Christmassy

Christmas time! I've been wearing my fluffy red hat and white beard for about two weeks now, which can only mean its Christmas!

 

I was very happy to receive this advent calendar from one of my friends at roller derby, it was filled with sweet rice milk chocolate squares.

 

 

There has been a lot of festive cheer this year, and I've reserved Christmas for some cooking and baking!

 

First thing I made on Christmas morning was Vegan Eggnog with rum.

My first ever vegan eggnog was over Christmas in 2011 which we spent in China, I don't remember exactly how it tasted, but I love how adjustable the drink can be, as long as its thick and creamy with Christmas spice!

 

I got this simple recipe from my friend and adjusted it, resulting in this;

1 block of firm tofu

1 cup non-dairy milk

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp vanilla essence

1-2 teaspoons nutmeg and cinnamon

1/2 cup of rum or brandy

 

Wizz in a blender and top with a grating of nutmeg.

 

 

***

I couldn't find any vegan mince pies this year, so baked some mince pies using store bought pastry and mince filling, even with those cheats they tasted so much better than shop bought! I made a few raspberry jam ones for my papa who doesn't like mince meat.

 

 

For the main affair, Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings and at least 8 types of vegetables!

 Fluffy roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roasted sprouts, creamy cheesey leaks, cauliflower, carrots, swede, petit pois, with stuffing and Cheatin' Gammon.

 

 

Creamy leaks is a tradition my mum insists on, but everyone loves, the vegetable is sliced and poached in milk until soft then add a little grated Cheezly and nutritional yeast and season.

 

Here is the Gammon, I think I prefered the "Turkey and sausages in bacon" from last year.

 

 

***

 

For a few weeks I've been mulling over making a Gingerbread house, watching Mary Berry has only encouraged this. 

I had a lot of success with Gingerbread men last year using Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and this year made wheat free trees, bells and stars. I followed the recipe again, but wasn't sure how much dough I would need to make the house. With a lot of grease proof paper, a ruler and some cutters I made templates for the house.

 

 

They warp a little in the baking, but with a bowl butter cream icing, any thing can be fixed. I had to stick the 4 sides together, then pop the whole thing in  the fridge before attempting the roof.

 

Decorating is the best bit, I used glace cherries, round and chunky choc chips, Peach Googy Good Stuff jelly sweets and a candy cane by the door!

I later realised I had some star shaped candies I could have used too.

 

 

Also spread a bit of Christmas cheer by gifting these delicious treats to my friend Claire, she loves veggie marshmallows, but they are either hard to get hold of or expensive. These turned up in our local health food shop, and would be perfect for hot chocolate or rocky road! 

 

Cat Bar Vegano - Barcelona

I spent a lovely week in Barcelona this September, and was so excited to see how many vegan places there were to eat at.

 

Below are some photos from our night at Cat Bar, located quite centrally near Jaume 1 tube stop.

The best part is that the whole place is decorated with cat themed stuff, including a Ducati bike that lost a few letters, in the main entrance.

 

The opening times are a little random, so I messaged them on facebook before I went. 

I wasn't sure my non-vegan friends would want to eat there, but they took a chance, and were very happy!

 

We each choose a different burger, as there are lots on the menu. aside from their burger menu they also had daily special, including a wheat free option of the day. The price was reasonable too.

They also serve Punk IPA Brew Dogs beers, which the ladies of the group partook in.

with tofu, rocket and sliced beetroot

 

with pesto fries and avocado sauce

 

 

Double burger with creamy mayo dip

 

Spicy burger with chorizo sauce

 

I highly recommend visiting this place for an evening out!

 

Vegan Wedding food

At our friends wedding mentioned below the bride and groom are both pretty health conscious and were really concerned about making sure everyone was catered to, they made sure the venue would have vegan and wheat free meals available to all guests. Thought this doesn’t sound like a difficult thing, this venue really excelled!

The wedding was held at a beautiful barn conversion and the theme was Fuchsia pink. My partner and I were seated with a Buddhist couple who we had met before, so in all we were a vegetarian table, and I was the only one who drank alcohol (two bottles per table is a tall order for one person!)

The table was decorated with little butterflies with the name and menu choices on, and most importantly for the girls a table favour in the form of butterfly cookie cutter to take home (best idea ever!)

