Vegetarian Frugal Housewife

“Everyone eats and drinks, but few appreciate taste.”
~ Confucius, Chinese Philosopher (551-479 BC)

First things first, this product is only available in Europe, to the best of my knowledge. It is a soya version of pudding (a.k.a. Custard.)

Provamel Soya Dessert is vegan and organic. It’s made by the same folks who make Alpro Soy Milk.

From the company website:

Description:
A delicious dairy free chocolate flavoured dessert made with a blend of water and soya beans with added calcium and vitamins.

Ingredients:
Water, Raw cane sugar, Hulled soya beans (6%), Modified tapioca starch, Chocolate (1.8%), Cocoa powder (1.6%), Tri-calcium phosphate, Thickener: Carrageenan, Sea salt, Natural flavouring, Vitamins: Riboflavin and B12.

Nutritional values: per 100g/100ml
energy value 88Kcal / 371KJ
protein 3g
carbohydrate 13.6g
of which
sugars 10.8g
lactose 0g
fat 2.3g
of which
saturated 0.8g
mono unsaturated 0.6g
poly unsaturated 0.9g
of which
omega 6 0.82g
omega 3 0.1g
cholesterol 0mg
fibre 1.2g
sodium 0.05g
calcium 120mg
vitamins
vitamin B2 0.24mg
vitamin B12 0.15µg

*My Review:

The appearance is the first thing that you notice. It looks like those little pudding cups that you can buy in multi-packs at the supermarket.

I put it in the fridge and let it get nice and cold before trying it, as they sell it out on th warm market shelves. (At least at my local whole food retailer.)

When you open it, which can be difficult if you get a very well-glued pull-top, you may need to mix it up a bit to get the creamy texture, as mine were a bit lumpy upon opening.

I tried the chocolate, as that was always my favorite flavour of instant pudding. I must say that I was impressed to no end with the similarity of this healthy product to my over-processed, chemicalized pudding of yesteryear. So yummy!

I have since sampled the vanilla flavour, and sadly it does not compare. The soy-ness of it is underwhelming. But the chocolate is tops!

They have other flavours as well, mocha and toffee I believe.

What must be said is that I gave up dairy because of the excess of unhealthy mucous that it caused when I ate it. Provamel’s Soya Dessert causes the same effect for me, probably due to the thickeners more than anything else, but may not for you.

My final vote: Good product for chocolate pudding lovers. Great healthy alternative for kids lunch boxes. Avoid if you have sinus reactions to dairy, food thickeners or soy products.

I give it a 3.5 on a scale of 5. Try it out and decide for yourself.

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”
~ Arnold Henry Glasow, American Thinker & Humorist

I did it! I did it! Check it out…a successfully turned sock heel. No tears. No tragedies. No runs. Just a heel…simple.

I have finally made a sock that is shaped like a foot! Imagine that? Lil’ ole me? How cool!

I told the harrowing tale of my lack of sock-making prowess in a previous post. After nine tries with several different techniques, patterns and yarns, I have achieved sockdom! Yay for me! Two pairs complete now.

Anyone who doesn’t knit is probably thinking, “Okay, so this chick is crazy.” But anyone who does knit and has tried to graduate from flatness (ie. blankets and scarves) to shapeliness (ie. sweaters, teddy bears, gloves and socks) can probably grasp my joy.

Making a thing rounded, and knitting so that it turns corners etc., is essentially easy. But if you’ve never done it before you don’t KNOW that.

The directions for heel turning, and necks and armholes and other such things, seem counter-intuitive to the first-timer. Hence the problem. You don’t want to do exactly what the directions say, you want to interpret them, through the mind if a flat-knitter.

All I can say is: “Don’t interpret, just do!”

Once I figured that out, it actually worked! Imagine that? Directions that work? LOL.

Now that I have done it a couple of times I feel really confident about sock-making. There is no longer anything about socks that I am unable to do, but I must admit that I don’t particularly enjoy the picking up stitches after you’ve turned the heel. I can do it though, just not as enjoyable as, say, doing the toe.

