Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #25: Market goodies

It's not often this lazy MoFo'er can drag herself out of bed on a Sunday morning, but the clocks going back an hour meant that time really was on my side today and I took full advantage of it.

This bounty came to 11 euros!!

That's 10 quid or 16 us dollars or 17 Australian dollars. Pretty cool huh. I'm going to make a real effort to go every Sunday from now on. I also bought my favourite olives ever. That's an olive stuffed with a whole clove of garlic. Just so as you can appreciate the size of these here's another photo.

No, I don't have small hands they are BIG olives man

I made the most simple and delicious salad for my lunch

see

It was just lettuce, olives, chickpeas and tomatoes with a mahoosive dollop of Plamils Mayo. It was so so yuumy.

GO VEGAN!

GO MoFo!!

Vegan MoFo Day#11: Weekend eats

Quickie post today (I know - all my posts have been quick lately).

Saturday's dinner was jacket potato with garlic mushrooms and salad.

And what's a Sunday without a Sunday roast?

Carrots, broad beans,runner beans, potatoes, peas, stuffing and onion gravy.Deeeee-liscious.

GO VEGAN! Go MoFo!

Figaro! Figaro!

OK - what to do with a bag of freshly looted Figs?

Half the bag went into some awesome breakfast Juices and seeing as Salad is our main food at the moment and I'm always looking out for new Salad dressing ideas I thought I would make a dressing out of the other half. I'm afraid the quantities are a bit hit and miss but it goes something like this. 8 Fresh Figs 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar 2 Tablespoons English Mustard (Coleman's) Salt Black Pepper Just blitz it all up in the blender and check the taste to your preference. This will keep in the fridge for 5 days and it really is very tasty.

GO VEGAN!

What do we want? We want PIE.......

When do we want it?

NOW! OK so this wasn't the cries of my Salad overdosed family but they wanted something good and hearty and by gads they were going to get it! Served with Salad of course. In all honesty this isn't really a Pie. It is a Tart. But there's something about saying "I made a Pie" that deeply satisfies me where as saying "I made a Tart" just doesn't cut it. So I shall name this Tarty Pie. It's a Pie with it's summer wardrobe on - i.e no top. Or a skimpy tarty little top at that. I was inspired to make this from a little book called - 101 Veggie Dishes but that recipe called for Feta Cheese - YUK! So in true heathen vegan style - I completely re-worked it and me and my family were totally bowled over by it's deliciousness. You shall be too. Ingredients serves 4 2 tablespoons Olive Oil 2 large yellow Onions, thinly sliced half teaspoon Salt 1 tablespoon Demerera Sugar 1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar Sheet of ready made Puff Pastry 4 Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil, drained a little bit 8 Black Olives, sliced Fresh Basil to garnish Method Preheat your oven to 200ºC or 390F. Heat the Olive Oil in a frying pan and add the Onions along with a teaspoon of Salt. Fry gently for 10-15 minutes until the Onions are caramelised. Add the Sugar and stir then add the Balsamic Vinegar and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Roll out the Pastry and use it to line a rectangle dish 6 inches by 10 inches or there abouts. Chop the excess Pastry off so as the crust is only about an inch and a half high. Of course if you have a swiss roll tin then this would be even better to use. Cover the base of the Pastry with the Onion mixture, scatter over the Sundried Tomatoes and Black Olives and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Scatter over the Basil Leaves and serve.

served with Patatas Bravas (recipe to come soon) and fresh Corn Salad

GO VEGAN!

Beach, Salad and Bread Pudding YAY!

I don't wish to gloat but it has been a glorious day here on the Costa Blanca - the whiff of Spring is most certainly in the air and I feel my nerves a-twitching to do some much needed Spring cleaning and airing out of nooks and crannies. But rather than do that, I went for a walk along the beach instead. HURRAH!

Sea and fresh air always gives me an appetite and I enjoyed a delicious dinner of Tuna Friendly Tuna, Baby Leaf Salad, Avocado and Cauliflower Salad. It was gorgeous and I could eat it all over again. Everything except the Chickpeas in the Tuna Friendly Tuna was raw too!

Yummah!

