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Monday 4 May 2009

Bank holiday comes with a six pack of beer ....

...... then it's back to work.... A-G.... A-I-N!! ooh that's made we want to dig out ma Blur albums!!

You know what I love about May? TWO bank holidays! So bank holiday number 1 was this weekend and it was nice to have an extra day off - even though I had to work for some of it.

This was yesterday's lunch. I had some cooked quinoa in the freezer leftover from the last time I cooked it and made too much. I just chipped some off and poured boiling water over it and it was ready to go. I mixed it with julienned carrots, cucumber, spring onions, salad leaves, sweetcorn and the tahini yoghurt dressing from this post. Topped off with crunchy pumpkin seeds and brocco-shoots (Sainsburys has started selling different types of sprouts - I'm loving them!). It was pretty good for a salad.


Dinner on friday night I wanted some trash! I made something approximating the country fried tofu from hot damn & hell yeah (I couldn't be bothered to get out the book so was wingin it a bit!!) and had some mashed taters and mushy peas with it. I love this tofu recipe - it's so good although not all that healthy. I try to use as little oil as possible though and to make it extra good I double dipped the tofu in the soymilk/seasoned cornflour.


I made some muffins yesterday. They were just my basic muffin recipe with a banana and some peanut butter thrown in.


Last Sunday I really enjoyed my soup & sarnie for dinner, so I think I might make it a regular thing. This week my sandwich was a portabella mushroom that I got from the farmers' market shop in town (so excited to have found that place!!!), reggae reggae ketchup and salad.


The soup was creamy cauliflower soup. It was reallllllllly good. The recipe is at the end of the post. I surfed for a few recipes and found this one by gordon ramsay. As you can see it's pretty veg-unfriendly (a bit like the man himself). I took out the animal yuk and replaced it with light soymilk and soya yoghurt. I kind of liked the idea of the wild mushrooms on top (which is what gave me the idea for the sarnie).


Today's dinner was some wholewheat spaghetti and I had some leftover sauce from the balls (hee hee!) from my last post that I froze, so I just put that in and added some fresh basil and toasty pine nuts. I made some garlic knots to go with (recipe also at end of post) which where really really yummy. I made them with 50/50 wholemeal & white bread flours, as I've only made them with all white before. Next time I might try them with all wholemeal as I've pretty much cut out using white flour where I can.


HURRAH - it's UK strawberry season! I bought some strawberries as they were on special and they were amazing. Sweet and delicious. I ate a bowl of them plain yesterday and today I was going to do something fancy pants with the other half of the punnet. but then I realised I had a massive ripe mango and a ripe cantaloupe to use up so I just made a simple fruit salad and it was freakin rad!


This was dinner one night last week. Polenta with tomatoes, spring onions and sweet corn added then left to set for 5 minutes or so with steamed mange tout with nooch on and some roasty butternut squash. Yum.


And lastly, I have a new obsession - raw snack bars. I found the Trek & nakd bars in my local health food store and then found the 4 pack of mini nakd bars in Sainsburys along with... Larabars! YAY! I didn't think you could buy them over here and I must say they're pretty good.

The nakd ones are nice, although the chocolate ones are not the best. My favourite so far are the peanut & oat Trek bars. They rule.


And here are the recipes I promised.....

Creamy Cauliflower Soup
1 small onion (I used 4 fat spring onions)
1 tsp olive oil
1 fat clove garlic
1 x 300g bag of cauliflower florets
1 medium potato (about 150g)
2 cups (500ml) veggie stock
1/2 cup (125ml) unsweetened non dairy milk
1/2 cup (125ml) soya yoghurt
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
Sweat the onion in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, until starting to get transluscent. Add the garlic and cook for only about a minute.

Add the cauliflower (chop it up a bit) and the potato, mix around and then add the stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down and cover.

Leave to simmer for 20 minutes (or until potatoes are tender). Pour into a blender and blend well (be careful, it's hot), then add the milk and yoghurt and blend again until smooth and frothy.
Then season to taste and serve with a few snipped chives if you like.

