Oreo Brownies!

The Cat in the Window Cafe, Aberdeen

Steven and I went to The Cat in the Window Cafe for his birthday in October.

I 100% booked a trip to the cafe as a surprise for Steven's birthday... because I really really wanted to go myself, and I knew he'd enjoy it too. Turns out he bloody loved it. So it was a win win.

So you pay £5.50 per person for your booking, and you get an hour slot of kitty cuddles.
They have all your usual cafe related drinks, as well as milkshakes and other daily specials and goodies.
We went around Halloween time, so Steven was able to get a halloween special hot chocolate complete with gooey sweets!
They had a vegan cake option too, which mean't I was able to chow down on some yummy goodness too, and didn't have to feel left out - I got a coconut and raspberry cake, which was delicious!

Now for the part you're all actually interested in... pictures of the adorable kitties.

Mad Penguin, Aberdeen

A few weeks ago, a new ice cream shop opened in Aberdeen called Mad Penguin.

Despite it feeling like the middle of our Aberdeen winter, I had to go (twice in one day) because I had seen the variety of vegan options they had in their freezers on their Facebook page.

I haven't had chocolate ice cream in six months, and quite frankly I was dying on it. 

(ft. Megan Wiseman)

There is no other ice cream shop in Aberdeen which has such a variety of flavours on offer for those who don't have dairy in their diets. 

Soooo... I had all three soy base flavours in a big pot.

Soy Peanut butter (yum)

Soy Chocolate (love of my life)

Soy Banana (bloody yum)

 

(Left to Right, Soy Banana, Soy Peanut Butter, Soy Chocolate Gelato
Pineapple Sorbet, Watermelon Sorbet, Lemon Sorbet, Watermelon and Pineapple Sorbet & Pear and Star Anise Sorbet.)

I went back in the evening and had a pot of the watermelon sorbet (which according to their Facebook is a nightmare to make) but it tastes amazing. So please don't stop making it!
All of the ice cream is made fresh in the store too, which is something you don't get if you opt for a big chain store instead.

All of the soy ice creams and sorbets taste incredible and you can really taste the quality and freshness of the ingredients in every scoop.

To top it off, the prices are so fair for the quality you are getting. 3 scoops/flavours for £5.
The big chain ice cream shop in Aberdeen is much more expensive, full of artificial colours and sugars, and you know that it is no where near as fresh as what you are getting in Mad Penguin.

I was freezing afterwards though, so had to get a pot of tea (nom).

Chocolate & Walnut Banana Bread

Since going vegan in June, I haven't really baked anything (much to Steve's dismay). I think I've been a little bit scared to get into the whole vegan-baking-thing for the fear of seriously messing up and making something not so tasty, and putting myself off of cake forever!

I thought i'd ease myself back into baking by making a really simple chocolate & walnut banana bread as I have some banana's that I have neglected in my weekly shop. 

This was the final result, and even Steven liked it!

(Be nice to me for my first proper baking blog)

Equipment

Measuring spoons - I picked mine up at Tesco for £2.00.

Mixing bowl 

Loaf tin 

Electric Whisk 

Ingredients

3 overripe bananas, mashed until smooth

1 cup of non-dairy milk 

1.5 cups of flour 

1 tsp of baking power

1/2 tsp of baking soda

3/4 cup of sugar (caster, coconut or brown)

I use caster for extra sweetness!

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 tsp of salt

1 cup of nondairy chocolate broken into pieces or chips!

I use 70% cocoa solids

0.5 cups of chopped walnuts 

1/4 cup of oil 

I'm using coconut oil 

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade

2. Grease your tin!

3. Mix together your bananas, oil, sugar, vanilla and milk until smooth.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda & salt.

5. Then add this to your wet mixture.

6. Fold in your chocolate & walnuts

7. Pour into your tin.

8. Bake for 45 minutes and check that the cake has risen, and that a knife comes out clean. 

9. If it's not quite ready, pop back into the oven for 5 minutes and keep checking it.

10. Once ready, let it cool & chow down.

This makes the gooey-est banana bread I've ever had, but it's pretty good! 

If you're not a huge chocolate fan, you can always leave it out and go for a yummy walnut banana bread instead!

Why I Went Vegan...

Let's face it, I like talking about why I went vegan. 

So I have composed a not too preachy blog post about why I chose to make the transition to a vegan lifestyle.

Why? 

I went vegan for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, I was a vegetarian for a number of years as a teenager when I first exposed myself to the cruelty that goes on in the meat industry. If you'd want something to convince you, I'd have a look on the peta website and watch the videos that show you what truly happens. It's not something that I'd recommend, and I don't torture myself by watching things like that anymore. 