 

The first course was soup, whilst the other veggies on the table had an orange soup, I had a beautiful rich Beetroot soup, and oh my, it was amazing! I’m really addicted to beetroot things (juices, burgers, raw in salad), and this soup had a really good tomato taste too and was the perfect thickness and rather filling.

 

The main course was risotto, I am totally addicted to risotto too, my Mr doesn’t like it, and so I generally only make it when I’m having a meal for one. This was a deliciously filling meal; it is very easy to make a veggie risotto and keep it vegan simply by not using butter and not adding any cream or cheese until the very end (I noticed the regular risotto had some cheese on top). I managed to finish the plate, mostly because it was so tasty, I was totally full.

The dessert was a huge fruit salad in fruit juice, my neighbour at the table as pretty jealous; being vegan is the best way to get tasty healthy fruit. Though I do like chocolate cake at times!

Wedding cupcakes and gifts

I recently had the honour of being asked to make some speciality cupcakes for a friend’s wedding; I made Gluten Free Vegan cupcakes for the guests with allergies. Specifically I knew one of the Bride’s friend’s children was a celiac, and hate the idea of any child missing out on cake at a wedding when everyone else can have some. I decided to stick to simple flavours to please the crowd, so made lemon cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes, I think these cover a range of taste (I only know of one person in my life who doesn’t like chocolate).

 

As an unexpected present on the day I was given this gorgeous Cupcake themed cookbook stand, this is the absolute best gift I could ever think of! I actually don’t own a recipe book stand and struggle between trying to balance the pages open and not get cake mix splashed all over the book. This also folds down nicely and fits in a draw.  

Tonight I am using it whilst making Ms Cupacke's Blueberry and almond muffins, ( again theses have been made gluten free,) for my Mr to take with him to London tomorrow to share with anyone he meets at the Buddhist centre.

Raw day food eats

 

I got into work with my huge supplies bag of food, I was going straight from work to the studio to do some painting, so needed plenty to keep me going.

 

I started the day off with a banana and a cup of herbal tea, and then I snacked on coconut filled dates. Mmm dates and avocado are the best things to keep me going in the office.

I then messily ate a whole fresh mango and an orange. I had also prepared some sliced tomatoes with basil and cucumber batons.

 

Testing the gazpacho the night before with ice!

 

Lunch was avocado guacamole lettuce tacos with lime juice and sunflower and pumpkin seed and a thermal flask of cold gazpacho.

I really liked the raw garlic in this soup, and have seen a few Green Juices recipes which call for garlic; I’m definitely more willing to try that now!

 

After lunch I had peppermint tea and more dates and a few blueberries, I also had a few cashews and almonds. I wish I had been at home to make a nice big banana and frozen blueberry smoothie.

 

Dinner was going to be courgette spaghetti, but after a trip to the shops where I found some young sweet corn on the cob, I opted for a delicious corn, avocado and lime salad instead.

 

Apologies for the awful photo, this was about 9pm, I was hungry!

 

Doing the raw day, I first thought it was a food plan of restriction, “you are not allowed this, this and this” but the following day I realised it is instead about promoting eating more healthy food.

I think I would start to have more salads for dinners but having some cooked chickpeas in my salad isn’t going to kill me.

Also one of my friends has a sugar deficiency which means she also can’t eat many carbs, like white flour or rice. So I made her some almond Raw, Sugar free cookies, using diabetic jam, and using the recipe from the Vegan Vida Con Recipe book, send from Vegan in Brighton. I would use some time to make these treats before my next Raw Day.

 

Two of my friends at derby have done 2 week Detox plans, where they cut out processed sugar, alcohol, caffeine and wheat. I think after feeling how un-bloated I was after the raw day, I may take up this detox, and I think it not being raw means I will be able to do it for longer than a day. Brown rice and sweet potatoes are still included and I can live off of those J

 

Thai Food and Craft Festival

Basingstoke War Memorial Park on Sunday the 28th July.

 

I found about this Thai food and Craft festival via Facebook, so popped down on the Sunday morning.

As well as hot food stalls, imported Thai foods, they had clothes and kick-boxing and lady boy contests.

 

I have been looking for somewhere online to get Kaffir Lime leaves at a decent price. At the super market you can buy a small spice jar of leaves for just under £2. So when I saw a stall full of imported Thai spices, I knew what to get. The huge bags were only £1 each, so of course bought two bags. I can now lavish my home made Thai Green Curries with loads of tasty limey leaves!