Garlic Knots (makes 6)
3/4 cup (120g) strong wholemeal bread flour
3/4 cup (120g) strong white bread flour
1 sachet (7g) fast action yeast
1 scant tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup (250ml) warm water
To finish
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) vegan margarine
1/2 tsp garlic salt

Method:
Mix together all the dry ingredients. Mix together oil and water and add about half into the dry and mix unti a dough forms, adding more liquid if needed.

Knead in the bowl lightly and then leave aside.

Preheat the oven to 210°C/410°F. While it's coming up to temp, split the dough into 6 pieces and roll them into a sausage. Then tie into a knot shape and place on a baking sheet. Spray the knots with olive oil and bake for 15 minutes, or until they are just starting to brown and sound just hollow when you tap the bottom.

Take them out and put onto a wire rack. Melt the margarine and mix in the garlic salt. Then brush it over the knots. I froze half the dough, as otherwise I would have eaten 6 garlic knots for dinner!!

Hope you all had a great bank holiday!!

20 comments:

  1. It all looks great...but that sandwich is the best!

    Enjoy the bank holidays!

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  2. Those garlic knots look awesome, I wish I could bake gluten free bread that looks as good as your bread!

    And TWO bank holidays!!?? Lucky you, we missed out on a public holiday here and I think they are going to bin another one later this year, noooooooo!

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  3. Yum, I love portobellos. Portobello and hummus sandwiches have become a new favorite of mine. Those garlic knots sound good, I am going to bookmark the recipe. You can never go wrong with something garlicky!

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  4. I want it all! The country fried tofu looks sooo yummy, I'll have to look out for the sprouts at sainsburys, I've never tried the brocolli ones before and I love anything brocolli!

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  5. So So SO many gorgeous eats missy alien. My local supermarket has started selling Sprouted things too and I just tried the Broccoli myself - they are very good.
    I LOVE the look of that Tofu especially with one of mah favourites - MUSHY PEAS!
    YAY!
    I actually have the Hot Damn book so I'm gonna go grab it and look up that recipe - I even have thawed Tofu in the fridge - is this a sign or what!!
    xx

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  6. that porto sammie looks like an incredible eat. yes please!

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  7. I love how you put sprouts on most of your foods! And the garlic knots sound extra yummy.

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  8. Yum, I'll have to try those garlic knots! Looks so, so good. And that country fried tofu looks awesome. I'll have to dig out my copy of Hot Damn again soon.

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  9. That tofu plate looks amazing. I have that cookbook and haven't used it yet.

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  10. Don't you love May!!! We're even more spoiled, because we get 3!
    I'm in love with all your food!!! I so so so need a copy of HDHY. Really. Like what the heck.

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  11. Your recent posts sure have lots of great looking food. Wow!

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  12. this all looks so good. Portobellos are amazing
    i love your blog

    thanks

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  13. Just think how good those PB nanner muffins would be if you baked them in the GIANT CUPCAKE PAN! :)

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  14. Mmmm...your muffins and garlic knots look tasty! I need to stop baking cupcakes and try something else, hehe.

    Also, I've never seen those Trek bars!!

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  15. How interesting- I've never seen nor heard about these Nakd bars before! I must keep an eye out for them...

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  16. So much good food! I must try those garlic knots, so thanks for posting the full recipe. The polenta with tomatoes looks very tasty too, but so does everything else. I think I should eat more sprouts too - they look like delicious additions to the salad and sammie. Great muffins too! PB and banana is a good combo any time.

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  17. Oh WOW! So many lovely things today... I think the portabello sandwich is my fave. Or the fried tofu. Anything fried is good, I swear - hahaha - lovely pictures too!

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  18. Mmmm... I always end up in trouble when I get out the hot damn cookbook... last time I ended up elbow deep in spud puppies covered in BBQ and thought I was going to have a heart attack on the spot!

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  19. wow, that is a ton of delicious food!

    I've made the hot damn & hell yeah tofu before. mmmm... i still have some of the seasoned flour, so I should make more.

    I wonder if gordon is having nightmares because his soup has been veganized? ha ha!

    freezing cooked quinoa is a good idea. I love time savers.

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  20. Yummy goodies! Thanks for the recipes. Im keen on trying out the garlic knots.

    I just gave your blog an award. Check it out here:

    http://cutelittlepackage.blogspot.com/2009/05/one-lovely-blog-award.html

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speak to me, yo!