I have not been blogging... but I have been eating!

Right- here come a load of food pictures!

Fajitas! This was made with kidney beans in a chilli sauce, chopped tomatoes and some soya mince- It was yummy!

More beans! This was kidney beans in a tomato sauce, red peppers and some chopped up vegan sausages! I served it over brown rice and it was tasty!



Pasta- always a regular feature of my meal repetoire! This was a spaghetti bolognaise made with soya mince and a tin of passata sauce. I enjoyed it mucho!

Next up is a tofu stir fry made with lots of veggies, some firm style tofu and some soy sauce. I didn't have any noodles so I used pasta! It wasn't quite as good as with noodles but they weren't too bad a substitute!

I am rather embarassed to post this picture of my dinner but it was very tasty despite how it looks! I am not very experienced with baking pies so I burned them on the top (because I attempted to grill them rather than bake them in the oven) then I was getting really hungry so decided to take them out of the oven and microwave them- hence why one fell apart!

Nevertheless they were nice and moist with not too much pastry and were not greasy at all. I wasn't sure what to serve them with but I fancied something with a contrasting flavour so cooked a tin of chopped tomatoes to accompany them. I would eat them again- although would remember that they are probably not the best thing to prepare when I am really hungry because of how long they take to cook (over 30 minutes in total which is a long time for me!)

Ah- I saved the best for last. This chocolate delight was baked by my wonderful mum for my sister's 18th birthday. It is a self-saucing chocolate pudding and really easy to make- I will ask my mum to give me the recipe so that I can post it later on!

It is not originally a vegan recipe but is easy to veganize because it does not contain any eggs and the only other non-vegan ingredients are butter and milk (soya margarine and soya milk work just fine!). It was all gone within seconds of serving it- and my sister, my dad and I all had second helpings!

Finally this is a picture of my little sister looking at her yummy pudding!

More pasta and a curry!

I'm still loving pasta at the moment!

The picture below is of a lovely meal that I enjoyed at Zizzi, an Italian restaurant near me. The dish was called Penne alla Pineta and consisted of spinach, mushrooms and pinenuts in a thyme and garlic olive oil sauce. It was yummy but I wish there had been a little more of it!

Next is a dish I made for myself last night. It was green lentils in a creamy mushroom sauce with wholewheat spaghetti. It was quite nice, although the sauce was a little runny as I overestimated the amount of liquid that the lentils would absorb! However, the dish was very different from what I usually make with lentils (usually a tomato based curry) so it was a welcome change!

Just to prove that I have been eating dishes which do not involve pasta, below is a picture a curry! It was made with kidney beans, and lots of brussel sprouts (one of my fave veggies!) and was with Rogan Josh curry sauce (from a can as usual!). I served it over brown rice (which I overcooked slightly as can be seen from the picture!). I enjoyed it very much though and hopefully the spicyness might scare off the cold I have at the moment!

Mmm pasta

Lately I have really been craving comfort food, which usually means pasta with some sort of creamy/ cheesy sauce. So that is exactly what I have been making!

First up I made spaghetti carbonara, which involved 'cheatin rashers' bacon, Cheezley, soya milk and my usual wholemeal spaghetti. It was really yummy!

I was really craving something similar for dinner this evening and knew I had some Cheddareeze in the cupboard so decided to have a generous amount over a tomato and garlic sauce with the same pasta. It hit the spot nicely!

Chilli- a new twist with an old favourite

I always like to try different things with my meals, just to ring the changes. I knew that I fancied chilli for dinner this evening but knew that I didn't have any soya mince in so decided to use some firm tofu instead.

I crumbled up the tofu, browned it in a pan and then added a jar of chilli sauce (very lazy I know!) It was really yummy! The tofu has a much softer texture than mince does but it was good. I served it over brown rice, which I haven't eaten for ages because of how long it takes to cook! I would definitely make this dish again, although I think I would freeze the tofu beforehand and then defrost it to remove some of the extra water to give it a slightly chewier texture.

Anyway you can see a photo of my dinner below:

Tasty vegan goodies!

I went home from uni to visit my family this weekend, which was really lovely. I hadn't been home since the Xmas hols so it was nice catching up properly.

Anyway onto the food:

Over the weekend my mum very generously treated me to all these vegan treats from various places! I got 3 flapjacks in different flavours, some tasty lemon and chilli mixed seeds, a bar of dark chocolate, some chocolate coated sesame snaps and 2 nakd bars. The nakd bars are actually a pretty healthy treat as they contain no added sugar, or any artificial ingredients and are mainly made from raw fruit and nuts which is great!

I have eaten 2 of the flapjacks already because they are so yummy! They are really moist but not at all greasy and nicely sweet without being sickly. I will definitely be stocking up on some more soon!

I can't wait to try the other treats!

I also did some baking over the weekend. I decided to make some peanut butter and chocolate cookies. They were based loosely on this recipe:


http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12477.0



The only alterations I made was to substitute 1/2 cup of flour for half a cup of cocoa powder to make them chocolatey and I used sunflower oil instead as I didn't have any canola oil. I also didn't bake them for as long because I like my cookies to be quite chewy!

My family gave them the thumbs up (even my sister who claims to dislike peanut butter) and I thought they were pretty tasty! The cookies were moist and chocolately without being too rich. As they were so easy to make I think I would definitely make them again.

I enjoyed another stir fry for my dinner tonight, this time made with tofu, loads of veggies and a szechuan spicy tomato sauce. I decided to serve it over wholewheat pasta rather than noodles just for a change!