nakd bars
nakd bars are pretty much delicious. They contain no artificial ingredients, no added sugar, syrups, wheat, or dairy. The ingredients are all natural and raw. They are 91% fat free and contain two of your five a day.
I eat a lot of fruit and veg anyway but I find these bars delightful (if a little pricey…at 88p a pop (at Tesco)), and if you’re looking for an alternative to your sugar-filled snack, these are great.
salmon in lemon and soy sauce
Mmmm! We love fish, especially salmon, in fact to such a degree that whenever we make it we rarely have it with anything else: the salmon really is the star of this recipe. Of course, feel free to have whatever side dish takes your fancy.
ingredients:
2 salmon fillets
1 lemon
soy sauce
black pepper
fresh coriander (optional)
Squeeze half the lemon into a frying pan and add a decent amount of soy sauce. Lay the fillets in the pan and cook on a low heat, turning them when they begin to become more colourful on the topside. Make sure they are piping hot and fully pink in the middle before serving. If the pan becomes a little dry before they are fully cooked, add more soy sauce and lemon. Serve with chopped fresh coriander, black pepper, and a decorative slice of lemon.
yummy vegan blueberry and banana pancakes
Spending a lot of my time in California has meant I’ve come face to face with the short stack a number of times, though where I come from what we call “pancakes” are more like crepes – thin and large and absolutely flippable. I had never made American pancakes before, so I gave it a go, using, of course, a vamped up recipe (from How it All Vegan!, which is fast becoming my favourite recipe book).
The ingredients are, as ever, great, delicious, and a healthier version of the alternative, and the end result is really lovely. However, a word of caution – often healthier versions of traditional recipes need a little more TLC and attention, and I would say that was definitely true in this case.
After much experimenting the amoeba-like (as Austin called it) pancake above (the Pancake of Victory) was pretty much the only specimen I managed to create fully intact. While the ones that crumbled were no less delicious, for a continuous piece of pancake I would suggest thefollowing: make sure your frying pan is already pretty hot before cooking; once you’ve poured out the batter, lower the heat and cook it slowly so that it has a chance to cook all the way through; don’t attempt to move the pancake until the side you can see is visibly less liquidy, and the centre has also made some air bubbles – when it’s time to flip it, the underside should not stick to the pan, it should be easily moved. This slower technique creates more pancake-like pancakes.
ingredients:
1 cup (100g) flour
1 banana, mashed
2 tsp baking powder
1+1/4 cups (265ml) soy milk
1 tbsp sweetener (I used orange juice)
blueberries
In a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork and add 1/4 cup of the milk, mixing together until there are no lumps. Add the banana, sweetener, and remaining milk to the dry mix and stir together until “just mixed”. Portion out about 3/4 to 1 cup of batter onto a hot non-stick pan or a lightly greased frying pan. Let sit on medium-low heat until the centre starts to bubble and become sturdy. Flip pancake over and cook other side until golden brown. Repeat process until all the batter is gone. Makes 2 or more servings.
butternut squash chips/fries
I only had a little squash left so I decided to try a little experiment, and oh man is the end result delicious. This takes very little time or effort and is a really stellar alternative to greasy fast food. This food may be fast, but it’s still good for you!
ingredients:
butternut squash
olive oil
crushed red chillies
basil/oregano
salt & pepper
Preheat the oven to a medium heat. Cut the squash into fingers or “fries”. Drizzle with olive oil and add the spices. Bake in the oven for 15+ mins. At 15 the squash will already have begun to caramelise and soften. It depends of course, on how solid/soft you want the end result to be. Worth keeping an eye on the oven or having a taste in order to get it right. Makes a really great snack or side dish.
red bean, tomato, and courgette pilaf
ingredients:
onion
garlic
olive oil
basmati rice
red beans
courgette
tinned tomatoes
soy sauce
boiling water
salt
pepper
basil
crushed red chillies
Boil some water in a kettle. Sautee the onion and garlic in a frying pan until translucent and add the herbs and spices. Once the water has boiled, add the rice to the pan and cover with the boiling water. Add some tinned tomatoes and soy sauce and simmer. When the rice has begun to puff up, add the beans and the courgette. Add more water if the rice begins to stick to the pan. After about 15-20 mins the rice will be fully puffed up. Serve, and enjoy!
