Low fat garlic mushrooms

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still alive and fighting the good cause. Mr treehugger and I have been busy doing some much needed DIY hence my blog absence - but you don't want to hear all about that do you? "GET TO THE RECIPE" I hear you cry. Well this might be a quick post but it's an awesome one none-the-less so for what I lack in quantity I hope I make up for in quality. You'll have to let me know about that one!

Vegan Low Fat Garlic Mushrooms serves 4 as a starter or snack Ingredients 1 teaspoon olive oil 16 medium/largish mushrooms sliced 2 cloves garlic, diced 4 Tablespoons water 4 Tablespoons white wine (use the good stuff please) Pinch of salt Handful of parsley, chopped Black pepper Method Heat the olive oil in a pan and when heated add all the mushrooms and stir. Add the garlic, stir again then add the water. Cook on medium for 5 minutes then add the white wine and reduce - will take about 10-15 minutes. Add the salt and parsley and cook for a few more minutes. When ready to serve, grind some black pepper over the top and stir. DELICIOUS!

GO VEGAN!

Vegan Chelsea Buns

After making Hot Cross buns the other day I suddenly had the urge to bake some Chelsea Buns, something I haven't had for years!

A quick google search for a vegan recipe came up zilch so I tackled the task of veganising a recipe I already had. I have to say I was delighted with the results.They lasted 2 hours in this house so that is testament enough for me! Vegan Chelsea Buns Ingredients 225 grams strong bread flour 1 teaspoon mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 and a 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast 100ml tepid soya milk 50 grams of vegan margarine A little vegetable oil Filling Melted margarine 50 grams vegan brown sugar 1 teaspoon mixed spice 75 grams sultanas Method Grease an 18cm square pan. Put 50 grams of the flour in a large bowl and blend together with the yeast and tepid milk until smooth. Set aside in a warm place until the mixture froths - about 10-20 minutes. Mix the remaining flour, salt and mixed spice; rub in the margarine. Add the yeast mixture and mix to form a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth - about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rise for about an hour and a half. Knead the dough thoroughly and roll out to an oblong roughly 30 cm's by 25 cm's. In a small bowl mix together the sultanas, sugar and mixed spice. Brush the dough liberally with the melted margarine and sprinkle over the fruit and sugar mix. Roll up from the longest side and seal the edge with a little water. Cut into 9 equally sized slices and place these, cut side down in the prepared cake tin. Leave for another 30 mins. Bake the buns in the oven at 190°C (375°F) for about 30 minutes. While they are still warm brush with some more melted margarine and sprinkle over some more brown sugar. Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

No - they're not angry buns that have been left in the oven too long - oh no, there's nothing angry about these buns at all. Traditionally eaten at Easter; this humble buns history is rather shady and unknown. It is believed that buns marked with a cross were eaten by Saxons in honour of the goddess Eostre (similar to Easter OR WHAT!!) and the cross is thought to have symbolised the four quarters of the moon. Another possible explanation is that this massive white fluffy rabbit with pink ears and nose was hopping about the warren one day before his yearly task of delivering chocolate goodies to all the boys and girls who believed in him when he clumsily knocked over a sack of flour, some spices, some sugar and other important things. He didn't want to waste any of his precious ingredients so he threw them all in his bread machine and whizzed up a couple of million of this awesome bun-ny goodness - which he then shared out to all his friends because he really is a nice rabbit. I dunno - either story works for me.

I will try and save one for The EB but I'm not making any promises!

This is the recipe I used and they have turned out PERFECT! Fluffy and light, moist in the middle - just awesome really. I will definitely be making these again and again and again - I won't even wait for Easter time!

HOPPY EASTER!

GO VEGAN!

Vegan Essentials Goodies

Bianca of Vegan Crunk fame held a give-away last month and her super awesome dad fronted the prize which was a $25 gift voucher from Vegan Essentials. I was so super happy to have been the lucky commenter who was chosen out of the 238 (!!!) people all eager to win this amazing prize. It took me numerous attempts to choose my goodies but I am very happy with what I did choose.

Those Sweet and Sara Marshmallows are not going to last long - I've had three already! They are AMAZING! The Bacon Salt I have been coveting for a a loooong time - I bought it mainly for Mr treehugger but I am curious as to what it tastes like myself. I'm imagining it will taste like bacon flavoured crisps but we'll see. The stock cubes I've had before when my awesome package swap buddy Laura sent me some. I really really like them and I'm chuffed to have some more. I think the Peanut Butter cookies speak for themselves and I'm really excited to try the Ribs - they will be kept safe untill BBQ'ing weather me thinks. So all that is left for me to say is a MASSIVE thank you to Bianca and her dad - you guys ROCK!

