Vegan MoFo Day 8: Hangover Foodz

I am a bit rubbish aren't I! Not blogging at the weekend.  Saturday I just didn't have time and yesterday I was hungover.  I made a half-arsed attempt to blog on my phone and then gave up because frankly it was too much effort.

 

The trouble with being hungover is that my culinary 'skillz' are generally reduced to smash and mushy peas.  Yesterday was no different really, so I chucked a Redwoods Cheezly pizza in the oven.  However, my mum had cooked some potatoes for her and my dad so I decided to fry some up with some pepper and onions to go with the pizza.  Whilst doing this inspiration struck and I added herbs, paprika, loads of nooch and some soya cream.  They turned out saucy and delicious and I'll definitely make them again.  Maybe next time I'll even write down a recipe!

 

Laterz
xXx

These aren't the droids you're looking for!

EDIT: I've just realised that on the 5th of March this blog was 2 years old! Thank you thank you everyone who reads. I love yous.

I finally have an excuse to use that post title - I got a new phone – it’s an android phone (similar to iPhones but cooler!! Hahah). I’m very excited about it and not just cuz it’s pink....

It's actually that light pink colour, the hot pink surround is a skin I bought for it to protect it when I drop it, which will happen - I'm clumsy.



I thought I’d start off with a pic that I took on the phone – this was brunch on Sunday, not bad for a camera phone. I went down to visit my brother and his girlfriend in their new flat in Hove. Sunday morning we caught the bus into Brighton, which is awesome because it’s so vegan friendly. We went to Wai Kika Moo Kau – I’ve wanted to go there for ages because I love the name of it! It’s a vegetarian cafe with vegan options as well. I had the full vegan English breakfast: sausages, marinated tofu, oven baked butter beans (instead of tinned baked beans which are the devil’s work), tomatoes with pesto sauce and a yummy hash brown. It was awesome and I had a soya latte with it. My bro and his girlfriend had the veggie breakfast, he wasn’t getting bacon or ‘proper’ sausages so he needed eggs - I think tofu would have finished him off!


They haven’t lived in their flat very long so I made them a little housewarming present – cookies. These had white chocolate, cranberries and walnuts in and they were super yum. I played with Dreena Burton’s recipe again and I think I changed it up enough so I’ll put the recipe at the end of the post. Dreena’s original chocolate chip recipe is online here though (and it’s AWESOME and really adaptable).

Mum and Dad came over for dinner last week and I made us some nice chunky soup for dinner. It was lovely and I made a massive pot so I could live off leftovers for lunches for a few days. It had butternut squash, turnip, onions, parsnips, red lentils, celeriac and a teeny pinch of chilli flakes.

Random dinner last week. I bought this tomato in waitrose that you're meant to eat while it's still green. But as you can see I left it in the fridge a wee bit too long. It was pretty though I thought. I roasted half of it (the other half went into the aforementioned soup!). I had it with some firm polenta with sweetcorn in and some roasted brussels and celeriac.

These were a birthday present for my friend last weekend. Coconut cupcakes with raspberries. I poked a hole in them and put some mushed raspberry & cointreau in, then piped coconut buttercream on before decorating with a fresh razza. They were yummy but fell apart a bit, probably because of the extra liquid from the raspberries. I'm working on this recipe, they'll be awesome one day!

This was last friday's dinner. Rachael Ray made these german style potato wedges which looked great, aside from being cooked in bacon fat. Blech. So for mine, I doused the potatoes in cider vinegar and sprinkled on some sugar and bacon salt! I found bacon salt in the american sweet shop not far from where I live. The plain one has milk in but the one with pepper is vegan. So it took care of the bacon flavour, salt and pepper! Triple threat!! They were pretty good, maybe I should have sprinkled some bacos in after they'd done cooking, or then maybe that would be gross??? The burger on the side is a Frys Chicken Style burger, my new favourite thing - and that comes from a hater of most fake meats!

