5 portions a day

I've been trying to be more healthy recently, more vitamins = less chance of getting an icky cold, but my love of toast and potatoes means I often don't make it to the magic 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.
My solution? Cheat!

Charlotte's cheeky cheats for a champion constitution.

• Dried fruit - just one tablespoon is a full portion according to the NHS.
• Fruit Juice - who doesn't love a glass over cereal?!
• Frozen sweetcorn - In the pan whilst pasta is cooking, too easy.
• Banana & custard - Pudding lovers (Alpro ready made cartons- wonderfully comforting on cold days!)
• Tinned fruit - Sugar on grapefruit or maybe cinnamon on pears.
• Satsumas/Clementines - Can anyone tell the difference?! Their natural outfit means they can go travelling!

The NHS site I linked suggests the fruit and veg in pre-prepared food counts too but we don't need to count that now we have soooo many options!

Despite trying to avoid traditions, I'm hoping that I can stick to a resolution this year to think more about what I eat, what nutrients it contains and what I miss out on when I'm lazy and eat naughty food... we'll see.

yumyumyum

Excuses, excuses.

Oh you wonderfully faithful few, my loyal blog readers, I can only apologise for leaving you so empty handed on these cold winter nights.
Perhaps this might cheer you up? It's a list of all the vegan own brand products that Sainsbury's stock, neatly ordered under their departments. Don't use Sainsbury's? The other main supermarkets have lists too, have a google.
I've been looking into vegan ready meals recently, and i'm always on the look out for vegan fast food. Might also mention here that my new years resolution is to start planning my meals with the aim of becoming healthier...
Anyway from the list I've just linked there's just one frozen meal: Basics Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce
Not the most appetizing. Wouldn't it be nice to have a hearty curry or pie in the freezer? - at least by making our own we know exactly whats inside, healthy or otherwise.
Despite the poor choice of frozen meals there's a surprising amount of fresh meals, all the obvious Indian snacky bits, mediterranian pasta, all sorts of pots of beans and some couscous which I've had before, good for a snack on the go, shared with a lovely vegan companion of course!
Anyway although the list takes some sorting through it's worth a look. It's always nice to find inspiration in the form of something you haven't eaten in years or hadn't even thought to investigate (raspberry sorbet - mmm)

Tonights dinner - Tesco's prepared stir fry mix with cauldron marinated tofu and a chow mein sauce. Fridge to plate in under ten minutes :) x

Who knew a photo of lions could hold such emotion?

Unannounced hiatus

I've had a wonderfully hectic month off blogging, dissertation meetings galore, organising SL, running for environment officer with the student union and trying to fit some lectures in too. Over the coming weeks I'm hoping to give more tips on making vegan lives/changeovers easier and try not to bombard with too many recipes.
I'm gunna hit you with one now tho, as it's my first ever cooking video! The SL team promoted a meat free meal as part of our project and we sold the all the ingredients for this casserole at our university farmers market for 50p! (Normally would cost around a pound)
Surprisingly tasty for something so simple x

Quick Beany Lunch

I <3 quick AND healthy food so I thought I'd share my lunch (not literally!) with you today.

First I spread a couple of tortilla wraps with houmous, added some 'napolina five bean salad', chopped green pepper and baby spinach leaves. It's as easy as that. Minimum time, minimum washing up, minimum ingredients... Maximum yummyness! :D

Swede & Parsnip Bake

Finally a new recipe! That incidentally received 9/10 from a local food critic ;)

I found (and then adapted) this one on the BBC good food website which has quite a few almost vegan meals if you’re willing to have a search. I’ve looked at every recipe on The Vegan Stoner now. I love how simple it is and how cute the illustrations are! Defo worth checking out, recipes usually need a specialist ingredient though.

Cooking Time: Just over an hour, only need to be in the kitchen for the first half.
Ingredients:
1 medium sized swede
1 large turnip
3 tablespoons of golden syrup
About 4 slices worth of breadcrumbs
A hefty chunk of marg
2 eggs worth of egg replacer (I use no-egg)
A drizzle of Olive oil
Salt
A generous shake of thyme

Serves two

1. Chop the turnip and swede into small cubes and boil for around 14 mins. (put the swede in by itself for the first few minutes... I forgot.) Preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. Drain and mash the veg with some marg. Add ¾ of the breadcrumbs, egg replacer and goldon syrup. Mix well.

3.Place the mixture into a baking dish and smooth the surface. Mix the remaining breadcrumbs with a little oil and lots of thyme. Layer this on top and dot on some marg.

4. Place in the oven for 35 mins, keep an eye on it near the end, boil up some veggies and use the water to make gravy!

I am pre-empting a big shop at Single Step tomorrow so perhaps I’ll be making some new adventurous things next week...

Caribbean Bean Stew

Found this uber healthy and filling dish at Vegan Village and I pretty much stuck entirely to their recipe minus tabasco and bay leaves. I also left out the black pepper as I haven't got round to buying any yet (quite a faux pas for a food blogger, no?) and the carrot as I didn't quite feel it fitted with the recipe.

The ingredients are all easy to get hold of and once you have done the frying;

you just need to add all the other ingredients and stir occasionally for 30 mins.

I cheated and used Uncle Bens 2mins microwave rice (possibly my last white rice for a while if my boyfriend, Josh, has anything to do with it!)
And this was the finished result:

Perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing but still a hearty and really easy dish to prepare as long as you don't mind quite a bit of chopping. The recipe made about 4 portions this size so if cooking for less the ingredients could be halved. (Provided you don't mind using half a tin and saving the rest, it's a pet peeve of mine as I can never use the remainder before it goes off!) Having said this, I kept the leftovers of the stew in the fridge and heated it up in the microwave and it still tasted great.

This week I've also cooked Pizzas, Mish Mash Ratatouille and my favourite Mint and Pea Soup. I'll hopefully get round to blogging about the former two soon, somewhere between film editing, travelling to Dartmoor for the weekend, writing my dissertation and helping to run LU people & planet society!

Freshers Week

A week of chips, vodka, chips, soup, Chinese takeaway, chips, cider, and chips.
A very enjoyable but wonderfully unhealthy week. I have a lovely clean new kitchen and new flatmates who I haven't actually used the 'V' word around yet and I'm really looking forward to doing some cooking! I haven't got round to making peanut butter cookies or crisps yet so hopefully I'll find some time next week in between multiple societies and meetings.
I went for lunch today at the Whaletail in Lancaster (my second visit this week) and ate Thai carrot soup, spicy but sooo tasty and hopefully going some way to getting rid of my freshers flu! I also called in at Single step, the wholefood store in Lancaster to stock up on vegan cheese as well as some instant Miso soup and a Ginger cake to take to people & planet society on Wednesday. That's all folks, hopefully I'll have something a little more exciting for you next week!