Hello hello you called baby I can't hear a thing.....

So I cleared all the pics off my android phone and found a bunch of food pics!  Lady Gaga title making a bit more sense now? No... OK I'll move on.

A while back, myself and my awesome vegan friends went to Moshi Moshi in Brighton. Although the highlight of this day was really giant Jenga and Gin in a Tin, I am just going to show you the food, because it was excellent.



Moshi Moshi is a sushi place that has lots of vegan options, including dessert (which I was too full for to be honest.


I’m going to start as I mean to go on, with a blurry picture of a half-eaten piece of food. I know you guys love seeing these, so here it is. This is something that has a fancy name that I can’t remember, but it’s tofu skin filled with rice and veggies. Everytime we saw one go round the conveyor we nabbed them, no one else got a look in! hahaha

For the rest of my meal I ordered deep fried dumplings. These were so good, that we all got another round of them.

I also had something with mock duck in it and hoisin type sauce, I think. It was excellent and I had it with a side of brown rice, to be healthy ya know.
 

As I said, I was too full for pudding and besides, those glutinous rice ball things look like dead baby hamsters anyway. ERGH.


I also found this pic of pizza on my phone. I remember that instead of tomato sauce, I used a base of Sacla’s Aubergine pesto (good shit and no dairy!) then I added facon, peppers, mushrooms and sweetcorn. Then a buttload of cheezly. My dad was happy to inform me that it was good pizza, after he stole some of the leftovers.

This past Saturday, I met up with some other PPKers and we went on a lovely day trip to London.  Some of us met at Ms Cupcake in Bristol and I got a PB&J Cookie sandwich and coconut almond cupcake to go.  Then we went onto InSpiral, 4 of us ordered lasagne but only one of us go it!  The rest of us got this veggie bake thing.  Not lasagne but still pretty tasty.  You get to pick 3 sides, so I went for the bean salad, wedges and Greek style salad and also some garlic mayo – which is what that bright yellow stuff is.  Didn’t taste anything like garlic mayo to me but it was yummy.  I've been dying to go to InSpiral for ages and I wasn't disappointed.  I also had some Maple & Pecan icecream, their ice creams are all raw and very tasty.  I didn't get a pic though.

And just because she's so flippin cute.... a bonus pic of Jazzy!

Happy humpday all!

Laterz
xXx

Happy New Year!

Did everyone have a good Christmas?? 

I know I know, I'm over a week late, but here is the pictures of my christmas food and a few things since then.

I make a yule log every year and here was this years (VCTOTW basic chocolate recipe and store bought frosting - I was lazy!!) It fell apart a bit when I rolled it, so I just covered it with a tonne more icing.

Christmas day - first drinky!

My Christmas dinner. I took the pic before I slathered it with gravy.  This was a Redwoods celebration roast (fake turkey and pigs in blankets).  It was pretty gross and I wouldn't buy it again.  To be honest though, I'd have been happy with just the veg, sage & onion paxo stuffing and gravy, which is what I will probably have next year, if I'm too lazy to make something seitan based.  My Mum makes the best roast potatoes ever. Ever.

Christmas cake!  I never write down the recipe or follow one for that matter, I just wing it and if I'm lucky it turns out good.  This year was a good-un.  The decorations on top were not vegan (egg-white), so I picked them off my bit.  I just decorated it with a layer of marzipan then a layer of ready-made fondant icing, as cake decorating is not really my best talent, as you can see!

Dinner on boxing day was a puff pastry concoction I made.  It was mushrooms and onions sauteed and then I made a white sauce and added some cooked potatoes to it, then just wrapped it in puff pastry and baked.  It was pretty good for something I didn't put much thought into.

The next day I fancied soup, so I used some of the leftover veggies from boxing day...

I added the veg to veggie stock, a bit of tomato puree, some sauteed onion and garlic, lentils, a chopped up Wheaty Hemp Spacebar and some smoked paprika.  It was yummy and kept me in lunches up until I went back to work.

OK jumping forward a bit, this was dinner for my 3 besties, who came over on Saturday night.  I made the coconut lemon bundt cake from Veganomicon.  I ordered a bundt tin from amazon, but it didn't arrive in time, so I made it in a regular tin and it burnt a wee bit. Sadface!  However, it was still really really good!  I can't wait to try it again in the right tin, if the sucka ever arrives.  I used lite coconut milk in this.

It was a Veganomicon kinda night, because I decided I do not cook from that book enough, and it's awesome.  So I made the saffron garlic rice (although I only used 2 cloves of garlic, as my friends are not as into it as me).

And the Chickpeas Romesco.  I LOVED this.  I think the only change I would make next time is to maybe use ground almonds, as my food processor didn't get them as fine as I think they need to be.  Aside from that it was delicious. 

