Our night out in the veggie pub

Last week, we ( charity shop thursday team) went out to our little christmas do in the suffolk veggie gastro pub. I went there twice before, and thought foods were alright. ( hard to please a chef....) Good thing about menu in the place like that is I can eat anything on the menu. No meat, no fish!!! But they use cheese, wheat, gluten products and sugar. Never mind. I don't eat out often, so, once in a while is allowed! And I enjoyed my dessert... selection of sorbet! I do love lemon sorbet. Last restaurant I used to work, my pastry chef loved her lemon sorbet, so we used to make it really lemoney and sweet. It was the best lemon sorbert. I kind of miss sometimes, making own ice creams and sorbets. Defo this year, I'd like to make my own. Vegan icecreams and sugarfree sorbet etc. I got a ice cream machine, Marcus has very good blender. I've got an idea in my head I want to experliment. Wow, even just thinking about it, I get excited. I do love messing round with foods to create something yummy. Last week I made tofu again, but this time I mixed lemon pepper and greek dried oregano into my tofu mixture and let it set. It was perferct with salad or even broth. 

Anyway, go back to the veggie pub night out, this is our Thursday crew.

And this is what I had for my main.

It's chestnut pudding in veg suet paste. It was quite nice to start off with , but about half way though I got bord eating it. I love chestnuts, but the filling inside was too rich for me. I think it was cooked and reduced, very syrupy consistancy inside. I left pastly too. It was too filling.  To be honest, the meal was far nicer than one I had when I went out with my other work. I had selection of sorbet for my dessert, and it was yummy. This is Marggie and her dessert( she had a cheese cake)

And this is Pouline and Sylvia.

 Looks like we had loads of empty drinks, they are soft drinks mainly though. I only drink soft drinks. So as these ladies. They don't drink much(virtually none to me). Oh, sorbets in glass coupe is my dessert. I asked for vegan option. And this was what I got. Basically, without chocolate basket. 

 We all enjoyed our night out. When we went out side after our meal, Jupitor was shining and Olion and Seven stars were smiling at us. We decided we'd like to go there again in summer.

pre-christmas detox

It's nearly Christmas. Everyone around me have been busy getting ready for Christmas. For me, nothing changes even Christmas. This Sunday is as same as any other Sunday for me. I'm cooking massive dinner for old people at work. Some thing people say I get pissed off( not badly though) is this question: "are you ready for Christmas???" and " have you finished Christmas shopping??" I'm not barhamba(not sure spelling...later Marcus will correct it...), buuuuut, what do I need to get ready for? Christmas shopping? my friends and boyfriend have things they need in their lives, and I don't wanna get anything they don't want. Otherwise they get wasted!!! I can see point in Christmas if someone with kids or religious people. Christmas has became money spending consumer product! Anyway, I had 3 Christmas get together parties (works) last week, I had lots of naughty foods( wheat, sugar and some dairy products) , felt very sluggish. So, I did 1 week detox which involved 3 day fasting( on fluid). During my fluid fasting, I had naked smoothies for breakfast and dinner, rest of the day, I just had peppermint teas and mineral water. After my detox, I felt brilliant! What I like about fasting is I feel very calm during fasting. I was told that was perhaps I couldn't be bothered due to my hunger. Actually, what I was doing was that: to eliminate thoughts and actions which I used my energy wastefully, which means I lowered my stress level by doing or thinking only I needed to do then. I didn't do or think anything I didn't have to do that point. And I usually take my time when I fast. My taste buds and smell get sensitive too. Last time I did fasting ( with special lemonade), I tasted differences between Evian water and volvic, local mineral water etc. I was very excited to start eating again too. I even put some rice cakes and pumpkin butter on work top in my kitchen on last night of fasting. Following morning, I woke up really early and had my breakfast. It was yummy!!!  This is what I made during my detox. And looking forward to eat them! My favo snacks!!!

Energy balls and carob and vanilla coffee squares. They are perfect snacks especially when I feel a bit peckish. And I love them. No added sugar, wheat free, gluten free and vegan.  Sadly, I already had very naughty foods....I always have good intentions to do fasting, detox and staying healthy. But it doesn't last long. If I stop working in the residential home, my diet will be perfect. Not sure when I can get a new job....never mind, I keep trying to overcome my sugar addiction!!! Even I rel apes, I can anytime start again! Oh, theses biscuits were made by my friend, Andy's kids (and mum). Gluten free vegan biscuits. They were part of some nibbles(cup cakes and mince pies) from our Tuesday night sessions(core training, qi-gong and combat fighting). They were yummy too. Arrrr, bless them.

They look cute too❀❀❀ Andy's kids love baking. When I saw them making cupcakes with Louise(mum), they looked really enjoying themselves. Reminded me when I was a child. I used to cook and bake quite often. I made loads of biscuits, cakes, and choux buns but I made far too much, my mum used to tell me off! Me and my brother ate them all though. I think that was one of reasons why I was chubby as a child. I still am! Good to enjoy yummy foods!

vegan coffee cake and me

I do love coffee and walnuts cake with nice strong mug of (decaf) coffee. Since I cut down on sugar I haven't really had much coffee cake. And, usually when I eat they are either staled, dry or doesn't taste coffee enough for me anyway. So, of course I prefer making my own coffee cake. Last week, I had coffee cake cravings when I got back from work, so I made some. I used hemp flour and gluten free flour(half and half), made crumbs with coconut butter, mixed with tofu mix(tofu and oat milk or soya milk blitzed), 5-6 heaped strong coffee(I made strong liquid),maple syrup, vanilla, flaxeed mills to make cake mix. then spooned into muffin cups. I baked about 20mins or so. And there were delicious! Of course, they went really quickly. I made another batch. But this time I made sugar free coffee chocolate topping! And even better! I made choco topping with coconut butter, really small chopped cacao nibs, and sugar free coffee chocolate. I loved the topping! I don't really have recipe, I make up as I go. But I do use my old recipes from my restaurant days, and adapt them into healthier options. I think any recipes in magazines or cooking books are easy to adapt to your own taste or healthy foods. I stopped buying cooking books long time ago. I do like flicking through them when I see some books which are interesting or strange vegan cooking books. They are fun. I haven't seen vegan cup cake book yet! Oh, I might treat myself for my Christmas present from me to me! I do that every year( just an excuse for retail therapy. I bought i-pod touch off Tony last year!). My expense this month and last month were more than what usually goes out, so I needed to earn extra cash selling my stuffs on eBay. And, next month too. I need to pay my course fee..... anyway, I always go to my favo supermarket on Thu and Fri arvo for reduced products. I've been on budget for a while, I just love finding bargains. Salad with some tofu, rice noodles with (reduced packet of mixed vegetable) steam fry vegetables, I do sprouts some beans and alfalfa(which saves me a bit of money), juicing, rice salad etc, and actually not bad so far, I got some foods in my cupboard too, so I just need to eat that too.  I must be careful not to eat same foods every day, I don't really wanna develop food allergy..... That's another thing, if I like something, I eat same thing almost every day till I get board. Luckily, I get board really quickly, that's one of reasons why my cupboards are full of foods!( I'm not sure if it's good thing or not) Anyway, these are what I made.

These were my savoury carrot cake I made when I had a day off last week. I fancied some savoury muffins, but I didn't have lots of ingredients to make any fancy cake. So I grated some carrots, add some seeds, seaweed, vegan pesto and avocado to make cake mix. Actually, taste wasn't too bad. They didn't last long though, lasted about 3 days. By 4th day, started to go off. I think first a couple of days were the best with some nice green soup.