Response from Costa

According to the response I got from Costa all their nutritional information is on their website.
It is very hard to navigate but the hot drinks that are vegan are:


Caffe Latte
Flat White
Cortado
Expresso
Babyccino
Ristretto
Caramel Latte
Cinnamon Latte
Gingerbread Latte
Roasted Hazelnut Latte
Vanilla Latte
Sugar Free Caramel Latte


Obviously these are only vegan if you choose the soya milk option (if there is milk). Hope this is helpful. Rather disappointing to me as my favourites that I thought were vegan - Chai Latte and Hot Chocolate aren't.

If you want a summary of the nutritional information that I have been emailed from Costa which is much easier to use, please let me know.

Simple and Delicious

You could hardly describe this as a recipe, but a current favourite of mine is cooked apples with sultanas, covered in soya cream.  I simply take a large bramley apple, core and peel and cut up into small squares. Then I add a tiny amount of water and microwave it until it is soft and smooth in texture. Then wait for it too cool (even better if it has been in the fridge overnight) and serve with soya cream.  Lovely, and healthy too!

Costa.....

I am pleased that coffee shops such as Costa offer soya milk options for their drinks. However, their web site says that none of their drinks are vegan. I am assuming that is because of a risk of cross contamination of cows milk. I have emailed them to find out as I do like their hot chocolate and chai so wouldn't want to find out they aren't suitable for vegans.

Cranberry Orange Biscotti

The site Elanas Pantry is primarily low carb but it does contain some vegan recipes too and this one appealed to my sweet tooth:


http://www.elanaspantry.com/cranberry-orange-biscotti/

Chocolate Orange Brownie

I would love to claim the recipe for this fantastic brownie to myself, but in fact my daughter bought it for me from a vegan cake stall in Shrewsbury Market Hall this morning. The website for the talented cook is http://mamapie.co.uk/.
You can order online and I would highly recommend buying some.

Fresh Fruit and Veg

I bought loads of lovely fresh fruit and veg from our local greengrocer.  Already munched my way through some juicy raspberries (with soya cream as were a bit sour), two plums and have cooked up some apples with sultanas for later.  Dinner was lovely purple sprouting with shallots, mushrooms and garlic.  Still have some crunchy apples, bananas, salad, kiwi fruit and carrots left.

Feeling rather like the very hungry caterpillar!

Spicy Potato Squares

After frying my marinated tofu earlier I was left with some vegetable oil full of the spicy marinade.  The rest of the family had jacket potatoes today and there was a small one left, so I cut it into cubes and fried it in the spicy oil.  The spices worked really well with the sweetness of the potato and I think it would have been even nicer with a sweet potato.

Spicy Tofu Stir Fry

I marinated tofu chunks in soya sauce, paprika, lots of chilli powder and some mixed herbs.  Then I deep fried them so they went crispy.  Meanwhile I chopped onion, green pepper, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.
When the tofu was crispy I fried the onions in olive oil with some garlic and extra chilli. Then added the mushrooms and green peppers.  When they were starting to brown I added the tofu and tomatoes just to warm up a little.

I served mine with some mayo as it was spicier than I intended, but still delicious!

The trouble I have with stir frying food with chilli is that the chilli often catches in the pan and we end up coughing all evening every time we have to go into the kitchen. Any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening?

Sweet treat

My current favourite snack is to mix sultanas with peanut butter and some cocoa powder.  If you mix these into small balls and cover in cocoa powder they make great sweets. Put them in sweet cases and refrigerate to make them firmer and easier to eat.  They are very rich though so you won't want too many at a time, and you need to make them fairly small.

Lemon Cake

I made a really quick lemon cake today using rice flour instead of wheat flour.  I didn't measure the ingredients but just put them together until they amounts looked right!

I took about 125g margarine and mixed with sugar.  Then I added rice flour, 1 flat tsp baking powder and 1 heaped tsp of bicarbonate of soda.  I then added 2 tbs of white vinegar, 1 tsp of lemon essence and mixed well. I added soya milk until it made a fairly wet mixture.  I put into a greased oven dish at 180 until a knife came out clean. Then I cut into rectangle shapes and left to cool for about 15 mins until serving.  It was lovely with some soya cream poured on.

Holiday

Found a fantastic restaurant while we were on holiday that made a great vegan thai curry, however, generally the choice of vegan foods was as disappointing as ever with the choices often being chips, jacket potato and beans or a plain salad.  You would think that with more people being lactose intolerant there would be more vegan options.