regular Christmas street party BBQ and we all bring along some meat and a side dish. I wanted to bring along a dish of something that was different, but fresh and delicious summer dish. Quinoa tabbouleh seemed like the perfect dish to bring!
It is a little time consuming to make, but I thought it was well worth the preparation.
1. Rinse quinoa under cool water before cooking. Cook in boiling water until quinoa is light and fluffy. Rinse and set aside to cool. Stir quinoa with fork to keep fluffy and speed up cooling process.
2. Dice onion. Place onion into a small bowl. Cover onion with water and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. This will soften the onion and make it more pleasant to eat.
3. Dice tomatoes and place in large bowl. Mince garlic clove and finely chop parsley, and place in bowl. Once quinoa is cooled, add to bowl as well. Drain onion from water and also add to large bowl.
4. In another small bowl, mix olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Add oil and lemon mixture to large bowl with all other ingredients and stir thoroughly.
5. Allow tabbouleh mixture to sit for a hour or two in the fridge. There may be some excess moisture from the oil and lemon juice – this will eventually be soaked up by the mixture.
6. After an hour or so, season with salt and pepper. Stir again before serving and garnish with lemon wedges and parsley leaves. Serve as a side for barbecued meat. This tabbouleh mixture will keep for a few days in the fridge.
You can also add a tablespoon of finely chopped mint leaves to this mixture to give it an extra freshness kick! I didn’t have any mint so I decided not to use it and I think it turned out great without the mint, but other people may find that the mint gives it the little extra something it needs.
What do you think of my Quinoa Tabbouleh? Do you have a similar recipe or a recipe for Tabbouleh? Share your thoughts and links in the comments section!
Bye for now,
All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post
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Recently I went for lunch with a friend from work and we decided to try the $9 lunches at Treehouse. This little place used to be a dingy bar full of people in black clothes only, sticky floors and barely any lighting. It had an alternative type of crowd and it was sometimes fun to go on uni-night. A few years ago it was done up with the front windows opening up, a funky upstairs area, and a beautiful fairylight tree. It’s still a little dark inside, but definitely not dingy anymore!
I like the welcoming atmosphere of Treehouse and its a nice place to come for cocktails or a bite to eat when having Friday drinks. But lunch at Treehouse is definitely something new to me. I have walked past the $9 lunches sign so often, I would think that I would have dined here plenty of times!
When we came in for lunch, we were escorted to the bar-like-seating around the walls of the establishment. Once seated, two tall glasses of iced water were quickly brought over to us. This is something I hadn’t experienced before and was great to see that they already had the initiative to give us water – I hate having to ask for something as simple as a glass of water!
Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the lunch menu, but there were approximately 5 dishes on there for the $9 deal. My friend chose the linguini and I chose the chicken tenders. I forgot to ask if the tenders were gluten free but nothing stood out as containing gluten and I didn’t get sick afterwards so I am fairly certain they were gluten free.
The food also came out so quickly. The staff apologised for the wait but we were surprised at how quick it was! We actually finished our lunch with 15 minutes to spare before we had to return to work… Pretty sure the food was cooked in less than 10 minutes!
The linguini was a good lunch size – probably around an entree size. If I was eating this I would be pretty happy with this size because you don’t want to feel weighed down and sluggish when having to return to work later.
Mine dish had three smallish tenders of chicken breast and a few large pieces of Cos Lettuce. I’m glad there was the coconut rice with it to help fill my hungry tummy. There was also a generous serving of sauce next to the rice, and I didn’t get to eat all of it so there was definitely enough. There was also lots of herbs over the rice which gave the dish a fresh taste.
The combination of all the ingredients was like a fresh Asian inspired taste. The chicken was cooked well. It was still slightly juicy and definitely not dry. I really enjoyed this lunch, but just wish there was more. Unfortunately I left still hungry. I understand that it is lunch, but for someone like me who prefers to eat lots for lunch and less for dinner, I was a little disappointed with the amount of food on my plate.
I thought the presentation of the food was great, and I suppose more food would make the plate look crowed and messy. It is quite possible that the pretty presentation is the reason for smaller sized chicken tenders.
The service was great. The staff were friendly and I particularly liked that they allowed us to split the bill. I think we may have been talking to the owner about this – he was saying that he will often not go back to a restaurant if they don’t allow groups to split the bill. I think that is very true, and in today’s society were hardly anyone carries cash on them, so we need to cater for that and splitting bills should be a must.
