Chef Chloe does it again.

I haven't been feeling too great the last couple of days, a certain someone has passed on the mother of all sore throats but that didn't stop me making a dreeeeamy lunch on Friday (but did stop me from posting about it till now... or perhaps that was the multiple episodes of Great British Bake Off I've been watching in bed?!)

Had to crush the bun to fit it in the toaster!

This is my version of Chef Chloe's Hawaiian Sloppy Joes, I made quite a few changes to fit with what I had in the fridge but maan was it tasty!
My subs were:
Normal (and cheapo) mushrooms from Aldi instead of crimini
Yellow bell pepper instead of green
Cooked red lentils instead of a can
Can of chopped tomatoes instead of tomato sauce
Tinned pineapple instead of fresh
My only advice for this is to chop those mushrooms before you start if you haven't got a food processor, otherwise things may get a little hectic (almost inevitable in my kitchen anyway!)

It really was rather fantastic and honestly, I've come to expect nothing less from Chef Chloe.
Do you find yourselves making lots of substitutions in recipes or do you make the effort to get in the right ingredients ahead of time?

Don't forget to enter my VegFest give-away if you haven't done so yet!

VegFest Tickets Giveaway!

Sooo, now that we are over halfway through VeganMoFo, I'm starting to notice how much I repeat meals!
Tonight I'll be having the tofu scramble I blogged about last week and I tomorrows dinner will likely be puff pastry pizza again. I think it's time I started trying out some new tricks so will be browsing blogs and books for some fresh ideas.
In the meantime I have a give-away for you!
Remember when the lovely folks at The Mighty Fork ran a competition and I won tickets to Vegfest? Well the tickets have arrived and they've sent Saturday as well as Sunday! Unfortunately I can't make both days so I have two tickets for Sunday 6th October to give away, hooray!a Rafflecopter giveaway And just incase Give-aways aren't your bag, here's a piccy of the bread I baked last night.

Apologies for the aaaawful phone pic!

Tofu Scramble

Been a long while since I've posted a proper recipe, this isn't exactly proper but it's what I did to make my lunch so I'm going to say it counts. It's a bit of a throw everything in the pan kinda meal, but it's delish, easy and quick so ticks all my boxes.

Ingredients: (in brackets is what I used today but can be varied to different tastes/fridge contents)
Onion
Garlic (2 cloves, minced)
Peppers (half a red pepper and half a cup of frozen mixed peppers)
Mushrooms (about 3/4 cup)
Broccoli (about a cup)
Frozen peas and sweetcorn (half a cup of each)
Tofu (I used half a pack of Mori-Nu firm)
Soysauce (a heavy handed shake)
Turmeric (a good sprinkling)

1. Fry onion in veg oil in a large fryingpan/wok until translucent.
2. Add approx 1 tbsp soy sauce and all veggies inc. garlic
3. Let sizzle for a couple of minutes until mushrooms have softened.
4. Add tofu. I fork it out of the pack into the pan to get a good scramble consistency.
5. Sprinkle turmeric, salt and pepper into the pan and continue to stir for 5 mins.
6. Enjoy (with extra soy sauce to taste).

Oh brother

As I mentioned in my last post, my brother, James, popped down to Brighton for a swift visit this weekend.
Despite usually eating really badly (his words) he was really open to trying some new foods and actually really liked them (his words again). Here's a quick round up of what we ate.
Friday morning, Brunch at Rock Ola:
We both had the anytimer breakfast, I couldn't persuade him to try the vegan option but I thoroughly enjoyed it (too excited to take a picture obviously). We (josh and I) have been to Rock Ola a few times, and I'm always excited to to see the kitsch salt and pepper pots and have some yummy grub. My breakfast included 2 sausages, bacon (I'm yet to find a vegan bacon that isn't just vegan ham in a different shape), lots of baby mushrooms, tomatoes on the vine, 3 hash browns and a slice of toast. Lovely and filling. I love having lots of different tastes on the plate and don't usually go to the effort to recreate this at home (I should though!)

For lunch we paid a visit to Vbites, I had a wrap with lime and coriander chicky with mint mayo which was a really good meld of flavours. I think it might have been better if the chicky was in smaller chunks as it felt a bit 'substituty' at points. James had my favourite, the Hickory Chicky burger and as expected, loved it.




