Looking back....

.... oooover ma shoulldeerrrr. Oh I'm gonna be singing that song all freakin day!! Ah well. The reason for it is that when I was looking through the pics for today's post, I realised 3 of the items were follow ons from last week's post and one was a recipe from last year.

So remember last time, the tomato soup recipe I posted? Well it makes 2 servings and I had one left in the fridge and I turned it into a couple of pasta dishes instead of just reheating it.

Starting with this one, a simple dish. I just sauteed some mushrooms and added some soya mince and a some gravy granules and half the remaining soup and served it over wholewheat spaghetti with a little sprinkle of nooch and parsley.



This was the winner though. I sauteed some mushrooms and some spring onions, added the other half of the soup and some capers and stirred it into wholewheat penne. Then I made a salad of sweet red and yellow cherry tomatoes, capers and toasted pine nuts with just some salt, pepper and really good olive oil on and put it up on top of the pasta. Simple but delicious!

On saturday night, my friend was down for her first wedding make up trial (wedding in Oct and I'm doing the make up!!) and for dinner I cooked us some of my carrot falafel with tahini sauce, some tabouleh and just a simple salad of rocket with a simple lemon juice and olive oil dressing. I've just put some chickpeas on to cook so I can make these again, I forgot how yummy they are.

And last time I made the vegan brunch omelets. Well I had half the batter left so I made another one. But I made a total mess of it when I flipped it, probably because I put the batter in the pan chilled and it was hard to spread. Next time I'll remember to bring it out before hand.

Still once it had a topping of mushrooms sauteed in soy sauce and herbs and a bit of cheezly mozz on it, all was forgiven!

This soup I made the other day to use up some fresh corn I had. It was pretty crap so I won't bother giving you the recipe.

And today I made mini muffins, I like to have some around for snacks and they are less calories than a full size muffin. Recipe is below pic.


Coconut Choc Chip Mini Muffins
Will make around 16 mini muffins or about 6 regular sized ones.

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
teeny pinch of cinnamon
6 tbsp desiccated coconut
6 tbsp non-dairy chocolate chips
Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
1/2 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice
1/3 cup soya yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
a few drops almond extract
2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line a 12 cavity bun tin (fairy cake tin, not a muffin tin) with baking cases.

Whisk dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together, pour into dry and mix until just combined, a few lumps are ok and will bake out.

Spoon a couple of tbsp (about half way up the case) into each case and then bake for 20 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. For regular muffins they'll take around 25 mins.

Transfer to wire rack to cool.

That's all for now folks.

Laterz
xXx

Falafel, that's fun to say. Falafel. FAAAA LAAAFEELLL!!

Well howdy there.

This week I have been making up meal plans and sticking to them like a good girl and a couple of ideas I had worked really well. So that means I have 2 recipes to share today.

Firstly - this is one that I've been thinking of for a while. I was in the supermarket a while back on the lookout for some falafel and I saw carrot falafels! Of course they were not vegan, so I thought screw you Waitrose - screw you in the ear! I shall make my own. And I did. And they were rad. I was planning to serve them on pittas with yoghurt sauce, but the supermarket ran out of pittas - seriously, how do you run out of pittas??? So I went with a salad instead which would normally mean I'd be hungry again within an hour, but I wasn't.


Carrot Falafel with Yoghurt & Tahini sauce

Ingredients
Stage 1
1.5 cups / 250g cooked chickpeas
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ cup / 4 tbsp chickpea cooking liquid or water
1 tsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Stage 2
½ tsp baking powder
1 medium carrot, grated (generous ½ cup)
¼ cup / 4 tbsp yellow cornmeal

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F and spray a baking sheet with a little oil.

Put the first stage ingredients into the food processor and blend until pretty much smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the other ingredients, mixing well to combine. It should be a pretty soft dough.

Take a rounded tbsp or so of the mixture at a time, roll into a ball and flatten slightly. Then place on the baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes. Flip, then cook another 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Go careful, they are very soft – not dry like some store bought falafel can be.

Serve in pitas with salad and yoghurt tahini sauce or with whatever ya like. This made about 10 falafel.

Suck it Waitrose!

Yoghurt Tahini Sauce
¼ cup / 4 tbsps soy yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
Pinch cumin
Pinch salt
Pinch pepper
A couple of dashes of hot sauce (I used Franks), optional
3 tbsp of water (I used chickpea cooking liquid
Tbsp of finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) – use flat parsley if you don’t like coriander. I think some mint and some dill would also be great in this.

Method: Just whisk everything together, it’s that simple.

Secondly, I've been planning to revisit my savoury muffins for ages and change 'em up a bit. I decide to axe the sheese and add some veggies. So I added some sweetcorn and shredded courgette with a bit of jalapeno for a nice kick. They are YUM, perfect for a savoury treat when the need arises!

Spicy Courgette Corn Muffins
I know it sounds like a long ingredients list, but most of the items are store-cupboard stuff! This makes 6 muffins, double it for 12.

Dry Ingredients:
¾ cup / 125g medium yellow cornmeal
¼ cup / 40g wholemeal flour
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
Pinch black pepper
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried sage
Pinch garlic powder
½ cup grated courgette/zucchini (about ½ a medium courgette)
½ cup / 40g sweetcorn (half a small tin)
2 rings of jarred nacho jalapeno chilli (optional for a bit of a kick)
Wet Ingredients
¾ cup / 185ml unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used light soya)
½ tsp white wine or cider vinegar
2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil
1 tsp tahini
½ tsp miso (optional)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F and spray a 6 or 12 hole muffin tin with a little oil.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. I put the veggies in with the dry and get them all nice and coated to stop them sinking to the bottom - although I don’t think that would happen anyway in this mixture – it’s pretty thick!

Whisk together the wet ingredients and pour them into the dry. Mix until just combined. Spoon into the muffin tins and press down. These don’t rise much, if at all, so you need to fill them to the top.

Bake for around 25 minutes, until just lightly browned and a knife or skewer comes out clean. Leave them to cool for a good 15 minutes and carefully remove to a wire rack. They’re pretty crumbly – but not dry at all. They are yum.


Cooking to: Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On (I got tickets to see them in June - SQUEEEEE!!)


And a bonus pic of dinner the other day. VCON Chickpea cutlets, couscous with pinenuts and veggies and tahini sauce with lots of paprika in.


Happy Easter to anyone that celebrates it! I don't really but I am a HUGE fan of the 4 day weekend - sandwiched between two 4 day work-weeks! Have a great long weekend off everyone!!