Still hungry

Oh hai!  I haven't blogged since the end of last year, so, just over 6 1/2 months.  Part of it is, as I'm sure you'll realise, laziness.  However, in fairness, I did move house, and the oven in our new(ish) place doesn't work.  So most of the time, I barely feel like cooking, let alone blogging about it.

However, I felt the need to blog about this.

This

...is a single serving of Mornflake Chocolatey Squares cereal*.

Look at that!  You can almost count the number of biscuits in the photo!

I wanted to title this blog post "People at Mornflake are on crack", because clearly there are drugs involved when you think that amount of cereal is gonna be filling for a grown-ass adult (the box is brown and doesn't have any cartoon animals on it, so I'm calling it an adult cereal).  Also, if you were to taste this cereal, you'd know that it's next to impossible to eat that little.  It's so good.  So. Good. The only cereal better than this is Speculoos cereal.

One 30g serving (dry) has about 143 calories.  And I've been eating probably thrice this amount plus milk with every bowl (and I like a lot of milk in my cereal).  I guess at least I'm getting a lot of extra vitamins and iron.  But this solves the mystery of why I've been gaining weight even though I'm working out 5 times a week.

I think I'm gonna go back to oatmeal** in the morning.

*Though not verified with the company, who would probably give me the "traces of milk" line, several thorough readings of the ingredient list assure me this is vegan.

**I recently bought 2 slow cooker cookbooks, and one of them, The Vegan Slow Cooker, has a few oatmeal recipes.  The author, Kathy Hester, has loads on her blog as well.

I'm cheating.

I totally forgot to do a blog post, so I'm changing the date and time in post options to make it look like I posted last night. Heh. This'll be a short one, and I'll do a decent post later. I'll also upload pictures to this one, since I don't feel like loading the one picture I took last night and then loading pics I might take tonight.

I made the mocha oatmeal yesterday. It was just alright. I don't really know what I would change about it - maybe I just don't like mocha oatmeal. I think I'll stick with other flavours. I still need to branch out a bit. I was gonna try pumpkin pie, but now that I've opened the pumpkin, I don't know if I want to make anything other than muffins. I made a batch last night, and they're already all gone. And there are just two of us to eat them! I'll be honest, I ate the vast majority. Mike had some last night and took a couple for his lunch today, but I ate the rest. That's how good they are!

Dinner was some delicious Potato and Asparagus Soup from VwaV.


I love this soup. In fact, I love almost every soup in that book (I say 'almost' because I've not tried all of them, but I love the ones I've tried).

About a month ago, we were in Aberdeen, and we got the most delicious hummus from Tesco (of all places) - sun-dried tomato and basil. It was a limited edition, and they're no longer offering it. So, I currently have chickpeas cooking and will try to make my own wonderful, slightly cheesy-tasting hummus later.

Also, all the stores are stocked with pumpkin, so I might buy one and see if it's cheaper to make my own pumpkin puree than buy the stuff in the jar. I could trek out to Lupe Pinto's in Tollcross to see if they have any of the imported Libby stuff, which will be a lot cheaper than the organic stuff in the jar. But if this year is anything like last year, they'll probably already be out.

Cookbook challenge, week 9, day 2 - La Dolce Vegan

I had oatmeal twice today. Breakfast was a quick and simple golden syrup oatmeal since I had to be at the Scottish Studies library at 11, and lunch was savoury oatmeal, similar to last night but with the addition of a few drops of liquid smoke. Since I don't have anywhere in particular to be tomorrow (just grocery shopping), I think I'm gonna try mocha.

Today was supposed to be Movie Monday, but only one of my friends could make it, so we ended up playing Settlers of Catan. We still had breakfast, which was two recipes for this week's cookbook challenge. The original challenge was for How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. But we realised that not everyone had HIAV, but almost every challenge participant had at least one Sarah Kramer book, so we've decided that this week's challenge is just Sarah Kramer recipes (any recipe from HIAV, Garden of Vegan, or La Dolce Vegan). I have LDV, so that's what I'm using.

I feel like I'm now compelled to try every variety of tofu scramble I find, just to see if I like anything other than the spice combo in VwaV. So tonight's dinner was Sleepy Sunday Morning Scramble with Vegan "Sausage" Hash

(Sorry, it's not a very appealing picture. We were in the sitting room (bad lighting) and had already started eating when I remembered to take it.)

I used VB Italian feast sausages for the hash, and I only had a red onion, so that went into both recipes. Everyone liked the food. I still prefer Isa's scramble seasonings, but I liked the addition of Dijon mustard in this one. If I'd been at all prepared, the whole meal could've been ready in about 15 minutes, I imagine. My only complaint is that the hash recipe was very non-specific. It just says 'cook until done', without any real indication of what 'done' looks like. This doesn't seem to be the norm, though.