cootie’s coconut cookies: updated
A few weeks ago I showed you this recipe. Well, I made the cookies again but this time added a little twist. Instead of using honey as a sweetener I used the equivalent volume of orange juice, and I also added some raisins. As ever soft and sweet, and with no added sugar!
california chicken
ingredients:
olive oil
chicken
soy sauce
maple syrup
onion
red and yellow pepper
black pepper
basmati rice
A few hours before, chop the chicken and marinate in the soy sauce and maple syrup. Later, sautee the onions in a little olive oil until clear then add the marinated chicken, and put the rice in a pan of boiling water. Chop the peppers and add to the chicken. Once done, serve!
a packed lunch
We went on a cycling trip around Arran yesterday, in the end achieving 38 miles with some real uphill challenges. I packed us a lunch so we would be amply prepared, as Arran has only a few small villages which are mostly just houses and the occasional castle. I brought: a bag of apples, two wholegrain pasta salads, two (halved) tuna and salad wholegrain pittas.
pasta salad:
ingredients:
wholegrain pasta (60g/person)
cherry tomatoes
1 green pepper
olives
romaine lettuce
My one note about this is to cook the pasta the night before, because if you cook it before you leave on a trip and put it in a tupperware box like the ones pictured, it will give off steam and so when you open it, the salad will be a bit moister than you’d ideally like. I also would advise against dressing for similar reasons. But if you like dressing, carry it separately and add just before eating.
pitta pockets:
ingredients:
wholegrain pitta bread
tinned tuna (drained)
romaine lettuce
crushed black pepper
Make sure to soak up as much of the moisture from the tinned tuna with a paper towel. This means it won’t soak your pitta bread.
In the end, this is where we stopped for lunch, Lochranza, at the north of the island. This village is at the bottom of a desperately steep hill which I will admit without shame that I had to hoof. I like to think I’m fit, but I haven’t been on a bike in many years (for any proper distance). By this point I was very glad to have lunch!
blackberries with natural yoghurt and agave nectar
ingredients:
blackberries
natural yoghurt
agave nectar
Yummy as a snack or as a dessert!
a healthy pizza
ingredients:
for the dough:
300 ml tepid water
7g packet yeast
about 500 g of wholewheat flour
dried oregano
salt
Whisk together the water and the yeast until dissolved. Add the salt, whisk again. Add the oregano and the flour and knead until a doughy consistency. Set aside and let rise for 20 mins in a warm place. Knead again, and if dough is still sticky, add flour. Preheat oven to gas mark 4. Let rise for another 10-20 mins. Then roll the dough out onto a tray and prick all over with a fork.
for the sauce:
sieved tomato passata
fresh basil
dried oregano
crushed red chillies
salt
pepper
olive oil
agave nectar (or brown sugar)
toppings:
red onion
yellow pepper
green olives
courgette
Put all the sauce ingredients in a sauce pan and gently heat to release the flavours, then spread across the dough. After this, top with whatever takes your fancy!
In normal cases I would have olives and jalapenos and pepperoni on my pizza (back when we used to order in). My partner used to work in a pizza place and has an expert opinion on what a pizza should be like (and he hates olives and jalapenos =P!) – he always takes great pains to make sure all the toppings are evenly spread out, and so did I today. Now that I’m more health conscious, I thought I would try to find an alternative. Cheese is the obvious culprit in a normal pizza, and you’ll see I left that out. If you really can’t face a cheese-less pizza, do use cheese, but remember that it will raise the total number of calories significantly, and even without cheese the above recipe comes in at a sizable 500 calories a serving (2 slices for 4 people). All the pizza dough recipes I’ve tried in the past have had a lot of oil – I skipped that this time (based on a recipe from How it All Vegan! - which, of course, explains the lack of cheese). In fact, this is what Tanya and Sarah have to say about it:
Pizza doesn’t have to be about 4 different kinds of cheese or meat. In fact, your pizza doesn’t even need cheese or meat at all! The combination possibilites are endless. Here are some of our favourites:
tomato sauce, mushrooms, olives, spinach, soy cheese
tomato sauce, artichoke hearts, garlic cloves, soy cheese
tomato pesto sauce, red onion, pine nuts, soy cheese
tomato sauce, sun dried tomatoes, fresh herbs, soy cheese
pesto sauce, red yellow, and green peppers, garlic, fresh herbs
tomato sauce, red onions, blck olvies, capers, marjoram
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