What a vegan eats in a week part 2.

This is the rest of my what I ate in a week post:

Thursday lunch - salad sandwich and a veggie samosa

Thursday dinner - veggie stir fry

Friday Breakfast - beans on toast

Friday Lunch - roasted red pepper and rice burrito with guacamole, salsa and side salad

Saturday Breakfast - vegan bacon roll

Saturday lunch - vegetable pizza with vegan cheese, dessert - peanut butter and caramel crispy rice square

Saturday Dinner - salad with marinated green olives

Sunday Breakfast - bagel with jam, orange

Sunday lunch - veggie wrap with nachos

Sunday dinner - roast vegetables, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, dessert - fruit salad

I hope you found this interesting and can see that a vegan diet doesn't have to be boring, and can be varied and filling.

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Vegan Vox Organic Shepherd's Pie

Now the nights are a little darker and cooler, we start to crave warm, satisfying, comfort food. What could be more comforting than a piping hot, super Vegan Vox Shepherd's Pie? I made this pie using the veggies from my regular Organic Riverford Veg Box delivery which I reviewed here.

Here is my recipe, serves 4.

Ingredients:

6-7 medium potatoes

3 medium carrots

1 onion

5-6 green beans/French beans

1 small cup of frozen peas

1 packet of Vegan Mince (or a 400g can of organic green lentils, drained)

4 tsp vegan gravy granules

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic salt

A pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire Sauce or Henderson's Relish

Salt and pepper, to taste

Organic soy milk, unsweetened - 3 tbsp

Organic olive oil spread - 1 tbsp

Nutritional Yeast Flakes - 2 tbsp

Olive oil - 1 tbsp

Vegan cheese of choice, grated (optional)

Method:

Wash, peel and chop all of the vegetables.

In one saucepan place the chopped carrots, cover with cold water and a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Let them simmer for 10 minutes, then add the chopped green beans. After a further 10 minutes of simmering, add the frozen peas and simmer for another 5 minutes. Drain and set to one side.

In another large saucepan place the chopped potatoes into salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20-25 minutes until very soft and then drain. Set aside.

In a frying pan saute the chopped onions in the olive oil for a couple of minutes then add the vegan mince (or lentils) and Worcestershire Sauce and saute for a few minutes until soft. Add the vegetables from earlier and stir into the mince mixture.

In a jug place the gravy granules and boiling water to make up 3/4 pint (480ml) of gravy and stir. 

Pour the mince mixture into a casserole dish and pour over the gravy and stir through.

Take the saucepan of drained potatoes and add the soy milk, olive oil spread, cayenne, garlic salt, onion powder, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and mash until combined well. Spoon this mixture all over the top of your pie filling and smooth over with a fork. If you like, you can grate some vegan cheese over the top of the potato.

Place in the oven at 180C for around 20 minutes until the potato has gone golden brown.

Eat and enjoy!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

The Ordinary Vegan - Original Source

It's Monday which means it's time for TOV, a regular feature on the blog which looks at ordinary items available at most shops and supermarkets which happen to be vegan. In a rare departure from food, today it is the turn of Original Source products. If you haven't tried them yet, you should, they are gorgeous! They have a range of shower gels, scrubs, hand washes, a men's range, shave gel, bubble baths, shampoos and conditioners. Many of these products are vegan and are approved by The Vegan Society. In addition to this none of their products are tested on animals and they only use natural ingredients and local ingredients where possible.

Here is a quote from the Original Source website:

WE WILL:

• Never ever consider, or even think of, showering or bathing as a routine
• Always remain curious (enough to worry Laura from Health & Safety)
• Use our senses to discover intense experiences
• Use natural ingredients
• Never tire of looking for new ingredients
• Never stop messing around with new ingredients and packaging
• Never test our products on animals
• Always test our products on ourselves
• Never be wasteful

THE PEOPLE WE WORK WITH:

We are a member of the Aromatherapy Trade Council and also work closely with the Vegan Society. Our products contain either pure and natural essential oils or natural extracts. We're not big fans of flying our products in from here, there and everywhere, so we source and produce as much as we can in the UK. After all, it's nice here.

In our bathroom, we use many of the products including the shower gels and scrubs, hand wash and shave gel. The bottles clearly have the Vegan Society logo on, so it is clear which items are suitable. The Men's range has the logo on the back of the bottle and the Womens/Unisex range has it on the front. The products can be bought from all supermarkets in the UK, as well as Superdrug, Boots, Lloyds Chemist, Bodycare etc. They retail for around £2 a product but can often be found on offer for 99p/2 for £2. They come in a range of delicious fragrances such as Coconut, Mint & Tea Tree, Chocolate Mint, Vanilla & Raspberry, Lime and even a Black Pepper & Chilli for the men! I smell so nice when I get out of the shower! This is my favourite hand wash:

Whilst I know there are many vegan and organic skin care and body care ranges out there, Original Source is available at most High Street shops and that's why I am recommending them for The Ordinary Vegan this week.

