Tandoori Burgers and a Giant Monkey Balloon!

We saw these burgers today at the health store and thought we'd give them a whirl. I'm such a sucker for having to try something if I've never seen it before. The packaging is a bit retro, isn't it?
Here it is cooked. As you can see it looks absolutely nothing like the picture on the package. It just looks like a regular veggie burger. That's pretty much how it tasted too, I didn't get a strong tandoori taste at all, which was disappointing. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything special. I give it a 'meh'.

So, onto the giant monkey balloon... We were walking through town yesterday and saw this:
This is right in the middle of Dundee city centre. It's City Square, where all of our 'important' people (council and such like) buildings are. We were very confused. That's Gary in the picture there to give a little bit of perspective. Gary's over six feet tall, so as you can see, this thing is huge! We were also confused by the sign, 'Everybody' what? And why was it all cordoned off? We want answers, people!

Strangely enough, I was walking by City Square today and it was gone. If we didn't have these pictures as proof, I may well have thought I was going insane. I wasn't though... Not this time...

Banana Omelettes O' Wrongness!

I thought I would be nice this morning and cook Gary (and me) a nice breakfast. How wrong could I be picking this recipe! It's the Banana Omelette recipe from the Vegan World Fusion Cookbook. When I first saw it I thought "hmm, that'd be nice with some peanut butter and maple syrup", but then I looked at the recipe and it had a savoury filling in it. I was highly sceptical but I thought I'd give it a go.

This started out completely horrible, and ended up pretty much the same way. You have to boil the bananas with their skins on for 20 minutes to soften them up. Boiling banana skins is one of the most foil smells I've ever been unfortunate enough to smell in my entire life. For some reason I persevered with the rest of the recipe. It started out okay, but the more you ate, the more the weirdness of the banana/savoury mixture got too unbearable. The last bite I took made me gag, and I had to go spit it out.

It was an altogether unpleasant experience and I wish I'd just stayed in bed for an extra hour.

Has anybody else made this recipe? Did I somehow mess it up completely?

Tofu Tacos and Grilled Cheez Sammiches

These are from another new addition to my cookbook collection, The Everyday Vegan. I swear at this rate there will be no room in the flat for me and Gary with all the cookbooks! These were really tasty. Gry thought they were a little too spicy, but he's a bit of a spicy food wimp, so let's not listen to him. Its basically mashed tofu with lots of chopped veg and spices all chucked in a pan and cooked. It makes loads, which is a huge bonus for me just now as I am insanely busy with work and studying, but one more week and it'll all be over!

In the background is something we drink far too much of - Curiosity Cola. Our friend Alice turned us on to the stuff and it's been a downward spiral since then. Alice will of course be receiving our dentist's bills.

Today for lunch we had something that is really not very healthy but we don't eat lunch together a whole lot, and rarely ever eat crap like this (well I don't, Gary is another story...), so it was a treat.

Behold... The grilled cheez sandwich o' clogged artery goodness!

Besides the insanely unhealthy tofutti slices there is sundried tomatoes, onions, sea salt and red pepper flakes.

Don't judge me!

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!

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!

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.

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

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

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'?

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.

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.

Cauliflower Soup with Parsley

This is another one from Vegan Italiano. The soups in that book are all really delicious!

I didn't actually make this, I was in uni all day so Gary made this for us both. It was really good. The herb balance in all the soups from this book is great. Every one is packed with flavour.

All in all, good soup.

Yum.

Tomato Bread Stew with Pasta

Yep, yet another rubbish picture, but I think it's been well established that I don't care.

This is from Vegan Italiano. I was looking through all of my cookbooks the other night looking for soft TMD friendly recipes and Vegan Italiano had loads!

This has tomatoes, onions, garlic, pasta, and bread all cooked into it. I was slightly sceptical about cooking the bread into the stew, I nearly left it out as I thought it would go really soggy, but it didn't. It was lovely and soft and doughy. I would highly recommend this dish, it's really tasty and comforting.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 1/5 It's a one pot meal!

In unrelated news, in the past few weeks I've been watching what I've been eating, and exercising a lot in an effort to lose some weight. I've lost just under a stone! Go me!

Tropical Fruit Smoothie

I prettied this glass up mainly because I thought it was funny. Gary came in and looked at me like I was a nutter, but then joined in by helping me choose a straw colour. We're odd.

In the smoothie is banana, pineapple, papaya and some multivitamin fruit juice. In the background is Geoff, our new cactus.

Why the smoothie I hear you cry? Well I'm currently on a liquid diet due to a bad case of TMD which has left me unable chew any food. Hopefully it'll be okay soon and I'll be back on the solids again.