But onto the Bread Pudding recipe 'cos I know I promised you all and I've been keeping you waiting long enough. This is a childhood favourite of mine and the fact it uses up old Bread just appeals to my thrifty nature even more than the fact it's delicious - well maybe not more but it's pretty darn close! My mum always made Bread Pudding by using Tea and though I've not tried this recipe with Fruit or Herb Teas - I'm sure keen on doing some experimenting with them 'cos I reckon that would be a winner too. Bread Pudding makes 8 slices Ingredients 8 slices stale white Bread (crusts or a mix of half and half) 1 1/2 cups (300ml) of cold English Tea Handful crushed Almonds 12 Dried Prunes, roughly chopped 12 Dried Apricots, roughly chopped 80 grams/half a cup Sultanas 1/2 teaspoon Mixed Spice 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup 60ml/1 third of a cup Soya Milk Method Tear the Bread up into chunks and place in a big bowl. Pour over the cold Tea and stir round. Leave for an hour stirring every so often to make sure all the Bread soaks up the Tea. Beat out any lumps. Add the Almonds and Fruit and give a good stir. Add the Mixed Spice, stir. Add the Maple Syrup and Milk and give everything a really good stir. Grease a 7 by 10 inch pan with Marg and spoon the mixture in, making sure to even it out with the back of the spoon. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for and hour and a half. Keep an eye on it and if the top goes really brown then cover with aluminium foil for the remaining baking time. Use a spatula to loosen the edges when it comes out of the oven but leave it to cool before removing from the pan. Sprinkle with white Sugar and cut into 8 equal slices.

Nom Nom Nom

Tofu Breast

EURGH! I don't like that title. I was going to change it but couldn't think of anything else AND that is what this recipe is called after all. I've made this dish a lot of times and it is definitely one of my favourite ways to eat Tofu so I thought I would share it with you all in the hope that you'll give it a try too. I actually thought that this came from Every Day Dish, but a quick search on the site tells me that it's actually one of Bryanna's amazing creations. I did try to find the recipe over at Bryanna's site, but alack and alas I could not. Unfortunately it's not the easiest of sites to navigate is it. Bryanna - if you're reading this - let me redesign your site - I could make it SO much more user friendly. You could pay me with food! (hee hee hee) Anyway, enough with this tom foolery and on to the food.

The recipe for this can be found here with video instructions too!! I served mine with some new spring Potatoes (YUM) and a Salad of Rocket, baby Leaf Spinnach, Beetroot Leaves and Tomatoes all smothered in a dressing of Grapeseed Oil, Mustard, Red Wine Vinegar and Maple Syrup. YUM YUM YUM!

Vegan MoFo Day 27: Rose Elliot Made my Dinner

Not literally you understand, but it was her yummy recipes that I used and I wanted to grab your attentions.

First off was Falafel and totally inspired by happy vegan face. The cool thing about Rose Elliot's The Supreme Vegetarian Cook Book is that the Falafel recipe gives a Vegan option too. YAY! I'm guessing it's totally unethical of me to type the recipe in this here blog but lucky for us, but not so lucky for Rose, Jim Carson has totally put her recipe on his blog. Thanks Jim! Instead of using chicken periods to bind all the otherwise scrummy ingredients just use 2 tablespoons of Chickpea Flour as a binding ingredient and as a coating for the Breadcrumbs you just make a batter mixture using Chickpea Flour again, mixed with a little water. Simple. These were served with Guacamole from Rose Elliot, warm Wholemeal Pittas from the Supermarket, Cauiliflower Salad from the Oxfam Vegetarian Cookbook (thanks 'lil pea), Simple Salad with the Spicey Mustard Dressing from Veganomicon and a Tomato Salsa that I just threw together using a tin of Plum Tomatoes, Green Pepper, Onions, Green Chilli, Garlic and Olive Oil. Total yumness. The Cauliflower Salad is really easy and really good - though a lot of people don't like the thought of raw Cauliflower I urge you to give it a try. The secret is to chop ALL the ingredients up really really fine. Yeah - I know you all look fine when you chop things up anyway! LOL! Today's song is The Wombles of Wimbledon thanks to Becks from I am not a rabbit! Need I say more!

Oooh yeah - check out her Apple Pie Crumble creation - the rabbit is a genius!!

Vegan Cook Books

It seems men (my boyfriend in particular) CAN take hints and act on them. Amazing as it seems, my constant hinting at what I'd like for my birthday was duly noted and bought to fruition. HURRAH! Two cook books I have coveted for months and months are now in my possession. Veganomicon and Vegan with a Vengeance - both by the lovely Isa Chandra Moskowitz - super punk vegan cook who was joined by Terry Hope Romero (I just LOVE her name) in the creation of Veganomicn. I have been dying to get my hands on a vegan cookbook ever since turning vegan - which was seven months ago and these two don't disappoint. Tonight we had the Portobello Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing from Veganomicon. And WOW!!! This is an AWESOME recipe! I didn't put the shrooms on top of the salad as the recipe suggested cos I think they are a work of art in themselves. I will definitely be making this recipe again and again.