Some More Samosas

This has to be one of my favourite foods.  I think it's just because pastry is so delicious though haha.  Sometimes I eat them before the pastry is fully cooked too, oops >_>.

 
Ingredients:
*3 medium potatoes                                 $1.02
*~500g frozen broccoli and cauliflower  $2.66
*2 tbsp mild curry powder
*~200g frozen peas and corn                   $1.18
*salt, pepper, chili, garlic powder
*1 tbsp Nuttelex or other vegan butter
*2 cubes Massell veggie stock                 $0.40
*3 sheets Pampas puff pastry                   $2.76

Method:
1.  Put water on to boil with two cubes of stock in.  Thinly slice the potato and add to pot.
2.  Add brocolli and cauliflower and peas and corn to pot.
3.  Preheat oven as per pastry instructions.  Cut pastry into 4 squares/sheet. Prepare tray with alfoil.
4.  When potato is cooked (breaks apart when stabbed with fork), take off the boil and drain.
5.  Add butter, salt, pepper, chili, curry powder and garlic powder.  Mash up furiously!
6.  Spoon mix onto the pastry and fold the corners up.  Place on tray.
7.  Cook for as long as the pastry instructions demand you must.
8.  Eat!

Makes:  About 12

Total: $8.02 or $0.67 each.

Calories:  2696 or 225 each.

Protein: 80.5g or 6.7g each.

Leftover mash?  Put it on a sandwich!

One Year Old!

Today is Kommoner's first birthday!  It sure has grown a lot bigger than I ever expected.  Thank you to everyone who has supported me!

It started with me making plushies as a hobby in my spare time and now I use it to fundraise for charities and causes that I believe in (as well as pay for food hehe).

All in all, I have managed to raise nearly $2,500 for various charities over the course of this year, through auctions, bake sales and donating 10% of my sales.

I've sent out hundreds of Kommoner goods all over Australia and I am amazed at the fact that I've gotten over 1,000 fans on Facebook.

My hopes for the future?  I hope that I can raise even more money over the coming year and continue to make enough for my Kiva loans and for a bit of extra food :).  I also intend to share with you more amazing vegan recipes (with some raw and gluten free ones thrown in).

New projects for next year (hopefully): t-shirts with pro-vegan, anti-homophobia, etc slogans and images, garlands and cat ears.  I hope that you stick around for the next year of Kommoner exploits!

Vegan Easy Challenge

The Vegan Easy Challenge is a challenge to you to try vegan food for just 30 days.  There are heaps of great recipes to try and lots of awesome prizes up for grabs.

Image taken from Vegan Easy Challenge on Facebook

If you've ever wanted to try experimenting in the kitchen, been interested in the idea of vegan food or you just like a challenge, definitely give it a go!  I've been vegan for nearly two years now and it's really made me experiment more with my food.  I've come to enjoy cooking and baking and trying out new recipes.  Let me know if you try and how it goes!  I'll be cheering you on!

For the Facebookers amongst you, there is a facebook event page that you can share with your friends and family here.

Ready, Spaghetti, Go!

Ingredients:
*200g TVP                            $2.90
*2 cubes Massel beef stock  $0.40
*~300g mushrooms, diced    $3.10
*1 carrot, diced                     $0.34
*1 zucchini, diced                 $0.84
*1 onion, diced                     $0.31 (on special)
*1 jar spaghetti sauce            $1.50 (on special)
*~200g pasta                         $0.36 (or $1.32 for gluten free pasta)


Method:
1.  Prepare TVP as per directions.
2.  Prepare some pasta as per directions.
3.  Dice mushrooms and onions.  Add to a pot with TVP, stock and spaghetti sauce.
4.  Dice carrot and zucchini and add to pot with TVP.
5.  Wait for it all to be cooked, then eat it (after it has cooled down a bit).

Total: $9.75 ($10.71 for gluten free).  Or about $1.63 per serve (makes about 6 serves) ($1.79 per serve gf).

Create a Stir(fry)!

Delicious stir fry!  Something else that is versatile, easy and cheap!  I didn't get to eat this one; my friend ate it all for dinner when he was over.  Apparently it was delicious...

 

Ingredients:

*red capsicum            $0.92 (on special)

*brocolli                     $1.01

*~300g mushrooms    $3.10

*can sweet corn ends  $1.27

*hokkien noodles       $1.58 (or Chang's gluten free wok ready noodles $2.45)

*soy sauce

*sesame oil

*ginger, garlic, chili powder, salt, pepper

Method:

1.  Prepare noodles as per directions.

2.  Slice up mushrooms and capsicum, fry in some sesame oil, soy sauce and spices til the mushrooms are starting to shrivel up deliciously (or not, I'm not your boss!).

