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Tuesday 30 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 30: We Did It!! And Veganising Jamie too!

HELLOOOO and welcome to my last MoFo post for 2014! I can't believe we're done already, it's gone so quick. Also, this is the first ever time I've managed to blog every. single. day! I'm pretty happy about that.  

So my last post of MoFo is also my last veganising Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals.  I've enjoyed these posts.  It's been fun to veganise the stuff I see being made on a non-vegan tv show. The main reason I wanted to do this was so that anyone looking for easy vegan recipes to make their vegan friends or family if they are not vegan themselves, will see that you can use the cookbooks you already have and just make a few simple swaps.  Obviously if you're not vegan I would't expect you to spend 2 days making almond feta but you get the idea.

I've had a few favourites, the one that springs to mind was THIS awesome dish, those buns!! Swoon! Can't wait to make that again soon.  There's been a few damp squibs but on the whole, most have been great.  To browse all of my Jamie posts, CLICK HERE! :)

So today I made the Winter Squash Penne and Mint & Avocado Chopped Salad.


Well kinda.  I didn't have penne so I used macaroni and my avo was mouldy :( so I left that out.  I also totally effed up the timing but I worked out by process of elimination (reading the time of a text I sent rigth before I set the timer off) that it took me just under 16 minutes, so I guess that is a 15 minute meal - win!!

Also, I forgot I was halving the recipe and made basically the full amount of sauce so there was WAY too much sauce for half the pasta, it's quite a liquidy sauce.  So I'm currently turning the leftover sauce into soup! (I added a bit more water, a few slack handfuls of red lentils and some curry paste - tomorrow's lunch sorted!)

Recipe Link: Not on Jamie's site, but the recipe can be found HERE.

Actual Time Taken: about 15 minutes

My Substitutions:
I subbed vegusto for both the cheeses
I left out the avocado cuz mine was mouldy
I used dried sage as I couldn't find fresh
I subbed macaroni for the penne

Overal Verdict: I thought this was tasty! It was nice change up to usual pasta sauces and a medium BN squash goes really far, so I still have 3/4 of the thing left!!  I added a bit of the stock to the processor when I was chopping the onions and squash and I'm glad I did because it helped get the squash finer. It still didn't feel totally cooked to me but it was good.

Also, if I were to make again, I might add the chickpeas after blitzing the sauce (or add half before half after) as I would've liked the squash fully pureed but not all the chickpeas.


Thank you to everyone who stayed with me throughout MoFo. I've been reading loads of blogs but not had the time to comment that much which is annoying.  But maybe I'll catch up with the posts soon. I'm going on holiday on Thursday (YAY) so if there's WiFi maybe I'll catch up then! haha.

Laterz
xXx

Monday 29 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 29: Roasty Soba Bowl

Tonight I made the roasty soba bowl from Isa Does It, well a version of it anyway.
I added franks hot sauce and nooch to the sauce, nixed the lentils for some tofu and roasted some asparagus along with the cauliflower. Yummers.
Can you believe it's the last day of MoFo tomorrow?? Yikes this month has gone quick.
Laterz
xXx

Sunday 28 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 28

I know that today is supposed to be sandwich day but I felt crappy and just couldn't do it. I'll bust it out soon for you though cuz it really was gonna be a good gross one!
So here's a pic of my dinner instead ... an impromptu chickeny casserole and loads of mash. My dad makes the best mash.

Saturday 27 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 27: VegFest London 2014

Sooo, did anyone go to London VegFest today? I did and it was AWESOME!! 

I got the train there and met Jojo and her hubby Nick.  Jojo was doing a talk about vegan travel and I am super proud of her because she did so well!!  But before that, we ate SO much.

We started out healthily enough, with a juice from Soul Juices.  I got the 'detox' juice which was carrot, apple, ginger and maybe orange? I forget. The guy said to me, how much ginger? And I was like, go for it dude I like it HOT! and then he held up an entire massive hand of ginger to mock me and I was like, ok dude, don't take the piss!  But he still put a generous amount in for me and it was good.



Then I made my way to the Nakd stand.  As you'll notice if you've been reading my what I ate posts, I love me a nekkid bar! I eat them pretty much every day!

SAMPLES!! WEEEEE!

And they had new flavours, christmas pud and bakewell tart. Both amazing and they had a great offer on. 18 bars for £8. 18!!!!!!! They're normally about £4 for 5 so I obviously got 18 bars.

