So much cuter, with something in your mouth.....

I have no real reason for that title, except that I couldn't think of a name for this post and I went to see Nickelback last week and they were awesome as ever! I even had a pretty great view for most of it and being a short-arse, that's rare!

Also I disovered a new band through them - Daughtry!! They were the support band and they were great, I've downloaded both their albums and listened to them to death since them. I know you're probably thinking - they've been around ages, Sal - catch up!! But I don't watch American Idol so I'd never heard of them!

OK so back to reality. I haven’t blogged for a bit because I didn’t think I had many pics to share but I actually had a fair few on there! Although lately, I haven't been taking pics every day because my dinners have been looking all very similar – like this.... roasted veg with some sort of grain on the side! Kind of boring but tasty!!

This was roasted veg with bulgar wheat that I cooked in veg stock and spices and threw some chickpeas and frozen peas into.


I wasn't going to post this one, it was kind of ugly but I had a mini disaster with it! when I was making the nooch sauce for the macaroni, I open the big side instead of the shaker on the onion powder, shook hard and ended up putting in abou 3 tbsp of onion powder! ARGH!! luckily it clumped up and I managed to get most of it out and not wreck my sauce! hahaha phew!

This was yummy though. I saw the barefoot contessa make this zucchini gratin on her show and it looked awesome but loaded with cheese. As me and my friends are dieting I decided to try and hack the calories down as well as veganise it and it worked out really well (recipe is at the end). I love Ina, but her recipes do usually start with 3 sticks of butter and bottle of cream!!

But anyway, I always plug my recipes into sparkrecipes.com as I count calories and I plugged in the original recipe too out of interest! Depending on how many you split it between, hers weighed in at 433 cals per serving with 33.5g of fat (20.3g of saturated fat!!) GROSS! Mine was 124 per serving! Although we actually split it 3 ways not 4 so it was more like 164 but that’s still pretty good!!

Last weekend I went up to the midlands to see family. I haven’t seen my dad’s side in more than 3 years (bad Sal!!). My 3 aunties and uncles and my Granddad, plus me and my mum and dad all went out for dinner. We went to a pub/restaurant so I wasn’t sure what the food would be like for me and I couldn’t get hold of anyone by phone to ask. But I was really lucky – there were a couple of veggie options that could be easily veganised by taking off the cheese and the waiter also told me that they didn’t use butter on their veggies, it was a substitute approved by the vegan society!! Happy day!! I had a roasted aubergine filled with lots of other veggies, plus carrots and cabbage and green beans on the side. Oh and the best chips ever! I didn’t get a pic though!

But for putting me up, I made these as a gift for my Auntie & Uncle. They got the omni seal of approval as I got an email from my auntie saying they were the best cakes she, my uncle and my cousin had ever tasted and could she have the recipe!! This is a big compliment because my Auntie's an ace cook!

They were the basic chocolate cupcakes from vegan cupcakes take over the world. I tweaked it a bit to replace some of the soymilk with amaretto liqueur and upped the almond extract a bit. The icing recipe I struggled to give her because I always wing the icing! It was a bit of pure soya margarine, some tofutti cream cheese and icing sugar, then I just added almond extract, amaretto and a bit of soymilk to it.

Last week in the supermarket, I saw this cauldron curry. I'm not a lover of ready meals but sometimes when I get back from the gym I'm not always in the mood to cook and so I thought I'd give this a go and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't at all bad!


Needed a bit of salt, but then I think that about most things! :-)

I found this on my camera, forget when it was from (probably Sunday) but it was a pretty yummy roast dinner of baked tofu, sage & onion stuffing, roasted potatoes and parsnips and green beans & peas. Oh and lots of bisto of course!

oh and here’s that recipe as promised.....

Courgette/Zucchini Gratin:
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil (divided)
1 medium onion
2 courgettes / zucchini (about 500g)
2 tbsp cornflour (15g)
250ml/1 cup light unsweetened soy milk
1 tsp tahini
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
¼ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp onion powder
Salt & pepper to taste
25g breadcrumbs (optional)

Method:
Slice the courgettes about 1 cm / ½ inch thick and throw in a large bowl. Pour on 1 tsp of olive oil and mix well until all are coated. Lay in a flat layer on a cookie sheet or baking tray and bake at 180°C/350°F for 15-20 minutes, until just soft but not too browned. Once you’ve taken them out the oven, turn the heat up to 200°C/400°F.

