Supermarket Siesta Event

September 8, 2016 | Rhiannon

If you have been paying any attention to our Instagram stories lately, you might have seen my visit to the Supermarket Siesta event! I was invited along by Pet Shop UK to enjoy an afternoon of seeing all the things you can order direct from the companies involved, rather than going to the supermarket.

I posted a Vine on Monday about the event, which you will see at the bottom of this post, but for now here’s a few photos and what it was like to attend!

The first goodies I saw as I came through the door were these samples from farmdrop, which aims to bring produce fresh from the farm to your door in less than 24 hours. The bread, the oil, and the strawberries were fabulous!

Next up I tried some delicious goats’ cheese and cheddar from Market Porter, the best of which was undoubtedly the Westcombe cheddar shown above! The chaps at this stand were happy to give a thorough explanation of what makes each cheese special and how it is prepared, which made this mouse pretty happy.

I tried a sample of Whittard tea and actually it was alright – for a big non-tea drinker, that was a big thing! I wasn’t able to say the same at Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, as unfortunately I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy the coffee they were serving. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a coffee fan, perhaps it’s because their representative served it to me boiling hot and then expectantly watched while I took a drink, thus singing my tongue. We’ll never know.

What next? Over to the Biscuiteers workshop, where I had a go at creating a gingerbread person in my own image. I say had a go because you can see I really didn’t succeed. I also had to pick her up and run before she dried properly, so all the icing got smashed up, which was a shame! (spoiler alert: it tasted just as good anyway)

Next up was the feast! This was a huge amount of food laid on for us. The veggie selection include big bowls of salad as well as potato salad, some quiches, and beautiful seeded or white baguette slices. The potato salad was the biggest hit for me!

The last part of the feast was dessert, served in amazing style with Biscuiteers biscuits and cake. I can very first-hand that all of the above were absolutely delicious. I had such a sugar rush from the cake that I think I might have flown back to the tube!

It was a fantastic event and definitely a lot of fun to attend. All of the brands showed their offerings in such a great way, and the setting – at Hello Fresh HQ – was marvellous as well.

Finally, here’s the Vine of how it all unfolded.

August 31, 2016August 30, 2016 | Rhiannon

Having been vegetarian for my whole life, I get asked a lot of questions. Often the same ones over and over again, and sometimes even by the same people. This is my (slightly tongue-in-cheek) response to those FAQs. Believe me, I’ve had enough practice.

Why are you a vegetarian?

Short answer: Because my parents raised me that way. Long answer because I know there will be follow-up questions: Because my parents raised me that way and I love animals. I don’t want to eat them. I don’t see them as food. Actual answer: It’s a personal choice which does not require justification to you or anyone else.

Don’t you get tempted to eat meat?

No.

Yeah, you must get tempted.

Still no.

What you need is a good bacon butty, that’ll sort you out.

No thank you. I’m perfectly fine as I am.

How do you know you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it?

First off, I can smell it, and 90% of meat smells so awful it makes me feel ill. Secondly, I wouldn’t eat it even if I did like it.

You’re missing out. You should try it to see if you like it.

Again, no thanks. I don’t mind missing out if it means animals don’t have to die for me. (Also, I used to eat sweets that contained gelatine and I really like them. Then I found out what gelatine was and I stopped. I’m not tempted to go back even though I know they’re tasty).

Wait, there’s meat in sweets?

Yup. And in some yoghurts, too. And marshmallows. And sometimes crazy things like frosting or coffee. Who knows why.

So you can’t eat any of those things?

I can, but only when the manufacturers are sensible enough to replace it with pectin.

Cavemen weren’t vegetarians, you shouldn’t be either.

Cavemen didn’t have iPhones or skateboards or DSLRs or television shows. I like to believe in this thing called evolution. Besides, there were actually veggie cavemen, according to scientific evidence, they just happened to be in the minority.

Why do you eat meat substitutes if you don’t like meat?

