5-a-day Chili

Just a quickie this week, been flat hunting and French learning (and ipad playing) this weekend but still found time to make this, a great easy healthy meal which freezes really well.

Ingredients to make 4 portions:
1 Onion
1 Clove of garlic
1 Pepper (I used half a green and half a yellow)
1/2 Chili pepper -  I'm quite a wimp but mine was super mild, use more or less depending on your spice threshold.
5ish Mushrooms - any variety
1 Tin kidney beans
1 Tin baked beans
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
Chili powder
Olive oil

1. Chop onion and mince garlic, fry in 1tbsp olive oil with the lid on until translucent.
2.Chop pepper into small slices, chop mushroom into 8ths, chop chili finely - add all to pan.
3. Fry for approx 5 mins until mushroom is cooked. Add kidney beans and baked beans and simmer for 5 more mins.
4. Add chopped tomatoes and after 5 mins add 2 tsp chili powder.

 5. Leave for another 5 mins and taste for spiciness, add more chili powder if required. Leave to simmer for another ten minutes and you're done, pretty quick ey?

Served with sweet potato chips

 If you fancy making these sweet potato chips, (they're nutritious chips, who wouldn't!) Just peel sweet potatoes, cut into desired shape, boil till just soft, toss in olive oil and roast in oven until they reach your desired crispiness (12 mins pour moi).

And here's a little something cute:

A beautiful spring posy
from my mummy

(Tr)eating out!

This weeks excitement comes in the form of two wonderful restaurant visits. The first, Terre A Terre, is somewhere I've wanted to visit for ages but never have (it's pretty expensive with posh gourmet food) and the second was SAF (Simply Authentic Food).

At Terre A Terre I was treated to this feast by my friend Lindsay, It's a mini version of each dish on the menu and really was fantastic. They were happy to alter the dish for me and gave us a great explanation of each bite (which I promptly forgot!) There was also a heavenly carafe of wine which I've been dreaming about ever since. Without wanting to sound cheesy it really was an explosion  - wait I googled a better word - eruption of flavours!

Whilst in London visiting friends on Friday we paid a visit to the Kensington Restaurant, SAF, which is located upstairs of the (unsurprisingly disappointing) Whole Foods Market - Basically a reeeeally expensive market for people who are too good for Waitrose. The restaurant is open plan within a canteen-like area which gave it a relaxed feel despite it being obviously posh. I had the:
Kerabu Rice Paper Roll
Rice paper wrap with baked marinated organic Saf brand tofu, Chinese cabbage, sprouted mung beans, mange tout, spring onions and bean sprouts with a miso sambal sauce

 I always strive to order things I haven't had before and this was no exception, the tastes and textures were exciting although overall I would have appreciated something a little starchy on the plate. Kind of ignorant to go to a restaurant with health and wellbeing at its core and then expect something naughty though! My friends had mushroom risotto made with bulgar wheat and Ratatuille Farinata so perhaps this is just another case of food envy on my part! I'd really recommend a visit, or at least check out the menu!

Another big treat this weekend was my second ever Thai green curry made with love by my friend Hetti (and 2 lowly peeler/choppers!) She even recreated the heart rice from last week, mega cute! 

Original Thai curry

Thai curry a la Hetti - Pretty perfect!

Everything's a teeny bit rushed today sorry! Starting my new job tomorrow!

Utterly Heavenly Butternut Squash Soup

Okay so maaaybe i've built this up a little too much, you'll have to make it and see!
Ingredients for four servings:
1 Large Butternut squash
1 Onion
1 Large clove of garlic
Olive oil
Water
Salt (& pepper if that's your thaang)
1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Chop the butternut, first in half lengthways, remove the seeds (save them!) then chop slices about 3cm thick and chop these into 3cm chunks.
3. Spread onto a baking tray and drizzle with oil, give it a mix to get them all coated. Put in the oven for around 25 mins - this can vary quite a lot with different ovens, take them out when they are soft and have just started to develop a tinge of brown on the edges.

