lunch

breakfast

more pizza

It's Vegan Pizza Day 2011 on the 29th (Saturday) as I will be in Brighton for the weekend I'm going to hit up Pizza Face with my omnivore friends to prove to them that dairy doesn't always = good. 

In the mean time here's some pics of my own home made pizza creations.

Home made garlic and Italian herb pizza base topped with tomato and basil sauce.

Sugar snap peas, marinated artichokes, kale, tofu bits, tomato's, mozzarella and cheddar Cheezly.

Cooked for 10-15 mins.

Look at the melty Cheezly goodness!

Served with rocket and baby leaf salad.

PIZZA RAGE.

Most vegans are more than a little obsessed with pizza. It's true; the quest for the perfect wheat free gluten free crust consumes us. We dream of cheese that melts into perfect stringy goodness. I am no exception. I love pizza. I have all my life, its pretty much my favourite food. So I wasn't going to let a little thing like a dairy free diet keep me from the delights of the dough.

As a rule pizza is pretty easy to veganize if you cut out the cheese. And I've had some awesome cheeseless pizzas in my time, I won't deny it. I make them quite a lot and there are a lot of resteraunts out there willing to whip you up a specialised pie at no extra cost. But to me a proper pizza needs cheese. There's a lot of debate about the best vegan cheese to use for cooking and I won't go into that now but as a rule I use Cheezly or Toffuti (or both) simply because those are the brands that are the most readily available where I live. I have yet to try Daiya, but it sounds divine.

Now, the one time I absolutely crave pizza and nothing else will do in it's place is when I'm a bit worse for wear after a night out. Nothing sorts out hangover blues like the 'za.  Trouble is, when I am hungover I rarely have the patience to make the dough and let it sit etc. For me, the first rule of pizza is the dough must be fresh. None of this pre-made malarkey that's more like glorified flat bread. And if you freeze fresh dough it rarely comes back totally right. Usually the call of the pizza is strong enough to make me drag my ass out of bed and turn on the bread maker,  a lovely little shortcut thanks to its 'Dough' funtion,  but sometimes it all just seems like too much effort. I have two solutions to this dilemma.

The first option is to order in, this has it's pitfalls though. If I fancy cheeseless (rare, the comfort of cheese when I'm hanging is like a compulsion) I usually go for Pizza Express. Their dough is vegan, all the ingredients are fresh and your order is made from scratch. They are however, pick up only. Obviously as a resteraunt they don't have a team of delivery people so when I don't fancy making the trek to town in my pyjamas, Pizza Express is out. Same goes for all the resteraunts I normally get my cheeseless fix from.  

                                                                            Vegan pizza from Pizza Express.

The other choice is Dominos, all the other pizza places near me are overpriced and the food is crap. Dominos are quite expensive but you can order online and they have a good choice of vegetarian toppings. Having said that, the last few times I have ordered from them have been a complete fucking disaster. They've arrived late and cold, with cheese despite my allergy specific order and once with cheese in the crust but not on top and pepperoni hidden strategically under the vegetables so I didn't notice until I took the first bite. Each time the order has been wrong I have called to complain and while sometimes they've remade my order, sometimes they claim the error was because of my crap pizza ordering skills and if I want something else I'll have to pay again. 

                                                   THAT ^  is about as vegan as THIS:

Lady Gaga, while awesome, is not vegan.

Friday night I was in London at my friends 21st. There was much rejoicing and a large amount of tequila was consumed. Unfortunately the Metropolitan line was down on Saturday which meant my journey home was long and a bit of a nightmare. When I finally got in, all I wanted to do was sit down in front of the tv and eat some pizza. Being totally exhausted and feeling lazy, I decided to order from Dominos despite my misgivings. This was my first mistake. Ordering went pretty smoothly, the website was running fine for once. However an hour and a half later when my pizza still hadn't turned up I was getting pretty irritated. I called the store and they tell me that the guy delivering my order had come to my door and knocked but the lights were out and nobody answered so he turned around and left. There's two things wrong with that statement, firstly I have a doorbell and I always specify that it should be rung when deliveries come. Secondly, I had been sitting downstairs in the kitchen (with the lights on funnily enough) waiting for the damn thing to turn up since I ordered it so I would have noticed if it had arrived. I told them this, pointing out that the driver must have gone to the wrong house, and asked why no one had called my contact number only to be told they assumed it was a prank order because it had no cheese on it, so they didn't bother. I asked if they would remake my order and send it out and they said they would, but there would be a second charge. So I told them to get fucked basically and that I expected a full refund. Never again.

