Tea and Sympatico

Just recently I've been all about quinoa. Matt and I have been doing the  5:2  diet and quinoa is fab for low calorie meals on the two days a week that we eat limited calories. I'm thinking of doing a blog post of our experience of 5:2 if anyone is interested. Above is the Black Bean and Quinoa salad from Appetite For Reduction . Below from the same book is Quinoa Puttanesca. These were both fast day lunches, full of flavour and nice and filling. I spotted a range of instant pots from Artisan Grains in a health food shop the other day and can report that this Moroccan Spiced Couscous, Quinoa, Freekah and Lentils was tasty and filling enough for a fast day meal. They'd be great for camping too. Back in the day when I was a reviewer for Can I eat It? App I discovered some amazing companies such as Artisan Grains who make these pots and also Mothergrain Quinola whose quinoa range I reviewed here . Recently Mothergrain contacted me to ask if I'd like so...

Firstly I have to admit that I do not have much familiarity with Mexican food or at least Mexican vegan food. I did travel a bit in Mexico 12 years ago but I wasn't veggie then. Also, in the meantime I have developed a condition called Hyper Sensitive Cough Reflex Syndrome and chillis amongst many other things can be one of my triggers. Incidentally it seems like the condition likely stems from a horrendous virus that I caught during that trip that caused neurological damage and this condition! When I have a coughing attack it can be quite scary and I can be sick and nearly pass out. People with this condition have even been known to break ribs from a coughing attack! I've developed quite a bit of anxiety around food that can trigger attacks but I'm ok with mild chilli powder and things like chipotle though so all is not lost! Also, where I live in England Mexican food is not really a thing. Just recently though this has started to change and there's a couple of b...

As I've been living without most of my cookbooks bar three by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, her recipes have been featuring widely on the dinner table recently. This one is an old favourite that we had for the last Bank Holiday weekend. It's not the most photogenic of meals but it tastes amazing. The green stuff is Cavolo Nero and the orange stuff is mashed sweet potato with apple from Appetite For Reduction . This is topped by tofu baked in BBQ Pomegranate sauce from Vegan With A Vengeance . This sauce has been nicknamed Elvis BBQ sauce after the generous amounts of Peanut Butter it contains! This was an previously untried recipe from Appetite For Reduction that Matt whipped up on a day off. The 'meatballs' are made from tempeh and beans and baked in the oven. They were served in a classic home made tomato sauce with broccoli and lots of nooch. They were lovely, really nutty tasting.

Here's a mini round up of some recent nice eats. Since I've moved I now have a thirty minute train journey into Manchester. I'm enjoying the time to read but I've found getting up earlier means I'm not that hungry first thing. I've been having my breakfast once I get to work at 8. I spotted the other day that M and S had some new granolas. Out of the three in the range, one was sweetened with honey, one with sugar and the one that I chose with agave. It's really different from other granolas I've had. There's loads of crunchy seeds in it and I've been loving the flavour as well as the texture. It tastes delicious with M and S soya drink which is much sweeter and creamier than other brands and which is fab in coffee and hot chocolate too. I've been aware of Isa's recipe for Chickpea Picatta for a long time and remember bloggers raving about it when Appetite For Reduction  first came out. Somehow it had just never appealed to me tho...