Black Bean “Brownies”

Okay, haven't updated in ages. I have been cooking though!

Ages ago, there was a recipe for blackbean brownies fluttering about the blogosphere. I book marker a few of them, and eventually settled on attempting one from Happy Herbivore

This simple recipe is based on black beans and bananas, and is very quick to throw together.
I didn't add the extra sugar, but I did throw in some chocolate chips and some walnuts.

When they were first cooked I wasn't too impressed, the edges are very crispy and not so nice. However, after resting for a few hours the flavours mingled, and they took on a tasty. nummy, fudgey quality.

I did add a frosting/icing made by mixing some Dark Chocolate Dreams, a peanut butter from the Peanut Butter Company's range of nut butter, mixed with a little Pure Soya, and a smidgen of icing sugar. This increased the nom factor by two meganoms, at least.

This morning I felt that I really needed a little extra fat, so I melted two squares of dark chocolate and poured this over the top, and had this with a soya milk cappuccino. All in all, rather yummy. See how nice!



I really am starting to make notes on my recipes, and I'm forming a misguided belief that I might actually be able to make the whole 'cookbook' idea work. Either way, I'm loving cooking at the moment, which is good.

What else? Oooh, we now eat at the table in the bay window. It makes things so much nicer. Only a few weeks ago we used to eat dinner watching TV each night, but after I put effort into cooking every night, I want to actually enjoy my efforts. It's also pychologically more filling, and now I tend to have a side salad of some of my home grown lettuce, and a slice of tomato so it ups the amount of raw food I'm eating, which is cool.

Anyway, more pictures of brownies below. Enjoy :)

Brownies in the tray - Note the burnt bits


Brownies - Burnt bits trimmed

Back at the keyboard

I'm sorry I've not updated in a little while. I've been superbusy with work, and MrDerious has been a little ill. I'll try better, I promise ;)

 

I've been experimenting a lot with sourdough... to mixed results. The sourdough bread has been okay (if not quite risen enough) in bread form, a disaster in pizza form, and gorgeous in sourdough biscuit form... based on the recipe from How it all Vegan. Anyway, I've now put some in the fridge, and dried a little on a piece of baking parchment, so if my culture dies, I have a good starter starter.

 

I will probably keep trying a new sourdough thing each weekend as I quite like the sour tang... and I certainly like playing with my food.

 

I'm trying to find ways of getting healthy fats into my diet. Even with eating enough calories, I don't eat enough fats, ending up only eating about 20-30g a day, when I need to be aiming for around twice that! Since I don't eat dairy or eggs, and don't like oily food, that v hard! Any suggestions beyond peanut butter and avocado would be appreciated.

 

Anyway, new plan. I try to diarise out what I'm eating for the day, and to forward load it so most of my eating is in the morning.... thus meaning I'm not trying to sleep with a sugar high!

 

This morning was couscous porridge from Garden of Vegan. This is blurry lovely, made with pecans and apricots.... however, it contains a whole cup of couscous and comes in at  well over 500cals. I tell you what though.... I suspect I'm not going to find myself hungry today! This made a huuuuugee bowl (I'll have to photograph it next time) of couscous loveliness... but honestly, I think I was going to burst! There is a very similar recipe in La Dolce Vegan, which makes about half the amount and has a banana in there instead of nuts and dried fruits. I think I might have to take the idea and make my own thing up with it.

 

Anyway.... exciting news, maybe. I'm leaving my current job. I've not been happy there, and I don't think it's a good fit for me. I'm not saying anything bad about the job... I think that for the right sort of person it would be great, but that's not for me. So, perception being a function of will I chose to see this as an opportunity to

• Look at a wider range of jobs, including short contracts
• Get into a job that nurtures my passions
• Look at my self and decide what I want to do!
• Start loving what I do again!

 Anyway...  so, back on with the food..... wooooo hooooo

Pasta with Pinenuts - Picture Only

Hmmmmmm.... I love basil, a lot.

