The Princess, A Story By Esme ( 4 Years)

The Princess, A Story By Esme, 4

As transcribed by Mummy (me), Read by Charlie.

Vegan Pizza @ The Stable, Cheltenham

Vegan Pizza @ The Stable

The Stable has been in Cheltenham for quite a while now, but we have only recently caught onto it's Vegan Pizza menu!! So we rolled down to town (not literally!!) to eat all their Pizza!!

We are quite lucky in Cheltenham as we have a Zizzi nearby, which also makes Vegan Pizza, a large Wholefoods which sells Vegan Pizza (without the v-cheese), plenty of health food stores that sell pizza brands like Redwood with vegan cheese, so we are spoilt for choice really! I have to say though, so far, The Stable do the best Pizza! The base is thin but tasty, plenty of melty vegan cheese (which I hear is the ever popular Violife), and also a large Garlic Bread complete with violife, delicious!

It was fairly steep price wise, but great if you are having a treat. It might be because we bought quite a few drinks too though! 

Whilst we were eating there was live music playing, the atmosphere was really relaxed and family friendly. There was also plenty of vegans there which is always a good sign!

Overall a really good experience, and highly recommended! 

Finn decided he would rather have his milk than pizza, oddly enough :)

The ''I don't have time to have breakfast'' Vegan Flapjacks

Time for school!!

My daughter Esme had her first day at school last week, she is such a grown up girl! I figured there would be many days we would be in a rush and wouldn't have time for breakfast, sometimes so much of a rush that we have to grab something on the way to school, so I threw a load of ingredients together, and made a flapjack of sorts. This is Gluten Free too, so tummy friendly :)

The ''I don't have time to have breakfast'' Vegan Flapjacks

The question is, what are the measurements for the ingredients? The answer to this is, I haven't the foggiest! I would really just add until you get the right consistency. Right now I have an 11 week old baby so I don't get a lot of time so make food, so a recipe throwing everything in a bowl is ideal really!!

This is a mysterious recipe, like that on the great british bake off *rotfl*

Ingredients:

Cup of dates, soaked 

Cup of Cashews, soaked

Slug of maple syrup (no not a real slug ^_^)

Tablespoon of melted non-dairy marg

Quinoa Flakes

*Whizz up the dates and cashews in a food processor or nutribullet

*De-cant into a bowl, add the Quinoa flakes and mix until they are all combined.

*Melt the non-dairy marg in a pan, add the maple syrup

*Pour into the mixture and stir

*Line a tin with baking parchment, press down mixture into the tin, then throwww in the oven!

*Bake for 15-20 mins, take the flapjacks out and cut into squares.

*Cool the flapjacks and put them in a tub, ready to eat!!

I plan on making these again soon with a carob style chocolate on top (chocolate makes my daughter rather loopy!) They are nutty and delicious!

Quick top up shop vlog - Vegan at Aldi

Quick top up shop vlog - from Aldi!!

I am obsessed with Aldi! It is super cheap! :) The only problem is that the veggies go off quickly, so you will have to chomp them quickly, which is no problem for me of course :) I love veggies!! We are trying to eat less processed foods in my house. Esme is not currently convinced, and still wants pizza and chips constantly!! 

Vegan Dhansak Soup & Chapatis

Vegan Dhansak Soup & Chapattis

This soup is a random variation of veggie dhansak, using pretty much what I had in the cupboard! 

I didn't use measurements as I am more of a throw it in the pan sort of wimminz when it comes to soup, so any measurements are aprox (more or less to taste).

