Mushroom Milano

You know what is great? Pasta. It may not be the answer to everything, but it is usually one of my suggestions and if it isn't the answer, it helps anyway. When we talk about 'comfort foods' we usually reference dishes that we had growing up as a child, that take us back to that feeling of warmth and safety. Mushroom Milano, for me, is a veganised adaptation of a delicious dish that a close family friend introduced me to in my mid teens. I like food, I haven't always been as big of a fan as I am these days, but tasting her milano for the first time was eye opening. It was the first time that I had eaten something in the comfort of home that tasted like fine dining. Not to say that the food I had at home wasn't good, it was great and I enjoyed it very much...but the intensity of garlic, sun dried tomatoes and cream with pasta just blew me away and now it is one of my go to meals for celebrating, having friends over, when I am feeling sad or just because its a day of the week that ends with a 'y' (eurgh that saying). Trust me, with minimal effort mushroom milano is a winner of a dish.

Ingredients
50g sun dried tomatoes (I use these Merchant Gourmet ones because they aren't in oil)
2 cloves of garlic
250 ml of vegetable stock
250 ml of non-dairy cream alternative
300g of mushrooms (any that take your fancy)
Pasta for 2 people - spaghetti/tagliatelle/linguine works best but all pasta is good (I am not judging you, have as much pasta as you want)
Fresh chopped basil
Black Pepper to taste

Vegan snacks that will get you through your period

Having recently transitioned to a vegan diet I feel like I am learning new things every day and I have still got quite a lot to learn about having a vegan lifestyle. One of the first challenges I faced being vegan was getting through my time of the month. Everyone that has a period is different but I have been having periods for 10 years now, I know what I crave and what tends to calm me down and make me feel better when I am having some serious stomach cramps...unfortunately that tends to be dairy. Yes up until now I will have either opted for the classic milk chocolate (most likely malteasers) or anything that had cheese on it or was cheese flavoured.

Now before I begin to discuss some of my vegan finds that have comforted me through my last period I just want to declare that I don't feel sad or frustrated that I will no longer be having my 'usual' period snacks, my disgust with the dairy industry completely over rides my previous cravings for these things... in fact I am getting to the point where I no longer think of them as food. So here they are, some of my top vegan friendly comfort eats.

Homemade Apple and Cinnamon Granola

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and according to the internet and lots of people (yeh I am not looking this up) it is the most important meal of the day. Granola is something I think I might have tried before, but I am mostly a porridge or beans on toast kind of girl, a smoothie at a push, so I decided I would make some and try something new. Heads up...its delicious.

To make a batch (this filled my 1.5l jar and I had enough for 2 'tester' bowls to make sure it was tasty)

Ingredients
3 Cups of oats
1 Cup of dried apple pieces
1/2 Cup of pumpkin seeds
1/2 Cup of sunflower seeds
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon
4 Tablespoons of coconut oil (melted)
2/3 Cup of agave nectar (Could substitute for maple syrup or any other fruit syrup)
1 Teaspoon of salt

Foodies Festival

For the April/beginning of May bank holiday weekend, myself and a couple of friends decided to go and hang out on Hove Lawns for the day at Foodies Festival. I had been to a Foodies Festival before, I went a few years back in London, and I remember discovering Sipsmith and eating a lot of cheese.

Seeing as I am not drinking alcohol this year I skipped out on the rum, pimms and wine tasting and stuck to sampling lots of chutney, oils and cake. Being vegetarian (actually I was pescetarian at this stage - still eating fish) definitely changes the experience that I have at restaurants and food events. It was a warm day, everyone seemed to be drinking a lot and there were a lot of grilled meats, but there were plenty of bits for me to taste and try out and I really enjoyed myself .

Kiwi Cupcakes

I always get too excited when I see a good deal on fruit, last weekend I bought far too many kiwis for one person to consume, so I decided to get creative. After chopping them up and putting them in my porridge, trying them in a smoothie and juicing them with carrots, apples and blueberries (which was actually pretty tasty but kiwi can be a very overpowering citrus flavour) I decided it was time to bake them.

To make 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
2 Kiwis
1 Egg
2 Cups of flour
1 Table Spoon of baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of salt
1/2 Cup of sugar
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract
1/4 Cup of vegetable oil
1 Cup of almond milk

Vegan Protein Pancakes

I regularly get lost in vegan blogs and YouTube channels, it starts off so simple - just reading one or two posts - and then it is 3 hours later an I am not sure how I got to where I am. In one of my many adventures into the vegan world of the internet I cam across the YouTube channel Brothers Green Eats. These guys have a great selection of food ideas and recipes and when I saw their latest video for their 'Live like a vegan king' series, I was straight in the kitchen trying it out for myself. I varied the recipe for the protein pancakes slightly (I feel like the only person on the internet that doesn't like coconut) and to be honest, I am probably going to make these again a few more times because there is a lot you can do with this batter. I was pretty useless with measuring anything for this recipe, it was more of a 'lets just try this' but here is what I used:

Ingredients

Oats

Chickpeas

Cinnamon

Baking Powder

Salt

Cinnamon

Baking Powder

Date Syrup

Vanilla Extract

Almond Milk

Apple

Banana