What I Ate This Week #17

A pasta heavy week (it's a good job I don't give a monkeys about carbs!)

Wholewheat pasta with pepper, tomato and basil sauce.

Butternut squash and red lentil curry. We have this with mini poppadoms and I can get through a whole bag rather too easily. Yum.

 

A quick dinner of wholewheat pasta and this Loyd Grossman sauce. (Sorry for the steamy picture!)

Quite a disappointing Nandos experience, I had a tonne of salad and barely any halloumi or mushroom. My boyfriends meal was cold and look at that garlic bread, barely been grilled! Boo hiss.

This pasta took 18 minutes to cook! The longest I've ever known a pasta to cook. It's like spaghetti hoops but for macaroni peas!

Baked potato, coleslaw, carrots, broad beans, green beans, (hidden) parsnips and broccoli. 

What I Ate This Week #16

Hairy Bikers veg sausage casserole and mash. Filling and delicious, can't go wrong!

Naughty naughty chippy chips and cheese and onion pie. I'd been driving all day, stuck in traffic on the way home and got back late. Who am I kidding? I shouldn't have to justify myself to you!

Ultimate comfort food am I right!? Pasta and cheese sauce with peas and green beans, mmm.

North African squash and chickpea stew from the River Cottage Veg Everyday recipe book. Seriously worth buying this book. We make so many dishes from it! This has turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and saffron in it, really tasty and can be thickened for a stew or thinned into a soup.

Linda McCartney cheese, leek and red onion plait, carrots, green beans, new potatoes and roast parsnips.

What I Ate This Week #12

Let's just first start of the week by appreciating the goodness that is - these homemade coconut macaroons and chocolate chip cookies. Yes. Let's take a moment.

Ah.

Yeah being a vegetarian doesn't mean you have to eat healthy food all the time!

A favourite, savoy cabbage, garlic, onion and chickpea pasta. I can eat a bucket of this stuff.

The baked potatoes mixed with egg yolk and cheese, popped under a grill are something I used to eat a lot when I was little, it's good for you! (My Mum used to feed me mashed potato mixed with egg powder when I was a baby, it made me grow to a 6 foot tall adult!) Some beanie nugget things from Morrisons and broad beans. I've got a lot of love for broad beans.

Naughty Dominoes takeaway pizza. Veg Supreme minus the sweetcorn and nachos with jalapenos. *shrugs*

There were egg yolks left over from making coconut macaroons hence using them up mixed in a baked potato. Green beans, cauliflower, carrots and a Linda McCartney cheese, leek and red onion plait.

Went to the Spread Eagle for lunch after picking my boyfriend up from work. The vegetarian option was nothing to shout about, I got a broccoli and cheese bake thing (really soggy) and some veg. The roast potatoes were rock hard and the Yorkshire pudding very chewy. I always ask what they have been cooked in hoping it's vegetarian friendly! 

My boyfriend and I had a go at making veggie sushi and vegetable tempura and it turned out really well. I am actually quite good at rolling sushi it appears (the trick is to really squash down when you roll so it holds together). I made avocado and carrot, cucumber and cream cheese, carrot and cream cheese; and pepper and cucumber. They were delicious. We used this kit and it was really easy. 

The vegetable tempura batter was far too thin using this from Sainsbury's. If you try it, don't put all the liquid in at once, add about two thirds and go from there. As you can see we tested the batter mix with a broccoli and it just ran off entirely! We had to add some flour to thicken it up. We battered broccoli, sweet potato, onion rings, carrot, spring onions and avocado. Unfortunately my hair smelt like a deep fat fryer afterwards but that was the price I paid for tasty food!

What I Ate This Week #10

A week of eating up bits and bobs, nothing new or fancy, just tasty food! Was disappointed with the vegetarian carvery as it was just generally naff. I used to eat carverys at Toby Carvey when I was at University for a treat and they offer a few vegetarian options instead of meat which is nice.

Ate up the rest of the butternut squash curry from last week. Yum.

 Veggie chilli with rice. I love that it is packed with tasty veg, it's so nice to know exactly what's in your meal isn't it? You can find the recipe here.

Eating up the chilli, this time with pasta. You could eat it with a baked potato too, whatever takes your fancy.

My boyfriend made me veggie fajitas, from an Old El Paso kit. He used Quorn chicken style pieces, peppers and onions. We had them with plenty of sour cream and chive dip, grated cheddar and tomato salsa.

