My favourite way to eat left over chips.

What's that I hear you say, left over chips?  Surely such a thing doesn't happen, you eat up all your yummy chips as soon as they pop out of the fryer/oven/takeaway.  But surprisingly sometimes there are left over chips, and this is how I like to eat them up.

Chop the chips up roughly into bite size pieces.

Heat a frying pan and spray in a couple of squirts of oil.

Put the chopped chips into the pan, with a good sprinkle of paprika and

a finely chopped clove of garlic.

Fry for about 5 minutes, add a chopped spring onion for the last minute.

That's it.  Easy peasy, I like to eat it for brunch! 

How do you use up your left over chips?  (if you ever have any, haha!)

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Vegan pancake recipe, buckwheat flour and coconut milk pancakes.

Pancake day is nearly here again, which I am very happy about.  I decided to try a new vegan, soya-free pancake recipe out this year, to add a few extra nutrients to my usual flour and water vegan pancakes.  

You'll need

6 dessertspoons self raising flour

3 dessertspoons buckwheat flour

200ml Koko dairy free milk alternative

water

1 teaspoon rapeseed oil plus more for frying

pinch of sea salt

lemon and sugar to top 

Recipe

1. Add the flours and a pinch of salt to a bowl and stir to combine.

2. Add the oil, Koko 'milk' to the dry ingredients and whisk together, add a splash more vegan milk or water if necessary, to make a smooth batter.  

3. Set the vegan pancake batter aside to rest for half an hour or so before you use it.

4. After the batter's rested, give it a final whisk and heat up some oil in your pancake pan.

5. Ladle some batter into the hot pan, cook on one side, turn the pancake over (either flip it or use a spatula to turn) and cook the other side.

6. Your yummy vegan buckwheat and coconut milk pancake is ready to eat, top it with whatever you like, my favourite is lemon and sugar.  This recipe makes about 8 large pancakes.

I love these pancakes because they're yummy, and because they're ever so slightly healthy!  The Koko dairy free is enriched with calcium, vitamin D2 and B12, and buckwheat is high in protein and fibre as well as lots of vitamins and minerals, lemon juice has loads of vitamin C.  That makes pancakes a health food, right!?

Vegan pancake tips

I find vegan pancakes work better if you make your batter slightly thicker than you would for non-vegan pancakes, it helps them hold together.  Use a really hot pan to get crispy pancakes that cook quickly and don't stick to the pan.  And don't prod the pancake too much while it's cooking, give it some time to form a crust in the pan before trying to move it around or flip it.

Happy pancake day!  I wish you many yummy pancakes, what's your favourite kind?

Disclosure - I was sent the Koko dairy free milk alternative to try, I only feature products I actually like and would use.  All opinions are my own, and always will be.

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3 easy vegan potato recipes.

Potatoes are one of my favourite foods, so I was super happy to see lots of vegan potato recipes in this month's issue of Vegan Life Magazine.  

Here are my favourite easy, vegan potato recipes,

Chili baby potatoes with chickpeas.

• Slice new potatoes and pop them into a baking dish with some oil, chili powder, a little paprika, sea salt and black pepper.  Add in a tin of chickpeas and roast in the oven until the potatoes are cooked.

Potato cakes.

• Take some left over mashed potato, slice up a couple of spring onions and mix in flour, a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches a roll-out-able consistency.  
• Roll out the dough and cut it into squares using a knife, or with cute cookie cutters.  Fry the potato cakes in a little oil in a frying pan until golden brown, then they're ready to eat!

Potato wedges.

• Take a couple of big baking potatoes, prick with a fork and microwave them until they're cooked.  
• Slice the cooked potatoes into wedges.  You can add some slices of red onion, peppers or leeks to your baking tray too, if you want to add some extra veggies and flavour.  
• Pour a little oil onto a baking tray, add sea salt, black pepper and paprika to taste.  Add in the potatoes, a couple of whole garlic cloves and other veggies, coat with the oil and then roast until crispy.

Image c/o Vegan Life Magazine.

For more yummy vegan potato recipe ideas, check out November 2015's issue of Vegan Life Magazine. 

You can subscribe to Vegan Life on paper or digitally.  There's also a handy app for digital subscriptions. 

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing this publication.  I even have my own page in the vegan bloggers section of their lovely website!  All opinions are, of course, my own and always will be.

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What do Vegans Eat? Vegan Meal Ideas, July 2015.

People always ask me 'What do you eat?', so here are a few of the vegan meals I've eaten this month.  

