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 4 - Vegan Vittles

I missed out on my oatmeal this morning because I needed a quick breakfast, so I had my warm weather standard, generic Weetabix in soy yogurt. And then I ended up not getting ready in time to do what I had intended to do (go get passport-type photos done so I could send in my leave to remain paperwork), so I actually could've had my oatmeal. Oh well.

Anyway, I made another recipe from Vegan Vittles today. Tonight's dinner was Pot Roast with roasted potatoes and broccoli.


First of all, I should say that it didn't really taste anything like 'real' pot roast. Then again, I was never actually a fan of 'real' pot roast. Meh. This was alright. I mean, it was tasty enough. But given the amount of work and time that went into it (start to finish, it took about 2 hours, give or take a few minutes), it didn't really cut it for me. I prefer the flavour and texture of other varieties of seitan. Mike liked it, though, so that's good. I think I might change up some stuff to try to make it more 'beefy', but I'll probably stick to Joanna's Chicken-Style Seitan (which has been my favourite seitan since I started making it, even though it takes forever to make).

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.

Cookbook challenge, week 8, day 2 - Vegan Vittles

This week's cookbook challenge is Vegan Vittles by Jo Stepaniak. I've got several recipes bookmarked for later in the week, but I only did one today. I have to say, though, that I'm still not quite sure about this book. I had to look through this one several times to find more than a handful of recipes I thought we might like. There's also a pretty big reliance on nuts (especially cashews and walnuts), which, when seen, puts me right off a recipe.

Anyway, tonight's dinner was Cauliflower Paprikash. It's not particularly photogenic.


First off, I should mention that I left out the mushrooms because Mike's a hater, and I did rice instead of noodles. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly, using the low end of the paprika called for. Mike didn't like it, but he couldn't really put his finger on why. I thought it was alright, but a bit bland. We probably won't have it again. Oh well.

Hopefully other stuff I make this week will be better. I hate buying a cookbook and not using it.

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.

The healing power of delicious food.

I've been ill for the past few days, which has meant I haven't really felt like cooking much. Just over a year ago, that would've meant canned soup or something from a box, but now that I'm married and have someone else to feed, I have to actually make food most nights. I mean, Mike happily eats a lot of junk food, but I wouldn't feel right letting him have Pringles and bourbon creams for dinner. Again. (OK, that was Doritos with hummus and bourbon creams, but you get my point.) Problems arise when I not only don't feel like cooking, but we also have a nearly empty fridge. It's hard enough to want to cook when you're ill, but even more so when you have nothing to make.

I've been feeling better today, but I still didn't feel like going out, especially since Mike's been off. Unfortunately, we really didn't have anything to eat, so I had to go to the store. I didn't feel like making a lot of effort, so I bought organic baby new potatoes, broccoli, and a can of chickpeas (along with Mike's junk food). I boiled the potatoes and topped with margarine, a couple pinches of salt, and some salt-free all-purpose seasoning. I steamed the broccoli, made V'con Chickpea Cutlets with the chickpeas (and all the other stuff that goes in those), and mixed up some gravy granules with boiled water. Dinner was done in about 30 minutes. Perfect. This is pretty much my go-to meal when I don't feel like trying very hard or don't want to bother going any further than the Tesco on the corner for my ingredients (it's a tiny Tesco Express, and they don't really have much).

The great thing is that I felt so much better after eating it. It's amazing what a good meal (plus sitting around most of the day watching TV shows) can do for your health. I should do it more often.

Mike's back to work tomorrow, and I'm still waiting for a Flourbin.com delivery, so I might actually get around to doing the cupboard project! Tomorrow would be ideal, since then I'd have an idea of what I have on hand so I'll know what to get at the Farmers' Market on Saturday. Also, next week's cookbook challenge book is Vegan Vittles, which I actually have, so I'll be incorporating that next week!