Then it was time for lunch, hurrah. Obviously I was going to vegusto (and not for the last time!) Vegusto do make THE best vegan sausages in my opinion. So dirty and delicious.
 oh hell yeah!

Then we paused to take an excellent photo. Obviously.

We stopped at the Considerit chocolate stand. I had read about these on the PPK and every sample I tried was seriously delicious. And the people running the stand were lovely too!

I bought a bar of the salted caramel chocolate - you will see that is kind of an unintentional theme of my food purchases today!

I took a photo of this super pretty choccy stand. I didn't buy anything because it was kind of pricey and I'm a bellend who didn't take enough cash. But look.... so pretty!!

The guys selling this water were super enthusiastic about their water in a box. I dug it too!

After some walking around, we needed snax. But not a full meal.  Unfortunately we managed to not do so well here.  The sausage rolls were pretty nice. But the savoury muffin thing, well I won't like it wasn't my favourite thing.  I was already disappointed when I got up to the stand and realised they weren't pies.  But yeah they were just odd.  So let's move on.

I needed sugar. So I risked going into a sugar coma and bought myself a Ms Cupcake Red Velvet cookie sandwich. I love her cookie sandwiches, I always get one over a cupcake. And she won a vegfest award - YAY Ms Cupcake.  I love it when super awesome, nice people win awards and Melissa is an awesome lady.  If you haven't ever been to her shop, get your butt to Brixton pronto and sort that out.  Oh and I recommend the cookie sandwiches, even if I've never been able to eat one in one sitting, cuz sugar!

I didn't take a photo of the name of this stand, but if I find a business card, I will edit this.  But they were selling loads of marshmallows, marshmallow mix and motherfuckingveganwagonwheels! Uh yeah wagon wheels, HELLO!!  Can't wait to crack these!

I obviously bought some Vegusto, because it's the best vegan cheese. Well it's tied for first with Violife.

I was SUPER excited to find these on the Vegan Tuck Box stand.  I bought some a couple of years ago in the Montezuma shop in Brighton and I've not been able to find them since in the shop. So I knew I had to get some. And I'm kind of kicking myself that I only bought one tub! They are amazing.


Lastly, I also bought a second cookie sandwich from Ms Cupcake, a salted caramel pecal one. See more, salted caramel. Can't wait to try this, it'll probably be tomorrow's breakfast. For some reason, blogger hates this pic and won't flip it! GAH! Still, you can see it's radness.


I also got a second hot dog from vegusto because I am a savage. A hungry one!

The other cool thing was getting to hang out with my friend Randi from the excellently funny Laughfrodisiac and her hubby today, they've just moved over here which I'm very excited about, cuz she's rad.

Also I met a couple of fellow MoFo bloggers at Jojo's talk, so hi to the lovely gals from Hasta La Vegan and Tea & Sympatico .... it was great to meet you!! :) Head over to Jojo's blog for a pic of us after Jojo's talk.

So if you went and I didn't meet you, did you have fun there?  What was your favourite stall?

Laterz
xXx

Friday 26 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 26: Veganising Jamie

OK I promised a belated Jamie post and look.... just LOOK!!! I did it I did it I did it!!  


AND that was the time from starting cooking to when it was in the bowl and the foofy piece of basil was on the top!! (Normally I stop the timer when I turn off the stove etc so it doesn't include plating up time.)

So for the penultimate veganised Jamie meal of this year's MoFo, I made...

Chicken Cacciatore


So this was pretty good!  I won't lie, it's not the most inventive thing I've ever eaten and I often make something similar. But it was a nice change to pasta bolognaise etc. It was super easy to veganise and as you can see, really effin quick to cook! The pasta sauce can be made in about the same time as it takes the spaghetti to cook.

Recipe Link: The actual recipe isn't on Jamie's site (an older non-15 minute meal one is), so here's a link to the one someone else has posted.

Actual Time Taken: Just under 14 minutes!

My Substitutions: 
- I subbed RealEat Chicken pieces for the chicken*
- I subbed a finely chopped hemp space bar for the smoked pancetta and added a pinch of smoked paprika
- I subbed whatever red wine was open for the chianti (I think it was merlot, I don't drink red so I have no clue)
- I used all chestnut mushrooms
- I left out the anchovies
- I used dried rosemary instead of fresh
- I used regular spaghetti instead of wholewheat
- I used the last of my almond feta from THIS post instead of parmesan!

Phew! that's quite a few subs, but nothing that would majorly change the flavour I think!

*I used fake chicken pieces but if you're not vegan/veggie and making this for someone who is but don't want to buy these, I think you could totally use canned beans (such as cannelini) and this would be good!

