Totoro Bento and Hot-Dog-Opuses

 I can haz interwebz?

So - I did the moving to the Wellington. Yay! And the finding a new job. Yay! And the re-connecting with friends. Yay!

And then the internet decided that it no-longer loved me and wanted to be somewhere else. Not yay!

And then my new flatmate, Mark fixed it!! And now I am re-connected with the world, and it is most exciting! :)

Bento is totally cute, and after a long time spent watching YouTube videos - I decided to try my hand at making my own fancy bento lunch!!

It was surprisingly easy, and enormously filling... But, in practice, not something I do every day...

I chose Totoro because I looove him! (Although the Catbus is technically my favourite...)

I made him with brown rice and ground up black sesame and nigella seeds... Stuffed him with a little pulled pork and put his little cheese and nori features on...

It was all easy enough - and doesn't really require any specialist equipment! But, if you're gonna be bento - making full time you might wanna invest in some!

I also made a moulded egg and the most adorable little hot dog octopus!!

I'll just link you to Ochikeron's video for how to make Totoro Onigiri... Because I'm lazy. But below are the instructions for the cute hotdogopuses...

Guilty Taste & Create: Drunk French Toast

Almost a month to the day... I made this delicious French Toast found on my May Taste and Create partner, Min's blog: The Bad Girl's Kitchen... Since then Life has spectacularly got in way with a variety of colourful excuses/reasons anywhere from the photo's were taken on my Daddy's camera and thus I was at his mercy to have access to them to my usual "lazy" excuse to Holy Hell! I head for London (and ultimately, Sweden) in a little over a month!!!

Still, it's very rude on my part - I didn't even send Min an apology e-mail yet. But fear not! If you were to sign up for Taste and Create for July (e-mail Min before the 8th of the Month) you won't be paired with me, and so your partner will, in fact, be reliable... I'm taking a break... Did I mention Sweden yet? ALL BY MYSELF!!! London for a week with family first... MEEP!!!

Now, French Toast... or, more to the point, Drunk French Toast... The drunk-ness makes it all the more studenty! In fact, if I were flatting right now, I'd have been able to follow the recipe exactly as all my favourite people in Wellington drink Bourbon! My parents however, do not... my French Toast wants to be a pirate when it grows up... I used rum!

In future I'd use more rum... but otherwise the recipe is fantastic as Min writes it... I'm currently working 2-3 shifts/day and haven't the energy for more than a basic update right now... but I will be back! Perhaps typing from Sweden!

Watch this space...

xoxox ~ Kat

Marmite Spaghetti

... or, in my case, Vegemite Spaghetti. Because that's what I had. Also, Australian Vegemite is closer (in flavour, but not texture) to English Marmite than New Zealand Marmite is... Make sense? No? Good.

This is another Nigella recipe, and a absolute, bottom-of-the-barrel cupboard scratching recipe. Tasty though! Well worth making even when you do have sufficient ingredients to make something else.

do you think the pasta looks tastier from this angle...

The result is a salty, savoury pasta which is tasty when served under cheese. In much the same way that toast can be made tasty and savoury by being served beneath marmite (or vegemite) and cheese.

The sauce is simple enough to make... and if you want to feel as if you're eating a balanced meal - add some peas at the last second to the pasta water for a splash of green!

...or this angle?

I won't get into the vegemite vs marmite debate... you can suit yourself! Either will work just fine... :)

Egg Flop Omelette

Super healthy, super tasty breakfast...

Omelettes and I get along in kinda the same way that stir-fry and I get along... I like to eat 'em... but I kinda suck a cooking them.

My current theory is that this is because I like to fry my "fillings" and then pour the egg over them and cook it all together unlike a normal person - who either doesn't cook the fillings at all or cooks them separately from the egg part and actually using them to fill the omelette...

My may is easier - and requires less mess. But only when "mess" refers to the number of plates and pans required. The finished result invariably looks a mess... kinda like someone else already tried it and didn't think much of it...

But that's beside the point! Kat Omelettes are tasty and healthy. And that's what matters here. They involve egg, which is good for protein. Spinach (whenever possible) which is good for iron. Tomatoes, which I cook a bit to help prevent prostate cancer ( ;] ). And cheese which is good on everything. Oh! And they're cheap. And easy. Student-able. Yeah.

See how I managed to get the daisies in the background in perfect
focus? Yeah! Mad photography skills...

I dunno... Let's just read the instruction now.

Carrot Cupcakes (with Cream Cheese Icing)

This recipe hasn't remodeled for cup-caking purposes - so, if you wanted to make a  full sized cake, or muffins? all you need to do is a adjust the cooking times and you're good to go!