It's not very healthy this month, as we're in the middle of kitchen renovations!

 Asda Free From Choc Orange Buttons.  I'm addicted to these vegan orange chocolate buttons, the only problem is that there aren't enough buttons in the bag!

Waffles, sausage and mushrooms.  Did you know you can cook potato waffles from frozen in the toaster?  My friend at work gave me this piece of advice and it's been very helpful in the house with no oven!  Toast once to defrost and a second time to crisp up.

Mini Party Rings.  Party Rings are suitable for vegans now, and the mini ones are the best because you can fit a whole one in your mouth!

Mujadara.  I used a mixture of a food network recipe (for the quantities) and a Yotam Ottalenghi recipe (for the spicing) and a bit of doing my own thing, to make my version of Mujadara.  I've never made this Lebonese rice, lentil and onion dish before but it's super yummy.

Naan Bread.  These 'Pana' naan breads are 49p for a pack of 2 from Home Bargains, and they're the only pre-packaged naans I've seen that are suitable for vegans.  I like mine toasted.

Ikea Veggie Balls.  'Scuse the terrible photo, my phone doesn't take good pictures, but I had to tell you about the vegan meatballs I ate at Ikea.  They're made with lots of veggies, and taste herby and delicious. The small veggie ball meal includes 10 veggie balls, tomato sauce, rice and broccoli, although I skipped the sauce and had chips instead of rice. Mum had the rice and sauce and it looked really nice (I just cannot deal with sauce on my food!). And it only costs £3.50.  So nice to have a vegan option available. 

Have you eaten anything deliciously vegan recently?

Vegan Chocolate Courgette Cake.

Every year I grow courgettes, mainly so I can use them to make this vegan chocolate courgette cake! 

It's very yummy and you can't even tell there's vegetables in it!

You can find the recipe here, you need to scroll down a bit.

Linking up with Chic on a Shoestring and Making, Making Do and Mending.

Easy, Cheap, Vegan Meal Ideas. Vegan Fry up, Summer Greens Stir Fry, Black Pepper and Pine Nut Pasta.

Here are some more of my easy, cheap, vegan meal ideas,

I like the occasional vegan fry up, for breakfast, lunch or tea.  This one has a Linda Mcartney sausage, mushrooms, potato slices and fried bread.  I like baked beans and hash browns too (Morrisons own brand frozen ones are lovely), but I didn't have any in the cupboards this time.  

I make this with whatever greens I currently have growing in my garden, chard, spinach or kale all work equally well.  Fry some garlic (I do about 4 cloves in this to make it Really Garlicky), add the greens and fry until wilted, sprinkle on some nutritional yeast flakes, add some cooked brown rice, fry a little more and you're done.  This tastes healthy and yummy.  It's perfect comfort food for when you're poorly too.

Black pepper and pine nut pasta is one of my new favourites.  Cook some pasta and lightly toast some pine nuts in a pan.  Once the pasta is cooked and drained pop in a little vegan margarine, salt, black pepper and the pine nuts, mix together until all the vegan margarine has melted and it's done.  

What easy, cheap, vegan meals do you make?

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What Do Vegans Eat?

I get asked this question a lot, so here's a photo-record, quick snaps of the every-day vegan meals and treats I've eaten in the past month or so...

1. Jus' Rol Croissant - Yummy! Can you imagine not eating any kind of breakfast, french-y pastry for 7 years (7 years is the length of time that I've been vegan for).  And the discovering these cook at home croissants.  You would be very happy.  And so am I.

2. Morrisons Free From Orange Choccy Bar.  This is amazing!  It tastes just like dairy chocolate.
3. Jus' Rol Pain Au Chocolat.  Same story as the Croissants.  Nom nom nom nom.

4.  Vegetable fajitas, home made flat breads, Yum.
5. Curry Chickpeas.  I eat this for my lunch quite often, it's really easy to make and full of protein and nutrients.  Fry some chickpeas in a pan with a little curry powder for a couple of minutes, add some sunflower and pumpkin seeds until they're toasted.  Mix in some sesame seeds and a sprinkle of salt at the end.  Serve with couscous.  Also good for taking in your lunchbox.
6.  Vegan millionaires shortbread, from Morrisons.  This one tastes weirdly coconutty, not quite like the real thing, but still eatable.
7.  I have an ice-cream maker, this is my first attempt, mint choc-chip, made with coconut milk.  It's not quite right yet!
8. Vegan pancakes with lemon and sugar.

