That vegan question and answer thing doing the rounds!

I thought I better get a post up before the weekend seeing as I have almost been on a roll lately.
So I opted for this easy survey thingamy.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
I'm easy - I just go for whatever has whole soybeans/grains as opposed to isolates, the simplest ingredient list and unsweetened. I mainly use it in cooking anyway.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
This one took me the longest time to answer, and because I copy heaps of recipes from the net into a word doc I no longer know where they came from. Probably Tempeh Bacon, Tom Yum Soup, and Coconut Rice Pudding.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
I never eat popcorn but probably salt. In the old days it was butter.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Pre-vegan days I made a lemon pasta with fish for my flatmate and her boyfriend. However the fish was completely flakey and almost dissolved within the dish. And I put way too much lemon in - you couldn't taste anything else and it was barely edible. Shame!

5. Favorite pickled item?
I love pickled stuff. Probably a toss up between jalapenos and dill pickles. Oh, and I love pickled onions but don't eat them much for fear of stinking out my company! Are olives considered pickled? If so then they take first place.

6. How do you organize your recipes?
Ermmm, organise?

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Recycling bin and trash. Composting in an apartment doesn't work.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
My island is going to have a bountiful supply of native fruit and veg, so I would only need to bring gin, pasta and tofu.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
My mum's self saucing chocolate pudding. It was always cooked for dessert for our birthdays. Time to veganise it!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Purely Decadent Cookie Dough. I'm not even an icecream fan but I'm hooked on this! Or at least I WAS until I discovered I couldn't get it in Melbourne anymore. SOB! In fact, I don't even need the icecream part - just the cookie dough. MMMMmmmm.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
I only have a few and have only used one of them - so I guess it's my blender! What I would really like is a masticating juicer though, they produce twice the juice of a centrifugal juicer. Cost twice as much though!

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Chili. No, basil. No, coriander. No, cumin... argh!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Gourmet vegetarian, beautiful book but probably only made 5 things from it. I am terrible with cookbooks. I own a dozen and never use them and wonder why I always cook the same stuff.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Marmalade.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Spinach and tofu 'ricotta' cannelloni. It's not far off from a 'normal' cannelloni so it doesn't really get questioned and looked at strangely. And I LOOOOVE it.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu is the easiest and most flexible. But I do love seitan. Whenever I have cooked tempeh it tastes like the devil's *%@! - I'm still working on liking it.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Dinner. Breakfast I have no time for anything other than tea and toast and I am much too lazy to bring preprepared lunch to work.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Ermm.. no idea. Things my flatmate owns?

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Fry's Vegetarian Shnitzels, Purely Decadent Cherry Nirvana Icecream, and some strange Banana Fritters I found at Woolworths (which, btw, are divine with icecream, fresh strawberries and maple syrup... mmmmmmm). Wow, how grossly unhealthy do I sound? I could at least trade in the Banana Fritters for real bananas freshly fried!

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Fresh produce. Canned lentils, chickpeas and tomatoes. Tofu. Hummous. Does this redeem my answer for question 19?

21. Favorite grocery store?
Don't really have one. I'm a store whore. I might love Macro Wholefoods in Richmond, if it wasn't in Richmond! Bring it Collingwood way!

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
Hmmm.. the aforementioned (failed) lemon pasta with fish. And the also aforementioned chocolate self saucing pudding.

23. Food blog you read the most?
I read heaps, too many to count. I even get Google alerts multiple times a day emailed to me with keyword 'vegan'. But perhaps Planet VegMel has been handiest for me to find other Melbourne bloggers which is great! And I love Natala's Vegan Hope because she is so positive and inspiring - and she's beaten diabetes with a vegan diet. My Dad has diabetes and I wish he would do the same.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate. I wish the flavoured dark Lindt was vegan too! I wrote to Lindt asking why they need butterfat in the Dark Chocolate with Almonds flavour.. their response was pretty weak and they didn't respond again to my reply.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Loving Earth raw chocolate. Sadly I found the texture awful and couldn't finish even one small square of it.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
I'm not sure if I'm scared or just plain lazy. But if we are combining the two, anything that needs soaking overnight! Who can plan anything that far in advance?? (see question 6 above). Also, pumpkin! Not only is it an absolute bitch to cut, but what girl who goes out a lot can eat all that pumpkin before it goes off? I do love it though. Maybe I should get a pumpkin and a weeks plan of pumpkin meals. And making my own seitan - sounds tough!

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm going to try and head to the Rose St Artist Markets in Fitzroy on Saturday to check out some vegan bits and bobs, (thanks Miss T!)