Another random dinner. Remember the tempeh stuffing balls from last time? I had some leftover tempeh and decided to try my hand at a white chilli. It was good but not quite right, so I need to work on it before I post the recipe.

And as promised, the cookie recipe:

Cranberry, Walnut & White Chocolate Cookies

Dry Ingredients:
150g (1 cup) plain flour (I often sub this for white spelt flour and it works perfectly)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground allspice (optional, but yummy)
1/4 tsp sea salt (if using table salt, half that)
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) dried cranberries
4 tbsp chopped walnuts
50g vegan white chocolate buttons or chips (about 1/3 cup if I had to guess - I used 2 bags of the dairy free white choc buttons they now sell in the free-from sections in tesco & sainsburys!!)
Wet Ingredients:
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) malt extract
20 ml (ie make the malt extract up to 1/3 cup) golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) rapeseed (canola) oil
1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C/about 360F.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (I always sieve the baking powder and soda through a little tea strainer as you can get lumps of soda otherwise in your cookie). Add the cranberries and walnuts. Smash up the buttons a bit, but don't make them too small - some big pieces are good! Add to the dry ingredients and give it all a good mix.

Whisk together the wet ingredients (be patient, it'll happen!) and then pour into the dry. Mix with a fork till you can't anymore then get your hand in and mix it till it comes together in a ball of dough.

Pull off pieces about a rounded tbsp (walnut sort of size) and roll into a ball. Space them apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Then wet a fork and press it lightly one way then another, for cross-hatches! Bake for 5-6 minutes for a chewy cookie, 7-8 for crispier. (dreena's recipe says 10 or 11 but that's for bigger cookies). Leave them 5 minutes on the sheet to firm up then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

That's all folks.

Laterz
xXx

Oh balls!

Hellooo everyone. Did you have pancakes last Tuesday??? I did, more on that in a minute though.

I'm starting off with last night's dinner. In my mind for weeks I've been dreaming of balls. Ahem, what I mean to say is meatless balls!! That doesn't sound any better does it? Well these are a mixture of tempeh and sage & onion stuffing mix. Sounds gross, tastes like a little ball of heaven! tee hee. Recipe is at the end of the post but I think this recipe has potential to be great just as a way of awesoming up stuffing mix or even flattened into patties and baked for a burger.

I served them with mushroom sauce (thought tomato would be too heavy) and quinoa pasta. Yum.


Dessert was simple. I cut up a nectarine and put it into a foil package with some rice syrup and baked it at 180C for 15 minutes. I served it with a blob of plain soy yoghurt and a wee sprinkle of ground allspice and then poured the fruity syrupy juices from the package over it.

These were some oat crackers I made last week. They're pretty good but I haven't got them exactly right yet. Recipe will follow once they're better.

I made some cookies last week. I played with Dreena Burton's homestyle choc chip cookie recipe by taking out the choc chips, swapping the plain flour for white spelt, swapping 1/4 cup of the flour for cocoa and using rice syrup instead of maple syrup (WAY cheaper!). I also made them smaller, a round tbsp or so each so I got 23 out of the mixture instead of 12! I baked them 8 minutes and they were nice and crispy.

So I mentioned pancake day last week. I prefer the fluffy american style (drop scone) pancakes for breakfast but on pancake day, it's only right to have flat ones. I didn't attempt to flip them, I suck at that! Here is one, ready for a rollin.....

And rolled up with the traditional filling of some lemon juice (bottled - tee hee) and sprinkled with sugar. Yum.

This was dinner one night last week. Oh that pile of horrible looking green mush was broccoli smashed potatoes. An idea I stole off Rachael Ray! But she put in a crap tonne of cheese and cream. I just added a bit of soymilk and salt & pepper and a sprinkle of nooch - they were really really good. Reminded me of when I was little and my mum used to mix mashed swede in with the potatoes so I would eat them! :-)

I feel bad for this lentil soup because he was oh so tasty but I don't think is a way to make a soup made with brown lentils a pretty one! Ugly? Yes. Tasty? Oh yes!

