Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

It is a very special little boy's birthday on New Year's Day. He can't have gluten or dairy so I decided to make some gluten free vegan cookies for him. I have only used gluten free flour once in a sponge cake and although other people liked it I definitely thought something was slightly strange in taste (although I was pregnant at the time and weirdly some things tasted slightly different). As I wasn't completely happy with the cake I was a little apprehensive about this cookies but I really like these ones!

I chose a vegan recipe from vegweb which you can find here and the only substitution I used was gluten free flour in place of the regular flour.

The dough was quite crumbly when attempting to make cookie shapes but I found the best way was to mould with my hands. They were also quite crumbly when just cooked and when I tried them warm I wasn't so sure but as they cool down they harden and when I tried them the next day I thought they were really nice and definitely something I would bake again! As you can see from the picture they still look as if they are very crumbly but as they have hardened they toughen and you can break them (rather than crumble) quite well.

I will report back with the opinion of the birthday boy- 3 year olds never lie!

OMG...vegan omelette??

As a child I was never really a fan of omelette but I love the way they are simple and can taste so different with what you add in to it. I recently saw another blog who had tried this recipe out from Chocolate and Beyond (a great blog to read; absolutely divine recipes) and decided I had to try it too. The recipe can be found here under number 5.

I didn't quite have all the ingredients- no chillies or curry powder- but I made up for this by having it with sweet chilli sauce (which went with it very well). The mushrooms with it were excellent int texture and taste and the spring onions added the perfect oniony taste without being too overpowering. The texture of the omelette was very similar to actual egg omelette (as far as I remember) and was very satisfying to eat and filling. The pictures on Chocolate and Beyond look amazing but I am sooo bad at frying things which stay in shape (pancakes never turn out well!) so my omelette turned into more of a scramble. I didn't take any pictures- take a look at the photos on Chocolate and Beyond!

This recipe makes and excellent meal at anytime of the day and would be great to serve to guests. I would love to see what non-vegans thought of it! I will be trying it out on my other half soon!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

I hadn't made any cookies from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero) for a while and even the ones I had made were some of the more simple and usual flavour cookies in the book. As I was going to a family gathering at my Aunt's I decided to take over some cookies for everyone to try and chose these ones as with the spice in them they are a bit more "adult". You can actually find the recipe online from the Post Punk Kitchen here.The teaspoon of cayenne pepper did not seem like it would be very spicy at all but these cookies definitely had a kick and the cinnamon complimented them perfectly. I also loved how the cookies look and I definitely made an effort to make them perfectly round and uniform so they looked very professional when I brought them out at the party. I had many comments about how good they were and where I got the recipe from them. These are a must bake recipe!

Easy lunch for guests!

Well, as you may have guessed, I am now a mummy! It is still sinking in even though our little one is over 3 weeks old now. Even though I thought I would be much more tired I still haven't had much time to cook, let alone try things out for the blog. Even the few things I have made which are worth writing about I forgot to take pictures of but I will tell you about a couple anyway and direct you to the recipes as they were delicious! And hopefully as we get into more of a routine here I will manage a few more recipes and remember to take photos.

As we had my boyfriend's brother and his new girlfriend coming round to meet our new addition I decided to make a nice lunch. The only instruction I was given was that he didn't like cheese which wasn't a problem! I had an idea to do stuffed peppers as they look great and most people I know love peppers. My boyfriend is not a massive fan of rice so that was out for the stuffing so I set about searching the internet for other options. I came across this recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for Chilli-Stuffed Peppers which seemed perfect and full of flavour. I followed this recipe as closely as I could but there were a few changes due to cupboard ingredients- I used pickled jalapenos as I had half a jar which really needed using and I also used red kidney beans because there weren't any black beans in the shop. I also added some chopped courgette into the mix.  Another slight change I made was that I just cut a lid off the peppers instead of slicing them in half as I really like the look of this.

These peppers were super delicious and perfect for an impressive but easy lunch/dinner. In fact we have decided to make this a regular meal at ours. The chilli mixture was such a good change to the usual rice or couscous stuffed peppers I am used to. I really enjoyed how full of vegetables this dish is while being super filling.

On the side we had potato salad made with vegan garlic mayo and some paprika and also a fresh green salad. I think there were probably about 3 portions of vegetables in this meal!

For dessert I made a lemon drizzle cake from this recipe from food.com. I added the zest of an extra lemon to make sure it was very flavourful. This cake went down a treat with everyone and my boyfriend already wants me to bake another!

I really wish I had taken pictures of this food as it did look really good and is perfect for guests but hopefully you will try these out anyway!

***UPDATE*** I made the peppers again with the addition of some veggie mince (I actually preferred the original version without the mince though) and remembered to take photos! So here they are:

Hawaiian Pizza!

Over the last week I have been buying and eating a lot of pineapple (it's an old wives tale for the promotion of labour!) and was getting a little bored of just eating it on it's own. My boyfriend mentioned he used to love Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple) and as I had never had pineapple on a pizza I thought we would try it. I used my favourite pizza base recipe which never seems to go wrong and you don't have to pre-cook it before you put the toppings on. You can find the recipe here! If you love thin and crispy bases you may like to find a different recipe as this tends to be a bit thicker than that but I love it. Be prepared that you do have to let the dough rise for a couple of hours so don't make this if you are starving already!! This amount of dough serves around 4 people. We tend to make 2 pizzas and freeze one which works fantastically and is great for an easy dinner.

For the topping I put some tomato pasta sauce we had (although it would have usually been tomato puree but somehow we had run out- we tend to buy tonnes at a time!) then ripped up Redwoods ham, sliced mushrooms, chunks of fresh pineapple, sliced mushrooms (the addition of mushrooms to any pizza is always a bonus in my opinion!) and then grated Cheezly mozzarella. It's so easy to prepare once the base is done and can be a fun activity with children- you could split the dough into smaller pizzas and have each person design their own (good for picky eaters!). This was baked at around 180 degrees (celcius) for 10-15 mins (until it all goes lovely and brown!).

As you can see from the picture below my pizzas are a bit rough and ready and rectangle as we only have rectangle baking trays but I kind of like my pizzas a bit rough around the edges!

Another pizza we regularly make is: tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms and olives (and "cheese"!) which is super delicious and there is always an absolute mountain of veg on top of the pizza which makes me feel a little less guilty in having pizza!

Artichokes are also a much loved pizza topping of mine. What is your favourite pizza topping? Inspire me!