The recipe is adapted from the one Moll Katzen features in her Moosewood Cookbook I've played around with the quantity of sweetener, the kinds of spices and halved the recipe overall. Finally I topped these little babies off with my delicious cream cheese icing (which I'll feature in another post...) and little icing carrots (I'd meant to use the walnuts I'd omitted from the batter - but I got carried away!)

Aren't they the cutest?!

I took them with me on a picnic where they were very well received. Flavoursome, moist and not too sweet (a trick of that mysterious icing) because they contain both wholemeal flour AND carrots they've got to be good for you, right?

A delicious cross section...

If you've got the stuff with which you can bake in your flat anyway - there's nothing particularly prohibitive about this recipe... if you're not living in a baking friendly flat - try these when you get home!

If you have to give the cream cheese icing a miss (not always a flat friendly ingredient)  they're almost as good on their own - or a simple drizzle of lemon juice and icing sugar would be a suitable substitute.

Egg-Salad Sandwich

No picture with this one... But, I guess we all know what an egg-salad sandwich looks like...? Maybe if it looks prettier/I'm not taking it to Uni next time I make it - I upload a photo then...?

Anyhow, egg-salad is an easy way to add a little (or a lottle, depending on your definition) protein to your lunch.

Now, I know there are A LOT of opinions out there with regards to eggs anywhere from two a week is almost too many all the way up to two plus a day is the way to go! I'm more an as, and when they show up, I'm happy for an egg or two kinda gal!

Personally, I am a person who needs a lot of protein  in her diet otherwise I go a little bit nut-bar (er) and I get convinced that I'm starving! As such, for me, in an ideal world this would be an egg-salad lunch. No sandwich. Bread and I, well... we aren't close. Unless the the bread is homemade... then we're tighter than... a tight. thing... As for eggs...? They have a complete source of protein! I hear that the white is almost pure protein, but if it nutrition you're after then the yolks/whole eggs are the way to go... But, from there it depends on your stance on saturated fats... Ah! Nutrition... Such a personal thing!

Anyhow, the recipe, such as it is:

2 eggs - boiled. Put eggs into a small pot and cover with cold water. Bring eggs in water to the boil... once boiling allow 2 minutes before turning off the heat and leaving the eggs - in the same, hot water for 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes are up place under cold, running water until all the hot water is displaced. Leave for 5 minutes. Crack the shells, in whatever way suits you before returning to the cold water for another minute before removing the shells and dicing the cooked eggs.

Meanwhile macerate half a teeny-weeny red onion in red wine vinegar or lemon juice...

Once eggs and onion are prepared - tip off the vinegar from the onion and plonk in a bowl with the egg. Sprinkle over the scantest half teaspoon of curry powder ever, followed by a tablespoon of mayonnaise (garlic, for preference - otherwise plain mayo with salt/pepper to taste). Stir it all together and spoon onto a slice of bread... (in an ideal world, where I was still eating bread, this slice of bread would be thick and grainy... but because I live in the real world where the only reason bread is bought on a weekly basis is for my Boyfriend, the bread is thin, and white... Yum.) Top with a generous handful of salad leaves. And some slivered almonds or sunflower seeds - if you want crunch! Cap with a final piece of bread, slice, wrap and pack for Uni!

Today, I'm having  mine with an apple...

I hope y'all have a fantastic week... and I'm going to return to the grindstone...

Taste & Create: The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybuch's Broccoli Dal

Phew! What a mouthful!

Well, after this morning's vegan-less panic... I thought to myself... "Mmm... breakfast time!" so I went looking through Shelby Mae's vegan recipes for something I could submit to Taste & Create this month!

I was avoiding all tofu recipes because a) un-fermented soy freaks the bejeebers out of me and b) because of a) I don't have any tofu lurking in my fridge...

But! Only a few recipes down I found this...

Delicious, healthy breakfast? I think so!

Broccoli Dal! OM NOM NOM NOM!!!

I'm going to brutally force y'all to click on the link to get the full recipe - because I don't want you to miss out on the blogging magic that is The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch!

But let me tell you - this is a delicious recipe!

I did make a few changes - mainly to scale down the recipe so that it'd feed only one. I quartered it.

• Also I didn't have any mustard seed, so I used prepared mustard instead.
• I may have accidentally trebled the original recipe's calling for turmeric... But it was still delicious!
• I don't have any almond milk, so I made my own by soaking LSA in 1/4 cup water!
• And I cooked it with a teeny-weeny red chilli rather than sprinkling cayenne over the top.

Also - add salt! This dish tastes good before salt and AMAZING afterwards!

Y'all should definitely make this sometime, for breakfast, lunch or dinner!