1: Protein. 2: My partner likes it because he still eats meat outside of the house. 3: Why do you eat sweeteners if you don’t want sugar? 4: Some of the newer products are secretly quite tasty, and y’know, burgers are burger-shaped because that’s a sensible shape to fit in the bread. Not because they’re normally made of meat. So really, a veggie burger isn’t a meat substitute, it’s just a different filling, like the difference between a ham sandwich and a cheese one.

Vegetarianism stunts growth/intelligence/isn’t healthy/isn’t good for kids.

Yes, as evidenced by the fact that I died of rickets at age 8. Obviously. Just to state facts, I’ve made it long enough to get a university degree and a mortgage (and no, I’ve never been anemic either).

Do you eat fish?

No, you blithering idiot. Vegetarians don’t eat the flesh of any animal. A person who eats fish but no other meat is a pescetarian. A person who eats fish and calls themselves vegetarian is a liar.

What do you eat then?

Imagine what you eat, then take meat off it. Pizza without the pepperoni. Pasta without the meatballs. Burgers made from vegetables. I actually eat exactly what you eat most of the time. Vegetarian food doesn’t have to be “weird”, it’s just that you aren’t thinking of it as vegetarian when it’s “normal”.

Aren’t all vegetarians super skinny?

Er, no, and it’s kind of rude for you to ask that whilst looking pointedly at my stomach. Anyway, as I said, I eat the same as you. Pizza, burger and chips, ice cream, and cheesecake are some of my top weaknesses.

You’re killing plants!!!

I’m killing the minimum of organisms that I need to stay alive. Not to mention that most plants can regrow fruits or leaves, while most sheep are incapable of growing back legs. Thank you for reminding me of the fact that I can’t save all living things, it does bother me, but there you have it. I’m doing what I can.

Why don’t you eat meat but yet you wear leather?

Firstly, since I’m not telling you to be vegetarian, I’m not being hypocritical if I choose to wear leather. Wearing leather and eating meat are different activities done for different reasons. Secondly, this is actually pleather. Thanks for checking first.

Why don’t you go vegan?

I’m constantly disappointed in myself that I haven’t gone full vegan. I do try to eat vegan where possible and share vegan recipes too. Right now I struggle with my calcium intake when I go off dairy, so that’s my main area to work on. I console myself with the knowledge that I am at least saving the meat stock that would be slaughtered for my consumption if I wasn’t already vegetarian. Plus, I like cheese and eggs. Sorry, chickens and cows/sheep/goats. (Seriously, I am sorry)

Is there anything you dislike about being vegetarian?

Honestly? Yes. Knowing that many restaurants and pubs don’t serve vegetarian food, even in this day and age. Not being able to take some medicines because they are made from animals (or even stupider, because the manufacturers use gelatine to make the pills easier to swallow). Being asked constant questions and having to stand up for my dietary choices, even though it’s my right to eat whatever I like, and even though I consciously don’t preach to others. The fact that other people seem to have a serious problem with it to the point of being aggressive. Oh, and childish anti-veggie jokes, which are on about the equivalent un-PC and old-fashioned level as sexist or racist jokes to me.

What do you like about being vegetarian?

Literally everything else. Although it’s sort of a weird question, because I’ve never been anything else to compare it to.

Is it okay to eat this meat in front of you?

Since you asked me nicely, I’m going to say yes. Go ahead. But honestly? No, it’s gross. It’s like when a smoker stands next to a non-smoker and blows smoke in their face. I don’t want to smell that. But I’m not a giant douchebag, so I won’t dictate your diet if you’re respectful of mine, and yes, you can eat that meat in front of me.

Vine post: Loaded Mexican Muffins

August 29, 2016 | Rhiannon

This little recipe is so amazing, and I can’t tell you how much we loved eating it. We LOVE Mexican food anyway, so these Mexican muffins were definitely an idea we wanted to pursue. We had them for lunch, but you could easily make this a breakfast item or even serve it as part of a bigger meal at dinner.

