Quick & Easy Weeknight Meal Ideas

One of the most common things that I get asked when people find out I'm vegan, is "what do you eat?" or "Isn't it difficult?"

I'm sure that most of you reading this already know that it's not difficult!

I don't always have the time, or inclination to make a complicated fancy meal (although I love doing that too!), especially on a weeknight. So I thought I'd write a post about some of my favourite, easy weeknight dinners!

Firstly ~ and this should come as no shock to regular readers ~ Curry!

Curry is one of my favourite weeknight meals. It's SO easy; I can make a big pot and have leftovers for lunch, I can have it with rice, or as in this little vid that I put together for ya.... over a baked potato!

I vary what I put in curries, depending on what I have in the fridge/pantry that needs using up. More often than not I add chickpeas, spinach and coconut milk. I like spending the time toasting and grinding my own spices too, but when I'm in a rush (or just lazy) I like the Pataks' curry pastes, as used in this vid.

Tacos 

No longer only for Taco Tuesday! In fact, there's a whole book dedicated to vegan tacos now (must buy that!)

Tacos are also a great way to use up whatever is in the fridge. I normally use some vegan quorn / frys pieces and some sliced onions, peppers and mushrooms in mine. But these ones that I made during MoFo a couple of years ago were also great!

Pasta

The ultimate fast weeknight (or lunchtime, or weekend, or breakfast...) meal. Pasta is so damn quick and there's a billion and one things you can add to it.

My fave quick way to get something reasonably healthy (and Slimming World) friendly into me, is to chuck a few pieces of frozen cauliflower into the water with the pasta, along with some frozen broccoli and peas (a bit nearer the end). Then transfer the cauliflower to the blender, with some nooch, a veg stock cube and some soymilk and whizz for a really easy, low fat creamy sauce.

Or a quick cashew based tomato sauce: chuck a handful of cashews into the blender with some tomato puree, nooch if you like and stock or non dairy milk and blend (you'll need a decent blender). Sometimes I throw some actual tomatoes in too! :)

Of course, there's always Stirfry!

I used to think stirfry was the most boring of boring foods! But now I love it for being fast and healthy and easy, especially if you have the foresight to buy a bag of stir fry veg hehe.


This one was a bunch of veggies from the fridge that needed using, a tin of mock duck and there's noodles under there too! The sauce is what makes a stir fry - I concocted a quick sauce out of PB2 (powdered peanut butter), soy sauce, Chinese 5 spice powder, maple syrup, rice vinegar and sriracha! It was good.

For more quick meal ideas, check out my veganising Jamie posts from MoFo 2014 HERE: all the recipes I modified were from 15 minute meals!

Of course, if all else fails, there's always hummus! (I usually eat WAY less fancy hummus than this though!)

What's your favourite fast weeknight (or whenever) meal?

Sal xXx

Vegan MoFo Day 4: Taco or Beer Challenge & Veganising Jamie Oliver

So today's a double whammy because my good friend Jojo tagged me to do the Taco or Beer Challenge and I accepted. So as Thursday is my day to veganise Jamie Oliver, I had a scout through the book and found the perfect recipe: Ultimate Pork Tacos.

I swapped out the pork for seitan and the dairy yoghurt for soya but that was actually all I had to change to make this vegan and you know what, it was pretty effin good!!

Before I crack on with the food pics / info, the point of the Taco or Beer Challenge is similar to the ice bucket challenge; do something rad (much nicer than chucking iced water on ya heed!) and then donate to a pro choice charity.  I've donated to Abortion Support Network.  They help women in Northern Ireland to travel to England for a safe & legal abortion, as abortion is still illegal in NI.  This boggles my mind as much as it boils my blood!  I'm tagging Katie from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk to do the challenge next.

OK so back to the tacos.

All ready to shcoff!

I added potatoes because Jojo's taco post made me want to do this. I didn't regret it!

I couldn't find black beans in my crap local tiny sainsbury's so I went with the nearest thing I could find: Kidney beans. So my refried beans were purple instead of black! haha. Still yummy though.

I also couldn't find the chilli sauce Jamie specifies so I used Franks.

I'm goin in!

Recipe Link: Ultimate Pork Tacos 

Actual Time Taken: about 20 minutes

(Today, I did what the book says and got everything out and ready and then started timing. So in reality, with getting the stuff out, it took more like 30 minutes.)