We've tentatively rescheduled movie night for Sunday. Mike won't be home, so we're gonna watch a movie he wouldn't want to see - Gigi! It's one of the classic MGM musicals from the 50s. So, we're gonna have French food and watch a musical about a French courtesan (essentially)! I'm not sure what to make, apart from Pain au Chocolat from VB, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Bonsai!

Mike and I went to Bonsai for lunch today. It's probably our favourite Edinburgh restaurant, so we go there as often as we can afford. They have a large enough selection of vegan items that we can get a few different things every time we go in, but since I'm the type of person who finds a favourite and sticks with it, I tend to always get the same thing.

Today I had the yakisoba, agedashi tofu, and inari nigiri sushi. I'm starting to really like getting the yakisoba, especially since they stopped doing the lunch specials and no longer serve the miso ramen bowl. The agedashi tofu is really tasty - fried tofu in a ginger and soy sauce - but I rarely get it because it's a pain to eat with chopsticks (the sauce makes the coating on the tofu mushy, and the tofu isn't really firm enough to hold up on its own). And I always, always, always get inari. I kinda treat it like dessert, not just because it's a little sweet, but also because I know I'm gonna love it, so I like to end my meal on a high note. Mike got the miso soup (as he does almost every time), teriyaki tofu, rice, and wasabi peas. I'm pretty sure he liked everything because he finished all of it (then ate the rest of my yakisoba), which is unusual. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures because I forgot my camera.

Mike had Gamers tonight, so I had savoury oatmeal for dinner. It was actually really good. I added 1/2 of a chopped up Vegan Brunch Italian feast sausage, about a tablespoon of nooch, about 1/8 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, and salt, and a few grinds of the pepper mill. I only did half a bowl because I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, but I really liked it. But since I'd only done 1/2, I decided to make some chai latte oatmeal for dessert - cooked the oatmeal in about a cup of brewed rooibos chai and maybe 1/4-1/2 c soymilk, then added cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and clove. It's quite nice.

My movie for Movie Monday is gonna be the John Hughes classic, The Breakfast Club, with which I will be serving brunch (and possibly sushi, since Claire has sushi for lunch). We'll see. I have a really busy day tomorrow, so I might only be able to do the breakfasty things. I still haven't even decided on what to make. I should get crackalackin' on that.

Farmers' Market haul and new chocolate

Today's oatmeal was wonderfully simple - golden syrup and a dash of cinnamon. I usually like my oatmeal quite sweet and dessert-like, but I've been thinking about branching out. Interestingly enough, today I saw this thread on the PPK. I might try some savoury oatmeal for lunch sometime next week.

I finally managed to make it to the Farmers' Market with more than 20 minutes to spare before they packed up. Unfortunately, I didn't really get much - spinach, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. I normally wouldn't buy mushrooms, since Mike won't eat them, but I'm thinking about cooking a couple to throw in my calzone tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went to Real Foods and found this -

an Organica Swiss Chocolate Couverture bar - in the discount bin, at what I thought was half price, because it was broken. Mike really liked it, so he asked me to get another bar. Unfortunately, it turned out to have been much less than half price, because an undamaged bar was £2.39. That, to me, is a lot to pay for chocolate. Regardless, I bought that and a new (to me) flavour of Divine Chocolate -


Oh yes, chocolate makers are finally jumping on the chocolate and raspberry train. I saw a chocolate raspberry bar in Tesco a few months ago, but it wasn't vegan. But this is! The raspberry lends a slight tartness to a lovely, smooth dark chocolate, with a little bit of crunch due to the raspberry being freeze-dried. It's quite nice - something you eat one wee square at a time, very slowly, rather than scoffing it.

Next week's cookbook challenge is How It All Vegan, which I don't have. I went to look at a copy at Waterstone's today. I flipped through the whole thing, and there were a few recipes I would like to try, but I didn't buy it because it's in UK measures. I just can't get my head around weighing my ingredients. I might have to see if I can find a copy with US measures. I actually borrowed this book from a friend many years ago, but this was pregan and when I still didn't eat many vegetables, so I didn't get out of it what I could have. Now, though, it's a very basic book, very much meant for newbies, so I'm torn on whether or not I should buy it. I'll see what everyone else says about the recipes, and maybe try to get someone to send me a recipe in US measures to try out something new.

