Sunday 7 October 2012

Fork Yeah It's Football Food Sunday!

Finally, the much anticipated (by my husband anyway!), Football Food Sunday is here. Woot Woot! This is the time of year where we get amped up about sport, I'm way more into it than I was last year, and embrace all things American. Now Football Food is kinda something I made up and to me it symbolises the kind of food you might get served at a stadium or sports bar, a really cool, really vegan-tastic stadium or sports bar!

This year, as an ode to Austin, we decided to start with tacos! We had actually never eaten a soft taco before our visit to Austin and our love affair with the Whole Foods breakfast taco. We'd tried hard shell tacos before and had a gotten it on with plenty of burritos but tacos are our favourite.

As you might've seen in this post we brought back some fun stuff from the USA including both Soy Curls and tortillas. I whipped out my copy of Vegan Diner and finally got to try a recipe I've been salivating over since I set eyes on it, the Smoky Curls.


The only things I had to buy for this were the fresh veggies, coriander and lime and, although I coulda made 'em myself, I also bought a tin of refried beans. It's Football Food Sunday, I think a little laziness is called for!


Alongside the Smoky Curls and refried beans we had guac, cilantro lime rice and tomatoes, well I had tomatoes, you couldn't pay Nick to eat a tomato! Everything came together really easily and I would only change a couple of things next time. Firstly, I'm going to buy myself a smaller cast iron pan. I wanted to be able to warm the tortillas in my cast iron so I had to cook the soy curls in my other pan but I think they woulda gotten crispier and more delicious in the cast iron. Secondly, I would add a little spice to my beans! I didn't realise until afterwards that these beans have no spice in them AT ALL! This brand of beans has always been A-ok with me in the past which thankfully means that my taste buds must finally be evolving. Next time I'll be adding a pinch of chilli powder and some extra garlic powder.


We absolutely loved our first attempt at tacos! The Smoky Curls were delicious, I'll definitely be making them again, and I'm looking forward to honing my taco making skills.

It's lounging on the couch watching football time now, earlier today I ran my first ever race & I'm feeling a little tired! Myself & three of my Brighton Feminist Collective buddies ran an 8k as a relay for local domestic violence charity Rise. Now I know that 2k isn't very far at all (apparently my brother laughed when my dad told him how far we were running - he ran a half marathon today!) but it was a big deal for me. I'm not what you'd call a natural runner and I was surprised to discover when training for this that I find running outside MUCH harder than running on a treadmill! 

 I'm number 60!

I'm super excited about running now, we managed to raise £395 for Rise (super close to our target!) and I hope that I'll be able to run the full 8k next year!

26 comments:

  1. Yesssss, football food is back! I love these posts. I'm super jealous that you got to make the smoky curls, I've heard everyone raving about them but we don't have soy curls here either. I'm going to need an extra suitcase just for ingredients after Vida Vegan!

    And running 2km is better than I could have done! Well done and congratulations on raising so much money!

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    1. Thank you! And yeah I'm worried about the amount of stuff I'm gonna have to try to haul back from Portland on my own, usually I have Nick to split the load with!

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  2. Football Sunday returns!! And excellent job on your race today!! A distance is a distance, no matter what others think.

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  3. Fun to see how American stuff through someone else's eyes. I've heard Brighton is a very vegan-friendly place--is that true? Good job on the 2K for good cause!

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    1. Thanks! Brighton certainly is very vegan friendly, I feel like UK cities don't quite compare with American ones in terms of vegan friendliness but that could be a case of "the grass is always greener"! I have a Brighton section on the blog with all the vegan friendly places I've been to here http://veganinbrighton.blogspot.co.uk/p/brighton.html

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  4. Yay on your race! And I live on the edge-I warm tortillas directly on the fire! I love it when they get a little char marked! In my defense I learned this technique from a Mexican family member :)

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    1. Nice! I could not be trusted with a directly on the fire approach!! Sorry you were forced to watch football too, it's never fun watching something you hate!

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  5. Ugh, and I'm visiting family so was forced to watch football today, and watched a guy get injured in the redskins/falcons game. :(

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  6. Wait, that previous comment is kind of a downer, isn't it? I'm sorry! So not used to watching it, as you already know!

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  7. So glad you were initiated into the yum of soft tacos! We had them for dinner tonight ourselves!

    xo
    kittee

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  8. I STILL HAVE NEVER HAD SOY CURLS. Must remedy that soon!

    Congrats on the race, great job!

    XOXO

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  9. Congrats on the run! I'm no runner either, so it's quite impressive to me, what you did.

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    1. Awww thanks! If you'd told me three years ago I'd have run for a bus I woulda laughed so I'm quite shocked myself!

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  10. I've been ogling that soy curls recipe for a while - is there anything you can get over here you sub the curls with, do you reckon?

    Props on the run. If I run for the bus, I consider that a massive exercise day, so 2k sounds pretty cool to me!

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    1. Ha, thanks! As for a soy curl sub, I don't think so :-(

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  11. Congratulations on the run and the fund raising :) And soy curls are yet to enter my mouth - I seriously need to try them.

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  12. I love your football food posts, tacos are the perfect way to kick it off. Your tacos look delicious, I keep drooling every time I see these soy curls in posts. Congrats on the run too!

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  13. I love the sound of the smoky soy curls recipe too, it's a shame we can't buy them over here.

    Congrats on the run! Proud of ya! :) xxxx

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  14. Looks delicious! I was thinking of you and your race during my race yesterday. You guys rock!

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  15. Congratulations on the race!

    And your tacos look delicious. Love the idea of lime in the rice!

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    1. Thanks! And I think I stole the lime rice idea from Viva Vegan!

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  16. I love the look of your taco's. I've not had them before but definitely think I will give them a try, although I might be watching Homeland instead of American football! I totally agree that running outside is much harder than on a treadmill. I ran on a treadmill for six months, building up pace and stamina, before running outside for the first time since school and couldn't believe how different it was! I love running now though, I think it's great that you raised so much for charity :) Vegan runners are the best! :P

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  17. Fork me do I ever love soft tacos! Those smoky soy curls are the best!
    Congrats on the race, I'm no natural runner either and I think 2k is a total accomplishment.

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