Scones and Jammy Jammy Jammy Jam!

*Ahem* Or just scones and jam for normal folk. Well what is there to say about scones and jam? Good scones, not too sweet, not too stodgy. The recipe is the raisin scone recipe from vegweb, but I didn't have any raisins and generally tend to eat around the raisins in scones anyway so I left them out.

If you look closely, in the background you can see some dice. Why? Because Gary's a big geek that's why. Nuff said.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say how brilliant I am. Gary popped out to the shops (which are literally on our doorstep) to get a few things, and by the time he had got home I'd just spontaneously whipped up a batch of scones. Why? Well I'm a mentalist. An amazing mentalist, but a mentalist none the less.

So, eh, scones, eh?

Stuffed Shells O' Goodness!

Yes, these shells are in fact stuffed with goodness. My definition of goodness is tofutti cream cheese, spinach, and sundried tomatoes, but isn't that everyone's definition?

There are no words to describe how good it was. Each shell was creamy and packed full of taste. The sauce on top is just a basic herby pasta sauce (passata, with whatever herbs I had on hand, and some garlic).

I can tell I'll definitely be making this again (I don't think Gary would let me not), it was really simple but really hit the spot!

Oh, and on the side is the obligatory garlic bread, blah blah blah...

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 1/5
There were a few pots etc to clean, but apparently nothing was sticking to anything so it was all good!

More Vegan With A Vengeance Goodness!

There is seriously nothing in this book that isn't a massive success.

Tonight I made the sundried tomato and asparagus frittata. I was worried it would hold together and would be all crumbly, and whilst it was crumbly it held together beautifully and was crumbly in all the right places. I couldn't get and fresh basil so I added a little bit of dried basil and added spinach to replace the leafiness, it seemed to work fine. I can't honestly remember ever eating eggs (they always freaked me out) so I couldn't say whether it's a decent replacement for egg frittata but what I can say is that it's mighty tasty. On the side is a nice salad with, you know, general salady stuff... yeah...

Gary Dish Washing Rating - 2/5

Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizza!

Yup, so I got a pizza stone for crimbo so I of course spent most of yesterday making pizza. The crust and sauce are from recipes in Vegan With A Vengeance and were really good. Making pizza dough is fun but it isn't half messy! I got impatient and didn't let my dough rest for very long (probably about 40 minutes), so it wasn't as stretchy as I'd have liked, but we live and learn! On one side is onion, spinach, and some tofutti mozzarella cheese slices. On the other is spinach and some weird slicing sausage stuff that Gary likes but I find repulsive. Anyhoo, it was a good pizza but it was a little bit soggy in the middle so I'll know to cook it longer next time. I think I'll also have a dough making day soon and freeze lots of it so I don't have to do all the messy dough stuff every time I want pizza.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 4/5
This will be less next time because as previously mentioned, I'll be making lots of dough in advance.

Jaffa cupcakes and pressing tofu!

Orange puding cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. These were brilliant, and they tasted eerily similar to good old jaffa cakes.

VCTOW and Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz are my two favourite cookbooks (and I have a lot of cookbooks). There's not a single recipe I've tried from either which hasn't been a huge hit, and every time I open them I find new things I want to cook. Both of them are completely covered in cooking debris, but that's the sign of a well used cookbook isn't it?




I'm making a tofu roast for christmas dinner (from a recipe someone posted on the vegan freaks forum), so I'm currently preparing my tofu by pressing the bejesus out of it. The tofu is wrapped in cloth in the colander at the bottom there. Anyway, I though it looked funny so I thought I'd share the photo.

Mmmm... Pie...

Mmmm... Pie... indeed. This was a creamy vegetable pie, and it was delicious. The pastry was cooked great and the inside held together pretty well when it was lifted out. A big bonus of this pie is that it's really filling, so me and Gary can only eat a quarter of it each in one sitting, which means we get leftovers for the next day!

The fluffy looking thing in the background of the picture is a cushion, and it's not touching the pie even though it looks like it is. I'm still getting used to this whole picture taking thing, so it might be a while before I actually take any decent ones.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 1/5
It was going to be two out of five until I pointed out that we'd be having the leftovers for dinner tonight, so there'll be hardly any dishes tonight.

Sundried Tomato and Spinach Pasta

This is one of Gary's favourite meals, ever. It's ridiculously simple to make, but really really tasty.

It consists of penoni rigati pasta (I like to call it fat penne), sundried tomatoes, spinach, onions, oregano, red pepper flakes, and a little bit of vegetable broth.

We also had a spinach, onion and tofu salad on the side but I didn't take a picture because I was too busy eating.

Gary's Dish Rating - 2/5

General Tao's Tofu

When I asked Gary if he was in the mood for General Tao's Tofu last night he said: "I dunno, I'd rather have my own tofu, you don't really want to be messing with a general, coz he's got the army on his side"
Har, my aren't you hilarious.

This is from a recipe on Vegweb (this particular recipe has the most reviews of any recipe on vegweb, ever), and it's really good. It was maybe a tad sweet, so i'd omit some of the sugar next time. The tofu was cooked to perfection, nice and crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.

After the initial joke making, when I told Gary and Stu I was making this (I had to describe it to them because the name meant nothing to them), they both went "Oooooh! That one!".

All in all it was good food, enjoyed by all. One drawback was that it was rather time consuming to make, but that doesn't really bother me.

A new feature Gary came up with is 'Gary's Dish Rating' because he does the dishes around here (I do the cooking, it's only fair) and I can tell that as soon as I mention cooking a meal to him he analyzes in his head how many dishes he'll have to do afterwards.

Gary's Dish Rating - 4/5

Asparagus Crepes with Maple-Mustard Glazed Potatoes

The title kind of says it all really. These were basic crepes (flour, gram flour, and water), inside the crepes was asparagus which had been sauteed with garlic and a little bit of sea salt. On the side are baby potatoes, roasted and with a maple syrup - dijon mustard glaze. There's also a drizzling of a nutritional yeast 'cheesy' sauce on top.

The crepes and potatoes were from recipes from 'Vegan With A Vengeance' (the best vegan cookbook of all time), but slightly adapted, because, well, I'm a control freak and refuse to follow recipes properly.

This wasn't the first time I'd made this particular combo and it was just as tasty as always! Gary agrees it was very tasty but hates how many dishes it uses, so I don't make it all too often.

Happy Birthday Stu!

As the title suggests, it's my friend Stu's birthday today, so I made him a cake. It's actually a lot prettier than the photo gives it credit for (I still need to get used to my new camera).

It's a standard white cake from a recipe onVegweb, with jam and buttercream filling and regular old icing on the top. Stu made the gun himself of of ready to roll icing and I made the V and then we painted them green with food colouring.

V... Gun... Get it? Har.

Holy Originality Batman! Another Food Blog!

Yes, I know it has been ever so slightly done to death, but I'm starting a food blog. Why? Well, I got a digital camera for christmas and I cook a lot... So, yeah...

I'm Lelly and I've been vegan for about three and a half years. In this time I've gone from cooking the most basic of basic meals (even then the success rate was hit or miss), to now where most days, no matter what's going on, I set aside at least an hour to cook a decent meal. I do this mainly because I enjoy cooking, but also because I love eating. I live with my vegan boyfriend Gary who also loves to eat my food, and I often have vegan visitors for dinner who also love eating my food (you know who you are!)

So in conclusion, I am Lelly, this is my food blog, I hope you enjoy what you see!