I want to masticate, dammit!

Tester Recipe - Coriander "Honey" Tofu With Bok Choy

No, of course it's not actual honey! Don't be silly!

This is another tester recipe for Joy, and it's another keeper. I cannot speak highly enough of this dish. It's sweet, and spicy, and all in the right proportions. It also looked really classy when presented on the plate, but as usual I was in too much of a rush to eat to spend loads of time taking a good photo!

In conclusion, Yum!

Black Bean Burger with Chunky Salsa

I got the Black Bean Burger recipe from Vegweb (as always) and it was really good, and pretty healthy. Lots of protein from the beans, and lots of veggies in there too, and very little fat. They were quite spicy as they had a bit of cayenne pepper in them.

We had them with chunky tomato salsa on wholemeal buns.

I'm planning on testing another recipe for Joy tonight so I'll post some pictures of that when I get a chance.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 2/5

So you've got a vegan in your life?

I know this is a food blog, but every now and then I feel like writing something a little bit different, and it's my blog so there's nothing you can do about it!

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I’ve been finding it increasingly odd how people can have close friends or family who are vegan, yet seem to show very little interest, or knowledge of the subject. Vegans hear stupid things said about veganism most days of their lives. If you care about a vegan, and want to make their life just a little bit happier, don’t contribute to the general idiocy.

1. Know your food groups.
Dairy isn’t one, neither is meat. Something which has astounded me recently is that many people I know believe that eggs are dairy products, and generally don’t understand how dairy products are produced or generally where they come from. Here are some links which explain it.
Milk
Eggs

2. Watch Earthlings.
Or Meet Your Meat. If only to try and grasp a little bit of why vegans live the lifestyle they do. You’ll probably learn something.

3. Listen to Prof. Gary Francione speaking on Vegan Freak Radio.
He will at the very least make you think. He will most definitely say the things that the vegan in your life has probably been trying to say to you forever, but in a much more eloquent manner.

4. Understand that veganism is not a diet.
Nor is it a phase. It’s a lifestyle choice brought about by making a well informed choice. As such if you are being nice and feel the need to give a gift to the vegan in your life, make sure it is in keeping with their ethics. Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse for giving a vegan a leather wallet, or a wool scarf, or a silk tie, etc, etc. I personally would not give a gift that I did not think the person would use and enjoy, so doing a little bit of research will be greatly appreciated by the vegan in your life. If you really can’t find anything, then don’t give a gift. Overconsumption is something we’re all guilty of, and is something the majority of vegans disagree with. I would rather have no gift, than a gift ‘for the sake of giving a gift’.

5. If you start a conversation about veganism and it gets heated, remember that you started the conversation.
You have no idea how conscious most vegans are that every time they open their mouths people will think they are ‘shoving their views down everyone’s throats’ or ‘preaching’ and because of this, some vegans are wary of having these kinds of conversations. Honestly people, if you start the conversation, be prepared to hear things that you might not want to hear.

6. Veganism is not ‘going too far’
Once you know something, you can’t unknow it. Vegans live a lifestyle in keeping with their moral views, based on what they know. To quote the Vegan Freak theme tune “they say ignorance is bliss, well if that’s the case your brain dead myopia is hilarious”.

Okay so you may be asking yourself why you should care about any of these things, or why you should have to change anything in your life for us. Well, we all make adaptations for people we love, why should the vegan in your life be any different? Basically, if you care about the vegan in your life, you should at least try to care that they care.

Word, bitches.

Traditional(ish) Sunday Dinner

I was feeling in a traditional mood yesterday so after scouring Vegweb for a little while I found a lovely sounding recipe for 'Tofu Steak and Onions'. It was cooked in (vegan) worcester sauce and soy sauce and had a lovely tangy taste to it.

I served it with some carrots and broccoli. I'd usually have roast potatoes with this kind of meal but I have a tendency to make far too many of them and then eat the vast majority of them myself, so I decided against it. You can also see a little gravy boat, but I'm sorry to say I didn't make the gravy myself, I can just never get in the mood for doing that unless it's a special occasion, I suppose I should really start doing that!

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 1/5

Tofu Salad Sammich

Yup, another sammich. Why? Well I've not been feeling too great and sammiches are quick, easy and tasty!

I just threw this together from stuff I had in the cupboards (which is always nice). I drained a block of tofu and then mashed it. I then added mayonnaise, mustard, onion, garlic (lots of garlic), sea salt, and some red pepper flakes.

It was really tasty and from one block of tofu I managed to make enough for two rolls for Gary, one pitta bread for me, and plenty of leftovers for lunch today. And when you're not feeling well, leftovers are always a bonus, especially leftovers where no reheating is involved!