Spicy Parsnip and Butterbean Soup

With my due date in less than a week and soooo much to do beforehand I haven't had much time to do any non-boring cooking. We have had a lot of basic meals like stir-frys, pasta dishes and jacket potatoes which are definitely not worthy of a blog post. I have also been making big batches of soup to freeze in portions for my lunches so I get lots of veg in me and also so I will have some easy lunches for once the baby is born. They haven't been very exciting as if it is for me I tend to use little oil and salt and also don't tend to make them "creamy". If I was making them for other people they would be a bit more extravagant.

I made a delicious leek and potato soup from a recipe by the fiance of the guy that did Supersize Me which you can find here. There is a suggestion in the comment section to add non-dairy milk to make it really creamy which I might try when I make it for guests but with the potatoes in this soup it feels quite creamy anyway. I have been enjoying this soup pretty much daily without getting bored.

Anyway onto today's experiment- Spicy Parsnip and Butterbean Soup, perfect for those cold winter days! For this I was using things I already had in my cupboard..including a couple of shortcuts. The amounts are estimated as this was very much a shove in what looks good kind of recipe but here are the basics (this serves about 6)

1. Soak 250g dried butterbeans overnight and then cook them as per packet instructions (mine said boil for 10 minutes and then simmer for 40 minutes)
2. Roast 750g chopped (into sticks as if you were going to eat them roasted) and tossed in a little olive oil for around 30 mins in a hot oven. (I might try more parsnips next time)
3. Make up 1 1/2 litres of stock with any veggie stock cube.
4. Put all of this in your blender along with 2 tbs curry powder, 2-3 chopped chillis (I actually used some chopped jalepenos from a jar because they have been sitting unused in the back of the cupboard for so long) and either 1 tbs of garlic powder (another random cupboard find!) or 3-4 fried minced garlic cloves. Blend until smooth and creamy. 
5. Add more stock or water to make thinner. Add some soya cream for a more decadent soup.

I didn't add any salt or pepper while cooking and think it is fine without but you might want to add some to your own taste.

I was expecting a much paler colour but with the addition of the red chillis it went a wonderful orange!

Dinner for 10!

My lovely boyfriend and I thought it would be great to have a dinner party before the baby arrived with some friends we hadn't seen properly in ages even though they live really nearby. I happily invited them without really thinking of numbers and our small flat with our 6 person table. Counting them up we had 10 people..at this point I was much more worried about seating them than feeding them! But when I reached the supermarket to buy all the ingredients and was trying to work out how many vegetables it would take to feed 10 it all became clear that this would not be a walk in the park. Luckily a few weeks before I had 2 friends and my sister (who I also consider a friend!) round for dinner and had done a 3 course meal that went down really well so I thought I would do the same as I hadn't blogged about the starter and the main before but change the dessert as that time we had bakewell tart which I have written a post about previously.

So the menu was:

Starter: Marinated tofu, red pepper & red onion skewers (and some cheating vegetable spring rolls in case people were not a fan of tofu) with a homemade peanut satay sauce (and also some ready-made plum sauce and sweet chilli sauce). If I had the time and money I would have made everything from scratch but being almost 8 months pregnant (read completely knackered) I decided to give myself a break.

I used recipes I found from about.com for the Satay Sauce and the Tofu Skewers. (I would just like to add that I have just added to my blogging skills by being able to do those links!!)

Tofu Skewers before they went under the grill

I have to say I was quite worried about how tofu would go down with some of the guests (I was the only vegan) and that was the reason I cooked some ready-made vegetable spring rolls as well but everyone LOVED them...seriously loved them! Everything was eaten and even marinade eaten off the serving plates once they were gone. The peanut sauce is also the best peanut sauce I have ever eaten (and I love my peanut sauces)- it may look like a lot of ingredients but I would seriously recommend you try it. Now everytime I make it I have to make extra to give to my sister!

Main: Thai Green Curry. Once again I used a little cheat by buying the Green Curry Paste but I went specially to an oriental supermarket to get something really authentic (minus the fish sauce of course- you need to watch out for this) and got one which just had the ingredients I would have put into it myself- i.e. none of the additives I often see on jars, just fresh ingredients (the one I used is from the Lotus brand) . I didn't particularly follow a recipe for the Thai Curry other than from some guidance on the side of the jar. I used about a jar and a half of the curry paste (each jar being 210g)  and 3 tins of coconut milk. To this I added some Fry's "chicken pieces" (although I prefer it with just the vegetables) and sweet potato chunks. After the sweet potato was getting soft I added carrot pieces, cauliflower pieces and courgette pieces and then nearer the end I also added sliced mushrooms (the reason for the order is how long the vegetables need to cook- in general add the hardest ones first and the softest last). I ended up using 2 pans (one of which was absolutely huge!). I served this with rice.

Sorry this picture isn't particularly appetizing but I forgot to take a
nice picture of it in the bowls so this what was left in the pan!

Everyone liked the Thai Green Curry but I would have liked to have had a bit more of the paste in it- probably adding both jars. I also prefer the curry to have only vegetable in and not fake meat but I think that's just because I am not particularly a fan of the chicken pieces but wanted something to satisfy the meat texture for the others. But Thai Green Curry is very good for a dinner party- I would definitely recommend it- it's not too difficult and you can have it cooking while people eat the starter. I had cut up all my veg in advance so all I had to do was chuck it in and check on it once in a while. There are plenty of ideas of recipes online with lots of different vegetables listed- pretty much everything works with it!

Dessert: Maple Pecan Pie from "Vegan Pie In The Sky". I did use some walnuts instead of all the pecans because the pecans were about twice the price and it was already getting expensive to feed the masses but next time I would definitely like to try it with pecans only as you could tell it would really make this pie amazing! I think this is my favourite dessert I have cooked so far. I hadn't delved into "Vegan Pie in the Sky" yet- I have the other two in the series ("Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" and "Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar") and they have both been used quite a few times but I am now going to make an effort to make more from this book as I was truly impressed. One thing I would mention which the book doesn't is that when you pour in the mixture it seems really liquidy- I was expecting a more viscous mixture and was worried I had done it wrong. I persevered however and the pie came out beautifully. I served this with some soya cream and every scrap of it was eaten.

Not showing it in it's best light but people were desperate for dessert
so I didn't have time to retake.

I also discovered this non-alcoholic drink made from hops and citrus so it tasted like a citrus beer. I have never been a fan of beer and never had what this drink is meant to replicate so I can't comment on how good an imitation it is but I really enjoyed it and might try an alcoholic version in the future!

