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This is week four of my new schedule where I post a recipe request or a recipe someone in the vegan cooking courses has developed. A couple of Vegan Foundation Cooking Courses ago the lovely Jayne and Wendy made a delicious sweet potato gnocchi and I promised them I would develop a good gluten free gnocchi recipe to share with them when I got a spare moment.

It’s week three of my blog schedule and I am enjoying having a theme to go with each week. This week is seasonal produce. I’m excited as this is a seasonal vegetable that is native to both Australia and New Zealand. It can also be found in South American countries. It’s a hardy plant that likes sandy and marshy conditions to grow. It grows wild in many people’s gardens without them even knowing.

Having a structure to the blog posts is working well so far (this is only week two so lets see if I can keep it up). This week I am posting a meal that I think most children will love. A child friendly meal for the whole family, I can imagine it being a regular on any menu plan.

Hello everyone, how has your week been? I am in the middle of three days off. These being very special days off for me as I have worked pretty solidly for the last seven weeks with only one full day off and even on that day I attended a workshop and then worked in the evening. It’s been a thoroughly rewarding time. In that time I cooked on two week-long retreats, cooked on a four day workshop and a one day workshop, ran three vegan foundation cooking courses, did a demo at a local food festival and facilitated modules two to five of the Vegan Chef Training. It was epic and I loved it all. I loved especially the facilitation and helping so many people create really delicious well-balanced food.

Almost a year ago I got a phone call an hour before day one of the Vegan Foundation Cooking Course was due to start from a woman named Lisa wondering if there was a space left in the course that day. I had never had such a late booking before. I said “yes if you can get the application form filled out, sent back to me and be here in an hour then the spare place is yours.”

Following on from sprouting for the Raw Course I facilitated ten days ago I cooked quite a few dishes with the sprouted mung beans. This curry is a true winner. The sprouted mung beans add such a different dimension to a curry.

Last week marked the start of another Vegan Chef Training. Six wonderful women came together to join in Module 2, Raw Cuisine. As part of this module I show you how to sprout legumes and you get to take home a pack of seeds to sprout and recipe develop.

Last Thursday to Saturday I facilitated the 29th Vegan Foundation Cooking Course where four wonderful people attended. It was a treat for all of us to have such a small group and some very creative food was made.

For two decades as a university student, care worker and teacher I took a packed lunch to work. I had no choice there were no options for me as a vegetarian and I have also always been a fussy eater. White bread sandwiches have never cut it for me. And that was pretty much all that seemed to be available at school canteens.

As part of the three day Vegan Foundation Cooking Course you get to create your own signature dish. In the May course Monica and Shari made a vegan gluten free pie and named it Monshari Pie. It is as wonderful as the name itself.