I made these for my friends and gave it to them on Friday! :)

This uses the Easy Peasy Vegan Chocolate Muffin Recipe (unhealthy version). Halved the ingredients and added chopped pistachios (both mixed into the batter and on top) and dark chocolate.

Baked the same cake thrice last week, but it wasn't a chore because it's a easy and quick recipe!

Plus I get to lick the batter off the spatula when I'm done heh.

Sarasa black pen & Lyra Dobble markers on Daiso tracing paper.

Cut the cake into squares to fit into the jars! 

Red & white twine from IKEA. Get jars from me here (Singapore only).

I actually intended to make cookies with the batter but I ADDED TOO MUCH WATER :( So I baked it as a cake instead!

Burnt the too-flat cookies a bit oops. Slightly chaota and a bit too crunchy haha. I'll try cookies with this batter again next time! 100% sure that they're great as cookies.

My friends call them brownies but are they really? Haha. The recipe is so versatile - it makes whole cakes, muffins, cookies and maybe-brownies.

Okay the squares didn't fit into the jars very well - each jar only holds 3 squares hehe. I packed the extras and the cookies into ziploc bags to give my friends too. 

Cutting the cake into circles will be better, but then there'll be lotsa extra cake bits. Maybe baking the cakes in the jars is the best!!

Here's a pie-in-a-jar recipe if your interested in jar baking!

Meh-rry Christmas!

♡♡♡

My friend and I baked these last weekend for our supervisors/colleagues, since it was the last week of internship! :) This uses the same recipe as the Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake baked on Mother's Day, but it's more like the original recipe than my healthier version (..which you can eat for lunch and feel zero guilt haha!).

So yes this is intentionally unhealthy.

Everything was mixed in a food processor so it's really easy to make! 

For 30 tiny muffins: 2 1/2 cups plain flour + scant 2 cups sugar + scant 1 cup cocoa powder + 2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp salt .....

Pulse until combined .....

 + 2 tsp vanilla extract + 2/3 cup olive oil + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar + about 2 cups water

Blend until it's smooth. It's thick and smooth like chocolate ganache! Tastes really good like this too hehe. It's very slightly salty but you won't be able to taste the salt after it's baked.

I used tiny souffle cups! Don't fill them up this much :x

We added a piece of dark chocolate on each one too!

It takes longer to bake than you'd think, probably because the batter is thick!

And it's done after baking for about 25 mins!

Some of them exploded haha

It turned out fluffier and less dense than my healthier version! And of course it's sweeter too hehe.

Baked it again for my other supervisor and a nice cleaner uncle! This time I pushed the piece of chocolate in a little with a chopstick, so it won't melt everywhere.

Baked some in slightly bigger sized souffle cups.

Note that the the texture of the cake will change a little depending on the type of sugar you use - coarser-grained sugar will give you a less smooth 'muffin top' than fine-grained sugar. Also, since there's more space between grains (lol how am I supposed to say this?) when you measure out coarser-grained sugar, it'll probably amount to less sugar - so don't add all the water at once lest the batter becomes too watery!

People liked it! ^^

It's scary how much sugar there is in this! There's like almost as much sugar as flour wow. And some of those who tried it said that it's not so sweet (though maybe the cocoa powder balanced it out). Imagine how much sugar they put into commercial cakes omg!!!!!!!

Easy Peasy Vegan Chocolate Muffins

NOTE: This recipe uses a 200ml = 1 cup measurement. If using a 250ml = 1 cup measurement, increase the baking soda, salt, vanilla extract and vinegar

Make 30 tiny muffins or about 18 medium muffins 

Recipe adapted from Instructables

For my healthier version & instructions for making this without a food processor, view this post

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup plain flour
• scant 2 cups sugar
• scant 1 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups water at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup olive oil (or other vegetable oil)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or coconut vinegar)
• Optional: vegan dark chocolate

Method

1. Add the first 5 ingredients into a food processor/mixer. Pulse until combined.
2. Pour the last 3 ingredients and 1 cup of water into the processor. Blend.
3. Add more water until it reaches a thick and smooth consistency. 
4. Lightly oil muffin cups and fill each one about 3/4 up. Top with a piece of chocolate (optional).
5. In a preheated oven, bake at 150 deg C for 25-30 mins, or until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean.
6. Once done, remove from oven and leave to cool. 
7. Demolish.