 

Loving Hut- Archway

I have been wanting to go to Loving Hut for so long but we don't eat out very often and when we do make plans just involving us we often get too lazy to go. Luckily for me, two really good friends just moved to Archway giving us the perfect excuse to organise a meal out with them.

I checked out the menu before hand and the choice was overwhelming- I hardly ever get to choose from more than one thing on the menu which actually works out well for me as I am terrible at deciding. I still was nowhere near choosing by the time we got there and opening the menu for real put me right back at the start of what to choose. I was very intrigued by the vegan fish and chips but my boyfriend decided on that so in the end I decided on the crispy "duck" and pancakes. We also ordered the sticky "ribs" for starter. My friends had the Pad Thai and a dish that I cannot spell or pronounce but it had noodles, veg and a few types of mock meat in it.

The sticky ribs were remarkably real looking- so much so that it took me a little bit of encouragement to actually put it in my mouth! I have never had ribs before (I was a vegetarian from birth until I decided to become vegan) but the texture seemed like it would be what ribs are like and the sauce was delicious. The other 3 really liked them too (and were also very impressed with the similarities with the real thing).

When my main course arrived I couldn't believe the size of it! I didn't think it looked very much like meat but the others said it did a bit. It came with thin slices of cucumber and spring onion (I think?) and a delicious sauce. I enjoy making up my food at the table (like fajitas etc.) so I can make it exactly how I like it. I was very impressed with this meal but I tend to enjoy more vegetables with my meal (I knew it wasn't veg laden when I ordered it so it is not a complaint about the dish- it was exactly how it was meant to be) so next time I think I will choose a more vegetable dense dish.

My boyfriend's fish and chips were very impressive. There was even a grey "skin" on the fish. We all tried a bit and were surprised at how like fish it was (let me backtrack slightly and say actually I was a pescatarian until I was 10/11). The chips were nice and they had made their mayonnaise in house which was a nice touch and this was also in the coleslaw that came with it. I would say this is perfect for a vegan who misses fish and chips now and again. My boyfriend polished it off rather quickly and also had one of my pancakes.

The other two really enjoyed theirs too. One thing mentioned was that the Pad Thai could have done with a little more spice but when we were talking to the waitress at the end (she was lovely and asked for our feedback on everything) and mentioned this she said that we could have just asked for some more chilli or next time say when we order and they will make it spicier.

We looked at the dessert menu which looked lovely (a cheesecake particularly jumped out at me) but we were defeated by the savoury food.

All in all I was VERY impressed with Loving Hut and will definitely be going again and trying something different. One thing I would mention is that they don't serve alcohol there (obviously not a problem for me in my current state!). They do have some non-alcoholic beer and some Rose Shloer which tastes a little like wine but if you were hoping for some alcohol with your meal then you will be disappointing.

My Crispy Duck and Pancakes

The Vegan Fish and Chips

Spanish Omelette

In our household for dinner we have a fair few regular meals that we do; the type where we don't need recipes and tend to always have the ingredients in the cupboard. In order to bring a little excitement to our meals OH and I decided to try and cook at least one new recipe a week...particularly since I have a collection of about 20 fantastic vegan cookbooks that seem to only get opened to make sweet things or bypassed for a google search for a specific dish. OH has been saying for a while that he would like to cook for a change and not make ratatouille/bolognaise (which are his 2 specialities and the only difference is the veggie mince added for the bolognaise!) so he looked through "Vegan With A Vengeance" and chose Spanish Omelette. We are not massive tofu eaters (I know, I know...a vegan who doesn't eat much tofu!) so  didn't have the ingredients in right away so postponed it for a few days. By this point OH decided maybe I should make it after all! As I love cooking, this was not a bad thing for me but with a newborn on the way cooking duties may change hands..I am anticipating a lot of ratatouille (which I love by the way)!

Anyway back to the omelette. I did make a few changes 1) I used 1tsp Vegg powder and 1/4 cup of water instead of the saffron & soya milk mixture as I had this in and thought it would provide the colour and an egg-like taste 2) I used a firm tofu instead of "soft"- I wan't sure if this meant silken or not in the recipe and there was only one type of tofu in the shop we went to 3) I think I cut up the potatoes smaller than the recipe- not for any reason, just being distracted! 4) I added some dried herbs (de Provence I think) to the mix. Other than this I followed the recipe.

The results were very good. When I had the first taste I was worried that OH wouldn't like it as I could tell it was tofu and if we are having something called omelette I think he wants it to taste like actual omelette. Perhaps it did- it has been so long since I had one I have no idea! But he LOVED it! We ate what was meant for 3-4 people for dinner (the remainder was meant to be for his lunch the next day but he insisted on second helpings). The texture looked and,  from what I remember felt, really like a real Spanish Omelette and OH described it as "really comforting" which I agree with- it makes a good warming comfort food for dinner.

A couple of things I would mention is I would have quite liked a vegetable in it (other than potato & onion)- maybe tomato or peas , so next time (yes we will definitely be making it again) I will try it with these. We ate it with green beans on the side to get some veg in the meal but I like to have more than one portion for my meals plus I think it would add a lovely colour through it. Another thing is that although it is really easy and not labour intensive you do need to plan a bit as it takes about 1hr45 from beginning to end so not the best if you are hungry before you start!

Other than that I would really recommend it. Bound to be a hit all round!!

One note of caution!: Careful of the pan handle after it comes out of the oven! With my baby brain I kept forgetting it had come out of the oven and kept touching the handle..luckily no damage done- I could just imagine myself dropping the whole thing on the floor!

Some simple dishes we have been eating

Recently I have been so busy/so exhausted I have not had the time, nor the motivation, to try new recipes or do anything experimental. The main aims have been simple but delicious nutritious meals for me, OH and my growing bump. Here is a sample of 3:

Shepherd's Pie, or what we decided to call it "Animal-Rescuers Pie" full of vegetables with gravy and a mashed potato topping.

 Brocolli and Pasta Bake with a "cheesy" (nutritional yeast) white sauce and topped with melty vegan cheese.

 A Rainbow Risotto- lots of colourful vegetables in this simple recipe risotto.

Over the coming weeks I am going to be looking for more easy recipes which will be much easier to cook once our new little vegan is born! Preferably ones that can be cooked in big batches and frozen!

Any suggestions very welcome!!

