Wednesday 29 August 2007

Progress

I am making slow progress at making an index of ingredients for the website. I am hoping I will be able to relaunch it at the weekend, but please be patient with me, the school holidays wasn't the best time to do this job!!

Monday 27 August 2007

New Site Progress

I have been working on the site design tonight. I have been indexing all the recipes so that you will be able to find all the recipes that contain a particular ingredient. It is going to take a while as it looks like there are about 400 recipes on the site. I have worked my way through baking and breakfasts but need a break now as my eyes are getting tired. I am only doing the main ingredients. I'm not putting recipes that have things like flour, margarine, oil, vanilla essence as I didn't think these were the sort of things people would want to look for, I have put ingredients that you might have left over and want to use up like vegatables, fruit etc. I hope this sounds like it is going to be helpful.

Saturday 25 August 2007

Cheese and Pickle for Lunch

When I first went vegan I never dreamt I would be able to enjoy a cheese and pickle sandwich again.

But my lunch today was lovely wholemeal bread, spread with soya margarine with thick slices of vegan cheese spread with vegan pickle I found the other day. Really satisfying and so simple!

Friday 24 August 2007

New Logo

I have been playing about with ideas for a new logo for the site when it is relaunched. So far the one at the bottom of this post is my favourite and I was wondering whether people can give their opinions of it. Thanks.









Thursday 23 August 2007

New Site

The design for the new site is still going on, but very slowly. I think I will have to carry on introducing the daily recipes in the old format while I wait for the new site to be finished.

I have decided on a logo and the format I want the site to be, but getting the search to work properly is turning out to be more complicated than I imagined and once it is all sorted I will have to transfer all the current recipes over to the new site. I was hoping to launch on the 1st September but now looks like it will be a lot longer.

As I will start putting up daily recipes again in September I was wondering whether there were any types of recipes that people would like me to try to put up more of.

Cooking for Kids

Today has been a terrible day for feeding the kids. I wonder what I'm doing wrong.

They both moaned at the porridge I made despite asking for it on the days when I don't have time to make it.

They chose fries and a fruit bag in McDonalds with their dad over a picnic in the park with me for lunch.

For dinner I spent ages making mushroom pasties (the recipe for which will feature on the site once its back up and running) and they both said they didn't like them.

Then I made my youngest daughter supper and she refused to eat it and denied she asked for it.

What fun!!

Tuesday 21 August 2007

A vegan menu

I have had visitors over the weekend and gave them a complete diet of vegan food for the duration of their stay. Either they were being extremely polite or they enjoyed the variety of meals that I served. I tried to make the food exciting and different to what they normally ate.

Day 1 evening: pasta with roasted vegetables and salad
Day 2 Lunch: crudities and dips, filled rolls, vegan quiche
Day 2 Dinner: crispy seaweed, rice, noodles, stir fry vegetables
Day 3 Dinner: wraps with variety of fillings: chilli beans, vegetables, soya cheese, mayo, avocado and salsa

Thursday 16 August 2007

McDonalds every day?

I read this story with disbelief earlier today. It is retired couple who have mcdonalds for their lunch every day. They claim to be in perfect health. I must say from the photo they do look good for their age. Then again there have to be some exceptions to the usual set of overweight unhealthy looking people that are usually heading in the direction of that shop. Here is the article if you are interested:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007370860,00.html

Wednesday 15 August 2007

Couscous for Dinner

We had a delicious dinner of finely chopped shallots, green pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes with herbs, and then added couscous to the pan at the end so it all crisped up beautifully. We all really like couscous and it is so quick to cook it is really convinient and there is so much you can put with it.

Here are some recipes you could make:

Lemon and Parsley Couscous
Red Pepper and Tomato Couscous
Corriander and Lemon Couscous
Roasted Onion and Cherry Tomato Couscous
Couscous with Steamed Vegetable in a Spicy Tomato Sauce

Picnic Today

Well the picnic today was a great success. Instead of taking sandwiches and crisps and the usual stuff I took lots of different fruit, and chopped vegetables with dips and then made some biscuits for the kids to eat afterwards. They loved it, especially being able to share their food with other people which no one else did.

Monday 13 August 2007

Wraps

I got a lot of wraps at a bargain price but am struggling to think of things to put in them. I love mexican food but my kids don't and all the seem to want to eat in the wraps is mayo and soya cheese and that isn't very nutritious. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Picnic

I am going on a picnic on Wednesday with the girls and am looking for suggestions for foods that I can take that are light to carry but are appetisiting so the girls won't feel like they are missing out on things that the other kids might have. I don't want any junk food or anythign with sugar or additives.

Saturday 11 August 2007

Lovely Crispy Potatoes

Tonight I had the most delicious potatoes made for me. They were new potatoes boiled with their skins on. Then they were fried in a pan of hot olive oil infused with garlic. Really crispy and tasty - lovely. If you like potatoes I have plenty of recipes with them on the website here are a few:

Crispy Potato Rounds
Fried Mashed Potato
Garlic Coated Potatoes
Mustard Mash
Potato Salad
Roast Potatoes

Friday 10 August 2007

Quick dinner with chick peas

I'm on my own this evening so wanted something quick and easy for dinner. I opened a tin of chick peas and fried them with some boullion powder. It only takes about 5 minutes for them to brown off (although you need to watch them and they sometimes pop and jump out of the pan). It is simple as it is or you can add mayo or sauce to give them some more flavour.





If you like chick peas and want some recipe ideas for them there are several on the site:

Chick pea Fry Up
Chick pea Curry
Warming Winter Stew
Chick Pea Pancakes

Back Home Now

I back home from my holiday away now. I stayed with my parents and my mum worked really hard at getting lots of nice vegan food for us, I even have a few recipes I can use on the site once it is back up and running properly.

I am currently working on a new logo for the site and a colour scheme. Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.