It’s very simple to make them. You start with an English muffin, cut in half and toasted. Then you spread mole on both sides (we bought a tin of mole, but you could also make your own). You top this with hot refried beans, and then add guacamole and sour cream. You could also just smash up an avocado with lemon juice if you don’t have any guacamole on hand!

Finally, you fry an egg and put it on top of one half. Put the other half on top to make a huge stack which is as satisfying as it is crazy. When you bite in, the yolk runs down and combines with all of the different flavours. They’re very rich and filling, and just totally packed with flavour.

If you’re worried about calories, you can ditch the muffins in favour of a flatbread, or serve the whole mix up as a cold hash. It’s a pretty versatile combo, but the Mexican muffins have to be the winner for me. I can see these featuring on a whole lot of relaxed Sundays to come!

August 24, 2016August 23, 2016 | Rhiannon

Recently we found some falafel mix that looked fairly easy to make, and decided to give it a try. After all, what could be better than almost-instant falafels? The chance to quickly create a delicious veggie burger alternative seems like a dream, and it could be used over and over again for different meals. In fact, you could even use the mix to make a bigger falafel burger rather than separating it into the balls.

Such was our thought process, at least, when we picked up this packet. So we followed the instructions and created it as directed… and, well. Tried to eat it.

I can’t really mince my words here – this mix was disgusting. It tasted absolutely foul. It reminded me of the time when my mother accidentally used sour milk to make the bread sauce for Sunday lunch. There was a horrible tang to it that just wouldn’t go away, and I barely managed to eat my portion without spitting it all back out. Which is a shame, because we crafted some beautiful little houmous bowls inspired by our trip to the Houmous Bar in Budapest.

In short: avoid, avoid, avoid. If you value your own tastebuds and don’t want to feel the urge to scrape off your own tongue, don’t bother buying this mix. Or if you do buy it, only serve it to people you actually secretly hate. I think it may be one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted. Utterly unpalatable. Even the memory is making me shudder. Ugh.

August 17, 2016 | Rhiannon

I don’t even know where to begin with these new pulled pork burgers from Quorn. I honestly don’t.

So we picked these up in the supermarket, innocently enough. I’m always game to try a new product, especially if it’s in burger form. These looked pretty interesting, too, because I’ve obviously never eaten pulled pork. J has, and that’s an important thing to remember in a minute. So we grabbed them, put them in the oven, and waited to see how they would come out.

The answer to that is amazingly. First off, they were very juicy, leaving juice behind on the paper after cooking them. They also ooze a little when you cut into them, but not so much that it gets too messy. This makes them really super-succulent, much better than the dry, dusty Quorn of old.

The texture is also pretty amazing. They’ve been gradually developing some really interesting textures with products like the beef strips, and these are magical. They really do feel like strips of chewy meat all compressed together for that burger shape, and it’s pretty convincing.

As for the taste, I don’t even know how to describe it. I literally have no reference point for this. J tells me that they taste almost exactly like pulled pork, which is really impressive. Since he should know.

I’m trying to decide how I feel about that. On one hand, it’s pretty exciting for me to find out what pulled pork tastes like. That’s something I never would have known by myself, and it’s great to have a reference point when people describe a meal now. On the other hand, I’m a little bit disappointed. Yes, they are delicious and I will definitely have them again. But when people say they can’t give up meat because it tastes so good, it makes you think the flavour must be something spectacular. I probably wouldn’t be too upset if I never ate these again. I definitely wouldn’t kill an animal just to be able to taste them. If this is what all the fuss has been about, then colour me unimpressed.

Also, if we’re getting that good at replicating flavours, it seems like carnivores aren’t going to have that excuse for much longer. Which is most definitely a good thing.

