Sprout & Bean & A Mexican Fiesta

Mrs Bean and myself had the exciting task of creating an entirely vegan Mexican feast for a wedding last weekend. The wedding was for the very lovely, very talented and amazingly creative Lyndsay and Ben (you can see just how creative they are over at White Pixels and  Made By White) Imagine a feast of colour for the eyes... pinatas in various sizes, giant paper flowers, bunting, colourful tables, and a huge backdrop of paper flowers bursting out begging to be used by Jess at In An Instant Photography for fantastic photos. 

The sheer volume of work, time, and effort makes me want to cry, while the other half of me just wanted to sit and stare at it all day! It was nothing short of amazing.

 But I digress. On with the food.

Lyndsay was quite enamoured by the idea of vegan pinata cookies.

Sure I said, I'm up for a challenge. And while I did attempt to make them they turned out much too bulky for any kind of sensible person to eat, so we stuck with a striped pinata shaped cookie instead. They were freakin' cute I tells ya! I won't lie, they take quite a bit of work, so set aside a day to make them and pump out a lot of them. I'll do a separate post on how to make these babies. We made up picnic boxes of tortilla pinwheels with avocado, spinach, rocket, and roasted capsicum, baby dip cups of hummus, and little bundles of vegie sticks tied with blanched spring onion stalks. The boxes were Lyndsay's idea and they were really cute for a snack right after the ceremony, along with mini bottles of virgin pina colada.

For dinner, we made up bowls of multi coloured corn chips, char grilled vegetable salsa, tomato and cucumber salsa, a fiesta slaw, kidney bean salad, Mexican rice, sweet potato and quinoa chili, guacamole, cashew queso, vegan sour cream (made with tofutti and lemon juice) soft taco tortillas.

 Ben and Lyndsay did all the decorating, food tags etc...basically they made our food look awesome! For dessert, we had a dessert bar! Raw vegan strawberry cheesecake; fruit skewers with vegan marshmallows and brownies; watermelon slices with mint sugar; coconut creme brulee shots; and mini cups of fruit salsa with heart shaped cinnamon tortilla crisps. I wish everyone would ask for dessert bars because they are SO much fun to do!

Sprout and Bean Tasting Dinner

A couple of weeks ago Mrs Bean and myself did a tasting dinner for a couple that would like us to do their wedding. The focus is share food so we did an assortment of salads, a cheese plate with dukkahs, chutney, and cheese straws, and a few other things. I only took some pictures of the salads and cheese plate but it was all rather yummy if we do say so ourselves! My only concern at the time was that when I rolled the goats cheese in some fresh chopped herbs it looked a little like compost...although tasted nothing like it (I hope). Mrs Bean made the cheese straws, and I made the dukkahs - one was a tradtional dukkah with hazelnuts, and the other was an Aussie inspired one I concocted on the spot with some macadamias and Aussie herbs and spices.

Mrs Bean's amazing chickpea quinoa salad with feta - it was just as good without the cheese, but for a vegan version I might sub almond cheese.

One of my simple faves, orange, fennel, and spinach with pepper and an orange viniagrette

Beetroot and apple salad with pine nuts and goats cheese - again, a vegan version would be good with an almond feta

Mrs Bean's winter slaw with sesame...It had a tahini dressing, and I could swim in it!

Sprout & Bean Catering Shenanigans

Ready for food!

Cups and saucers

Picnic blankets and cushions

Mrs Sprout and Mrs Bean in action!

I know, I've been terribly slack, only one post this week. I promise, I'll make it up to you. Last two weeks have been a little bit crazy with Sprout & Bean doing a couple of parties, but tired though we are, it's amazing getting great feedback and people who want to know more 

about us and are interested in hiring us in the future. Last night was a 30th birthday party for a friend, and we had a lot of fun styling and getting our vintage crockery and whatnot.  Unfortunately we didn't really have the opportunity to take more photos, but you can see the picnic baskets and cute bottles of lemonade in some old drawers. Mr Sprout found us a swag of picnic baskets for props and we have some vintage thermos that added to the picnic afternoon tea theme.  We provided the props and the vegetarian and vegan options and were delighted that people loved what we offered. Mrs Bean made an assortment of gluten free choc ganache tarts and some cappuccino mousse pies, I made the usual gluten free goats cheese tarts, and for dinner we made an assortment of yummy salads, haloumi skewers, and chickpea Caesar bites, and marinated pumpkin pieces. And dessert...we did a sundae bar with an assortment of toppings like raspberry curd, lemon curd, vanilla sugared almonds, choc hazelnuts, ganache, and caramel sauce with proper sundae glasses. Want to hire us? ;)

A little while ago we also did a Tiki-tacular night which was also a heap of fun. It was a fundraiser night for Quizworks ministry and although it was a little cold being the end of March, those who came made it a great night. The event was held in the churchyard of St John's in Ashfield, and we had lots of curious onlookers walking by (obviously wishing they could join in)and some donated even though they weren't part of the night which was great! It was a great opportunity for us to link our beliefs in vegetarian food for compassionate and environmental reasons with people who are sharing Jesus with kids - after all, Jesus is all about being compassionate! We did haloumi skewers with lychees and cherry tomatoes; mini pineapple pizzas, a tiki- slaw created for the night; a green salad; coconut lime rice; and huli huli tofu. Dessert was a little boat with a mini coconut creme brulee in a shot glass, a raw vegan choc truffle, and a pineapple shaped cookie. 

Mr Bean having a good time at the bar

The dinner..or part of it, as you can see quite a bit got eaten!

Dessert boat

Mr Bean, Mr Sprout, and friends handwork in setting up the atmosphere 

Mini pizzas

The bar