Granola Au Gratin

Because Myspace hates me

2007-10-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

I'll take this down again later...can't be bothered to explain....

Blimey!

2007-09-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

As in blimey, I'm becoming a lazy blogger. I think there should be a website that names and shames bloggers who haven't posted for ages. I might make one myself...I'd probably forget to update it though!

So, into the murky depths of my camera I plunge...

We start today with some of the lunches I packed for myself recently, featuring my groovy little Japanese bento box (which bears the legend "Natural Leaf: I love natural blessing"). I like to incorporate leftovers from other meals (mainly to save time, as otherwise I am liable to go off on a little cooking spree before school and miss my bus) and I am *trying* to keep prep time under 20 mins (Ha).

Buckwheat pasta mixed with leftover ratatouille with little cut out stars of Lemon-Herb Tofu (I love this stuff), plus a nectarine, cherry tomatoes and steamed cabbage with black pepper.

Mini pan bagnat (yummy pressed sandwich, usually made with slightly stale bread, filled with all kinds of things and left to soak in its juices for a few hours) on a homemade kamut roll, nectarine and salad with mushrooms and tempeh.

Peanut butter, grated carrot and raisins on a homemade kamut roll, with dried figs (source of calcium, people!) and some cherry toms and cukes (getting too lazy to spell whole wrds nw). Plus a yummy apple (English apples kick other
nations' apples' butts).

Homemade hummus with cayenne, cherry toms, pepper and carrots sticks and a wholewheat pitta (not in the photo). I give Dreena Burton the full credit for helping me to finally make hummus that doesn't suck!

Had a "vegetable day" the other Sunday. One of those days I don't want pulses or tofu or anything protein-y, just veggies and grains. So I made the best lunch I've had for ages. I got a big field mushroom and roasted it with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, yellow cherry tomatoes (mmmm) and a whole load of garlic and thyme from the garden. Fab...

And all plated up, with Pie's latest crop of potatoes and some veggies.

Been watching a lot of food porn on the telly lately. My fave at the moment is Jamie (Oliver) at Home, in which he cooks vegetables from his incredible garden. The recipes are simple, but stunning and quite a lot are vegan or veganizable. We've already bought the book and I was really excited to try out the "Humble Home-cooked Beans". Here you can see the results. Unfortunatly they took forever to cook (I suspect because I used cannellini beans, although it said I could use them instead of the suggested borlotti beans) and never got really soft. The flavours were all there, though, and the roasted tomato bruschetta I improvised were delish, as the man himself would say.

Also on my telly has been Nigella Express. While I find her a bit annoying, her food is very nice. The pasta in this photo, with a side of Italian Tofu from Vegan With A Vengeance (which stuck to our rubbish griddle but was still yum) and broccolli, was inspired by something she made on her show this week. It's basically a speedy mushroom pasta with thyme, lemon, olive oil,mushrooms and parsley. My mum fried the mushrooms first instead of adding them raw like Nigella, because we only had oyster mushrooms, and I hate them raw. Too bitter for me! It was all dashed tasty.

Lastly, my favourite food: stir-fry. It's a shame it's the only food I can't make for myself (I always burn things, or add too much water). This one had loads of veggies and cashews with my homemade sauce (2 T shoyu, juice and zest of 1/2 a lime, 1-2 t tomato puree, 1-2 agave nectar and 1/4 t five-spice powder). I had it with brown basmati rice and it was scrummy.

I have to go now, as I'm dog tired and sense will soon making stop.

Hello!

Been a while

2007-09-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

Embarrassingly, it's been a whole two weeks since I last updated this blog! I was hoping I'd have a major backlog to wow you all with to make up for it, but alas, I've been fairly slack on that front as well. I'm back at school now (my last year!) so posts might be less frequent for a while when they start piling on the coursework. Never mind, quality not quantity I say...

We start today with a brilliant chance find! On the way to the supermarket (we missed the last farmer's market-boo! And we only have one or two a month- some of you bloggers in the USA seem to get one practically every day which makes me green with envy!) we passed a little stall someone had set up outside their house with squash, beans and courgettes from their garden, with a little honesty box so you could help yourself. They were still there coming back the other way and we picked up the beastie you see above.

My favourite way (in fact, in my humble opinion, the only way) to eat squash is roasted. So we did just that and tossed it with some pasta and a sage-y dressing my mum made (the sage was from our garden - the herbs at least are still going strong, unlike the courgettes and beans which succumbed to the bad weather. We still have hopes of harvesting some sweetcorn and butternut squash, though). Yummy! With roastey toastey pine nuts, natch, and some nutritional yeast which I ended up scraping off (I think my problem is it tastes too different to parmesan - I like it in cheese sauces and on soups but stay away from my pasta, please). Guess I'll have to experiment with making my own cheesy pasta sprinkles. The taste was between butternut squash and potatoes, which is a happy place to be.