Meanwhile, dice the onions and sauté then over a medium heat in the remaining 2 tsp of olive oil, until softened and starting to brown, but not too coloured (about 5-10 minutes).

Then make the sauce. Mix together the cornflour and soymilk and put into a saucepan. Bring to a simmer on a med-high heat and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in tahini, mustard, nutritional yeast and spices. Add salt & pepper till you’re happy with it.

To assemble, put the slices of courgette into a baking dish and put the onions on top, give them a jiggle around to mix together. Pour the sauce over and spread it out.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top and spritz with low fat cooking spray. Bake for 15-20 mins, until the sauce is bubbly and the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

Have a freakin awesome weekend everyone, whatever you're doing!!

Laterz
xXx

28 Days Later......

So Sunday was day 28 of my 4 week cleansey diety thing. It's now over and I’m happy everyone – HAPPY!!! WHY? Because it’s over you’re thinking, right right?? No! it’s because I weighed in as I said I would and I lost 9 pounds. WOOP!! I lost 2 inches off my waist and one off my hips.

I’ve still got a fair way to go but eating healthier and keeping up with the gym has definitely made me feel better about myself.

I alread avoid refined sugar where I can but I won’t stay gluten-free, as it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference to the way I feel. When it comes to wheat, I'll use it still but only occasionally (like today!). I usually use spelt flour for baking now anyway as I like the fact you can still get fluffy cakes / muffins etc even if you use the wholemeal version.

My favourite change I made is cutting out my usual toast & vegemite for breakfast and having juice and a smoothie instead. I find this holds me over way better. I'll probably also stick to having salads for lunch most days, unless I have leftovers!

But back onto the food and my last couple of days of G-free etc.... I made soup on Sunday night. It was minestrone with gluten free pasta in it. I can't honestly say it was all that great, but the roasted asparagus and hummus I had with it was pretty damn good!


Friday night and I looked forward to this all day at work. Pizza!! I bought some Dove's Farm Gluten Free bread flour to make the crust (I've just seen on their website they do a brown bread flour, I've never seen that in shops but would definitely buy it if I did). I used 1.5 cups, added a sachet of instant yeast, some herbs, onion powder and salt & pepper, then added about 1.25 cups of warm water mixed with a tsp each of agave and olive oil. It was a pretty sticky dough, I added enough flour to be able to pick it up. But instead of trying to roll it and pick it up, I rolled it straight onto the pizza stone.

Instead of tomato sauce, I used red pepper hummus and topped it with fresh tomato, sweetcorn, spring onion, mushrooms & asparagus. Then sprinkled it with oregano, black pepper and nooch! It was really good. I wouldn't say it was the greatest crust ever but still .... good.

Saturday night I went to visit my friend in Banbury but between the gym and travelling I only really had time to cook something quick for lunch. I made baked polenta fries! They were sooooo good, but a bit too soft. I'm working on them so recipe coming soon.

Today I had a wheat-ified meal. Wholewheat noodles and a lazy spin on my Alien on Pasta. I used coriander pesto (didn't have any basil) and half a tin of tomatoes instead of fresh. I also added in a pinch of red chilli flakes for a bit of heat. The other changes I made was leaving out the yellow pepper, tomato puree and nooch (I put some in the pesto and sprinkled some on top as well instead) and used a finely sliced onion instead of the shallot. Good!!

I tried to get a decent pic of my smoothie this morning because it was so damn ugleh! But pretty damn tasty - banana, soymilk, agave, allspice, peanut butter and hemp protein powder. Protein powder makes everything ugly!

Laterz

xXx

Playing House .... erm I mean Flat!

Helloo there. ARRGGHHH I hate you blogger I HATE YOU!! I spent forever typing this post and blogger went out and it only saved half it!

But I'm over it now. And I promised pix of the flat so here they are.....

Bedroom - I didn't take one from the door, but it's quite a long room.

Make up and drawers! That mirror will be on the wall soon.
Patio doors in the bedroom onto the balcony.

