Brighton buys and baking

And some chilli, but that does not fit with the alliteration you see.

But first a little update- today is the final day of my antibiotics, and I am finally beginning to feel like my normal self (touch wood). On Thursday I was feeling optimistic and hoping that I could go to body pump (new release), but after a day at work I was not feeling great. I decided to have a walk after dinner instead, and that made me feel awful. It was about 3 miles I think but still hardly taxing. I then decided to have a little run after work Friday, but again I was still feeling bad- I am fine when sat down, but when I get up and move about for a while it seems to make things a little sore. So that was cancelled, and I decided to not even bother taking my running things with me to Brighton- I was planning on a run on the Saturday morning but I decided that more rest would do me good. Luckily as it turned out, as after walking around all day I was so tired on Saturday evening. I then thought I might have a run Sunday evening when we got home, but I was still not right. And it goes on! I was not sure if I was feeling a little paranoid, but really after that walk on Thursday I realised that I am still not right. Anyway, today after work I came home and rested, and am hoping that tomorrow I will have a short run instead of the usual aerobics- I think that I can always cut a run short, and it is more gentle than the super high impact stuff we do in the class. So fingers crossed please!

Anyway, on to the buys! First up I was super excited to visit the Montezuma shop! I could have bought so many things in there- they do giant jars of buttons but they were £20! Even I could not justify that. I settled on 2 bags of dark chocolate buttons and some Gourmet Gorilla (not just because of the name)- dark chocolate with almonds and hazelnuts- I have never seen this bar in Waitrose so decided to give it a try.

I also bought a couple of new books in Brighton- I had a WHSmiths voucher for my birthday and finally spent it.

I have wanted Sweet Vegan for ages (I actually found it in a Waterstones on the weekend of my cousins wedding, and nearly tried to buy it with my vouchers until Andy pointed out I was in the wrong shop- that would have been embarassing!), and then they had the National Trust Teatime Baking book (so many good words for me!) for £3.99! Bargain! 🙂

I have already made the Pumpkin spice cake from Sweet Vegan.

And then topped it with cream cheese frosting (although I think I made about 1/4 of the recipe).

Yummy 🙂

Then today I got on with making an autumn chilli for my dinner. Partly because I thought I ordered frozen butternut squash slices, but they were chilled ones, and partly because I fancied using up some tins.

So, follow the steps for some Autumn Chilli (serves 4- me plus 3 for me freezer).

So- get together the ingredients- butternut squash, carrots, pepper, chilli, molasses, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans and chick peas.

Fry the veggies in a pan- I used a tsp coconut oil for this, but any veg oil/ spray would be fine.

Add tomatoes, 1/4 tin water (e.g. refill the tomato tin and pour in) and 2 tsp lazy chilli (this made it quite spicy enough for me, but I am a little bit of a wimp with spice although I am getting better).

Drain and add the chick peas and kidney beans.

Then add a tbsp molasses, and leave to simmer for a while- maybe 25-30 mins.

Dish up (just look at that steam- mmmm)

I had mine with nutritional yeast and some food doctor seeds. It was super tasty and even better because the next 3 times I eat it I don’t even have to cook!

Oh, and the best thing today- Andy thought I was a little weird (understatement alert) for collecting stones on the beach and said I would be crazy to take them home with me. I did leave them there, but this morning at school a little girl in my class gave me some stones that she collected from a beach over the weekend! She must have known haha! 🙂

Random question- what is your favourite chocolate at the moment?

Brilliant Brighton

Hey! I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. I headed off to Brighton for the weekend, and the weather was just perfect.

A while ago I was emailed and asked if I would like to visit Aloka, a vegetarian, vegan and raw restaurant in Brighton. From the website it looked amazing, so we jumped at the chance and were really looking forward to it.

We travelled down on Friday night, and then spent Saturday morning chilling on the beach.

The weather was just fantastic.

The sun was shining and the beach was busy.

I enjoyed collecting coloured shells and stones while we sat in the sunshine.

Then we headed to Aloka for lunch. The idea of the cafe is brilliant- they have a variety of food on offer, and you help yourself, then weigh your plate so you only pay for the food you take. Their chefs are all vegetarian or vegan, so they are really passionate about the food they are making. The menu changes all the time but they have sample menus on their site. I actually took a notebook with me, and I am so glad I did as there were so many dishes on offer that I would not have remembered them all!

