Vegan MoFo 2014 - Sunday Baking: Bakewell tart

I'm having an allergy attack today, so I don't have the energy to be clever, which means this will be a short post.

I'm sure I've mentioned this, but I love Bakewell tart.  It's just so good!  I don't know why I don't make it more often, other than because I'd eat too much.  I'm actually surprised at my restraint in not having had any yet.

I made pretty much the same recipe last year (Sainsbury's shortcrust pastry, seedless raspberry jam, and the cake part of the Bakewell cupcake recipe in the Ms Cupcake book), only this time I remembered the sugar before I put the cake mix on top of the jam/crust.  Below is the finished product.

badly lit slice

It was tasty, as expected.  I'm taking a bit to the office tomorrow, which marks the first time I'm taking baking to this office.  I hope they like it, and if they don't, they can suck it.

As you can see I put some chocolate drizzle (cocoa powder, icing sugar, water) on top.  I made a bit too much, and Mike came in to the kitchen while I was trying to decide what to do with it.  He decided that he'd use it to make chocolate milk.

before stirring

after stirring

It looks like regular chocolate milk, doesn't it?  It was not.  I had a couple of sips, and it was good/gross.  It almost tasted like a milkshake ... that had sugar added to it.  It was so sweet.  Maybe that's why I didn't have any tart after I made it.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 27 - Still sneezing

I've been sneezing since about 3pm yesterday, and I slept really badly.  I kept waking up with my tongue feeling like sandpaper because I couldn't breathe through my nose.  At least Zebby let me sleep in a bit.  Anyway, all this is to say that today I'm just gonna review some products that I've had recently.

First up are Redwood's beef-style and turkey-style roasts, which I really like, but they're usually a bit more costly than I like to spend on what is essentially a big seitan sausage that I could make myself.  But when they're on sale (like during one of Holland & Barrett's sales or marked down at Real Foods), I kinda can't help myself.  They're not meant to be cooked in anything other than an oven, so I bought some months before I could actually cook them because they were on sale.

It turns out you can cook these in a slow cooker (there are ways of doing so that I found at the time, but I'm too lazy to google them now), which is what I did with these when I didn't have an oven.  In the oven or the slow cooker, they come out moist and tender and taste remarkably similar to what they're mocking (though the texture isn't the same, but that's probably a good thing, especially for the beef).  The only issue I have is that the turkey-style roast really stinks when it's cooking.  I made one a couple nights ago and I thought I was smelling the cat's room (which is at the other end of the flat).

Both varieties work well as an actual roast, i.e. with potatoes, carrots and onions, or with mash and veg on the side, or with vegetable rice (which is how I ate the turkey-style the other night).  However, my favourite way to eat either of them is to slice into strips and put in a wrap with boiled potatoes and carrots and a bit of gravy.  So good!

Next up is Prewett's chocolate creams - gluten free chocolate biscuits with a chocolate cream filling.

From Amazon - which doesn't actually sell them.

I bought these at Real Foods today when shopping for nice things to take to people in the States who are letting me stay with them (and trying to figure out what happened to my tea, which they seem to have discontinued).  The photo is a little misleading (they don't have nearly that much cream filling), but they were really good - a bit crumbly, but good flavour and nicely crisp without being hard.  I also like that they don't have a gluten-free feel to them - they just have a regular old biscuit texture (and taste).

Finally, Tesco has a range of juices called Juice Bar.  They look to be mostly vegan - they're juices, but I've found fish oil in juice before, so I'm not gonna issue a blanket all-clear on them.  Mike used to get them often from the Tesco near his office, but he thinks they may have stopped carrying them (or that they moved to another part of the store and he can't be bothered looking for them).  I had my first try of them tonight with the Virgin Sangria - grape, apple, and orange juices.  I really liked it - it obviously didn't taste like real sangria, but the flavours worked surprisingly well together (I was wary of the combo initially).  Mike had the Rootin' Fruitin', which was a combo of pineapple, mango and carrot.  I wasn't impressed with this one, and he didn't love it either.

They usually have them on offer - 3 for £3 or 5 for £4 (I think) for 250ml bottles.  They're not massively great value for drinking from home (I usually have oj and get it on offer for 2/£3 for 750ml of Copella, the best oj I've ever had), but they'd do in a pinch if you didn't want to buy an entire 750ml bottle of juice for drinking on the go.