Spicy Dhansak Soup

Ingredients:

• Red Lentils
• 1/4 Pineapple
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 heaped teaspoon marmite ( or just use a stock cube - I ran out!)
• 2-3 teaspoons Madras Curry Powder (possibly more - measurements out the window)
• 1 Green Chilli ( I would have put more in but it was the last one :( )
• 1 Onion
• 1 small bag of carrots
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 garlic cloves
• Handful of Coriander Leaves
• Oil for frying

Method:

Chop and fry the onion and garlic, then add the chopped carrots. When the onions and garlic and translucent, add finely diced pineapple and chilli. Then add the curry powder and red lentils, add a little more oil if it starts sticking to the bottom. Pour in hot water to cover a few inches above the mixture and turn the heat up. Add the marmite and bay leaves. When the soup starts to boil, turn down and cover with a lid. Leave for aprox 15-20 minutes then check to make sure soup isn't burning (lentils can stick to the bottom super easily). If all the water has gone add another couple of cups of hot water. At this point add the coriander leaves and taste to see if it needs any salt and pepper, and then season to taste. I used a hand blender to whizz my soup up, then serve :)

Alternative soup for fussy 4 year olds:

As my daughter doesn't like spice or most things, I made her a plain lentil soup in another pan. 

I used red lentils, carrots, a little  marmite (add a little stock cube if you have some), then just boil until lentils are cooked. This seems to be the only way she will eat lentils!!

Chapatis

I used a recipe online for the Chapattis, having never made them before! My partner brang home a bag of bread flour which had been slightly damaged so I decided, having a small amount of energy to make Chapatti's with Esme :) Esme enjoyed pretending to be Mary Berry whilst making these!

Recipe from: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/20005/wholemeal-chapattis.aspx

Ingredients:

(Makes 4)

125g Wholemeal Flour

1 pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil

60ml Water

Method:

• Sift together flour and salt (I missed the sift bit - just threw it in the bowl!)
• Stir in the oil and water
• Knead until dough like - add extra flour/water if necessary
• Flour up a flat surface - a board/table etc.
• Cut your kneaded dough into 4
• Either stretch out the dough until very thin or use a rolling pin - actually no idea where our rolling pin is so Esme stretched them out thin
• Heat frying pan on a med-high heat, I added a tiny bit of oil at this stage.
• When hot, cook a Chapati for around a minute or two on each side - until a little golden (taste test to make sure it is cooked). Continue until all Chapatis are cooked.
• Serve with soup!! Yumzords!!

Here is a video of my daughter Esme scoffing said foods!!:

Vegan Sweet Scones Recipe

Vegan Sweet Scones Recipe

Recipe adapted from: https://emilycooksvegan.com/2012/05/28/summery-scones/

Summer is here! Yipppeee!! I mean *dies from the heat*. I am currently very very pregnant and the weather is melting me. MELTING!!

So it was half term and I had a sudden urge to bake. Trying to find something easy that my 4 year old and I could make. I am NOT a natural baker! When I was very young I used to bake constantly, and was pretty good at it! As I grew older I completely forgot how to bake, and now I am vegan I have to relearn everything anyway! 

Esme's dad was round so we all had a go, Esme is actually incredibly good at following the steps!! I was very impressed :) :)

I did alter a few of the ingredients as having pregnancy brain I did indeed forget some of the ingredients!! Here it is anyway :) :)

Ingredients

• 350g Self Raising Flour
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 85g Vegan Margarine
• 3 Tablespoons Caster Sugar (I used maybe 2.5, I hate using the full amount of sugar in any recipe!!)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract ( I forgot this, d'oh!!)
• A good squeeze of lemon juice * This doesn't make it particularly lemony, if you want it super lemony I would add the zest*
• 175ml of Soy Milk ( I used rice milk)
• 85g Dried Fruit (I used Sultanas)

What you need to do!

• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees (I just used the highest setting possible)

• Grab a mixing bowl, pour in the flour, baking powder and salt, then add the marg. Get your 4 year old to rub in the margarine to the flour mixture until it is a crumb like consistency. Or all over the floor. 

• Pour in the sugar and fruit and mixxx!! Or squish together in this case!!