I'm a big fan of Dreena Burton's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies, so I decided to try another sweet recipe of hers: Banana Oat Bundles. They were so yummy and quick to make and tasted like rock cakes (which is a compliment if you don't know what rock cakes are - think sweet, crumbly scones with raisins that look like you splatted the batter on the baking sheet - which you do, funnily enough). Plus a great use of overripe bananas, which we always seem to have lying around.

I was looking through Vegan With a Vengeance and decided I need to cook from it more often! So many yummy recipes (although my version has a coupla errors - 250ml nutritional yeast?), so little time. I plumped for the Sweetcorn Chowder, thinking it would make a nice supper with leftovers for my dad who was getting home late. Tasty and smoky (although I would have loved more spice - left out the jalapenos as Pie is very anti-chillies), if a little sweet, though prehaps that was because I used sweetened soy milk.

Last night was easy (but tasty) meal night for me and Pie - baked potatoes done in the microwave (but also oven cooked - we have a magical oven that lets you do both at once) with Velvet Red Lentil Soup (which Pie spurned and had, gosh, cheese and ham instead) and guacamole for my baked potato (comes a close second to hummus). Served with some microwaved sweetcorn (which has been awesome this year) and red and yellow cherry tomatoes. I also had an itty-bitty Sojasun cherry soy yoghurt - makes me feel five again.

Tonight was pizza night! This time I went for some red pepper, canned artichoke hearts, courgettes, pine nuts and pesto. It was spiffing! There would be a picture but Blogger won't upload it. Never mind.

Lastly, I have a new love in my life: Booja Booja Stuff In A Tub. It was the first vegan ice "cream" I've ever eaten and I cannot see myself ever buying another brand. I tried the vanilla flavour and it was so deliciously pure-tasting and melting smooth it needed no adornment. It's also pretty healthy as it's made with cashew nuts and sweetened with agave nectar, so you needn't feel guilty about tucking in! It's also suitable for diabetics. Next the ginger flavour, or maple and pecan, or chocolate...

See you soon, by which time I will have eaten the entire tub in my sleep.

Unlucky for some...

2007-08-24T12:35:00.001-07:00

My thirteenth post! Guess it really was unlucky, because I got interrupted halfway through posting, went to finish it just now and found that only the title had been saved. Oh well...

Porridge (oatmeal to all you lot across the Pond), with craisins (a.k.a dried cranberries, but I love saying that), walnuts and agave nectar. I must make this nearly everyday. It's my absolute favourite breakfast (pancakes not included): fast, cheap and easy. I jazz it up with lots of different toppings to stop it getting boring. Right now I like raisins, walnuts and maple syrup best of all. I use the recipe from Anthony Worrall Thompson's GI Diet, but I increase the quantity of oats slightly. I also add ground flaxseeds for omega-3 goodness.

Another old favourite, B'cous cous I Love You (such a cute name) from Vegan Eats and Treats. It's dead simple, you just make the cous cous and sauce (which I jazzed up a bit this time with some Morrocan-y spices - though I went a little heavy on the cinnamon) and whack it in the oven, best Jamie Oliver style. My tip is to toast the pine nuts first for more flavour. I wanted to add raisins, but my latent snacking (if I see raisins, I eat them) caught up with me and we didn't have any left. Serves me right...

To go with it I made a great chickpea salad based loosely on this one, with tomatoes, cucumber, grated carrot, spring onions and chickpeas (natch) dressed with pumpkin seed oil (I love this stuff. I will add it to anything) and red wine vinegar. It was super yummy and the leftovers were even better as a quick lunch after getting back from hospital (hormone tests, not fun). I threw in some avocado that was lying around as well, and made some ginger tea, which is my new obsession (I need caffeine-free drinks for in the evenings or I can't sleep). To serve 1, just grate a 2 cm chunk fresh root ginger, pack into an infuser ball (like a reusable teabag-from tea shops), place in a cup and pour on boiling water. Leave to infuse for a few minutes and drink. If you don't have an infuser ball, make in a teapot or just slice the ginger and place in your cup instead. You can sweeten it with agave or brown sugar if that's how you like your drinks.

Here's everything together on my plate. Mmmmm!

See you soon!

Me again!

2007-08-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

My second post of the day, in which I get down to some proper cooking, and also learn how to take pictures of food!

First thing I cooked on getting back (well, apart from some soup, but lentil and tomato soup in semi darkness ain't that pretty) was a delicious and amazing recipe I'm sure many of you know well: Dreena Burton's Lemon-Herb Tofu. So easy! You don't even have to press it (although I did as my tofu turned out to be quite watery) or marinade, just mixed it all together and whack it in the oven. It's even better cold, mashed up with vegan mayo (I use GranoVita Mayola, the one with added flax oil) and made into sarnies on wholewheat bread with sliced cucumber. Way, way, waaaay better than tuna ever tasted back in my omni days!

We came back with piles of beans and courgettes that family members had foisted upon us, only to find our own veg patch dripping with beans and two oversized courgettes (or "more-gettes" as we call them when they get this big) our neighbours had picked for us waiting in the fridge. Although I didn't see any beans when I went out there at first. Then Mum went out and came back with armfuls of the things. What's wrong with me? I must have some weird bean blindness. We griddled some of the courgettes to have with Sunday lunch. It actually seems to work better with big courgettes than those tiny ones, because you can discard the spongy centres and still have plenty left to work with.