I cooked a basic stir fry for dinner, with red pepper, brocolli, carrots, noodles and loving hut 'lucky chunks'.

And now that James is safely back home the house feels just a little emptier...

Cupcake quiff.

Hullo me again,
Wanted to show off my first attempt at piping icing which I attempted a few weeks ago:

Quite pretty huh?

I can't say I reeeally loved these cakes, they were nice but I soooo prefer savoury to sweet and these were super sweet! They did get glowing reviews from my 3 taste testers though so definitely worth a shot if you have a sweet tooth. I used the recipe from Scrummy Inklings.
This is how I filled my piping bag, not sure if it's how everyone does it?...

My brother is coming to visit for the weekend so I'll will be attempting to wow him with some vegan treats (and of course the sights and sounds of Brighton) and the remainder of this afternoon will be spent creating my almost famous peanut butter banana cookies to perk him up after a 4 hour train journey to get here!

A Contributors Contribution

GUEST POST

Thought it was time I gave someone else a go, so I'm handing the keyboard over to my boyfriend Josh. Josh lives with me in Brighton and has just finished a Masters degree in Literature & Philosophy. He often gets sidelined in the kitchen but tonight he had his chefs hat on and created a masterpiece!

Thank you to the lead rambler for asking me to do this; thank you to the rambler audience for listening to me doing this. The idea for the recipe first came to me in a dream, some two years ago, and, not knowing how to act on it, the idea (for the recipe) slipped back into my subconscious. There it stayed – until now, today, when it mysteriously surfaced again via a daydream. Who are we to understand the (mysterious) workings of the brain? Who are we?

I began by taking the pizza base from its transparent envelope (I slipped it off, like a garment (underwear)) and set it out flat on the kitchen surface, like a corpse. I then took a jar of pasta sauce and, sensing the sauce’s potential for flexibility, used it as pizza topping. About half of a small jar (as to the precise weight of the jar: your guess is as good as mine) was adequate. I spread it all over in equal measure, with all the sensitive - and professional - touch of a masseuse spreading oil 'pon a back (and here I don’t allude to prostitution: I actually mean a masseuse). With that accomplished, I took just under half a packet of  cheese (Vegusto - ed.)and cut it into thin slices. This is where I really came into my own; I didn’t just directly lay the cheese onto the base – like flowers onto a grave – but instead worked to massage the cheese (that again!) into even thinner and wider pieces: thus covering as much of the base as I could.

I should say that, whilst this was going on, I had sent a couple of Sainsbury’s vegetarian sausages into the oven for cooking. After 10 minutes I removed them, cut them up, and added them on top of the base, sauce and cheese. I tore them into reasonably small pieces, thus allowing them, like the cheese before it, to spread out across the field. I added a little oil (don’t know which), placed the whole thing onto a baking tray and then into the oven. I left it for 20 uneasy minutes before removing, slicing up, and eating. 

Winner Dinner!

You know when you spend all day thinking about a particular meal and how you can make it perfect and then when you eat it it's just heavenly? That happened to me today.

I got 4 more tomatoes from my plants in the garden yesterday and was wondering how to do them justice; simultaneously we got a big delivery from Sainsbury's including Meridian Vegan Pesto. I also had a little of the Vegusto melty cheese left and all three combined to make a real winner.

Before I forget, UK readers may or may not be aware that the Sainsbury's website now has the filter 'suitable for vegans'. This was definitely useful for some searches (breakfast cereal anyone?!) but I did notice there were items that I know are vegan which did not appear under the filter. The website has only just changed so hopefully over time it will become more accurate.

Back to the delicious dinner,

I couldn't even joke about calling this a recipe but here's what I did to create my yummys.

1. Cook spaghetti in boiling water - add olive oil at boyfriends request

2. When spaghetti has 2 mins cooking time left add tomatoes, quartered.

3. When spaghetti is cooked, drain and stir through half the jar of pesto.

4. Sprinkle tiny chunks of cheese over pasta.

How cool is this 'Pasta Pig'?!

Another  part of the Sainsbury's delivery was kale. I don't think I've ever eaten kale before... Suggestions for it's uses very welcome, will attempt a green smoothie tonight, fingers crossed!