Dragon Bowl & Natural Balance Foods Box

I’m feeling a little lazy today, so you are only getting a very quick post.

Got home today to a wonderful box full of foods from the good people at Natural Balance Foods ltd. They kindly sent this to me free of charge after I mentioned on their Facebook page that I had been hunting high and low for their new flapjacks. How awesome is that?

Anyway, they have updated their website today… funky flash on the front page and everything.

From Ready, Veggie, Cook

The box contains;

Trek Protein Flapjacks
Oat Crunch
Cherry Crunch

Raisins
Orange infused raisins
Pineapple infused raisins
Cherry infused raisins
Lemon raisins

Nākd bars - 100% natural wholefood bar
Apple Pie - 30g and 68g
Cocoa Loco - 30g and 68g
Berry Cheeky - 68g and 30g
Banana Bread - 30g

JC’s TREK™ Wholefood Energy Bar (68g)
Peanut and Oat
Cocoa Brownie
Mixed Berry

Anyway, I will be reviewing a product each night, so if you like tasty, healthy snacks which also happen to be vegan/vegetarian suitable, keep um peeled!

Anyway, onto what I’ve yomped today ;-)

Dinner this evening was lovely!
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Dragon Bowl - Serves 2

From Ready, Veggie, Cook

Main Bowl
190g Brown Rice
Kale - Few large handfuls
Carrots - 1 or 2
Tofu (about half a pack)
Spring Onions

Sauce
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Sherry
2 gloves garlic (sliced)
1 tsp Tabasco or other chilli sauce
1 tsp cornflour
Pinch ginger

Put the brown rice in rice cooker, or saucepan… you know, whatever baby. Add twice the volume in water.

Cook

While it’s cooking, chop the kale, dice the tofu, grate the carrot, slice a couple of spring onions

When rice is cooked, Throw kale, carrots, tofu and spring onions top of rice to heat up a bit (5 mins or so)

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in order in a small sauce pan. Bring to light simmer, simmer gently for about 3 mins. Tip onto the rice, and mix together.

Yum! I’ve give it 4 carrots out of 5.

A Chilli Spring Day - Recipe included

Well, would yah guess it… the Bank Holiday was overcast and gloomy, then the first day back to work sunny and bright.

Work was work…. Had someone else in the office with me today, so it felt a little more lively. I left at five, as I needed to be home on-time to join my OH in taking Maisie to the vets to have the growths on her ears looked at… the vet cleaned out Maisie’s ears, and told us that she thinks the growth is benign… so all good.

Foods

Breakfast
Toast with Brown Rice Breakfast from How it All Vegan

My top tip for this is to spread the toast with vegan mayo and ketchup, then place then spread sides together and pop into a toaster bag (the sort for making toasted sandwiches) and reheat for a moment. This stops it getting slimey and cold by the time you have finished eating. Now top with the brown rice mixture.

Morning Snacks
Nakd Coco Loco Bar

Lunch
Avocado and salad sandwich, spread with hummus
Smoothie - Made with Orange, Apple, Beetroot and dark salad leaves

Smoothie looked very, very odd, but tasted lovely. Not beetrooty at all though.

Dinner
Broccoli and Pasta in a Chilli Garlic Sauce

From Ready, Veggie, Cook

Recipe
175g Wholemeal Pasta
1 head of Broccoli - Cut into small florets
½ head (4-5 big cloves) of Garlic, Sliced
75mls Veggie Stock
½ - 1 tsp Crushed Dried Chilli Flakes

Place Veggie Stock in a small pan. Add the sliced garlic and chilli flakes. Heat up until gently bubbling. Then, place on the lowest heat on you hob.

From Ready, Veggie, Cook

Start Pasta boiling in unsalted water. After 6-8 mins add chopped broccoli and cook for a further 3-4 mins until broccoli is bright green.

Drain pasta and broccoli mix, retaining about two tablespoons of the boiling water.

Put back into pan. Tip the garlic, chilli stuff in. Pour the retained water into the garlic pan and swirl around, tip into the pasta pan (This ensures you get all the garlicky goodness) mix up an heat a moment, then serve.

Yomp it up!

This was lovely, even though the Brocolli had really seen better days. Meh, you are simmering it for 3-4 mins, do you think you'll notice if it's a tad yellow?

Dessert
Co-op Blackberry and Apple Pie

This is nice, but not tart enough. Good to find a vegan pie though… so I’m not terribly upset.