Here's my plate from Sunday, with the tofu, courgettes, beans (we are going to be living on green beans for the next coupla weeks!), roasted potatoes and carrots.

The apple season has started! As usually it kicks off with one of my faves. Discovery. These small, sweet-tart rosy pink apples are around until about October (I think- damn me trying to sound wise!).

Monday evening I decided to cook this yummy quinoa paella from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (sorry Susan - I did add a little bit of olive oil to it!). It was super (although I'll eat nearly anything with artichokes in), although the kidney beans didn't go down too well with Pie. She made a valiant effort to eat the rest, though. We had some yummy sweetcorn on the side.

In an effort to break out of my hummus box, I tried the "Butter Bean and Pumpkin Seed Dip" from Vegan: Over 90 Mouthwatering Recipes. It wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be - it had a weird, sour aftertaste which was a pity as it was otherwise really quite tasty.

From the same cookbook I made the "Spicy Avocado Toast" (the fact I down have a picture is testimony to how yummy it is - looks like I'll have to cook it again. Damn!) and also the "Broccoli and Peanut Soup", which was a great excuse to buy some oat milk, which I adore. I almost couldn't make this due to chronic broccoli shortages (Panic! Tee hee.) because of the recent flood, but I found some in Waitrose and all was well. It was vaguely reminiscent of Stilton and broccoli soup texture-wise and quite weird, but not in a bad way.

And now to the photography! I'd been reading the notes on taking pictures of food on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (where the photos are so awesome I feel quite embarassed when I see my own) and, having prepped dinner and being at a loose end, decided to have a go! I got some good light (it was dark but we have spotlights in our kitchen which worked great), stuck the camera in macro mode, got up close and personal with the cherry tomatoes, and much to my surpise it worked! So I photographed the pasta...

And some frozen peas...

And then Pie took this picture, which may be the only time in my life I've ever wanted to eat recycling (OK, slight exaggeration).

So finally dinner was ready...

EXTREME CLOSE UP! (If you haven't seen Wayne's World then go rent it immediately.)

Buckwheat fusilli with tofu, cherry tomatoes, and spinach with garlic, balsamic vinegar and tamari. Edit: I adapted it from this recipe (Check out Vegan Cooking! It's never failed me yet). It looks yummy, but I vinegared my nose by accident and couldn't smell very much, so it tasted a bit bland. My mum assures me it was good, though.

In other new, I have a new fish. We call him Comet after this guy (scroll down) and also because he whizzes about!
Edit: Here's a picture!

See you all later!

Holiday eats...plus random cuteness

2007-08-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

Well, as you heard in my last post I'm back from my holidays! They were great! I spent a week on a canal boat, on which we were originally planning to go to Bristol, but seriously, you ever been on a canal? Well it's slow. I mean really slow. So we just went a little beyond Bath, which is a beautiful town on the banks of the River Avon. I had some really cool meals out there. Three restaurants I'll mention in particular.

Yum-Yum Thai has a number of dishes that are either veggie or can be made veggie if you prefer. All their food is MSG-free, their chicken is free-range (even though I'd never eat anything from an animal, I like to see people show a bit of interest in how their meat is raised) and they have a selection of organic wines. You can eat in or take away. I chose the (veganized) Pat Thai Kung (which usually has prawns). It was delicious, with cashews and yummy veg including dried turnip, which I'd never eaten before. The fried tofu was a bit chewier than I would have liked, but otherwise it was fab, especially garnished with chilli flakes and salty peanuts.

Sadly, we couldn't get a table at Demuth's, a legendary but pricey vegetarian/vegan restaurant, at a time that suited us. I actually cried, looking at delicious-sounding dishes on the menu like dark chocolate fudge cake and black rice pudding (OK, I was mainly focusing on the puddings here) and knowing they were so near, yet so far.

So instead we went that night to Pasta Galore, which despite what the name might suggest, is a bona fide little Italian restaurant, where you can order freshly made pasta (egg pasta, alas!) and pizza, as well as risottos and other delicious things. If you go there, it looks kinda seedy on the outside, but please, please, go in and give these lovely people a chance! You won't regret it. I went for the "make your own pizza" option, with artichokes, pepper, olives, chilli and basil which I didn't want, but Mum hijacked my order. I also got dessert! If you are vegan you'll know this is no small thing. Mango and passionfruit sorbet, mmmm! This place had a wonderful atmosphere and really lovely staff. The chef did have to stick his head out to see what this strange vegan creature looked like. He looked disappointed at the total lack of tentacles!

To quote Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk, if you have managed to read through all that, here's your reward!

The love of Pie's life, Comet the Alpaca. We were meant to go llama trekking while staying with my aunt in Dorset for the other week of the holiday (the people who run the treks also have two alpacas and a guanaco) but the foot and mouth meant they had to stay on the farm, so we had some "touchy-feely time". They really are beautiful creatures.

