Vegan no,4 What we eat every day !! Everyone welcome

[ppeatfruit]

Hello newbies, regulars etc.

@PartTimeDomesticGoddess happy birthday and oooh Mildred’s lucky you - and yes you’re absolutely right the tequila session sounds right up my street!

We ended up doing a spontaneous camping trip this weekend after I read about these yellow post camp sites in the mountains near us (the ones either side of Palm Springs for anyone who knows SoCal - Big Bear and Mount Jacinto) which are free, first come first served dispersed wilderness camp sites, you usually need a 4x4 to access them and the only facility is moderately flat ground for a tent pitch and a picnic table (sometimes a fire ring but obsolete at the moment and there’s still a state wide ban on campfires) so I packed up the jeep Friday night and we left 6am Saturday morning to drive 3 hours to find one. 28hours of family adventure time, hiking part of the PCT, camp food, bouldering, amazing views and no reception. It was heavenly to get out of dodge for a bit!

Saturday:
B: banana muffin
L: ramen with tofu and green beans
S: peanuts and an apple
D: a kale, cauliflower and black bean chilli I grabbed out of the freezer we were able to warm up on the camping stove, with cous cous and a bottle of red wine

Sunday:
B: granola bar and an apple while bouldering
L: stopped at a vegan Chinese on the drive home and shared schezuan aubergine, tongue numbing hot and spices tofu, steamed buns with faux meat and lettuce cups
D: not there yet but still stuffed from lunch. Anticipating an early night so there’s pizza in the freezer for the others and I might just heat up some soup or make a grilled cheese sandwich

Thank you for the birthday wishes @SapatSea and @KobaniDaughters - i probably should have been more clear that DH gave it to me for my birthday in June, we just did it this weekend. Maybe not feeling my best yesterday (unsurprisingly lol)
@KobaniDaughters that sounds like an amaaaazing weekend
Will be back later with what I ate yesterday...

PartTime Happy Birthday for yesteday\Saturday Lucky you Mildreds' is FAB !! I like the b\days that go on and on!! DD's tend to ! Mind you that amount of alk would floor me. I'd need a week to recover!

Ref. the squash, you can of course chop it up, but i like the non chopping part of it. You can be elegant and remove the skin before serving , but we just serve it with the skin and take it off on the plate if it's too tough. to eat

Kobani that sounds like such a fun 'foreign' weekend what's bouldering? Do you need special footwear for it?

B. Fresh smoothie with o\n soaked dates and pumpkin seeds, pears ,pear juice water, lemon, and almond butter.
Early lunch\sn ryvitas with normal spread and shallot
Late lunch (after going to a lovely pumpkin Fete) Butternut squash, onions, carrot and cauliflour.
Sn. Frothy almond milk chicory drink

Yesterday's food

L: Leon love burger (Carnaby Street)
D: veg gyoza and wok greens
S: collective raspberry yogurt and seeds, 2 x Portuguese custard tarts (bought home from Cafe de Nata in Soho - amazing. DD15 said mine tasted a bit more of vanilla than her non-vegan one but otherwise she couldn’t tell the difference)

@ppeatfruit Mildreds was fab!

B: Monday smoothie
L: soulful one pot (African peanut and chickpea), orange, kiwi
S: Portuguese tart
D: beetroot, tomato, cucumber, sweet potato fries and a spicy bean burger (in a bun with a slice of cheese, chipotle Mayo, gherkin slices, avocado and lettuce) 😋

Well that was exciting - I attempted a savoury crumble and it called for grilling the top of it except American ovens are stupid and you have to “broil” with the door shut, I was half a bottle of wine down gossiping with a friend and DH said he could smell burning - opened the oven door and our dinner was actually on fire!!! Salvaged it though thankfully

S: brownie, kimchi, persimmons, crisps, caramelised onion dip, avocado with lemon and salt
D: chickpea, sweet potatoe and parsnip stew (not crumble!) with broccoli, followed by soy ice cream and hot raspberries

Kobani Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book is hilarious about trying to 'cook' in American, she thinks it's more difficult than in French! I've always wondered what 'broil' means!