Breakfast + recipe inspiration!

That's purple sweet potato adzuki bean bread with peanut butter, and barley grains with purple sweet potato puree, cacao nibs and soymilk. I finally pulled out these cookbooks from my bedside (they've been sitting there for over a year whoops)! This photo is from 2 weeks ago and up till now I've not tried any of the recipes haha.. but the photos are gorgeous to look at!! By the way, 6 items in this photo is from Daiso LOL

Dad surprised me a couple of days back because HE READ AN INGREDIENT LIST. TO CHECK IF IT'S VEGAN. OMG I've never thought that this day'll come! He still tries to persuade me to eat non-vegan stuff though lol

My family usually drinks unsweetened soymilk, and I've told my parents not to buy Nutrisoy's one because it has fish oil. This photo is from 2 years back:

But then, Dad checked the ingredient list before he bought it and apparently they changed their ingredients!!

It seems like they changed their formula with their packaging, but I've never noticed it previously! Note-to-self: occasionally check ingredient lists of items I thought I already knew

They use flaxseed instead of fish now YAY! Maybe vegetarians wrote in to complain or something hehe. ^^

I've got one last week of internship left and there's still quite a bit of work to do oh dear. Plus quite a few blogposts (with more content then this one) to write, hopefully by the end of the year!

EDIT: oh yes I forgot to add something that goes well under this title of 'Change'. Last week some people from Vegan Vibes (a festival that's taking place next year) went to recruit volunteers from my course (Nutrition, Health & Wellness in Singapore Poly)!! They were recruiting year 1s. Wow. Those kinda things didn't happen before. The students have (probably) understood what veganism is and that it's more than a plant-based diet! And maybe they won't think that vegans are (too) weird. Cool. 

Oh and I read from the newspaper (lol actually I only read TNP and the comics heh) just now that McD's sales are declining in America.

So yeah. Change

 If you've read some of my previous posts you'll know that I'm currently interning at Raffles Hospital. My friend and I are attached to dieticians and we make patient education resources like recipes.

And today our recipe is in The Straits Times Mind Your Body newspaper as part of an article on healthier Christmas recipes! How cool! :D

Have a great Thursday! ^^

I made these for the vegan potluck on Sunday! ^^ I guess this is the vegan version of Thai fish cakes..? 

Bought a whole lot of tempeh HAHA. The cashier & packer were shocked!! The packer didn't know what it was (she thought it was curry powder or something) until mum told her lol. I didn't actually need this many (they don't show the weight and I suck at weighing things with my hands -_- ) but it's okay because it freezes well. Each packet is S$0.50 and the tempeh weighs about 100g (2 pieces of 50g each) - I think it's a good size for one portion. 

I got these at Vivo's Giant, near the weighing section where there's the parsley and spring onion. Nearly cleared out the basket oops :x

I tested the recipe out for dinner the night before the potluck. This is made with 2.5 packets (250g) of tempeh. My parents generally liked it but felt that it needed more oil. Hahaha typical

It looks like there's quite a lot of ingredients but don't fret! You can swap out or omit ingredients and customise it to your liking.

Did you know that genetics determine whether you like Chinese parsley (coriander) or not? To some it tastes wonderful but to others it's soapy and repulsive. (Wow I remember this from doing a school report!) Interesting. I used to hate it when I was a child though. Then my dad kept on buying it (to use for dinner on the weekend) and leaving the rest of the bunch in the fridge to rot. And because I don't like wasting food, I finish it for him. And tada!! After a few weeks it was bearable and after a few months I liked it (and still do). I must be genetically inclined to like it but I was a picky kid that didn't like greens haha.

Oh and my grandparents have said that you like it when you become 爱美 ('wishing to appear beautiful'). Makes completely no sense LOL.

It's a really simple recipe because all you need to do is to throw everything in your food processor before pan-frying it!