3.  Add brocolli and sweet corn to heat them up.

4.  Stir in noodles and serve!

Total (not gf): $7.88, or $2.62 per serve (makes 3 serves).

Total (gf): $8.75, or $2.92 per serve (makes 3 serves).

Other ideas: Add cashews for extra deliciousness.  If you want to add some tofu, cube it and cook it first with the mushrooms so that it gets nice and brown and soaks up the flavours.

Whiskey Business

Ingredients:
*3 cups biscuits^                                $1.89     
*1/4 cup cocoa                                   $0.51
*1 cup walnuts, chopped/broken up  $2.30
*1/2 cup whiskey/bourbon/rum         $5.15
*1 cup icing sugar                              $0.30
*1/3 cup maple syrup                         $0.42

^I used a packet of Nice biscuits (about 2.75 cups) this time but I've used McVities Digestive biscuits before.

Method:
1.  Use a rolling pin to smash up the nuts and biscuits.
2.  Mix nuts, biscuits, icing sugar and cocoa.
3.  Add syrup and alcohol, mix well.
4.  Refridgerate for about an hour to harden the mix
5.  Roll into balls, roll in sugar/nuts/icing sugar/coconut.
6.  Keep in the fridge, try not to eat all in one go.

Total:  $10.57, or about 35c each, depending on how big you make them.

Kerbside Lane Market

The Kerbside Lane Markets are held on the second sunday of the month.  They're in an awesome little alleyway, hidden behind the best bar in the valley, Kerbside.

Kerbside is an awesome bar with old arm chairs and tables salvaged from the kerbside collection.  The staff are amazing and friendly.  I recommend heading there if ever you get a chance!  Hopefully there'll be another Dr. Ink & Draw event coming up soon too!

The markets hidden behind the bar run from 1-6pm and sometimes there's a band or a solo artist to chill to.  This week I barely remembered to take photos but here are some snapshots of Ink & Whim's creations, they were one of the donors for the Auction for Oxfam last month.

Carrot and Orange Cupcakes

Ingredients:
*1.5 cups SR flour          $0.17
*1 cup raw sugar             $0.22
*1/2 tsp ginger
*1 tsp cinnamon
*1/4 tsp salt
*1 cup shredded carrot  $0.34
*3/4 cup orange juice    $0.18
*1/3 cup oil                    $0.38
*1 tsp vanilla

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 190C
2.  Mix all ingredients together.
3.  Bake for 20-25 depending on your oven.

Total: $1.29, or about 10c/cupcake.

Optional:  Try adding half a cup of raisins.

The Heart of the Problem

Today, after my heart had its third ever elevated pulse (at age 21!), I decided to see the doctor.

After only 20 minutes of waiting (enough time to chillax) I had my pulse checked.  108bpm.  Apparently the average is 70bpm.  I was told that it's a fairly common thing that happens to a lot of young people as a one off thing, but to go to hospital if it persisted/got worse. 

I even got to have an electrocardiogram today which was cool; you take your shirt off and they stick stickers everywhere (lifting up the courtesy towel on your breasts which seems pointless).  The stickers are then attached to cords and the machine records your heart beat.  It was sort of like the below picture, except two stickers were also on my legs and there was a lovely nurse involved.

So, no more caffeine for me!

Which makes my coffee cup tattoo pretty ironic and hilarious now.

I'll also be trying to reduce my sugar intake (which is an excellent excuse to trial some raw sweets) and maybe trying meditation or yoga techniques to reduce any stress that might be affecting me.

What do you do to reduce stress?  Have any ideas for raw treats that I should try making?

Blueberry Cupcakes

Ingredients:
*1/2 cup raw sugar         $0.10
*1 tsp salt
*1/4 cup veg oil              $0.29
*3/4 cup soy milk           $0.36  (for soy free, use a different milk)
*1.5 cups of SR flour      $0.17
*tin of blueberries           $4.06

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 190C.
2.  Mix all ingredients together.
3.  Bake for 20-25 minutes (check with a skewer).

Total: $4.98 or about 41c/cupcake.

Banana Bread

One of my favourite recipes of all time!  I got the original from VegWeb but it doesn't seem to be up any more.  Also, rather unfortunately, bananas are pretty expensive at the moment.

Ingredients:
*2 large bananas      $3.96
*1/2 cup soy milk    $0.24  (for soy free, use a different vegan milk)
*1/2 cup raw sugar  $0.10
*1/3 cup Nuttelex    $0.57    (you can use any other vegan butter subsitute)  
*2 cups SR flour      $0.22
*1 tsp vanilla

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 180C
2.  Mash bananas in a bowl with a fork.
3.  Mix all ingredients together.
4.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  It should go a nice light brown on top when done.

Makes: 8 pieces

Total: $5.09

Optional:  Try adding half a cup of chopped walnuts.