Here's a bonus picture of my cat being super adorable:

FYI - That is not an invitation.  He will cut you.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 26 - British Food Friday - Sausage and Mash

I'll be honest - I'm a little burned out, but I've also been really tired this week, hence a lack of posts for the past couple of days.  And today's post is a bit of a cop-out (again) because I only came up with it around 5pm today.  Also, I'm having another allergy attack, so I'm doubly tired and can't stop sneezing.

That said, at least I can talk about something new.  As I said, it occurred to me that I didn't plan anything for BFF (I kept thinking I'd do a roast in the slow cooker, but I never remembered in the morning and was always too tired to prep in the evening) when I was standing around the office trying to decide what to do about the fact that it suddenly started hailing out of nowhere (the forecast for the entire day was sunny).*  I decided to go to Tesco to figure out what to buy for dinner while I waited for the bus, and I suddenly had a brainwave that I could do sausage and mash.

It just so happened that Tesco had a new variety of Linda McCartney sausage (red onion and rosemary) on offer for £1 for a packet of 6.  Combined with the fact that the regular LM sausages were both more calorific and more expensive, I decided that it might be good if I talked about a product I've never actually talked about before.

I wasn't really sure about them, but they turned out to be really good.  They had a nice flavour and texture that were completely different from the regular LM sausages.  And they were really tasty even though I burned them!  I could see myself buying these again.  I served them with some noochy Smash and microwave-steamed veg.  It was quick, easy, delicious, and filling, which is exactly what I needed.

I might try to get some extra entries in over the weekend if I can get over this allergy attack and find the energy to do anything.  And I'll definitely post next week, since it's nearly the end of MoFo (*single tear*).  I'm hoping to at least be able to do Sunday baking (especially since one of my co-workers asked me why the baking had stopped) and some more cookbook challenge stuff.  And there might be another restaurant review since Mike totally owes me dinner.  We'll see how it goes.

*That was some crappy sentence structure, but I can't be bothered fixing it.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 15 - Mike Makes Monday Meals - Yellow Split Pea Soup

I'm really liking this whole Mike cooking thing.  Even though I help, he still does the bulk of the work, and it makes getting a decent meal on a Monday super easy.  It's especially good on days like today when I've been sneezing since the previous day and feel like crap.

Today I showed Mike how to make the Yellow Split Pea Soup from Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food.  This was one of my favourite recipes during testing - I loved it so much that I copied it from the forum because I knew I'd want to make it again before I got my tester copy.  I don't even know how many times I've made it since testing.

The beauty of this recipe, and the reason why I showed Mike how to make it, is that it has very few ingredients and you just bung them all in the pan.  There's no sauteing of things and then adding a few more things and then a bit more.  You just chuck it all in, get it boiling, then simmer until it's done.  Even if it sticks to the pan, it comes off once it starts to cool.  It's also easy to modify by adding extra veg - I usually add in some kind of leafy green (spinach or chard) and cauliflower.

Mike thought it was really easy to make as well.  Of course it was incredibly tasty, as per usual.  I think I've mentioned this before, but this is probably my favourite split pea soup recipe of all time.  I think it's better than the one in Appetite for Reduction.  It's just really, really delicious.  I kinda want another bowl.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 8 - Mike Makes Monday Meals - Tofu Scramble

First of all, apologies for missing out yesterday.  I had a really bad allergy attack and couldn't be bothered to do anything once I got back from my 5-hour round trip to IKEA.  (But I did get some awesome stuff, like the potato rostis (finally!), and discovered that their gingerbread cookie dough seems to be vegan.)  I still didn't feel magnificent today, but it's Monday, which means it's Mike's night to cook, so it didn't matter.

I've mentioned (multiple times) my love of breakfast, and that brinner is my favourite meal.  I probably make tofu scramble once a week on average.  I almost always use the same recipe, mostly because I've tried so many and just stick to what works.  The Vegan Diner scramble from last week was delicious, but since I was teaching Mike how to make scramble, I just went with the simple recipe I usually make.  It takes the best parts of the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe with a few changes to make it simpler - garlic and onion granules instead of actual garlic and onions, chopped frozen spinach, and a simple spice mix.  It works for me - it fits in my diet and it makes great burritos.