There's peanut flour in this but you can replace it with oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in food processor), gluten-free all purpose flour or even plain flour. Ugh should've checked if anyone has peanut allergies before using peanut flour!

Based on the texture you want, you can pulse the mix a few times or blend it until it's completely smooth. I left it slightly chunky for more variations in texture. 

This recipe is inspired by a recipe in a Singapore Chinese cuisine cookbook (I can't remember the exact name). The original recipe used egg, so I thought of adding a flax 'egg' to this (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp hot water) as the binder. But I found that there wasn't a need! Somehow the mixture holds very well together and yet doesn't stick annoyingly to your hands! 

Also, the original recipe adds lemongrass into the food processor. o_o I didn't trust my food processor to make it fine enough so I just used lemongrass-infused water... which was probably hardly even detectable.

 Just shape the mixture using your hands and start pan-frying!

I omitted spring onion in part of the tempeh cakes to cater to the Buddhist vegans. I shaped the cakes into circles and squares and made those signs (the sticks are lemongrass haha) to differentiate between those with spring onion and those without. (Then I realised that it made no sense that the round one is labelled 'with garlic' because there isn't any LOL. So I cancelled 'garlic' away.)

I made 11 square ones (out of 250g tempeh) and about 24 round ones (out of 400-500g tempeh). 

So here's the recipe:

Thai-style Tempeh Cakes with Chili-lime Dressing

Tempeh Cakes

• 1 bunch spring onion (if omitting, add more parsley/ lime juice)
• 1 bunch parsley
• 2 red chilies, de-seeded
• 1 inch piece ginger
• 2-3 tbsp fresh calamansi lime juice (about 4-7 limes)
• 1 tsp coconut sugar (regular sugar is fine too)
• 1 tbsp peanut flour (or replace with ground peanuts, oat flour or regular flour)
• 1-2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• 2 tsp Bragg's liquid aminos/soy sauce

• about 250g fresh tempeh, rinsed
• about 1/4 cup water
• black pepper and salt to taste (I added a whole lot of cracked black pepper and 4 cracks of black sea salt)
• oil-spray/oil

Chili-lime Dressing

• juice of 2-3 calamansi limes
• 3 tbsp lemon-grass infused water (chopped lemongrass + boiling water)
• 1 tbsp coconut vinegar (or rice vinegar)
• 1-2 tsp coconut sugar
• 1 tsp Bragg's liquid aminos
• chili & lemongrass slices

1. Add the first 9 ingredients to a food processor (a blender might work too) and process until ingredients are finely chopped. Add in 50g tempeh if your processor is too big for such a small amount of ingredients.
2. Roughly break up remaining tempeh pieces and add to the food processor. Process until almost your desired consistency. Add water, 1 tbsp at a time, if required. 
3. Taste the batter (you won't die). Add pepper and salt if required and pulse a few times to mix.
4. Spray a non-stick pan generously with oil spray, or use your regular cooking oil. Turn on the fire. Shape the batter into rounds or squares and place it onto the pan. Leave about a 1 inch space between the pieces for easier flipping.
5. Filp it over when one side is done. (I have no idea how many minutes per side because I just kept on flipping them haha!) It should be firmer and brown but not too charred.
6. Remove from heat and cool. The tempeh cakes will become more yellow and dark coloured, and slightly drier.
7. For the chili-lime dressing, mix all ingredients together. Dip tempeh cakes into dressing and enjoy!

(Vegan) Potluck Tips

Some random potluck tips I've learnt! ^^ Haha these are my personal opinion only, and I've not held a potluck before so these are just from a potlucker's (?) point of view:

1. If you're using a new recipe, it's best to try it out at least once before the potluck - sometimes winging it just doesn't work!!
2. You'll still probably take longer than you'd expected to cook and get ready. So start early!
3. Label your food so that people know what they're piling onto their plate! If it comes with a dip, make sure it's noticeable.
4. If you can't cook, fruit skewers, cut fruits or fruit/veggie juices are great options. I always end up feeling super thirsty after a potluck, and juicy fruits and drinks provide a much welcomed respite. (wow using more chiem phrases) 
5. If you're horrible with directions and map reading, and going alone, make sure your phone is charged so you can Google Maps yourself there. Such a lifesaver.
6. Bring a camera! Instagram your food and make non-vegans wish they were there. LOL
7. Make lotsa friends! Vegan friends are hard to find T.T
8. Check with other potluck-goers about what food they're bringing so you don't clash.
9. Also, check if any potluck-goers have allergies or don't eat onion/garlic.
10. Eat a lot, talk a lot (not doing the latter very well hahaha) and have lotsa fun!!

