I lied....

.....I know I said my last post would be the last one before I moved but I actually have done some cooking this week! So I thought I'd post it.

This was last night's dinner - curry! I didn't think I'd actually put that many potatoes in, but it was awesome nonetheless. I didn't have any coconut milk so I added some soya yoghurt at the end. And I only added one chilli so was expecting it to be pretty mild but it was really spicy - it rocked. I threw some toasted cashews on top and served it with some homemade rotis, cuz I wasn't in the mood for rice.



Close up of the rotis. They're spectacularly easy to make and they're delicious. Recipe at end of post.

This was dinner the night before. Some bulgar wheat cooked with tomatoes and lots of hot sauce, with steamed brocolli & baked tofu. YUM.

And lastly, Tuesday's dinner. A tofu scramble with some awesome crunchy roasted taters.

Rotis (makes 4)

Ingredients:

1 cup (160g) wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin seeds (optional)

1 tsp olive oil
About 1/2 cup (125ml) water

To make them, just mix together all the dry ingredients, then add in water slowly, mixing with a fork until a soft dough forms and pulls away from the bowl. You don't want it too dry but not so wet that you can't knead it.

Knead it gently in the bowl for about 30 seconds, just to make sure it's all combined and smooth. Then leave aside until you're ready to roll.

Split the dough into 4 and flour the counter / rolling pin well. Add flour to the dough as needed to stop it sticking and roll the roti out till they're nice an thin.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan and put the roti in one at a time. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until starting to brown, flip and do the same the other side.

Now I'm off to continue squeeeeeeeee-ing about my move tomorrow! YAY!!! See ya next time with flat pix!!

What goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! ??

.....A sheep with no lips!

Crap joke yes? Well that's about as entertaining as this post gets I'm afraid. I haven't blogged in over a week because I really haven't cooked anything pic worthy. I have mostly been coming home from work and just throwing some salad or similar along with whatever veggies mum & dad have had for dinner.

And what I do have is not great quality as I took them on my camera phone. I suck, I know. But on the plus side - I move in 4 days and once I'm in my own kitchen, my blogging should get back to being more regular and hopefully more intersting.

This was lunch last week at Wagamamas (again). This time I had the salad instead of my usual and it was spankingly awesome. The picture sucks but it had roasted onions, asparagus, aubergine, sweet potato, squash, radish, mushrooms and leaves with a great dressing.



We shared my usual side of edamame with chilli, garlic and salt. MMMM!



And roasted asparagus. This was my favourite thing, it was amazing. The sauce was soooo good and the sesame seeds. MMMM. This is my new favourite side dish, edamame - you're outta here!!

I haven't hung up my apron completely though, this was a lasagna I made us for dinner last week. It had spinach, butterbeans, mushrooms, onions and VCON Cashew Tofu Ricotta. That stuff seriously rocks socks. My dad made an 'ergh' face when I said tofu, but he loved it and had leftovers the next day.

My only complaint was that it needed more sauce. I like saucy lasagne. This pic is actually cold leftovers for lunch at work (hence cameraphone pic!!)

That's it until next week when I've moved in!! YAY!!

Handbags & Gladrags

I haven't been taking that many pics lately, mainly because I been eating a lot of meals that look like this and they tasty but they pretty boring! But this one was really good. It was just some baked tofu, with salad and a dressing made of tahini and miso and chilli sauce. I forget what else went in but it was good.


Last saturday, we went out to celebrate one of my best friend's 30th birthdays (the one I was dogsitting for last month!) We went for an Italian meal and I didn't fancy any of the vegan options on the menu. Actually I'm lying, there weren't any vegan options, but there were the usual things you can just ask them to take the cheese off. But as I said, didn't fancy those so I asked them to do me a salad and this is what they came up with and I have to say, I was REALLY impressed. It had roasted onions, peppers and courgettes, potatoes, rocket and a great dressing with chilli oil and balsamic vinegar.



I really wish I'd asked them how they did those potatoes, as I couldn't work it out but they were amazing. Seriously.

