Red Berries Baked Oatmeal

Yummy, healthy and quick Sunday breakfast, if you feel like a change from your usual pancakes or eggs! I made this breakfast dish for the first time last week-end, a bit by chance. I was up early and the hubby had come back late from a concert that night, so I did not want to wake him up with the sound of too many kitchen robots … but I still wanted to make something special for our lazy morning.

This one was put together in minutes, with little more ingredients than you need to make yourself a bowl of cereal. After baking it I just kept the oatmeal dish in the warm oven until it was time for breakfast! Check out the recipe, and you will see it is really not much fuss.

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Date and Toasted Walnut muffins

Nothing like a new cake experiment to give me back some motivation to write on this blog! Can you believe it has been almost 4 years, and although is still cook and bake as much as ever, sometimes I find it hard to take the time to write and document everything. I am not great at taking pictures either, so I find it even harder to keep going in the winter, when the light is so scarce. I often end up making a recipe, but then the pictures are so bland and unappetizing that it never makes it to the blog. Does that happen to you sometimes? 

Basic almond cheese

I love a good cheese & wine dinner .. festive, delicious and easy to put together. The perfect start to a night of girly gossip or romantic Friday dinner …  So I wanted to find a vegan alternative that the hubby could also enjoy.

The “vegan cheeses” I found at the supermarket we not too much to my liking – I always wonder what is in them and they don’t seem tasty enough to eat on their own with a piece of crusty bread. So that motivated me to try and make my own version, and I found a great recipe on Lands and Flavours which inspired this post.

Very easy to make – although needs a bit of advance planning – this almond cheese is very versatile – depending on how long you season and cook it it can be either soft and spreadable, or sharp and crumbly. Enjoy as is or crumbled in a salad or on a pizza.

Pumpkin and cherry tomato chili

I can’t say I am rugby fan but it is one of the few sports I really enjoy watching, with tennis. So as the 6 Nations tournament is on at the moment, and France was playing Wales yesterday, I was down the pub with some friends cheering the team. And feeling a bit lonely in the middle of many Welsh fans! We lost … which might have been best as it got us some free we-feel-for-you drinks. Caught a cold on the back of that, so not going out of the house today and cooking something warming with whatever there is in the fridge.

Vanilla “golden stars” mini-cupcakes

I have been much too healthy since I started cooking vegan. So for Valentine’s Day, I am coming back to my first love :  baking cakes! And because it does not need to be fancy to make you happy (wink wink to the hubby) this is one is a simple but effective vanilla cupcake with buttercream icing … and some golden stars to make them shine!

Seasonal Vegetables Miso Soup (by Wholefoods Harmony)

For Christmas my sister got me a vegan cooking class at Wholefoods Harmony and I booked it at the end of Jan, for a good start to 2016. The class was lost of fun and hands on cooking with organic ingredients at Anna’s home in North London. As I am now cooking vegan at home, it was great to learn new recipes and to practice with some ingredients I am less familiar with. For example, miso paste, wakame and burdock, as showcased in this post. The recipe is from the class, so if you try and like it, all the credit goes to the wonderful Anna!

Raw cocoa nibs energy balls

Today I had my first outing with Dead Drop Fitness. DeadDrop events are a collection of secret fitness events designed by former military operatives. They are outdoor, whatever the weather, and often espionage themed. Lots of fun, and a great way to force myself out of bed on this rainy  and misty Sunday morning. The next one is on Feb 13th for “Operation Kill Cupid” !

After an hour of running around and jumping in the mud, I was in need for some extra energy and I turned to my now well worn out copy of  Scott Jurek‘s Eat & Run.  His Xocolatl Energy Balls were just what I needed, with only very minor adjustments.

Lunchbox polenta cake

  Very chilled Sunday this week, we mostly spent it at home doing close to nothing … Prefect excuse: the hubs sprained his ankle playing football so he was stuck on the couch with his leg up. And I felt like I had to be supportive.

In between  crying of laughter in front of Modern Family and losing at board games, I did a bit of batch cooking to be ready for the week ahead.

This polenta cake is perfect with a salad as a boxed lunch, and so versatile! You can flavour is as you like, in savoury or sweet versions alike.

Grow-your-own fried oyster mushroom

I am quite into making my own staples, to the point that everything we have for breakfast in the morning is home made: bread, nutella, peanut butter, jam, and nut milks. All by yours faithful! Sorry for bragging, I have to admit am a little bit proud of this.

But as I live in town, and I don’t really have green fingers, I have never managed to grow anything myself. Until  my sister offered us this amazing Mushroom Growing Kit from Pret-a-Pousser, thanks to which I can grow mushrooms on my windowsill.

Simple Thaï inspired red curry

  
Happy 2016 everyone! 

I enjoyed the best of both worlds this Christmas : celebrating in France with champagne and foie gras, and in Italy with baked pasta and panettone. But after all the traditional Christmas dishes, it feels good to have something a little more exotic! 

What do you need? 200 g marinated tofu – 1 red pepper (chopped) – 150 g fresh spinach – 400 ml coconut milk – 1 tbsp fresh grated galangal (or ginger) – 2 tbsp red curry paste – a dash of fish sauce – 1 tbsp tamarind paste – 1 tbsp sunflower oil – a handful of cashews – a handful chopped fresh coriander.

How to make it? 

1. In a hot pan put the oil, red curry paste and 1 tbsp coconut milk. Mix well until the curry paste dissolved in the other 2 liquids and the flavours are released (2-3mn). Add the galangal and tamarind paste and mix well.

2. Add the spinach, red pepper and tofu. Fry for about 5 mn or until the pepper starts to soften a little.

3. Add the rest of the coconut milk and the fish sauce and stir to combine. Leave to cook for 5-10 mn, stirring continuously. 

4. While the curry cooks, get another pan and add a little oil. Crush the cashews roughly and fry until lightly brown. 

5. Serve the curry with rice and top with the roasted cashews and chopped coriander.