In My Kitchen August 2014 and Vegan MoFo is coming

August brings chilly weather and a sad selection of fruit and veg.  Thank goodness for apples and root vegetables.  I went to the Newtown Farmers Market with my mum last weekend.  The pink lady apples I bought were wonderful and a bargain at 2 kg for $6.  I have been loving the St James smoked salted walnuts for snacks and in sandwiches.  I really enjoyed the spinach and cheese pide for lunch and took the beetroot and zucchini burgers home for tea the next day.  I loved the Hidden Secret stall where we bought the burgers.  Their vegie pies looked amazing.

Here is my beetroot and zucchini burger.  I toasted some kaiser rolls and filled them with grilled burgers, rocket, tomato, carrot, red capsicum, cheese, tomato chutney,  They were so delicious and very filling.  The burgers were very soft and yummy.  They are vegan and gluten free.  As well as vegies they include chickpeas and peanut butter.

The buns are from Coles supermarket.  I don't usually buy bakery goods from supermarkets as I prefer to make my own bread and cakes or buy them from bakeries.  The other week there were some specials and I bought kaiser rolls, seeded rolls and triple chocolate cookies.  The buns were great for burgers and lunches.  The cookies were delicious.  A nice change.  However, I just read about our national Supermarket Monsters in the Monthly - a timely remind to resist the duopoly.

After I made a mashed potato chocolate cake, I used up the rest of the mashed potato in some potato scones.  Sylvia seems to have gone off them.  Amazing the amount of food I make that she suddenly takes a dislike to that she would have eaten a year ago.  Oh well, more potato scones for me.  In the background of the photo are babushka doll craft we did at the Immigration Museum during the school holidays.

I don't like blu-tak on the walls because it leaves greasy marks if there too long.  However we use blu-tak to hand notices and Sylvia's artwork on kitchen cupboard doors.  E also has a system of blu-takking library slips by the kitchen door.  It helps us keep track of due dates for the books we have borrowed.  So I couldn't resist the coloured blu-tak!

I have noted before that E loves Daiso.  He bought us some new sushi moulds recently which I love.  They make little rolls of rice.  Which can be eaten as is or can be rolls in strips of nori.

I usually make a lunchbox for Sylvia featuring sushi each week.  You can see the sushi from the above moulds with some nori wrapped around it here.  I also included soy crisps, walnuts, apple and Herman the German apple cake.  I am really missing having a huge pile of this apple cake in the freezer.

We are familiar with the Scottish company, Nairns, that makes regular oatcakes.  I was interested in these mixed berry oat biscuits.  They are like oatcakes with a little sugar and fruit.  The berry flavour is more prominent than the specks of dried berries throughout the bikkies.  They were very popular.  My mum really loved them because they are not very sweet.  E loved them with butter and jam.  Sylvia loved them because they are bikkies.  I loved them for their nubbly oatiness.

Here is another of Sylvia's lunchboxes.  She loves cheeseymite scrolls and has one for lunch about once a week.  I love that Bakers Delight sell packets of mini scrolls.  Alongside the cheeseymite, I gave her carrots, gingerbread stars and apple.

I am a sucker for a new version of an old favourite, especially when it comes to Snickers Bars.  I had a fascination for trying a Snickers Bar in every country when I travelled.  I could not resist this peanut butter version.  It comes conveniently in two small squares.  I ate one and gave the other to E.  The peanut butter flavour didn't seem overly prominent to me because Snickers has lots of peanuts anyway.  Then E told me how much he enjoyed the peanut butter flavour.  Be warned they are very filling if you try them.

I mentioned recently that I dropped my spice hog or salt hog and it smashed to pieces.  I have really missed it and went hunting a new one.  I know I wouldn't find one as aesthetically pleasing as my lovely green one.  So I am making do with a Cole and Mason salt keeper.  Salt keeper!  Where is the poetry in that!  And I find the spoon attached to a magnet on the back to be quite unnecessary.  I like to be able to take a pinch of salt when I need it or find it quite easy to grab a spoon if I need more.  I have promised myself to keep a lookout for something as lovely as my old one but, as I will be fussy, it could take some time.

Finally I am signing up again for Vegan MoFo in September.  It will be my fourth year so I know it is a busy time for blogging.  The only way I can participate is to prepare well ahead.  If you notice that many of the recipes I am posting lately are not vegan, it is because I am putting aside many of my vegan posts for MoFo.

Above is a copycat of one of my Vegan MoFo photos.  Sylvia watched me set up my plate for a photo and decided she would style her dad's plate.  I think she feels sorry for him that he often gets the ugly plate of food (which means he eats while I photograph).  I thought it was really cute that she used some cheese off her plate for the photos but it means I wont use them photo in September when everything on my blog will be vegan.  It is a challenge because I am not vegan, although I do eat a lot of vegan food.  But I think it will be fun and a great way of connecting with really interesting bloggers.

I am sending this post to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen event.  Head over to join in and/or check out what is happening in other bloggers' kitchens.