Mike said this was straightforward and easy to make, though it did stir up controversy.  He didn't like squishing the tofu by hand, so he said he'll cube it next time.  I informed him that in this house, we crumble our tofu.  To paraphrase a wise person, cubed tofu isn't scramble, it's stir-fry.

I also made a pumpkin bundt cake, but it's still cooling, so I'll have to talk about that in another post.  I'm taking it in to work tomorrow - for the first time in about a year, we've replaced someone on our team, so we're having a team lunch.  As much as I'm excited that we get a free lunch, I just realised that a) I still have to bring in at least part of my own meal (because the place we go to doesn't have anything vegan) and 2) this means I don't get to read during my lunch hour.  Boo-urns.

Vegan MoFo - Sick again

I'm going for a cop-out survey post tonight.  I'm either having another allergy attack or have caught a cold for real this time, so dinner was a Freenut butter and jam sammich, hot chocolate and some allergy pills (and Mike just ate ice cream).

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Alpro Soya sweetened, in the blue carton

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? Sausage balls from the I-40 Kitchen, Mo's Texas-sized kolaches, and Isa's Apple Pie Pancakes

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? nooch and seasoned salt

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?  A couple of months ago, I was trying to be good and make lunch for Mike the night before so I didn't have to get up early to do it.  I put the pasta on, then promptly forgot about it.  About 45 minutes later, Mike said "what's that smell" and I remembered his pasta.  It ruined the pan and made the flat smell like smoke for days.  But I got a really good new pan out of it, and now we know our smoke detectors don't work.

5. Favorite pickled item? I don't really like anything pickled!

6. How do you organize your recipes? I used to have them organised by category on my computer, but then my hard drive crashed. Now I just have a few things on my hard drive and everything else in my bookmarks.  And I pretty much never look at them.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? Unfortunately, we can't compost and don't have a garbage disposal, so we have to trash our food waste.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)? Tofu, nooch, chard

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? Big Southern-style breakfasts at my grandparents' house – scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy (or jam or sorghum), bacon, cereal, juice – I've made a vegan version many times

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? One I made myself – PB Speculoos cookies and cream: a base made with Freenut butter and homemade Speculoos spread (using the PB variation of the ice cream recipe in Veganomicon) with crushed Oreos added in at the end

12. Spice/herb you would die without? cumin

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Since I moved to another country, I can really only count the books I've gotten since I came to Edinburgh, so that would have to be Vegan with a Vengeance.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? Seedless raspberry

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? Probably The Best Pumpkin Muffins Ever from VwaV, made with less sugar and added chocolate chips

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? Brinner! It's not just because it's eating breakfast any time you want – it's eating breakfast without having to get up early to make it and without having to do anything afterwards, like get on with your day.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? Nothing – it's an under-counter

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. Mr Rak's mini-latkes (closest thing to tots I can get here), frozen veg, Linda McCartney mini-sausages

20. What’s on your grocery list? Nothing right now – I just went shopping the other day.  Oh, I actually need some soy milk powder because I ran out when I made the last batch of hot chocolate mix, and we're almost out of hot chocolate mix.

21. Favorite grocery store? Real Foods for specialty/vegan stuff, Sainsbury's for everyday stuff, Lupe Pinto's for Latin ingredients or American convenience foods (like Hershey's syrup)

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet. Poutine – it seems like the best idea ever – fries, gravy, and cheese. I just haven't had the chance, though it shouldn't be that difficult.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3? Mo Betta Vegan, Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk, and Cupcake Kitteh

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? Go Max Go Twilight or The Chocolate Tree sea salt and caramel dark chocolate bar or Marmite truffle

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? It's really only extravagant when you convert the currency, but I spent £4 (about $6.40) on a small box of Bisquick which probably would've cost about $2.50 in the US. I really don't often splash out on food. I find it difficult to justify spending £2.60 on a 2-pack of Redwood quarterpound burgers (though they're really good).

Vegan MoFo - Cookbook Challenge: 500 Vegan Recipes (pt 2)

Seems like yesterday's ailment was just run-of-the-mill allergies.  Back on form today, but I still ate convenience food, but here's why:

We found out that the flat we want is being offered to us at 75% of the original list price.  That is freaking amazing.

