EASY PEASY MAC AND CHEESEY!

With the likes of pizza and mac and cheese being my all time favourite indulgence meals, the one thing I sometimes miss as a vegan is cheese. Sure there's Cheezly, Sheese and No Muh (No Muh has to be the best I've tried so far) but nothing has quite hit the spot in terms of substitutions. The time came to take matters into my own hands and see if I could come up with something that would satisfy my needy cheesy tastebuds. 

This isn't technically a recipe, you just throw the ingredients together in a pan until it tastes good! First of all you need to cook the pasta shells (or macaroni if you prefer), I won't baby you by telling you how to do this...

While the pasta is cooking, pour some unsweetened almond milk in a pan on a medium heat, I would say allow 1 cup for each person. Add lot's of nutritional yeast (this gives it that cheesy taste) then a half teaspoon of: nutmeg, paprika, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and cumin. Squirt in a teaspoon of mustard and a sprinkle of turmeric to give the sauce a golden colour.  Add a corn starch/thickening mixture, following the instructions on the packet. Then season with salt, pepper, paprika and hot sauce to taste (optional). 

A quick and easy meal using cheap pantry ingredients. You can also add extra ingredients to the mac and cheese to make it more interesting and substantial such as; tofu dogs, soy protein and broccoli or peas. 

VEGGIE STIR FRY

Another one of my favourite dishes I like to keep in circulation is this Asparagus, Broccoli, Ginger and Mint stir fry. This dish is full of feel good ingredients; ginger is renowned for aiding colds and flu's, mix this with hot chillies and colourful veggies and you've got the perfect combo to combat Winter. 

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 tbsp sesame oil or vegetable oil

2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

5 cm of fresh root ginger, sliced into fine strips

1 bunch spring onions, cut into 5cm (2in) lengths

2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced into fine strips

1 head broccoli, about 300g, cut into florets

1 bunch fine asparagus spears, trimmed and halved

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 handful fresh mint leaves

1 pinch salt

1 pinch freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a wok over a medium-high heat, and swirl to coat the surface. Add the chillies and ginger and toss for a few seconds, then add the spring onions and a few seconds later add the garlic. Stir-fry for 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add the pepper, and stir-fry for a few minutes. Add the broccoli, and stir-fry for a few minutes more, before adding the asparagus. Continue stir-frying for another minute or two.
3. Sprinkle over the sugar, and season well with salt and black pepper. Stir-fry for a few seconds until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, and stir through the mint leaves. Serve immediately either on its own, or with some fluffy rice.

This recipe is another Ocado beaut and can be found here, if you shop with Ocado you can add the ingredients straight to your basket. The only changes I made were to substitute the sugar for a light agave syrup and I served mine with brown rice to make it a bit healthier. 

As the recipe states you have to be quick with this and keep constantly frying the veggies in the wok so they don't burn.  You can use fresh or frozen veggies, I prefer fresh (although it takes a bit longer to prepare) as they cook easier, taste better and have more nutrients!

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE

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MY VERSION: WASABI YAKI SOBA

I have a bit of a thing for Japanese food and think I would be in my element if I decided to visit Japan one day. Wagamamas, Dim T and Wasabi are all at the top of my list for a casual meal out or a quick grab and go. When I worked in Central London I would religiously order the Roasted Veg Yaki Soba noodles from Wasabi, which are accidentally vegan (you can check out their allergy info here). Looking at the handful of ingredients in the Yaki Soba I thought this would be easy enough to recreate at home, plus it's always fun to experiment in the kitchen with foods you love. I actually now prefer the home cooked versions of my restaurant faves to the real thing (Read: check out my Wagamamas recipe). At least this way you can control what goes in and you know exactly what your eating!

Ingredients (serves 3):

2 bundles of organic udon or buckwheat soba noodles
Firm organic tofu
Frozen garden peas
1 onion chopped into chunks
2 tbsp oil
Salt
Hot sauce and soy sauce to taste

Instructions:

1. Chop the tofu into large cubes and the onion into chunks.
2. Fry the onion in 1tbsp oil in a large pan till lightly brown.
3. Boil the noodles in a pan of lightly salted water for about 8mins.
4. In a separate pan add 1tbsp of oil and fry the tofu cubes for about 6mins.
5. Meanwhile boil the peas for 4mins in a pan of lightly salted water.
6. When everything is ready drain the noodles and sprinkle them with cold water, toss till they are dry. Then put them into the same large pan as the onions and add the tofu. Drain the peas and add those to the pan. Cook everything in the pan together till warmed through.
7. Add salt, hot sauce and soy sauce to taste. Delicious served with miso soup and vegetable spring rolls.