Atmosphere: 4/5 | Customer Service: 4/5 | Speed of Service: 5/5 | Presentation of Food: 4/5 | Taste: 4/5 | Value for Money: 4/5
Total Score: 25/30
Overall thoughts: I would definitely go back to Treehouse for lunch, but I might have to order a side of chips to keep me from leaving hungry!
For more information on Treehouse Bar, click here
Have you been to Treehouse? Post your thoughts, comments and links to your reviews in the comments of this post 🙂
Bye for now,
Vintage Barbie xoxo
All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post
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I’ve been to quite a few hens weekends. A lot of them have been in Sydney as well. I definitely had fun at the last one I attended, which including high tea at The Tea Salon.
This is not your traditional high tea. It is set right in the centre of shops in the Pitt Street Westfield mall, which I found a little strange at first. It also looks like it is permanently busy, especially if people can come in when they are in the middle of their shopping. However this gives it a casual, relaxed kind of feel. There is a secret little kitchen off behind some shops, with a large cabinet in the centre of the cafe for water and glasses. It is very cute, a little kitsch and fairly girlie. They had so many cute serving dishes and teacups that I would like to have at home myself!
We had a very group, I think around 20 people. Obviously this kind of place is not meant for groups this big and it looked like they had struggled to fit us all in the same area. Quite a few of the round tables were pushed together, which made the placing of food very squished, and also made socialising with others a little difficult. I often had my back to some of my friends because of how we were set up with the round tables.
Staff seemed a little overwhelmed at times. There was no coming to the table to make sure that our food was ok and no one coming to top up water. They didn’t even leave the water jug so we could top up our glasses ourselves, which was a little annoying considering I wanted water, not champagne at that time in the day. Although, the pink champagne was pretty nice… Just wish I felt like drinking it and it probably would have enjoyed it more..
The great thing about this place is that you can choose to eat a la carte, or select the high tea platter. There are also many options available for vegetarians, gluten free, dairy free and even pregnant women.
So for once, I was actually rewarded for my gluten intolerance – I got a whole platter to myself! It was amazing! There were so many pieces of food that I literally took a bit of everything but could not get anywhere near finishing my platter!
There were the standard scones with jam and cream, but also blueberry scones and raisin scones with orange marmalade. If you order scones off the al a carte menu then you can try a fair few different tasty treats.
I found the gluten free scones to taste extremely doughy and even with the jam and cream they were quite dry. I somewhat expected this of gluten free scones though as it would be difficult to make scones with the same texture and taste as your regular, gluten included scones.
There were lots of sweet things and I literally could not eat them all. However I made sure I tasted everything, even if it was only a little bite. There was this indescribable dessert in a shot glass. I think it was a custard of some sort with tea on top. It reminded me of camomile flower buds mixed with some other tea. As I said, it was indescribable, mainly because it have no idea what it was! I also was not a fan of the taste.
Champagne was fairly nice too. It was pink, sparkly and had a sweet taste to it. However it added on an extra $11 to the total bill, so keep that is something to keep in mind for next time.
There was a good selection of teas to choose from – There were a few regular black teas and green teas, rooibos, chai and then a good selection of flavoured teas. I can’t remember what it was called and I forgot to take a picture of the tea menu, but I do remember that it was kind of like an apple pie. It was scrumptious!
Atmosphere: 3.5/5 | Customer Service: 3/5 | Speed of Service: 4/5 | Presentation of Food: 4.5/5 | Taste: 4/5 | Value for Money: 4/5
Total Score: 23/30
For more information on The Tea Salon, go to their website: http://www.theteasalon.com.au
I would definitely like to go to The Tea Salon again to try out many more of their funky teas and possibly get some other delicious treats on the menu.
Have you been to The Tea Salon? Tell me your thoughts on this place!
Bye for now,
Vintage Barbie
All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post
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I love taking my baked goods into work to share with everyone. I love trying out new recipes at home, but sometimes I don’t want to eat the whole batch for myself. The alternative is to take the treats into work, which is always nice for my work colleagues. 🙂
I have been wanting to make rocky road for a while, so I figured that making it for my work colleagues would be a good idea. I tried out one batch but decided it didn’t work out – I used too much coconut, and no where near enough chocolate… no one should ever have to hear the words “not enough chocolate”!