Bathroom - it's nice to have a bathroom cabinet. My last flat didn't even have a mirror in the stupid ugly bathroom!!

Bath/Shower:

I took a dark one as well because the bath panel lights up (there's one above the sink too) - very nice for a relaxing bath!!

Night time view of the church from my balcony - spookeh!!

The balcony - well some of it anyway, this is what i could fit in the shot. It also goes around the side of the building, on the south side and that is where my veggie patch is going!!

Living room

Kitchen - I'm not a huge lover of that one blue wall! But I've got used to it.

Now onto the important stuff - the foodz.

Last night's dinner I was planning on making burgers with the cooked quinoa I had but didn't really have anything to go in with the quinoa. So I made the crash hot potatoes that Jessy keeps raving about. She's right - they're awesome. Mine are a bit more crash squished taters, but I'm ok with that. I also had some spicy italian sausage, some roasty veg and I made the Merciful Miso Gravy from La Dolce Vegan, cuz I was feeling saucy. Glad I did too cuz DAYUM! That stuff is rad. I used wholemeal flour instead of plain flour - I wasn't sure how that'd work but it worked perfectly and was yummy.

Brekkie at the weekend was french toast. Normally I have mine with ketchup - I'm English afterall! But I didn't have any so I tried the sweet variety. Hell yeah it was good! I added some orange zest, vanilla and cinnamon to the mixture and served with maple syrup. YUM.

Sunday Dinner - I fancied a good old roast dinner so I had mashed taters, roasted brussels & butternut squash, sage & onion stuffing and baked tofu. MMMMM!

I forget exactly what I put in this but it was veggies, tofu, tinned tomatoes, spices and a baked sweet potato. It was pretty good.

This was my favourite of the bunch, so there's a recipe! I veganised one of sainsbury's food for a fiver leaflets but as well as veganising, I added in some more veg, used fresh tomatoes, wholewheat pasta and decided not to deep fry the courgettes. Seriously, what did them poor courgettes ever do to sainsburys??? I used Julie Hasson's Spicy Sausages but the sauce is so good you could really leave this out, or just add in some more veggies!

I struggled with a name for this so ended up calling it....

Alien on Pasta (hee hee)

Ingredients (serves 2)
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped (about 2 cups / 300g)
¼ cup / 4 tbsp tomato puree
½ cup / 125ml water
2 tbsp pesto*
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp olive oil
1 yellow (or red) pepper, sliced into fine strips
2 shallots (or 1 small onion), finely sliced
1 medium courgette/zucchini shaved with a veggie peeler
2 fat cloves of garlic
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Salt & pepper to taste
100g (about 4oz / 2 cups) of dried wholewheat pasta
2 vegan sausages (optional)

Method:
Chunk up the tomatoes (seeds, skin and all - just cut out the white core) and throw them in the blender with the tomato puree, water, pesto and paprika in the blender. Whizz till smooth (I did this with a hand-blender and the beaker that came with it).

Throw the pasta in a big pan of boiling water and cook according to pack instructions.

Heat the oil over a medium heat and gently cook the onions and peppers (a pinch of salt helps) for 5 minutes or so until they start to soften. Add the courgette and cook a few more minutes, then add the garlic and cook for just about a minute, until it starts to get fragrant.

Pour on the sauce and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes (until your pasta's ready really). If you're using the sausages, just put them in the oven at 180/350 for about 5-10 minutes until they are warmed through and just starting to brown. Don't overdo it or they'll be dry.

Add the nutritional yeast and salt & pepper to taste. Serve over the pasta with the sausages on top if using.

*I had some pesto in the fridge that I'd made the day before, but you could use a good vegan jarred version or just throw in some basil leaves!


Lastly, I found this pic on my camera. It was a fairly unspectacular shepherds pie filling of TVP, tinned tomatoes, spices and veggies but the topping was magical! Mashed potato & sweet potato with some vegan margarine, soymilk and salt & pepper. Simple but oh so seriously tasty. I'll work on the filling!!

That's all for now. Ooh except my Mum said she was going to sign up for email updates so HI MUM!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and no the comments are not just for vegans - feel free to leave one!

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!!