The transition from vegetarian to vegan wasn't actually very difficult at all.

Second, I really love animals. I didn't want to be one of those people who said they really loved animals but then didn't do anything about it. I love dogs, but my favourite animals have always been cows. (Bizarre I know, but that's a conversation for another day.)

Third, the environment. Global warming is a huge blooming issue, and the meat industry is one of the biggest contributors to the problem. The amount of water, grain, and land that is used/destroyed to produce animals just for meat is disgusting. The meat industry is pumping waste into our oceans and destroying the marine habitats, check it out.

Fourth, world hunger. We produce a ridiculous amount of feed for cows just so we can kill them, when we could be using that grain to feed starving nations. The amount of food we use to feed cows, is 100 times less than the meat we get from it.

Fifth, I'm so much healthier. The health benefits are paramount, if you make sure you're eating the right things you can seriously nourish your body. I've never been healthier! 

Your next question is probably going to be "So what do you eat then?"

 The definitive answer is anything but dairy, eggs & meat. 

But no, I eat pretty much the same meals I always have done but I have tweaked them to fit my new diet. Things like curries, pasta, pies, vegan sausages with mash and beans (my fav), stir fry, soup and the list could go on forever.

Also, there are so many treats out there that you probably didn't even realise were vegan like:

- Oreos, skittles, most crips, hummus, salsa, bourbon cream biscuits (only some brands), peanut butter & jam, bread (most people thing it has dairy in), sorbet, loads of gelatine free sweets too, vegetable samosas and spring rolls from your takeaway too!

I make a lot more food from scratch, and I use much more fresh ingredients now! 

I've only just got into baking again, so add cake to that too.

It's not that difficult to eat out either, most restaurants nowadays have either got vegan menus, or they can provide you with an allergy list which clearly points out things that have dairy & eggs in. It's easy as vegan pie. 

If you're thinking about adopting a vegan lifestyle, do your research. 

I'd recommend watching earthlings, cowspiracy and food inc. too, they are all hard hitting documentaries that can give you a lot more information of the damaging nature of the meat industry than I ever could! 

 p.s. I get enough protein (just saying).

Baking with my mumma lou.

I am currently at home for a few days this week, so I thought that me and mumma could bake a cake (our personal favourite) and write a little blog post about it! We had a lovely morning shopping for ingredients and picking a cake.

We decided to bake a Coffee and Walnut cake, which I am sure is not very popular amongst people who don't like to drink coffee, but I don't even like to drink coffee myself, but the flavour of coffee is something I adore in cakes, ice creams and all treats! 

We used a Cake Recipe from BBC Good Food, as we don't really have lots of old family baking recipes, its a new thing that I think our little generation is going to begin. I'll post a link to the recipe below! 

Ingredients 

For the cake

250g of pack softened butter

100ml of strong black coffee (made with 2tbsp coffee granules), cooled.

280g of self-raising flour 

250g of caster sugar

Half a tsp of baking powder

4 eggs

1tsp of vanilla extract 

85g of Walnuts, finely chopped

For the filling 

100g of icing sugar, sifted, plus a little extra for dusting

150ml of double cream

100g of mascarpone, at room temperature

Set your oven to 180C or 160C for a fan operated oven.

You can find the method online, it is the most simple recipe, you pretty much have to beat the ingredients all together using an electric mixture until its light and fluffy, and then bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Then you make your filling, and add this to cake once it is cooled! 

This is the finished product, its a pretty enormous cake!

very excited to get down and eat it! 

hope you enjoyed this post,

muchos love

ysabelle

xxxxx

Restaurant Review: Rock & Oyster, Union Terrace, Aberdeen

Steve's Review 

To start I think it is important for me to state just how much of a couple of fussy eaters we are. I mean I am is fussy to the point that I won’t even eat most vegetables; and Ysabelle only just recently started eating chicken again after 5 years being a vegetarian. So when we were invited out to review Rock & Oyster, we were to say the least, extremely nervous when we found out it was a seafood specialty restaurant.

However, when we arrived it could not have been more welcoming. It had nice music playing in the background (it sounded like classical jazz to me but I am no expert so I could be wrong) and the waitress who showed us to our table and served us was extremely friendly and made us feel very comfortable. I know that this may seem a trivial point, but I always enjoy when staff in a restaurant make you feel like you are actually wanted in the establishment and not just there for a quick in and out meal (and in honesty I truly believe that this is because Rock & Oyster is a nice and small privately owned business, and not a big corporate money making franchise). The restaurants decoration was very plain, but elegant. I only managed to take a picture of the bar inside, which I will post below, as I did not want to intrude on other customers when they were eating their meals.

