Vegan Birthday BBQ on the beach

Last weekend we visited my family in the Gower in South Wales.  We had some beautiful weather for my sisters birthday on the beach.  She is vegan too so the BBQ was 100% vegan and delicious.  

I am lucky enough to have two sisters, my other sister made this fab birthday bunting which was hung on some rocks. 

She's single folks!

Some blankets spread out by the rocks set out our little area.

Me with my other sister.

What's a summer BBQ without Pimms?

Linda Mccartney Sausages, and burgers (made by mashing up some LM sausages with some chilli and other seasonings and re-forming them into burgers) and some veggie kebabs which are transformed on a BBQ with a lovely chargrilled flavour. 

We also cooked some sweetcorn over the coals, still in it's husk. Delicious. 

My sister also made some moreish red cabbage relish,

Me and my lovely mum,

Ending a beautiful day on the gorgeous shoes of Rhossili Beach. 

7 Days of Vegan Breakfasts - Scrambled Tofu on toast

Recently on Facebook I asked my friends to ask me anything about veganism, and one person asked "How many years of practise does it take to get used to the taste of tofu?" I trumped their jovial sarcasm with an equally droll response of  "what taste?"

It's true, tofu has a bit of a bad reputation, but it is unfounded because tofu has the remarkable property of being able to easily adopt and marry the flavours added to it, meaning you can make it taste delicious.

In honesty I haven't been that adventurous with my use of tofu but there is one breakfast choice that  is hard to replace with a vegan alternative in many recipes - the egg, however, my one escapade into tofu use has yielded delicious results in the form of scrambled tofu, which when flavoured appropriately, makes a delicious scrambled egg alternative.

Scrambled tofu is great if you prefer a savory breakfast option rather than sweet (I usually go for sweet for breakfast, so happily this also makes a great lunch option)

It has that unmistakable eggy wobble, and a very similar colour, the taste is achieved by a mixture of spices and a pinch of salt.

I served mine with potato cakes and vitalite today because I like to mix things up every now and again and switching bread for potato cakes is about as exciting as it gets round here. 

So I used half a pack of Cauldron Original Tofu for this recipe, I cooked it in a cast iron skillet with some vitalite spread.  I seasoned it with:

• 1/2 tsp medium curry powder
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder,
• 1/4 tsp turmeric.
• A pinch of pepper,
• A pinch of salt. 

I literally just tip the tofu in, stir it around with a spatula and then add the flavorings. I served it with a good dollop of tomato ketchup as I would with scrambled egg. 

A delicious breakfast high in protein, it contains all eight essential amino acids, and is also high in calcium, iron and a variety of micronutrients. It is thought to protect us from many cancers and heart disease, it's free from saturated fat, contains almost no cholesterol and is low in salt. (A diet high in these things can lead to cancer and heart disease).

So, I dare you, try some tofu and dispel your own myths about it, it CAN be tasty, it IS nutritious and is a great way to start the day without harming any animals in the process. Yey!

Delicious vegan pizza

A little while ago I joined a local vegan group on Facebook.
One of the highlights of my week is Friday night Date Night, which basically consists on my husband and I having a takeaway whilst sitting on the sofa and watching a film on Netflix (we really know how to party now we are in our 30s and have children).  So since transitioning to a vegan diet I decided to ask on said facebook group, where I could get a decent vegan takeaway locally for my Friday night indulgences.  The first response was telling me that a Dominos pizza is vegan if you ask for it without the cheese.  My response?  If a cheeseless pizza is all I have to look forward to on a Friday night then I might just cry (First world problem I know but hey, a girl needs her junk food every now and again)  So I set about finding a way to jazz up a pizza to make it suitably slob-out worthy.
After reading the fabulous Keep it Vegan by Aine Carlin, I discovered a delicious alternative to sour cream made with cashew nuts and found that this, combined with a few blobs of dairy free pesto and a selection of pizza-worthy vegetables made a tremendous pizza that the cheesiest of cheese lovers would find appealing.
It really does hit all the right buttons and served with some chips a glass of wine you have a Friday night that any takeaway lover would fall for.
Here was my most recent offering:

Ingredients:

Ready made pizza base (I used Nappolina pizza bases)

1 tbs ketchup,

1 tbs tomato puree,

1/2 tsp harrisa paste,

1 chopped mushroom,

1/4 sliced pepper,

1 piece sun-dried tomato,

1 marinated sweet pepper,

5 tsp dairy free pesto,

Cashew sour cream (recipe here)

Spread the sauces over the pizza base, place veggies on and dollops of cashew sour cream and pesto, cook at about 180 for 10 minutes, enjoy. 

