Work with it, erm, Thursday!

Helloo, So I'm totally mixing up these themes ay?!
I did try to think of something I really don't like but to no avail, as long as it's prepared properly I'll love it! Instead I thought I'd try something that I've been wary of for a while, Green Smoothies.

You've got to admit, the thought of yummy milkshake + spinach is totes gross... until you've tried it! I'd seen hundreds of instagram photos and decided to give my own a go. This was the one I recreated although the banana I used wasn't frozen and it worked just fine. I now know the recipe by heart as I made it 4 days running! For anybody who has never tried a green smoothie it's important to know that you add the greens to be healthy, and you can't taste it. I was imagining some weird savoury sweet mush before I took my first gulp.

Now that I've run out of spinach I'll be looking for a new recipe to try out (even if I need to buy more spinach!) so if you know of any spectacular ones please let me know in the comments!

Je suis occupé

These past few days have been mental and today was my last french lesson eek! Tomorrow onwards I will have time for some proper posts (including some Mac n Cheese lovin' don't you worry).
Lunch today was garlic-y mushrooms with parsley on toast and for dinner it was the ol' faithful stir fry with a bit of stem ginger thrown in as I was feeling a little wacky in the kitchen. Made a nice change but will be sticking to proper ginger root in future!
What's a blog post without some piccys?:

Also, I have to say I am lurrrving VeganMoFo! I've only had time to see a few blogs and there's so much on my to-read list, can't wait! Plus it's so great to see everyone leaving comments and getting involved!

Oh and one last thing. I won tickets to Vegfest London!!!! I've been meaning to buy tickets for ages but thought I'd just give this competition a go when it caught my eye on The Mighty Fork facebook page (mmmm you gotta check out those hot dog pics, foodporn at it's finest!) and I got lucky! Who else is going? Anyone travelling any long distances? I'm lucky as we're super close to London in Brighton! (And we get our own VegFest of course!) If you haven't done so yet, buy your tickets here.

Monday Lunch

This is (don't quote me on this) the easiest of all the packed lunches - a salad comprising solely of chunks of red pepper, carrot and cucumber. With a little pepper and olive oil to boot.
I ate mine in the sunny park this lunchtime with some bread and butter and a library book that I'm whizzing through. Here's a rubbish photo taken with my phone!

Colourful non?

Sorry about the short post today, It's dissertation deadline day meaning there's some celebrating to be doing!

Cheesy Birthday Biscuits

Every one of ChefChloe's recipes that I've tried I've absolutely loved. Remember those mexicali sliders?!!! Mental note to buy her book next time payday comes around.
So today was a certain little guy's 3rd birthday party and after trying out these cheesy style biscuits a while a go I thought they'd make a great addition to the nibbles - especially in teddy bear shapes!

To make approx 2 cups little biscuits:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
A good sprinkling of turmeric
1 tsp salt
Pepper (to taste)
5 tbsp Marge (I use Aldi's Solesta Sunflower Spread)
1+tbsp cold water
Vegetable oil

1. Mix dry ingredients with a fork.
2. Work in the marge - best in a food processor but I don't have that luxury so I got at it with the fork again!
3. Add 1 tbsp water and combine, add more water until a good dough is formed, shouldn't need more than 3 tbsp.
4. Grease 2 baking trays with a little vegetable oil and preheat oven to 180C.
5. Roll out half the dough on a floured surface to about half a centimetre (I have tiled kitchen surfaces now, nightmare!)
6. Use either a biscuit cutter or a knife to cut your shapes, between 2-5cm long work well.
7. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes and check, might need a few more minutes but once the biscuits start to develop a more golden colour, they're ready!

I hadn't realised how simple this is before writing it down, a great alternative to crisps and I'm sure there are quite a few flavour combinations possible too. Different flours, a little paprika in the mix perhaps?

ALSO, I read that Turmeric + Pepper = cancer prevention! Sooo, it's ok that I ate 2/3 of a batch in one sitting last week?...

Vegan MoFo

Vegan Month of Food starts on Sunday and what better excuse to get blogging again! Throughout the month of September I'll be blogging as regularly as poss. As you can tell by now I tend to dip in and out of things quite a bit but I'll be making every effort to commit for this special event. I'll be taking a lot of cues from here as well as a few things I've been meaning to post for a while.

In the meantime, here are some updates from me:

Wednesday marked the 1 year anniversary of living in Brighton with my BestfriendBoyfriend Josh. It really is the most fantastic city, exactly what I'd hoped for and there is still so much more I want to explore!

 I've just harvested my first red tomato! It was deelish and I'm looking forward to plenty more along with the odd sweet pepper if I can coax them to ripen. Last week I downloaded Instagram for our Ipad and that rosy beauty was my first upload. I'm not posting too much at the mo, (taking photos in public with Ipads looks weird doesn't it?!) but there are a few foodie snaps tentatively testing the water!

Till Sunday x

My first home-made guacamole

I was hoping to include a recipe for shepherds pie today but the one I made for dinner wasn't great - everyone has off days right?! - so I'll work on it and post when it comes out like the last time I made it!

Tastes as good as it looks!

Here's a heads up about someone else's great recipe instead. I'd never made guacamole before so thought 'The world's best guacamole recipe' would be a good place to start. As I've mentioned before, I can't handle too much hothothot in my food so I reduced the jalepenos to about half a tablespoon (wimp much?) and it was sooo good! Ripe avocados are obviously a big problem for us poor British folk but I've found the ALDI ones are pretty much always ready to eat from my local branch.

I served it with 'vegetarian's choice' burgers from Holland & Barrett with sweet potato chips, asparagus and salad, random but delicious!
This week I also made jam for the first time ever! I used this recipe for rhubarb and ginger jam, taking advantage of the home grown rhubarb my parents brought from home for me and investing in a jar of stem ginger which I'm sure I can find some other yummy uses for.

Have a lovely week. x

Sausage and Bean Casserole

After another super hectic day I'm just managing to squeeze this in before bed. My garden is looking great but I'm shattered again! My super cutie pie doggie is visiting at the moment too and loves to wake us up just a little too early with a lick to the face. Yum.

When I saw some Linda McCartney sausages on offer in the fridge section of Sainsbury's I knew exactly what I wanted to make. Sausage and bean casserole. I just went with my gut with this, not following any recipe, and used what I had available.

Ingredients (4 big portions):

1 pack (6) Linda McCartney Sausages

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 bell pepper

2 handfuls of mushrooms 

1 can chopped tomatos

Half a can of baked beans

Half a can of kidney beans

2 tsp Paprika & 1tsp Cayenne Pepper

(more if you like it spicy)

Cook sausages as per instructions on pack.
Meanwhile fry the onion and garlic until soft.
Add mushroom and pepper. When soft, add 1tsp paprika and 1tsp Cayenne Pepper.
Add all cans. Add more paprika. Leave to simmer for ten mins or until sausages are ready.
Taste test! more paprika needed? a bit of salt perhaps?
Now chop the sausages and add them to the mix. Simmer for a further 5 mins and serve!

This is a really versatile dish. We had it with some toasted wholemeal pittas on day one and in wraps with rice on day two. The ingredients can be altered easily too. A great way to get something a bit different into your weekly menu without needing anything special - I'll be making this again!