Calories: 2034 or 254.25 per slice.
Protein: 38.7 or 4.8375 per slice.

Suitcase Rummage - September

This month's Suitcase Rummage was a bit slow, probably due to the crummy weather.  However, I still had a good time chatting to people and reading my book, From Poverty to Power.

Dinos watching people walk by.

I got placed next to a great person who had a heap of their own designs screenprinted onto shirts.  You can find their awesome shirts here and their website is here.  Apparently I have inspired them to do some charity related work, so keep an eye on this one ;).

I somehow got photographed by Street Candy because of my 'look' but I swear I just picked up what was closest and ran out of the door!

I also got a few seconds to duck away and check out some people I haven't previously seen at the Suitcase Rummage.

Marina's Treasures

Rad artistry by Kyan De Vere

Unfortunately today I only made $8.00 for Brisbane Valley Cat Rescue by selling chocolate cupcakes but managed to give away the rest free at the end of the day, so at least some people still got enjoyment out of them :).

And of course regulars such as Rock City Zombie, Pannikin and Loopy Designs were there.  I love that there's a group of regulars that you can rely upon.

Soup-er Yummy!

Sometimes, all you have in your kitchen is an assortment of vegetables and some canned goods, leaving you with only one cheap and delicious option: soup!

While I know it's hardly 'out there' and new, soup is healthy, delicious, cheap, easy and vegan.

Ingredients (a.k.a. what I had lying around):
*two carrots
*one onion
*red lentils
*yellow split peas (soaked for about an hour beforehand)
*tin of diced tomatoes
*tin of chickpeas
*head of brocolli
*head of cauliflower
*zucchini
*two cubes vegetable stock

Method:
1.  Put stock cubes, lentils and diced tomatoes into about 1.5-2 cups of water on medium heat.
2.  Rinse and chop everything up and add.
3.  Stir, cool and eat.  Nom!

This will probably do me for about 6 or so meals!

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for being a part of this!  Together, we managed to raise $806.00 through the auction.  All of the money raised will be going to Oxfam to help with the current crisis in Africa.

A special thank you to Tegan, who made the largest donation.  To see the total as the money comes in, or to make an extra donation, click here.
 

Also a special thank you to the following businesses, without whom none of this would have been possible:

B.Inspired
Catamation
Carol Toogood
Catbirds
Dementedfaery
Designed by Ali
Each to Own
Freaki - Niche... crafts for the slightly Twisted!
Hanami Craft
Ink & Whim
Itty Bitty
Kym's Videography
LenaLime
Little Lala's Jewellery
Loopy Designs
MadeforYouAlone Exclusive HandMade Jewellery 
Me & Holly.B
Milestone Gifts
Ruffbat Creative
Savage Kitten
Silver Tooth Vintage
Simmone Grinder, The Little Orchard and Your Organ Grinder
SKULLMONKEY ART + DESIGN
Smallprint Brisbane East
Stacey Lia . Designer
Surreal Photography
Nicole
Vegan Products You Can Buy in Australia
Voodoo Rabbit 

Thank you!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:
*1/3 cup of vegetable oil         $0.38
*1 cup of water
*1 & 1/4 cup raw sugar           $0.30
*1 tsp vanilla
*1 tbsp vinegar
*1/3 cup of coconut                $0.20
*2 cups of self-raising flour   $0.21
*3 tbsp cocoa powder             $0.85

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 190C.
2.  Mix all ingredients together.
3.  Bake for 15-20 minutes (check with a skewer; my oven takes a bit longer than this because it's old).

Total: $1.94 or about 16c/cupcake.  That's a lot cheaper than buying one through a store!

You will have A LOT of left over ingredients to make another batch; the cocoa, coconut and oil should last you a while.

Calories:  3286 or 274 per cupcake.
Protein:  40g or 3.33g per cupcake.

Vegan Burritos

So here I am bringing you my first pretty recipe!  I live on a student's budget with not much time on my hands for cooking between markets, fundraising and uni.  Therefore, I am going to try and share with you some cheap easy recipes on a regular basis! 

I have recently posted about how to make chocolate icecream and carrot cake but now I am moving into the realm of dinners and trying harder to take decent photos and share more cheap and easy vegan meals for the curious among you.  Let me know what you think in the comments!

Ingredients:
*200g TVP                             $2.90
*2 cubes Massel beef stock    $0.40
*tin of corn                             $1.00
*alfalfa                                    $0.40 (special)
*tin of red kidney beans         $1.00
*6 tomatoes                            $2.28
*12 pack of NOT GF wraps   $3.73 (OR 3x4 packs of GF wraps  $13.47)
*garlic powder, chilli powder, salt, pepper to taste

Method:
1.  Heat up water in a pot with the 2 cubes of beef stock (the pack of TVP should tell you the ratio needed - I just estimate).
2.  Add the TVP and red kidney beans and stir until the TVP has expanded.
3.  Heat up the wraps if you want, I leave them cold.  Spoon TVP mix onto the wraps.
4.  Add tomato slices, alfalfa and corn!

