Connoisseurus Veg

I have been following  Connoisseurus Veg for some time now and these are some of the recipes that I have cooked.  Each one has been absolutely delicious, in fact lip smacking gorgeous.  Check out her blog here.

Mujadara – lentils, onions and rice – my three favourite ingredients 🙂

  
Pineapple and Smokey Baked Tofu Pizza with Hoisin BBQ Sauce 🙂

  
Fajita Vegetables served with Creamy Jalapeño Sauce served with jacket potato.  The sauce is to die for 🙂

  

Chickpea Scramble with Spinach and Mushrooms – the perfect way to start the day 🙂

  

Vegan Stuffed Marrow

When I was little my grandad used to write my name on a tiny marrow in his garden.  As the marrow grew, so did my name and I have always loved marrow ever since.  Brilliant way of getting children to eat marrow!

This recipe is something I serve quite regularly.  It is very forgiving on timings, you can add pretty much any veg you have in the freezer, it freezes beautifully, what more can I say 🙂

Ingredients

• 1 marrow – peeled, halved (length ways) and deseeded
• Soy mince – soaked in water
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 chopped courgettes
• 1 large mushroom
• 2 carrots
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (or ketchup)
• 1 tablespoon Italian Herbs

Method

• Gently sauté onion, garlic, carrot and courgette in a little water for 5 mins.  Then add all other ingredients (except marrow) and simmer for 20 mins.
• Put tin foil in a baking tray and put marrow on top.  Fill marrow with stuffing (it doesn’t matter that there is way too much).  Cover with foil and bake at gas mark 6, 180 degrees for at least an hour until the marrow is very soft (this will depend on the size of your marrow.
• Enjoy with mashed potatoes.

  

Free Food

It’s been a long time since I posted but life really got in the way with health scares, new grandchildren, full time work etc.  But I do want to carry on with this blog, so hopefully I will be posting more often.

This morning I went out on a foraging expedition.  The blackberries I went for are not quite ready yet, but I did find some beautiful cherry plums.  Last year I made jam with them, but as I am now on a very clean, living diet (I have to lose three stone for health reasons), this year I am going to just stew them and freeze in individual portions ready to add to breakfast, smoothies, yoghurt etc etc.

They are so pretty and I do really, really like free food.  Back soon.

  

What A Beautiful Day

It was so lovely when I woke up and, being as though I didn’t have to go to work today, I decided to spend this morning on the allotment.  It is the first time this year I have spent any length of time up there.  I have seeds growing on my bedroom window sills, namely several types of chillis, black and white Aubergines, Brussels Sprouts, and sweet peas.  I also have broad beans in toilet roll ‘pots’ outside on deck.  But I have been holding off planting anything directly, as in the past I have been caught out by planting too early.

Anyway, I planted red onions and shallots in to individual pots in my unheated greenhouse.  I mulched several of the raised beds with well rotted manure and had a general tidy up in preparation for the upcoming seaon.  My greenhouse has suffered a lot of damage over winter and I am going to have to replace it at some point.  I am considering investing in a small polytunnel.  I want a decent one, not a cheap one that is only going to last a couple of seasons.  If anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful.  I figure I can extend my growing season with a polytunnel.

It is so good to be working outside again, I get a wonderful sense of peace and achievement when I have spent time at my allotment.  The weather is slowly getting warmer as we get further in to spring and the earth is beginning to wake up.  I love this time of the year and its promise of renewal 🙂

Taste Heaven

Yesterday I discovered a food match that could have been made in heaven. It was so simple; a lovely creamy, buttery bagel with sliced advocado, salt and pepper.  I can see that this is going to be my breakfast for quite a few days ahead 🙂



Roasted Sweet Potato Wraps

Hi All, I have been very busy recently. My beautiful granddaughter, Jessica, was born was born three weeks ago and then my equally beautiful grandson, Bobby, was born two weeks ago! It’s like having twins, I am sooo lucky. There is nothing to compare with newborn kisses and that wonderful smell that tiny babies have 🙂

I just had to share this recipe for sweet potato wraps with caramelised onions, I swear it is the best thing I have put in my mouth for a long time.
Obviously I tweaked it a little (!); I added vegan cheese and I didn’t have any tomatoes so I just left them out. I opened a new jar of vegan pesto and, since I don’t use it very often, I froze the rest in individual portions an ice cube tray for future use. I will definitely be doing this again, perhaps next time experimenting with different vegetables. I also must look at making my own pesto. You can find the recipe here at The Kitchn blog.