There are a few small details about Rock & Oyster that I really don’t want to miss before I start to discuss the food, as they truly help to create the perfect atmosphere that is experienced within this establishment. Firstly the small lounge area next to the entrance as you enter. This emphasizes the laid back and comfortable feeling that the restaurant gives off and makes you feel right at home when coming to eat your food. However, the main point I really wanted to make here was about the tap water provided. Normally when you ask for tap water in a restaurant it is supplied in a jug straight from the tap with some ice chucked in it. This was not the case at Rock & Oyster – as you will see in the photo below. At Rock & Oyster the tap water was has already been pre-poured into elegant glass bottles (of two different sizes depending on the table size) and stored in the fridge so that it is ice cold and fresh. It is the little things like this and the small dainty glasses that are used that give Rock & Oyster its very own unique and welcoming feel.

Now on to the food. For my starter I ordered the ‘Arbroath smokie fishcake’. It came with chive crème fraiche and rocket salad. The presentation of this dish was amazing. I have had and seen fish cakes in the past and they have always been somewhat flat and almost soggy looking, however here they came out in nice and crispy round balls, and looked so appetizing. I thoroughly enjoyed this meal, as the sauce completely complemented the fish cakes and the portion size was more than generous (to be honest for the price they are set as on the menu and the overall feeling of quality and expense in the restaurant) I would have been more than happy receiving just one fishcake with how big they are, never mind three!! I did go a lot more safe on my choice of starter than Ysabelle though, who went for the Calamari. However, despite being fairly nervous, I did force myself to try Ysabelle's starter as it was a whole new experience to me, and I wanted to make the most of it. I did not regret this decision. It was crisp and tasted delicious, especially when complimented with the sauce provided – I actually ended up stealing a fair few pieces from Ysabelle’s plate. I loved every mouthful!

For my main meal I did not go for a fish dish, I chose the ‘In house oakwood smoked pork belly’, and I will tell you this dish was without a doubt the best meal I have ever eaten. It is smoked for 10 hours; in house, and served with a beer and shallot sauce on top of roast garlic mash. The meat was so tender that although I was provided with a steak knife to cut it, it felt like I was slicing through butter. The sauce was rich and sweet and complemented the pork perfectly, with the mash being there as the perfect change if you fancied something a bit savoury. There is not much more I can really say about this dish, the portion was fantastically big and I am proud to say I tackled most of it.

Ysabelle's Review 

The menu at Rock & Oyster is arguably the best and most unusual menu's I’ve ever had the pleasure to select from. It’s so simple but with the perfect amount of description, in fact I struggled to choose which dish to have purely because my mouth was watering from the descriptions. To my dismay, I did not have enough space in my tummy to eat a desert, but I definitely will make room next time when I return for my birthday meal out! (There's nothing I love more than a cheese board!). Also, I'd like to say that it's been around five years since I last ate fish, and this was the kind of return to it I needed. 

I chose the Calamari to start. The thing I loved about this dish was how simple it was. I’ve had calamari a few times before, but nothing like this. The batter was perfectly crispy and not greasy at all and the sauce that accompanied it complemented the tastes of the calamari perfectly. It was a tomato sauce, I couldn't tell you what else was in it as I'm not exactly a food connoisseur but it was fantastic. In addition to this, the portion size was more than generous, and calamari is surprisingly filling so I had to stop myself from eating too much! 

For my main, I chose the seafood linguine; which was also enormous! It had scallops, mussels, prawns and squid and was made with a lovely tomato, garlic and chili sauce. I was more than shocked when my plate arrived at our table and there was enough food to feed both Steve and I. (As you can see in the photo!) The food was so perfectly cooked; there was absolutely nothing to fault with my dish. The mussels, prawns and scallops were cooked to perfection, and the prawns were enormous. I forgot how lovely pasta tasted with seafood because I'm so used to playing it safe with chicken or vegetables! Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish my main because of the size of it!

I couldn’t point out how much I loved everything about this restaurant, from the little bottle of ‘Victorian’ cloudy lemonade I received with my food, to the flower arrangements on the tables that were getting changed during our visit. Everything about the restaurant is so clearly thought out and it is all of the little details that make it what it is. I’m definitely one for appreciating the little things. 

Overall, I feel that it is easy to say from both of us that we loved our experience and Rock & Oyster and will be returning very soon. It is everything about this establishment that makes it what it is, from the ‘family’ feel caused by the fact that it is a nice privately owned business, to the outstanding service provided and all of this is topped of by the most important factor of all, the food is just total perfection.