The side dishes were just some blanched green beans that I then sauteed with shallots and some baked tofu.  I made the marinade up as I went along, so I can't remember exactly what was in it, but from memory I think I added some wine, sherry vinegar, agave, paprika and vegan worcester sauce.  I burnt it a bit (theme of the night??) but it was still not bad and all got eaten!

And this was yesterday's lunch.  A quesadilla I made with cheezly white cheddar and jarred salsa.  Easy and quick (and yummy!).  My dad said I shouldn't post it as it was burnt (recurring theme...) but I think it was just well done! :-)

Hope you all had a fab break and if like me you celebrated an anniversary of being vegan on 1st January - Happy Veganniversary!! Mine was 4 years! :0)

Laterz
xXx

Crap party food and awesome cheesiness

Morning all!  Can you believe it's less than a week until Christmas already??  Scary!!  Well I thought I'd show you some of the christmassy themed stuff I've eaten lately.  Starting with the food from my work Christmas do last Tuesday.

Unfortunately for yours truly, the vegan food pretty much sucked.  I was very grateful still to actually have a vegan menu offered to me, but wish it was better executed!!

The appetiser was the best bit... bread & hummus.

The starter was a (small) piece of melon.  At least it wasn't gross and hard!

 

The main was a potato thing (that really is the best I can describe it, as I'd had a few glasses of wine by this point) that was pretty good, but cold.  The sauce was cold, the veg were cold.  The peppers and aubergine were not properly cooked or seasoned at all.  I struggled to get my knife through the pepper!

Dessert was really REALLY imaginative - fruit salad!!  It was ok, but boring.

Aside from the food, it was an awesome night though!!

Onto some good GREAT eats.  My friend Jojo had a vegan wine & cheese party at her house, this past saturday and these were my offering - cheese & potato pasties.  I have given a vague recipe for this at the bottom of the post if anyone's interested.  They were good!

There was leftover pastry so I decided to make some mini pastries - these were filled with smooth speculoos paste and a few chocolate chips. YUM!

Onto the rest of the food.  Obligatory cheese & pineapple on a stick!

My friend Kip's awesome cheeseball, which is amazing and rolled in cranberries and nuts.  We always ask her to make this for parties because it is SO. FREAKING. GOOD!!  One day I will remember to ask her for the recipe for it!

In this pic is Kip's blue cheese dip, cheezly blue and cheddar with cranberries that I bought (it's their Christmas selection) and crock cheese from the uncheese cookbook - not sure who made the crock cheese, I think it was Jojo? I have that book and have never made anything from it, but the crock cheese was really good so I'm definitely going to have to make some soon!

Kip's awesome artichoke dip. This stuff was GOOD!  Also in this pic is my balsamic onion chutney. It was a recipe I found on the interwebz and was pretty good, but a bit too sweet for me.  My dad seems to like it though!

The spread!

The wine!!

After the party me and our friend Hana both stayed at Jojo's, so the next morning we all went for breakfast.  Although actually it was lunch really by the time we motored ourselves out the door.  We decided to go to Wai Kika Moo Kau, as Iydea stop serving breakfast at 11.20 - stupid time or what!!  Anyway, I got the brighton deli wrap, which was good, but just a bit too much salad for my liking.  The sausages were good (they tasted like Linda McCartney's to me!). 

Chips in the wrap - yes I am a genius!



Recipe for the vegan cheese pasties

Filling:

2 large potatoes (I used 2 bakers)

1 large onion

1 pack of cheezly (I used half a pack of white cheddar and half a pack of red cheddar) or whatever vegan cheese you like.  About 200g!

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp paprika

Salt & pepper to taste

Chop the potatoes into small dice and par-boil for 10 minutes (until JUST cooked but not too soft).  In the meatime, saute the onion in the oil and a pinch of salt for 5-10 mins, until cooked and starting to brown.  Add thyme and paprika and season lightly.

Mix together the potatoes, onion mixture and grated cheese then test for seasoning (I didn't need to add much salt as the cheese is pretty salty).  Chill the mixture (I left it overnight).

To assemble, I rolled out ready bought frozen puff pastry (I used the big pack of Jus-Rol) and cut around a cereal bowl for each one.  Then wet the edges of the circle and put a generous tablespoon of filling in the centre.  Folder over, press to seal and then use a fork to crimp the edges shut.  Place on a baking tray lined with parchment and spray lightly with olive oil. Bake 20-25 minutes at 180C/350F or until lightly browned. 

Cool on a cooling rack and try not to burn your tongue when you eat one too quickly because you are too hungry to wait (like I did)!

This filling makes a lot!  I used about 3/4 of the pack of Jus-Rol and got about 16 pasties, but it depends on your bowl size!  There was quite a bit of filling left so I have frozen it for future pasty making over christmas!! 

