Tuesday 30 September 2014

Sayonara Vegan MoFo 2014


So after a long month of Vegan MoFo, we find ourselves saying Sayonara, So Long, Stay in Touch!  It has been a blast but exhausting.  For the final day of Vegan MoFo, I bring you some reflections on the month, some collages of my Vegan MoFo photos, and some random photos of recent food.

The final day of Vegan MoFo means all sorts of dishes I never got to share
 such as this delicious bowl of stew, roasted pumpkin and cauliflower,
raw spinach and sprouts, and leftover Mexican tofu crema.

I have had fun with my nominal theme: The Letter S. It has given me a challenge and a focus. I have made soup, salad, sushi, scramble, sauce, smoothie and sweets*. Dishes have been sweet, sticky, smoky, stuffed, spicy, speedy, savoury, surprising and scrumptious. Ingredients have included spinach, strawberry, sourdough starter, sauerkraut, smoked paprika, salsa, sprouts, squash, sweet potato and sesame seeds.

I had lots of ideas for posts that I never had time for.   However I do find that Vegan MoFo inspires me to try innovative recipes and experiment with vegan cooking.  I love seeing all the other crazy ideas and hope to be trying some of the great recipes I have encountered.

The breakfast roll at True North in Coburg.
Very impressive that a roll of eggs, bacon and bubble and squeak
 can be veganised.  And tasty too!

This year I was possibly the most organised of my 4 years of doing Vegan MoFo.  It was probably my busiest Vegan MoFo too.  I spent too much of it whinging about my stolen car.  As I write we are getting close to buying a new car, god willing!  I am much fitter for riding my bike more but still disorganised and most displeased.

This month also kept me busy because unusually for me, I was away at least one night every weekend.  School holidays and out of town trips have really limited my time and energy for MoFo.  Even this post is scheduled in advance because we headed off on holiday for the last few days of the month.  There is no way I would have posted so much if I hadn't written most of about half the posts before the start of September.

Perhaps the craziness of life gives me a good excuse for feeling that my Vegan MoFo posts list was not quite right this year.  Usually I list posts in order of the day of posting.  This year I had a silly idea to give each day of the week a theme and list posts in that way.  I don't think it quite worked as there was too much overlap and not enough discipline on sticking to the daily themes.  I may reorder the page if I find time.

One of my favourite vegan biscuits (or cookies):
Chocolate Tahini Cookies made with
oodles of tahini, maple syrup and choc chips.
I was delighted to be featured during Vegan MoFo, as well as all the lovely bloggers who gave me a shout out in their posts:
  • Featured in Day 2 and Day 18 round up on the veganmofo blog.
  • Mentioned on the PPK Forum (Thanks Rosie's vegan kitchen for telling PPK that there are "so many pretty photos" on my blog.  How sweet of her - just don't look at the old posts!)
  • Nominated by Jasmine of Self Sufficient Cafe for a Liebster Award!  (Will do a post on it when I get time.)

        As always with Vegan MoFo, many thanks are due.  Firstly to E who puts up with it keeping me so busy and washes so many dishes.  (When I told him I was doing Vegan MoFo again, he joked it must be in spite of his many letters requesting they cancel it this year!)  Secondly thanks to all the lovely folk who organise Vegan MoFo.  It is such a huge and fantastic effort.

        And last but not least, thank you to everyone who shared, read my posts and made comments.  I really love the flurry of community spirit during Vegan MoFo and the welcome extended to me as a vegetarian.  I wish I could have spent more time on random mofo, visiting mofo bloggers and commenting but that is the nature of Vegan MoFo.  Too much good food and too little time.  Yet I have loved being part of the craziness. 

        I will be back next month with more about my holidays, my new blender and many more recipes.  I am looking forward to blogging at a more leisurely pace.


        *Sweets is what we called dessert when I was a kid.  I am not sure how many others used that term but we often would ask my mum "what's for sweets?" 