GO VEGAN!

Mum Cake

Mummy treehugger has moved over to Spain. She arrived on her birthday so a Cake was definitely called for. This is the same recipe as the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake (man I LOVE LOVE LOVE that recipe) but this was covered in butter cream.

I didn't even think to get an inside shot - can you blame me?

GO VEGAN!

Mini savoury pies

There's something about eating mini foods that really excites me. I'm not sure what it is - whether it's because I can pretend I'm a giant or whether it is something more deep and profound that my therapist would compare to my inner child - similar to my excitement at glitter and stickers. I'm not sure and I don't care. Eating mini food= fun! These pies were assembled in a muffin pan using store bought puff pastry. To make 6 pies I used 200 grams of pastry. This particular filling is mince and potato but you could use anything you fancy. These involved frying some onion and garlic, adding some diced potato and carrot and reconstituted TVP and cooking in some stock for 20 mins then thickening it all up with some Bisto gravy granules.

Delish!

I am going to experiment with other fillings so be sure to check back for recipes. These are ideal for parties and picnics and just generally having on hand when you fancy a nibble.

GO VEGAN!

Recipe Testing: Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake

For Carla's up and coming cook book Vegan Bake Sale I present you with Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake.

Maaaaaaa-aaaan this is one totally awesome cake and will get made lots and lots and lots of times. Poor Mr treehugger (type 1 diabetic) could only have the weeniest bite and when his eyes rolled into the back of his head I freaked out thinking I'd given him a hyper. Turns out he was rolling them eyes in pure ecstasy and I can understand why. This cake is the epiphany of food porn. GO VEGAN!

Vegan Cream of Spinach Soup

I woke up this morning craving spinach and soup so there was only one way forward - Cream of Spinach Soup Yeeehah! This is so simple and soooooo delicious and is packed full of super human power inducing ingredients - so get a bowlful inside ya now. Cream of Spinach Soup serves 4 Ingredients 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 300 grams washed and trimmed spinach 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced 2 Cloves of garlic, diced 1 to 1 and a half litres vegetable water ('spose you could use stock cubes but you'd have to check the taste before adding seasoning) Quarter cup of Cashews Salt Black pepper

Method Heat the oil in a big pan and add the onion. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes until onion is softened. Add the spinach, potato and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes stirring all the time to incorporate everything.

Add 1 litre of the vegetable water (or stock). Put the lid on the pan and cook on low to medium for 20 mins. Take off the heat and add the cashews to the pan, leave with the lid on for half an hour or so. After half an hour blitzz everything up with a stick blender (or a normal blender, whatever). Add salt and pepper to taste. If you need to add the rest of the vegetable water or stock because the soup is too thick for you then do so now. Re-heat and EAT!

Super scrummy yumpalicious fabby dabby dosey

My craving is sated.

GO VEGAN!

Vitalite Dairy Free - suitable for Vegans!!!

Spotted this at my local British produce supermarket today and was so excited I wanted to share with the rest of you. Buying a vegan butter/margarine substitute that isn't made from olive oil and doesn't cost the best part of a fiver for a measly tub has proven a real pain in the butt for me here in Spain. So I was delighted to see this and was dancing up the aisles of the frozen peas with much joy! And at €1.62 for this whopping great tub - yours truly shall lather on an extra dollop on her crumpets this fine morn. Good times!

GO VEGAN!

Happy New Year! WooooHooo!

Yes I know, I am but a mere 16 days late on the greets but it has taken me as long to sift through the backlog of work that accumulated whilst yours truly was rocking her jollys for the hollys in the merry old land of Blight. I have been trying to catch up on all your awesome blogs and am slowly making my way through them but I will apologise in advance if you get a Happy New Year greeting in mid March! I spent 19 days in the UK for the festivities and was very lucky to have escaped all the snow that many of my fellow brethren and sistren had, in fact, me and Mr.treehugger were very lucky to have escaped the country full stop as the evening of our flight was the last flight out of the South for a good few days. But get home we did and boy isn't it always nice to get home after being away. I was super happy to see my fur babies and the feeling was mutual. Although they had been well cared for and looked after by Uncle Wayne and Aunty Sonya, they were all deliriously happy to have us back home so as things could get back to normal. Another super happy sight that greeted me when I got home was a parcel that had been delivered whilst I'd been away. It was pretty obvious who it was from and I excitedly (but carefully) ripped open the package to behold the wondrous sight within.