This was dinner on Friday night. I made a basic risotto with some onions and sun-dried tomatoes in and then at the end stirred in a bunch of steamed green veg. It was soooo tasty. I added peas, green beans and broccoli.

Here's that recipe I promised:

Sage & Onion Tempeh Balls
Ingredients:
100g (1/2 a pack) tempeh
1/3 cup (40g) sage & onion stuffing mix (paxo and sainsbury's own are both vegan)
1/2 cup (125ml) boiling water
1/2 a medium onion (about 1/2 cup)
1 tbsp olive oil
Braggs or soy sauce
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt & Pepper to taste

Fry Light / cooking oil spray

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Then start with the tempeh. Cut it up into rough chunks and throw it in a pan (I used a frying pan) and fill it with enough water to just cover the tempeh. Bring to the boil then leave it for 1o minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the stuffing mix with the boiling water and cover with a plate. Set aside for at least 5 minutes.

Once the tempeh is done, remove from the pan and dry out the pan. Add the oil and saute the onions for 5 minutes until just starting to get some colour. Crumble the tempeh up nice and fine and add it to the onions, cook for a good 5 mins or so to get some colour on the tempeh. Then add the thyme and spritz with braggs (about 10-15 sprays) or add a tsp or 2 of soy sauce or tamari. Mix well and then remove from heat and tip into a mixing bowl to cool. Add the stuffing mixture and mash it all together with a fork.

Once cool enough to handle, roll about a heaped tbsp at a time into balls (you should get about 18). Then spray a baking sheet with fry light and put the balls on ready to cook. Spritz the top of them with fry light (optional) and then bake for 15-20 minutes (until lightly browned). Then serve with whatever you like!!

If you make larger balls (hee hee) or patties, you'll probably want to bake them 20-25 mins!

That's all for now aside from saying that I'm on Twitter now (sal_on_toast) - feel free to add me if you're on there, I only have 3 followers! hahaha.

Laterz
xXx

Birthday - 33 and a third!

Saturday night was the last of the 3 celebrations for my 30th and it was a joint celebration as my best friend's 30th birthday is exactly a week after mine (tomorrow) and tonight I'm cooking her a dinner for our celebration for that! So many dinners in June!!

Anyway, back to Saturday and we had a fantastic night. We went to a little spanish tapas restaurant, not far from where I live, called El Pic and then onto a local nightclub to dance to cheesy 80s crap until 2am!

The restaurant is a great place, a tiny hole in the wall but it has such great food and it's really got a great atmosphere, the owner is lovely and the staff are friendly. It was fab.

I booked the party menu for the omnis and I just had to pick out my dishes and I had.....

Habas Al Moro - broad beans with paprika, onions and herbs. DELICIOUS!!


Patatas Bravas - always my favourite tapas dish and they were gorgeous, really spicy and yummy.

Arroz Andaluz - vegetable paella


And Champiñones en Vino - mushrooms cooked in wine and garlic. These were soooo good but I forgot to take a pic till after I'd cherry-picked out most of the mushrooms. Just look at all that garlic!?!? I must have smelt GOOD! mmmm.


Here are a few pics from the night, if you want to see them all, go to the album on facebook.

Here's me (middle) with my 2 best friends - Maz (left) and Em (right).

Left to right: Vicki, Me, Kelly (pouting at the front), Maz, Em)

Me & the other birthday girl looking sexeh!

Oh and here is the gorgeous bunch of flowers my workmates had delivered to me at work last week. They were gorgeous and I was all happy until I started getting phone calls from Stannah stairlifts and plastic surgeons about my 'enquiries'!! They signed me up for a bunch of old people stuff and then when the calls came, they hid in the next room giggling like 5 year olds!! Boys!! I miss working with girls sometimes.