On a non-food related note, Mike was looking for things to watch on BBC.co.uk, and they had a show called 'Synth Britannia', looking at the history of synth-pop and early industrial music. It was as if someone at the BBC had said, 'What can we do to get Rachel to watch?' So we're trying to watch that now. It's making me happy.

Lazy day for cooking

Today's been a pretty lazy day for cooking. In fact, I don't think I turned on the stove at all. Everything we ate warm today was either from the toaster or the microwave - oatmeal (me) and crumpets (Mike) for breakfast, a tortilla with some of last night's pot roast for lunch, crumpets for a snack, and leftover soup for dinner.

I made some delicious apple pie oatmeal for breakfast - 1/2 c oats, 1 c water, microwave for about 4 1/2 minutes, then add a few shakes of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, brown sugar to taste, and 1 grated apple (peeled and cored). Nom. I might try to change that up a bit, maybe cook the apple in the brown sugar with a bit of margarine to make it kinda like a caramel apple.

Oh, I also made bread today, just a standard wholemeal loaf in the breadmaker. I like freshly baked bread, but I hate dealing with cutting it because none of my knives are really up to the task. Maybe that should be on my Xmas list this year.

I've decided to do a Movie Monday next week, but I'm not set on the movie, and therefore not sure about the menu. I'm leaning towards brunch and The Breakfast Club, but I'm not married to the idea. My only other idea is Gigi and French food, but I'm not sure I even have any idea what I could make that's French-ish, apart from the Pain au Chocolat in VB. I'll keep thinking about it.

Cookbook challenge, week 8, day 3 - Vegan Vittles

Today seemed like a particularly unproductive day. I had breakfast, then suddenly it was lunch time, and I hadn't done anything. Then, just as suddenly, it was 4.30 and I hadn't even showered. I kinda feel like crap about that. But I still managed to squeeze out two recipes from Vegan Vittles.

Before I get to those, today's oatmeal was Maple-Brown Sugar-Cinnamon. It was lovely. I hope to make apple pie oatmeal tomorrow. And when I bust in to my exorbitantly overpriced jar of pumpkin puree, I'll try to make pumpkin pie oatmeal. NOM! Now, on to the challenge.

Dinner was Creamy Kale and Potato Soup


This was really nice. I didn't really measure the veg, but it seemed to work out. I liked the simplicity of it - you basically just bung most of the ingredients in a pot and let it cook for 30 minutes, making it easy even for soup. It had a good flavour, kinda like liquidised colcannon (a dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale). I'll keep this in reserve next time I buy kale and forget about it and need to use it up in a hurry.

I also made Grandmother's Spice Cake (frosted with maple frosting from VCTOTW)

(Sorry about the shadow - I'm trying to work on my food porn skills.)

This was alright. I have to say, though, I prefer the YRR spice cake. This one uses half a cup of maple syrup, making it pretty damn pricey. Also, it's a bit dry for my tastes. I like the hint of chocolate in it. I think I'll stick to Joanna's recipe and maybe throw some chocolate in the mix. The other thing I should mention - I hate to say it, but I don't think I'm all that keen on the maple frosting. It may have been my fault, but I'm sure I followed the directions, and it just tasted like maple-y butter. Admittedly, I didn't have any maple extract, so I doubled the vanilla, but that shouldn't have made that much difference. If anyone else has made this and had better results, let me know and help me figure out what I did wrong.

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.

Porridge!

Lots of people seem to be blogging about oatmeal. OK, I read two posts where it was mentioned. I used to eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning when it was cool, and then it got warm and I got busy (it's kinda time-consuming to make), so I started eating something different for breakfast. But this post reminded me of the deliciousness and versatility of oatmeal.

I made my standard oatmeal for breakfast this morning - oats (rolled, I think) microwaved in a mixture of soy milk and water, then a bit of molasses, maple syrup (to make up for the bitterness of the molasses), cinnamon, and ginger. Unfortunately, I followed the package directions for my porridge, forgetting that the preference here seems to be a lot more liquidy, and it took ages to cook out all the liquid. But now I know for next time. I think I'm gonna go back to porridge for breakfast, unless I need a quick breakfast.

I also just managed to make it to the Farmers' Market today. I really need to start getting out of the house earlier, because I only had 20 minutes to spare by the time I got there. I only got a few things this time, due to the lateness - kale and tatties from the organic farm, a bottle of red currant and raspberry wine from Cairn O' Mohr, and some chocolate from The Chocolate Tree (though I'm not gonna mention which types I bought because some of it was for my swap partner!).

Tomorrow is the start of week 8 (I think) of the cookbook challenge, and this time I actually have the book we're using! I really need to flip through that tomorrow and figure out what I'm gonna make.