By this point I was starving and really pissed off. There was no way I was going to be bothered to make pizza dough now, but I was still craving my fix. This is where my second option came into play. Now I said before that proper pizza dough is vital, but desperate times call for desperate measures and this has happened before. 

The solution? Tortilla wraps.

These bad boys.

 Layer two large tortillas together with a bit of pesto and/or tomato puree in between them to thicken up the base and add some moisture so they wont dry out. 

I use a tomato and basil pasta sauce instead of a fresh tomato sauce on top to save time and sprinkle with granulated garlic, although if you have your own tomato sauce lying around you can use that. 

Next I go through my fridge and any veg lying around in there gets thrown on top. 

This time I found some roast potatos, sugar snap peas, pre roasted courgette, onions, leeks and bell peppers, olives and some garlic tofu. 

 Finally add some cheese and stick in a preheated oven for about twelve minutes. 

 

This is the result. The Lazy Leftover Pizza. Totally vegan, delicious and free. 

Tomato soup is one of my all time favourite foods in the world =] jazzed up with fresh basil and balsamic vinegar.

 Finished off the quinoa, kale and potatos with some home-made olive and tomato pesto, mayo and some raw lentil and bean shoots. Yummy!

Raspberry and vanilla cupcake batter =D it's so pink and pretty!

 

 

 

breakfast

Got a busy few weeks ahead of me, which is pretty exciting.

Making a cake for my friends 21st next weekend, it's a pink theme so trying to decide between cupcakes or a more traditional fondant decorated tier cake. I'll post pictures either way.

Weekend after that I'm heading down to Brighton for the Tattoo Convention.

It's also another friends 31st on the Saturday so we'll be going out for that as well. 

I'm pretty excited, been going to the convention since it started but couldn't afford it last year so really psyched to be going again =] The after party is always a lot of fun; Brighton is my favourite place to go out and there's a lot of really nice places to eat. 
There's so many amazing artists going to the con this year, I'm so tempted to camp out in front of Frith Street's booth to get a walk up with Valerie Vargas. 
But I know I'd be there all day, and she's probably booked up anyway. Sigh. 

I had an interesting afternoon yesterday, went to exercise the horse my mum's been looking after and ran into my sort-of-uncle who I haven't seen since I was about eight. We ended up talking about Buddhist philosophies and veganism for about an hour. Quite bizarre. Then I nearly got mauled by a shetland pony. Which was fun. 

Potato, quinoa and kale bake with broccoli, leeks and onions. This is really yummy and filling, but next time I think I'll mash the potatos rather than pre-boil and cut them to make it more of a traditional 'bake' than just mixed veg.

The potato and kale with 'ham'. Romaine lettuce and sugar snap pea salad on the side with my version of this dressing. 

Quick green salad with leftover risotto on the side and the same dressing as above, also 'honey' mustard dressing.

lets make a sandwich

Mmmm... deli style 'ham' sandwich with romaine lettuce, red pepper and olive pesto, seeds and sprouts on french bread with green olives and crinkly crisps. Trying a new vegan mayo and it is SO FREAKING GOOD. Went a little bit overboard with it as you can see.

fugly food week

I've been fixated on breakfast/brunch foods a lot this week.
And salad. 
Because, well you know....you gotta mix it up.

However I'm having a bit of an issue in that all the pictures I've taken of pretty meals end up looking horrendous and like they belong here.
Meanwhile all my ugly ugly food fails are photographing wonderfully.
It's like some sort of conspiracy.
I blame the terrible light at this time of year...


In other news, I've been watching so much Ace Of Cakes in the last few days... 
Cupcake Wars as well. Can't help but love my cheesy cooking shows. 
Then there's Man Vs. Food. 
My secret shame =p
Some people like to watch dancing-on-ice-with-stars-ultimate-idol-top-model-apprenctice crap. I like to watch Adam Richman test his gastronomical prowess and general capacity for asshattery while smug in the knowledge that I will never have to subject myself to the crap he's consuming. 
Plus it's hella funny.

My uglyass blueberry pancakes with lemon juice and bannana.  
Modified from a recipe from http://thebloomingplatter.blogspot.com/ 
These were yummy despite my inability to form them into anything that actually resembled proper pancakes.

Porridge with bananna, crunchy peanut butter, maple syrup and apple. Again, much nicer than it looks here. Cranberry juice on the side to wash down my vast supply of vitamins and supplements.