Silent and Still

By first light, the decks were icy and the world around us was covered with a beautiful, but freezing frost. The skies are grey and damp permeates your body as you walk along the sea wall. There is not a whisper of wind and the incoming tide is strangely still. There is not one other soul around and you feel as if you could be the only person in the world. The mist has now descended on the water giving it an eerie covering, just as you imagine the River Styx would be. The forecast for later is stormy and windy, but for now the world is silent and still.

Happy Herbivore’s Cheater Pad Thai

You get home from work late, you are very tired and very hungry. You’ve forgotten to take something out of the freezer. You can’t be bothered to cook and how many times can you resort to toast with a topping (marmite or avocado in my case)? Not so healthy if you haven’t eaten much all day and inevitably leads to very unhealthy snacking later, chocolate, crisps, bowl of cereal. I find I need a ‘proper’ meal to stop the late evening munchies creeping up. So I have been trying to build up a repertoire of healthy meals that I can knock up in minutes. This is where Lyndsay Nixon, aka The Happy Herbivore comes in. So many of her recipes are quick and easy and yet come under the ‘healthy’ tab as well as being absolutely delicious. This recipe is one if my favourites. I make it even quicker by using ‘straight to wok’ noodles, usually microwaved. Now I know that last sentence goes against all my green credentials, but there are just times when you just must! I am going to try cooking up some noodles and freezing in individual portions as I figure that they should cook from frozen very quickly. Has anyone tried this? In the meantime, have a go at this, it lends itself to chucking it whatever you have in the fridge or freezer. Don’t be afraid to change or substitute ingredients 🙂

Serves 2 | I call this “cheater” because it’s ridiculously easy and quick to make and also because this recipe uses 1 tbsp of peanut butter, so it’s not fat-free.

1/4 lb thick rice noodles
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp sweet red chili
Asian sauce
1/4 tsp granulated garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp hot sauce, or to taste
3 oz bean sprouts

Prepare rice noodles according to package directions.
In a small bowl, whisk 2 tbsp of warm water, soy sauce, peanut butter, chili sauce, garlic powder, ginger, and hot sauce together until combined. It may appear too runny at first, but it’s not.
Taste, adding more hot sauce if desired.
Using tongs, toss prepared noodles with your newly created pad Thai sauce until all noodles are evenly coated.
Plate and top with bean sprouts.
Garnish with chopped raw peanuts and a lime wedge if desired.

Chef’s Note: Letting this sauce rest for a few minutes is a great way to intensify the flavor.

VARIATIONS
Lower-Calorie Pad Thai: For a lower carbohydrate and lower-calorie pad Thai, substitute 2 cups of thinly sliced blanched cabbage for half of the rice noodles.

Vegetable Pad Thai: Double the sauce; Cook 1 15-oz package of frozen stir-fry veggies according to package instructions and toss with sauce and noodles.

Alfie

I would like to introduce you to our canine companion, Alfie. Alfie loves life. He rarely wears a collar and when he does, he knows that it is usually because we are going somewhere special and interesting. When the collar comes out he gets sooo excited. Alfie adores the water and is obsessed with playing with his ball. Put the two together and he is in seventh heaven. As I write this, I am still in bed and Alfie is curled up next to me, sound asleep as he had a late night at the local pub and sailing club!

Alfie out sailing on the yacht, enjoying the wind in his face.

Pretending he’s the dory’s figure head.

Will someone please play ball with me?

Out walking on the sea wall with Megan, his playmate and fellow boat dog.

It’s a tough life!

What is veganism?

This sums up my reasons for being vegan perfectly.

There's an Elephant in the Room blog

Veganism is an ethical stance, an all-encompassing view of the world. Veganism focuses on respect for the beings who share this planet with us, sentient individuals whose lives matter to them, who are not objects to be owned and destroyed as we see fit. They are not ours to use and enslave. To become vegan is to understand and accept this.

This acceptance has profound and far-reaching consequences: vegans stop wearing or using all substances derived from the bodies of others including their skin, feathers or fibres, we stop funding and promoting their suffering and misery through all our everyday consumer choices of toiletries, cleaning materials, entertainment and of course we stop consumption of all substances derived from nonhuman bodies – their flesh, their lactation, their eggs, everything. In short, our every choice attempts to examine whether we are causing harm to others and if we are, we take the…

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