This AWESOME bundle came courtesy of Michelle Cavigliano from My Zoetrope . Her blog can be found here and her Etsy store here. I was lucky enough to be the chosen commenter when, back in November, Michelle blogged about this awesome give-away. To say I was thrilled to be chosen is a serious understatement. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all Michelle's work, it thrills and delights me no end. As well as a cute card and four gorgeous little gift tags; I now have 12 awesomelly cute little pictures to hang on my wall too. The tough decision is whether I put them in frames now or wait 'til January 2011! Tough call.

GO VEGAN!

Vegan Mince Pies

The halls are decked with bells and holly, the Christmas Cake has been baked and is being fed copious amounts of brandy until it's ready for decorating and the first batch of mince pies have been baked. It's CHRIST-MAAAAAAAAS! Vegan Mince Pie Recipe makes 12 Ingredients 1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar 1/2 cup (113 grams) vegan margarine a bit more than 1/8 cup ice water but not quite a 1/4 cup (40 ml) 1 jar of vegan mincemeat Method Sieve the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and add the margarine. Rub the margarine into the flour until it resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the water and gather together to form a dough. Cover with clingfilm and chill for half an hour (you AND the dough hee hee hee). Set oven to 205 degrees centigrade (400 Fahrenheit). Grease a 12 mini muffin pan with margarine and dust with flour. Tap the excess flour off (do this over the sink). Divide the dough in half and lightly flour a work surface. Roll one half of the dough until about 1/8 inch thick and cut into 12 rounds that are slightly bigger than the muffin tins. Place the rounds in the muffin tin and put about a teaspoon of mincemeat in each round. Roll out the second half of dough as before and cut out your star shapes. With a pastry brush gently dab some water on each of the star points and place over each pie - pressing the points down gently. Brush with soya milk and dust with sugar and bake in the oven for 15-20 mins. Take out of pan and cool.

Try saving one for Santa!

GO VEGAN!

Oh oh oh it's magic!

I have made it my end of year resolution to make all my friends birthday cakes from now on.

The first one up was my friend Wayne Blane a.k.a Mr Magic man. He's one of my bestest bestest friends and he's a super awesome magician to boot. The theme for his cake was pretty easy.

Alakazam!

This was two layers of the Jelly Doughnut Cupcake recipe from Veganomicon. Slathered in the middle was Raspberry Jam and then topped with rolled icing. The cards were made with the same rolled icing and then decorated using food colouring and a very steady hand. Wayne LOVED it (he had three slices!) and I have to say I was pretty impressed too. I'm really looking forward to making all my friends cakes - I have some super awesome ideas already!

GO VEGAN!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #29: Hallow-vegan Cake

Totally inspired by River's awesome little cakes was I. There are two layers of the Fauxstess Cupcake recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, layered between that is vegan buttercream. The same buttercream is spread round 3 sides of the cake and then I dragged a fork around the three sides to make the pages. The top and spine of the book is made using Ginger's Chocolate Ganache recipe. I had a little buttercream left over so I chucked this in too. This should keep the ghouls happy this Halloween!! GO VEGAN! GO MoFo!!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #27: Do you ever get that sinking feeling? (or not as the case might be)

These are not the Jelly Donut Cakes from Veganomicon that went wrong because my jam didn't sink. Nope. These are "A zombie sucked out my eyeball" cakes. (incidentally - if anyone can shed any light on the reason why my jam didn't sink I would appreciate it. I followed the ingredients EXACTLY except I used sunflower oil instead of canola because I can't buy canola or rapeseed oil anywhere). Anyhoo - they taste AMAZING! I've had four already. BURP!

GO VEGAN!

GO MoFo!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #26: Lost in translation

Bought in my local Todo Todo which is the equivalent of a pound shop/dollar store. Makes me laugh every time I read it.

Not really a MoFo entry and I think to pose as one would be lamest of the lame. But I am making a roast dinner tonight and you've all seen me do that before! Lots and lots and lots and lots of times. And you all know what we'll be having for dinner tomorrow too. But never-the-less - I know how you all like pornz, so here ya go.