 

 

They were also selling lots of Thai Beer, there was a really nice picnic atmosphere.

 

I was scouting for some lunch, and was a little confused about what Jay food was, apparently no onions or garlic, I assume no eggs as well? 

 

Anyway I found a curry amongst the Pad Thai, meat and fish.

 

Well placed Thai food banner in the background...

 

Here is the Thai vegetable red curry served with a massive amount of rice. I checked no fish sauce or cream (only coconut milk).

 

They also had stands selling Mango Sticky rice, which is fresh sliced mango served with coconut cooked sticky rice. I had no room left to eat that after this huge plate!

 

 

Mr Dada had a Thai Tea, (sadly un-vegan) it is made with condensed milk (very popular in Asia) it is made using brewed tea and served over lots of ice. The tea is a special kind that doesn't get too bitter and its a lovely orange colour when mixed with the milk.

 

The 7/11 shops in Thailand sell huge cups of Ice Tea and Thai Tea.

 

I hope to see more interesting festivals in Basingstoke like this, promoting not only independent restaurants but also different cultures.

 

RAW Day Preparation

For some time now I have been toying with the idea of committing to try a Raw day, I have eaten raw lunches and Raw breakfast, but I’ve never consciously gone a whole day just eating Raw foods.

If it goes well I might make it a regularly month adventure, much like the source of my inspiration Vegan Crunk, if it goes really well I might extend it to a few days or even a week!

I realise to anyone who is living raw or doing a detox this doesn’t sounds like much of a challenge, but with no restaurants nearby that offer Raw food and very limited health food shops, I’m going to have to do a lot of preparation myself.

I don’t own any books on Raw food. So most of my information is coming from what Blogs and my usual vegan diet.

Here are my meal plan ideas and a shopping list:

1^st of the month Raw day

 

© Breakfast: Banana & Strawberry smoothie/ mango smoothie /Blueberry smoothie

© Lunch: Avocado Salad/ Lettuce tacos/ Gazpacho / coleslaw / carrot & raisin salad

© Dinner: Spaghetti courgette with tomato and basil sauce / Raw Mexican wraps

© Drinks: Herbal Tea - Peppermint, green tea, watermelon juice.

© Snacks: Dates stuffed with coconut, unroasted cashews & almonds, seeds, raisins homemade cashew cookies. Vegetable crudités

© Snack: Mini pizzas; sliced tomato with basil and sundried tomatoes

Im not sure if herbal tea is considered raw, but its really good for you, so I will allow some.

Planned Shopping list:

Veg:

Avocado

Basil

Tomato cherry and big

Carrots

Little gem lettuce

Celery

Sun dried tomato

Limes

Fruit:

Bananas

Mango

Oranges

Berries

Watermelon

Dates

Coconut

Nuts:

Cashew

Almond

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Doughnutsssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Inspired by my friend and fellow vegan Cassie {TeaBeardsandCake} I bought a 6 hole doughnut oven pan from Amazon and used this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie to make vegan krispy Kreme doughnuts!

 

I was kind enough to test out the first batch on my omnivorous family, who absolutely loved them!

 

I am not the best person to be a critic of doughnuts, as in my 7/8 years of being vegan I've only had 3 doughnuts and 2 were from this batch!

 

The only other doughnut I have had was on my first visit to Ms Cupcake in Brixton, where I waited for one to come fresh out of the fryer and it was warm and deliciously sugary! Mmmm!

 

I checked with my family and they said you cant really tell that these are baked and not fried, they aren't as oily as fried would be but they are perfectly sweet and soft.

 

 

On my second attempt I threw together a chocolate icing {seen above}, which was so delicious and even after a few days {how did they last that long?} they still tasted amazing, the chocolate icing seems to melt more into the doughnut! Definately my favourite.

 

In my trials I realised the way to add sprinkles to an iced doughnut isn't to throw tiny colourful sugared balls all over you kitchen, but in fact to cover a plate with sprinkles and press recently iced the doughnut into them, who knew!?.  

 

Chickpeas & Avocado Caesar Salad and Sprouting Seeds

 

I saw Post Punk Kitchen's recent post on a very vegan Caesar salad, and realised my fridge was loaded with chickpeas and avocado that needed eating, I took this as a perfect opportunity to actually follow a recipe (I like to improvise too much) for once!