What are your favourite vegan treats and eats?

Vegan Pancakes, Happy Pancake Day!

This is a repost of an old recipe, but it still counts, 'cos it's pancake day today and I will be making these bad boys later!

Happy pancake day!  Hope you have eaten many battery, lemon-y, sugar-y pancakes! My vegan pancakes were particularly delicious this year, so I thought I'd share some of my tricks with you (it's my 7 year vegan-iversary this month, so I've had 7 pancake days to perfect it!).  They're dairy free and soya free too!

1. My recipe is really simple and makes 4 pancakes, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil and enough water to make a medium thickness batter (still runny but not thin and watery...slightly thicker than non-vegan pancake mix, it needs to be thicker to help it hold together, as it doesn't have eggs or milk to bind it)

2. Use more oil in the pan than you would for a non-vegan pancake, about a teaspoon per pancake, otherwise it WILL stick to the pan.

3. Make a thicker pancake than you would a non-vegan version...you won't get a really thin, crepe type pancake from this recipe, cos it needs to be thicker to hold together (it's the no eggs thing again!).

4. Get the oil really hot in the pan, pour a quarter of the mix to make a thick-ish pancake into the pan then leave it alone...don't prod it or poke it or try to lift up the sides for about 3 minutes to let it form a crust so it hold's itself together (there's a theme here right!?).

5. Trying to flip the pancake is probably a bad idea..it will fall apart, turn it over gently with a flipper thingy, then leave it to go brown

6. Slide onto a plate, cover with enough lemon and sugar to make your teeth hurt, and enjoy!

Do you have a vegan pancake recipe?

Linking up with Frugal Days Sustainable Ways.

Vegan Oat, Flax Seed and Coconut Flapjack Recipe.

My breakfast's were leaving me hungry mid morning, so I decided to add a bit more variety to my morning feast.  These are quick and easy to make and definitely fill you up until lunch time!  Although they are nice to eat at any time in the day, of course!

If you click on the emboldened text in the recipe, you can see that I've linked to the nutritional details of each ingredient, because that's something I'm thinking about these days.  (Unfortunately finding nutritional info was hard, I had to resort to Wikipedia, if any of you know of a better source for nutritional info online I'd appreciate it).

2 desertspoons vegan margarine
2 desertspoons golden syrup
2 desertspoons white sugar
2 desertspoons desiccated coconut
3 desertspoons golden flax seeds
1 desertspoon poppy seeds
Oats

Melt margarine, syrup and sugar together in the microwave.

Add enough oats to soak up the mixture but still remain wet enough to stick together.

Mix in the coconut and seeds.

Line a baking tray and fill with the mixture.  Press down.

Sprinkle sugar on top if you want a crispy finish (I used soft brown sugar).

Bake in the oven until firm, about 15-20 minutes, cool, cut into as many pieces as you want, then store in an airtight container.

Yummy!

Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

What do Vegans Eat?

I get asked this question a lot, so here's a photo-record, quick snaps of the every-day vegan meals and treats I've eaten in the past week or so...

1. Sausage Curry stir fry - with rice noodles, red pepper, onion, spring onion, sweet corn and peas.

2.  Popcorn - made on the stove, with melted vegan margarine and salt.

3.  Pan roasted seeds - sunflower and pumpkin seeds dry roasted in a frying pan mixed with raw sesame seeds.

4.  Aldi Dark Chocolate Reindeer - £1 each, om nom nom.

5.  Sandwich - brown seeded bread with Granovita Original Organic Vegetable Pate, which I think is yummy and perfect for lunch box sandwiches.

6.  'Chicken' burger, potatoes and veg - I was really excited to try VBites vegan and soya free Southern Chicken style Burgers, but I didn't like it.  I had it with my favourite type of potatoes though, boiled potatoes with melted vegan margarine and chopped spring onions, broccoli and sweet corn too.

7.  Hartley's Lemon and Lime Jelly Pot - yummy, ready made jelly with no gelatine!

8.  Hmmm, this was a bit of a concoction, left over mushroom pilau rice from a takeaway, mixed in with stir fried onion, pepper, spring onion, garlic and peas, with steamed veg on the side.

So there we go!

Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Easy, Cheap Vegan Meal Ideas...Garbanzos con Espinacas, Balsamic Vinegar Potato Wedges, Gnocchi and Tomato Sauce...

Here are some more yummy, easy vegan recipe ideas...

