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Monday 6 April 2009

Well hellooooo

It's been a while but I am now all moved in, settled and almost completely unpacked!! I just have a few more bits (and a craptonne of bill-shredding) to do! The flat is looking gorgeous and I'm so happy with it! I haven't taken photos yet as it's not all ready but hopefully by next time I'll have some to share.

Also, I had my shoddy tattoo fixed on Friday and it now looks lovely, so once that heals I'll post a pic of that too - YAY!

It's great to have my own kitchen again and I've been really enjoying myself, thinking up menus and cooking. On my second day in the flat, I felt the need to make bread. I had some soup in the fridge and wanted some lovely rolls to go with, so I made some.

They were lovely and crusty but once cold, they were a little too dense so next time, I'll make 8 out of the dough instead of six. I sprayed them with a teeny bit of light olive oil and sprinkled some sesame seeds on them before I baked them.



Last monday, I made Jessy's butterbean burgers, I used yellow pepper and added in some fresh parsley because I had some in the fridge. These are soooo freakin good!



For lunch the next day, I had another patty of the beanburgers left and to make it a bit lighter for lunch, I didn't bother to cook it up, I just mashed half of it with some soya yoghurt to make a sandwich spread. YUM!!!!!! Seriously yum. I did the same with the other half the next day.



I had this big old bag of basil in the fridge becuase it was on special so I bought it and only used a little bit in the soup I made, more on that in a minute. So I thought I'd make some pesto and I had it mixed with some soya yoghurt and some fresh, shelled edamame that I bought in watroise, served over wholewheat rotilli. Nice but the beans were a bit, erm crunchy, despite following the cooking instructions like a good girl!!!


Speaking of soup, this is it. I really struggled to get a good picture of it, as you can see! I roasted up some plum tomatoes and garlic cloves, then added them to my new blender with veggie stock, salt & pepper and a handful of cashews. It was good but my blender really couldn't cope with blending the cashews properly - my trusty old stick blender may have done a better job. It tasted rad though.


I made some VCON chickpea cutlets in the week too. I didn't have any breadcrumbs so I subbed in medium cornmeal. I had to double the water but I really like the flavour of this. It gave them a lovely crunchy edge as well. I always bake my cutlets, as I prefer them this way and I also halved the oil called for in the recipe.
The stir-fry was so good though, that it didn't even really need the cutlet. It was loads of veggies, cooked spelt wheat and some teriyaki sauce. MMM.

This is the spelt wheat - I saw it in Waitrose and had to give it a try - good stuff!!


And this was another Jessy recipe!! Jalapeno polenta with spicy black beans. I added some mushrooms into the black beans and also some fresh parsley as I still had some kicking around. This was gorgeous. I had the polenta cold for lunch the next day and it was just as rad. And the black beans were delicious - definitely a winner!


And shocker - no baked goods (aside from the bread)! I've been really trying to be good, as we have now picked our bridesmaids dresses for October and so I only have 6 months to drop some poundage!! I wonder how long that'll last!!

16 comments:

  1. Congrats on moving in and getting thigs sorted out! Spelt in a can? That sounds sort of funny.
    Jessy's recipes are always fantastic, aren't they?

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  2. Happy New Home! Happy New Kitchen! Those rolls and soup look wonderful!

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  3. I still need to try Jessy's butter bean burgers. I kind of want to wait for the fresh butter beans to come in at the farmer's market, but that'll be like June or July!!! Too long to wait!

    And I love the idea of using edamamme in a pesto. Brillant!

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  4. aren't those butterbean burgers fab? love em!

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  5. your bowl of pesto edamame awesomeness looks oh-so delicious, Sal! i've gotta try that! and your soup looks (and sounds) soooo super stellar! mmmmmmmmm! thanks SO MUCH for trying our butterbean burgers AND the black beans 'n polenta! i love that you added in some mushrooms with the beans (what a tasty idea) and smashed up a leftover patty to make a super scrumptious spread! w00t! totally gonna have to try that! fo 'sho!

    your rolls look glorious! sorry they were a little dense - they look awesome & i love the sesame seeds on top! mmmmmm! i'm dig'n your cutlets & that spelt wheat 'n veggie mix! w00t! totally gonna have to keep an eye out for that spelt wheat! yay!

    i can't wait to see your tattoo - that rocks that you got it all fixed up how you wanted it! excitedface!

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  6. so great to have found another UK blogger!! i must try to find that spelt - waitrose is the supermarket i go to most, so i hope i'll come across it. i also got those little bags of shelled edamame today! 3 for 2, so good. that tescos pasta looks interesting, and sounds incredibly healthy!

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  7. YAY!! I can't wait to see pictures of the new place with all your personal "Salness" added to it! Can't wait to see your tattoo, too! Tattoo too, tee hee!

    You've been working that kitchen, girl! Everything looks super delicious. Aren't Jessy's butterbean burgers the best ever?

    Good luck with the poundage dropping!

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  8. YAY! Congrats on moving in Sal. I'm having a nightmare of a time as the previous owners canceled the electricity contract (instead of changing it over to our names, which is the norm out here) and in order for it to get reconnected we had to call out an electrician who then has to certify that the electrics are good. Well, guess what. We called out the electrician and he informs us there aren't enough fuses for the place (there's only two there should be 5 or at least 4!!). So we have to wait for him to wire up extra fuses and then get a certificate signed up and sent off to the electricity company BEFORE we can get any electricity in the place!! ARGH!! Oh yeah - and to get all this done is gonna cost 300 euro!!!
    But we haven't been wasting our time sitting around - oh no. I've been painting and taking over a few boxes and mr treehugger has been working on his office. Still - I will breathe a HUGE sigh of relief when we do move in eventually.
    Foods looking good as always - I've so been meaning to make Jessy's' Bean burgers for ages!

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  9. Yay for being in your new place! And can't wait to see your tattoo :D

    Fantastic food!! Yum! I don't know what to drool over first!

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  10. Hooray for settling in and doing lots of cooking! Everything you made looks delicious and now I am super hungry!

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  11. Hurrah for being in your knew place, I hope you like it! It at least sounds like the kitchen is making you happy.

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  12. Gosh! these are the most interesting eats ever! LOVE the jalepano polenta! I do love spicy foods.
    congrats on your new place! hope you find the time to kick back and relax now!

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  13. That is so cool, I wish I could get a can of cooked spelt over here! It takes so long to cook some of these grains, so that would be a huge help when throwing together last-minute meals.

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  14. Oh Sal I'm so glad to hear you're moved in and settling in! Those butterbean burgers are one of our favourites!!! I love them, and your soup looks super, too!

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  15. you have been cooking up so much AWESOMENESS! it all looks so rad. yummmm.

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  16. cooking in your own kitchen must make you more relaxed. there is nothing like it.

    seeing all that food is making me really hungry! I recently had cooked spelt berries for the first time and they were really good.

    I'll have to try the cornmeal version of the cutlets. I like crunchy a lot.

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