Overal Verdict: Not mind blowing but still very tasty and I love how easy and quick it was. AND no food processor or 10 gazillion pans to wash, just a knife and two pans! WIN.

I should probably branch out from chicken for the last one, huh? HAHA

Have a great weekend everyone.  Who's going to Vegfest (London) tomorrow?  If so, maybe I'll be lucky enough to run into you! :)

Laterz
xXx

Thursday 25 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 25: Lamey McLameness

I know today is meant to be a Jamie day but I didn't get home until after 8pm and as I also didn't have a lunchbreak today, couldn't buy ingredients.

So I went for a cop out of shop-bought wedges and a fry's burger, on a warburtons sandwich thin because I had no rolls! hahaha.


Belated Jamie post will be up tomorrow!

Laterz
xXx

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 24: What I Ate Wednesday

I totally spaced out today and forgot that it's Wednesday and that I needed to take photos of what I ate. So umm here's what went into breakfast... choccy spread on toast.


I had a muffin at about 11am, these are vegusto cheese and vbites bacon flavour! Fancied making some savoury ones.  These are good but I forgot to add oil so they have that fat free baked good texture that I am not a fan of.  I think they also need a little something else, but need to play around with it before I can give a recipe.

I still hadn't remembered when I ate my lunch, but it was basically this salad from sainsbury's - the only vegan pre-packed salad they do!

I remembered after this, so here's the yoghurt I ate after my salad.

I also ate too many of these delightful crisps, that were on offer in sainsbury's for 50p for a massive bag! BARGAIN!  Gonna stock up before they sell out.


For dinner I made soup, rought recipe to follow.  And I chucked a part-baked baguette into the oven while it was simmering because soup needs good bread to go along with it!

I also ate a few of these things that I found in tesco last week. Pretty filthy and delicious! :)

Hmm looking at this makes me thing I should probably go eat some fruit now cuz, damn!

Curried Butternut Soup - a rough instructional!

Slice up a medium onion with the fine blad of your food processor and whack in a big pot with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Fry on a medium heat.

Whilst this is happening, change to the grater blade and grate up 3 medium carrots and a butternut squash. Mine was a whopper and I had already used the neck end so it was just the bulb end.  I'd say I had around 4-6 cups of grated squash.

Add this to the pot along with 5 cups (1.25 ltrs ish) of boiling water, 3 stock cubes, 2 heaped spoons (the one you're gonna eat the soup with probably) of korma paste and half a chopped red chilli (optional).  Bring to the boil and cook for around 20 minutes. Or until your bread is finished baking.

Turn the heat down as low as it'll go then add a small tin of coconut cream (they're about 100ml), stir well and then blend that shizzle with a stick blender. If it's too thick, add a bit more water to thin it.  If it's too thin then you added too much water and I can't help you!  I still love you though.  (You could chuck some instant potato flakes in to thicken it if it's really too thin but I'm sure it'll be ok really.)

Check seasoning and serve with a wanky swirl of soya cream on top if you wanna.

END.

Happy humpday everyone.

Laterz
xXx

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 23: Veganising Jamie

Tonight's veganised Jamie meal was his Golden Chicken with Braised Greens & Potato Gratin.

This is my least favourite of all the meals I've made from this book so far. Not because I didn't like - I did!  I just think I'd make a few tweaks if I were to make again.



Firstly, I used RealEat chicken pieces and Jamie uses whole chicken breasts that he slices in half. I think this would've worked better with seitan cutlets.

Secondly, I only used 1 onion, instead of the 3 he called for in the gratin recipe and I think I should've listened to Jamie and used 3!  I liked this dish though and will definitely remake the gratin (maybe with a few tweaks); the potatoes were a little under-done!

I liked the greens but don't think they really needed the facon, I just used this as Jamie used bacon. They could use a little something too, just not sure what!

Gratin

Chickeny pieces

Greens

Recipe Link: Golden chicken with braised greens and potato gratin


Actual Time Taken: Just under 23 minutes until I switched everything off. More like 25 til it was on the table.

My substitutions:
- I subbed realeat chicken pieces and vbites rashers for the chicken and bacon.
- I subbed alpro single cream for the dairy cream.
- I subbed vegusto mild cheese for the parmesan.
- I subbed a veggie stock cube for the chicken one.

Verdict: I liked it but I prefer meals that have a bit more of a flavour punch.  Also, I picked this recipe because it seemed super easy but with all the pans you need it was actually kind of tricky and even though it took 10 minutes longer than it was meant to, the tatties still weren't totally cooked.