Our Full Vegan Breakfast

My OH mentioned a while ago how long it had been since he had eaten a cooked breakfast (there's no particular reason for this it just hadn't happened). Today we were both going to be in all day (studying hard) so I thought it would be a nice break and treat to have a cooked Sunday breakfast (but for lunch as I had to work my hunger up).

And here it is:

Simple breakdown:

• Linda McCartney Sausages
• Redwoods "Bacon"
• Scrambled tofu + vegg
• Herby grilled tomatoes
• Garlic Mushrooms
• Doorstep Granary Toast
• Spaghetti hoops (I hate these but OH had them and his plate looked better!)

Banana and Cranberry Bread

The last few days I have been a bit of a cooking machine...mainly when taking breaks from my research project. I have got a few things to post about but the only photos I have prepared are for today's creation- Banana and Cranberry Bread. Those of you who have had banana bread before will know it is more of a cake really and I think this one turned out even cakier than usual! The main resemblance to bread is the shape as I make it in a bread tin and perhaps the colour. I adapted a recipe from about.com; changing a few ingredients and quantities to suit my needs.


Ingredients

1/4 cup oil (I used sunflower)
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 really ripe bananas (the browner the better!)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used hazelnut as that is what was open)
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g dried cranberries (sorry for the change in measuring system- it was just the size of the packet. i reckon it was probably at least 1/2 cup but use as many as you want)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Mix the sugar and oil together
3. Stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
4. Mash the bananas. It can be quite nice to leave this quite rough and have some pieces in the cake to bite into.
5. Mix in the bananas and all the rest of the ingredients. If it is a bit stiff (it should be a little bit sloppy rather than a stiff dough) then add some more oil
6. Pour into a lined/greased bread pan
7. Cook in the oven for around 50 minutes. A knife should come out clean when stuck into it.
8. Enjoy!

Damn, the picture looked better on my camera!

Mint Choc Chip Cookies

It's been quite a while since I posted! I am now in my third trimester of pregnancy and it (along with trying to carry on my studying) has been taking it out of me; well it's a very good excuse for a daily afternoon nap. Because of this I haven't been trying out many new things; tending to stick to known favourites to cook. I visited my parents in Cornwall for a week and did do some cooking there including a very successful Broccoli, Cauliflower and Pasta bake but I forgot to 1) take note of quantities and 2) take a picture so I won't blog about that. My dad also made some AWESOME vegetable tempura with cauliflower, mushrooms and sweet potato but again no pictures and no specific recipe so I will have to get him to do it again!!

While I was in Cornwall I had a dream about making Mint Choc Chip cookies including how I'd do it (recipe and methods) which was a bit random and to be honest I wasn't that keen on the idea of mint choc chip in a cookie (I love the ice cream though so I'm not sure why I was apprehensive about these) but if it came to me in a dream I HAD to make them....and I'm so glad I did! They turned out really delicious and look impressive too! I am just hoping that my OH's family will like them as we are visiting this weekend.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Cookies:
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup oil (I used sunflower)
1/4 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 tbs cornflour
4 tsp peppermint flavouring/extract
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2-1 cup of chocolate chips (depending on how many you want/have!)

Topping:
200g dark chocolate
4 tsp peppermint flavouring/essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Mix together the sugar, oil, milk and cornflour. This needs to be done for a few minutes to get a really good smooth consistency and let the sugar and oil bind properly together.
3. Add the peppermint essence
4. Mix in the flour and salt (it sometimes helps to mix in the flour half at a time)
5. Add the chocolate chips and mix until well dispersed
6. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto lined baking sheets and smooth out to cookie shapes. I made 10 large cookies with this mixture but do whatever size you wish (cooking times may vary though so make sure you check regularly). Make sure there is space between the cookies as they will spread out a little when they cook.
7. Bake in the oven for 8-15 minutes (mine took 15, smaller will take less) until starting to brown all over
8. Remove from the oven to cool completely.
9. Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Once melted add in the peppermint essence and mix well.
10. Take each cookie and dip it in the chocolate. Use a spoon to get the chocolate to cover half of the cookie. Set aside on some baking paper to set. Putting in the fridge for an hour can speed up this process!!
11. This makes too much melted chocolate really but it is hard to cover the cookies is you make less. I put satsuma pieces in the left over chocolate and mixed until they were covered then put them in the fridge to set. Delicious!

Birthday weekend = 2 restaurant reviews!

Hi! Sorry it has been so long since my last post. If I'm honest I don't have good excuses! My cooking has been a bit repetitive and boring and not worth posting. I did make a gluten free sponge cake but I was not happy enough with it to post the results although the recipients seem to enjoy it a lot (I have a feeling that my taste buds are a bit out of whack with this pregnancy lark as I felt like I could taste salt but my boyfriend said it was fine). I definitely want to experiment a bit more with gluten free- partly because there was an amazing deal for rice flour at the supermarket!

Anyway, my birthday was the Sunday just gone. We decided to invite a few friends (there were nearly 20 of us!) to 222 in West Kensington for the buffet lunch. I was the only vegan, there was one vegetarian and the rest were omnivores (including two who are not big on vegetables at all!). I had never been there before but had heard good things. I also chose it because it is super cheap (£7.50 for all you can eat!) so that if people really didn't like it they didn't waste much money, plus with the buffet style they could pick and choose what they wanted.

I was a little nervous when we first got there that many people might not like it but everyone loaded up their plates first time and dug in and most went back for seconds (and thirds in the case of my boyfriend)! There were too many delicious things for me to remember them all but here are what I can: rice, chickpea curry, stir-fry veg, fried potatoes, some tofu like croquettes (which tasted like quiche), a few different salads, some pasta and some vegan coleslaw. I think the outstanding hit for most people were the croquette things (I really wish I had taken more time to read the signs and actually have a name for these- unfortunately I was too busy enjoying myself to do this or take pictures!!). They were so full of flavour with a lovely crispy outside. I think a lot of people are a bit scared of tofu and think it is tasteless but this definitely changed their minds! I would love to know what is in them and try to recreate them at home. Everything was lovely though (I even saw a few sneaky vegetables on veg haters' plates!). One of my friends has even said we have to go back there sometime because she enjoyed it so much. I would definitely like to check it out in the evening also as they do a menu dinner then (only buffet at lunchtime) and still at very reasonable prices. I also would like to sample some of the desserts (all you can eat left no room!). I spied some cheesecake, gateaux, ice cream and more (not included in all you can eat unfortunately)!

