I'm a bad babysitter got ma boyfriend in your shower...

WOOP I'm making six bucks an hour.

OK so I'm not a babysitter but I don't know any songs about being a bad blogger!! I haven't been making much blog worthy food lately and my google reader has about 100 unread posts in it that I need to catch up on!!

I have got a few pics from the last week. Firstly, I made some more meetloaf (from Cozy Inside) but this time I stole Beck's idea of making mini ones in muffin tins - awesome idea!! Ps: these + good bread + reggae reggae ketchup = the best sandwich EVER!


I had them with roasted veggies. I forgot to take an after shot before here is the before one: beetroot, peppers, squtternut bosh, turnip, fennel & onion. YUM!


This is not very photogenic I know, but it's some soup I made last night. I threw the veggies that were half eaten in the fridge in a pot with some turmeric and veggie stock and it wasn't half bad. There was squash, potato, sweet potato, carrot, onion, garlic & peas.

Last night I made veggie hash for dinner. It was rad!! I added some tofu this time, as I had some to use up.

This is a bit of a lousy pic because it was the leftovers. For sunday dinner I made a sunday roast (forgot to take a pic!!) and this was dessert - a crumble. It had 2 huge mutha bramley apples, a punnet of blueberries & a couple of tbs of sugar in the filling and a thick layer of crumble topping. We had it with custard and it was ace.

I made these muffins on my second snow day (off work!). They were a bit too crispy cuz I don't know mum's oven yet. But they had hazelnuts and cranberries in. When I took a bite I realised I really outta make more things with hazelnuts in - they are good!

That's it for now, I'm off to catch up with my backlogged google reader!

Vegan MoFo - Cranberry Orange Cornbread

My last attempt at this cranberry & orange cornbread didn't go so well, but I tinkered and I tweaked and I got it right this time!!

Here it is straight from the oven. I dug out a big wedge before it was even cool enough to turn out because I was starving and it smelt so good!



I took out the spelt flour and oatbran from the first incarnation and replaced them with regular plain flour, but I do think that wholemeal flour (or half and half) would work too. I also added a bit more sugar than I normally would to cornbread as I just think this recipe needed it.

I added lots of cranberries because I love their tangy sourness - but feel free to cut it back if you would prefer a more scant fruityness! Oh and I'm a donut cuz I didn't seive the orange juice, which means my cornbread has orange pips in! hahah, not that it affects the flavour but they're not so good to bite into, so seive 'em out!

Cranberry & Orange Cornbread
Wet Ingredients:
1 cup / 250ml non-dairy milk (I use light soya)
Juice and zest of a big fat orange
1.5 tbsp sunflower (or other light) oil
1 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients:
115g / 1 cup plain flour
1 cup fine cornmeal (I didn't weigh - sorry)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 cup dried cranberries (again I didn't weigh but 1/4 cup = 4 tbsps)
4 tbsp / 1/4 cup sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.

Combine the wet ingredients and whisk well, set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients (except the cranberries) and mix well. Separate any cranberries that have stuck together and toss then well in the dry ingredients (a coating of flour helps stop them sink to the bottom).

Give the wet ingredients another quick whisk and then pour into the dry. Mix until just combined so you don't overwork the gluten.

Pour into a cake tin, lightly sprayed with sunflower oil and bake for around 35 minutes, until the top has risen, gone slightly golden and a knife comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Cooking to: Black Stone Cherry - Folklore & Superstition

I don't have any pics of tonight's dinner as I went to my parents' and my mum cooked me an AWESOME butternut squash and chickpea curry, that seriously rocked. But as usual, I did pudding. My dad loves fruit pies and crumbles so I did a crumble. Pear, mango, raspberries and nectarines with a splash of maple syrup. I used the same crumble topping as in this post but I added a pinch of allspice and about 1/4 dessicated coconut.

Before going into the oven....

The fruit!

We had it with hot soya custard

Vegan MoFo: Bakin' hot

I told you there'd be baked goods and here they are!

I made my own bread - no packet mix this time and I'm so excited about it too. To tell the truth it's a bit sad how excited I am! I used this recipe, only I replaced the honey with agave and used 400g wholemeal bread flour and 100g white bread flour, instead of half & half - next time I might use all wholemeal. Also I followed the instructions on the side of the yeast jar to activate it before adding it to the flours.


I baked it for 25 minutes so it's still nice and soft and it rocked for dinner with some pasta.

My baking experiment didn't go exactly as I planned (more on that in a bit) so I made a crumble to use up the plums and strawberries in my fridge, before I go onsite on Tuesday. It rocked.

I cut up 4 plums and about a cup or so of strawberries....

Put into a dish and then rub 100g of vegan margarine into 150g of plain flour. Add 100g of oats, 70g of sugar and a pinch of salt. Then sprinkle it on top and bake in a preheated 190C oven for 45-60 mins (took 55 in my oven) until lightly browned.

I served with a splosh of soya cream but the leftovers will be eaten with custard tomorrow at my parents' house!

Onto the failure - my pecan toffee apple muffins. Well I say failure but they're not that bad. The flavour is awesome but the texture is wrong. I want to try these again really soon though because I think they have the potential for greatness! So recipe is pending tweakage.

I made these for part of the brunch I made for myself and my two friends this morning along with bran muffins, tofu scramble and roasted potatoes - that I stupidly didn't take pictures of!