This was my plate; some salad leaves, beetroot and apple salad, fresh hummus, tomato and cucumber salad, pumpkin and rocket salad, black bean salad with corn and peppers, a sprinkle of seeds, and a lentil nut burger topped with apple sauce. This was all soooooo amazing- really fresh tasting and delicious. I think my favourite item was the lentil nut burger- the apple topping was such a great idea. But it was all amazing- the pumpkin was delicious and made me feel excited for autumn, the apple in the beetroot salad was so crunchy and fresh, the black bean salad was really tasty….

This was Andy’s plate- he had a few things the same as me (the lentil nut burger, the beetroot and apple salad/ pumpkin and rocket salad/ black bean salad) plus a few other items- a tomato curry, some basmati rice, potato wedges and a stuffed aubergine (stuffed with carrot and something- you can see it at the back of the plate- I had a bite of this and it was delish). Oh, and some massive croutons! He loves croutons. There were others items on offer that we did not try (other types of hummus/ bean spreads), plus side items like fresh bread, walnuts and nutritional yeast to sprinkle on top. Our plates were both empty as all the food we tried was fantastic!

We decided to try the smoothies from the drinks menu too- I don’t often choose them but the weather was so warm I thought it would be refreshing- mine was berry, apple and mint, and Andy’s was a mango one. Again so fresh and delicious.

The setting of the cafe was lovely too- right in the heart of the laines of Brighton- we sat upstairs right by an open window, so we could do a lot of people watching.  Inside it was so bright and fresh and airy- sometimes specialist veggie restaurants can be a little filled with beaded curtains and incense and things like that (know what I mean?), but Aloka was so fresh and modern. But most importantly the food was delicious. And with such a huge selection it would appeal to most people- you would easily find something that you liked.

Our next trip to Brighton is next year when we run the half marathon, and we have already decided that it would be a great place to go back to.

Thanks Aloka– it was a fantastic and delicious meal, and I am already looking forward to my next trip to Brilliant Brighton!

So, have you ever been to Aloka? Or to another veggie/vegan restaurant?

Which item on the menu do you like the sound of the most?

Cupcake crazy

To celebrate National Cupcake week, I was sent some Cupcake books to look at (well, also to make some of the recipes).

I was sent Cupcakes by Sue McMahon, Special Cupcakes by Wendy Sweetser, and Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane, which are all published by New Holland Publishers here– you can also check out their facebook page here.

All the recipes look amazing (click on the names to have a look on amazon where you can “look inside”).

Cupcakes has several pages devoted to various toppings (how good does toffee topping sound?)- “normal” ones like butter-cream and cream cheese frosting, and fancier ones like swiss meringue butter-cream. It also has a little “special diets” section in the back.

Special Cupcakes is divided into different sections- party time, seasonal celebtrations, romance, cakes for kids to name a few. Sweet potato and orange cupcakes jumped out at me from this book.

Divine Cupcakes is filled with cupcakes (with the most beautiful photography and amazing decorations), then at the end there is a section for different frostings/ icings, and then a section for decorating tips (how to make sugar roses, or chocolate twirls)- I would need a steady hand there!

I could not resist the brownie cupcakes from Cupcakes, so that was what I made first. I loved that the recipe had 2 eggs, because then it was easy to only make half.

Yum- that is melted chocolate and butter, and a bowl with sugar and a whisked egg. Plus some scrumptious dark chocolate chips from Beyond dark.

They are more like little chocolate puddles than chocolate chips, but so so yummy.

The batter ready to go into the oven. The batter was super easy to make and smelled totally amazing.

When they came out- I love the appearance of the tops- like real mini brownies. The recipe had chocolate ganache as the topping, but I had no cream. It did say to leave that out for a less rich cupcake, so I went for middle ground.

Some whole earth dark chocolate spread, plus a few more chocolate chips.

Now to enjoy one while looking over all the other fabulous sounding recipes. 🙂

I also had a few bananas a bit past their best, so I decided to make the banana toffee cupcakes from Cupcakes too. Although I had used all my cupcake cases so I made them in mini loaf cases (and some in a bigger one too).