GO VEGAN!

GO MoFo!!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #24: Bread take two

TADAA! I've done it - I have made good tasty bread in my new bread machine. WooHooo! The recipe is from Allinson Bread booklet and is as thus: White Bread 1 1/8 cups of water 2 1/4 Tablespoons Sugar 1 1/4 teaspoons Salt 2 1/2 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil 3 cups strong white bread flour 1 1/4 teaspoons Allinson Easybake Yeast Put everything in the bread machine in the order given and set on "Basic". How easy peasy is that. I had some for my lunch spread with Tartex - it is super delicious. This has given my confidence a real boost and I can't wait to go to the supermarket and get some special ingredients and start making some fancy bread.

GO VEGAN!

GO MoFo!!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #23: CATS!

This isn't a quick MoFo entry because a certain treehugger is off to the pub with her mates. No siree. What this is is restoring the equilibrium in the universe. I gave you my mums dogs a few days ago 'tis only right and proper I now introduce my cats to you.

This is Fizzgig - the fluffiest cat in the world

This is Boo Radley

She was left on a doorstep when she was about 4 weeks old. She was like a sock filled with pebbles when my friend found her and bought her round to me.

This is Doctor Blowfin. He's one of Boo boo's babies This is Flip Flop no tail

She's naughty

Her owner didn't want her so they shut her out the house. Lucky us she found me.

This is Salem

He died last Christmas but I was blessed with him for four precious years. Everybody loved him

Especially Flip Flop

This is Chomsky when he was a baby. He's the other baby of Boo, Dr Blowfin's brother

He was hit by a car July 4th 2008. He loved Salem too.

GO VEGAN!

GO MoFo!!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #22: Soup

Didn't MoFo yesterday guys cos I flew back to Spain. HURRAH! I am home. There's no place like home. And what could be more welcoming than a bowl of freshly made Tomato Soup and home made Garlic Bread? Not a lot really. Feast your eyes GO VEGAN! GO MoFo!!

Vegan MoFo Day#20:Pasta Alfrenara

I was never a fan of creamy pasta sauces in my pregan days and the thought of veganising one just never occurred to me until I started seeing them pop up all over the MoFo. Practising what I preach I was totally inspired to concoct a Carbonara/Alfredo sauce and I'm so glad I did.

Now I'm not too sure what the difference between a carbonara and an alfredo is. I'm presuming a carbonara has bacon in and an alfredo does not. Would I be right?

Anyhoo - this recipe doesn't have bacon in (DOH!) so I shall call it a alfrenara or carbonedo. Alfrenara sounds better I think.

This was so super scrummy and I can't wait to get back home and wow Mr treehugger with it.

In true heathen style I didn't write down what I did but it's SO easy you can't go wrong.

Ingredients

serves 3

2 cloves of garlic

1 cup raw cashews

1 Tablespoon light tahini

1 Tablespoon pesto or 6 Basil leaves

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice

300 ml of vegetable stock

salt to taste

1 onion sliced thinly

load of mushrooms sliced thickly

half cup of white wine

freshly ground black pepper

corriander/cilantro leaves

Method

In a blender whizz up the garlic, cashews, pesto, tahini, 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil and lemon juice in that order. Add 200ml of the stock. Taste and if it needs salt add a little bit to your liking.

In a pan add the remaing 2 Tablespoons olive oil and fry the onion for 5 mins. When it starts to get a small bit of brown colouring, add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 mins. You will need to stir this regularly. Add the white wine and cook for a further 5 mins, again stirring regularly.

Add the cashew mix from the blender and stir well. If you like a runnier sauce (I do) then add the remaining stock.

Add black pepper to taste and the chopped up corriander/cilantro.

Serve over your favourite pasta.

YUMMERS!

Sorry totally crappy photo. It was night, I was hungry.

Go VEGAN!

GO MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day#19: Crumpets not trumpets

Although trumpets are vegan you wouldn't want to eat one. Unlike Crumpets which you most definitely would! Lots of store bought Crumpets are vegan. I got mine from Morrisons.

Morrisons are getting a snotty email from me because when I went to the bakery department and asked if their soft white burger buns contained milk or dairy, the bloke behind the counter didn't have a clue!

Useless.

Anyway - here's a picture of my Crumpets toasted to perfection and smothered with PURE vegan spread and Marmite.

YUM!

How do you like your Crumpets?

GO VEGAN!

GO MoFo!