Friday 26 December 2008

A lovely Christmas!

I had such a lovely day yesterday! I always enjoy Christmas but yesterday seemed particularly perfect!

The day started when I opened a lovely box of vegan treats that arrived from the lovely gal who has this amazing blog (http://www.cosmicwild.blogspot.com/), Thanks chica!

She also made me this adorable little guy: 'Herb' the 'teabug'- he looks just like a tea bag- he is sooo cute!
Above are the fabulous gifts inside the box! Clockwise from the back is:

*a box of Apricot biscuits (perfect with a cup of tea methinks)
* a face mask (my skin will be looking good!)
*chilli pepper puree (cannot wait to use this in a stir-fry)
*gummi bears (gelatine free- wohoo!)
*rice stuffed vine-leaves (great for lazy people like me who would never be bothered to make them myself!)
* red pepper and tomato salsa (yummy as a dip for crisps!)
* fruit flapjack (filled with sultanas : ) )

I cannot wait to try all of these treats! They all look absolutely scrummy! As you can tell I was pretty excited with my stash of goodies (I somehow managed to grab them all without dropping them for a quick piccie!)


I also received some yummy goodies from my family for Christmas: snack bars!



I have never tried a Pecan Pie larabar before so I can't wait to find out what it tastes like!


Yesterday, I also took a picture of our Christmas tree (yes it really is that huge!):


Here is the table, which my sister and I enjoy decorating every year:


And here is my family sitting at the table about to dig into the Xmas dinner:


Along the left hand side is my sister and my mum, my dad is at the back and then on the right is my cousin and my two aunts.

As Christmas always involves turkey, I always prepare my own dish which I have with the veggies (my mum cooks them without butter- yay!) I was feeling pretty lazy and uninspired this year so I decided to buy something to eat rather than making it myself. However, it was yummy nonetheless (also not very festive!)
My meal was a vegetable curry!

I ate it with lots of brussel sprouts (my fave traditional Christmas veg) although I forgot to take a picture of my plate!

I followed my meal with some Chistmas pudding (I bought my own vegan one as my mum's has eggs in) Here it is:


So all in all a great day- I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too!

Wednesday 17 December 2008

It's getting closer to xmas!

I have just under 3 days until I have the xmas holidays- yay! This has meant that I have been really busy (everyone is ill at work so we've all had to work extra hard to make up for it!). This has meant unexciting eats (as usual!)

I have also had a few meals out recently, which has meant I have eaten loads of chips (the vegan option!). Therefore, I have been enjoying lots of stir-fries when I have been cooking for myself. I love them soooo much! They are so quick and easy to make and I can get in loads of veggies to keep my immune system up and make up for the lack of nutrition in the chips I have been eating!

Stir-fry 1: With udon noodles, soya chunks, a tasty mixture of veggies and some green chilli peppers for some heat!


I used these noodles (so quick to cook because you can shove them straight into the wok- hence the name 'Straight to wok')

Stir-fry 2: Stir-fry with soya chunks (again), loads of different veggies, green chilli peppers and I think it was some wholewheat noodles that were buried underneath!

I also tried a new product- this Spelt tortellini (filled with veggies) which I ate in a creamy cheeze sauce. I bought it from a trip I made to wholefoods. Sorry for the awful pics- I was hungry!




I was a little disappointed by this product as I didn't think it has much flavour. I preferred the other pasta I tried from this range, made with tofu and spices so next time I will buy that instead.
I also tried this ready meal:

I was so excited to see this in my local health food shop as I have never seen an Amy's meal there before. I enjoyed this meal for lunch earlier this week, which made a nice change from my usual lunch dishes. It was so quick to cook too- only 5 mins from frozen, which is great because I was feeling hungry and lazy!
I still haven't got around to making my Pumpkin pie but I hope to make it soon and I will post a picture of how it turns out!

Saturday 6 December 2008

New yummy eats!

Although I often stick to similar meals I do love trying new things!

Recently, I have bought some new foods to try, which I have really enjoyed.


Here is what I have been eating:


Yummy seitan strips:



I enjoyed them in a spicy tomato sauce over wholewheat couscous:




I also tried frozen soya beans in pasta (I usually eat them cold in salads):

I wasn't quite so keen on this combo actually, I think the beans where a little too crunchy for my liking- I prefer my crunch in cold foods.


I also bought some kamut pasta to try:



I made a macaroni cheeze: (perfect comfort food- especially appreciated as I have a bad cold at the moment :( )


When I was out and about shopping, I needed to grab a quite bite for lunch and managed to pick up this yummy salad- mixed beans with sweetcorn in an olive oil dressing- yummo!Of course I have not forgotten my favourite go-to meal- the stir fry: (this was made with beans, soya mince, spinach, peppers and wholewheat noodles)


Also this week it was my mum's birthday so we went to a local Italian restaurant and I ordered a pizza with veggies (without cheese)- yummy although I would have loved some chilli peppers on them for a bit of heat!



Here is a picture I took of my family during the meal (my dad looks very strange in this photo because he was about to say something and didn't realise I was taking the photo!)

I also have bought this can of pumpkin (yes it really is huge!) and am thinking I will make an American-style pumpkin pie. I have never made (or even eaten) anything like that before so I will be really interested to see how I get on!
Any ideas of what to do with the rest of the pumpkin I have leftover?