Total: $11.71 for 'normal', $21.45 for gluten free.  It should make about twelve wraps (six meals for me), so about $0.98 each for 'normal' or $1.79 each for gluten free.

If you run out of TVP mix just use the corn, alfalfa, tomato and add some carrot and other salady things to make salad wraps!  Or, if you have too much TVP leftover, put it on a sandwich or wrap it in pastry!

Other ideas: Add beetroot slices, Toffuti cream cheese, grated carrot, other beans, whatever you want!  It's very healthy!

Update from ARK

I recently received an email update from ARK which I thought I'd share with you all.  Remember the auction that we had back in March?  Well in total we raised $587.00 for them and this is where the money has gone.

Chappy

"As of 29th May, 197 dogs, 17 cats, a guinea pig, rabbit and a masked love bird have come in here.  Once at Osaka ARK, they are processed fairly quickly by our resident vet; de-wormed, vaccinated, blood tested for heart worm, microchipped and neutered.  We send details of the animals with photos back to the local authorities to try to find the owners.  Already several have found their owners and those will be boarded at ARK until they are in a place where they can take their pets back."

Isn't it great to hear that they are already starting to reunite people and pets?  I'm so glad I chose them to help in March!

Vivi-chan

Unfortunately, there is some sad news; the government wouldn't allow people in to rescue the animals in the 20km zone so there are still many animals trapped and in need of rescuing.

"After the petition campaigns from ARK and other welfare groups and a protest in Shibuya they [the government] announced that they will be allowing owners to take out their pets and that any animals found left in yards and homes to be brought out by officials.  They did pick up some of the animals but the numbers were so low it hardly makes a dent on the amount of animals needing rescue.  The government arranged a team of vets to go into the zone to rescue animals, however these are not trained or experienced rescuers and the outcome was a meager 20 animals rescued and they are not planning to attempt another rescue for months."

Moo

Want to help more?  Head to their website to sponsor a pet or purchase a pack of cards.

*All photos taken from the ARK Lifeline Network page.

Auction for Oxfam

I am currently hosting an Auction for Oxfam on my Facebook page.

All money raised will be going straight to Oxfam to help with the crisis in East Africa.  You can see how much I've raised at my Everday Hero Page or even donate an extra $5 to help save at least one life.

Photograph: WFP / R. Lee

We in the first world, with access to things like the internet, healthcare, cars, water, electricity, etc, who have been lucky enough to be born in these countries, have a responsibility to help out other human beings.

Please share this event as much as possible.  I've made this poster that is available to download so that you can stick it up at work, on notice boards, wherever you can, to help spread the word.

I am still looking for more vegan-friendly donations so please feel free to contact me at kommonerkraft (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au.

How I Choose My Felt

I started this business in October of 2010, after having been interested in animal rights for about a year.  I thought that I wouldn't be able to make things out of felt because a lot of felt is made out of wool and I don't like how sheep are treated.

What is wrong with wool?

1.  Sheep have been bred to have extra skin folds to create more wool.  This means that they are more prone to skin infections.

2.  Most of the sheep are sold for meat at some point.  As someone opposed to the consumption of animals, I can't support an industry that produces animals to eat.

3.  Mulesing.  The cutting off of the tail of sheep.  A painful, if not scary, process.

So as someone who thinks that animals shouldn't have to suffer just for you to have soft toys, I have been using acrylic felt in all of my products.  For more information on the wool industry click here.  Be warned though, some of the images are quite graphic.

For a while now, I have not felt that I am fulfilling all my obligations as someone who is environmentally responsible.  I have finally found someone on Etsy who sells felt that is made out of 100% certified recycled plastic PET bottles.

This means that instead of bottles just going to landfill, they will become beautiful toys or accessories for you and your family!

Long Time No See!

Hello blogworld!

I'm so sorry that I have neglected you for so long.  I am doing 5 classes at uni this semester so it's quite a bit more hectic than it used to be...

 

I also hit a bit of a roadblock when my computer decided to die and I had to spend all the money I'd saved on a new laptop just so that I could access things for Uni and Kommoner.  Thankfully I've paid off the debt quite fast!

 That hasn't stopped me from attending markets though!  I still managed to get to the Suitcase Rummage and the Kerbside Markets this month and I'm still having fun making things, even trying out some new designs!

I'll be posting soon about the Auction for Oxfam that I am running, but in the meantime feel free to just check out the info on my Facebook page or my Everyday Hero page!