• Make a well in the middle of the mixture. Pour in the milk, vanilla and lemon and stir. In the recipe it says stir with a metal knife. In this case Esme squashed the mixture together with her hands, stopping every now and again to taste the dough.
• Tip the mixture onto a surface and knead the dough into a ball. By this time Esme was more interested in eating the dough so dad stepped in!
• Divide the dough into rounds, place on baking tray (with baking parchment - absolute washing up life saver!!) 
• Brush with a little melted marg
• The recipe now says to bake for 10-15 minutes, which I would recommend trying first if you don't have a weird oven like mine. However, my oven took 35 minutes, and I had to flip the scones over to make sure they were cooked all the way through. If in doubt poke a fork in the middle to see in the middle is still uncooked. I have the worst oven ever..
• Take out the oven when cooked, put some delicious vegan cream and jam on, we had no cream so I just had marg and jam. 

 Finally, try and stop your 4 year old licking every single scone before anyone else has tasted them. ENJOY!

How To Feed A Vegan - VibrantKate

How To Feed A Vegan - Vibrant Kate

What happens if a vegan appears in your conventional kitchen and needs feeding? Here are some helpful tips:

Snacks:

1. Fruit : It's easy. It's healthy. It's a winner!
2. Crisps. Plain ones are potatoes, oil and salt. No animal products. Some panicky people in sandwich shops have told me there is nothing for me, with a display full of crisps right there.
3. Biscuits. Check the packaging, but some are unintentionally vegan: Bourbon biscuits, Hobnobs, Ginger nuts and Oreo cookies. Wahey!!
4. Oatcakes, rice cakes, Ryvita, crumpets, hot cross buns. A little jam or peanut butter can enliven them if required (omit the margarine - most brands contain buttermilk!)
5. Dried fruit and nuts. If you provided me with a little bowl of raisins and cashew nuts I would tuck in quite happily. Did you buy a particular dried fruit for a baking project then forget about the rest of the packet? Feed them to a hungry vegan!
6. All of the above - If your visitor stays for ages, this lot would sustain them for a good while!

Lunches

I will give you three basics to start with:

1. Baked beans - with toast (most bread is vegan - check if using GF bread), or a jacket potato if you have advanced notice of their arrival.
2. Houmous - a vegan classic. If you haven't got any in your fridge, it's easy to buy.
3. Peanut butter - depending on the consistency of your peanut butter, you can put it on toast or bread. Or, buy a jar of cashew/almond nut butter and see if you get addicted yourself. If you aren't into nut butters, offer a banana sandwich. Mmmmm!

Planned Lunches

If you have a bit of notice that your vegan friend is arriving, here are some suggestions:

1. Soup. Check the packaging if it's bought soup - there are milk free soups out there. If you are making soup (hurray!!) lots of recipes don't actually need stock. If you had time, invest in some organic/vegan stock cubes or powder. Stock is always useful! 
2. Falafel. You can buy them ready made, or buy a mix and fry them yourself. I have had some super tasty lunches at my friends' houses where they have provided a feast of falafel, pitta bread, houmous, and a selection of salad items.
3. Bean Burger. Check the packaging, but some of these could live in your freezer for spontaneous BBQ's or fry ups! I made an eye-catchingly yumptious lunch with a ripe avocado mashed into a jacket potato instead of butter, topped with raw tomatoes and red pepper, with a bean burger balanced on top.
4. Simple pasta. Some tomato based pasta sauces are vegan. Alternatively you could make a nice and nutritious dish in about 15 minutes by cooking pasta with a few frozen peas thrown in, add a few walnuts, some avocado (if you have it) and a drizzle of olive oil.

And three pieces of miscellaneous info:

1. New food labelling regulations put allergens in bold, so read the ingredients and if any milk/egg products jump out at you, probably best to save that food for yourself. If it says may contain traces of milk, that is generally a legal disclaimer rather than a promise, so it is possibly ok for the non-allergic vegan.
2. There is usually a free-from section in supermarkets, so if you feel indulgent, you can invest a quid in a bar of vegan chocolate and stash it at the back of your cupboard to delight your guest. There are all sorts of cake-y type things in those aisles too, if you aren't sure about doing some vegan baking of your own.
3. Ask your vegan friend what they like or what they can eat if you aren't sure!

I hope this demystifies this for you!

Have you got any tasty and hasty suggestions to add?

-Vibrant Kate