From Ready, Veggie, Cook

Snack
Slice of fruit loaf, Toasted

And in a few mins I’m going to start prepping for breakfast. Slowcooker Chilli Beans. How awesome is it to wake up to a hot, tasty homemade meal? I love doing this one on in the slow cooker as it means all I really need to do in the morning is put some toast in the toaster, and slop beans onto the toast when done. Sure, I could do baked beans on toast, but really, that’s not the same!

Tempeh Tantrums

As a long term vegetarian (now turned almost 100% vegan), there are some veggie foods that are very hard to get hold of in the UK which I have always wanted to try. Now I read a lot of vegan blogs, there are even more that I want to give a go! There were two, that up until the last 6 months, I’d never eaten, these are;

Seitan
Tempeh

You can read all about my Seitan experiences in an earlier post. However, I’m very lazy at times, so I now buy Gluten Powder from a mail order site called flourbin. It’s as simple as throwing roughly equal portions of flour and water into the bread maker, and then simmering away in whatever broth you choose. It’s a heck of a lot easier, and when I’m feeling very lazy, I just use vegan stock cubes.

Tempeh is a different matter. Tempeh, I’ve seen for sale in two places… one, a deli shop in Lyme Regis (3 hours 24 mins) drive away, if you trust Google maps, and once in A Cooks Delight, in Berkhamsted (Which can be on my way home, but isn‘t normally, and is a pain to park near). When I saw in in the Lyme Regis shop, I bought a single jar (as it seems to be an acquired taste) and I didn’t want to end up with a lot of jars that I didn’t use. Now, this was in November… and I’ve only just in the past month had the cahones to try it! Anyway, I can confirm, Tempeh rocks! It has a sorta nutty taste, and a chewy texture a bit like the ubiquitous Quorn, which I loved, but is not vegan.

Anyway, with some looking on-line, I figured ‘I can make that’ There are lots of tutes on-line, so I won’t go into it in depth but basically the process is

Soak about 500g Soya Beans overnight (6-12 Hours)
Dehull the soya beans (this takes aaaageeeeeeeessssssss, I’m going to get a grain mill to help!)
Boil in a lot of water for 10 mins, then simmer for another 20. Add 3tbs of vinegar to retard the growth of other spores
Drain and dry very well
Add some tempeh starter culture (about 5g), mix wildy
Pack into a ziplock bag, puncture at 1cm intervals with a thick needle
Incubate at 200c for 36-48 hours
When it looks all white and forms a solid lump, its ready.

Well, my first attempt didn’t go so well. Basically, I tried using some of the left over Tempeh to make a starter culture. This didn’t work, and after a few days ‘incubation’ all I had was yeasty soya beans.

Then I ordered some starter culture online, for the princely sum of £8 something in Euros. This duely turned up from the nice people at http://www.tempeh.info/ within a few days, and I tried again. This time success!

In my father’s 30 year old environmental control cupboard with some well dehulled soy beans it took less that 24 hours for the white mycelium to cover most of the surface of the soya beans, and at 36 hours it formed a big lump.

So, what to make huh? The answer was clear ‘Tempeh Toss’ from The Garden of Vegan. This is one of the best vegan cookery books, in fact, I think this and La Dolce Vegan are the only way I’m managing to stay 99% vegan.

Anyway, this is a rather yummy recipe containing Tempeh, various veggies and some seasonings… no, I’m not giving you the recipe… the book is worth the money, quick go buy it!

Anyway, First, you cube some Tempeh (My very own stuff, yay!)


Then fry it in a little oil


Add some chopped veggies and secret herbs and spices, Then serve with whatever you like... I had Brown Rice



Okay, so the rest of the days foods were;

Breakfast
Brown Rice pudding with raisins & cinnamon (yum!) with a side order of toast and Marmite

Mid Morning Snack Soy Cappuccino
½ a Trek Coco Brownie shared with my other ½ - These things are so filling you really only need half…. but so tasty, you’ll want two!

Lunch
Green Smoothie - Orange, Apple, Kiwi and a handful of spinach
Grilled Portabella Mushroom Sandwich with a Soy Yogurt dressing

Dinner
Tempeh Toss with Brown Rice (You knew that though, Silly Heads)

I also have a special treat….. Vegan Apple and Blackberry Pie from the Co-op :-D

This was only £1.29, and satisfied a need for something sweet :) *Happy Dance time*

And I guess later on I’ll have some roasted soy nuts, or maybe some chilli flavoured baked chickpeas. Yum

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EDIT:

Opps, accidentally rejected a comment - So I'm adding it here!