                 

 

I’ve never made a dressing with Tahini and was so surprised how it easy it was to thin the tahini with water, I added the mustard and garlic (losing friends because I added too much) the dressing had a very rich nutty taste. Actually the garlic flavour had really mellowed by the following day.

It inspired me to dig out my Appetite for reduction and start making more of my own salad dressings.

The salad came together really easily and the Tahini is really nutty, the chickpeas were out of a jar, yum! It also made a tasty lunch the next day and my work colleagues didn't notice the garlic.

 

 

 

At my local corner shop, they sell a lot of ethnic foods, mostly Indian and Asian, the other day I was picking up Rose water, dried chickpeas and Thai green curry paste (HOT) for my friend when I spotted Chickpeas in a jar!

When I spent a month in Rome I became totally addicted to jarred chickpeas. I could scoop a spoon full out onto my salad and add some raw garlic and Italian extra virgin olive oil and lunch was sorted.

So of course I bought a jar, in fact they were the same price as a can of chickpeas, but they taste so much better! They are really well cooked and soft enough to eat straight up.

Plus you can reuse the glass jar as storage for dried cupboard stables, or even for sprouting seeds.

This leads me nicely onto...sprouting seeds! With said dried chickpeas, I got out my Bio-Snacky Germinator and began socking my chickpeas ready for sprouting.

I’ve read that sprouted seeds and beans are really good for you, because they are easier to digest and have lots of healthy happy stuff in them. I have a lot of seeds and pulses I can sprout at home.

I did read somewhere that you should boil the chickpeas for a few minutes before you consume them.

 

Soaking the Chickpeas before the sprouting starts!

Please comment on this blog post if you love sprouting! 

 

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Ms Cupcake Golden Syrup Cupcakes and a Roller Marathon

After the long awaited release date I finally got my hands on a copy of Ms Cupcakes recipe book.

 

Ive been a fan of Ms Cupcake since my first encounter when I stopped off there before visiting a Roller Derby game in London, Ms Cupcake was at the game too, as one of her staff was a roller girl too.

I don't get to visit as much as I like, but I am always looking at the tasty photos of their treats online.

I have always been really impressed with their cakes, especially the Gluten Free ones, as they taste equally as good as the wheaty ones.

 

Golden Syrup Cupcake recipe by Ms Cupcake

 

This weekend I skated 26 miles for charity as part of the South Coast Roll at Goodwood motor circuit. Our team Basingstoke Bullets skated a total of 583.2 miles and raised £500 for the Youth Sports Trust. It was hard work to skate 26 miles but I was so happy to have the support of my team.

As the tradition seems to go, I make a batch of vegan GF cupcakes for all the gang.

I have been eyeing up my new cupcake book for a few days and eventually made my choice.

 

 

 Im really addicted to golden syrup porridge and the smell of it sends me into a frenzy.

I thought about making vanilla cupcakes as anything too fancy might not suit everyones taste buds, (cinnamon haters) but when I saw this Golden Syrup Cupcake Recipe I knew I had to make them.

 

Icing using a plastic bag, next time I will be using real icing kit.

 

The best things bout Ms Cupcakes book (apart from the beautiful 50's style photos) is the English-American ingredients translation, as I have never known what to use in my frosting/buttercream as a shortening, the book suggest Trek, which is pretty solid at room temperate which makes for perfect frosting on a sunny day.

 

Jaffa Cakes and Turkish Delight Cake are high on my to make list as well as custard icing!

 

Ive already spurred a few friends curiosity to buy the book with my cupcake photos on Instagram DropkickNoMercy.

 

 

You should buy Ms Cupcakes book and then join a Roller Derby team; this sport seems to come with vegan cakes (and sometimes vegans too).

 

Bath; Roman Spa, Nepalese food and ancient stones

Since coming abck from traveling we are trying to see more of england, so we drove after work to Bath on a Friday to make the most of the weekend.

We found our lovely little hotel Midway Place, which was 10 minute drive from Bath, and stopped for a cuppa in our room whilst watching the hairy bikers.

 

View of bath in the evening

The lovely hotel owner gave us a useful map and pointed out a few restaurants, having done my research I knew most of them and had scouted them out on trip advisor, happy cow and vegetarian places.