The staff were lovely too, very smiley and friendly. We had been told when we booked that we had to leave by two because there was another big party coming but we never felt pressured to leave. All in all this was a great experience. The buffet lunch was just that- nothing spectacularly presented or extremely innovative but what was there was done very well and was a hit with all. Definitely a great place to go if you are in the area!

Now I said there were two restaurant reviews. This is because part of my birthday present from my boyfriend was a day of surprises on the Saturday. This included painting some mugs in the morning (I had been wanting to do this for ages!), a play in the afternoon and then dinner in the evening. He chose Indian Mischief in East Dulwich.

The menu there is about half vegan (and all vegetarian-certified by the vegetarian society) but we were told that everything except 2 dishes could be made vegan (well all of them could but two had key non-vegan components like paneer). My boyfriend decided to go all vegan on this occasion so we decided to share two starters and two mains. For our starters we chose some rice dumplings and some fried potatoes (both coming with sauces. I don't need to tell you what fried potatoes taste like but they were done very well, not too oily and the spicy sauces complimented them well (these were right up my boyfriend's street). The dumplings themselves are quite plain but they are meant to be as you pour the sauce over it and there was also a spicy sauce and a coconut puree to dip them in. The dumplings are quite spongy so they soak up the sauce which gives it the flavour. These were something I had eaten when I went to India a few years ago and the taste was so authentic that it took me right back! You could tell this was real Indian cooking and not the British version. For the main course we had a Paper Masala Dosa and the Saturday special (there were specials everyday and I can't remember the name of this one!) which was a mung bean curry with rice, paratha and a small tomato, cucumber and onion salad. I had chosen the Masala Dosa once again because it was something I had eaten in India and was one of my favourite things out there. If you haven't had one before it is a very thin crispy pancake with a filling of a spicy potato mixture and served with sauces to dip in it. Again the taste was exactly how I remembered- very true to actual Indian cuisine and both of us loved it. The curry was also delicious. Not spicy but full of flavour. The rice was cooked with some spices in which really perked it up (especially as my boyfriend is not at all keen on plain rice). The paratha were delicious (Indian flat bread) and great to dip into the curry- we both decided to look up a recipe and try and make these! We didn't manage desert (and I actually didn't check to see the suitability for vegans) but JP had 2 beers and I had a lime soda. The bill in total came to an amazing £30!

Once again the staff here were lovely. We were served by a father and son who both chatted to us for a while and told us about the food. They absolutely made the place- it was such a lovely relaxed atmosphere. At first when we arrived there were only 2 other customers but this was quite early. Soon after we were joined by a big party (a stag party) of about 20 people which was nice to fill the place a bit better.

All in all I would definitely come back here. The food is authentic Indian rather than the British Indian we tend to get here. It was much less greasy and oily and even the fried food felt healthier! For £30 getting drinks, 2 starters and 2 mains is fantastic! Especially when you are a student!

Apologies for the lack of photos but you will just have to visit these places yourself to see how great the food is!!!

Best Brownies Ever!!!!

I came across a recipe for brownies on facebook a while ago and saw that it needed golden syrup which I didn't have at the time so I put off making them and put golden syrup on my list. This week I finally got organised and picked it up as well as some dark chocolate chips and today was the day!

Unfortunately I could not find the recipe on facebook and so took to trusty google for some recipe ideas...none of which had golden syrup in and I had had all the ingredients needed anyway!

I chose a recipe from VegWeb (from an anonymous poster) called Chewy Gooey Brownies because I am one of those people who like either rock hard brownies or chewy ones...not the soft crumbly cake type.

I mostly stuck to the recipe but I changed the nuts and added in my chocolate chips.

Here goes:

Ingredients:


1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder (I didn't actually measure and probably put more in than this...I love my brownies VERY chocolatey!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
1/2 cup nuts (I used a mixture of chopped mixed nuts and flaked almonds)
chocolate chips- as many as you wish :)

Method- so so easy!!!

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (350F)
2. Mix together the dry ingredients. 
3. Add the wet ingredients. 
4. Stir well.
5. Put into a greased/lined baking tray.
6. Bake for 20 minutes
7. Let cool.
8. ENJOY!!!

These seriously couldn't be any easier or any tastier. My boyfriend and I are a little hooked and we haven't even had dinner yet. They are the perfect level of hardness and chewyness and leave a rich chocolatey taste long after finishing....making you want more! Make sure you have plenty of people to eat them so you don't scoff them all at once. I have no self control when it comes to chocolate brownies!

Individual Bakewell Tarts

Bakewell tarts have always been a favourite of mine. I love sweet almondy things and I also think they look pretty and no one can resist them. I have never made them, not even in my non-vegan days but I haven't had time to do any baking recently since we moved and realised there was a massive gap in posts so being a nice lazy Sunday when I should be studying I trawled the internet for a recipe and decided to make these delicious bakewell tarts. The recipe is by Katie Green and I got it from dessert girl's blog. It is for a large bakewell tart but I don't have a tart dish yet so I decided to make little ones in my muffin tin. For this I needed double the quantity of pastry and half the icing again so I will write down the amounts I used but if you want a large one you can go to dessert girl's page (or work it out if you are better at maths than me at working backwards!) but Katie Green did some wonderful illustrations so I would check it out anyway here: http://dessertgirl.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/mixing-bowl-bakewell-tart-by-katie.html

For the pastry:
120g margarine
300g plain flour
40g sugar
40g silken tofu

For the inside:
Cherry or raspberry jam (I used about 1/3 of a jar)
75g margarine
75g sugar
75g silken tofu
50g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp almond essence
50g self raising flour

For the icing:
150g icing sugar
1 1/2 tbs water
Glace cherries for decoration

• Start with the pastry. Rub the margarine into the flour until you get a breadcrumb consistency. Add the sugar and the tofu and mix together. Bring the dough together in your hands. Wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for about an hour.
• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until around 5mm thick. Cut circles from it and press firmly into your greased muffin tin. Prick the bottom of the pastry, put a little grease-proof paper in and then cover in baking beans. Bake you pastry for 20 mins (check at 15, if they are browning then take out now).
• While the pastry is cooking make the cake part. Beat the sugar into the margarine. Add the other ingredients (except the jam) and stir until well mixed.
• When the pastry is out and the beans and paper are taken out, add a layer of jam to the bottom of each case and then spoon your cake mixture on top of this. It should fill the cases almost to the top. Put these back in the oven for around 45 minutes (check at about 30 to see how they are doing as one of my batches seemed cooked before the 45 minutes). They should be a golden brown colour.
• Once cool mix the icing sugar and water to a smooth consistency and spread onto the tarts. Decorate with a glace cherry and voila!