Boring looking but delicious 'meat' pie made with Redwood's Cheatin' Deli Mince, onions, peas, gravy, left over roasted potatos and savoury short crust pastry. Nom. First time I'd used the mince and was really pleased with it, added lovely texture and flavour without being too realistically 'meaty' cuz that creeps me the hell out.

Didn't get around to getting any pics of salads, they got eaten too fast. Maybe next week.

Going to Wagamamas with the family tonight which is always a nice treat =] not having to cook for myself and a menu with more than one meal option gets me pretty excited these days. Been doing an awful lot of general cooking at the mo, my brothers girlfriend has pretty much moved in with us so the ratio of vegans/vegetarians to meat eating peoples in the house has shifted in my favour. Means the boys are now eating at least vegetarian since they pretty much never cook but we do and none of us will cook them any meat. Haha. I'm sure eventually they'll crave it enough to make something for themselves, but for now we are an all-vegetable zone. 
Going to enjoy it while it lasts!

don't be a coccyx

I think I've broken my tailbone.

Last night while making my way downstairs to get a glass of water one of my cats did her ninja thing between my feet and tripped me.
I fell hard. It was excrutiating.
Now it hurts to stand up, it hurts to sit down and I can't find a comfy way to fall asleep. So not cool.
It's a pain in the ass (hoho) I am literally butthurt (haha)

In cheerier news, I had my make up New Years Eve hootenany* this evening.

(was very, very sick on NYE and had to cancel my awesome party in favour of worshiping the porcelain god and passing out at five in the afternoon)

* 'Well, a gathering is brie, mellow song stylings; shindig, dip, less mellow song stylings, perhaps a large amount of malt beverage; and hootenanny, well, it's chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny.'

The party was also a welcome home for my friend Rachel, who moved to New Zealand with her family earlier in the summer and has just returned to us. In celebration we had one of our traditional sushi/cupcake evenings. 

 

Below are many pictures, including some of her going away party from the beginning of the year that never got put up.

The going away spread.
The blue cupcakes, sour cream dip and tea cakes aren't vegan; everything else is.

Rachel's leaving cake. Chocolate and raspberry, my own recipe.
Check the epic icing/filling fail. Still tasty though.

Dark chocolate dipped strawberries and cherries. Slightly over exposed pic...

 The welcome home feast: champagne, beer and margarita cupcakes.

 Finally some decent icing. The pic doesn't do the colour justice; it's much more of a light lime green, not mint. Also, check my badass Barry M lavender nail polish =]

 Better pic of the icing and pink sugar sprinkles, also a tequila soaked lime slice on top.

Blueberry pie. A highly demanded dish in my house. Served while still hot, hence the juice.

Quick pic of the fresh blueberries and lemon zest waiting to be poured into the shortcrust pastry.

Also at the last minute did a satsuma and almond double tier upside down cake to use up the fruit left over from Chrismukkah. It's a pretty gross photo, but I promise it tasted delicious.

We also made some totally awesome and delicious sushi with avacado, carrot and bell peppers but it all got devoured before I could get any pictures.

turning it up for '11

I don't think I have ever been so happy to start a new year.

As a rule, I don't really buy into the 'new years' resolution thing.
Why should it have to be the beginning of the year to make positive changes to your life? I know I pick up bad habits irrelevant of the season or month.
Besides, January is the worst time of year to decide you're going to lose weight or quit smoking or go to the gym three times a week. It's cold and usually raining. The holidays have just passed; leaving in their wake a fridge full of extra comfort food and more time spent lazing around in the warm. Everyone's back to work or school and after a few weeks of the same old humdrum toil all your good intentions and fuzzy feelings about changing for the better have vanished under the ever rising tide of day-to-day crap.

Having said all that, I have this year decided to ignore my usual annual cynicism.

2010 was a really, really shit year; so in the interest of not spending another twelve months in a pit of misery, heartbreak and self pity I'm writing it off as a bad job and moving on. And so, the resolutions:

* Keep a blog.
I have tried to start blogs before.
They all ended the same way; a weeks worth of posts then nothing.
But not this time.

* Cook for my family and friends more
I like to cook, they like my food. Simples.

* Eat more raw.

Having been vegan for years I know a lot about the raw lifestyle and its benefits and after a year of being pretty lazy with my diet, its definitely time for a change.

*Pass my English Lit. course.

*Finish designs for my sleeve and get it done by my birthday.

*Pass my driving test.

*Take more photographs and paint more.

There's other things as well but they're a bit more personal and not really internet suitable, but those are a good start.