Anyway, I came home from work and shopping to this news, then waited for Mike to get home to share with him.  By the time we finished talking about it with each other, talking to his dad about it, and looking at furniture on the IKEA website, it was nearly 8pm.  And I just so happened to buy a bunch of new frozen convenience foods, so I decided to cook that instead of fresh food.

Mmm...beige.

We have here another plate of nothing but convenience foods.  The small things are in Sainsbury's newly revamped frozen free-from line called Love Soya - mini sausage rolls (btw, the whole range is on sale, but check the ingredients - not everything is vegan).  The large one just behind those is a Linda McCartney sausage roll (I had 2 left and wanted to get rid of them).  The pile of beige to the right is noochy Smash, and the veg is frozen broccoli and cauliflower.

I'll be honest - I prefer the Linda McCartney sausage rolls.  But maybe if I'd cooked the Sainsbury's ones a little less, I'd like them more.  As always, noochy Smash is a winner, but the veg was kinda meh.  I think I'll stick with the steam bags (which I love).

But I still managed to do something for the Cookbook Challenge.  I made the Chocolate Breakfast Cake from 500 Vegan Recipes.

Oh dear lord, you must eat this with something on it.  To give you an idea of how not sweet this is, it has more cocoa than sugar.  Right out of the pan, it's dry and kinda icky (though I have to admit, the banana flavour isn't very strong at all).  However, spread with a bit of raspberry jam, it's actually pretty good.  Since I had to make a point of buying a banana, I don't think I'd make this again, but it was nice to try something different.


In other fabulous news, it looks like another American import shop is opening up in the 'burgh.  It's in the same shopping centre as my preferred Sainsbury's, which is slightly more convenient than Lupe Pinto's.  Unfortunately, it looks like it's mostly candy and junk food (most of which I'm sure I can't eat).  However, I saw 12-packs of Mug root beer and Wild Cherry Pepsi.  Hell. Yes.  Hopefully since it looks like they're more exclusively American, they'll be importing more of everything and therefore have it available for less than LP's (which would be awesome - £1.10 for a can of A&W is a bit ridiculous).

Vegan MoFo - In which I fail due to sickness

This will be a short post.  I had to come home early because I'm ill.  It's probably just allergies, or at least I hope it is.  So I didn't really do anything today.  I couldn't be bothered cooking, so I ate convenience foods that I've already talked about, and I drank a lot of hot chocolate that I already talked about*.  So, apologies to those who are actually checking my blog for new content.  Hopefully I'll be back on form tomorrow and able to post some actual food-related content.

*OK, so I can kinda talk about the hot chocolate mix again.  The recipe calls for 1/4 c mix to 1 c hot water.  I think that's way too much.  I use a giant mug that's easily 1 1/2+ cups, and I use 1/4 c in that.  So I would say it's maybe 2 heaped tablespoons per cup of hot water.  Also, I think the mix itself needs at least another tablespoon of cocoa powder.  So, there's your food-related content.  Oh, and we went through that mix so quickly that I already had to make another double batch, and now I'm out of soy milk powder.  *sadface*

Vegan MoFo - Restaurant Review: Bonsai

I'm late writing this because I had a horrible allergy attack this afternoon and had to take some pills (and then a 5-hour nap).

We went to Bonsai Bar Bistro (caution:  non-vegan stuff on the home page, and it plays music!) for lunch this afternoon.  We've been going to Bonsai for a few years now.  We're pretty sure it's the first place we ever had a meal out.  We were with the uni sci-fi society, which actually had some vegans in it, so it was pretty easy to learn what was OK for us to eat (though Mike wasn't yet vegan at the time).  We've been going somewhat regularly ever since.

I'm the type of person who is very set in her ways.  I like to establish patterns and stick to them.  Yeah, we'll check out a new place, and we'll try a few things if we decide we like it.  But once I've tried all the vegan stuff on the menu, I pretty much stick to ordering the same thing every time.  So, every time we go to Bonsai, I order the same things - yakisoba (fried noodles with veg), inari (sushi rice wrapped in fried bean curd sheets), and agedashi tofu (breaded tofu in a soupy sauce).  Mike tends to order miso soup, takuan maki (pickled radish), and either plain or seasoned rice.  And it's not necessarily for a lack of options - we just prefer those things.

