Tuesday 10 December 2013

Cooked The Boy A Veggie Roast Dinner!


So last night I thought i'd be all good wifey and cook T a proper cooked dinner, vegan style.
I roasted potatoes and parsnips with rosemary and garlic and cut the carrots into little heart shapes.
I sauteed onions and mushrooms in balsamic vinegar to make gravy.
I even made up my own 'nut roast'...although I didn't have any chopped nuts...so it wasn't really a nut roast, more a sort of lentil and bean loafy thing. Basically I threw a load of lentils, red kidney beans, chickpeas, baked beans, onion, garlic, flour and spices together and baked it. It came out quite tastey if I do say so myself, so I might pop the recipe up soooonly if anyone's interested? :)

x

Chocolate And Cardamom

Ok I'll admit it; I am a cardamom lover. Especially at this time of year, it will spice up any biscuit, cookie or cake and make it a Christmasy delight. 
Here's my vegan cardamom spiced chocolate muffin recipe I think you'll love...

Ingredients
2½oz (70g) Vegan butter
2¼oz (60g)Sugar
1 Tbs Syrup
4½oz (120g)Plain flour
½oz (5g)Cocoa powder
1oz (10g) Cornflour
3 Tsp Baking powder
¼ Pint (150ml) Soya milk (Rice milk works well too)
2 Tsp Cardamom pods    
Little splash of vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

This recipe makes 4 large muffins, but if you’re feeling extra naughty it can be doubled, or you can use standard size cake cases to make the mixture stretch further.


 Get your bake on…
First things first, grab your pestle and mortar and bash the cardamom pods so they break. Now take out the shells of the pods and grind the little seeds. Try to get them as finely ground as possible.


 To the mixing bowl!
Cream the vegan butter and sugar together and then add the vanilla extract, syrup and cardamom seeds.


Give it a good mix so it’s all combined.
In another bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt.
Now pour a little soya milk into the butter and sugar mixture and then mix in a little of the flour mixture.

Keep alternating bit by bit until it’s all combined and wonderfully glossy.

Spoon it into some pretty cases and fill them ¾ full. Trust me the mixture smells so chocolatey and spiced up you may struggle not to eat it all from the bowl!
Bake them at 180c for 30 minutes and enjoy!

x

Christmas Cards!

Anybody out there still in need of Christmas cards? If you like handmade cards with cute drawings of mice and rabbits wearing red and white stripy onesies, then I know just the place to grab some :)
Hop along to my Etsy shop HERE and have a looksee.

Here's a few things you'll see...




 The Christmas Angel - a tree decoration
 The Christmas King - a tree decoration
 A little matchbox owl on a candy cane - tree decoration



Dylan The Mouse - a matchbox mouse tree decoration

Hope you're all having a jolly good December, can't believe it's like 2 weeks until Christmas! Aaaaahhh it's come around sooo soon. Bristol at Christmas time is wonderful, the Christmas market is here and the smell of roasted chestnuts and doughnuts is just too tempting :)

x


Thursday 5 December 2013

Who Likes Smoked Paprika?!

SMOKED PAPRIKA!
I don't know about you, but in my opinion this stuff is just amazing. It seems to make everything better, but I warn you, once you go smoked...you won't go back....

Make your own fajita sauce with tomatoes, peppers, chillies and smoked paprika

Before you put potato wedges in the oven, bash them up a bit, add oil, salt, tomato puree and smoked paprika...mmmmmm!

If all you fancy is beans on toast...pop a spoonful of smoked paprika in with the baked beans, it will rock your world!


Love and all that jazz x

What Have I Been Eating?

Wintery days need warming food, food that feeds your mind and soul as well as your body.

Spicy Lentil and Tomato Soup
Pasta in a Creamy Garlic Sauce with Spinach and Tomatoes
Spicy Vegetable Curry With Roasted Peppers and Caramelized Onion Naan Bread
Warming Chilli with Rustic Potato Wedges

And of course I wouldn't be Millie if I hadn't been baking too...

Spiced Up Apple Tumble
Be My Lover Apple Tart
And the first batch of Christmas Time Mince Pies

As always, all my food is vegan and recipes will follow, so if you've seen something you like never fear! Strawberries and Squiggles recipes will soon be here!

Love and all that jazz x








Sunday 3 November 2013

Add This To Your Strawberry And Banana Smoothie And Drink It!


Oh so yummy and much healthier than peanut butter :)

Ingredients

Almonds
Pinch of salt

THAT IS ALL!

How you make the butter...

Use as many almonds as you like, that little pot you see in the picture was made from a large handful of almonds. Although once made it keeps in the fridge for a few months, so you can make a large batch if you want (I only make it in small quantities because otherwise I will sit in the kitchen with a spoon and gobble the lot).
Lay your almonds onto a baking tray and roast them in the oven at 180c for a few minuets, until you start to smell them becoming all delicious.
Now simply put them into a food blender with a pinch of salt and keep on blending until they turn into a smooth peanut butter type of consistency.
And that's all there is to it! :) 
If you're making a small batch like me, I found using a hand blender better. Just pop the roasted almonds into a tall jug and as long as you cover the top with a tea towel it won't make a mess.  

Happy eating!
Love and all that jazz x



Friday 1 November 2013

You Boy, You Punch My Heart Out

Party Rings are so damn cute why should we leave them for the kids? That's not the way it should be, we've had to deal with the down right pain in the rather curvaceous bottom of growing up, so hell yeah we deserve the biscuits.