My Dad made me this, a cheese and tomato thin base pizza with added mushrooms and tomatoes. It all got a bit soggy with the tomatoes and there was black pepper on there and I'll let you in to a secret - I hate black pepper.

Goats cheese and onion tart, carrots, new potatoes, peas and cauliflower.

On the way back from a long journey, decided to stop for something to eat. Went to the Lock Keeper in Worksop, I had a vegetarian carvery and it was nothing to shout about. The pastry on the cheese and onion tart was soggy, the roast potatoes tasted suspect even though I asked what they were cooked in (vegetable oil).

RECIPE - Vegetarian Chilli

I love this dish, it's simple to make, packed full of veg and tasty. It takes a while to prepare (a lot of chopping) and a while of simmering to get a really lovely deep flavour. This might look like it has a lot of ingredients but most of it is fairly standard store cupboard stuff you might already have in. Don't worry if you haven't got the exact type of beans or lentils, there's no problem substituting things or missing out a veg or two. The original recipe is from here. 

This makes looooads of chilli, perfect if you're a student or a family. I used to make this often at Uni and freeze it. You're going to need a large pan! I've eaten this with rice, pasta and a baked potato. Anything goes!

Serves 4 - 6

1 can green lentils, drained and rinsed

2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

1 can kidney beans

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 courgette, chopped

175 mushrooms, quartered

100g frozen peas

1 large onion, chopped

2 peppers, any colour

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 - 2 teaspoons chilli powder

300ml veg stock

1 heaped tablespoon tomato puree

salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in a large pan and fry onion and garlic with chilli and cumin for about 10 minutes. I didn't have chilli powder so used two small chillis chopped up from my boyfriends chilli plant my Mum bought him from here. 

2. Add the peppers, carrots, green lentils and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often until softened.

3. Add chopped tomatoes, puree, stock and peas. It's going to look fairly liquidy now so bring it to the boil then simmer it to evaporate the excess liquid and concentrate the flavour. This will probably take 20 - 30 minutes. Be patient, it's going to be yummy!

4. Add mushrooms and courgettes, stir well and keep simmering for 5 - 7 minutes. You don't want this veg to turn to mush so keep trying pieces until it's softened but not mushy. If you're serving the chilli with rice or pasta, now would be a good time to get that cooking.

5. Add the kidney beans and cook them for 5 minutes. Season to your taste.

6. Serve with rice and sprinkle with grated cheddar and a dollop of sour cream if you fancy. Enjoy.

What I Ate This Week #9

I've been pretty busy this week so no fancy food (not that there is usually). Sorry this is a day late, my laptop wouldn't let me open any of the photos to edit them!

Cheese and onion quiche, new potatoes, coleslaw, celery, lettuce and cucumber. An easy quick dinner with some salady bits we had in the fridge!

Eating up the quiche again and coleslaw. My Mum lives off the salad, it's chickpea, pepper, celery, lettuce, cucumber, tomato and cheese. With plenty of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Beanfeast chilli with rice. I never usually put cheese on before I take the photo but I forgot this time! I do usually have grated cheddar cheese on top of tomato pasta sauces. 

Veggie sausage casserole and baked potato. You can find the recipe here.

Butternut squash curry, rice and naan bread. This is one of my favourite meals ever! My friends who were visiting were excited to eat this as they love it too!

Carrots, new potatoes, broccoli and an Indian veg grill.

I'm (Not So) Fancy.

Recently I seem to have read quite a few articles about what I would call 'fancy' vegetarian food. It seems to be all the rage which is exciting, all sorts of new ways to cook an aubergine or unusual ways to incorporate celeriac into a meal. I felt like I should write about this as a vegetarian food blogger because I don't eat lots of unusual vegetarian food, I eat lots of pasta and rice. I have a takeaway pizza every once in a while. I've never had pasta made from courgette or garlic fried samphire. Maybe I should make more of an effort to try some different meals but usually on a day to day basis I just want something fairly easy and tasty to fill me up.

 Perhaps this blog isn't as fancy as I'd like but I've got years of cooking ahead of me where I can experiment more. If you're looking for dinner party food inspiration then I'm afraid you won't find it here right now. I know most people would just say they eat 'normally', that they eat average things that everyone else does but I don't actually know that many people outside of my own family who eat like I do! I eat a lot, but I remain a healthy weight. I don't ever calorie count or not eat carbs or gluten or don't eat after 6pm or all these other fads. I've known people who've only eaten food cooked in the oven from frozen, or people who have fast food just about every day. Someone I knew once predominately ate Coca Cola and chocolate every day! 

