Pasta bake with butterbean, pepper and red onion.

Today the rain is splashing down so i decided that the best course of action was to make a vegan pasta bake that could slowly cook in the oven. I had previously seen the most wonderful vegan cauli ( pasta ) and brocolli bake made by a lovely vegan friend on facebook. Thank goodness for people posting food pics as vegans, it gives you so many ideas and is inspirational. I decided to create my own with a basic white sauce made from Pure and plain flour with soya milk. I did add a sprinkle of nutritional yeast flakes with added B12. I used a red cheddar vegan cheese to go in and on my sauce as i thought this would add a lovely flavour to it. I chopped a couple of small red onions, 2 small peppers and threw in a tin of btter beans, sprinkle or vegan cheese. Poured the sauce all over with a thin layer of vegan cheese on top! I will add brocolli next time in a tipping of the hat to my lovely vegan friend who gave me that yummy idea.

skulls skulls skulls!

Oh i do love a skull , not in the human head but printed on things, ceramic renditions, glass etching, models, skull laces and ribbons. I just cant get enough of that skully stuff. Im my uber goth days i would always sport a skull of some description, a badge or a customised jacket with yep you guessed it skulls! I am really keen to make myself some sugar skulls and a crafted shrunken head... thats dark crafting at its best.

Infact i have some skull beads which i really must use, ever since i did the move from art landing to the studio space i am finding lots of wonderful bits and pieces which have remained hidden......yippee. Oh and i would like a pair of these i think they are super cute just as long as they are vegan. I love skulls!

mucha love for mucha

In our home there are several Mucha postcards and pictures placed around, women shown in strength and beauty is a real favourite thing of mine. I love portraits and beautiful old photographs showing the elegence of a bygone era. Mucha has always been of interest to me, his work seemed to sing to me in the way that only really great art can. The flow and majesty of flowers and leaves, the ethereal look and his ability to make everything look ornate just enthralls me. I once owned a Mucha mirror which i treasured, i purchased it when i was around 19 and it moved with me until one day it smashed, a small piece of my heart was shattered like those shards of glass. I absolutely adored that mirror, I have looked for another but sadly it isn't to be. Maybe i am never meant to recreate that moment in time but when i owned it it was magical.

May hay while the sun shines pasta dish.

So today while the sun streamed through the kitchen window I decided the only thing i felt like eating was a roasted vegetable wholemeal pasta dish. In the fridge sat a lonley aubergine, some courgettes, a few mushrooms and lovely red onion. I commenced chopping with gusto and threw the offending vegetables into the oven firstly covering their little selves in basalmic vinegar and garlic oil, boiled some wholemeal penne which i felt would add a healthier bent on the carb fest. I drained some capers ( which i love ) and some green olives to add in when the dish is bought together. I was toying with the idea of adding beans but decided against it today just want to keep it light. When everything had cooled i threw it all into a bowl to cool, adding a little extra garlic oil to keep everything moving. When i serve it i will drizzle some vegan garlic mayo over the top, cant wait to tuck into pasta salad. Two days of sun in a row is like winning the sunshine lottery, after the horrendous rain. If your fancying something light make this yummy dish you certainly wont be disappointed. Im off out to bask in the sunshine! well after lunch ofcourse.

The homemade trials

I must say it has been a bumper week for my little cooking brain. I set myself the task of mastering all vegan foods, even the challenging ones. Vegan cheese has always been a very strange affair to me, some great tasting and others okish! The texture strange etc. I decided that i would try and make vegan cheese. At first sourcing the ingrediants was the hard bit, trying to find nutritional yeast outside of a health shop..difficult! I decided to make a hard cheese, it was pretty much blitz all in a food processor after boiling your agar agar. Being the thrifty reuse policy demon I reused an old vegan marg tub as the mould which worked really well actually. The cheese came out firm and sliceable with a fresh taste. I love it when a plan comes together, and i love it that my seitan steak sandwich had a bit of vegan cheese to add some creaminess. Next came the vegan parmesan, super easy just blitz once again and then the vegan mayonnaise. The vegan mayo was really easy and i made one with garlic that was to die for...pass the parsley im offensive! The vegan society do a great easy vegan cheese recipe. I find it really useful so i have added it here. Hard White Cheese 11 fl oz (300 ml) water 2 tsp agar agar powder 3 1/2 oz (100g) cashew nuts 1/2 oz (12g) nutritional yeast flakes 3 tbsp lemon juice 2 tbsp tahini 1-2 tsp onion granules 1-2 tsp mustard powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp garlic granules. 1. Boil the water and sprinkle agar agar powder on top. Stir and simmer for around 3 minutes. 2. Place in a food processor together with the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Place in a mould e.g. margarine tub. 3. Chill in fridge overnight.

Its been a while happy campers, but im back x blogging ready and with a new air of enthusiasm for sharing my little place on this spinning rock! Today i thought i would share my love of seitan. Seitan is a wheat meat that you can make using vital wheat gluten, it can be roasted, fried, boiled, steamed, slowccooked and can be flavoured with a miriade of herbs and spices. I have it around once a week in the house. My most favourite way of cooking it is to make seitan ribz ( original idea and recipe from fat free vegan ), i made a wonderful teriyaki seitan rib last week which was so so lovely it was totally devoured. It always goes down well and for that im over the moon, because its so easy and so filling and versatile. I found an amazing seitan cookbook called 'Cooking with Seitan, by Barbara Jacobs and Leonard Jacobs. There recipe for plain quick homemade seitan is so simple and effective. 2 cups vital wheat gluten flour 1 cup cooled water or seasoned stock 1 cup of plain soya milk 1. Place the flour in a large bowl, and add all the liquid at once. Mix the ingrediants immediately and vigorously with a fork to form a dough. When the dough becomes thick and stiff, knead it with your hands 10-15 times. 2. Let the dough rest for 2-5 mins, then knead it a few more times. Allow the gluten to rest for about 15 minutes. 3. At ths point, the gluten can be cooked, refridgerated or frozen. I personally like to boil up seitan steaks in a special stock, cool them and bag them up for freezing to defrost and use whenever i need to add seitan to the recipe. That bit of extra work makes life so much easier down the line. You can make all knids of exciting meals with it like burgers, sausages, steak pieces, chicken pieces, seitan ribz, seitan mince and create recipes that use a substitute meat product. Go on be brave and have a go at making seitan for yourself, nothing ventured nothing gained i say.