Saturday 30 June 2007

Lentil Stew

Todays new recipe is for lentil stew. It is a filling nutritious meal but will also work on its own for a lunch.


Friday 29 June 2007

Night out Tonight

You might have noticed that todays recipe has been updated earlier than usual. This is because I am going out for a meal tonight. I have phoned in advance and have been told that the vegan meal they are going to give us is ciabatta with roasted vegetables and the main course will be pasta with tomato sauce. Will be interesting to see how nice the meal is. I will include a review of the restaurant on here tomorrow.

Leeky Pasta



Today's recipe is for leeky pasta. It is another easy recipe to cook but it tastes lovely. It is a mixture of pasta with vegetables and covered in a bechamel sauce. It is lovely with heaps of freshly ground black pepper.


Thursday 28 June 2007

Coucous Recipe

This recipe is for coucous with steamed vegetables in a spicy tomato sauce. It is another of my boyfriends recipes so I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you enjoy it to encourage him to keep on sending them to me.


Wednesday 27 June 2007

Bechamel Sauce

This might seem like a simple recipe, but until my boyfriend introduced me to bechamel sauce I always used white sauce in my recipes.



Sorry about the photo, it was very hard to find a nice way to photograph this sauce.

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Creamy Vegetables with Mash

This creamy vegetables recipe is kind of like a cottage pie but with a white sauce base instead of a gravy one. It is simple to make and once the meal is prepared it can just be put in the oven to cook. It is nice served with green vegetables such as cabbage or asparagus.


Monday 25 June 2007

Fruit Stack



Today's recipe is called fruit stack. This is a delicious creamy dessert and is ideal with the summer fruits we have around at the moment. Perhaps a great way to use those strawberries that you have bought in to eat while watching a rained out Wimbledon.

Sunday 24 June 2007

Traditional Pizza

Todays recipe is for traditional pizza. It has a simple base and you can vary the topping according to what you like to eat.

Saturday 23 June 2007

Watercress Baguette

Todays recipe is for a watercress baguette. It is a lovely sandwich to have on a hot day, really refreshing and delicious.

Friday 22 June 2007

Cabbage Noodles


Cabbage noodles are just a variation on a vegetable stir fry recipe. The reason I called it cabbage noodles is because the texture of the cabbage after it has been friend reminds me of noodles.
I think these taste great with heaps of black pepper, but then I do like black pepper on nearly everything.

Thursday 21 June 2007

Brocolli Broth


This recipe for brocolli broth was just something I made with food I had left over. It turned out much nicer than I expected and the girls really liked it as well. I hope you do too.

Wednesday 20 June 2007

Strawberry Terrine


Strawberry Terrine is just a posh way to serve jelly but it is really delicious and is a great way to encourage kids to eat fresh fruit. It is great with soya cream but can also be served with custard and cream on top to make a trifle.

Tuesday 19 June 2007

'Go to work on an Egg'

This morning on the radio (BBC Radio Shropshire) I was listening to them talk about the banning of the old 'Go to work on an Egg' advertisements. They were going to be rerun because it has been 50 years since the original adverts were shown on TV, but have been banned because they don't promote a balanced diet.

A few weeks ago I read that Asda had been banned from advertising full fat milk in between children's programs because that was deemed unhealthy.

From a vegan point of view obviously I am pleased that these products aren't going to be promoted and that at last they are seeing that dairy products aren't a healthy diet for us. However, yet again we are being told what to think, and not being able to choose for ourselves. I know that growing obesity is a drain on the NHS but there are better solutions to this than telling us what to think.

Pancake Pizzas



Todays recipe is for pancake pizzas. Pancakes make an unusual pizza base, but it certainly tastes really yummy. The toppings can vary but I find using nutritional yeast flakes on top gives it a really nice flavour, they go with the pancake really well. Obviously you can use a whole host of veggies on top, I kept these simple, but you can use peppers, onions, sweetcorn, olives and any other vegetables at all.

Monday 18 June 2007

Grilled Mashed Potato


Abbie's recipe today is grilled mashed potato. Because she is only 5 I actually cooked the potato for her and she just spread it on the dish and I helped her with the grill as well. But this is a really simple meal for older children to prepare, and it is a food that most children eat so would encourage them to cook it.

Sunday 17 June 2007

Do you buy from only vegan companies or support others who try?

There is a moral dilemma involved with buying vegan products.
Do you buy products from companies that only make vegan things to support their great effort and make sure that none of your money gets indirectly fed back into non-vegan items, or do you buy vegan products from companies that supply a whole range of things, to encourage them to keep making the vegan item and possibly bring out more.

For example I am always in a dilemma about buying Grapenuts. They are made by Kraft foods who also make a lot of coffee. Now some of these coffee brands have had horrible animal experiments done on them (I can't remember if it was Kenco or Nescafe). They also produce a whole range of other products like cheese and angel delight that contain non-vegan ingredients.
Should I encourgage them to continue making vegan products by buying the Grapenuts or should I boycott the company to make a stand against their other products.

If I do stop buying products from companies like these what about supermarkets who carry a whole range of items few of which are vegan. There are no purely vegan food shops in this area, I could buy from greengrocers and health food shops but at a much higher financial cost.

What is your opinion on this?

Carrot and Wild Rice Curry



This recipe is a simple curry which is very sweet because of the carrots. The wild rice gives it a nice texture and a more nutty flavour. My kids like this one, as I made it mild, but I was asked what the horrible black bits were in the rice!

