Tea and Sympatico

We've been in our house for a year and are slowly doing it up. We had to have a really extensive rewire which left the walls and ceilings in most rooms in a bit of mess so there's still a lot to do. The first room we got round to painting was the kitchen and months later we've finally we've got round to hanging our collection of food related art. A colour that united all the pieces was orange so we've gone for this Morrocan Flame colour for a feature wall with the rest of it white. I love text art and I bought this 'What do Vegans Eat' print from Herbivore in Portland when I was on holiday there a few years ago. You can still buy it online here . For $12 for a hand screen printed print it's a bit of a bargain. Excuse the reflection in the next few pictures which were taken on my phone. This print was a little more expensive as it's a limited edition print from British artist Jo Peel . It's of the Henderson's Relish Factory in Shef...

Issue Six of Vegan Life could be subtitled the protein issue. I thought that this was a great idea to focus on protein especially for new vegans or those considering changing to a plant based diet. There's lots of great recipes featuring tofu, tempeh and seitan as well as beans and seeds. The magazine even features the Smokehouse Chickpeas recipe from Salad Samurai that you might have spotted in my last post. It also featured this Well Dressed Tofu Bowl from The Great Vegan Protein Book . I'd not been aware of this book but seeing as it's by two great vegan cookbook writers - Celine Steen and Tasmin Noyes, I'm really glad to have discovered it. I love bowls like this. They are pretty quick to prepare but you feel like you're having a fancy treat. The tofu is coated in a sauce made from peanut butter that is flavoured with rice vinegar, lemon, miso, garlic and sesame oil and is delicious. As well as the recipes I also enjoyed reading articles about some inspi...

Throughout Winter I love home made soup for lunch but as the weather has warmed up (slightly) I've started to be all about the salad. This is thanks in part to getting a copy of the wonderful Salad Samurai by Terry Hope Romero for Christmas. There's often a few different components to the recipes such as making dressings or marinades but I've been so impressed with the flavour combinations it's worth the preparation time. This first picture is the Smokehouse Chickpeas n Greens Salad. I've made this one several times now and it's become a big favourite with what has to be one of the nicest ways ever to eat chickpeas - roasted in tamari, liquid smoke, maple syrup and nooch. I used a packet of ready cooked lentils for this bowl. It's the Gingery Beets and Lentils with Tahini and Agave Nectar. The beets are roasted in olive oil and smoked salt and are so delicious. There's not one but two sauces to prepare - a ginger and orange vinegrette and not pi...

I've been enjoying coconut products a lot recently. I've been using Lucy Bee coconut oil for cooking, roasting and in cakes. It's especially good in frosting. I've also really fallen in love with Coconut Collaborative  coconut yoghurt as a weekly treat with some granola for one of my work breakfasts. I think this picture shows the ultimate coconut treat though! Here we've got frozen Coconut Cream Desert from Marks and Spencers which is drizzled with the new Coconut Choc Shot and then topped with Nudie Snacks Coconut Chips . Wow, such a nice treat and so exciting that all this is easily available. When I first became vegan you were lucky if you could find Swedish Glace vanilla icecream. It's great to see all these alternatives becoming available. I can also highly recommend the Coconut, Pineapple and Lime Ice lollies from Marks and Spencers too.

I recently got sent some bags of Nothing But fruit snacks to try. My initial thought was that I'd save them until my twin four year old niece and nephew came round as I thought they'd appeal to children but I'm afraid the kids didn't get a look in! The snacks are made from freeze dried fruit slices. The fruit is cut up, the water removed and then it's bagged up. Simple. This leads to a very low calorie (between 34-45 cals per bag) snack with only naturally occuring sugar. The bags are light weight so would work equally well in a lunch box or as a travel snack. In my office we have a snack table that is constantly full of sweets, chocolate and biscuits. Seeing as we have two vegans and a coeliac on the team, people are really considerate and often add things that appeal to all. Whilst I'm not immune to the temptations of the snack table I do try to limit my afternoon snacks to fruit rather than sugary treats as I find it's better at keeping my energy le...