ON THE VEGBURGE SCALE, I GIVE THIS…

TASTE – 10/10

PRICE – 7/10

REST OF EXPERIENCE – 8/10

August 16, 2016 | Rhiannon

This week we have a sinfully good Vine to share with you. These banoffee pie jars were based on a Deliciously Ella recipe (that I won’t be reposting here), and they are SO GOOD. It’s hard to believe that such a small handful of ingredients can create this amazing taste, with a structure more akin to a cheesecake than a pie, all presented beautifully in a jar for good measure.

I couldn’t get enough of this recipe, although the quantity we made here was far too much to eat in one sitting. The flavours are so rich that by about halfway through the pot we both started to feel a bit sick – and that’s with some leftovers that didn’t fit in the jars too.

If I make this again, which I probably will, I’m going to make one key adjustment. I’m going to skip the base. I could hardly believe my eyes when I worked out how many calories were in each jar as a whole, and the base is the main culprit. Honestly, you could probably crumble up shortbread and still have a lower calorie option. It was ridiculous. Just be very cautious of that if you are trying to eat healthy.

Here’s our Vine so you can see these delicious banoffee pie jars in action!

August 10, 2016 | Rhiannon

This post is a bit overdue – we stayed in Bournemouth for a weekend way, way back, and I’ve already shared a couple of posts from that short break. This Veggie Living post is here to let you know about the whole experience, however, and how easy it is to find veggie food in this great coastal town!

Harry Ramsden's Halloumi Burger — Harry Ramsden’s Halloumi Burger

First off, I spent a bit of time before we went scouting out places where we could get great veggie food. I found a ton of them, and we actually only went to one of them – the rest of the time, we just ate at places we walked by that looked great. There is so much choice available here that you will feel properly spoilt!

We stayed at the Royal Bath Hotel Bournemouth, and while we didn’t eat much here, we did opt for afternoon tea. This was all part of a Wowcher deal which had amazingly good value, so keep your eye out for deals here. It’s the oldest hotel in Bournemouth and is quite charming, with lots of little twists and turns in the corridors and odd little rooms. It does feel its age, but out in a new extension to the building is a small spa area which more than makes up for it.

The afternoon tea was wonderful. You can specify vegetarian food only and they will cater for you! Our sandwiches were cheese and tomato, egg and cress, and cucumber. We had a couple of lovely scones with jam and cream, and of course a huge pot of tea (mostly drunk by J – I did try, but I’m just not a tea fan). To top it off there were mini eclairs, chocolate brownies, carrot cake, and Victoria sponge. Delicious. I love afternoon tea and this was a lovely setting too, so I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

Cream on top of jam - the correct way to do scones — Jam on top of cream – the correct way to do scones

We also had some notable veggie burgers here – a delicious halloumi burger at Harry Ramsden’s, a surf-themed dish at Hot Rocks, and shelter from the rain at Smokey’s. Check out the reviews of all of those to find out which we loved the most! There were a good few other burgers in the area to try, but sadly we only had so much time to visit as many as we could.

On our last day, after checking out of the hotel, we took the time to stroll along Bournemouth Beach and enjoy the hot, sunny weather. We also had to pick up the obligatory ice cream, of course! Mine was particularly exciting: it was mince pie flavour. MINCE PIE FLAVOUR. This is possibly the best food item ever invented. On a hot day next to the sea, as far away from Christmas as possible, it’s pretty much perfect.

It doesn’t get much better than this, and we’re looking forward to going back to Bournemouth sometime soon. In the meantime, I’m enjoying my ill-gotten gains (ie lollies from the 2p machines in the arcade which cost us about £3 to get and are worth probably 10p). Next time we’ll bring you a new round-up of the other veggie options in the area!

August 9, 2016 | Rhiannon

So lately I’ve been trying to make more desserts, and these baked apples from the Deliciously Ella book caught our eye. As they’re from the book I won’t repost the recipe here, but you can read it elsewhere if you wish.

What I will tell you is what I changed: instead of raisins and pecans, I used a dried fruit mix (like you would have in a mince pie) and skipped the nuts altogether. I also used normal sugar instead of coconut palm sugar.