Looking lovely in their mini loaf case things.

And then with the toffee topping- this was really easy to make (and could be used on top of loads of different cupcakes)- I made it in the microwave (although it did bubble over) and made them a little more special. I took these to work (well I kept us a couple to share) and they were a total hit- I think everyone was really impressed that I made the toffee topping and that it was not out of a tin, and it really was very easy to make.

Alas now I have run out of eggs (for now, until I visit my Mum again) so the baking shall have to cease! But I am sure you will see more recipes from these books popping up pretty soon.

So- look inside one of them on amazon (click on their names above), and tell me what you would love to see me bake on this blog! 🙂

WIAW- body pumping

Hey all

It is that time of the week already! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the party as usual.

This week I chose Thursday, which meant I felt super organised!

Breakfast;

Chopped apple, rude health muesli and some almond milk. I got the almond milk from Ocado, but I have seen it in other shops (Holland and Barrett I think). Also you can like them on facebook and they tell you where to buy it from too. 😉

Lunch and snacks;

Lunch was a lovely hummus and roasted pepper sandwich, chopped pear and chopped nectarine. Nakd bar mid morning, and a mini eat natural bar after work.

Dinner:

Wholewheat pasta with peppers, courgette and green pesto. This would be nice with cheese but at the moment I am not having much cheese.

Post body pump snack (boy I needed this- that class is hard and I went up with the squats and back weights).

A slice of apple crumble bar, and alpro vanilla dessert. Yum.

Health (?) update- I took the antibiotics all weekend, but did not really make much difference, so I was off work Monday and Tuesday. I went back to the doctors Tuesday, and was given “the better ones” this time (same ones that I had twice before this year) and they are already working! So back to work today, but no run after work as I am not 100% yet. I am hoping I will be well enough for body pump tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Random question- those people that make their own almond milk- what do you use to strain it? I have been looking on Lakeland but can’t find anything that jumps out at me (cheese cloth? Muslin squares?). Cheers.

Simple bean and vegetable bake

I often have this for dinner, but when I was searching on here the other day I realised I have never put the recipe on this blog- shocking!

It is loosely based on a Rachel Allen recipe from her Bake book, called simple sausage and bean bake. This makes 2 big portions and it is easily adapted to make it veggie/ non veggie without loads of pans (so ideal for me and Andy).

Preheat the oven to 220C.

If using actual sausages, pierce them and cook them in the oven in a dish for 10 mins while you get the rest ready.

Chop a red onion and soften in a pan- use a little spray oil.

Once the onion is softened, add 2 chopped peppers (can add other veggies here- we sometimes add courgette as that goes quite well). Once they are softened, add a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Then add one tin of chopped tomatoes, one tin of drained cannelini beans, some dried basil and some garlic paste (although sometimes I leave out the garlic- you could also add chilli here).

Mine is on the left, and Andy (with sausages) on the right- an easy meal to please veggies and meat eaters- although he does eat it without meat sometimes too.

Place this in an ovenproof dish. If using sausages, pour it over the top. (As Andy has this with sausages, we do 2 separate dishes. I did used to add veggie sausages to mine, but they stopped making the ones I liked, so I just have it without now).

Bake for 35 mins. Optional- 5 mins from the end top with some mozzerella. Or top with a little grated cheddar once it come out of the oven.

Serve with some delicious bread, like my seedy bread.

This is so delicious! I think I might try adding sundried tomatoes to the mix to amp up that flavour. Something about the cannelini beans and the bread just go so well together, and I find it so filling and a really warming comforting dinner. It really only takes ten minutes to do the chopping and cooking, then just leave it to bake while you get on with other things (like reading blogs, how handy– or having a shower if you just got back from a run).

Also, on a totally off-topic rant, I came across this news article, about vegetarian labelled foods in restaurants containing meat. Have you ever been given something that turned out to be non-vegetarian? Recently I was given a ham and cheese roll on a BA flight. A long time ago in France I was given a cheese croissant which turned out to contain ham, and in the USA some vegetable soup which had big beef chunks in it. I do get annoyed with resturants that label items vegetarian when they contain parmesan too, but that is another issue for another day!