I decided that this previous recipe wasn’t good enough for work. Frankly, I was a bit embarrassed (although my partner and my sister seemed to enjoy it!)
So I tried the recipe again over the weekend. This time I used plenty of chocolate. I used a lot less coconut too. I also decided to mix it up a bit and use a pack of four flavour/colours of marshmallows as well as some soft jubes. Looks like it turned out well because everyone came back for a second (or third) piece of this batch of rocky road!
My recipe uses a lot of chocolate – half a kilo to be exact. And whilst this sounds like a lot at first, remember that you mix it in with other ingredients, so it’s a good idea to have a lot of chocolate so the taste chocolate isn’t lost in all the other ingredients.
When I mixed in my marshmallows, I let them sit on top of the chocolate as I was taking photos… In the meantime they melted slightly… When I mixed them into the chocolate they were a little gooey but I think this actually worked in my favour as they were mixed in just right.
The best part about this recipe (other than the chocolate and sugar hit) is that it’s super easy to make – just melt, mix, set, cut and eat! It really is that simple!
Ingredients
500g milk cooking chocolate – you could also use a mixture of milk and dark cooking chocolate
250g salted butter
2 cups of marshmallows – I chose a four flavour mix
1 cup soft jube lollies
1/2 cup glacé cherries – optional but recommended to use anyway
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts – You could also buy whole and roughly chop up
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
Method
1. Cut the marshmallows in half and set aside. Roughly chop the macadamias if using whole macadamia nuts. Measure out all other ingredients and set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan on medium heat.
3. Break up the chocolate and allow it to melt in with the melted butter. Mix butter and chocolate around with a wooden spoon (or large plastic ladell if you don’t have a wooden spoon). Ensure chocolate is fully melted.
4. Poor in the remaining ingredients. Mix around until all ingredients are completely covered in chocolate.
5. Grease a small baking tray with butter or oil and line it with baking paper – the butter or oil will help the paper stay in place. Poor in mixture. Ensure mixture is evenly distributed in tray.
6. Place in fridge for a minimum of four hours. I recommend leaving it in there overnight.
7. When mixture is set, remove from baking tray and remove baking paper. Use a sharp kitchen knife to cut strips of the mixture. Then cut the strips into bite sized pieces.
Store in a plastic container in the fridge.
Optional: you can sprinkle with icing sugar before serving
Do you have a rocky road recipe?
Don’t forget to tag me in your pics if you make this recipe!
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My partner and I decided to go out for breakfast on Valentines Day. We didn’t want to spend too much money and thought this would be a nice date for the two of us.
We headed into Manuka on Valentines Day and went to wander around to find a cafe that was free. The first cafe we saw is actually my favourite breakfast stop: Urban Pantry. We have been here multiple times for breakfast and always have a delicious feed.
We thought about wandering around to find another cafe but decided to stick with old faithful. We were greeted by friendly staff who seated us immediately, even without a reservation. I was busy, but pretty much every weekend is. I think because of the constant business, the staff are competent in managing lots of people and orders, and do it all with a smile. They definitely have good customer service skills here, which certainly makes the experience a good one.
The thing I like about Urban Pantry is that there are so many options for people like me: there’s plenty of gluten free dishes, as well as dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options. But the meals aren’t “weird” or “out there” – there are still plenty of great dishes for the everyday person.
Coffee is delicious, as always. I also love the freshly squeezed orange juice from here as well. I am tempted to try the ‘Raspberry Rush’ juice next time I go to Urban Pantry – the combination of ingredients sounds delicious and fresh and would be perfect for a warm summer morning.
My partner was able to get his bacon and fried eggs with toast and a serving of mushrooms. I ordered my all time favourite breakfast: eggs benedict with salmon, gluten free bread and a serving of spinach leaves. I still can’t properly poach eggs, and smoked salmon is too expensive, so this is always something I get for breakfast when dining out.
Once again, the meal at Urban Pantry was delicious. The experience was also great, as always, and I’ll definitely go back to my favourite breakfast spot for my all time favorite breakfast!
Homemade sausage rolls were always a favourite growing up. They were delicious and flakey and always filled me up.
Now that I’m older they serve a different purpose: Sausage rolls are perfect for entertaining. I made some for my housewarming party and I got many great reviews on them!
