Food swap & a new falafel joint.

This weekend was pretty rad! Nick was around all weekend so we got to hang out loads, yay! We went shopping for fun ingredients for Vegan Eats World recipes on Saturday and whilst we were out we checked out the new falafel place on Sydney Street called We Heart Falafel.

We Heart Falafel make a vegan falafel wrap and a falafel salad bowl as well as some things with cheese in that we didn't pay attention to! The wrap and the bowl are vegan if you leave off the yoghurt sauce. I was a little disappointed when I realised that the only vegan sauce was chilli (allergies!), why no tahini sauce? But I was soon happy again after I tasted this delicious wrap.

It has hummus so it didn't really need another sauce and it was stuffed full of falafel and yummy salad which included crispy lettuce, beetroot, tomato & grated carrot. I loved this slightly toasted wrap & at £3.50 it's a total bargain. I'll definitely be eating it again soon.

On Saturday night we went to the Reclaim The Night march organised by Brighton Feminist Collective. It was such an amazing and inspiring evening. I was stewarding which meant that I helped keep people outa the way of oncoming traffic & I got to wear a fluorescent jacket! There's a video of the march and some of the speeches and poetry at the rally afterwards here.

On Sunday we dyed our hair, I've been bored of my blonde hair for a while now & I'm excited that it's pink & blue again!

My UK Vegan Food Swap package arrived just before the weekend and even if the box had been empty I think I'd have still been happy! Look...

I love Hello Kitty! How did they know?!! Normally I re-use boxes asap to send stuff but I might have to keep this one for storing things in! Unsurprisingly the stuff inside the box was great too.

The package included Love Hearts, banana chips, lots of healthy bars, Kettle Vegetable Chips, pea & hemp protein powders, a Cat & The Cream cupcake and an adorable card.

The cupcake didn't survive so well in the post and the cake part had dried out a little but the frosting was still absolutely delicious. I ate the Love Hearts at the Reclaim The Night rally, they were fun to pass out to friends new & old, and the vegi crisps lasted the time it took for me to drink a Hollows Ginger Beer. What a perfect combo! I've been a bit slack at sending my parcel out but I'm heading to the post office right after I publish this, I promise!

I also recently received a package of Trek bars from the people over at Natural Balance Foods. They sent me a whole box of my favourite flavour, Cocoa Brownie. Yum!

The people at Natural Balance Foods are also the people behind the Nákd bars I know & love. Small world! I still haven't tried the new Cafe Mocha flavour or the Cherry Infused Raisins, I'll have to try to pick some up when I head to the post office.

Last time I posted that my copy of Vegan Eats World had arrived, I've been steadily collecting ingredients and trying out new recipes and I'm loving it so far. My next post will be all about what I've made, see ya soon!

MoFo might be over but I'm still here!

So, Vegan MoFo is over for another year but unlike past years I'm feeling less burnt out and more determined to keep on blogging regularly. Usually after MoFo I end up taking a two month blogging break and when I come back the blog is filled with travel posts. This year I'm going to try to inject some home cookin' & eatin' into the blog all year round, I am Vegan In Brighton after all!

This week I tried a new seitan recipe, the Chicken Style Seitan from Vegan Diner.

This is probably one of the easiest seitans I've ever made, there isn't even any kneading, just throw everything into a bowl and stir. It gets wrapped in a tea towel & steamed for 50 minutes. Mine was still a little soggy in the middle after 50 though so next time I'd give it a full hour.

What did you make with this seitan I hear you ask, well, firstly I made a delicious sandwich with cranberry sauce. The Thanksgiving flavours of the seitan worked perfectly here and I'll definitely be repeating this tasty sandwich before the loaf-o-seitan runs out. Secondly I made a stew I'd been eyeing on the PPK for a while, the Seitan Porcini Beef Stew. Now a chicken style seitan probably isn't the perfect choice for this recipe but I figured what the hell!

The meatiness in the stew comes from the seitan, porcini mushrooms and beef broth. I used the Edward & Sons bullion cubes I brought back from the US. This thick & flavourful stew was really easy to make, a bit of chopping but nothing complicated. I'll definitely be making this again.

On Friday night Nick & I went to the Gourmet Girls Pop Up Restaurant at Fanny's of Hannover. This week they has a special menu of their favourite dishes for World Vegan Day & it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate.

The first course was what immediately tempted me to book our spot at this dinner and boy was I glad I did. This Roasted Pumpkin & Cashew Cheese Ravioli was perfect.

