It's all in the preparation

Today's lunch was a colourful Kilner jar salad that I prepped last night. There's been a bit of a craze with Kilner/Mason/shaker salads in the last couple of years. The contents can be prepared the night before and safely sealed/transported and eaten from the jar. The dressing can either be kept separately until the time of serving or put in the bottom of the jar before the veggies. My salad consisted of: 1/2 red bell pepper, 1 carrot, 2 inch cucumber, 5 radishes, 5 small lettuce leaves, a large handful of spinach M&S topped with a tablespoon of sunflower seeds. The veggies (except spinach) were chopped/sliced into bite sized pieces. The dressing was a mix of balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard and tamari which I kept in a mini jam jar til lunch. Shake it up baby! Yum!!!!! 5 a day? Done! Dinner was a bowl of g-free penne mixed with a pesto I made on Sunday night while my bread was baking. 3 sundried tomatoes in olive oil, 8 walnut halves, a fat clove of garlic, a bunch of parsley, 2 tsp capers, some oil from the tomato jar. This was all whizzed up in a blender until the contents were suitably small and combined. This is a combo I'd like to try again, I'm not 100% sure what the capers brought to the party so I'll calm down the tomato next time and big up the capers.

Easy does it on a Monday!

Well today was low on effort and cooking as I'd already done some preparation. Yesterday I made a g-free loaf, the first time I'd done so without using a shop bought flour mix. It wasn't perfect (slightly undercooked in the middle) but pretty good all the same. When I'm better at it I'll share the recipe. In the meantime, some things I've learnt! Potato flour and potato starch are not the same thing. They cannot be interchanged so no swapsies! But... tapioca flour and tapioca starch are the same thing and can be interchanged. Plus, to confuse it all, arrowroot is also tapioca! The recipe I was following used potato starch, tapioca starch and arrowroot starch. I didn't have any potato starch so I just used tapioca flour instead of the starches (although I did swap out 1/2 cup for post flour as the mix was looking too white!!!) So the bread made a really nice sandwich for lunch (I rarely have sandwiches). For dinner I fetched some lentil joe mix (from the book Happy Herbivore Light and Lean) from the freezer and served it over potato waffles. I'd just got back from a Pilates class so this was quick and easy, with just a little nutritional yeast on top for added B vitamins.

WVE revisited

It's been quite a while since I last posted on this blog. I've missed blogging and have been busy experimenting in the kitchen. Over the last couple of years I've been cutting out gluten and doing more vegan cooking. Being gluten free is challenging. Being vegan is challenging. Being a gluten free vegan is incredibly challenging! You soon discover that wheat and milk powder sneak their way in anywhere. Vegan sausages tend to have wheat in. Crisps have wheat and milk powder (except your standard ready salted). Egg also sneaks into places where you don't expect eggs are required. Gluten free bread in supermarkets being a case in point - they may be labelled as gluten and dairy free but there'll be egg in there somewhere!! So now as well as giving some examples of what vegetarians eat I'll be including what vegans and gluten free people eat too. There'll be recipes. There'll doubtless be trials and tribulations. I will include some hints and tips. I'll probably be taking a foray into the daunting world of YouTube videos as well! It's time, it's 2015 and meat-free living is going mainstream. Let's show the world What Vegetarians Eat!!!!