You can half cook these sausage rolls and put them in the freezer to fully cook for parties or for a quick and easy dinner.
Ingredients
*gouten free versions of these items can be used to make a gluten free version.
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees for conventional ovens and 180 for fan forced. Take the puff pastry sheets out of the freezer and defrost.
2. Dice the onion. Grate the carrot and zucchini.
3. In a large bowl, combine the mince, vegetables, herbs, breadcrumbs and tomato paste. Mix together with hands until everything is fully combined.
4. Whisk the egg in a small bowl.
5. Cut the puff pastry sheets in half. Place a log of mince and place this in the middle of one half of the sheet of pastry. Ensure there is at least 1cm space between the sides of the pastry and the end of the mince. Roll the pastry around the mince.
6. Brush the edges of the pastry with egg. Fold edges of pastry and brush the top of the roll with egg. Cut into 5 pieces. Sprinkle some sesame seeds over the top and place on a lightly greased baking tray.
7. Bake for 20 mins until the pastry is golden brown. Serve with tomato sauce.
Last week I decided to spend the weekend with my family in my home town. My sister and I drove down Saturday afternoon and same back on Sunday night. I had been hoping for sunny weather so I could chill out and relax at the beach… But Mr Weatherman decided to rain on my parade!
Although it was disappointing that I’m cursed (it rains every time I go to the coast), It was so nice to see the family and catch up.
It was also great to go out for lunch. We were planning on going to Oaklands, but they were booked out with people crammed inside whilst it rained. So we decided to head into Merimbula and find a spot to eat.
We decided on the always busy Waterfront Cafe. I’ve been here for many meals before, so I was happy to go back again.
Flashback to a sunny winter day, enjoying a delicious breakfast and coffee
The menu has changed a lot over the years. This menu appeared to be very “hipster-ish”. There were none of the regular wedges and toasted sandwhich type meals that I had come to expect. Instead, there were plenty of gluten free options and many of the hit health foods. I have no qualms with that… However, the prices were something a little less inviting…
My dad and sister chose the Lean Beef Burger, and myself and my mum chose the Lamb Salad. I wish my mum chose a different salad so I could have tasted that as well! The great thing about the salads is that they can all be made gluten free. I know I’ll definitely be back to try out some more food!
The burgers did not automatically come with chips – it’s an additional $2.50 for that. But they came out looking fresh and very tempting for the gluten-free individual!
However, my sister was not too impressed. Being a picky eater, she said that there was too much meat. Umm.. Is that even a thing? I’m pretty sure I would have gobbled down the whole thing, just like my dad did.
The lamb salad came out with a large peice of lamb, sliced into about 5 slices, and placed over the bed of baby spinach, roasted capsicum and chickpeas. Baby carrots were strategically placed around the sides of the dish. There was dukha sprinkled over the salad, and a tahini dressing, giving the salad a hummus-like taste.
The salad was beautiful, but I was undecided about the meat. I just couldnt quite put my finger on it. The meat was tender, cooked well and tasted nice, but it had something missing. I feel that it should have been sliced into smaller pieces and tossed with the rest of the salad. Maybe this would have given it the oomph and flavour that seemed to be missing.
The coffees were also good. I got a nice large latte in a mug and my mum got a long black. You know that the coffee is good and made well when you have the slight foam on the top of the coffee… Which I had to explain to my mum. She thought they had out milk in her coffee – No mum, they just made good coffee, that’s all!
My sister was also happy about her drink choice – an iced coffee! Although, she doesn’t seem too impressed in the picture:
Despite being run off their feet with lots of customers, the staff were very friendly and helpful. It appears that they forgot to place water on our table, and I had to ask for it, but we did just walk in off the street during their peak time, so those kind of things would definitely be forgiven 😉 The staff quickly set up a table for us when we came in, and they attentive to the fact that my sister didn’t finish her burger. Nothing was wrong – the skinny girl just can’t finish her meals!
Introducing the first post for Foodie Fridays!
Quiche is a great meal to make. It’s relatively quick and easy, and makes for great left overs. You can easily eat it when its cold or reheat it for the next day. It is great for parties, for picnics or for a mid-week meal. You can also make so many varieties of it. I like mushroom and bacon because they are two ingredients always in my fridge and I can easily whip this up for dinner – which is just what I did earlier this week!