The rest of the pastry I used for the sweet pastries, which I cut out with a 1 cup metal measuring cup and filled with a tsp of speculoos paste and about 3 or 4 chocolate chips. These took about 15 minutes to bake.

That's it for now - hope you all have a fantasmical Christmas, if you celebrate it and I will see you after chrimbo for pics of Christmas dinner! YAY.

Sing it now.... "When the snowman brings the snow.... well he just might like to knooooowwww he put a great big smile on SOMEBODY'S FACE."  Yeah that'd be my face!! 

Laterz

xXx

FAIL cake!

Well I had planned to blog last week but I don't have many pics to share.  I've decided to do a short post anyway.

Remember I mentioned last weekend was my dad's birthday and I was making cake. Yeah that was a FAIL!

My cakes cracked .... :-(

I tried to salvage it with buttercream and cherries but even cocktail sticks couldn't hold this volcano together!

So we had a laugh and stuck some candles on it anyway.  I was pretty gutted, not gonna lie. I wanted to cry and the state of the cake!  My mum suggested putting a ribbon around it, not sure she was impressed with my response of "what's the point, you can't polish a turd mum!"

Having said all that, once we sliced it, it was pretty damn delicious.

Dinner at the weekend, pizza! Haven't had pizza in a while.  This was a pre-bought based (Tesco Value I think!! haha).  I added some shop bought sauce, broken up facon (RealEat), sweetcorn, peppers and about half a block of cheezly white cheddar. It was good! My dad even snuck some of the leftovers and said it was good.

EXTREME CLOSE UP! WAAAAAOOOOHHHH!  WAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOHHH!

And soup.  I made this Sunday and am eating the leftovers this week for lunch.  It's the Bodacious Bean & Barley Soup from Garden of Vegan, that I have blogged about before and made many times. It is THAT awesome.

Enjoy the rest of your week peeps.

Laterz
xXx

Remember remember the 5th of November... Gunpowder, hotdogs and wine!

Hello lovelies. It is Friday again, big fat mega YAY!  I'm excited to finish work for the weekend tonight and then go to the pub! 

This weekend is Daddy Alien's birthday so next time, expect some pics of the cake I'm making tomorrow.  But back to this week and I'll start with last friday's dinner. 

Veganz - we is healthy!!  Fry's burger and smash with nooch. YES!!! Friday trash is awesome.

Onto weeknight dinners when I try to be a bit healthier.  I made Isa's baked falafel from Appetite for Reduction, only I had to make a few substitutions: I had no chickpeas so I used kidney beans. I had no chickpea flour so I used cornmeal. I had no parsley so I used coriander/cilantro.  HAHA so yeah not really falafel then Sal??  Ah well, they were still tasty enough to eat 2 nights in a row.  Here they are with bulgar cooked in veggie stock, salad, a pitta and hummus.

And again with pitta, salad, hummus and brown rice! 

Saturday night was bonfire night.  Mum, Dad and myself stayed home and had a barbecue and fireworks.  Starting as we meant to go on with some sparkly pink wine....

I had Redwoods hot dogs (my fave vegan hotdogs) on buns with ketchup, mayo, homemade garlic bread and potatoes roasted with garlic and rosemary. YUM.

Ugh! Horrid profile shot my mum took! hahaha.

And one of the parents enjoying their hotdogs too. Not vegan, but I thought the pic was cute! hehe

I bought some of those Alpro vanilla puddings and they taste just like the custard to me, so I've been microwaving them for a minute and pouring them over a banana for pudding this week. Really good and easy peasy. Sorry for the blurry pic, it gets dark at like 4 o'clock at the moment so it's not easy to get a great picture! Not that you expect that from me anyway, right? ;-)

Last night I made Susan V's Ridiculously Easy Curried Chickpeas and Quinoa.  They really are ridiculously easy and tasty as well - and I'm not really a lover of quinoa!!  I was going to serve them in taco shells, but when I tasted it, it didn't seem to be something that would go right in a taco, so I just had a pita with them instead.  Also, I split the recipe into 3 not 4 servings, because I was freakin Hank Marvin after my Zumba class.

Lastly, brekkie this morning. Crumpets. YUM!  After I took this pic I poured over a generous blob of golden syrup on each one. Best way to eat crumpers, ever!

Bonus kitty pics!!  This is what most of my photos of Jazzy look like... her running away!  She is super camera shy (either that or the flash scares her!)

Today I got one of her about to eat.  HAHA I turned the camera on and called her name and BAM! photo taken before she had a chance to realise.

"I got laser eyes - and I know what you're thinking!"

Have a spankingly awesome weekend everyone.

Laterz

xXx