These tarts are also very lovely without the icing. Another idea would be to place flaked almonds on top of the cake mixture before baking for an alternative look.

These are the tarts without the icing:

 And then with:

I have to say these are super delicious and look uber cute! Waiting for an hour for the dough is always a challenge in patience for me but they are definitely worth it. Enjoy!

Not Thai Green Curry

We had some butternut squash, mushrooms and a potato that really needed using so I decided the perfect dish to make would be a curry. When I make curries I just make up the recipe as I go along but in general the same sort of thing happens. My boyfriend is not at all keen on plain rice so we decided to jazz up some rice with garlic, mushrooms and tofu.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6 depending on how much rice you want)

1 medium potato
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 red onion
3 cloves garlic
1 medium aubergine (eggplant),
1 medium courgette (zucchini)
1/2 butternut squash
5 blocks of frozen spinach (or most of a bag of fresh)
7 medium size tomatoes
1/2 tin of coconut milk (can be left out for a lower fat curry)

1. Cut the potato into small chunks and boil in a pan for around 10 minutes
2. While the potato is cooking, in a separate pan put the oil, spices, chopped onion and garlic to fry for a couple of minutes. 
3. Chop and add the aubergine, courgette and squash to the onions and keep adding splashes of water to stop the vegetables burning and to keep them sauteing. Do this for around 10 minutes. Or until the vegetables are just about cooked through. 
4. Add the potato, spinach and the tomatoes cut into quarters and stir until the spinach has defrosted and is equally distributed
5. Add the coconut milk and stir for a few more minutes
6. Add salt and pepper to taste

The result is a very green curry (hence the title) but nothing like a Thai green curry.

For the rice:

Ingredients:

White rice (however much you think you need)

Chopped garlic (for 2 we used 2 cloves)

Chopped Mushrooms

Silken Tofu

Turmeric

Cumin Seeds

Salt 

Pepper

1. Boil the white rice as usual
2. About 5 minutes before the rice has finished start frying your garlic, mushrooms and spices together
3. Once the rice has cooked, add this to the frying pan and stir well
4. Add however much of the silken tofu you like to make an "egg" style rice (we used half a carton)

The turmeric makes the rice bright yellow and this next to the green curry makes an interesting plate of food!

Leftover ratatouille ==> Lasagne

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Most of the people who read this blog are probably my family and so know the reasons for this but if you happen to be reading this and you don't know me then here's my news: I'm pregnant, trying to write a dissertation and in the process of moving house! Busy times!

One of my boyfriend's specialities is ratatouille, even before meeting vegan me, so a few days ago he whipped up some of the most delicious ratatouille ever with fried aubergine, courgette, fresh tomatoes, onions, peppers and a slight cheat of some shop bought pasta sauce. The pre-fried aubergine in this was just fantastic and I had many helpings (many, many helpings!).

After 2 days of ratatouille (it seriously was a HUGE batch) we decided it was time to turn it into something else so I whipped up a vegan lasagne.

I precooked the pasta sheets as they were dried packet sheets and also fried some mushrooms in olive oil with some herbs (mushrooms were meant to go into the ratatouille but they were forgotten at the back of the fridge). I also made some cheesy white sauce. This is done by cooking some white flour in olive oil for a few minutes (I didn't measure the quantity of flour but it covered the oil (about 3 tablespoons) in a thin layer of flour. I then added some coconut milk (the type you pour on your cereal, not the one in the can) and stirred to keep it smooth. I usually keep adding coconut milk until it has the consistency I like and added about 4 big tablespoons  of nutritional yeast and some salt and black pepper and stirred well for the next few minutes. I layered up all the ingredients finishing with a layer of the white sauce and an extra sprinkling of nutritional yeast. And just for fun added an olive smiley face!

Sorry it is not a precise recipe. I only thought of adding it to the blog when it came out of the oven as a success. I should be doing some more cooking this weekend for someone's birthday though so keep watching for more posts :)

Check out our shiny new hob in the background!

Middle Eastern Easter Cakes- Ma'amoul

Our family has Middle Eastern roots and we all love the food- gatherings usually involve massive feasts of houmous, baba ganoush, dolmades and much much more. Every Easter with our Easter breakfast we have ma'moul and date rings. I have never made them by myself and this year seeing as we were going to my boyfriend's parents for Easter dinner I decided to give them a go to bring them along as a gift. I borrowed special ma'amoul molds from my Auntie but I imagine you could do a similar thing just using your hands although the pattern obviously wouldn't be there. I found this recipe on about.com and adapted it to make it vegan and also increased the quantities of the filling because I prefer them fuller.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup semolina
• 225g vegan margarine
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 2 tbs orange blossom water
• around 1/2 cup of pistachios
• 5 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs soya/alternative milk
• icing sugar to dust

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line or grease a baking tray.

Combine the flour and semolina and beat together with the margarine. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water and the all spice and mix well.

Whiz up the pistachios and sugar in the food processor to chop the nuts (or chop by hand/buy chopped and just mix together). Then stir in the remaining orange blossom water.

Take small chunks of the dough and flatten with your hands. Either press into the mold with extra dough around the outside and a hollow in the middle or do this with your hand. Put a spoonful of the pistachio mixture in and cover over the top with the extra dough, pressing to make sure it is sealed. If using a mold then have a wooden chopping board or similar so you can bang down the mold to release the cake.

Once these are all done and on the baking tray, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Once out and cooling dust them with icing sugar.

They can keep for quite a while so you can keep them in a sealed container for a few weeks.

Two birthday cakes! Lucky boys!

Well today there is a party for two of our housemates tonight and I thought it was a great excuse for some baking! Luke asked for carrot cake which I have wanted to do for ages and I thought to suit everyone I would make a chocolate fudge cake as who doesn't like chocolate! I have to warn you...my icing skills weren't very proficient today as I just whacked it on with a spoon due to time!