So to celebrate this rather marvelous Friday, for no other reason than WE CAN, I give you the delightfully sweet, and by no means innocent Party Ring, hold on to your bow ties, it's going to get wild.



For these lovelies I've kept the recipe really simple, nothing too fancy, just good old vanilla biscuits with a glossy icing :)

Makes 12-15 round biscuits and 12-15 little hearts.
Ingredients
For the Biscuits...
3 1/2 oz (100g) Plain Flour
1 1/2 oz (45g) Vegan Butter 
2 oz (50g) Caster Sugar
Equivalent of 1 Egg (use your favourite vegan egg replacer, or if you don't have any you can just leave the egg out and add a little splash of soya milk instead.)
Few drops of vanilla extract
Small pinch of Baking Powder (1/4 Tsp)
Pinch of Salt

For the Decoration...
I iced half my batch in white icing and half in chocolate, but the possibilities are endless! Choose any colour icing that takes your fancy and edible glitter works well too! 

4-5 Tbs Icing Sugar
I put 2 Tbs in one bowl and simply added a few splashes of water and mixed until smooth and glossy.
With the other 2 Tbs in a different bowl I added 1 Tsp of cocoa powder to make it chocolatey :)

Asda do a range of baking supplies at good value, and their Hundreds And Thousands are vegan :)

Lets Get Baking!

Grab your favourite mixing bowl and cream together your v.butter and sugar.
Add in the vanilla and 'egg' (or splash of soya milk).
Now sift in your flour, baking powder and salt.
Keep mixing with your trusty wooden spoon until the mixture starts to cling together, now get your hands involved to make it form a dough.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and let it chill out in the fridge for at least 30 minuets. I tend to make my dough in the morning and then use it in the afternoon, or chill it overnight. Chilling the dough just makes it easier to work with, and it doesn't seem to spread as much so you won't loose any pretty details.

Now, roll the dough out quite thinly, only a couple of millimeters. Remember Party Rings are so very sweet, which is of course why we love them, however you don't want to get toothache now do you? 
What shapes you cut out is up to you, of course the traditional is a round doughnut shape, but you can put your own twist on and see how they boogie.

Bake them at 180c for about 10 minuets, but KEEP CHECKING ON THEM. In fact, don't leave your oven, just stay hovering like a mad woman. You want them to be that perfect pale shade of golden, much paler than a normal biscuit.

Let them cool and smoother them in icing, hundreds and thousands and glitter!



Happy Friday!
Love and all that jazz x

   

Friday 26 April 2013

Night Time Biscuits

This is a tiny recipe that should be written in a little corner of your baking book. These are what I bake when I am frightened, scared of the night or anxious about what has been or I have yet to face. They are buttery and soft and sweet enough to almost make the monsters go away.
I don't bake them very often, because I'd probably compare them to having candy floss at the seaside, they're exactly what I want at that moment in time. 

Only makes about 10 very small biscuits.

Ingredients

3 oz Butter
1 oz Castor Sugar
Few drops of vanilla extract
1/2 oz Cocoa
3 oz Plain Flour
1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

All you need to do is grab your favourite wooden spoon...

Cream the sugar and butter together, then mix in the vanilla.
Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder.
Now either use your fingers to make little round biscuits or put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe it into doughnut shaped rings.

Bake at 180 for about 15mins.

Love and all that jazz x

Tuesday 5 March 2013

My Darling Sun

I feel like today marks the end to winters long sleep.
As I walked through woods with yawning trees, their branches creaking as they stretched, the breeze was warm and damp on the back of my neck. I sucked in greedy lung fulls of air, spreading my fingers over delicate snowdrops, wondering where the daffodils were.
Over the past few weeks an anxious feeling has crept back, it seeped into the centre of my body and sometimes I feel it easing between my bones. Most of the time I forget it's there, or rather, I don't feel it at all. But then out of the blue blue skies it can start knawing at my stomach, with no warning, and if I let it, I can start to feel very lost.
But after a much needed long walk with my mother this morning I feel like the sun on my skin and the earth under my feet soothed me. We walked and walked, three hours in total, we kept walking and the sun and the sweat kept my body warm and now I feel happy. My feet ache a lot, but blistered feet are better than moths that bite at the inside of your stomach.

I do hope you lovelies are enjoying this early spring.

Love and all that jazz x

Tuesday 22 January 2013

The Boy With The Fairy Lights

T left his shoes here. When I got back to the flat after walking with him to the train station I saw them on the floor. It made me smile, it was like a guarantee that he was coming back. And they weren't just strewn across my room, I knew he hadn't left them by mistake in his mad dash to catch the train. They were placed together at the foot of my chest of drawers, purposely left.

Here's the thing about T, I'm mad about the guy.

One of my favourite memories is the first time we went for coffee, I had laughed so much when we found out we both took it the same way. I thought it was wonderful that two strangers would meet and happen to both want black coffee with three sugars. Maybe it's not that uncommon, but I'd never met anybody before T that liked it quite that sweet. 
I smoke more now I'm with him, but we quite like cigarettes...
I am different with him, but in a good way. And I love the fact that I can run around and round and jump up and down and then start dancing just because I've spotted olives in Asda... and he just smiles, and tells me he loves me. 


Love and all that jazz x