Well, I'm going to do another post straight after this, seeing as this post will get too long if I include stuff I've done after I got back.

Bye (but not for long)

I'm Back!

2007-08-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? Nothing really to post foodwise, just letting you know I'm still here! I've just returned from holiday (food highlights and vegan eats in Bath to follow), so I'm getting sorted out still, but I hope to be up and blogging within the next few days. I also now have access to a decent camera (at last!) so I can now be all creative and artistic with my shots of the food, knowing it isn't going to end up as a terrible blur.

Also, I just wanted to say a great big thanks and good luck to Jennifer McCann of Vegan Lunch Box, who is retiring from the blogging scene, for the moment at least, though I hope we hear from her again someday. It's probably true that had I not stumbled across her wonderful blog five or so months ago, looking for lunchbox ideas, I would never have been inspired to go vegan myself. It's been one of my favourite blogs and I'll really miss her posts. I wanted to leave a message on the blog itself, but Blogger was being stupid, so I'm writing this in the hope she sees it.

Finally, a fond farewell to Daisy the goldfish. Goodbye, little friend.

See you soon!

Food, glorious food....

2007-07-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've gone vegan since my last post!

I went down to my health food shop for some supplies- I'm going on holiday next week and needed some stuff for easy meals (we'll be on a canal boat, then at my aunt's house in Dorset). One of the guys who works there is vegan and he was so helpful, especially when I asked his advice on a calcium supplement.

I got some flavoured tofu (basil, spicy and sunflower seed/herbs), vegan mayonnaise, margarine, tempeh, a new soymilk to try and some energy bars for emergency meals.

These look really good. They're all-natural, mostly raw and full of good things. The base is almond butter so I think they'll be yummy. There's also an omega 3 bar, a chocolate one and one with "living greens" (didn't fancy that one, strangely).

I know I promised you sweet vegan cookie action, but I forgot to take pictures of these. This is the last lonely one, They are Dreena Burton's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies. GO MAKE THEM! NOW!

On Sunday nights I make myself a little bowl of soup. This one was carrot and butter bean with garlic and rosemary (from the garden), It was damn tasty! I had some oat and pumpkin seed Ryvita, which I hadn't tried before and I love. I spread on some marmite after I took the photo.

A simple but tasty bean salad for me last night. After I took the photo Emily decided she wanted pine nuts so I toasted some quickly. Yum!

We interrupt the food porn to bring you some adorable cuteness! These gorgeous girls are Cairn terriers who belong to two of Pie's friends. The big one in front is Trudi, and the little fairy dog peeking round the side is Fig (cute name, right?). They came to ask Pie out on a walk and I couldn't resist grabbing my camera.

Still can't convince my parents to let me have a dog though....Much as I love my goldfish Brian and Daisy, they're not very cuddly.

Pie has been growing potatoes! She harvested earlies a couple of weeks ago, and these are the second harvest. There truly is nothing in the world like the taste of homegrown potatoes.

This was an attempt at a tofu "steak and onions". I marinated pressed firm tofu in vegan worcester sauce, tomato puree, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and dijon mustard, and cooked them up with some caramelized onions (fry onions in olive oil with brown sugar until sticky and yummy) and some mushroom stock (Kallo Organic, the best stock cubes ever). Served with my grandpa's homemade oven chips, purple cabbage and peas. Pretty good.

Sunday lunch was a simple baked portabella mushroom with garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed chilli and dried oregano. Some of our homegrown potatoes (roasted in olive oil-new potatoes are very different to large potatoes when roasted. They become chewy and fragrant rather than crispy and fluffy) and courgettes served alongside with some runner beans and cauliflower.

Pie made some stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. They were super yum as usual! I made some tomato sauce and maple-roasted cauliflower to go with it. I had a huge pile of spinach with mine as well.

Lastly, never, never put frozen mango into a smoothie without some fresh fruit as well. You will be very, very sorry.

Adios!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

2007-07-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid this post is just going to be an edited hightlights of the last two weeks' food, as I have been a bit slack photographing and posting of late. My computer went funny, one thing led to another and I almost fell off the blogging wagon. But today I was doing my usual food porn thing, looking through food blogs and trying not to lick the screen (although I was sorely tempted), and I thought, NO! I must blog! School's out now (yesss!!!) so hopefully I'm gonna be blogging a lot more from now on. Sooooooo....

My sister was away last week, and my dad was at work, so I got to cook all sorts of good things for me and my mum. Monday I chucked together some roasted ratatouille pasta, which was goood. So good in fact, I feel a recipe coming on...