So, as per usual, I got what I always get.  I tend to eat the agedashi tofu with the yakisoba.  Both were good, but there was something not quite right about the tofu.  I couldn't really put my finger on it - it was still good, but not as good as usual.  The yakisoba was still great, though.  I tend to eat my inari last because it has a bit of sweetness from the sushi rice.  I love the combination of sweet and salty, so I always dip my inari in a bit of soy sauce.  It's like a relatively healthy dessert (if fried bean curd sheets count as healthy).  I can't really comment on Mike's food because I didn't try it, but he liked it.

As I said, those aren't the only vegan options.  They actually have quite a few, but mine are limited because they use avocado in most of the sushi.  They also serve French fries, which seems incongruous for a Japanese restaurant, but they're actually really good.  They're sprinkled with coarse sea salt and served with a sauce that definitely has soy sauce in it, but other than that I can't place the flavours.  It's amazingly good, though.

Oh, I should also mention that they do a reward scheme - a stamp for every £10 spent, and after 5 stamps you get 20% off.  The prices are pretty good, so we usually manage to eat pretty well for around £20, and then we get 2 stamps, so we get 20% off about every 3 meals, which is a damn good deal.  It's obviously a place I'd recommend.  The only person we've taken there who hasn't liked it was my grandpa.  There's something there for everyone ... except my grandpa.

I apologise once again for the lack of photos.  I hope to go camera shopping tomorrow (would've done it today if not for the bloody allergies) and be back in the photo-taking game soon.

My first recipe (no actual recipe included)

I was lazy tonight and didn't cook. Well, I did, but it was just pasta with nothing special. And then we had mint Oreos for dessert. Awl-raight*! But since I didn't do anything particularly exciting food-wise today, I borrowed some ideas from Isa's inspiration thread and decided I'd talk about my first recipe.

OK, in fairness, I think this is just the first thing I very specifically recall making. And it's just the story of it.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but my grandmother pretty much taught me how to cook from about the time when I could physically be put to work helping. She was one of those 50s housewives who grew up poor on a farm in the South but got just far enough into the middle class to get into that weird semi-homemade / heavily branded thing. Looking through some of her recipe books, and recipes she wrote herself, almost every recipe had either an ingredient that would normally have been an entire recipe on its own (e.g. pudding mix) or demanded the use of a particular brand (e.g. Crisco shortening). So she had her well-seasoned cast iron pans that probably belonged to another woman in the family before her sitting next to her various molds for the shaping of Jell-O (OK, I'm not actually 100% sure she made Jell-O molds, but it's a reasonable assumption). She was also a Navy wife, and her travels took her to places and introduced her to cuisines that most of the people back home wouldn't have heard of until the 90s or later (like couscous).

The point I'm trying to make is that the woman knew how to cook at the best of times and the worst of times, with both the best and worst ingredients. And by getting me in the kitchen from a young age, she fostered a love of cooking in me.

I can't really remember when I started baking. I have vague recollections of making biscuits and gravy from a very young age. But I remember when I started to realise I was good at it. When I was in 4th grade (age 9), I was in 4H. We had a baking contest, and my entry was my favourite dessert made even more sickeningly sweet and thus perfect for a 9-year-old. I made chocolate chip blondies with an entire jar of marshmallow cream swirled into the batter. I wasn't the only person who thought these things were a party in one's mouth. I ended up tied for first place with the boy I had a crush on. He made peanut butter cookies (this was well before the days of banning peanut butter in schools so allergic kids wouldn't be exposed to it), so I was unable to judge for myself who had the best baked good.

When I was 9, it was the best thing I'd ever put in my mouth. At 31, it would probably make me vomit as soon as I woke up from the sugar coma (or vomit then sugar coma). But the great thing about progress is that I could actually make a vegan version of this, since we (people of the world, not necessarily those of us in the UK) now have access to delicious Ricemellow Creme. So hey, if someone out there wants to make the Call Me Blondies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and swirl or fold in a tub of Ricemellow Creme, you should totally let me know how it turns out. Actually, if I hadn't already eaten most of my tub, I might do it myself.