B.Pear smoothie
L. Whole rice with tamari\squash shallot
S, Chocolate brownie with HM rice flour\almond milk/nutmeg custard

B: oatcakes
L: Leftover Dal, veg and chappati
D: Hazelnut, garlic and rosemary crusted tofu, caramelized apple, roast celeriac cubes, sweetheart cabbage, broccoli, peas and a balsamic onion gravy.

Hmmmmm leftover Dahl is the best Dahl

L: white bean and kimchi salad
D: leftover chickpea, sweet potato and parsnip stew and broccoli, raspberries

@KobaniDaughters the broiling incident sounds scary!! Good job your DH smelt it before it got out of hand...
@ppeatfruit agree about translating cooking terms from american to uk. It took me ages to work out that frying for us is grilling for them
@SapatSea that tofu dinner sounds lovely (and I agree with @KobaniDaughters about leftover Dahl being the best)

Yesterday was

B: overnight oats with soya milk/yogurt and kiwi/fig/raspberries
L: beetroot, Bol cauliflower tikka dinner box
D: Meera sodha’s squash and bean bake with crusty bread and butter (this time I made the bake with cannellini beans and rosemary as that’s what I had in and it was just as delicious)

B: Toasted vegan scone. Apple, mixed nuts

Had a very windy walk in the countryside so had a late lunch/early dinner which I happily had the foresight to cook in advance.

L/D: Old fashioned soup: Barley, split peas, red lentils with veg stock, leeks, carrots, lots of curly parsley and well dried out boiled potatoes in their skins to soak into the soup.

PartTime the stew looks good. Cannelini beans and rosemary are a great combination - I think I'd prefer that to the original barlotti beans and sage.

Oooh I don't think our leftover dahl would suit anybody ,I was doing a larder clear out and my dahl lentils had extra protein in the shape of moth maggots!!!!!!! I did wonder when I noticed little moths flying about the kichen!

B. Date,apple,lemon,ginger, 1\2 apple juice\water and ground linseeds
L.. walnuts then Yesterday's salad with almond butter dressing
Sn. Oat choc dessert
S. Whole rice and steamed carrots\swede\leeks bowl with tamari olive oil.

Oh no @ppeatfruit!!!!

@SapatSea @PartTimeDomesticGoddess I concur and actually I have cannellini beans and rosemary in, might add them to a chunky soup this weekend

Had a very yummy day yesterday

B: homemade blueberry shortbread biscuits made by a friend
L: wrap with avocado, tahini, broccoli, red onion, chilli flakes, lemon and GAME CHANGING feta cheese - you guys this stuff is amazing and just like the real thing
D: chickpea frittata with lemon dressed rocket and carrot, green goddess dressing and cashew yoghurt, all made from scratch from a very fancy cookbook and took a million years to make but damn it was good

@ppeatfruit we don't want that kind of protein on this thread 😂
@KobaniDaughters sounds like a delicious day

Wednesday
B: overnight oats with soya milk/yogurt, kiwi/fig/raspberries and seeds
L: Tomato, corn and chard stew sprinkled with a bit of feta and the obligatory side of beetroot
Dinner at the craft beer/mexican place again. Cauliwings, lime salt fries and guacamole and tortilla chips 😋

Yesterday
B: toast and marmalade
S: kiwi, fig, trek peanut protein bar
L: sweet potato, spinach and chickpea peanut stew with broccoli. And a vegetable samosa and onion bhaji that were brought into work
D: this orzo and romanceso dish from my riverford newsletter this week, which was delicious

https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/romanesco-orzo-pasta?utmcampaign=Customer+Active+Veg+Help+For+WK42+18+10+2021&utmmmedium=email&utmsource=Master+Riverford+Customers

Kobani It sounds like you're competing with Part for the title of FullTime Domestic Goddess!

Talking about peeling veg. ( I made my first root stew of the year) I hate peeling,I read a good tip, you scrub the veg clean and then steam them whole.
This is brilliant because when they're cooked they peel really easily and the vitamins ,which are just under the skin, are still there. I also cooked leeks, I have a large steamer and after washing I put the tough 'green ends of the leeks in the base with the water, it makes a lovely stock !

