Silence.

HELLO! Goodness me I'm sorry for the silence on the blog of recent. I have been away from home doing work and I had to live off cuppa soups in my pokey B&B room, not very glamorous and certainly not blog worthy! I also ate a lot of Babybels and battenburg cake.I know, picture of health. Don't fret, normal service will resume very soon.

Vegetarian Haribo.

I know you can buy vegetarian jelly sweets like Haribo online from plenty of sites specialising in veggie food or other 'free from' products but yesterday I was shopping in Primark and saw they are now selling two different types of vegetarian friendly Haribo! Rainbow Twists and Giant Strawbs (I know the packet on the website for the Giant Strawbs doesn't have a V on like the Rainbow Twists does but it does in real life!

I also found them in Iceland so if you're in the UK keep your eyes peeled for yourself or a vegetarian friend/family member. I was really excited to see the V on the packet of sweets, resisted the urge to bulk buy and just bought one of each. I don't even like sweets that much but I know they will last and my none-veggie boyfriend likes chomping on them! Have a sweeeeet week everyone!

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

:)

Vegetarian Problems

Just a quick post to share this link with you. I found it hilarious. maybe you recognise some of these problems as a vegetarian too?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/awkward-moments-every-vegetarian-understands?utm_term=cxhua4#2xbm7mx