I promise that once you’ve turned ONE heel (or maybe TWO,) you will have it mastered. :-)

So here is to self-striping yarns, yummy dye lots, squishy alpaca, shiny silk, curly mohair and, oh yeah, Happy Knitting!

By the way, you can find me on Ravelry as owlsocks. ;-)

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
~ Steve Almond, American Fiction Writer

This is the mother of all cakes, made for my favorite season, Autumn. And for me the best spiritual harvest of the year is in the cool and leaf-strewn time between my two favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. :-)

As for the cake itself, I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of this gooey monstrosity of a tasty sweet treat!

Anyone who knows of my cake baking/decorating exploits of the past knows that I have tried several times to master the tall, round and flat cake of picture books and cooking magazines, but to no avail.

Well, this is it! Rich, fruity, spicy, sweet and perfectly shaped! I think I’m in love.

The secret to that perfect depth and shape is in ditching your regular baking pans for a good old-fashioned saucepan instead. ;-)

Sadly, it’s perfection brought such tears to my eyes, and it’s smell such grumbles to nearby bellies, that photos were inadvertently missed out. :-(

I’ll make this one again next year, for Thanksgiving, and get some good snaps then.

This cake has all of the leading ladies of yummy and some quite tasty co-stars as well. So be decadent, get into the harvest-time spirit, and use up some of those pumpkins and apples from your autumn garden-picking adventures!

Harvest Haul Cake
Makes: 10 (or more) servings
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:
*large stainless or non-stick saucepan

Cake Base
2 cups apples, sliced and peeled
.5 cup sugar
1 tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs butter or margarine
1 tbs water
1 tbs lemon juice

Cake Batter
1 cup pumpkin puree
1.5 cup brown sugar
2.25 cups white flour
1 tbs corn starch
.25 cup soy milk
.5 cup buttermilk***
.75 cup butter or margarine
2-3 large eggs
3 tbs olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg
.5 teaspoon allspice
.25 tsp powdered ginger
.12 tsp ground cloves

Optional:
.5 cup ground walnuts
1 cup dried raisins or cranberries

Directions: (for base)

1. Melt butter over medium-low heat in the saucepan.

2. Add sugar, water, cinnamon and flour, mixing until it is lump-free.

3. Continue cooking on low until it becomes quite thick and caramel in colour.

4. Place apples in mixture, let sit over heat for just a minute.

5. Remove from heat, arrange evenly in the bottom of the pan and set aside.

Directions: (for cake batter)

1. Preheat oven to 350°f (175°c.)

2. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

3. Slowly spoon batter into the saucepan, over top of apple base.

4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked all the way through.

5. Let sit for up to an hour before cutting, this helps to keep it cooking evenly while cooling.

*6. You can sprinkle the top with powdered sugar as a decoration if you’d like.

This may sound a bit like a simple apple upside-down cake, but it is so much more! This is a very rich and flavorful cake that is nearly a meal in itself! Great for big family get-togethers.

“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

~William Blake, English Poet & Visionary

As some of you may know, I am a knitter. At least, sometimes I am.

I did my first stint of knitting when I was about seven. Then I gave it up when I was nine.

I got into knitting again when I was fifteen and gave it up when I was sixteen.

I picked it up again when I was 19 and put it down yet again when I turned 21.

Well, I am now a successful knitter in that I have kept with it, seasonally, for the past five years.

But, my whole reason for returning to knitting was to knit socks. Socks, socks, socks. Lots of socks. I collect them and wanted to make some of my own instead of continuing to buy nylon socks that were made in China.

Loved the knitting. Hated the socks.

I never finished a single one.

Actually, I really liked the socks, but they did not like me back.

I did eventually get used to the concept of double-pointed knitting needles and the whole knitting-in-the-round thing. But, after the 4th one that had to be ripped out during tragic heel-turning episodes, I decided to put socks aside and go back to baby blankets and scarves.