People have different relationships with food, some are more interested in cooking than others. I hope if you stumble upon my blog then you might be inspired to try something different in your kitchen. Maybe you eat artichoke hearts and feta pastries all the time! If you don't, then I'm sure something on one of my What I Ate This Week posts will catch your eye. 

I hope you continue to keep reading and enjoying my blog

:)

What I Ate This Week #8

Isn't comfort food just the best? Love me some cheese based meals! I've been feeling poorly all this week so meals by the end of the week got to be things that didn't need much effort to make.

Cauliflower and broccoli cheese. I love cheese.

Veggie sausage casserole. You can find the recipe here!

Risotto with green beans, broccoli and peppers.

Pitta pockets with carrots, chickpeas, garlic, cumin and reggae reggae sauce (wasn't meant to be that but we didn't fancy orange in it).

Dominoes veggie supreme pizza. Yeah I order pizza sometimes, I'm only human!

Pasta and a Loyd Grossman tomato and basil sauce. (and a shed load of cheese).

Cheese and tomato crispbake, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cabbage and carrots.

RECIPE: Veggie Sausage Casserole

It's the weekend and it's getting chillier so what better time to cook a hearty casserole to make you feel all cosy and Autumnal. This really is easy and can be stretched to feed as many as you like! A (nearly) one pot wonder too, which is always good on the washing up front. This is a recipe adapted slightly from the original one by The Hairy Bikers, you can find that one here. This version is vegetarian friendly (duh, you're on a vegetarian food blog!) If you're short on time, you don't have to put it in the oven, you can serve it straight from the pan. It's just a bit richer from having it in the oven for a while. 

Serves 3 - 4

2 veg sausages each 

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 tins chopped tomatoes

2 cans butter beans 

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons tomato puree

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

1. Cook your sausages, no-one likes a frosty sausage. When cooked through, place in an oven proof dish.

2. Fry the onions gently until they start to soften, a good 5-7 minutes.

3. Add garlic to onions and cook for another 3 minutes.

3. Add paprika and cook for another 1 minute.

4. Add tomatoes, puree, herbs and brown sugar. Add the rinsed butter beans.

5. Add mixture to open proof dish on top of sausages. Bake at Gas 4/180°C for 30 minutes.

I eat mine with a baked potato but you can serve yours with whatever you fancy. I think it's the little bit of brown sugar that makes this rich and delicious. Perfect for warming up a miserable Winter evening!

Vegetarians in California.

I recently arrived back in rainy old Manchester after a two week road trip around California with my brother. You can read his blog post on our holiday here. We had the best time, enjoying the sunshine, friendly people, eating out everyday and exploring new and exciting places! What's not to love?!

I was a little concerned before we left on our adventure, that the vegetarians options whilst eating out would be very limited but actually, we had plenty of delicious food to feast on and found some absolute gems to eat out at in California. I think perhaps if we went into the deep mid-west or places like that then we might have struggled more to find meat-free meals but seen as California is a pretty health conscious, laid back place, we found lots of organic/vegan/vegetarian cafes and restaurants. 

You can see lots of photos of meals my brother and I (he is a lifelong vegetarian too) ate in California here, here and here. It's making me want to go back just looking at them! Breakfasts were fairly straight forward as we usually went for pancakes and tonnes of fruit. The berries in particular were always huge and juicy and so fresh and tasty. They tasted like when you pick them yourself. I was impressed by breakfast at The Sportmen's Lodge in Los Angeles as their menu had this guide on it - 

I have never in my life seen a menu that specifically differentiated between pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans! Huge kudos there. The pancakes turned out to be the best we had for the whole trip. I mean, just look at them, glorious. 

Look how big those blackberries are!

We were disappointed at the lack of vegetarian options at Universal Studios Hollywood, despite the guide map saying there was vegetarian food available at several outlets at the park, it never seemed to be listed on the menu and you had to ask for them to make it specially for you. I understand that it's a big theme park in America, nearly everyone eats meat so why not put meat in every sandwich/salad etc but it did make it difficult for us. I was pretty surprised that there wasn't even a salad that didn't have meat or fish in it. Like seriously, I just want leaves and some veg. No dead animals in there please!