From the lovely Rae, who I used to work with, and miss deeply!

You're so organized! I've done the research but haven't gotten my act together to make tempeh & seitan. By the way, I believe you can get tempeh at Uhuru on the Cowley Road. I haven't bought any because the portion seems so paltry compared to what I could get in the States.

We have those pies at Co-op too. They do indeed satisfy a need!

Induction Hob - Epic Bargain Success

Yay! I now have an induction hob. It's not fitted yet, but I bought it from B&Q today. I had seen on Hot UK Deals a chap who had got a Hotpoint Induction Hob for £49. I wasn't too convinced to be honest.... but I thought I'll have a quick look.

After a lot of sodding about looking at a different hob that was £40, I had a Hotpoint one labeled up at £499 I thought "ah, give it a try" so we got a price check... £119 :)

Was very pleased... have wanted an proper induction hob for years as I exclusively cook on a single ring plug in hob.

Now, all we have to do is to fit it ;)

Now, Foods for the day

Breakfast

1/2 Can Prunes
Splodge Yoghurt

Lunch
Low sugar/salt baked beans
2 Slices Warburtons Bread
Soya Cappuccino

Dinner
Seitan Cutlet

Steamed veggies - Made up of
120g Baby potatoes
75g Carrots
75g Mange Tout

Dessert
Low Fat Muffin Parfait
Made up with
Low fat homemade muffin from the freezer
Homemade Soya Yoghurt
Frozen Blueberries
Black Cherry Jam
1 Tbs Sherry
Microwaved for 1 min... with a lid on

This revives the dead muffins.... I feel like The Piemaker... just far less creepy

Today I also cleaned off the bookshelf and put all my recipe books on one shelf. Yay! No more swearing because I can't find the book I'm after... now, swearing because I can't remember which book the recipe is in ;)

Cleaning out my pantry

Well, for long and convoluted reasons, I have a cupboard full of food. It's nice in that, in case of Zombie Invasion....I've got enough food to keep me going for a bit... but on the other hand, I can't find anything when I look in there.

About every 6 months or so I get really annoyed with it, and reorganise it, only to throw out half a dozen bits of food, which I then replace very quickly, and I'm in the same position after a few more weeks.

Anyway, I've decided to eat through all the things I don't need.... today I started with a can of prunes for breakfast :) MrDerious and I shared them, topped with a nice splodge of my homemade soya yogurt from homemade milk.

The only time I've ever managed to make soya yogurt I've made it in a thermos flask. Making it in a yoghurt maker never seems to work. Weird huh? Anyway, I have a fairly small 350ml flask, which is perfect really, as it doesn't make too much and I can therefore eat through it in 2-3 days and none of it gets thrown away. I guess if I was using some for baking, I would want more.... but mostly I use it as a topping, or a little bit in my breakfast burritos with some guacamole to make it creamy :) I don't feel it's quite as nice as the store bought stuff, but I know what's in there... and it's all healthy. The store bought stuff like Alpro has thickeners and sweeteners in them... this is just water, soybeans and a wee bit of yogurt culture, which as time goes on will just be water, soybeans and some endlessly multiplying bacteria.

Anyway, no firm plans for the rest of the day.... might be brave and walk up to Tesco if the weather holds. Its a good walk though... made 40mins in good weather and the walk into town wiped me out yesterday, so it might not be a great plan. Hmmm, will decide later

Snack Time

In order to increase my calories for the day I just made a scrummy snack

Defrosted a Low Fat Chocolate Muffin (Homemade)
Sliced into 4 bits
Put into a rammikin
Layered up with plain yoghurt and frozen blueberries between each slice of muffin
Topped with blackcherry jam
Thought 'it still looks dry'
Added 1tbs of sherry

Put another rammikin on top to catch steam and microwaved for 1 min

Yum Yum Yum :)

The Weather, It's Snow Fun

Brrrrrrrrr

It's now day 3 of it being too snowy to go anywhere.... The week has been an odd one.