My Substitutions:
- I substituted seitan for the pork

- I substituted soya yoghurt for the dairy

- I substituted kidney beans for the black beans

- I substituted Franks for the chilli sauce I've never heard of

- I added some chopped potatoes (I used tinned to keep in the 15 minute meals mindset!) in with the seitan

Verdict:
There was too much filling for 2 taco shells, as there always is when I make tacos. So I ended up just kind of throwing it all together and it was seriously good.  I actually think with the potatoes added, this would be great without the taco shells just as a salad.  I was skeptical about adding apple to the salad but it worked really REALLY well, especially when some of the fennel seeds from the seitan mixed in with it.

All in all, I really enjoyed it and would definitely make it again.  A less faffy person could definitely do it in 15 minutes too!

See ya tomorrow!

Laterz
xXx

I can't think of a post title.

Woo woo it's Friday.  I hope everyone's week has been mighty fine.  We actually has some lovely weather over the bank holiday so we decided to have another barbecue.  You have to make the most of the weather in the UK as it seems to have buggered off again and we're not sure when it will return!

 

My plate was pretty similar to the last post, only I made a bean salad with green & kidney beans, some fresh sweetcorn and a bit of red pepper.  We ran out of garlic so had to make do with regular bread - oh the hardship!



 

This was just a quicky dinner I did last week. I was gonna make risotto but I did have the rice I thought I had so I used bulghur wheat instead. Pretty simple, I just cooked the bulghur in veggie stock and while it was cooking I roasted up some chunks of butternut squash, some asparagus and some mushrooms.  Then add the end I stirred in the squash and some peas. 

 

Last Saturday was my gorgeous Godson's christening and my best friend asked me to make cupcakes for the do afterwards.  I did chocolate with coconut icing (pink wrappers) and choc chip with orange icing (blue wrappers).  They went down pretty well, but then who doesn't love a cupcake?

Last night I was gonna make sausage & mash, as I bought some Linda Mc sausages on my lunch break, but instead I decided to cook the potatoes with a bit of onion in veggie stock.  This is something that was in an ancient weight watchers book that mum & I used to love once upon a time.  I forgot how good potatoes are when they are cooked this way. Plus you get gravy all cooked into it, so don't have to dirty a jug making bisto! WIN.

 

This meal was one that I got 2 meals out of, yay leftovers!  I made up a quick bolognaisey type sauce with some Linda Mc Cartney Mince, chopped onion, courgette & pepper and some jarred tomato sauce for a super quick tea.

 

Then the next day, I added some spices and lots of chilli and fresh coriander and used it to fill tacos. Perfect for when you're running short of time, like I often am on a week night.

And lastly - breakfast from Wai Kika Moo Kau the other weekend.  I went to Brighton to hang out with Jojo as it was the last time I'll see her for a bit, as she's off on her travels to America for a while.  This was a pretty good brekkie, although the tofu was a bit soft for me.  I have a weird thing about tofu texture (remnants of gallstone-inflicted food aversions!) and I tend to overcook it a bit so it is chewy!  But the rest was good and I really like it in there.

Have a rad weekend!

Laterz
xXx

Vegan MoFo Day 10: Taco Tuesday

Yes I know that it's Wednesday but this was last night's dinner and apparently I already used the post title I was gonna use, like 4 years ago!  Dammit.

 

So this is what I came up with, with some of that lovely veg I bought yesterday.  I decided to keep it really simple, just mushrooms, green pepper, pinto beans, sweetcorn and onions.  All sauteed up with a little bit of cumin, paprika, oregano and some jalapenos out of a jar. Oh and some tomato puree.

 

The tomatoes I bought were far too red and lovely to be cooked so I just chopped them up and put them on top with some lettuce.  I served it with plain old brown rice.

 

I took a pic of the bowl of fixings, as it's really not easy to get photos of filled tacos:

Close up of the filling

See!

Shove in face, YEAH!

See ya tomorrow!
xXx

Mini Me

Look at me posting after only 8 days' break!! hehe. It's a mini post from me today, because honestly, I really haven't cooked all that much this last week. I've been out for dinner a couple of times and instead of having the girls over here we went to Em's and she cooked - wonders will never cease!! :-)

So I'll start with the other day's lunch, roasted cherry tomato soup. This had a trip hit of tomatoes because I also added some tinned (well boxed actually) and some sun-dried toms. Recipe is at the end of the post. It was yummy.


Brunch today - I had some tofu leftover from the brownies that are coming up in a minute! So I made tofu omelettes from vegan brunch. I halved the recipe and the other half of the omelette batter is in the fridge for tomorrow morning. Once I spread out the batter I chucked on some chopped up sun dried tomatoes, spring onions, sweetcorn and a couple of rings of jarred jalapenos. Then flipped it to cook the second side. Then I flipped it back and sprinkled it with black pepper, dried oregano and grated on some cheezly mozz, then stuck it under the grill for a minute to melt. Soooooo delicious.

