What I have been eating for dinner recently,,,

First up is gnocchi with a cheesy pasta sauce (made with a tin of chopped tomatoes with onions and some very yummy Cheezly). It was the perfect comfort food!

Next up is a yummy vegan fry up with baked beans, 'cheatin rashers' and Linda McCartney sausages. Although this type of food is traditionally eaten at breakfast time I ate it for dinner as I tend to prefer my porridge in the mornings. It was very tasty- although next time I might have a go at making a tofu scramble to go with it (maybe instead of so many sausages!).

Finally is my dinner last night, which was a tomato and chickpea sauce, served over wholewheat pasta twists with some grated Cheezly on top. A nice warming and comforting meal, which I enjoyed on the sofa, feeling very pleased to be inside and sheltered from the horrible rain outside!

Chocolate heaven!

Unfortunately my camera is out of batteries at the moment so I have been unable to take photos of my meals. I haven't been making anything particularly unusual for me though- have been eating loads of pasta as usual!

Anyway, onto the good stuff: I was lucky enough to receive a Green and Blacks Easter egg from my friend (he knows my tastes so well) which consisted of a large dark chocolate egg as well as 2 150g bars of Green and Blacks chocolate. One was my favourite (or maybe former favourite) one with cherries, the other was a bar the same as the one pictured above which I have never even seen in the shops before (otherwise I definitely would have sampled it- I have tried all of the Green and Blacks dark chocolate bar flavours that I can get in my supermarket!).

I hadn't had any chocolate products with nuts since going vegan as I find that mostly the products available to buy are milk chocolate items, or the dark chocolate coated nuts are covered in shellac (for some stupid reason). Anyway this chocolate bar was absolutely heavenly and I have to admit I ate the whole bar in its entirety because it was so delicious! (I am aware that Easter is not for a little while but chocolate around me never lasts very long- I already consumed the Easter egg that came with the chocolate bars!)

So if you ever get the chance to try this yummy treat I highly recommend that you do- you will NOT be disappointed!

Happy porridge, chocolate-themed baking and a pizza!

What better way to start the day than with a nice warm bowl of porridge (or oatmeal to you Americans!) It is so comforting in the cold weather (especially when it is smiling!)

I have also been doing some baking! I was after a chocolate-themed recipe for something that would not be too tricky to make and I came across a recipe for 'Brownie Oatmeal Cookies' (http://www.fatfreevegan.com/desserts/brownie-oat.shtml)

I did not follow the recipe exactly- I used golden syrup instead (which I had in the cupboard) and also added some chopped glace cherries to the cookies. I also made several large cookies rather than making the suggested 2 dozen- bigger is always better I think!

The cookies were nice and moist, definitely similar to the texture of a brownie but were not quite as rich as some brownies can be. They could perhaps have done with being a little sweeter , so I think I might adjust the recipe next time. Nevertheless they went down very well with my family- my dad ate 2 the same day I made them!

Finally, I have a picture of a pizza made by myself and an (omni) friend.

We made the base from scratch (500g plain flour, 1 sachet of dried yeast and about 300ml of warm water). Then we topped the pizza with some chopped tomatoes, onions, orange peppers, sweetcorn, jalepeno peppers and some 'Parmazano' cheese. It was baked in the ovven for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees celsius. Both me and my friend really enjoyed it!