Birthday cake was my mango & coconut cake - which seems to be my friends' favourite as it's the one they always ask for. But when I was reading the recipe I realised it had a shit-tonne of oil in. So I cut it back to 1/4 cup and increased the soymilk to 1 cup, plus I used 1/4 cup of the mango syrup to make up the liquid content. I used tinned mango as I couldn't find a ripe enough fresh one (about half a tin / 1/2 cup finely chopped) and it was just as good. This mixture made for 15 cupcakes!

This was lunch the next day (when I was hungover from way too much Prosecco!!). I bought some falafel and made a tahini sauce and then served it with some tomato, grated carrot and a wholemeal pitta. Super yum!

Inside Shot!

I had some falafel left over and I made some bulgar wheat that I added a tin of tomatoes and some spices to. It was really good, but I didn't quite get the spcies right, so I'm gonna work on that one!

Like I said, I been eating a lot of salads for lunch lately and this was one I had at work last week. Really good! Rocket salad, sun dried tomatoes, chick peas, raw broccoli, carrots, cucumber.... with balsamic dressing and mixedseeds. Sorry for the crap pic, I took it on my phone, which doesn't seem to have any flash options.

During the week I really fancied some chocolate soymilk, but when I picked up the packets of Alpro I saw that one 250ml carton weighed in at over 700 calories! I thought that was unbelievable. So when I went home I made my own with light soy milk, a spoonful of cocoa, a dash of vanilla and a squeeze of agave nectar. Tasty, chocolatey and less than 100 cals! Which meant I could have an oreo. YAY to my friend for bringing me back oreos from Las Vegas - UK ones are not vegan.

Yesterday me, mum & dad hopped on the train to reading to do some shopping and have lunch. We were wondering around the oracle trying to find a veg-friendly restaurant when my dad spied a Wagamamas! HURRAH. I had my usual yasai itame (gorgeous spicy coconutty soup with loads of veggies, noodles and herbs - sooooo good) and a side of chilli/garlic/salt edamame. I snapped a pic of the soup on my camera phone! I've tried so many times to recreate this and I NEVER get anywhere near close!

Another bonus of going shopping with the parents (aside from them paying for lunch) - accessories!! Mum was buying a new bag and so was I and Debenhams were having a sale but you had to spend £50! Mum's bag was £49 and mine was £25 so she bought it for me! YAY. I really love Julien Macdonald's Star range. His bags are leather free - yay! And he does some awesomely trashy, sparkly shit that I just love. This pic doesn't begine to capture the gorgeous pretty blue/green of this bag. It's lovely. Mum thought I was mad and kind of turned her nose up!! haha

Lastly, today's dinner. I bought all the stuff to made lasagna but none of us could be bothered to wait for it. So I made a quick veggie casserole cuz mum fancied potatoes and something in gravy. But as I was cooking she knew it would have to be vegan, but they still really enjoyed it so I'm happy. It had fennel, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, red pepper, red onion and cauliflower. The sauce was just veggie stock, red wine, dried thyme & oregano and a good splash of vegan worcester sauce. Really good and lots of gravy to soak up with bread.

Oh and I know I promised a tattoo photo, but I'm very sad to say that the guy did such a shit job that I've had to book in with the place that did my first one so they can fix it! I wish I'd listened to my gut and gone there in the first place. However, I think it should be fairly simple to fix, so pics when it's all done next month!

Some alien made you his bitch!

Well I can’t believe it but this here blog is one year old today! A year!! I never thought anyone would read it but I get such sweet comments from other amazing bloggers on my posts and it really makes my day when I read them.

So thank you thank you thank you to anyone who reads this blog, whether you regularly leave comments or just lurk. Thank you!

So it’s been a year and I still didn’t have a blogroll. Bad baby bad baby! So I put one on today – it’s basically a list of the blogs I follow. If I’ve left you off or you have a blog that I’m missing, let me know and I’ll add you.

I also had to enable comment moderation because some fuckwad decided to spam like 40 of my posts with crap! He got about 10 published before I managed to get the moderation going and start rejecting them!

Anyway in usual Alien style, I celebrated with …….. CUPCAKES!

Basic golden vanilla cupcakes from VCTOtW with buttercream that I coloured with a buttload of (Alien) green food colouring but just to fool everyone flavoured with orange oil. It’s weird eating an orange flavoured green cupcake! I made some daft toppers cuz I was bored at work.

