Meagan Made |MeaganMade.com

18
Jun
2016

Magimix Food Processor Cover

When my old food processor gave up the ghost at the end of last year, I decided it was time to take the plunge and upgrade! After a lot of researching online I ended up settling on the Magimix 5200XL! I love it, and have been cooking up a storm with it ever since.

The body of the unit is quite heavy so this lovely piece of equipment is living on the bench top next to the stove. I didn’t want to get any oil or dust on it, so I decided I would sew a cover, but I wanted it to be nice and colourful!

Step 1 – Find a pattern! I couldn’t find a pattern specifically for the Magimix, but I did find this pattern from the KathieSewHappy store on Etsy. It fit the base measurements of my machine and all I had to do was add a little height to the pieces. Kathie’s pattern does come with instructions to make pockets, but I decided for mine I would prefer it to be reversible and without pockets.

Step 2 – Find the material! I had purchased some bright and colourful material from my local Spotlight store, rainbow and greys for the outside and a deep magenta for the inside. It is a heavy weight cotton, but so lovely and soft to the touch!

Step 3 – Make the cover! Well this was the easy part. Extending the pattern to add the height needed and then sewing it together was easy with Kathie’s simple to follow instructions. Like I mentioned above, I did leave out a few parts, but I was very happy with the finished product.

Step 4 – Enjoy it! Most of the time I leave the Rainbow side face out, but I will change it up from time to time! Here it is 🙂

The rainbow side of my Magimix Cover The magenta side of my Magimix Cover

If you’re looking for a pattern for your food processor, I’d definitely recommend giving this pattern a try!

Happy sewing,

Meagan x

11
Jun
2016

Creamy vegan pasta

categories: Cooking, Dinner

Creamy vegan pasta – you may be wondering how is this possible? Well I was thinking the same thing when I first saw this pin but I have been desperately craving creamy pasta since I became lactose intolerant.

While I’m not vegan, I do love trying new vegan recipes to change-up my recipe rotation, and I know that I’ll definitely be able to eat it because there is no dairy! I had to give this a try, even just to rule it out if it didn’t work, as it looked amazing in the photo!

The ingredients were simple: pasta, almond milk, sun-dried tomatoes (one of my favourite things), basil, onion, garlic and basil, and it also appeared to be quick to cook.

The end result was delicious, and so quick to make… In fact, I think boiling the water and cooking the pasta took the longest!

Creamy vegan pasta

Make sure you give this recipe a try, all I needed to do was add a little bit of salt when I served it up just to take some of the sweetness away, but it was awesome! The creaminess (is that a word?) was on par with what I remember my dairy-filled pasta meals to be like – which for me is high praise! 🙂

Please let me know how you go in the comments section if you give this recipe a try, and feel free to share my post with your friends!

Happy cooking,

Meagan x

04
Jun
2016

Happy Doughnut Day!

categories: Cakes, Cooking

I found this pin two weeks ago, and after my recent adventures in making doughnuts with red kidney beans, I was intrigued by these Chocolate Potato Doughnuts!

I know, I know, more vegetable doughnuts – I was going to leave this recipe for later in the year, but then I learnt that it was Doughnut Day on the 3rd of June and thought what better opportunity to give these a try.

It felt a little strange to be making mashed potatoes for doughnuts, and I did need to swap out the Gluten Free flour for normal plain flour since I didn’t have any in my pantry and cocoa for cacao, but they were amazingly delicious!! Given the success of the kidney bean doughnuts, I shouldn’t have been quite so surprised, but the texture was so close to “normal” doughnuts. I gave my housemate Lisa one to try and she had no idea they had potatoes in it, but gave it her tick of approval!

Chocolate potato doughnuts

Annemarie’s recipe that you can see on her site is both dairy and gluten-free, so I’m going to attempt another batch with Gluten Free flour and egg replacer next time I visit her! I can’t wait to see how it goes, I’ll post here in the comments to let you know, and I’d love you to let me know how you go if you try cooking it in the comments below! 🙂

Happy cooking,

Meagan x

28
May
2016

Crochet Quilt – Part 1

categories: Craft, Crochet

As I mentioned back on my Amigurumi Turtle post, I’ve been crocheting since February last year, and the very first technique that I learnt was the traditional granny square. I decided that I should make myself a blanket, and thought that I could finish it by winter, no problem! Heh, I think I may have underestimated the task!