        This post is part of Vegan Month of Food September 2014.  This year for Vegan MoFo my theme is The Letter S.  Today is S for Sayonara.  Go to my Vegan MoFo list for more of my 2014 Vegan MoFo posts. 

        16 comments:

        1. Sounds like it was a vegan mofo well done!

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        2. Yay, congratulations! I think your theme was a great idea, as like you say it offers focus but also some flexibility. We pretty much always called it desserts, but now we sometimes refer to anything sweet as sweeties - as in "dinner was great but we need some sweeties". It feels kind of old fashioned, like hard boiled lollies. It's really cool to look back at all your MoFo posts and see all the lovely things you've made in such a short time! The strawberry sushis and the mini donuts were some of my favourites (I love miniature things!) and I can definitely vouch for how good chia jam is :)

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        3. Your blogging and recipes this month was great, I was very much admiring it all! I have lots of your posts bookmarked too. As for sweets, for me it's always been dessert but must admit I love the term 'pudding' for dessert, even if to me a pudding is just a pudding. Kind of like the word supper, I love supper. Even though I don't know exactly what it's supposed to be because it's different in various parts of the world. There are things I don't consider dessert, like biscuits/cookies. To me that is something to have when you 'take tea'. The first time I had dinner at my health-conscious in laws I was surprised when my MIL said she was going off to get dessert ready. Dessert was a plain orange. Fruit is not dessert unless it's in a crumble!!!

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        4. Congratulations on making it through MoFo Johanna! Very impressed with your organisation so definitely don't beat yourself up about not being as ordered with the theme as you'd have liked.
          P.S. "dessert" or "sweets" has always been "pudding" to me! As in "What's for pudding Mum?" !

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        5. I've really enjoyed your MoFoing! I also really want that breakfast roll, it looks perfect.

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        6. I have really enjoyed your MoFo, well done x

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        7. Congratulations on surviving MoFo. It does sound like you have to be super organised and disciplined to prepare all the posts. I'm glad you got a lot out of the experience. It's great that riding your bike has made you more fit but I know you'll enjoy driving around in your new car xx

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        8. Congrats on successfully completing this challenge!

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        9. Hi there! I’ve nominated you for a Liebster award! I hope you don’t mind, but I think its a fun thing to do and a great way to end Vegan Mofo 2014. Go check it out here

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        10. Hehe that was funny about E's letters asking them to cancel it. I'm sure Mr NQN wishes that they would cancel Halloween as that is such a big thing for me each year :)

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        11. You know I always enjoy your blogging and cooking antics, but you September VeganMoFo contributions have once again been inspiring, thank you

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        12. I've loved your Vegan MoFo this year - definitely worth all the craziness!

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        13. I discovered your blog this mofo and really enjoyed your posts. Looking forward to checking back

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        14. I have loved your posts and your theme - well done on getting through it in light of no car, trips away, and all the usual things too! I hope the car is sorted soon and you can relax a little now.

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        15. Hi Johanna!

          I didn't get to see nearly as many of your recipes this month as I wanted to. I'll be checking out that list for sure! Is the reference to the Mexican tofu crema on it and how about those Chocolate Tahini Cookies?

          You might be surprised to learn I have been eating way more vegan style dishes since my "episode" at the hospital. I sure do have a lot of learning to do:) I'll be checking out your recipes for sure! I may even make one of those nut loaves of yours, lol...

          I hope things do calm down for you now so you get to enjoy yourself and to shop for another car. Good Luck with that:)

          Thank you so much for sharing, Johanna. I'll be back to check that list as soon as I catch up:)

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        16. 4th year of mofo? Congrats! That's awesome =) This was my first, but I would love to continue and make a tradition of it. You had loads of great ideas & recipes! Glad to hear you almost have a new car.
          "There is no way I would have posted so much if I hadn't written most of about half the posts before the start of September."
          Me too!!!

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