So the boy made pulled pork last night and was all excited to have a sandwich for lunch. He wanted me to make some coleslaw to go with it so I obliged using this recipe as a guide. Though I used curly leaf cabbage because that is what came in my veg box this week and egg free mayonnaise. Also I added in some alfalfa sprouts.
The question was – what should I have on my sandwich?? Being a vegan the pulled pork wasn’t so much an option but I wanted something along the same lines…. Then it hit me – BBQ tempeh! I hadn’t made it in years but it’s so tasty on a sandwich!
Just cube the tempeh and pop it under the grill until it’s crispy. Mix around with your favourite BBQ sauce and serve on a bap.
Cover the bottom of a small pot with water and put it on to boil.
add in one medium cubed sweet potato
Use the food processor on pulse until it’s all small bits if you have one – otherwise just cut everything small with a knife and mix in a serving bowl.
1 red onion
1 large jalapeño
large bunch of coriander (cilantro)
Now scoop half of that mixture out and add it in to the sweet potato on the stove. When it is soft, turn it down to low.
Back in the food processor add in:
1 tomato
Now scoop it all out into a serving bowl and add in:
half a teasoon salt
a tablespoon lime juice
Stir and leave to the side – this is a traditional Mexican Pico de Gallo – fresh salsa!
Back to the pot on the stove, add in:
one can black beans
1 tablespoon cumin
half teaspoon garlic salt
Now heat up your tortillas, use whichever kind you like; flour, soft corn or hard corn.
Slice an avocado and you’re ready to serve; taco shell, black bean mixture, avocado slices & pico de gallo. YUM!
I’ve been vegetarian for years and years. I stopped drinking milk over 10 years ago. I can hardly stomach an egg. My favourite place to get sweets in London is a vegan bakery. So you would think a suggested diet shift to vegan +fish for health reasons shouldn’t have been too daunting… but the cheese! shock! horror! how would I live without cheese?! Champagne cheese fondue & hot salsa cheese dip are 2 of my signature dishes. I take a cheese board on the terrace very seriously. I’ve been know to accompany the boy to a fancy schmancy meat-tastic restaurant and be thrilled to have just wine & cheese – LOTS of wine & cheese.
But cheese free was the way it was going to have to be, so I did it, and to my surprise it was a lot easier than expected. Looking back now it really strikes me as a bit like an addiction; at first it was so so so difficult, I wanted it all the time, if I saw it or smelled it I was literally drooling. 3 weeks later it was like it was never there.
So now I’m fine, I don’t really even want the cheese any more and the one time I cheated and had some I felt like I was going to throw up and die so I don’t foresee cheating being an issue. For the most part I decided I wanted to experiment with new dishes rather than try to replace bits of the things I used to make regularly. I actually found it to be a bit freeing in terms of creating new and interesting combinations.
But every once in a while I just want that comfort food that I’m used to, which inevitably ends up being cheese based; pizza, lasagne, mac-n-cheese, etc. So for those rare occasions I’ve started experimenting with some vegan home made cheeses.
I finally found a cheese that it versatile, quick to make & melts (kind of). I got the recipe from a blog that I didn’t previously know but will definitely be going back to visit again soon!
My favourite things about this cheese:
you can add various flavours
you can pour it directly on for pizza, lasagne, mac-n-cheese
you can put it in the fridge to harden & then it shreds!!
top tip – put it in the freezer for even easier shredding
it melts (kind of) & browns
After months of going without I finally had a vegemite & cheese toastie today! I was a late 20’s convert to vegemite so I’m not really brave enough to go it alone on a plain piece of toast. I had been missing it quite a lot and finally tried it today with the cheese from the fridge that I shredded and then popped it under the grill. YUM! here are a few photos.
I may have had a bit too much to drink last night while “testing” out my birthday present from the boy; see beautiful decanter and glasses in the photo below – LOVE.
For the record that £7.99 bottle of pinot tasted like it set me back at least £17! I’m pretty sure the “too much” came when we decided to try the 2nd bottle, but that’s besides the point. The actual point is that my head felt a bit rough this morning and par for course all I wanted was pizza… pizza and cola. There is something about me and hangovers and bad food – normally I’m not a junk food type person but the day after a good night it is all I crave.
