Sunday, April 29

Pasta With Loads of Veggies


Not the most imaginative post title, but what can I say? That's what it is, so... yeah. It's lumache pasta with spinach, sundried tomatoes, asparagus, corn, onion, oregano, and red pepper flakes, and it was delicious.

I made some garlic bread to go with it. Isn't home made garlic bread just like so much better than any rubbish you buy in shops? I think so.

In unrelated news I ordered a really cool lunch thermos thingy. It looks like a regular thermos flask, but it has three compartments in it for storing different foods, so I'll be able to take dinner leftovers to work. No more sandwiches! Man, I am so sick of sandwiches. I have to get up ridiculously early for work every day, and then study in the evenings and weekends so I've not had time to make lunch other than sandwiches. My exams are finished soon though so th nightmare will end soon!

Saturday, April 28

Life gets in the way of blogging, and our internet provider sucks.

*peeks head in*

I have been uber busy recently which is why I completely disappeared. Sorry! I started a new job which I need to get up at stupid O'clock in the morning for and then when I'm not working I have to study! The studying part is only for a few more weeks though, and then I can finally relax after work, and eat real food again.

I may have been able to pop in sooner if our internet provider hadn't decided to crap out on us for two weeks! It turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise as I wasn't able to fart about on the interwebs, so I got a lot of studying done. I am glad it's sorted now though, it really did suck.

In unrelated news, my new job has enabled me to upgrade my camera. This doesn't guarantee my pictures will get any better as I'm fairly sure it's me who is rubbish, but it gives me a new toy to play with!

I promise to be back soon with some (fairly) interesting food.

Don't give up on me!

Sunday, April 15

Seitan O' Greatness Pizza

This is the first time I've had any proper junk food in a long time. It was a treat for Gary to celebrate him finishing off his dissertation. This is a before pic, as I wasn't sure if I'd remember to take a picture when it came out of the oven, because , you know, pizza! We kept it simple with the toppings and just went for some of the seitan (as thinly sliced as I could manage) and some onions.Here's the after pic, which I'm aware doesn't look a whole lot different to the before pic, but I took it so I'm going to show you it.
The seitan crisped up nicely which was great. For some reason it looks as if there's hardly any sauce on the pizza, but I can assure you there's plenty!

I'm starting a new (temp) job tomorrow, so wish me luck! I'm oddly nervous. Hopefully Gary will help me out by making some dinner some nights (hint hint). I'm hoping to get a cool lunch box as well, which for me, is very exciting (I know how much much of a geek I am and I feel no shame). This also means I might be able to upgrade my camera soon, which would make me so happy!

It was Inevitable Really...

Yep, I got sucked into the Seitan O' Greatness malarkey just like everyone else in vegan blog land. I can tell you that all the hype hasn't been for nothing, this stuff is good. I don't usually like seitan, there's something about the texture that freaks me out, but this baked kind has a completely different texture than the usual boiled kind. Gary really likes it and he was an absolute pepperoni fiend in his omni days. We had a few slices on their own, and then had some more in sammiches for dinner. In the sammiches with the seitan is tomatoes, spinach, sprouts, and some vegan mayo.

*drools*

They were sooooooo good. Yum.

Wednesday, April 11

Mattar Tofu

I wasn't entirely sure what this dish was supposed to be like when I saw it in 20 Minutes To Dinner, but it looked nice so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It turned out like a very mild curry. It's very healthy, everything in it is either dry fried, or steam fried. It was tasty enough, and easy, but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to make it again. It was good, not great.

Served with the obligatory brown rice, blah blah blah.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 3/5

Monday, April 9

Caldo Verde

This is apparently a traditional Portugese soup, although I have no idea how authentic this particular recipe is. This recipe is another one from Bryanna Clark Grogan's book, 20 Minutes To Dinner. It's a flovourful, nutrient dense, potato and kale soup.

I think I got some weird pleasure out of tipping an entire bag of kale into my soup pot, but then, I am very odd.