These were reasonably easy to make, although I think they could have done with a tiny bit less time in the oven as some of the raisins were a little cremated! The apples themselves were delicious and I loved the cream – I reckon that could be served simply as a drink! It reminded me of that creamy, refreshing taste of horchata and is definitely in the same vein, although perhaps not the healthiest thing you could drink.

Here’s the Vine so you can see how we made them!

August 3, 2016 | Rhiannon

It’s time to review a burger recipe again, and these sweet potato and chickpea burgers definitely caught my eye. I found them over on The Kitchn a while back and have been meaning to try them ever since, so it was time to get down to it. I love sweet potato and I love chickpeas, and I was even feeling adventurous enough to try the spicy dip. What could do go wrong?

Well, a lot, as it turns out. Like most veggie burger recipes I seem to find online, this one absolutely and stubbornly failed to bind together, meaning that we were left with a mess of crumbly ingredients instead of anything remotely resembling patties. This was after a lot of work grating vegetables and mashing chickpeas, so it felt like a bit of a letdown. We used a red onion instead of a white one, but left the rest of the burger recipe as-is.

We try adding a few tablespoons of oats to help the mixture out, then gave up and stuck them in the oven instead of frying them. This at least did help, leaving them reasonably solid – or at least enough to get them onto a plate. For the dressing I opted for a fruity habanero instead of a sriracha, simply because I prefer the taste; I added double the amount and then a bit of honey as well because it still just tasted like Greek yoghurt with cumin.

Finally we served them up – I’m on a low-calorie kick right now so opted for thins instead of bread buns, and roasted carrots instead of chips. There was far too much of the dip – perhaps half as much would have been too much – and the burgers were uninspiring at best. They really need a stronger flavour in there; the chickpeas are bland and the sweet potatoes don’t have anything to draw out their taste. All in all it was pretty disappointing, to be honest.

If you’ve got a veggie burger recipe you think I should try, let me know in the comments! Here’s a bonus Vine of us making these burgers:

ON THE VEGBURGE SCALE, I GIVE THIS…

TASTE – 4/10

PRICE – 6/10

REST OF EXPERIENCE – 3/10

Vine Post: Aubergine Bake

August 1, 2016 | Rhiannon

This recipe may not be the prettiest, but I can assure you that this aubergine bake tastes AMAZING. What’s more, it’s so low in calories you could eat it all day long and barely see the difference.

I’m not always an aubergine fan, but there’s something about chopped tomatoes and cheese that makes everything better. Here’s the Vine so you can see how we made it, and be sure to scroll down for the recipe!

Here’s that recipe:

Aubergine Bake

2016-08-01 17:33:02

Serves 4

This delicious and filling bake is very low in calories, so feel free to load up.

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Ingredients

1 red onion, chopped
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 frozen garlic cube (or 3-4 crushed cloves)
2 medium-sized aubergines
1 small block of cheese - we mixed red Leicester and goat's cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C..
Fry the red onion and garlic over a medium heat for a few minutes until softened. Add the garlic when onion is ready if using fresh cloves, then cook for 2 more minutes.
Pour in the tomatoes and mix well.
Season with a pinch of sugar and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the tomato sauce is thickened up nicely.
Slice the aubergines lengthways or into circles, into slices 5mm/¼in thick.
Brush the aubergine slices with olive oil and salt on both sides.
Put under the grill for around 5 minutes on each side, or until all the slices are golden brown.
Add a spoonful of tomato sauce to the bottom of a medium sized ovenproof baking dish and spread evenly. Top with a layer of the aubergine slices.
Follow with more tomato sauce and top with a layer of thinly sliced cheese. Repeat the process for as many layers as you can, finishing with tomato sauce and the mozzarella.
Place into the preheated oven and bake for 10 to 20 minutes, or until the dish is bubbling and the cheese melted and golden-brown on top.
Serve immediately or reheat in the oven for 5 minutes after cooling.

By VegBurge

Adapted from BBC Food

VegBurge https://vegburge.com/