Dada Vegan

Friday, 20 September 2013

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.

Sunday, 11 August 2013

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

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

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

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!?.

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

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!