Garbanzos con espinacas (chick peas with spinach) is something I order every time when I go out for Tapas, so I thought it was probably time I learned to make it myself.  I looked at loads of recipes online (lots pinned here), but made it up as I went along in the kitchen.  Fry some cumin seeds in a little oil until toasted, add canned chick peas (half a can per person) and fry for a while.  Crumble half a stock cube over and add a little water, fry for a while longer.  Add a large handful of spinach (one handful per person) and cook until wilted.  That's it, all done!  I had this for my lunch, so I just had it on it's own with a few nuts and grapes, but it's nice for dinner too with a few other tapas (we like garlic mushrooms and patatas bravas).

These are sea salt and balsamic vinegar potato and red onion wedges.  Slice your potatoes and onions into wedges, shake them about in a roasting tin with a little oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and a couple of crushed garlic cloves.  Roast in the oven until cooked.  They are amazing.  Served here with a Morrisons own brand vegetable quarter pounder.

This one is super easy, shop bought gnocchi (I like Asda's own brand), fried in some olive oil with a few dried herbs chucked in, and tomato sauce, made from passatta, garlic, basil and onion cooked together. Yum!

What's your favourite easy, veggie meal?

Vegan Chocolate Brownie Cake Recipe...

My friend made me this cookbook years ago...

Inside is this magical recipe for vegan chocolate brownies.  They're really simple to make, and have the taste and texture of brownies or chocolate muffins, rich, a bit sticky and very chocolaty.  

I've written it out incase you can't see it clearly ...

Ingredients - 2 cups plain flour, 1 cup sugar, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup of oil/margarine (melted marg. makes for a more gooey mix and I often add less oil), 1 heaped tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract, pinch salt.

Instructions - Pre-heat the oven to medium/low, mix together all the dry ingredients, add the oil or melted margarine and other wet ingredients and mix very well, add water to mix if you feel it's too dry, put ingredients into a greased and lined baking tin.  Cook on medium low for between 20-30 minutes, or until the top is not shiny.

 I added vegan buttercream icing (margarine and icing sugar and vanilla extract mixed together), sprinkles and edible glitter.  The dinosaur candles turned it into a birthday vegan chocolate brownie cake!

Easy, Cheap Vegan Meal Ideas...Vegetable Fajitas, Vegan Potato Cakes, Falafel Wrap....

This is what I've been eating recently...

Vegan Fajitas, made from sliced mushrooms, peppers, onion and spring onion, fried in a mix of tomato puree, paprika, chilli powder, cumin, salt and pepper.  Serve with tortillas or flatbreads, I hand made some with poppy seeds in.  Served with sweetcorn and (home grown!) salad.

Vegan potato cakes, these ones are handmade from left over mash, a little flour and spring onion.  Fry in a pan for a few minutes each side and spread with vegan margarine before eating.  Yum!  I wrote up a recipe for potato cakes several years ago, you can find it here.

Falafel wrap, I bought these falafel, but you can make your own too.  Served in a wrap with some toasted seeds, shredded spring onion tops and ketchup.

What have you been eating?

Easy, Cheap, Vegan Meals...Split Pea Burgers, Mushroom Fried Rice, Vegan Pizza...

Here are some more of my quick, easy vegan meal ideas...

I posted the recipe for my spicy split pea burgers here, ages ago.  This time I put some cooked quinoa in, and used a tin of whole tomatoes instead of tomato puree.  I change the recipe every time but they always come out yummy and healthy.  I made the flat bread, which is half white, half wholemeal flour, oats, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and turmeric.  I like making my own bread because it gives me the chance to get as many nice nutritional things in as possible.  That green salad on the side is made up of home grown lettuce - oh yeah!

I call this mushroom-y onion-y rice (creative huh!?).  Cook some rice, and while that's boiling chop up a red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and some mushrooms.  Fry these in a pan together and at the last minute throw in some greens and/or herbs (I used some baby spinach, my first harvest from my balcony, and some left over tops of spring onions this time, but anything you fancy and you have on hand is good).  Once the rice is cooked, drain it and plop it into the frying pan too, fry for another couple of minutes and you're good to go.

Vegan cheeseless pizza is soo good!  I use a basic pizza dough recipe (350g flour, 15g yeast, 250ml warm water, 1tsp sugar, 1tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil - put yeast and sugar in water and wait for it to bubble, pour with oil into flour and salt, mix, turn out and knead for 10 mins, leave to rise for 1 hour, punch back and knead for 1 min, then leave to rest for at least 15 mins.  Makes enough for 3 pizzas, you can freeze the dough too), add a mix of tomato ketchup and tomato puree for the base, then a mix of veggies on top.  It is soo good!