Portion size was big, and I mean BIG, it didn't matter what we were eating - breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, snacks. Everything seemed to be supersized! This is my brothers dinner at The Cheesecake Factory - 

That could have easily fed two people and been an ample meal for the both of them. We found that you get more food for your money in California than you do in the UK. It seems like better value really and they will always offer to box up your leftover meal if you can't finish it. We couldn't do that with the pasta as we didn't have a fridge at the hotel. I often saw people boxing up food to take home with them, I've only ever done that in the UK with a few slices of a Pizza Hut pizza! They refill your drink for free in nearly every restaurant and the cups are the size of your whole head! 

At The Cheesecake Factory I was asked what salad dressing I wanted on my side salad, well I don't usually have anything so I said I didn't want one thank you and the waiter looked at me in utter SHOCK. He kept repeating "so you want a dry salad? Are you sure? Dry salad?" Er, yes I was pretty sure. It's not that unusual to just eat salad right? Even when he brought my meal to me he asked again if I really wanted a "dry salad." In the end actually I wished I had got a dressing because the leaves tasted a bit chemically and the dressing would have disguised that! I felt like I had to eat plenty of it to show that YES I LOVE DRY SALAD. 

I asked if the cheesecake was vegetarian and the waiter said "well yeah it doesn't have meat in it". Did he think I was asking if it had bacon or lumps of beef lodged in the cheesecake? I did clarify that I meant gelatin, he said he that word rung a bell and it turns out that the cheesecake had gelatin in it. Boo! It became apparent in different places when I asked this question that people mustn't be familiar with gelatin and they just think being a vegetarian means not eating meat. I was disappointed that the cheesecake wasn't veggie as plenty I've come across in the UK are.

We did a little bit of research in Santa Barbara on somewhere nice to eat and found The Natural Cafe, a ten minute walk from our hotel which had plenty of vegetarian options. It also took us a while to realise entrée means main meal, not a starter like I thought.

This place was smallish and not very fancy but the food was absolutely delicious! It's such a treat to have such a large vegetarian selection to choose from. I also had a peach, pineapple and coconut smoothie which blew my mind. If you're in California anywhere near these places then I really recommend checking out The Natural Cafe. It's reasonably priced, you get massive portions and it's yummy. 

Looking at the menu is making me super hungry. I gave my guacamole to my brother. Is it a cardinal sin to be a vegetarian and not like avocado? I don't know but it just doesn't float my boat.

I love going to supermarkets whilst on holiday, I love seeing how big their fruit is compared to the UK, here is a giant peach and some monster grapes we had.

Despite there not being a lot of options at Beachside Bar Cafe, I felt like they had made an effort with the veggie paella, it was really tasty and I know that looks like a lump on meat on top but it was just a grilled portobello mushroom. This was one of my favourite meals because we were right by the beach on a beautiful day. (Everyday was beautifully sunny!) My brother had a mushroom burger, that was pretty much a staple on lots of restaurant menus!

 We enjoyed the Chinese vegan food at Loving Hut in San Francisco. I'm happy to say they are in the UK too! We found Loving Hut in a big shopping shopping centre in San Fran and it was really cool to see such a popular vegan place in a large food court. Come to Manchester Loving Hut! On the theme of Chinese food, we did a bit of research on places to eat in San Diego and found Plumeria, a vegetarian restaurant. We only really ate dinner at our hotels twice, in Yosemite and Death Valley where there were no other options for miles around! You had a choice of protein such as tofu, vegetarian beef, vegetarian shrimp etc. I don't like anything that looks too much like meat so I steered clear of those (I don't even know what vegetarian shrimp could look or taste like?!) and went for the safe option of fried tofu. Look how cute my rice is, it's in a heart shape.

We spent a while wandering around the high street in Palm Springs for somewhere to eat. All the menu boards outside seemed to be severely overpriced with little veggie options so we decided on LuLu California Bistro. It was pretty busy but we got a nice table outside. This place had its own separate vegetarian menu! Yay! CHOICE! I had angel hair pomodoro. Deeeelish. I loved that this place gave you ice water and freshly baked bread often. The waiters were very attentive!

I really enjoyed finding vegetarian restaurants and cafes to eat in, I felt sort of bad if I ate at a Subway or a large chain (we may have got a large fries and a large drink from McDonalds once or twice...) I'm not usually too fussed about eating organic but it was cool to see how health conscious California is and how much value they place on eating right. I was really happy we decided to explore new places to eat, hopefully this has given you some meal inspiration, vegetarians and none-vegetarians alike. If you live in California or you're just traveling there, be sure to check these places out.