Let me know which skin care and body care products you use in the comments below.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews...Hill Biscuits

I adore biscuits! Anyone who knows me in real life knows how much I love biscuits and cookies. When people visit my house, there is often the smell of warm spices, coconut and oats coming from my kitchen. I give handmade biscuits as gifts to friends and I really must share a couple of my vegan biscuit recipes with you all soon!

That said, there are times when you just want to grab a packet of biscuits and a drink and watch your favourite TV show without baking, or it's your turn to bring in the biscuits for the tea run at work. I have noticed since becoming vegan how many biscuits contain dairy products or honey, so I have set myself a mission to find and taste-test some of the vegan biscuits out there to share with you. It's a tough mission!

This is my latest find. Hill Biscuits have been around for over 150 years, they make a wide range of biscuits and cookies, some of these are vegan.

In my nearest Nisa Local store, these biscuits sell for the bargain price of 4 packets for £1.00! For this price, I wasn't expecting much. These are not finest quality, organic ingredients made lovingly by hand and wrapped in exquisite packaging and tied with a pretty ribbon biscuits, but my vegan friends, they have no animal products in them and they are a bargain!  

The first packet I tasted was the Orange Creams. These are lightly flavoured with an orange cream centre and have a vanilla biscuit base. They are quite moreish but don't taste like real orange, more synthetic. 3/5

The next on my list were the Digestive Creams, now these are unusual in that they have sandwiched a vanilla cream between two digestive biscuits. These were addictive. Lots of flavour and not too dry. Lovely dunked in tea and I had to hide the cookie jar from Mr Vox as he couldn't get enough! 5/5

The final selection was the Chocolate Creams, I bought two packs of these in my 4 for £1 deal, so I was hoping for the best. They didn't disappoint! The taste like Bourbon Creams, chocolatey and creamy although they do get a 'bit much' after a couple. That's not necessarily a bad thing (for my waistline anyway) and it curbed my chocolate cravings! 4/5

So next time you are on 'biscuit duty' at work or fancy something chocolatey to dunk in your coffee, try some Hill Biscuits, at least until I post my own Vegan Vox Biscuit recipes anyway!

Please note not all of the biscuits in this deal or in the range are vegan so please check the labels before purchasing, but all of the flavours reviewed on this blog are very much vegan! Yay!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Vegan Vox Pizza and Calzone

Last week I posted my homemade pizza on Instagram and got lots of love for it so I thought I'd post the recipe for those who asked and for the regular Tuesday recipe folks.

Vegan Vox Pizza - makes 2 large pizzas - serves 4 hungry vegans!

Ingredients:

For the dough you will need:

275 ml of tepid water

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

450 g strong bread flour

2.5 tsp instant or fast-acting dried yeast (1 x 7 g sachet)

For the toppings:

Pizza toppings are personal but I used:

passata with herbs

roasted red peppers

red onion

sweetcorn

jalapenos

green olives

Cheezly Mozzarella Style (grated)

Italian herbs

black pepper

olive oil

Method:

I use a bread-maker on dough setting for the dough but you can easily make this dough by hand. Pour the water into the bread-maker bucket or bowl. then add the oil, salt and sugar. Cover with the flour and then sprinkle on the yeast. If combining by hand knead for a good 10-15 minutes to combine the ingredients and then leave to prove. After one hour, knock back and then prove again for a further hour. Once the dough is ready remove the dough from the bucket or bowl and turn onto a floured surface and quickly knead. Divide the dough in half and roll each piece into a round disc. Place the rolled dough onto an oiled and floured 12" pizza tin or baking sheet.

Cover with sauce and toppings to within 1" of the edge of the pizza and and then cover with oiled clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking. This gives a nice crispy base. 

Preheat the oven to 220C and bake the pizza for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

Calzone option:

This can easily be adapted to make calzone (this dough makes 8 small calzone). Brush the edges of the 8 small circles with water, cover half of your circle with your filling, fold over the dough and seal. Transfer to a greased baking sheet, cover with a clean towel and leave to prove for 10 minutes. Brush with olive oil and bake in the 220C oven for 12 minutes, then turn over, brush the other side and bake for a further 10-12 minutes until golden.

Let me know your favourite pizza combinations in the comments below or @veganvoxblog on Twitter, I would love to see your VV Pizza pictures too.

I have tried many different vegan cheese options on a pizza but so far the Cheezly mozzarella style grated is my favourite for melting and taste.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx