Sunday 24 February 2013

A New Commitment...

I constantly chastise myself for not devoting more time to this blog. And so, from now on I will post every Sunday. It's my hope this will give you a reason to return and give me the motivation to make/do something new every week. Here goes:

After a little browsing in Holland & Barrett last week I came home with this haul (apologies for the unappetising photo).
(L-R)Free and Easy dairy free cheese flavour sauce, Granose meat-free burger mix,
Granovita mock duck,  Granovita vegetable pâté and Plamil egg free mayo.
I'd first had the egg free garlic mayo on a beautiful burger at Bestival so this was a win from the off. My (vegan sympathetic) housemate said: It's good, it's different, more oily than regular mayo. Tastes like a concentrated dressing. I'm a big fan and will sing it's praises to anyone who will listen so give it a try! There are other flavours in the range from Plamil, you can see them here and some supermarkets do egg free mayo too.
The pâté was another Bestival staple, spread on crackers it made a great snack but this was even nicer in a sandwich with granary bread and iceburg lettuce in my packed lunch.

The burger mix comes as dehydrated spaceman food, quite unappetising! All you have to do is add water, wait a minute, and shape and they start to look relatively meat like. Once they're frying you couldn't tell the difference. Another housemate looked over in surprise and said 'you're eating meat?!' In general I prefer these meat like burgers to the bean burgers that can be found in the freezer section at the supermarket but I'm committed to variety!


I was lazy with the cheese sauce and just mixed it with wholemeal pasta, I had hoped it might come close to Chef Chloe's mac 'n' cheese but it was really quite disappointing. It was very easy to make though and I'm hoping to use it in a lasagne soon, will report back on here of course!

The Mock duck is still sitting in the cupboard, I'm not sure how to use it to be honest. Perhaps in a pie? I'll have a google and let you know the results.

This week I've also made:
A super simple and utterly heavenly butternut squash soup (Recipe to come next week!)
A Balti curry with peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and mushrooms - I finally got brown rice to work for me!
5 mini carrot cakes from Chocolate Covered Katie - the oven ones were much better than the microwave attempt!

See you in seven days ;)
C x

Sunday 10 February 2013

Makin' banana pancakes...

... pretend like it's the weekend noooow. (everyone needs a bit of Jack Johnson in their life)

So I woke up with a super craving for pancakes this morning, flicked through Vegan a go-go and found a great little recipe. All simple ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 banana
1 1/4 cups Soy milk
(So easy I remembered them by heart!)

1. Sieve flour and baking powder in a medium size bowl (I am always too lazy to sieve, but you should to avoid lumps)
2. Mash the banana with a fork and mix in 1/4 cup of milk.
3. Put the banana mix into the flour mix and add sugar and the rest of the milk.
4. Whisk it up (don't worry if its not incredibly smooth, it's just the banana)
5. Lightly oil a frying pan
     -Use a tasteless oil, sunflower or vegetable, I used olive oil which I couldn't taste but a food critic probably could!
       -Also best to apply it to the pan using a pastry brush or kitchen roll.
6. Ladle in about 3/4 cup and tilt the pan till the base is covered.
7. Turn over (or flip!) when the pancake starts to brown on the underside.
8. Serve with whatever you see fit.
- This morning I stuck with lemon juice and sugar but fresh fruit would be a good shout, or peanut butter or even chocolate fudge spread (It's meant to be fudge but last time I made it it was just a little too squishy.)
























This recipe makes five pancakes which I greedily gobbled so obviously just multiply the ingredients to achieve your desired quantity.
I've just googled Shrove Tuesday and it's this Tuesday! What wonderful timing - Enjoy.