Monday I woke up to see snow outside the window.... a fair bit as it happens. However, myself being the person I am.... I went on my merry way to work. It's a 17 mile trip... and I got into the office to hear the phone ringing. I was surprised to see that there was no-one else in the office. It was my boss

Me: "Good Morning *******, How can I help"
Boss: "Who's that?"
Me: "MsDerious"
Boss: "Oh, who else is in the office"
Me: "Just me"
Boss: "Oh, What's the weather like?"
Me: "About 2inchs of snow?"
Boss: "Oh, Are you staying?"
Me: "Well, I have a lot to do"

This conversation continues, until we decide that I'll leave at about 11... only 2 other people made it in that day.

Tuesday
I head in.... still snowy, but today the rest of the office make it in

Wednesday
Normal Day

Thursday
SNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW
Probably 3-4 inches deep, and it's like death on the roads. I'm still stupid enough to have a bash at going in. At about 8am on of the other ladies in the office calls on my mobile to tell me to go home... I'm a plank, so I continue to head in....
I get stranded in the snow until a nice made comes along and helps my wee car.
Left home at 7.30am
got back home 12ish

Most of that time was spent cacking my pants that I was going to die in the snow.

Friday
Get a call at 7am to say not to come in.
Work from home
Look in cupboard
For dinner I had

Quinoa
Homemade BBQ sauce
Chicken flavour seitan
Celery
Orange Pepper
Green Pepper

Made Quinoa in microwave as I was feeling very lazy

Cut peppers into strips
Added 1 rib of celery and fried until weeping a bit
Had left over seitan made with La Dolce Vegan recipe... added that
Continued to cook until warm
Added 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce... and some juice left over from my breakfast chili
Heat until thickened
Yumm :)

Today
Got up about 7:30... did the weekly weigh in. Wrinkled my nose at the weight... 7st 1lbs .... not good. I've lost more weight :(

Ate last of Breakfast Chilli with some spinach in a tortilla... Yum :)

Watched the end of Spiderman 3, Plus One and the first episode of being Human

Decided that I didn't much fancy paying for parking while we went into town, so decided to walk. About 3-4 years ago I had bought two pairs of 'Snowgrips' that stretch onto the bottoms of your shoes. I actually found these at the start of the shitty weather, and I use these. They really make the difference on the walk into town.

We get into town, go get a Soya Cappuccino, then watch Bolt 3D. OMG!!!! Never seen a 3D film before, and it's not most awesome thing ever... Anyway, after that we buy some more vegan cheese (Tofutti for MrDerious, Redwood for me) and get another Cappuccino (to stay warm more than anything else).

Walk home via Morrison's, buying some more peppers, a snack bar for MrDerious, mixed veggies and some veggie burgers.

Get home, have a toasted sandwich done in toasterbags. Chedderstyle redwood and a slice of seitan pepperoni :)

I make up the soya milk from the beans that have been soaking, and make some seitan dough up in the breadmaker. I look at the small lumps and think "That's not going to be enough" but, as usual, it puffs up nicely in the broth. I'm feeling lazy enough to use the vegan chicken broth I found in Asda... it tastes blooming nice :)

For dinner we have (Makes 4, we had 1 each)
Seitan Chicken Cutlets
200g Seitan
Simmered for 30min in 2cups of broth
Dipped in homemade soya milk
Dipped in mix of flour, paprika, black pepper and salt
Fried for 10 mins over medium heat (Whacked up to high at the end)

Carrot (Steamed for 8 mins)
New Potatoes (Steamed for 25 mins)
Mixed veggie pack (beans, Leek and Courgette)

This is the first time I've steamed carrots, they worked out well :)

For dessert I had a gingerbread bar. These are veggie, but not vegan. I figure there isn't much point throwing it all out, so I'm just trying not to buy any more non-vegan foods. I slip up now and then... but I'm getting better :)

MrDerious is now watching Bourne Ultimatum... I was foolish enough to upgrades to the movies package on Sky. 3 months at 1/2 price seemed like an okay plan... we can watch a whole bunch of movies... then cancel once I've seen all the stuff I'm interested in. Its kinda makes sense to do this as I don't feel I get a lot out of my Sky+ sub.

Anyway, I think I'll go check the soya yogurt (If this batch fails, I swear I'm going to give it up soon) and perhaps get a glass of wine. I've not really eaten enough today.... so I'm thinking of ways of getting a little more food into me. I might have a look in the freezer to see what there is in way of frozen yummies.