Roasted Ratatouille Pasta (serves 2)

Ingredients

6oz/175g pasta of your choice, fusilli loves chunky sauces though (use more if you're hungry, there'll still be plenty o' sauce)

Sauce
Just over half a 400g/15oz tin of tomatoes in juice (tomato juice, mind, not pineapple or apple and mango)
Dried oregano
A couple of sprigs fresh thyme, picked from your garden mere moments before
1 tbsp Tomato puree
Pinch brown sugar
S&P (salt and pepper, if you don't do acronyms)
Splash balsamic vinegar
Olive oil

Veggies
Half a medium aubergine (eggplant)
2 small courgettes (zucchini), snaffled from your sister's veg patch (ssshhh!)
Small yellow pepper (bell pepper)
Largish red onion
2-4 cloves garlic, plus 1 extra clove

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F, Chop all the veg into medium chunks. Bash the garlic cloves. Chuck in a roasting tin with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasoning. Place in oven and roast for about 20-30 minutes until slightly crinkly and yummy.
2. Crush the remaining clove of garlic and fry briefly in 1-2 tsp olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and simmer until you have a thickish sauce. Season to taste.
3. Cook the pasta according to pack instructions and drain. Stir the the cooked veggies through the sauce and toss with the drained pasta. Eat.

Teriyaki tofu stirfry with a load of veggies (I was cleaning out the fridge). I just marinade pressed firm tofu in some yummy organic teriyaki sauce I scored at Waitrose, which I sweetened with a little maple syrup ( I don't eat honey anymore-like it just fine, hate how it's produced). Served over brown rice. MMMM.

It's not often that I cook elegant meals, as I'm more a big bowls of pasta and soup gal. So this was fun. Mum and I bought a load of stuff from the market/M&S (beets, peaches, tomatoes, leaves), and made a "salad bar at home". There's a raw beet/carrot salad with spices fried in oil and tipped over, with a squeeze of lime, a peach and pistachio nut quinoa salad with lime and mint, and some mixed leaves (chard, spinach, little gem lettuce). Plus feta cheese which I nibbled some bits of (I can only eat cheese in nibbles, unless it's on pizza. It's too strong and salty for me) and cherry tomatoes (piccolo, my favourite).

Here's my plate, although in hindsight I should have photographed my mum's (she always arranges hers much more prettily than I do mine, for some reason). So light, tasty and beautiful, perfect on the first summery evening for what seems like years.

It was fun cooking for my mum all week. She and my dad are really supportive about my vegeatarianism and always willing to try new foods and flavours. Last Saturday we had sticky balsamic chicken/tofu and dad asked for tofu instead. That was pretty cool, except I made nowhere near enough for him!

So see you all soon. I'm think gonna put on the chef's hat that Pie brought me from Italy (it has my name embroidered on it and it's so cool!) and bake some vegan cookies (vegan baking rules, even though I'm not fully vegan yet) this weekend. I'll post some pictures (taken with a good camera, promise) so that you too can lick your screen.

Byeee!

2007-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

I woke up on Friday morning wih only one thing on my mind...the bread from Thursday. Oh that bread! Crazy good stone-baked spelt goodness from Waitrose (I'd love to say it was from some artisan bakery where everyone knows my name...but it wasn't). There was still a bit left and I decided the time had come for a TLT (tofu, lettuce and tomato, if you hadn't worked that one out)!

I made my favourite tofu "chicken" to go in it. It doesn't taste very much like real chicken, but it's very tasty and has a lovely "chewy" texture, and it really hits the spot. It's good cold, in fact better than hot, and can be used instead of chicken in salads, sandwiches or whatever. The recipe is fairly vague:

Get some tofu and slice it however you want, depending what you're planning to do with it. Heat some olive oil in a pan and get it frying. When lightly browned, add some soy sauce and toss until the tofu is coated and slightly sticky. Brown a bit more, then add enough nutritional yeast to coat the tofu slices. Cook for a couple of minutes, then remove from the pan and eat hot or cold.

So, the tofu was sorted. But, DISASTER! No lettuce. And only watery tomatoes that would make my sandwich soggy come lunchtime. So I played a sub and added some baby spinach, which worked OK, although my TLT will have to wait. Ah, sweet sandwichy love...

Normally in my house we have homemade pizza on a Friday, and then one Saturday nights my mum and I knock up a batch of homemade tortillas, and serve them up with my special refried beans (recipe soon), chicken for the meat-eaters , pepper, lettuce (iceberg...yes, I know it has like zero nutrients, but nothing else crunches so well), avocado and cheese. But this Friday my mum was going out and couldn't make the pizza dough, so we switched around. She left us some tortillas and me, Dad and Pie had burritos for tea. Above is mine, with the beans hidden by the salad (they're in there somewhere, promise!). It was good, but somehow not quite right eating them on a Friday.

So having packed Pie off to Tuscany (Wind Band "Tour", if a nice week in the sun in the same hotel with a couple of concerts here and there can be called a tour), we had some pizza. Usually I have pine nuts and goat's cheese with basil, but this time I decided to ring the changes with marinated/grilled artichoke hearts, black olive tapenade and and pine nuts (hey, I like them). It was almost a disaster as I somehow managed to set the oven 100 degrees lower than it needed to be and we only discovered after we'd put them in, which meant they'd risen again. They weren't as thin and crispy as normal, but so yummy we didn't really care. I made the Pizza sauce from Vegan with a Vengeance and it was really, really good. I used fresh instead of dried thyme as we had so much in the garden and our dried thyme had gone off.