My wonderful friend, Maxine, was extremely patient and taught me the basics of how to crochet a granny square, and then to make it all sink in once I got home, I watched (and re-watched quite a few times) Bella Coco’s video tutorial. I refer back to her written instructions whenever I need a refresher and find them very easy to follow. I’ve learnt to crochet in UK English terms, which are slightly different to the US English crochet terms, but I’ve also managed to learn how to translate between the two!

As I do, I got very excited after finding out I could crochet a granny square, and went straight onto Pinterest and found this amazing blanket that was pinned! (The website the pin links to no longer seems to work, but the picture is there.) It was perfect, combining my loves of quilting and crochet, and it had quite the modern look to it too!

Unfortunately there was no pattern, but I used it as inspiration to start designing my own pattern for a “Crochet Quilt”. Living in Australia, we don’t have as many yarn brand options, but I kept reading about how soft (and affordable) the Stylecraft Special DK yarn was, so I chose my colours from the amazing colour range on LoveCrochet and saved colour swatches for each of the colours. I am a little obsessed with purple, but decided to balance it out with some pinks, turquoise and greys, resulting in these beautiful colours (although the bright pink, Fiesta, is displaying as much brighter than it seems in real life):

Crochet Quilt colours — From L to R, Top to bottom: Aspen, Petrol, Fiesta, Grey, Plum, Magenta, Fondant and Silver

I decided that while I could colour in a piece of paper, I wanted to be able to use the colour swatches to get a much better idea of how it would all look once I pulled it all together. After much investigation, I purchased the Quiltography iPad app, which was fantastic to use, and imported my colour swatches and started playing with layout. This is what I came up with:

Crochet Quilt pattern

If you live in Australia, you’ll most likely have noticed that we’ve already passed one winter and we’re about to hit another, and I’m only a little over a third of the way through my crochet quilt! I started working on it last May but since it’s a project for myself I keep putting it off to one side so that I can get other projects with tighter deadlines, like birthdays, finished.

Each square is five rounds in size, and on a good night I can get one square done in about 45 minutes, so I’m normally able to do one after dinner, or sometimes on the bus (if I’m not working on another project). I thought that I’d post some progress shots on here so that I have a bit more accountability, and hopefully I’ll get it done this year, so feel free to comment away and ask how I’m going with it! This is where I’m at now, but I’ll keep on working at it…

Crochet Quilt progress shot

I’ve committed the cardinal crochet sin of not sewing in my ends as I go, and I still need to attach the squares, but I think it’s coming together quite well!

Happy crocheting,

Meagan x

21
May
2016

Spanish chickpea and spinach stew

categories: Cooking, Dinner

I’m always on the look out for new recipes that are lactose free and nice and quick to prepare!

I came across the Lazy Cat Kitchen blog last week and had to try at least one of her recipes. Ania lives in Greece and blogs about her plant-based diet and recipes, and they all look amazing!

On Monday, I knew I wasn’t going to be home from work too early, and this chickpea stew recipe looked like delicious, quick and is lactose free to top it all off, so I decided to give it a try.

This recipe for Spanish chickpea and spinach stew delivers! I always love a good tomato based meal, and combined with the chickpeas and brown rice this was both healthy and filling, with plenty for left overs. I may have cheated a little and used a microwave packet of brown rice, but it still came together quite quickly.

Spanish Chickpea and Spinach stew

With chickpeas, tomato paste, peeled tomatoes, garlic, onions, spinach, almond flakes and spices this recipe is delicious and full of flavour. I had to leave the chilli out, as it’s another thing that I’m allergic to, but I think it would add an extra zing!

Not only is the recipe easy to follow, but it’s also vegan and gluten-free! I look forward to making more recipes from Ania’s blog and I will be sure to keep you posted on my cooking adventures!

Happy cooking,

Meagan x