Bryanna Clark Grogan is obsessed with her blender! Once again she called for the onions and garlic to be blended. I didn't see the point, so I minced my garlic and diced my onions. Who minds a little bit of chunk in their soup? I'm not one for dirtying up my blender if I can get away with it, it's so awkward to clean! Anyhoo, it's a really hearty, filling soup, and it makes loads, so there are plenty of leftovers, and leftover soup is one of my favourite lunches.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 1/5

Sunday, April 8

Pasta Arrabiata with 'Meat'balls

I love arrabiata sauce, nut for some reason I rarely ever eat it, weird. The 'meat'balls are from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I was really sceptical of them, but Gary wanted to try them and they were actually really good. They were really moist and tender, but held their shape well. In the recipe they're actually fried, but I just took an ice cream scoop, and scooped blobs into a muffin pan and baked them. I put them in the muffin pan to stop them sticking together, it was quite ingenious I thought, but I am easily amused. The pasta is whole wheat. We never eat white pasta nowadays, and I've never really noticed a difference in taste.

The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook is so retro! I particularly love the story about Uncle Bill, it made me chuckle, who knew old people were 'groovy'?

Thursday, April 5

Chimichangas, Sour Cream, and Salsa

These were really good! So good in fact that I just had some leftovers for breakfast - Shh... Don't tell anyone...


The chimichangas are filled with a low fat refried bean recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's book, 20 Minutes To Dinner. Her recipe says to blend all the ingredients together, but I prefer my beans with a little bit of bite to them, so I mashed my beans and then just added the remaining ingredients. I think it was much better that way. The recipe makes loads, so I'm going to freeze some of the leftovers for quick dinners when I need them.

Chimichangas are fun to make, they're almost like Mexican spring rolls. You put a little line of filling into your corn tortilla, fold in the sides, and then roll it up. Traditionally they are deep fried, but I sprayed a teeny bit of oil on them and baked them, which worked just fine.

The sour cream is also from a recipe in 20 Minutes To Dinner. I was glad to find a recipe for sour cream as the Tofutti stuff seems to have disappeared from all the Health Stores here. It wasn't as good as Tofutti, but it was a helluva lot better for you, so it's a trade off. The salsa is boring old shop bought stuff, so nothing to write home about there.

I'm currently waiting on a few cookbooks that I ordered recently. It's a very exciting time for a cookbook junkie like me! I'm waiting on The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, and Please Don't Feed The Bears. Anybody who has these books should leave me a comment with what to make first. I'm so excited! I love getting new cookbooks!

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 4/5
The high rating is mainly because of the homemade sour cream, and our blender being a royal pain in the butt to clean. If you already had that made, or bought some, it would only be a 2.

Sunday, April 1

Catching Up!

Sorry I haven't been blogging recently! I can't even use uni as an excuse because I'm on holiday just now. I'm just a bad, bad blogger! Anyhoo, I have been taking pictures so here's a few recent ones.

Oh. My. Gods. Where has sushi been all my life? I think I love it more than life itself! This was my first attempt at making sushi, and I think I did rather well, even if I do say so myself! I filled two rolls with the spicy tempeh filling from the PPK, and one with cucumber and avocado. Both fillings were absolutely delicious, but me and Gary both preferred the spicy tempeh filling. So, so good. If you haven't tried your hand at making sushi yet you should. It's easier than you would think. Oh! The dip we had with it was teriyaki, and it was delicious!

Next up are some cupcakes, unsurprisingly from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. As I've explained before I'm not a huge cupcake fan but my mum is coming up to visit tomorrow and she really loves carrot cake, so I thought I'd try the carrot cake ones. They're really good. Gary likes them even though he claims to hate carrot cake, but I have to agree they're not over carrot cakey. The cream cheese frosting is delicious. I was a little bit sceptical about putting the chopped walnuts around the edge because I'm not a huge fan of nuts on cakes, but they really added something to it.
Don't you just love my trolley? Over the years it's had many uses, from fruit bowl to lollipop holder, but today it will be a cake stand.