A tomatoey stew with roast squash

I was using up some veg so I cooked an onion, a pepper and some garlic in a little oil then added some chopped fresh tomatoes and a tin of mixed pulses (which also had barley in). Seasoned it with some tomato puree and sweet fennel. Once the veg were cooked I wilted in some kale. Meanwhile I sliced and roasted a Crown Prince Squash which I seasoned with some medium smoked paprika. Very tasty stuff!

Curried aubergine and potato pie

Curried aubergine & potato pie recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food
My mum just made this for me and it was delish. My only tip is to cut the aubergine quite small, or else maybe precook it as some of the chunks were a little undercooked. Otherwise very yummy and filling too- you only need a salad or green veg with it!

Healthy Surprise #2

Got my second box from Healthy Surprise. Went for the medium this time as the postage is cheaper and I don't really need so much.... Not really!
So this time I got:
Nori wrapped power wraps
Pumpkin sprouties
Live Smart flax bar
Hail Merry vanilla maple almonds
Mango Joebar
Peter Rabbit two strawberry and banana snacks
Home Free vanilla cookies
Olomomo chai bliss almonds
Pitaya Plus dried pitaya
Hail Merry lemon thyme pecans
Skinny Crisps cinnamon crisps
Sea Snax
Fuji apple crisps
Buffalo Bill cowboy kale chips
Fearless exploding coconut chocolate
Sunridge Farms sliced almonds

I will of course report back on how everything is as I eat my way through it all! Can't wait to try the lemon thyme pecans and the cowboy kale chips. And the chocolate and the cinnamon crisps. ALL of it really!!!

A quick and easy minestrone

Once again this was soooooo good, I forgot to take a pic! But you can imagine in your own head what it would look like :-)

Chop the following veg - 1 onion, couple of big garlic cloves, a red pepper, a carrot, a small sweet potato, a chilli, a small bunch of kale or cavolo nero.

Cook in 750ml of stock with a tbsp of tomato puree and 80g of Pedon 10 minute minestrone mix (available in Sainsbury's and Tesco.

Add some oregano or dried fennel and serve - makes two large portions.

HFW strikes again!

I recently saw his recipe for tomato and barley soup so just adapted it - it may be totally uncheffy but I LIKE the skins and pips of tomatoes lol!!

So you roast about a dozen big cherry tomatoes, halved and sprayed with oil, for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile fry off some chopped onion, garlic and chilli flakes then add 60g barley and about 500ml of stock and cook until the barley is done, about half an hour. Stir in the tomatoes, smushing them up, a tbsp of tomato puree, lots of chopped basil and black pepper.

It was meant to serve two but I ate it all!!

Healthy Surprise!

These are the contents of my Healthy Surprise box all the way from the U S of A via www.healthysurprise.com. What a lovely surprise for coming home from my holidays! I got a HUGE box of yummy treats (a large box, but the postage doesn't work out so well on those). Everything is vegan and interesting and looks super tasty. They can ship a medium size box here for only $25 postage which is excellent and their service is really friendly and helpful.

So... What's in the box???
Two  That's It apple and mango bars
Cocomo Corn caramel corn
Go Raw lemon super cookies
Home Free chocolate chip cookies
Gone Nuts cilantro pistachios and pepitas
Pitaya Plus dried pitaya
Skinny Crisps brownie crisps
Gone Nuts curry almonds cashews and coconut
Home Free crunchy vanilla cookies
Alive and Radiant kale krunch
Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips
Pitaya and mango juice
Coffee joebar
Hail Merry grawnola
Wonderfully Raw cocoroons
Raw Mio chocolate bark
Bobs Oat Bars chocolate almond
Larabar chocolate chip brownie
Happy Hemp toasted hemp seeds
Hail Merry pecans
Larabar chocolate chip cookie dough
Larabar chocolate chip cherry
Larabar blueberry muffin
Bobs Oat Bars peach
Thunderbird cherry walnut crunch
Wow wow wow!! Will share below thoughts as I try things!

Fresh borlotti bean soup

Let's just say this soup was SOOOOO good, I ate the whole pot and forgot to take a picture!! Picked up some fresh borlotti beans on holiday and got cooking some of them today. They take about 35mins to cook in water - don't add any salt - then simply add to this recipe. I usually can't get fresh so just use canned - about half a can - of any beans you choose.

1 leek, chopped
1 courgette, diced
100g cooked borlotti beans
juice of half a lemon
pinch of chilli flakes
500ml veg stock
1/2 bag of spinach

Cook the veg in stock with lemon juice and chilli flakes - add the beans when it comes to the boil and cook for about 10 mins until the leeks are done. Add spinach, stir to wilt and serve. Did I mention this is SOOOO good??!!

What to do with a large courgette

Thanks to a lovely colleague, I found myself with a very large courgette. It wasn't quite big enough to stuff in rings so I cut it into rounds and roasted it for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile I cooked 60g of basmati rice then stirred in a chopped chilli and a tbsp of spicy mango chutney.
I arranged the roast courgettes into what can only be described as a henge and filled the middle with the rice. Sprinkled over some Jamie Olive hot Indian salt. Very easy and yummy!

Bad times!

Hi all and sorry for the lack of posts recently. I had taken lots of photos to add... Then my phone died and I lost them ALL :(

But I am back online now and promise lots of blog posts starting from today!

Edinburgh food photos

The above are from Urban Angel and Beirut.

 All of the above are from dinner at Henderson's.

 Fajitas at Ryan's.

 Loads of yummy food at David Bann.

Below is a spud with veggie haggis and sweetcorn from the Baked Potato Shop.

London food photos

The above are all from Woodlands South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Marylebone Lane.

Salads from Wholefoods Market in South Kensington.

Yummy plates at Tibbits, Regent St.

Mildred's in Soho.