Bonus pics of last night's dinner. I had planned to make pizza but before i knew it, it was 8pm and I was still lying on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy. So I scouted around the kitchen and saw half a baguette left. It reminded me of the frozen french bread pizzas we used to have when we were kids and so I gave it a go and it was awesome.

Just hollow the bread out a bit, spread it with tomato sauce (I used Reggae Reggae Love Apple Ketchup) and then put your toppings on. I had sweetcorn, orange pepper, tofu pieces, fresh tomato and nacho cheezly with a sprinkling of oregano, black pepper and nooch on the top. It was rad!



Laterz

xxx

Birthday Foodz - part 2 of 3

The second celebration for my birthday was just me and my two best friends. I had the day off so I started it as I did last year.... with french toast and ketchup. And a cup of earl grey (I found decaf earl gray! YAY!)

The most important thing in the post? The birthday cake. I made a really great vanillary cake with orange icing, flavoured with orange zest, orange juice and orange liqueur! It was awesome and once I've perfected the recipes I'll post them.

Close up! I grated some orange chocolate on top with a microplane, to make it extra sexy.

Inside shot....

This glass was a pressie off my friend Maz. Here it is filled with sparkly rosé.


Tuesday was a gloriously sunny day (which is unusual as I don't remember a year when it hasn't rained on my birthday!!) so I made a rad playlist of mid 90s dance and 80s music and we sat out on the balcony. I bought a disposable barbecue and made some ace food to go on it. It was awesome and just soooo freakin hot. We all got a bit of a tan line! :)

The food I did was the last of my jersey royal potatoes, cooked till tender. Then splashed with olive oil, some fresh rosemary and thyme from my garden, lots of sea salt and 3 or 4 smashed garlic cloves. Then you wrap them up in foil and either chuck 'em on the barbie for half an hour or in the oven at 200C/400F for about 35 mins (which is what I did). This is Jamie Oliver's method that I saw on TV about 5 years ago and it rocks so hard, I used to make them all time.

I wanted the food to be awesome, but didn't really want to spend the whole of my birthday morning in the kitchen. So I took 2 packets of cauldron tofu and sliced them up into big triangles. Then I poured a jar of reggae reggae cooking sauce over them and left it to marinate. I love Reggae Reggae Sauce and the new jars of cooking sauces (which I can't seem to find on the website) are on special at Sainsbury's this week - £1 a jar!! I bought two and this was reallly good! I just chucked them on the barbie until it was starting to char.

To go with - garlic bread and that is a sauce I made out of soya yoghurt, fresh mint, a squeeze of lime and some salt & pepper, just because the tofu was really spicy and needed something cooling on the side. I forgot to get a pic but I also roasted some asparagus on the barbie too and it was delicious.

I made some simple veggie kebabs with mushrooms, peppers & red onions.

This salad looks like a right old mess but it was delicious!! I soaked some finely chopped red onion (a couple tbsp, just what was left after making the kebabs) in the juice of a lime. Then I added a small avocado, chopped and mashed it so there were just a few chunks left in it. then I added some orange pepper (what was left after making kebabs), some fresh mint and coriander and a bag of salad leaves (rocket and baby chard). Then I added butter beans and a lemon vinaigrette. Simple but it was really REALLY tasty!

Maddie (my friend's pup) was happy too, she got to spend the afternoon soaking up the sun and swapping between different laps!! She likes those cushions!!


OK and yesterday's dinner. I got home and was really not in the mood to cook much but I threw brown rice on to cook while I cleaned up the kitchen. I made Jessy's cilantro / lime rice (awesome stuff!!) and some guacamole. I got some canned sweetcorn and dressed it with a bit of chilli sauce and white wine vinegar and then cooked the rest of the butterbeans with some red pepper, tomato puree, onion and some spices. It was pretty good for something I chucked together.