Saturday 16 June 2007

Butternut Squash Soup

Todays recipe is butternut soup. I decided that if the kids would eat it in the form of soup I would make it again. They did eat it, but it took some persuading. I must remember to not reveal what is in the soup until after they have eaten it next time!

Friday 15 June 2007

Homity Pie


Todays recipe is homity pie. This was really popular with the kids, and although it takes a bit of preparation can be prepared a little bit in advance if you need it to be.
The recipe contains onions but it would also be lovely if you put some leek in with it too.

Thursday 14 June 2007

Would you eat these noodles?

I bought some noodles the other day from the supermarket mistakenly thinking they were vegan. They were one of those packets with a flavour sachet in. The sachet contains chicken.
When I make those noodles I always throw away the sachet and make my own flavouring to go on them, or just serve them up plain with vegetables in sauce. My dilemma is whether I should use them or give them to a meat eater to have, or just throw them away. What would you do?

Peppery Cabbage

Today's recipe is a really healthy side dish - Peppery Cabbage. You can adapt this dish if you prefer not to boil the vegetables by steaming them or frying them instead, it works well any way. I personally prefer it fried, but it is of course the least healthy option.

Wednesday 13 June 2007

Cauliflower Curry

This chunky cauliflower curry recipe is another one that my boyfriend cooked for me. He says that it lends itself to any vegetables really and you can spice it up as much or as little as you like depending on how much you like curry.



Tuesday 12 June 2007

Vegan Porn

If anyone used to like the fun vegan forums on vegan porn you will be disappointed to know that they no longer exist. They have been replaced by http://www.tastebetter.com which still contains vegan news but frankly without the fun. I will give the site a chance as it has only been revamped for a short while, but in the meantime I wonder if anyone can recommend any fun vegan forums that I could join as a replacement.

Butternut Squash Ideas

My kids really hate butternut squash and I wondered if anyone had any ideas of recipes for it that might get them to eat it. They do eat it if I make it into soup, but I was hoping to do a main course for it. Any suggestions?

Lemony Lentils with Radishes

Todays recipe isn't one of mine so it will be interesting to see what other people think of it. It sounds really nice to me, but I haven't got any of the ingredients at the moment to see what it might be like.

Monday 11 June 2007

Jam and Cream Oat Biscuits

Abbie's recipe today is for jam and cream oat biscuits. These are so easy that even much younger children can make them and you can just allow them to make as many as you want them to eat.


Sunday 10 June 2007

Lemon Cake

Todays recipe is for lemon cake. I tried this for a family get together and even the non-vegans liked it. It was lovely served warm with whipped soya cream.

Saturday 9 June 2007

Courgette Rashers

Todays recipe is a great breakfast treat. Courgette rashers make a change from the traditional breakfast foods. If you fry them quickly in hot oil they keep their juiciness and have a great crunch.


Friday 8 June 2007

Vegan Medication

I have a really swollen throat and earache. I have had to resort to paracetamol as it is hurting too much to eat. Does anyone know of any vegan medication or remedies that could help me?

Coslaw

I was going to put this recipe up when I was doing the BBQ part of the site, but didn't get organised in time. It is a simple coslaw and you can using varying amounts of the ingredients depending on what tastes you prefer. It is a great salad food as it has no fat and tastes great.

Thursday 7 June 2007

Asparagus Pasta

Tonights recipe is Asparagus Pasta.


This was cooked by my boyfriend Andy. If you like it please let me know and I will pass on the compliments and it will encourage him to do more recipes for the site. He loves cooking which is great for me!!

Peppermint Creams (again!)

Well the class made the peppermint creams. Abbie made them, and brought them home for her friends. I wonder whether I should be even letting her do that, as she is using non-vegan products. I tried really hard to find an alternative recipe but even the icing sugar had egg white in so I couldn't do that with her. It is so difficult when the school does cooking. You would think they would be encouraging healthy eating!!

Wednesday 6 June 2007

Mustard Mash

Today's new recipe is for mustard mash. I love mashed potato and mustard gives it a great flavour. I hope you like it. Even my kids will eat it and they usually only eat really bland foods.

http://www.recipesforvegans.co.uk/mustardmash.html

Peppermint Creams

My daughters school are making peppermint creams this week. I really wanted her to be able to make some vegan ones, just to show it can be done (even though she doesn't eat sugar). All the recipes I have found have egg white in them, does any one know of a vegan recipe for them? I would be very grateful.

Tuesday 5 June 2007

Roasted Pepper Ciabatta

Todays recipe for roasted pepper ciabatta is one of my sisters recipes so it is one I am yet to try, but as I love roasted pepper and any kind of bread I think I would like it. I am sure the combination of sweet peppers and tasty cheese spread would work really well.
You could use red peppers instead and they would give a nice flavour too.
If anyone tries it, I would love to know what you think.


Monday 4 June 2007

Apologies

Sorry firstly for the recipe going up late tonight. I was trying to get my wireless Internet connection working and managed to mess up the whole connection so had to get that mended before I could upload the new pages for today.

I also want to apologise for the lack of recipe on Saturday evening. I was out visiting so wasn't able to put up a new one. I hope you didn't waste too much time looking, I was going to put a blog entry up on Friday to warn you not to look out for one, but unfortunately I got too busy to have time.

I hope you enjoy todays recipe for Almond stuffing. Don't worry too much if you don't measure the ingredients, as it really doesn't matter how much you put in. Mine didn't stick together that well so I am wondering whether olive oil might be a good replacement for the margarine or whether I shouldn't have toasted the bread so the mixture would stick more. Anyway it tasted great which was the main thing, and if anyone tries it and manages to get a stickier texture let me know.