Ingredients:
*Puff pastry is optional. I use gluten free puff pastry found in the frozen section of the supermarket. However you can also make your own pastry. As I am not yet up to that standard of cooking can’t be bothered making it, it would be best if you click here to get a good recipe for puff pastry. I also find puff pastry is great for square or rectangular oven baking dishes. If I had a round quiche pan, I would definitely recommend making your own pastry over using puff pastry.
Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180 (fan forced). Take the two sheets of pastry out of the freezer and thaw on counter whilst you are preparing the rest of the dish.
2. Dice the brown onion and slice the bacon into strips. Combine bacon and onion in a fry pan with the oil and cook over a medium heat. Once onion is browned, take off heat and allow the bacon and onion to cool slightly.
3. Slice spring onions and mushrooms. Grate cheese. Set aside.
4. Spray the tray with cooking spray. Take one pastry sheet and line the baking tray. Use other peice of pastry to fill the gaps. You may need to cut up the pastry before you place it in the tray. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the pastry with water.
5. In a large bowl, break all eggs and whisk lightly. Add in herbs and season with salt and pepper. Mix in cream. Add in bacon, mushroom, spring onion, mushroom and cheese.
6. Pour egg mixture over pastry in oven baking tin/tray. Cook in oven for 25 minutes or until egg mixture is no longer liquid. Pastry should also be slightly browned. Allow quiche to cool slightly before cutting into even slices.
7.Can be served by itself or with a delicious side salad. This also makes a great lunch option as it can easily be placed in lunch boxes and eaten warm or cold.
TIP: Be careful not to bake for too long or quiche will become dried out and pastry may become burnt. Check quiche after 15 minutes to see if it is cooked. You can poke the mixture with a sharp knife, similar to how you would check if a cake is cooked: if the knife comes out dry, then it is cooked.
I recently went to San Churro for a well over-due catch up with a friend. I had never been to San Churro before, and for some strange reason I had never even heard of it! I don’t know how that is when I love my chocolate. My friend told me that San Churro is waaay better than Max Brenner or Koko Black… so I definitely was keen to test out this theory!
I arrived a bit earlier than my friend and was given a seat inside at the comfy couch up against the window. It was raining outside and I could image this being a nice place to sip on a hot chocolate and read the paper when it’s cold outside. There were a mixture of people inside, from couples to mums with their babies to teens having a fun afternoon catchup. It seemed to have a really nice atmosphere inside.
The staff were attentive too, which always makes a difference to the experience.
When I sat down I was informed that they had run out of milk chocolate for their hot chocolates… I was pretty disappointed because a hot chocolate was exactly what I felt like. But looking at the menu I realised there were plenty of other things to choose from.
After my friend got there we decided on what to have. I wanted a Couveture Caramel Hot Chocolate, but as they didn’t have milk chocolate the waiter asked if I wanted white or dark chocolate instead. I had no idea what would be better, especially as I had never had the drink before, so I asked him what I should get instead. He suggested dark chocolate, so I went with that.
However I seemed to get something different. I realised that I received the Hot Ducle de Leche. I think I might have confused the waiter when I was telling him I had never been there before so I was happy for him to make the decision for me (yep, being one of those annoying people…) But what he brought me was pretty tasty. It definitely didn’t have a caramel taste to it, but it is true that it was a ‘sweet satisfaction’. It was thick and creamy and perfect to warm me up on that cold rainy day.
I also ordered the Flourless Chocolate Cake. It was presented on a rectangular plate with a dollop of whipped cream and creative chocolate piped across the plate. This chocolate part was all the way to the edges, and although it looked pretty, it was annoying that it kept getting all over my hand when I was trying to ear (I guess I rest my hand on the side of the plate a lot…)
The cake itself was delicious. Very filling. And it wasn’t too dense like many flourless chocolate cakes are. The chocolate ganache on top of the cake was stiff like icing though, showing it obviously had been made a little while ago, but it still tasted delicious. The cream and the nuts on top complimented the cake by bring some nice texture to the dish.
Although the dish is for one, it definitely could be shared. Unless you’re like me… I will just eat the whole thing by myself! Damn, I love chocolate!
Overall I really liked San Churro. It’s just a shame that I can’t eat the churro’s dipped in chocolate, because they look fantastic! If they did gluten free churros I would probably be there a lot more, and I would probably be a little bit rounder in the tummy too 😉
Overall, I would give San Churro a 4/5.
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