A simple sauce of tofu, basil, sundried tomatoes and garlic, over tagliatelle with toasted pinenuts.

Last time I made this the tomatoes were a bit tough, so I soaked these ones overnight in some water. It really softened them up.

I think next time, I'll put less garlic in... and maybe some chili powder.. because I like a little heat :)

Spiced taters with Sundried Tomato Seitan Cutlets

Another simple one tonight... can't really be bothered to try anything earth shattering at the moment.

Potatoes steamed for 30 mins along with some seitan cutlets, and then pan fried with poultry seasoning.

Sundried Tomato Cutlets - Easy (Makes 2)
60g Gluten Powder
1/4 Tsp Onion Powder
1/4 Tsp Basil
1/4 Tsp Black pepper
1/2 Tsp Vegan 'chicken' broth powder
1 Sundried Tomato (Chopped)

15ml Tomato Ketchup
90ml Water

Mix and knead above ingredients till a sticky dough is formed. Divide into two flat cutlets, wrap in foil and steam for 30 mins.

Unwrap and Dip in a little seasoned flour. Pan fry for 10 mins over a low heat while the potatoes brown.

The sundried tomatoes really worked. I was afraid they wouldn't be soft enough, but they were fine :)

Apple Walnut Sugar Overload - And Pizza to boot

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... You know what is the best cookey book in the world, ever, that's right, La Dolce Vegan!

Today I made the Apple Walnut Pudding recipe which sits in both the breakfast and the dessert section. It was incredibly sweet, but very, very, very nice. I wouldn't reccomend it for breakfast, but for dessert, heck yeah!



Dinner was pizza, with courgette, aubergine (already softened on my new cast iron skillet!) tomatoes, mushrooms and green peppers. I also threw some fresh chilli peppers into the tomato topping... gosh, it was lovely. I was very lazy today, and just used up some bread dough mix I had sat the in cupboard.

Yummy :)

Mushroom Stroganoff

Just a picture today. I'm sure if you have a veggie cookbook, you'll have a recipe for a mushroom stroganoff, so I don't need to give you any instructions.

This vegan one was made with soy yogurt, and served on tagliatelle instead of rice.

Matzo Lasagna - Recipe

This makes loads, be warned, two gigantic servings which will make you feel stuffed at the end, it’s also blooming tasty!

This was a bit of a hotch potch of ideas, but strangely very easy. One of the nice things was it used up a load of Matzo type crackers that had seen better days and were getting a little soft, and just a bunch of veggies I had laying about the place.

Matzo Lasagna

Serves 2-4

Veggie Mix
250g Courgettes
300g Aubergine
100g Mushrooms
1 yellow pepper
1tsp garlic puree
3 ribs of celery
400g can chopped tomatoes
Seasoning to taste

Spinach Tofu Layer
90g Frozen Spinach
200g Tofu
100g Soy Yogurt
1tsp lemon juice

4 Matzo type crackers
Cheeze Sauce (I used Wolfies Cheese Sauce from LDV)

1) In a large pan, Sauté Veggies 2-3 mins
2) Add tomatoes, stir and simmer covered for 10 mins
3) In the meantime, microwave or boil frozen spinach (this was about two lumps) until bright green and cooked. Squeeze out the water, and blend with tofu, soy yogurt and lemon juice
4) Line the bottom of your lasagna dish with ½ the matzo crackers.
5) Place ½ the tomato veggie mix on top, add the remaining crackers, and spread the spinach tofu mix on the top.
6) Top with the remaining veggies, and pour cheeze sauce of choice over the top.
Bake at 165c for 15 mins

If serving 2 people, it works out less than 400cals each. If it wasn’t for the fact I’m trying to gain weight, I would have only eaten ½ of this, and still been full!

The cheeze sauce doesn't make it looks that appetising, I admit


Hmmm, Layer goodness, also, you can see I wasn't kidding about it making a lot