Then, a year later, I broke out the luscious pile of sock yarn and tried again. Twice. With the same sad and frustrating results. So, back to afghans and hats.

Then, just last autumn, I tried again. Equipped with the Addi Turbo 12″ circular sock needles, I felt determined and sure that it would be different.

At first, it was awesome! Knitting cuffs on the Addi is a breeze! Which brought me, at light-speed, to the heel. Dead in the water, AGAIN. And, AGAIN!

Well as I write to you today, I am on my 9th attempt at sock-making. I feel that nine is a lucky and magical number. (I hope!)

I am very excited and truly hopeful that this time the creativity will be effortless (or relatively so) and I will achieve a completed pair of handmade socks by the New Year.

The yarn that I chose is a lot of fun, Zwerger Garn-Opal Harry Potter in the Ron colorway. It makes me feel a little bit like Mrs. Weasley. ;-)

Maybe that’s why I am calling this project my Weasley Scrunchie Socks.

The pattern is a free one, the Squoosh Sock by Yarn Zombie.

Right now I am more than 6 inches into the first sock. I think it’s knitting up nicely, although the yarn may be better showcased using a different pattern, I really like the combination. Fun yarn + fun pattern = Fun socks!!!

Wish me luck (and patience) as approach the heel turning…I’ll need it!

**Ravelry users can find me here.

“What we eat determines how well our digestion works.”
~Alex Jamieson, Author & Vegan Chef

Okay, you guessed it…there’s no meat in this one. But it is fun and nicely textured just the same!

I have tried lots of vegetarian meatloaf recipes over the past few months, and none of them could manage to tickle my fancy as far as texture. They were all crumbly or flaky in their end result, and when they did act like a loaf, they certainly did not taste like anything that resembles meat.

So, after some disastrous experimentation, I have come up with something passable. This is not exactly the right texture, but it is closer than most.

Somehow, I seem to have become the faux-foods lady, developing lots of recipes to replace people’s meaty favorites and old time instant foods with something more acceptable to their new healthy and vegetarian ideals.

The gravy is deliciously beefy, but the “meat”loaf is transitional. I remain completely open to suggestions on this one and do not consider it to be a 100% completed recipe. So, try it out and let me know what you think.

“Meat”loaf with Beef-like Mushroom Gravy
Makes: 2 regular sized loaves
Prep Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

“Meat”loaf

2 cups Beef-flavour TVP (Soy Protein)
3 3/4 cups warm water
1 cup bread crumbs
3 eggs
2 tbs yeast extract
1 tbs malt extract
2 tbs rice or soy milk
4 tbs flour
4 cloves garlic, diced fine
1 small onion, diced
2 tbs Italian herbs
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Beef-like Mushroom Gravy

1-2 large mushrooms, chopped small
2 cups water
2 tbs yeast extract
1 tbs malt extract
5-7 tbs corn starch (or other thickener)
1 tbs chives
pinch of onion salt
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

For “meat”loaf:

1. Dissolve yeast and malt extract in the warm water and add TVP. Let soak for 20 minutes.

2. Wring the liquid out of the TVP, one handful at a time and place in a mixing bowl.

3. Add the breadcrumbs, eggs, flour and all other ingredients.

4. Mix thoroughly and press into greased loaf pans.

5. Cover with a 1/2 inch of gravy and bake at 200°C or 400°F for 30-40 minutes.

6. Cut and serve with mashed potatoes or salad.

For beef-like mushroom gravy:

1. Place 2 cups of water in a suacepan over medium-high heat.

2. Dissolve yeast and malt extracts into the water.

3. Add the chopped mushrooms, salt pepper and chives.

4. When water is warm, but NOT yet boiling add and whisk the corn starch.

5. Boil and allow to thicken, adding more corn starch as needed.

6. Ladle over “meat”loaf before baking and over mashed potatoes before serving.

~

This is working on becoming one of my favorite recipe combos! But, again, after trying these, please add any suggestions that you may have to the comments.

Bon Appetit!