What vegan meals do you like cooking?

Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Easy, Cheap Vegan Meals...Pasta and Garlic Mushrooms, Vegan Sunday Roast, Sweet corn Fritters...

Here are some more of my easy, cheap vegan dinner ideas...

Pasta and garlic mushrooms - fry chopped mushrooms and garlic in a little oil, mix with cooked pasta.  This is one of my urgh-just-got-in-from-work-and-need-to-eat-carbs-and-sit-down-now meals.

My vegan version of a Sunday dinner - roast potato and red onion wedges (cook the potatoes whole in the microwave first, before cutting into wedges and roasting with the onions in a little oil and sea salt), whatever veg I have in the fridge and I have either stuffing balls or a vegan sausage (the stuffing balls are from a dry packet mix, not much nutritional value but they taste nice and I can get 4 servings out of a pack of Paxo).

Vegan sweetcorn fritter - let me promise you, a vegan sweetcorn fritter is very yummy.  I posted the recipe for these years ago, but I've slightly changed my method now - I leave out the egg replacer, and put in turmeric, nutritional yeast flakes and spring onions.  Sometimes I make a couple of little ones, and sometimes they get stuck together in the pan and form a giant mono-fritter.  Both are good.  Also good to take in your lunchbox, they warm up well in a microwave or a toaster (if you're careful!).

What yummy vegan meals do you like making?

Easy, Cheap, Vegan Meals...Spring Onion Tart, Mushroom Pilau Rice, Vegan Sausage and Veg Stir Fry...

I love cooking for myself now I'm living on my own...here are some of my recent ideas for easy, cheap vegan meals...

Spring Onion Tart - puff pastry (on offer 88p a pack, this is about 1/9th of a pack), covered in sliced sping onions, brushed with oil, in the oven for 20 mins.  Recipe (veganised, Hugh's has cheese) from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls 'River Cottage Veg Every Day'.

Mushroom Pilau Rice - mushrooms, onion, garlic, ginger, cardamom and garam massala  - yummy!  I also put in the green tops of the spring onions that I had to cut off for the tart - waste not want not!  Recipe from the side dishes section of 'Vegan Recipes' by Nicola Graime, I like it as a main with whatever other veg I happen to have in the fridge.  It makes for nice left overs the next day too.

Sausage Curry Stir Fry - onions, garlic, whatever veg you have hanging round in the fridge (this time it was half a carrot that had gone all bendy, some bean sprouts and some frozen peas) and a Linda McCartney sausage, fried in a little curry powder.  Add some rice noodles and away we go!

What have you been eating?  Any simple, vegan recipes you can recommend to me, now I'm fending for myself?

PS. 'scuse my photos, I cook in the evenings when it's dark...I don't know how food bloggers do it.

Vegan Pancake Recipe...

Hello! 

Happy Pancake Day!

Just wanted to re-share my vegan pancake recipe, and tips, in case you're in dire need of vegan pancakes today!

Hope you have a ponkonculous day!

Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Vegan Chocolate Fridge Cake Recipe...

This is my go to recipe when I have to quickly make a dish to take to a party or meeting.  This one is to cheer up an 8.30am staff meeting tomorrow.  It's super easy to make.

This recipe makes enough mix to fill one square dish sized 22cm by 22cm AND one round dish measuring 16cm across (I didn't have a dish big enough!) 

400g packet of vegan digestive biscuits

3 dessert spoons cocoa powder

4 dessert spoons vegan margarine

3 dessert spoons golden syrup

pinch of salt

200g vegan chocolate

Sprinkles and edible glitter (optional)

Put the digestives in a bowl and crush using the end of a rolling pin, add the cocoa powder and pinch of salt.

Put the margarine and syrup in a bowl in the microwave and blast for 30 seconds, then remove and stir, repeat until it's melted, then tip onto the biscuit mix.

Stir together and pour into a foil lined container.  Push it firmly down into the corners and make sure it's packed tightly.

Break the chocolate and put into a bowl, melt in the microwave for 30 seconds, remove and stir, repeat until it's melted.

Pour the melted chocolate onto the biscuit mix and spread out to cover it all.  Add sprinkles now if you want them!

Put in the fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight) then cut into squares.  Keep in the fridge.

P.S. 'Scuse my badly lit photos, I cook in the evenings, so it's hard to get a decent photo!

Linking up with Lakota at Ta-dah Tuesday and Frugally Sustainable.