♡♡♡

On Sunday (30th November - the last day of World Vegan Month), I went for a potluck organised by Nisha, Jeremy and Michael! Thanks Nisha and Jeremy for having us! ^^

It's the first potluck I've been to this year - wow how time flies. 

First, we watched Cowspiracy, which is a documentary about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. I've read about some of the facts before (eg. it takes 1000 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk; the water needed to make one hamburger is enough to shower for 2 months!) but what I found so shocking was that 1000+ individuals were actually murdered because they tried to protect the Amazon rainforest from being destroyed for animal agriculture?! Like a nun was shot in the head?!?! Plus apparently 4,600 (if I remember correctly) people were killed/harmed because they went against the meat/dairy/egg industry?!?! No wonder people are so skeptical about veganism. The animal agriculture industry buys out recognized animal/wildlife/ environment 'protection' establishments and uses them to brainwash people.

Cowspiracy is just the second vegan documentary I've watched (the first being Earthlings), but I'd definitely recommend it! Especially if you're non-vegan and yet call yourself an environmentalist. Or if you have a conscience.

Okay now for the food! As always, it was GOOD. Are vegans all wonderful cooks or what?!

Mushroom pasta by Alicia and Cheryl. ^^ The cashew cream sauce was great!

Yummy carrot cake by Zhi Wei and Gretchen!!

Truffle mac 'n' cheese with dill by Nisha and Jeremy! Wow I'd like to learn how to make my pastas as good as these two pasta dishes here!

And grapes-on-sticks plus assemble-it-yourself jelly & chia dessert at the back.

Pav bhaji ('Pav' means bread, and 'bhaji' refers to a thick potato-based curry, according to Wiki); bhaji by Sridevi and LOVEinBread baguette/rolls brought by Rebecca. They went great together! ^^

'Speshio fly lice' (haha!) by Stone.

Chili con Carne by Howard. Too bad I didn't see the vegan sour cream (I think?) at the side!

Garlic, roasted beet and jalapeno hummus by Michael. The colour of the roasted beet hummus is so gorgeous!!

My Thai-style tempeh cakes with chili-lime dressing. I'll post the recipe soon ^^

Super colourful superfood tabouleh. Refreshing!

Fried kway teow by Pauline. Springy and not too salty/oily!

There was more food than this!

Savoury sourdough mustard bread by Qing Hui. It's steamed, how interesting!

We climbed up some stairs and THE VIEW WAS WOW

Though after a while I really couldn't see what I was eating haha

Oh and we brought along our own plates and cutlery to reduce waste. ^^

Massaman curry by Sonal. Rich and fragrant from 2 cans of coconut milk lol! :)

Cute little chilled cakes by Nisha. I had the peanut butter chocolate one and it was creamy on top and crumbly & Oreo-ish on the bottom yum! The other one is pumpkin & cream cheese (I think)

Shepherd's pie by Esha. I was super full by then but this was too good to not eat! 

I did my best to match food to person (..to FB profile) heh. If I got anything wrong or missed anyone out please tell me. ^^;

The three dogs were super cute too! Photo from FB by Jeremy because I couldn't get any of them to sit still for the camera haha.

This potluck wasn't with the #sgvegan Instagrammy people that I'm more familiar with, but I still had fun! Thanks to Jeremy, Nisha and Michael for hosting and organising again! And thanks everyone for the yummy food :)

If you'd like to read about other potlucks:

Vegan Potluck Dinner (June 2013)

Sgvegan's World Vegan Day Potluck (Nov 2013)

Vegan Christmas Potluck Picnic (Dec 2013)