I said brownies.... I made these on Tuesday night to take to Em's for pudding. The recipe is from Vegan Cookies .... for the chocolate brownies and I added 1/3 cup of walnuts and 2 packets (50g total) of white chocolate buttons broken up. I cooked them for just the very minimum amount of time so they would be super fudgy and delicous and they were - best vegan brownies I've ever made!! SO EFFING GOOD. I must admit, when I first bought this book I was underwhelmed with it, but I've now made a few things and everything has been so tasty that I've really grown to love the book.

Dinner the other night, tacos! I sauteed a couple of spring onions and a clove of garlic and added a cup of sainsbury's frozen veggie mince (they didn't have any Linda McCartney, but this one is pretty much the same!). I added half a box of chopped tomatoes, a green chilli, some mild pepperdew peppers (I didn't have any red or yellow peppers!) and some cumin, coriander, oregano and paprika. I also grated about half a courgette in finely, then left it to reduce down. It was easy, nice and not too spicy. It made enough to fill about 6 taco shells, so I had leftovers. I had some salsa in the fridge so I topped it with that, some shredded lettuce and some soya yoghurt. Oh and some chopped, fresh coriander.

All ready to munch....

Close up of the taco filling...

Ready for assembling...

And here's the recipe for the soup:

Ingredients:
1 cup cherry tomatoes

2 fat cloves of garlic

olive oil

1 small onion

1/3 cup white wine

2 cups veggie stock

1/2 box (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup) chopped tomatoes in juice

4 sun-dried tomatoes*

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

pinch of sugar or splenda

Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
Put the cherry tomatoes and garlic on a baking sheet and drizzle on a little bit of oil then bake at 200C/400F for 20 minutes.

Saute the onion over medium high in a tbsp or so of olive oil, with a good pinch of salt, for 5 minutes until starting to soften but not too coloured.

Once the tomatoes and garlic are done, pop the garlic out of the papery skins and set aside. Don't bother taking the skin off the tomatoes.

Back to the onions! Add the wine the pan and let it bubble off for a couple of minutes. Then add all the other ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.

Then pour into a blend and blend till smooth.

I served mine with a small blob of soya yoghurt on top, just to look poncey but it's not essential.

* I used sun-dried tomtoes packed in oil and just gave them a good shake off of the excess oil and then chopped them roughly. If you use dried ones, just chuck them into the soup when you add the stock and they'll reconstitute as you cook it.

Laterz
xXx

Do these tacos taste funny to you?

HURRAH! Exams are over and now I can chill out and get excited about leaving for a week in Cyprus in 13 days!

I actually had a good trip to London. My hotel room was bigger than my flat (and I'm not exaggerating) and had a nice view of the London eye and the river. I took some pics on my phone, will post them when I work out how to get them off the phone!

I also had 2 good meals! TWO! And one bad one, but I'll not say any more about that. The good - a lovely italian meal, where they made me a risotto with loads of fresh greens like spinach, peas, green beans and asparagus! YUM (wish I'd taken my camera!) And then dinner at Wagamamas - one day I will manage to recreate yasai itame. One day it WILL happen!!

But back to food I cooked. Some of these are from the week before I went and some are from after I got back on Friday.

Firstly, my adventure with tacos!! I have never made tacos before and they were quite possibly the messiest thing I have ever cooked!! I bought some taco shells and some chipolte paste (awesome stuff) and decided to have a go.

I forgot to buy lettuce, didn't have any soy cheese or vegan sour cream. But anyway, I knocked up a filling made of tomatoes, spices, onions, peppers, tofu and cannelini beans, some home-made salsa and a blob of mayola. The stupid taco shells didn't stand up so filling them was interesting and getting a photo was almost impossible. This messy bugger is about as good as I could get.

They were flippin tasty though!



This post wouldn't be right without some baking! I made wheat-free lemon & poppy seed muffins for breakfasts this week. I am planning to try these again with some different flour, because they were a bit powdery and I'm not sure why yet. The flavour is spot on though - it's just the texture.


Last night's dinner - tofu & veggies in a spicy tomato sauce with cous cous. MMMMM!


Last week - I fancied pasta bolognaise, so I went for a mushroom bolognaise. This lot .....

... became this:



Saturday's breakfast! Potatoes roasted with some olive oil, oregano & paprika, with a tofu scramble that I threw some fresh tomato and basil into right at the end.

Saturday's dinner: a REALLY spicy stir fry with fresh chilli, ginger, brown rice and a peanutty sauce that I threw together. Was sooo good.

That's all for now.