*That should be pronounced as heard in this video.

MoFo plans

ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!


Vegan MoFo IV, the Vegan Month of Food, will be upon us in 2 days! For a run-down on what's happening and who's participating, go to Vegan MoFo International Headquarters. There are [EDIT] over 500 MoFo'ers right now. If you're interested in participating, you have until 2 November to sign up.

I've got some very loose plans for this year's MoFo. Some people have every day planned out, others are just gonna wing it, but I've basically got a weekly idea and a couple of things that I'll stick in for each themed week.

My first week is basically "cleaning out the pantry". I'm experimenting with getting a huge order of bulky/heavy groceries in every month and only buying fresh fruit and veg from the store, as well as things I can only get in person (e.g., nooch or cheeze). To make this feasible, I need to sort out my storage. I also need to actually use the stuff I buy in. So for week one, I'll focus on cooking things that I already have on hand and only shopping for fresh ingredients.

Earlier this year, I tested for Alicia Simpson's new book, Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations, and I just received my tester copy today. I loved so much of what I tested (as did those I fed everything to), but I didn't even see most of the recipes in the book. So in week two, I'll be making recipes from Q&EVC that I didn't get to test. I've only just had a quick look, but I've already seen plenty I want to make.

Week three isn't set in stone, but I might do something like "allergen week". If you know me at all or have even skimmed my blog, you'll know that I have loads of food allergies and sensitivities - several types of nut, melon, avocado, and the newest, quinoa. I know loads of people who are gluten- and soy-free. I'm thinking, for this week, I'll focus on foods that are allergen-free.

In week four, my best good friend Eva is visiting from Newcastle. We're taking the opportunity to sit around and do nothing for three days. However, we will be making tamales, and that happens to also be Thanksgiving week. As a couple of Americans in the UK, we're often forced to come home from work and have sad little T'giving celebrations with our husbands (or alone) while we listen to our friends and family back home talk about getting the day off and gorging on massive feasts with everyone else they know. This will be the first time we've celebrated T'giving together. So the theme for that week will be "PARTY TIEMS".

Throughout the month, I'll also have a couple of other things going on not necessarily connected to the theme of the week. One of my projects will be "Mix v. Scratch". I'll make both a boxed mix and a homemade-from-scratch version of four things - swirl cake with fudgy frosting, lemon drizzle cake, gf chocolate chip cookies, and gf muffins. I'll ask co-workers, friends, and Mike to compare the two on taste and texture, and I'll weigh in on the time it takes to make each.

In addition to that, I'll have a couple of events on - a retirement party, a roller derby bout (volunteering, not skating), and possibly a birthday party, I dunno. I'll do my best to document how I get on with those.

I'll probably post about MoFo prep tomorrow. It's gonna be a busy-ass month. And unlike last year, I'm also working! We'll see if I can even keep up with blogging, let alone themes and projects.

Oatmeal revisited and snacking.

Further to yesterday's post about getting back on the oatmeal train, here's a (pretty crappy) picture of tonight's dinner, Mexican Hot Chocolate Oatmeal:


This was pretty easy - 1/2 c rolled oats, 1/2 c water, and 1/2 c chocolate soy milk microwaved for about 5 minutes (stirred a few times throughout to keep it from overflowing), then a drop of almond extract, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and about a tablespoon of chocolate chips. I suppose I should've added a pinch of cayenne to give it heat, but I didn't feel like having spicy-hot oatmeal.

Something I realise every now and again is that we don't really have a lot of snacking options in the house. Usually, if we're hungry and in need of a small meal, I end up making pasta or something like that. We very rarely have something already prepared, something we can just pick up and eat (or at least, throw in the microwave for a few seconds and it's ready to eat).

I'm not really sure how to rectify this, apart from always having muffins on hand. You see, if I haven't mentioned it already, I have a lot of food allergies (peanuts, pine nuts, walnuts, cashews, dates, and a lot of raw stuff, including avocado), which makes buying pre-packaged snacks pretty difficult. Actually, the pre-packaged is easy enough, if I wanna buy crisps or Bourbon creams. But if I want something that doesn't have the calories and sodium of a full meal while still leaving me hungry, I need better options. So, if anyone has any suggestions (recipes are even more helpful), please let me know.