I'm ready for my close-up.

Healthy tips:

• Skip frying the noodles at the end and just serve the ingredients straight on top of the boiled noodles after draining.
• I usually make this dish with udon noodles but it's a matter of preference and depends on how healthy you want to be, the soba noodles are healthier as they're made from buckwheat.
• You could always try adding more veggies to this dish to make it as nutritious and colourful as you like.

What's your favourite place to eat? Have you ever attempted to make your favourite restaurant dish or adapted it to make it vegan? I'd love to know! 

MY HAPPY PLACE: CAMDEN LOCK

INSPIRAL

Camden is my new happy place - mainly because it's so great for vegans! We took a trip there last weekend, first stop was lunch at Inspiral where we enjoyed a delicious (vegan) lasagne with a mixed salad. You seriously don't know how good this was seeing as it's been such a long time since I last had a lasagne! If your planning to visit Inspiral be warned, it's a bit on the pricey side although I guess that's to be expected when they're using top notch vegan ingredients. It also gets very cosy in there when it's busy (which is pretty much all the time) but that's a great sign of how popular healthy vegan food is! 

We then perused the infamous Camden Lock market and picked up some very fancy laser cut Christmas cards (sorry I was so excited about these I forgot to take a pic). I've been to Camden market in the Summer but somehow it was even more fun browsing the stalls with a cosy Christmas vibe in the air.

I loved these inventive motorbike seats for diners to sit and eat their takeaway's while overlooking the beautiful canal scenery. 

COOKIES AND SCREAM

Last but not least we visited the Cookies and Scream stall as I've been dying to go for ages. It more than lived up to my expectations, I was in vegan heaven with milkshakes, brownies and cakes galore! The 50's diner style outfits were so fun and the whole stall has such a cool spooky theme going on, definitely not your average cake shop. Again it was unbelievably popular, what you can't see in the photos is me leaning over everyone to get these shots! With all their bakes being gluten free, low in fat and using only the finest ingredients I can definately see why. We took home some salted caramel cake and two chocolate donuts, just thinking about them now is making my mouth water.

Hello Salted Caramel Scream shake

The one that came home to mama.

WORKOUT WISHLIST

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While everyone else is thinking about Christmas preparations I'm thinking about workout preparations. A month ago I joined my local gym and while I may have had a habit of letting my workouts fall by the wayside in the past, I'm determined not to let it happen this time (famous last words!). However I have been keeping to my word and going at least 2-3 times a week, the only thing that's slightly hindering my routine at the moment is my kit, I'm in desperate need of some long joggers like the Nike ones in the pic. The thought of going out in my trusty pair of cropped Nike leggings in this weather is enough to send me running straight back to the sofa with a blanket and hot chocolate (I know I'm such a girl). 

My ideal gym kit consists of a couple of pieces I currently own, the BPA free Delta Hydration water bottle by Kor (7) and Mizuno Wave Rider trainers (6) in the hope that I will eventually be able to afford the rest of the wish list items to go with them! Mizuno trainers are the best for running, they're so supportive and bouncy, I bought this pair last year after having my run analysed in my local sports shop. This is where they put you on a treadmill for a few minutes and recommend trainers based on your stride, they also create insoles moulded specifically to your feet which helps to prevent any running injuries, a must for anyone who runs regularly. The Mizuno trainers are coincidentally not made of leather, however I have heard some people online say they may use animal ingredients in their glue (not confirmed) so you might want to check this out by contacting the company. 

I'm all for gym gadgets, whatever makes my workout go quicker and easier is fine by me! The Polar watch (8) counts calories based on your heart rate, which seems a lot more accurate than casually gripping the machine handle bars now and again, not to mention calories burned during floor work and weights. The little iPod shuffle would also be ideal to clip on to my waistband as I'm too worried to run full speed with my iPhone attached to my ears (I also have the habit of forgetting I'm still attached before leaving the machine, does anyone else do that?). 

I've been lusting over the Fjällräven backpack (1) ever since Zooey Deschanel rocked the blue one in New Girl, they're quite expensive but I think I'd get a lot of use out of it, both inside and outside the gym. Plus it matches the Nike Balance tank (3) nicely, it's made from Dri-FIT mesh so you can break a sweat in the most elegant way! 

While it would be nice to have these pretty little extra's to add to my kit I'm not going to let it stop me going to the gym, after all it's only 7 months till Summer so with that scary thought in mind I'm off to workout!...

Do you have any gym kit recommendations?