Here's a groovy find from the market in Cambridge. It's a pointed purple cabbage! Way more purple in real life. It turned the water we steamed it over green! Turquoise green! Interesting flavour, closer to brussels sprouts and something else I can't put my finger on.

Totally vegetarian Sunday lunch for everyone (yay!). MMMM. Aubergines stuffed with lentils and mushrooms from The Bean Book by Rose Elliot, Maple-Mustard Potatoes and String Beans (we used runner beans) from VWAV (OH. MY. GOD. I spent a large part of the afternoon licking the dish they were cooked in), with tomato sauce, cabbage and cauliflower. Doesn't it look pretty?
And so to bed. See you next time!

Little Tiny Post

2007-07-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

Just a short post, as I have had a long and tedious day at the mercy of our wonderful NHS. Meh. Maybe I'll tell you about it some other time.
When we finally got out of there (my appointment was 10 o' clock and we didn't leave till 12. I ended up missing a whole day of school, as I'd planned to have an early lunch at home and then go in for Art. Grrr! At least I got a lie-in), we went home via Waitrose and picked up some lovely bread (oh, the bread!), vegetable juice and tinned aduki beans...and made...this yummy and fab bean stew.

Here's the brief recipe:

Zoomy Bean Stew

Serves 2

Ingredients
About half a 400g tin chopped tomatoes
About 200ml vegetable juice (a nice thick, smoothie-ish one-you can replace this with veggie stock and use more tomato)
400g tin aduki beans (or whatever you fancy bean-wise), drained and rinsed
1 white onion (or red, or yellow...), chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Veggie Worcestershire sauce (now this really is essential. No substitutions!)
Dried mixed herbs
Fresh or dried basil (or oregano)
Olive oil (or anything else, provided you can fry stuff in it)

Method
Fry the onion and celery in the oil in a large saucepan until soft. Add the tomatoes and some veggie juice. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and let it all cook down a bit till it's all yummy and rich. Add the beans and simmer a bit more, then season with herbs, salt, pepper, paprika, and whatever you like, plus a generous amount of Worcester sauce, and then some. Ladle into bowls and eat with some ludicrously good bread.

Dinner. Black bean burger with loads of steamed veggies, with homemade oven chips trying to bask in their healthy glow. Plus a little tomatoey dip for the chips:

2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp maple syrup
1-2 tsp cider vinegar

Mix together and serve. Feel free to adjust the sweet/sour balance to your taste. I personally think sour is better.
I liked the burger, which was cobbled together from a load of different recipes. It has black beans, sunflower seeds, cashews, oatmeal and a load of spices. Only halfway through cooking I realise it was going to be all mushy because I'd made it too thick, so I cut it in quarters. Wasn't planning to eat it in a bun so not a problem.
It turned out pretty good.
Pie grew two more courgettes but they're in my tummy, so no pictures I'm afraid.
Sorry for the sad lack of excitement today. I promise to make up for it next time.
Goodbyeee!

2007-07-11T12:49:00.001-07:00

I promised you a marrow...and here it is. A great big organic lovely marrow from Sainsbury's, of all places. Well, we couldn't not buy it, could we? You know you want some...

For those of you going "Ewwww! Marrow!" I promise you it's yummy and scrummy roasted and in soups. Buy it! Or we risk losing vegetables that are part of Britain's food heritage. It was reported recently that shops were considering not stocking cauliflower because no one was buying it. Same to marmalade. Vote with your fork and fight back, I say, before it's all eerily perfect apples, shrivelled blueberries and Kenyan string beans (so called because they actually taste like string 0_o).
I used some of this marrow in a split pea and broccoli soup. It was pretty darn good.

More soup...but cold. Beatin' the heat with a not quite authentico, but quick and simple gazpacho for my afternoon snack. So refreshing and yummy. Here's the recipe:

Cheaty Gazpacho (Chilled Tomato Soup)

Serves 2

Ingredients
400g tin chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
1/2 a red pepper
About 1/4 of a smallish cucumber
1 tbsp olive oil
1-1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp tomato puree (optional but makes it more tomatoey)
Chopped mint, chives or basil, to garnish (optional)

Method
Chill all the ingredients in the fridge for a good couple of hours. Stick some soup bowls in the freezer (this helps it all stay cool-tepid gazpacho is a friend to no-one).
Whizz all the ingredients in a blender (briefly mind, or it'll go a bit frothy), adjust seasoning and serve, sprinkled with your choice of herbs.
You can serve this with some little cubes of fried bread, or some wedges of hard-boiled egg, or Spanish olives, or whatever you fancy.
If you want to put ice cubes in, like I did, I suggest you use those plastic ones with gel inside. You can get loads of cute shapes, and they don't dilute the soup, which is what happened to mine and I had to fish them out (I loathe thin soup).
You can also make this ahead and leave it in your fridge. Enjoy!

Dinner yesterday. A pretty simple supper of cous cous and veggies roasted with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (marrow!, courgette, aubergine, pepper, carrots and cauliflower). I chucked some chickpeas in mine and Pie and my mum had grilled haloumi cheese. I toasted almonds but ate them all beforehand out of hunger (it was a late supper)! Roasted was definitely a winner. Sweeter than courgette and yummy, yummy, yummy!