I'm a huge fan of stuffed pastas and this heavy-on-the-cashew-cheese filling exceeded my expectations. The pine nut & sage butter complimented the ravioli beautifully and I only wished that there was more of it!

The main course of Smoked Garlic & Mushroom Arancini nestled on wilted spinach & served with a macadamia nut truffle cream and a watercress, pomegranate & rawmesan salad with a balsamic reduction was, of course, as amazing as it sounds. It looked so amazing that I actually forgot to take a picture of it! Luckily for you, if you want to take a look, I've eaten a very similar dish before at the Gourmet Girls Pop-Up, back when it was popping up at secret locations all over the city. I have to say that this time around it was even better, the macadamia truffle cream was amazing and added an extra something to the dish.

For dessert the Gourmet Girls made their Divine Chocolate Marble Cheesecake.

This comes with a chocolate orange & maca sauce and it's deeeelicious! A year and a half ago when I last tried it I was a huge cheesecake hater and I still quite enjoyed it, this time around I loved it. I think that I might finally like cheesecake but only if it's really fucking good! Nick said that it's the best cheesecake he's ever tasted & he's an actual cheesecake fan!

As it was World Vegan Day we even got gifts, cocoa and white chocolate buttons. Such a lovely touch and a wonderful surprise ending to an amazing meal.

If you haven't been to the Gourmet Girl's Pop-Up yet what are you waiting for? Check out the upcoming menus right here & get ready for wonderful meal.

The last exciting thing of the week was this package arriving from The Book Depository. Finally the two cookbooks the MoFo blogosphere was going crazy for this year are mine.

I'm super excited about both Artisan Vegan Cheese and Vegan Eats World. The rave reviews I've read and the pictures I've seen from Artisan Vegan Cheese were enough for me to get overexcited without even seeing the book & I can't wait to get started with some home cheese making.

Even before reading anything about Vegan Eats World I knew that I'd be buying it, Terry Hope Romero could release a book about something I had no interest in and I'd probably still buy it, use it & love it but a world cookbook is exactly what my collection needs. I love Chinese and Japanese food already but I hardly ever tackle them myself and I'm excited to try cooking up Thai, Indian and Middle Eastern food too. The other thing about this book is that it's stunning, seriously, so pretty. It has a similar layout to Veganomicon which I love and Terry's writing style always makes me smile. I have a whole list of things I need to buy before I can get cooking but I can't wait & I'm sure I'll be telling you all about it soon.

What I Ate Wednesday - Halloween

Yeah, that's right, I'm going back to one of my themes! This morning for breakfast I had some of this new cereal...

...mixed into one of my favourite yoghurts. I love the new Alpro yoghurts that come in the two packs. There are two flavour options, cherry or peach, and somehow Alpro have managed to make a creamy fruity yoghurt that isn't too sweet. They're perfect.

For lunch I just recreated what I made yesterday, it was even easier this time because I just needed to reheat the cauliflower and boil the soba noodles.

My afternoon snack was a chocolate extravaganza, Kallo Dark Chocolate Rice Cakes...

...followed by a Nature's Path Chococonut Bar.

Those rice cakes are one of my favourite ever snacks, I also got this great tip from Christina - spread them with peanut butter. It makes them even more epic! I discovered the Chococonut bars when I was in NYC earlier this year and I'm a little obsessed with them. They're chewy, sweet and full of chocolate chips. I brought three boxes back from Austin and I wish we could get honey free granola bars like this over here. You can also see my Halloween nails in that picture, I'm wearing Orly's Fowl Play. I have the classic black with orange accents on my toes using Barry M Black and Orly Orange Punch.

Dinner was a classic British meal with both a vegan & a Halloween twist! We had the Redwood Foods Fish-Style Steaks with mashed potato ghosts, peas & corn.

I got the mashed potato ghost idea from River at Wing-It-Vegan, mine are a little less fluffy because I made Caulipots with skin on potatoes. I also used capers for eyes instead of ketchup because I'm not a massive ketchup fan.

I can't believe MoFo's over for another year! It's been awesome as always, I've loved writing every day, reading everyones blogs and getting to be part of the MoFo team for the first time. See y'all soon!

Vegan MoFo Day 30 - When themes go outa the window!

As you might've noticed my theme's have totally gone outa the window in the last week or so. I'm quickly realising that running a bakery from a pretty tiny kitchen and managing to get any other cooking done is really hard! I'm using all of my surfaces, oven, bowls, measuring cups and spoons to bake cupcakes meaning that there's nothing left to cook with!