 

I tried to book a table whilst on the motor way to the Nepalese restaurant I has read about. Friday and curry go very together. They couldn't guarantee us a table, so we planned out visit to the later end of the night.

We parked up and walked over the bridge in the rain and strolled past Demuths veggie restaurant before finding our dinner for the night at Yak Yeti Yak. 

 

As soon as we walked in the door the smell of incense took us straight back to travelling in Nepal and India. The decor was equally as authentic, with all kinds of colourful fabric we were used to seeing near the Dalai Lamas residence in Dharamsala.
The menu looked great and I spotted the word vegan on the dessert section! I'm really not used to seeing that word on menus as we don't even have a vegetarian restaurant in my home town. 

 

We decided to order some vegetable momos to share, momos are Nepalese and Tibetan dumplings, these were really good and the sauce went to well with them.

For our main we ordered the Dahl baht; this literally translates to rice and lentil Dahl, and we also had the choice of which veg curry to add to the aloo channa. They gave us a few options but the seasonal Broccoli and Asparagus sounded the best. There was so much rice, and it came with popadom too, I didnt finish my meal, but enjoyed it so much. 

I had some how missed the bit where they mentioned a Dahl made "with vegan butter" and when I asked the waiter if it could be made vegan he was so well informed and I just had to take off the 'curd' which comes with the meal. We had fresh lime sodas to drink, very comon in India and Nepal.

 

 

We started the second day with our hotel breakfast of fresh fruit, tea, toast and an English breakfast; beans, tomato and hash brown, they also had Linda McCarthy sausages which are vegan!

 

We made our way into bath and parked at a church near the centre as the parking was fixed price all day and raised money for the church.

 

 

Once in Bath we queued for The Roman Bath House. It was a really intesting place with lots of roman architecture and of course you could see the huge steaming hot baths. At the end you could even drink some Filtered Spring Water. I also heard that this is the only natural hot spring in the whole of the UK, it must have been quite a treat to have hot baths anytime.

 

 

We finished looking around about lunch time and did a little shopping before picking where to have lunch, I had read about a mushroom burger with vegan cashew cheese and chilli juice, but couldn't remember which restaurant it was. We decided to eat at the Green Rocket, a relative new comer to bath; only opened in Feburary and fully veg with lots of vegan / gluten free options, there was one Raw main too!
 

 

After studying the menu I realised this was the place with the burger.

So we ordered: one Egyptian mezze platter and one mushroom rice burger. The mezze had falafel, hummus, carrot salad, flat bread and quinoa. Both came with a pesto drizzled salad.

To drink I had a pot of earl grey with soy milk, it made so many cups! They were fully stocked to make any kind of soya coffee and chai latte too.
 

They sell their famous chilli juice by the jar, it was really unique and complemented the burger so well. I tried the vegan cashew cheese on its own and it tasted so fantastic, I hope they think of using it for vegan Toasties in the future, because it is a star by itself.

We eyed up the extensive choice of cake but we didn't have room again.

Having said that we came back an hour later; I had vegan coffee & walnut cake, I'm not a huge coffee fan but it tasted great and was so moist with plenty of buttery frosting. Mr Dada had non vegan gluten free salted caramel cake and soya cappuccino. They also do gluten free brownies, which I was assured by the waitress are also really good. They had other choices for vegans including cupcakes, carrot cake, ninja bread men and huge coconut chocolate flapjacks.

 

 

We briefly visited the Metropolitan cafe with is above and inside a high street shop, and they had a huge range of gluten free cake but sadly no vegan ones.

 

We wanted to visit Demuths because it has a huge reputation as being one if the best exclusively vegetarian restaurants in the south west, but after splashing the cash at our last 2 meals we couldn't justify it. A set lunch is much cheaper than an evening meal, so that would be a great way to try it on a budget. Or for a special occasion I would be tempted by the hour and a half drive to Bath to eat here.

 

I would love to one day visit Rachel Demuths Vegetarian Cooking school, but for now I can at least read her blog!

 

http://www.racheldemuth.co.uk/blog/

I highly recommend Bath for a day trip or an over night stay (so you can eat more).

 

On our way home we stopped at Avebury to see the neolithic stone circles, it was lambing season and they were so cute!