Dinner tonight. A jacket potato with cherry tomatoes and tofu "ricotta" with basil. Plus a HUGE pile of lovely organic broccoli. Pie didn't want any at first:
Me: How much broccoli do you want?
Pie: I don't want any. It doesn't go.
Me: Yes it does.
Pie: (Incredulous) Cheese and butter (she ALWAYS has this on jacket potatoes, without exception. She doesn't even vary the cheese. It's ALWAYS cheddar.), and BROCCOLI?
Mum: It's nice. Like a cheese and broccoli gratin.
Pie: No!
Me: Do you want some in a separate bowl?
Pie: That would be nice.

What.

I've never had tofu "ricotta" before, and it was pretty good. I was so scared of not liking it and wasting a big lump of tofu. I used this recipe from the PPK and added a bit of miso and tahini to make it slightly more "cheesey". It had a perfect consistency, but it would have been better with sundried tomatoes added (I couldn't find them in our cupboard of doom). However, it was what I call a "nervous" food-one that you wouldn't serve to anyone else because you just know they wouldn't like it. You have to be used to fake cheese to "get it" I think. The trick with "uncheeses" is not to expect them to taste like dairy cheeses, because they just won't. You have to appreciate them for what they are.
God, I've been tired today. Going to the hospital tomorrow though, so a lie in for me :-)
Have a nice day, wherever you are!

Yummy yummy yummy...

2007-07-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

I kick off today's blog entry with a peek at some of my health shop goodies. There's always so much I want to buy, so I always end up leaving something and regretting it. Well, always next time I say...

Plamil Organic Cayenne Chocolate.This is some of the best chocolate I've ever eaten, I swear. Don't let the cayenne pepper put you off. It's not too hot or spicy, just wonderfully rich and smooth with a nice kick to it. Plus it's 70% cocoa solids, so it's good for your heart (and soul)! It seems I've found a dark chocolate to rival the mighty Green and Black's in my affections. It's suitable for vegans too.

Vegetarian Worcestershire sauce! I put this in everything I ate on Sunday, so excited was I to have it. And very nice it is too.

On to the food porn! A speedy bean salad for my luncheon today. It's got pepper, tomatoes, celery, spinach, little gem lettuce, raw pumpkin seeds and beans, tossed in a nice balsamic vinagrette. I also added some cubes of Sunday's sourdough loaf that was going stale, to soak up the juices, at Mum's suggestion. Mmmmm! Because I thought it was getting a bit too healthy, I packed a slice of apple cake (all gone now, alas, alack!) for a mid-morning snack.

And so to dinner. Having punished my body with a cross-country run (not such a good idea. I have been so tired today. I got out of bed and collapsed this morning) I needed some R and R. It was time for PASTA! Mum had promised earlier in the week to make pesto, and make it she did. It was delicious! I had mine with steamed broccoli and different-coloured cherry tomatoes, with some veggie "Italian-style premium cheese" (they can't call it Parmesan because of the PDO). Mum added mozzarella (ick) to hers, and Pie turned her nose up at my lovely veggies and ate hers with just cheese and some ham. Oh well. Above are the bowls all ready for dinner. Don't they look nice?

My bowl of pasta. Mmmm, I probably eat much more pasta than I ought to, but who cares when it's this good?
Hope you all eat something delicious! Coming up tomorrow...the revenge of the MARROW! MWAHAHAHA!!!!
Run, don't walk...

Some random food pics

2007-07-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for leaving you in the lurch after my promising first post. Here's some memorable food moments from the past coupla days. The poor photo quality is due to my camera being crappy.

"B'cous cous I love you", from Vegan Eats and Treats. This was fun and had the advantage of being absurdly easy: make couscous and basic tomato sauce, add spinach and pine nuts and stick in the oven. Me and Pie (my little sis) both liked it a lot, although I felt it needed a bit of spice. In the background you can see a salad with little gem lettuce, chard and rocket (from our garden!). I chopped some avocado onto mine. It was nice to make something veggie Pie would eat (she hates all beans and legumes without exception-well, no, she'll eat peas, but not dried ones), instead of grilling the inevitable chicken breast.

A quick (and blurry, apparently-damn that camera!) snacky of porridge with raisins and walnuts, because I was out at an art show (I help manage a scheme at school which helps students to sell/loan artwork) that evening and I didn't know when I'd get to eat.

My eventual dinner, which was a yummy stuffed pepper that Pie made at school, plus the last of the pointy cabbage we've been enjoying of late (they didn't have any when we shopped this week-boo!). Is it just me, or does anyone else like eating the stalks from the centre of a cabbage leaf? They're not rubbery like the leaves, just crunchy and sweet. I imagine they'd be good with hummus (humus, houmous, humous, houmus-how to spell it today?) or some other creamy dip. Try it!