B. Leftover smoothie
L. Walnuts, spelt bread with usual spreads and salad.
S. Root stew\soup tamari

Good call on the green bits of leeks for stock, will do that next Time. I ate out BOTH meals yesterday 😋
L: Vietnamese noodle salad with fresh spring rolls
D: shared with a friend: kimchi dumplings, Thai Brussel sprouts, trumpet mushrooms and cannellini bean dish, a plant bowl of lentils, squash, carrots, kale and a pesto sauce. Also shared an AMAZING banana pudding and a cinammon cake with roast pears. And 2 glasses of wine.

Today is obviously a fast day!

@ppeatfruit I rarely make stock but that sounds like a great idea with the green bits of the leek
@KobaniDaughters that sounds like a food day worth fasting for!

B: overnight oats with kiwi, raspberries and seeds
L: small marmite sandwich and butternut/cauliflower/sage soup
D: beefless stew and dumplings with steamed cabbage and broccoli. Salted caramel magnum

@KobaniDaughters was it you that said you'd like the Yorkshire pudding recipe a while ago? Finally got around to it 😊

Vegan Yorkshire puddings (recipe by Richard Makin)

7.5 tsp vegetable oil
40g self raising flour
40g gram flour
40g cornflour
0.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp xantham gum
0.25 tsp black salt (kala namak)
Pinch of fine sea salt
205g aquafaba (see note)
125 ml water

Heat oven to 240C fan. Put 1.5 tsp of oil into each of 5 of the holes in a deep six hole muffin tin. Swirl the tin to make sure sides of the tin are oiled. Put onto a sturdy metal baking sheet and into the top of the oven for 15 minutes.
Put all of the remaining ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until completely smooth
When the oil has been in the oven for 15 mins, work quickly to pour the batter in a thin and consistent stream, evenly filling the 5 holes (pour the batter in a circular motion onto the sides of the holes - this traps a little well of oil in the centre which helps to form the holes in the middle). Swiftly return the tin to the oven.
Bake for 20 mins then remove from the oven. Carefully remove each pudding and put on a separate baking tray. Return to the oven for 5 mins to crisp up. Remove and sit for 5 mins (which will let the steam evaporate, resulting in a crispier pudding)

Note - recipe says 205g, soaking water for 1-1.5 runs of chickpeas. I had one tin and it weighed less than 100g from memory. I added water to make it what I thought was the right consistency (as well as the water specified in the recipe)

Joining for myself and 2 DC

Will be picking up tips as we go 😊

Welcome Belladi

Thanks for the recipe Part Have you made them successfully?

B. walnuts and remaining smoothie, white tea.
L. Bowl of root stew and leeks. pieces of hazelnut dark choc.
Sn slices of fresh spelt baguette with yeast extract\pnut butter and olive oil.
S, bowl of cauliflower and leeks with tamari

@ppeatfruit I have. Not a direct replacement for regular ones IMO, but I like them and they're the closest I've found 😊
Waves hello to @BelladiMamma 👋

I've seen yeast extract used by a lot of my vegan friends. How do you lovely peeps usually use it?

Thanks @PartTimeDomesticGoddess it was me! Very excited to try

Welcome @BelladiMamma do you mean nutritional yeast? It has a kind of cheesey flavour, I use it in things like pesto to replace the cheese and sprinkled on top roast veggies and I toss tofu in salt, pepper, flour and nutritional yeast before dry frying. Quite a lot of recipes use it but it doesn’t really replace cheese

Balladi I use the Meridian Yeast Extract for normal marmitey things ( I don't eat Marmite) I like it for the cheese flavour in the white sauce of cauliflour and or macaroni cheese. I think it does replace cheese if you use enough and are not used to the strong cheddar flavour. The same with the nutritional yeast flakes, like Kobani says, it's great for stock too.

B. HM quince,pears, lemon, soaked sultanas, ground linseeds and half pear juice \water
L. Pumpernickel with grated carrot,shaollot salad and spreads. 2 pieces of dark hazelnut choc.
S.Beetroot soup and bowl of leeks .

@KobaniDaughters @ppeatfruit thanks 😊
I just saw it at a friend's recently and wasn't sure if it's uses & they're much further on their vegan journey than me