Really yesterday I was craving nachos, as I'd picked up some Nacho Cheezly at the weekend but I didn't have any tortilla chips. So I bought some today and made nachos. I used up the leftover rice from yesterday and threw in some onion, red pepper, tomato puree, spices and tomatoes. I used up the leftover guac and some sour supreme that I bought when I got the cheezly. They were good but I was a total pig and made 2 layers - It was way too much for one, I only ate about half.

I actually enjoyed the Cheezly. Normally I don't really like vegan cheeze but the nacho stuff is pretty tolerable and went really well with the nachos.


The 3rd celebration is a meal out on saturday so I'll post the pics of that next week!

Birthday Foodz - part 1 of 3!!

It’s not actually my birthday yet (that’d be tomorrow!) but as my birthday is a Tuesday, the celebrations started Saturday. There’s going to be 3 celebrations in all (milk it for all it’s worth I say!!) so 3 posts.

Saturday was my family celebration. Mum and Dad took me and my brother Andy and his girlfriend Lara, to London for the day to watch Wicked which was absolutely awesome. Then we went for a meal in a vegan restaurant - SQUEEEEEEEE! I’ve never been to a veggie restaurant before so it was awesome being able to eat everything on the menu AND try everyone else’s food AND have dessert! I was a happy bunny indeed.

We went to 222 in West Kensington and it was fantastic. The food was gorgeous and they don’t use white flour or refined carbs which also made me happy.

I started with the Avocado Pomodoro – the sauce on this was delicious!

Andy and Dad both had the hummus and dips.
Mum had the baked mushrooms

I forgot to ask Lara to let me take a photo of her cream of mushroom soup as it came out first, it looked really good though.

Onto the mains – Dad & I had seitan stroganoff, which was creamy and delicious.

Andy had mushroom pasta, which was seriously tasty and had loads of different types of mushies.

Mum had the tofu burger (SOOOO good!)

Lara had the 222 Gardens which had baked plantain, falafel and okra and it looked realllly good!

For pudding, me & my bro both had the tofu cheesecake. It was delicious but I was too full to finish it all.

I kinda wish I had the cake though – Lara had carrot/coconut cake and raspberry ice cream and it looked amazing. They do a cake of the day but they actually had 4 varieties on the menu and all of them sounded good.

Mum and dad both had the 222 Pancake, which they said was a bit rubbery but the sauce and ice cream was good.

All in all, the meal was ace, it was omni family approved and I would definitely go back and recommend it to anyone. My bro even admitted how nice the food was and this is the guy who said he was going to sneak a steak in in his pocket!! Hehe.

Some other stuff from the last week:

Friday, after a double gym sesh of spinning and then water workout (which is not as easy as it looks!!) it was pretty late by the time I got home. This was about all I had the energy to make (and about all I had left in my barren fridge). Jersey Royals are in season (WOOP!) and I just sliced ‘em up and baked them in a little olive oil, salt & pepper and then had them with some mayo mixed with Franks’ Hot Sauce and a couple of eps of Greys Anatomy! Pretty damn good.

I have got today and tomorrow off and today was a busy day of pedicure, getting nails done and some shopping! It’s a hard life, eh. But when I got home, I just couldn’t bear to cook anything – it’s soooo damn hot today and even with the door open and the fan on, the flat is roasting! So I just made a cold noodle salad with some buckwheat udon noodles, veggies, tofu pieces and a quick sauce of tahini, lime juice, mirin, hot sauce and soy sauce. Quick, easy, tasty and no oven required.

I forget what day this was, but I veganised the barefoot contessa’s chicken piccata. It was pretty damn good, even though it was pretty sharp!! I just subbed seitan for the chicken and used vegan margarine instead of butter and I also used fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs (I make them in my coffee grinder, out of wholemeal pitas and store them in the freezer). Oh and I used soymilk instead of egg for the breading.

Anyway, I’m off to enjoy the last night of my 20s by baking my birthday cake – I’m so rock’n’roll. Cross your fingers for another gorgeous day tomorrow cuz if it is – it’s Balcony BBQ time!!!