Vegan Mushroom and Walnut Risotto

I hesitated to put "vegan" at the start of the heading, I am not (yet) vegan, but am exploring the world of vegan cuisine for health and ethical reasons, but I though that I might inspire others to include a few meat/dairy free dishes in their weekly menu and the word "vegan" helps with searches etc.  So really forget that this is vegan and just see it as a really delicious risotto. (Serves 2 adults and 2 small children)

Ingredients:

1 medium onion,
2 garlic cloves,
1 pack of mushrooms,
250g risotti rice,
1 stock cube,
water to cover,
1/2 cup coconut water,
1/2 cup cooking wine.

Chop onion, garlic and mushrooms and fry until soft, add rice, water and stock cube, coconut milk and wine and leave to simmer until rice is tender.  Serve with green beans.

It's really tasty and delicious, and also has a nice bit of crunch with the cashews, dairy free, soy free, wheat free, but certainly not taste free!

Our Candlemas Celebration

You may remember me saying at the start of February that we would be celebrating Candlemas by making and eating a candle cake, making an earthen candle and eating a candle lit dinner, amazingly I did actually manage to do all these things on the evening of Candlemas.
In case you don't know Candlemas is a Christian feast day celebrated 40 days after Christmas day to make the day that Mary presented the infant Jesus at the temple, as was the tradition. It is also they day when churches bless the candles, which represent Jesus being the light of the world. Historically the date has been celebrated as the mid-point between the shortest day and the spring equinox, and thus seems an ideal date to celebrate light.

I like cake (a lot) so when I saw this candle cake I decided it would be a great excuse to combine the celebration and my love of baked goods.  It was pretty easy to make, literally covered a Swiss roll with water icing (it makes lots of drippy marks giving it an authentic candle-like feel) and I used a heart shaped marshmallow turned upside down and stuck on a kebab skewer for the flame. If I did this again I would make my own Swiss roll because, no offence, but Asda own brand Swiss roll is a bit minging.

The earthen candle idea came from here,I thought Boris would really like it and he did.  I made mine by melting some paraffin wax in a Bain Marie 

Then I filled Boris' little bucket with soil from the garden and formed a heart shape in it, I suspended a wick in it then poured in the melted wax. I left it o set whilst finishing dinner and laying the table.

And Voila!  Our Candlemas dinner was complete. I apologise for these photos, it was too dark really and no amount of iphone filtration was going to make them look any better!

After dinner we played shadow puppets in the candle light, it was good fun.

Halloumi, hummus and sundried tomato pesto sandwich

In an attempt to make our lunches a bit more exciting, and more specifically our sandwiches; which had become a sad combination of processed ham and limp lettuce leaves, I took in Pinterest and discovered this delectable ensemble. 

Simple toast two slices of brown bread, place some slices of halloumi on one piece and grill, then layer with sundried tomato pesto, sliced tomato, cucumber, lettuce and a good tablespoon of hummus (preferably home made) and voila, a delicious lunchtime treat which is both healthy and tantalizing to the taste buds. Plus it turns out my toddler loves halloumi!  As per usual I troed to use all organic ingredients in this sarnie, coldn't source any organic halloumi though.

40 Soups - Mushroom

Over on my old blog Serendipity Child I started a series of posts call 40 soups based on a theme on a blog I follow by Elise Blaha, although I didn't get far with it, I loved it and have decided I would like to carry it on on this blog.  I really love soup and as it is coming into Autumn and winter when soups are the perfect warmer I thought I would share them with you.
Not only are soups easy to make they are also nutritious, enabling you to eat a few portions of your five a day in one easy meal.  My toddler usually likes them to, I give him the unblended version so he has pieces of food to pick up with his fingers and leave out cream because he has a dairy sensitivity.
This week I made mushroom soup for the first time. I didn't follow a recipe (I rarely do for soups) I just thought about what I would like to do and went ahead.  It isn't the cheapest soup to make because it required a whole pack of mushrooms, but was very very tasty.

I used:
One pack of organic chestnut mushrooms,
One large organic onion,
Three cloves of allotment garlic,
One kallo chicken stock cube,
1 tbs organic olive oil,
A dash of organic double cream.

To begin I chopped the onion and garlic and fried it in the olive oil.  I then chopped the mushrooms and addded them till they went soft and watery.  Next I added enough water to cover the mushrooms plus a bit more and added the chicken stock cube.
After cooking for about 15 mins I blended the whole thing and added the cream.
Served with crusty white bread it was absolutely delicious and tasted just like a bought fresh mushroom soup.
What soup recipes do you love?