I think this would be good to serve to omniverous friends (possibly leave off the facon though if they're not into that!), if you were to change up the chicken pieces to a cutlet or something like that; my mum and brother both liked the potatoes and greens (they had actualy chicken with theirs though).

See ya tomorrow! :)

Laterz
xXx

Monday 22 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 22: Cupcakes (again!)

Hello people. It's Monday again and Mondays are poo. So here are some cakes to brighten up your day!

I made these for work as they were raising money for charity and asked for volunteers to bake.  I was the only one that volunteered apparently. But hey, any excuse to spread the vegan cupcake love.

These are vanilla cake with strawberry icing and a mini jammy dodger


And chocolate with mint icing and a mint fondant choccy on top
The lighting was terrible which is why the icing looks yellow when it was actually a fetching shade of minty green!

Laterz
xXx

Sunday 21 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 21: Sandwich Sunday

It's dirty sandwich Sunday again. This week's special, I must admit, was based on a dare.  A long time ago I was bangin on at a workmate about how peanut butter goes with everything. My reasoning was that put PB on any sandwich and you immediately increase it's awesome factor by 100%.  She said 'even tuna & mayonnaise'.  I was like errr yeah sure. So then she challenged me to try and you know what?  It's ACE!

I used Vbites tuna style pate, plamil vegan mayonnaise and some smooth PB.  I of course added sweetcorn to the tuna mix beause tuna mayo with no sweetcorn is really sad times for me!

try it if you dare! :)


Hope you all had a great weekend.

Laterz
xXx

Saturday 20 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 20: Vegan McMuffin!

I love a weekend morning, when I have time to make an awesome breakfast and not be rushing out the door cuz I'm late for work.

This morning I made McVegans!  I started with an english muffin spread with lots of vitalite and a violife cheddar slice.

Then I added a Vbites rasher!

Then I made sort of an eggy pancake out of chickpea flour, plain flour, nooch & black salt (oh and a bit of baking powder to make it puffy). It was clearly too big though so I had to chop it to fit!

The end result was pretty ace!!

Happy Saturday everyone.

Laterz
xXx

Friday 19 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 19: A Friday Favourite

Ok just a cheeky friday fave as I've already had 2 glasses of wine.  But omg tesco you rock for bringing us this shizzle! Bourbons in a jar? Oh god yes.


Have a wicked weekend peeps.

Laterz
xXx

Thursday 18 September 2014

Vegan MoFo Day 18: Veganising Jamie

OK so tonight's veganised Jamie Oliver 15 minute meal is his feta parcels and modern greek salad.  I have to start by saying that technically for us vegans, this cannot be a 15 minute meal unless you live somewhere where they sell vegan feta!  I've never seen this so I made my own almond feta and although the work involved is minimal, it takes a couple of days because of soaking time, draining time and baking.  You could always replace it with another vegan cheese though if you wanted.


 Here is my almond feta after baking - not that pretty but really really tasty.  I used this recipe from Vegetarian Times, but just left off the herb oil. I think this recipe is great and totally worth the effort and I will be making it again!

Also, I knew that without another side dish, the parcels and a salad wouldn't be enough for us gluttons for dinner, so in keeping with the 15 minute meals mindset, I cheated a little and knocked up a couple of packets of Ainsley's instant flavoured cous cous, which went really well.

 Parcel close-up

 Salad close-up
 
Recipe Link: Modern Greek Salad and Feta Parcels again this one's not on his site, so here's a link to the recipe that someone else has posted.

Actual Time Taken: As seems to be about average with these '15 minute' meals, about 19 minutes.


My Substitutions:
- I subbed almond feta for the dairy feta
- I subbed soya yoghurt for the dairy yoghurt
- I left off the honey
- I left out the red onion because I forgot to buy one, plus my mum's not a massive fan of it raw 
- I used mixed olives with sun-dried tomatoes instead of black olives and I served them on the side instead of mixing them in with the salad.

Verdict:
YUMMY!! I loved the parcel filling, I was eating it off the spatula, it is great. And the mint in the salad was a lovely addition.  I think next time I wouldn't scrunch the filo, I'd wrap it more like a present, as I don't like the floury soft texture of filo when it isn't crispy, like the bits under the scrunchy top were.  Aside from that, aweseome. Also, as I said before, this needed an extra side dish to make it dinner, but I think it would be perfect as is for a lunch!

See ya tomorrow MoFos! :)

Laterz
xXx