A speedy packed lunch for my maths trip (nerdy, I know) on Tuesday. A homemade wholewheat pitta with peanut butter (Meridian Foods-not organic but yummy and completely additive free. Interesting the organic brand I tried I didn't like.), grated carrot and raisins (which I put in everything, whether it needs them or not. I can go through a pound in three weeks), plus sticks of raw courgette, strawbs (how I love English summers...well, I love the produce, at least...) and one of Mum's "show apples" (we're trying to sell our house so she'd bought loads of fruit to make the place look attractive...she should have known that if it's in the fruit bowl someone in our house will eat it).

Dunno how to rotate this, so tilt your heads. A packed lunch in my special bento box from Japan (I am a complete Japanophile. I learn Japanese and hope to visit the country as soon as possible-it's not really vegetarian/vegan friendly but I view it as being part of the cultural experience). In the box is quinoa and canned corn (hehe, alliteration) with roasty-toasty sunflower seeds and little red pepper stars. Plus steamed courgette and as much broccoli as I could cram in (we like to eat seasonal and I haven't eaten broccoli for over six months). Plus strawberries! Doesn't the broccoli look cute all snuggled up? There's also some tofu that had been lurking in the fridge. I fried it, added soy sauce to make a sticky coating, then added a hefty sprinkling of nutritional yeast. I then cooked it some more and left it to cool before packing it in my bento box. I swear that by lunchtime it tasted just like chicken. I had to check I was actually eating tofu! A bit disconcerting, but yum.

Rude Health Organic Essential Muesli. Yummy, yummy, yummy, with oats, apples, dates, raisins, apricots, pumpkin, sunflower and hemp seeds, and flakes of barley and rye. Only problem is that it has whole linseeds in it, and linseed needs to be ground for you to get the goodness from it. Grr. I ate it with milk (I am ovo-lacto vegetarian, which makes me feel like a hypocrite, but my mum is concerned about me being vegan and I don't want to rock the boat as it took her months to come around to my not eating meat), and a bowl of cherries, strawbs and raspberries (mmmm!)

Yesterday I went on a little trip to Cambridge. Shopping alone is fun, but I have to take care not to overspend (hehe). I went to the health food shop, which is great, although it doesn't have everything, and usually good for bargains and advice. I got organic gram flour, quinoa and buckwheat, plus some other goodies, which I'll post about another time. I very nearly bought some hemp pasta, which would have been the ultimate in hippy food to feature here, but in the end I didn't. Finally found agave syrup but it was expensive and in a glass jar. Does any make it in a squeezy bottle? I was also sorely tempted by a cold-pressed pumpkin-seed oil, but I had visions of putting down my shopping bag heavily and ending up with a nasty oily mess.
I also got some lovely rye sourdough from the Earth's Crust Bakery market stall. The guy looked at me strangely when I asked if it had animal products in (I think he may have been French [in no way am I extracting the michael, just saying the French don't really get vegetarians]), but I explained and he was able to reassure me. I had some toasted for tea with some split pea soup.

Pie's veg garden is cracking along nicely. Here's the first courgette. We griddled it at lunch and it was super. It really put the store bought one to shame. You can't see how big it is, but it was about the size of my hand (which is unnaturally small) and soooo cute. There's loads more that'll be ready to eat soon. Too bad she's going to Italy next week (mwahahaha, all your courgette are belong to us).

My lunch today was a chickpea-stuffed aubergine from The Bean Book by Rose Elliot. It was super-yum. I added a good shake of veggie Worcestershire sauce (because it's brown, and so are aubergines, so I thought maybe they'd go...they did!) to the filling. I ate it with the best roast potatoes ever (roast some Anya potatoes in olive oil with salt and pepper...simple and soooo good). I have a bottomless roast potato stomach. Dessert? You guessed it! Raspberries and strawberries (plus half a tub of ice cream if you're my dad).

I leave you with the tantalising image of the most delicious vegan cake I've ever made. It's moist, spicy, sweet, and also pretty healthy. I used this apple cake recipe, but subbed pecans for walnuts so Pie wouldn't turn her nose up (she had seconds-result!) and used mixed spice instead of cinnamon, although having tasted it I think actually cinnamon would be better. I also peeled the apples so they'd cook down more. MMMMMM. There's two lonely little slices left (they're getting littler, thanks to my "neatening" the edge every time I walk past).
Whilst making it, I inadvertently discovered an instant vegan caramel sauce. When I've worked on it I'll post it here.
Whew, long post! See you soon!

It Begins!

2007-07-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

Howdy!
I'm Pumpkin and I live in Cambridge, UK, with my parents (also not entirely normal) and little sister Pie (whose current obsession is her veg patch). As a vegetarian and aspiring vegan, I find that a lot of the delicious, colourful, interesting foods many people have never heard of, yet I eat on a daily basis are often considered "hippy food" and not something normal people eat.
So here's my guide to what I eat and cook eat everyday. Prepare yourself for mung beans, sprouts, hummus, quinoa, tofu, seitan, tempeh and a bucketful of veggies besides. Recipes, photos, whimsical stories and maybe even a coupla jokes.
See you all soon!