I got my carrot cake recipe from: food.com
and my chocolate fudge cake from: veganvillage.co.uk
and the chocolate fudge icing from: veganfamily.co.uk

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
3 cups finely shredded carrots (best thing to use is a chocolate/nutmeg grater but it is a lot of grating!)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla essence
4 made up egg substitutes (I used Orgran)
1/2 cup of chopped nuts

Icing
3oz cream cheese substitute
1/4 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup icing sugar

If you find a nice cream cheese then I would use more cheese and less/no margarine but I used tofutti for the first time and really didn't like it so I ended up making a buttercream. In these quantitities it was very much like a buttercream anyway.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius
• Grease two cake tins, or one if you don't want a filling. Mine were 20cm.
• Mix the dry ingredients together
• Mix the wet ingredients in and nuts
• Divide the mixture into the two cake tins
• Bake for 40- 50 mins until a knife comes out clean
• Allow to cool
• For the icing just beat the ingredients together into smooth and spread on the cake when it is completely cool
• Simple eh?!

For decoration I sprinkled some more chopped nuts on top and also some orange jelly sweets and some terrible writing icing skills! (they are both 28 if you couldn't guess!).

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

Ingredients:

I did double this but it was rather a lot and had to make cupcakes too so I will write the ingredients for a much more sensible amount!

125g margarine

300ml soya milk

2 tbs golden syrup

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

250g plain white flour

50g cocoa

250g sugar

Icing

100g plain chocolate

1 tbs margarine

1 tbs icing sugar

1 tsp golden syrup

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
• Grease the two cake tins (same as before)
• Melt the soya milk, margarine, and golden syrup on a medium heat (leave 4 tablespoons of the milk out).
• Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the soya milk.
• Mix all the dry ingredients 
• Add the wet ingredients
• Divide the mixture into the two cake tins
• Bake for half an hour then turn the oven down to 160 degrees and bake for a further half an hour.
• For the icing, melt all the ingredients in a pan. Allow to cool for a little while and spread on the cake when the cake is cool.
• Once again, lovely and simple!

I decorated it further with "milk" and white chocolate buttons and writing icing.

Apart from a few nibbles which tasted delicious there hasn't been a proper taste test yet but I will update you after tonight. I hope everyone isn't too drunk!


**UPDATE**: Both cakes are the best cakes of their type that I have made. This is very good for the chocolate cake as I have made many of those. The consistency was perfect and the icing was super delicious and the best complement to the cake rather than butter icing. I have only ever made one other carrot cake and it was a disaster! But this carrot cake was 3 million times better. Very moist, very moorish. It was quite dense but that is not a bad thing in my book. Both cakes went down a treat with everyone and these recipes will definitely be used again!

"Friendly" Sun-Dried Tomato Houmous

Now I bet you're thinking why is this particular houmous friendly and others not? Well, I have always found that some people have a bit of a problem with homemade houmous when all they are used to is shop-bought houmous. I think it is because shop-bought houmous has a sort of milder taste; a less stay-in-the-mouth flavour. At first I came up with the idea of cooking the garlic first as I thought it could be the raw garlic in the houmous which was causing the problem. That houmous was nice but still didn't quite have the effect I was after. Then, when realising I didn't have any of Jean-Paul's (my ever so slightly picky boyfriend) favourite sandwich fillings as I was making his lunch (he doesn't ask me to do this, I just enjoy it!) I thought I'd whip up some houmous and make a houmous and salad sandwich. he has had my homemade houmous before and has liked it so this experiment wasn't necessary for him but the Jean-Paul seal of approval is always good!

So here's the recipe for my "Friendly" Sun-Dried Tomato Houmous:

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 tin of chickpeas (I go for the easy from a tin option but obviously soaked and cooked chickpeas are also good!)
3 tablespoons of tahini
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic (decent size so add more if they are small)
3 tablespoons of soya yoghurt (the magic ingredient!)
5 sun-dried tomatoes (preferably the ones in oil which are easier to blend but dried ones would work particularly if soaked before)
black pepper

VERY EASY METHOD: just blend in a food processor. I do find houmous making is best done by taste so once it is all whizzed up taste it! I often add a bit more of this or that to make it how I like it. I love sour things so I often add more lemon juice. The yoghurt is what gives it it's milder taste so add more if you want to make it even milder. For young children omitting the garlic may help.

Here is an "artistically" taken photo with the one spoonful which was left over!

Now apologies if you are expecting brownies! I will be getting round to them sometime soon! Also I have just got my new waffle maker through the post so something along those lines should happen soon too!

Adios.

Sorry brownies...we ate all the chocolate

Well I was in the mood for baking brownies and I wanted to put some nice chunks of chocolate in them that would melt in the oven and feel all sumptuous while eating. While perusing the local health food shop (As Nature Intended, Chiswick, London) I found Organica White Chocolate. Now I haven't had white chocolate for years and always preferred milk or dark chocolate in my vegetarian days bit when I started to think about the taste I just had to buy it. Originally it was intended to go in my brownies..a sort of white and dark chocolate brownie creation, but as I was too tired to cook that night we decided to just have a small taste...I mean there will still be enough for the brownies won't there? Well the taste was heavenly! You could see all the black vanilla seeds in the chocolate which just screams better quality than all the rubbishy "milky bars" out there. The chocolate melted so deliciously in the mouth. Pure pleasure! As far as I can tell it was a pretty great match to "normal" white chocolate and my boyfriend loved it too which is always a good review as he can be a bit critical on some vegan products! As you may be able to guess from the title the brownies have not yet been made. With university deadlines and a pretty exhausting life I didn't have the time plus within a few days all the chocolate had been nibbled away! Oops. Keep tuned though..I definitely plan to do the brownies in the next week or two!!!

YUM!

Vegusto came through!!

Well after a not so favourable review of some of the no-moo cheeses I have found the saviour!! The mild aromatic cheese is actually so good. It is definitely the closest tasting thing to cheese (well in my head anyway- I have probably forgotten the actual taste). It is actually good enough to have a bite of it on its own but I have also done a normal cheese and tomato sandwich and a toasted cheese and luncheon roll (see previous post) sandwich with garlic mayonnaise (vegan of course!) and I must say enjoyed them a lot. It's not something I can see myself eating a lot as it seems quite processed and I would prefer a more vegetable based sandwich usually but it is perfect for a change and especially perfect for a lovely lazy (I wish- dissertation time!) Sunday. Hot cross buns and fruit for breakfast and a cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch; I better have a nice healthy dinner then with plenty of vegetables!

Mild Aromatic No-Moo Cheese

Vegusto- I've heard so many things....

herb

Hi y'all,

With most of my past attempts at trying to find a vegan cheese I liked failing I decided to try one of what seemed to be the holy grails of vegan cheese- Vegusto! As I have previously mentioned I don't really miss cheese but it would be useful to have some more easy to put together sandwich fillings. I went on the website and decided to purchase the bronze starter kit containing: No-moo herb cheese, no-moo mild aromatic, no-moo melty, tomato burger, pepper sausage, smoked luncheon roll, brunch sandwich slices and paprika schnitzel. I also bought some no-moo walnut cheese because it sounded good.