 4. Whilst you are waiting for the butternut, chop the onion and mince the garlic, heat oil in a large pan and fry on a medium heat until translucent. I like to put a lid on to keep it very moist.
5. Add the roasted butternut to the pan and pour on enough water to just cover. Leave to simmer for 5 mins and take off the heat.

 6. When cool enough to do so, blend. If the soup seems too thick add extra water in small amounts.
7. Conduct the all important taste test, add s&p to your requirements.
8. Warm the soup and it's ready to serve.

Moreish toasted seeds
Remember I told you to save those seeds? These are my absolute favourite snack at the moment, not sure if it's because they are a rare treat or because they're so goddam moreish but I just have to share this with you.
1. Rinse the seeds to get rid of most of the butternut pulp.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a frying pan
3. Fry the seeds untill golden brown
4. Add salt to taste and then nomnomnomnomnom.

This weeks meals:

Josh's Falafel & Houmous sandwich with  ginormous
wedges @Infinity foods cafe, Brighton

Garlic mushroom and bean chili jacket with a sexy
 salad @Infinity foods cafe, Brighton

Totes forgotten it's name but this was a wonderful Thai dish
@The Office, Brighton.
Look at that heart shaped rice! <3

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

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.

Graduation, relocation and food creation.

It's now been two weeks since I moved to Brighton (with 5 smelly days at Bestival squeezed in somehow) and I feel I haven't even scratched the surface of this cosmopolitan metropolis. There's a wholefood store about the same distance from my new house as the village shop used to be in my childhood home so I really don't have any excuse for boring easy food (overlooking my inherent laziness of course). After much hunting I've managed to wrangle myself a job and so I can now finally become more devoted to this embarrassingly neglected blog.

Firstly, check out these burgers (or sliders as the 'mericans call 'em). I've only recently discovered Chef Chloe and there's a whole host of dishes on my to do list but this was the one that caught my eye first and I am soooo glad it did! It's not a cheap or quick dish to make (if you use dried black beans they need to soak overnight) but it will keep for a day or so in the fridge and makes about 8-9 pattys.

Wonderful gloopy goodness.

The mac 'n' cheese is next on my to-do list - watch this space.

Winter Treats

I had a request for a cookie recipe (thanks Lisa flower1!) and this week I've made two batches of yummy cookies so I'm happy to oblige.

Firstly I made some chocolate cookies using a recipe from Veganomicon:

This recipe made about 12 this size but I usually make more, smaller cookies.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raspberry Preserve

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil - I had to buy this specially but it has lots of other uses, vegetable oil can be substituted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup cocoa powder + 2 extra tablespoons (Use less for less rich cookies)

1&1/2 cups plain flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix together sugar, oil, preserve and vanilla extract.
2. Mix all the other ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually stir this into the wet mixture
3. Make golf balls from the mixture, flatten to required shape (the cookies will keep the same shape in the oven) and place on a baking tray.
4. Put in the oven for 10 mins and you're done!

A lovely easy recipe - great with a cuppa on a freezing morning/afternoon/evening ;)

On Wednesday I made peanut butter cookies, something I've been meaning to get around to ever since I moved in in October!

Despite being super yummy, a surprising proportion of the people I know don't like peanuts :O so I ended eating a few too many myself...I adapted this recipe as I didn't have any brown sugar and produced about 14 cookies.

No fancy ingredients in this recipe:

75g marg

50g peanut butter

100g caster sugar

100g plain flour

pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 200C
2. Mix together marg and peanut butter thoroughly.
3. Mix in sugar.
4. Mix in flour (mine were still quite sticky at this point so I added extra flour).
5. Make ping pong sized balls and place on a baking tray with a good 5cm between each. Flatter slightly with a fork in different directions to create a pattern. These cookies will spread out in the oven but if they touch they should be quite easy to break apart.
6. Leave in the oven for 15 mins and check progress. Leave in the oven for up to 5 mins longer until they are a lovely golden brown.

Sorry for the rubbish photography!

Apologies for the lack of my usual wit and excitement, the cold weather has frozen my creative juices!