Look – it’s an Alien…. On Toast! Woo yeah I rule! Hahaha that is about the extent of my computer skillz – powerpoint & clipart!!! Hahaha.

And as a special treat, some Alien shit I like:

Supernatural Season 2, episode 15: Tall Tales – slow dancing Aliens!! Hahaha (post title taken from THIS clip)

Aliens – “get away from her you bitch!!”

Blink 182 aliens exist

Hottest alien ever....?

Remember ALF - I loved him!

And just to tease you.... INK!! But It's literally an hour and a half old so still all inky and gross! Pic next time!!

Das all for now!

Back in the kitchen rattlin' pots n pans!

So I have some good news - I'm NOT being made redundant! I'm so relieved, but the news is bittersweet because it means 2 of my workmates were let go! So work is all a bit sad and a lot busier now!

I still don't know what's going on with my stomach, my blood test was negative for infection so I have to see the doc again next week!

More good news though - I've put a holding deposit down on a gorgeous flat and am moving on 28th March! It's awesome and has an amazin balcony around the top of it. I can't wait!!

But now.... on with the food.

Right after my last post I felt the need to make banana bread. I was just an off the cuff one cuz I didn't have a recipe. I know there's a million banana bread recipes out there but this one's not right yet so I haven't posted it here.


Inside shot - I added some hazelnuts and left the 'nanas chunky!

This was a really quick dinner I made one night. It was veganyumyum's recipe for creamy tomato pasta and I threw in some green beens and did some pan fried tofu.

I made some banana pancakes for brekkie yesterday. They were good but they stuck to my mum's stupid pan like crap to a blanket - hence they look a bit of a train wreck.


Yesterday I made some pesto because after seeing guava's post about pizza, I remembered how awesome the pizza I made last week was but this time I wanted one with pesto on.

Instead of putting tomato sauce on as well, I just did a layer of pesto and then some fresh tomato, mushrooms, pepper and some marinated tofu pieces. I left off the Sheese (or Sleese as my dad calls it) cuz it blows. It was a rockin pizza.

I did the same dough as last time and this time, used the leftovers for garlic knots. I just sprinkled on some oregano, garlic granules and salt and kneeded it well, then tied in knots and brushed with olive oil. When they came out the oven, I brushed them with some melted margarine mixed with some more salt and garlic powder. They were so. freakin. good!

My plate.... I also put a few bits of pepper on the plate too as Luke was begging for some food and he loves raw veggies!

Today's dinner was awesome!! I mixed some pesto in a pan with some mayola and some vegan margarine and heated it up then mixed in some wholewheat coniglie. I had some steamed broccoli and some black pepper tofu. For the tofu, I just drained and pressed some firm tofu, marinated it for only about 5 mins in some soy sauce, vegan worcestershire sauce, a bit of water and a pinc of mustard powder. Then I pressed lots of black pepper into it and baked it for 30 minutes @ 180/350, flipping half way. It was soooo spicy and awesome.

Then I made a chocolate pudding cake as my dad was in the mood for cake. I couldn't find my copy of La Dolce Vegan so I used this recipe from Vegweb. It was DAMN good.


We put some coconut cream on it. RADTASTIC!

It's my workmate's birthday on Tuesday. He's not in Tuesday so I'm taking this in tomorrow. It's carrot cake, with cream cheese frosting and I made some silly little carrots from fondant to go on top. They're a bit retarded but I think it looks cute!

Lastly, my dad loves flapjacks but it was my mum that requested I make some. So I made these last night when they were out.

They were a bit crispier than regular flapjacks but they rocked, the texture reminds me more of granola bars. They obviously went down well beause there was only one left when I got up this morning!!

Flapjack bars

2 cups (200g) Oats

1/3 cup (5 tbsp + 1 tsp) Margarine

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup (80ml) Golden syrup

Pinch salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

Melt the sugar, salt, margarine and syrup together until the sugar dissolves. Pour over the oats and mix to combine.

Pack into a swiss roll tin (it was a bit too big so I just smushed it up and left a gap at the end) and pack down.

Bake for 20 minutes or until just golden.

Take out the oven and score into bars, it will still be really soft! Leave to cool completely and then cut into bars and leave to cool on a wire rack.

I'm hoping to have special baked goods for my next post!!