Well the first thing I tried was the walnut cheese because I was so excited. I have got to say there was immediate disappointment. The cheese was very white and not full of taste. Next I opened the herb one. This was quite a bit better- especially in a sandwich. I made myself a sandwich for uni with the herb cheese and the  smoked luncheon meat and tomatoes. I have got to say it was a lovely change from my usual sandwiches like houmous and veg (although I do love this it is nice to mix it up a bit) but probably a lot less healthy!). The luncheon meat on its own was tasty- a bit like a veggie hot dog taste and sometimes reminded me of smoked salmon (although this was years ago I ate that so I am not sure it actually does). The texture was "meaty" but every so often felt a bit gritty which was not the best. In sandwiches it was much better.

Those are all that I have tried so more so watch out for further Vegusto product reviews :)

luncheon roll

Walnut

cupcakes, cupcakes, everywhere!!

Well Wednesday was a baking extravaganza! It was Ciara's birthday (a friend from my nutrition course) and we were having dinner where I work which doesn't do desserts so I decided to bake vegan cupcakes. I always get ambitious so I wanted to do three flavours: vanilla and strawberry, chocolate and coffee.


I started off with a recipe from where better than from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" By Isa Chandra Moskovitz and Terry Hope Romero.





GOLDEN VANILLA CUPCAKES
The ingredients:


1 cup of soya milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cup of plain white flour
2 Tbsp. cornflour (although I forgot to buy this so I just added a little more flour and it was fine)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil (there is an option of 1/2 cup margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


(this recipe is slightly changed to what I did)

This made around 8 big cupcakes (I used a muffin tin)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Mix the cider vinegar into the soya milk and leave to stand so it curdles a bit. Mix all the wet ingredients together and then stir in all the dry ones until well mixed. Fill muffin cases about 2/3 full and put into the oven for around 20-25 minutes until the cakes are springy to touch.

1 batch of these were left classic

1 batch had cocoa powder added (around 5 tablespoons- or until a lovely dark brown chocolate colour). 

1 batch had coffee added. I put a couple of table spoons of boiling water into a cup with 3 tsp instant coffee granules in and added to the mixture when they were dissolved.

Once they had cooled down I made butter creams:

225g vegan margarine

450g icing sugar

3 tbs soya milk

1tsp vanilla essence

I just mixed these in the food processor. For the chocolate icing I added 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder. For the coffee icing I made the same mixture as for the coffee cake mix but let it cool down in the fridge before I added it.

Before icing the vanilla cupcakes I cut out the middle, added some strawberry jam and replaced the middle part again.

I would have liked to pipe all the icing but I only had one piping bag and limited time so I just piped the chocolate icing.

To top the cakes I added a vegan chocolate button to the chocolate ones, a dark chocolate covered coffee bean to the coffee cakes and half a strawberry to the vanilla cakes.

I have to say these went down an absolute treat and everyone had different favourites. The surprise of the jam in the vanilla ones was a particular hit!

Some Product Reviews Because I Have Been On A Spending Spree!!

Ok, so I haven't been doing much inventive cooking recently but was feeling the need of a blog post so I thought I would write about some of the products I have been trying recently

To start with Vegourmet Cheese in Paradiso flavour which is meant to have a slight spicy tomato flavour to it. To start with I tried a chunk of it. I'd tried Cheezly and Sheese before and wasn't a fan at all (except I quite like the blue Sheese but it doesn't really taste much like the real thing). This still didn't taste that great to me. I don't really miss cheese as such. More the texture and something melty to put in toasties and on pizzas etc. In light of this I decided to try something that was recommended to me in the shop I bought it (Vx in King's Cross) which was cheese on toast. This was more pleasing and it melted really well and went bubbly on top and browned nicely- just like the real thing. Definitely not for someone who wants that cheese on toast taste but it is nice as a hot snack- particularly with tomatoes!. Next came the pizza challenge! I grated it on top of a homemade tomato, mushroom and olive pizza. This was definitely a success- it just made that whole pizza experience much more satisfying. My omnivorous boyfriend even enjoyed it and said he wasn't even thinking about the pizza being vegan- he was just eating pizza. That said I think that some of the cheaper "cheeses" can do the job just as well as the texture and meltiness is what counts. All in all I doubt I will buy this again.

Next was Sojade yoghurt in banana flavour. I bought this because it was reduced in the local health food shop (As Nature Intended, Chiswick) and because I love banana flavoured things. I do enjoy Alpro soya yoghurts and I think I have been disappointed by a previous Sojade yoghurt so I was a little doubtful to whether I would like it. BUT it was soooooo good!! My favourite vegan yoghurt that I have tasted so far. I could only taste the soyaness when I really put my mind to it. I doubt an omnivore would either. The strength of the banana flavour was just right and not too artificial tasting like you often get with banana flavour. I will DEFINITELY be buying this again and for full price!!

I will leave it with those two as they were the only two I have properly taken the time to have a good taste of. I'm sure more will follow soon though!

Joining in the fun at the Parsnipship (Surbiton)

Yesterday I got to help out with some of the cooking at the Parsnipship (Surbiton) which is the vegetarian and vegan catering business that my sister and cousin run, selling delicious food at markets in London. I arrived a bit later than I meant to so the cooking was well under way by the time that I got there and I walked into a delicious aroma of spices. Yesterday we were cooking Beetroot Bombs, Indian Summer Puddings and Brie, Pea and Thyme pies (obviously not vegan) and more was cooked after I had to leave for work including some delicious vegan bread rolls. Unfortunately I cannot share the recipes (as I'd have to kill you) but I can share some of the pictures of our day. You can find them on facebook and twitter to find out where they will be selling their food next (https://www.facebook.com/TheParsnipshipatSurbiton, https://twitter.com/#!/TheParsnipship). It has only been going a few months but has already proved very successful- often selling out all their food of the day. The business is already expanding from selling things to cook and eat at home to food you can eat on the day and promises even more in the future. It is well worth checking these guys out!!!

The mixture for the Indian summer puddings with  gorgeous spices and a hint of coconut

The mixture for the Brie, Thyme and Pea Pies

The beetroot bombs

The brie, thyme and pea pies