I'm getting a little better at it now though, I had a mini freakout last week when I felt dizzy and sick and realised that all I'd eaten all day was frosting, Clif bars and a yoghurt. Yuch. After Nick brought me some takeout I calmed down & realised that I just needed to plan a little better. Today I made myself food before starting to bake. Yeah, I'm a genius!

I wanted something simple and what's easier to throw together than a bowl. Isa Chandra Moskowitz is the master of The Bowl so I turned to The PPK for ideas. This Roasty Soba Bowl with Miso Tahini jumped out at me and I even had all of the ingredients in the house... well, kinda!

I used chickpeas instead of lentils, green tea soba noodles instead of regular and I made the roasted cauliflower recipe from Appetite For Reduction instead of the slightly simpler version in this recipe. I looooved this bowl. I was really unsure about the dill, I bought it to try to make myself like dill and it totally worked - it's a miracle! Everything about this bowl was awesome, I love noodles, the miso tahini sauce was amazingly creamy and there are even leftovers for tomorrow. Perfect!

Sunday on a Monday.

Because Nick works in retail he often works on a Saturday meaning that our lazy Sunday is often really a Monday! It's kinda fun hanging out when other people are working - it makes you feel like you're bunking off & it's awesome because things like Moshimo Monday exist and everything's quieter - especially the beach in summer or the shops at Christmas time.

Today we slept in, went food shopping, watched a classic Bond movie and made dinner together. I spotted this Roasted Butternut Alfredo recipe on The PPK yesterday and I knew immediately that I'd love it. A creamy cashew based sauce, nooch, squash, sage and wine are all winners in my book. I also happened to have the exact amount of roasted squash needed for a half recipe in the fridge, how serendipitous!

I really loved this dish, the flavours worked perfectly together (no surprise there with an Isa recipe!), it was easy to make and I had all of the ingredients in the house already. Nick hates onions but I refuse to leave something so flavourful out of a recipe so we spent a while picking the onion out of his half quite unsuccessfully! Nick doesn't really like squash either so whilst I'll definitely be making this again I'll probably save it for days when we aren't having dinner together!

After dinner we made hot chocolate & I had mine in my favourite mug...

...it looks like I have a monster hand!! Brilliant! I hope you're having a good Monday? I can't believe Vegan MoFo's coming to an end so soon. It feels like the quickest one yet and whilst I'm feeling a little bit of the infamous MoFo Burnout™ (my theme's have certainly fallen by the wayside!) I'm determined to keep posting and commenting as much as possible right until the very end!

Football Food Sunday - Nachos

Today is the last Football Food Sunday of Vegan MoFo 2012 and I finally made something I've had on the to-make list since MoFo 2010. Nachos. I tried to think back to the kind of nachos I would get in the pub as a vegetarian, there was always cheese, guac, salsa, sour cream and chilli. I've never been a fan of chilli so I'd order them without. I do however love refried beans so I decided to serve the nachos with them instead.

This picture doesn't really show how much stuff I ended up throwing on these, I was trying to get a pretty picture and I ended up putting loads more toppings on afterwards.

I used Isa's Cashew Queso as my cheese. I'd wanted to try it for ages and the vegan friend we invited over to eat with us this arvo isn't a fan of commercial vegan cheeses. We all LOVED this Cashew Queso. Seriously, it's ridiculous, make it now! It's not even difficult and we just kept pouring more and more onto our ever expanding plates!

I used store bought refried beans but added smoked paprika, onion powder and chilli powder to perk it up a little. The guacamole was just a super simple avo, salt, pepper, lemon juice mix because that's how I like it! The salsa was a store bought mild salsa from Sainsburys which I surprised myself by enjoying. I always, always, used to find even the mildest of salsas too hot but I think my spice-tolerance is finally improving. Yay! I used Toffuti sour cream as the sour cream replacement, I love that stuff. I feel like it's a really good dupe of the sour cream I remember (I did probably only ever eat it twice though!) and it's a surprisingly epic addition to any pizza.

Even after all of that we managed to squeeze in some dessert. Nick & I popped to Infinity Foods this morning and grabbed three of these new Razzle Dazzle Ice chocolate mint sorbets.

These new nut free iced treats taste exactly like After Eights! I love discovering fun new vegan products and I really like that these come in both large and mini tubs. We'll definitely be buying them again.

On Thursday night I cooked a roast dinner with the Field Roast we brought back from the USA & this evening I made a sandwich with the leftovers. Warm Field Roast & Cranberry Sauce. Perfect.

I love Football Food Sunday - it's the one theme that's stuck with me since I first started MoFoing and I expect that it'll be back next year!