Problem is since going vegan a few months ago I can no longer just hop on the internet in the middle of the day and get a hot, greasy, pizza delivered to my door. Which in reality is probably not so much of a problem. I’m actually working on perfecting my dough so then I can keep a few on hand in the freezer for occasions like this. I’ve got a decent liquid “cheese” recipe I’ve been using and it tastes remarkably like actual pizza once you load on some yummy, home made tomato sauce and lots of toppings.
Here’s proof:
Recipes for all coming soon – once I perfect that damned dough! Actually trying out a new harder “cheese” that I can then shred on lasagne this week as well so it’s definitely still a work in progress but certainly does the trick.
But, I digress, point is today I was hungover which meant I was craving naughty food and I can’t have naughty food so I had to substitute. Not that we had that much to work with, today is also our local vegbox delivery day so it’s all a bit bare in the kitchen. We did have a half a can of mixed beans in the fridge, some of my very own salsa in the cupboard, 2 small avocados ripening in a paper bag and some soft corn tortillas in the freezer. I’ve taken to keeping some of those lovelies on hand as of late. Due to health issues I am no longer eating anything with vegetable oil or deep fried so no more store bought tortilla chips for me. But I’ve found a solution – simply cut the soft corn tortillas into triangles and pop them under the grill for 2 minutes, sprinkle with a bit of salt and voila!
So I made myself some tortilla chips because a taco didn’t seem naughty enough :) I also put the beans in a pot on the stove with a spoon of salsa and a sprinkle each of cayenne pepper, garlic salt & cumin – squashing them a bit as they warmed up into some lovely chunky refried beans. The avocados I mashed into guacamole with a sprinkle of salt, a spoon of salsa, and a couple drops of lemon juice from the handy plastic lemon I keep in the fridge.
BOOM! Lunch is served:
Tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole & refried beans – see it feels naughty when you eat it – but it’s not! Protein – check, healthy fat – check, some spice to clean the haze from my hungover head – check. Oh and it’s delicious and took about 5 minutes to prepare.
Well some of us have had a very naughty new year so far….
I didn’t even bother making a new year’s resolution
I haven’t posted on this website since last year (and it’s almost February)
I have so many photos of glorious food on my iPhone meant for posts I can’t even remember what’s what
Instead of hunkering down and writing said posts about said food I’m looking for a way to post a photo album
It’s been so long since I tweeted I couldn’t even remember my password
But it’s been fun… the boy and I have been on a relative bender since December – that’s what happens when one of you is looking for work and the other has always worked from home – I used to be an extremely self-motivated go getter, not so much these days.
Every day is a new day though, and today, 29 January 2013, 2 days after my 34th birthday, I’m back!
So to celebrate (and beg for forgiveness for ignoring you) I’m having a SALE on my cookbook! Yayyyyy SALE!
For those of you who don’t know; it’s full of a cross section of recipes including hot & sour vietnamese soup with prawns, mexican beef enchiladas, chicken penne in a creamy vodka pink sauce & blackened steak salad with blue cheese dressing.
Sounds run-of-the-mill you say?? Well the trick is that at the top of each recipe I tell you a few simple substitutions to make the meal suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, lactose intolerant or gluten-free dinner guest. BOOM! All your dinner party problems solved. All your “trying to eat healthy but my husband/wife/kids don’t want to” problems solved. All your “trying to feed my special needs child/loved one with cancer/ms/cf/heart disease etc the healthiest meal for them but I don’t want to eat that way” problems solved.
Buy it here! It’s a steal at £16.79 for 65 full colour pages and a photo of EVERY SINGLE RECIPE.
So buy it, review it, tweet it, love it. Here’s to all your healthy eating aspirations in 2013!
The other night when I made the vegetarian lettuce wraps I cooked way too many rice vermicelli noodles so I put them in the fridge to use for later. All week I’ve had such an easy job of making quick and easy lunches with them I’m thinking about making it a habit to have some cooked and ready to go.
I did a cold noodle salad with tamari, sesame oil, sesame seeds, grated carrot & spinach the other day and today I’m having (pictured above) barely warmed swiss chard with pine nuts, almond slivers, poppy & sesame seeds and a bit of tamari – it’s one of those dishes where you can actually feel how healthy it is.
I love how chard tastes like earth, kind of like beets, or beet root, but I’m getting off topic now.
