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!

SUPER-drug

I don't know how I've managed to avoid posting about Superdrug over the last 4 months because I buy pretty much all my toiletries there!
Reasons I love Superdrug

1. They label their products vegan
2. They are BUAV approved. i.e. NO ANIMAL TESTING!
3. I can buy their toothpaste in the happy knowledge that it contains no animal bits
4. They have a massive range of own brand lovely cheap bubbly things!

LUSH, Sainsbury's, and the CO-OP don't test on animals either and so make a good alternative if you don't have a Superdrug nearby.

It's very easy to plead innocence about animal testing. Unless it says on the bottle 'we tested this on a little bunny rabbit' then how can you know?! From the research I've done, almost all companies that don't say 'Not tested on animals' have tested on animals. If you had a great ethical company you'd boast about it!

the Little book of cruelty free gives a list of lots of companies that have been checked out and properly approved though I haven't heard of most...

Also worth checking out are Eyes, Lips, Face as their make up is good quality and surprisingly cheap - look out for the occasional 40% off voucher codes!

Dawwwwww

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?