A bit of a beige week #Veganuary

So, we are well into our third national lockdown here in the UK, and the second week of Veganuary (third for most people, I am just lazy as I explained in the first article). Perhaps, the absolute inner turmoil that lockdown is causing me is the reason that I am finding Veganuary a mere walk in the park this year. Sorry if walk in the park is a trigger for anyone.

Image: Porridge with blueberries, golden syrup, flaxseed, chia seeds and almond butter

Monday 11 January

Breakfast was the usual porridge with berries, golden syrup, flaxseed, chia seeds and almond butter. I don’t think I will get sick of this combination for a few weeks at least, sorry team.

At lunch I truly excelled myself and went for a run, which meant most of my lunch hour was gone so I just quickly toasted a bagel which I spread with Flora. I also made a smoothie which turned out to be an excellent combination of flavours: kiwi, frozen banana, spinach, blueberries, soya milk and a teaspoon of spirulina powder.

I whipped out my BOSH! cookbook for dinner and opened it on page 42 to make their version of a pad Thai. Now, it doesn’t taste exactly like a pad Thai does but it was still delicious, nonetheless. I ignored their cooking instructions for the tofu though and cooked it my way in the oven because it makes it crispier on all sides (recipe in last post). I mixed in some extra stir fry veg and also did a side of tenderstem broccoli which I just fried up with some chilli oil, garlic and soy sauce. Tesco didn’t have any unsalted peanuts to crush over the top, so sadly the extra crunch was missing.

Tuesday 12 January

I had yet another bowl of porridge with an oat milk latte for breakfast. But after that I kind of went on a downwards spiral, you know those days where your stomach is a bottomless pit?

For lunch I had some of my leftover pad Thai but was still hungry so also had a slice of toast with Flora, a bag of popcorn, a cup of tea and two cookies – the Aldi box is still going strong. A few hours later I was still peckish, so I had some grapes just to balance it out.

Dinner was an easy, lazy one which consisted of trying the Aldi Fishless Fingers which were actually pretty decent. I’ve tried a few fake fish products now, and these sat somewhere in the middle. My favourites used to be the Vivera Fish Goujons but sadly, I haven’t seen them anywhere in years. I also had some homemade chips, salad and of course, mayo on the side. After dinner, I had one of my old favourites, the Coconut Collaborative Chocolate Pots which are so tasty and only 100 calories. Winner, winner (vegan) chicken dinner.

Wednesday 13 January

Today was a really bad food day. I can’t say I really enjoyed much of it, but I will tell you anyway. I think I was just in a bad mood and couldn’t be bothered to actually make anything nice. I started off with my usual porridge but forgot to add golden syrup, so it was a bit plain and stodgy. Mistake number one.

I completely forgot about the M&S Peri Peri No Chicken Slices that I got last week, and they were actually going out of date today, so I needed to use them up for lunch. In my head I thought a toasted sandwich with them in and some Violife cheese sounded great. Honestly, it turned out pretty rank. Mistake number two.

I think I can handle vegan cheese in small doses, but for me it does not work in a toastie. The fake chicken pieces were horrible too and tasted like cardboard, which made me sad as the rest of the Plant Kitchen range at M&S is banging.

I was still annoyed over my lunch by dinner time, so I took it back to basics with a humble jacket potato. I always cook the potato in the microwave a bit first because I’m lazy, but then I drizzled some olive oil, salt and pepper over it and shoved it in the oven to crisp up. I topped it with baked beans and a tiny bit of nutritional yeast because I still wasn’t over the cheese from earlier.

Thursday 14 January

Breakfast was porridge… it’s getting a bit repetitive now, sorry. I went out for a walk in the rain on my lunch hour, going as far as my hour lunch break would permit. When I got back, I had a mad rush changing my damp clothes and quickly made a sausage sandwich with my beloved Richmond’s and a toasted bagel. Again, quite boring but delicious.

Image: Vodka pasta with chopped flat leaf parsley

In the evening I finally went to do a food shop as most things were starting to run out including my favourite porridge oats, Flahavans. When I got home, I decided to snap out of my beige and boring food mood and make something yummy. I decided on vodka pasta. It’s a really easy dish to make and even easier to veganise. I have followed a recipe before, but I just made this from memory so don’t come at me if it’s not authentic.

You start off by frying a chopped brown onion and garlic in some olive oil, when it’s all soft and smells good add a whole jar/tube of tomato puree. Splash in some vodka (I probably did between two and three tablespoons) and once it has mostly evaporated add in some Oatly cream (again, rough estimates but probably about two thirds of a box). Mix in salt, pepper, dried basil, chilli flakes, nutritional yeast and some spinach leaves. I couldn’t find any vegan parmesan-style cheese in Tesco, but this is usually where you’d add that in too. All the while, my pasta was simmering away in a huge pot of salted water and once my sauce was looking good, I scooped out a mug full of the precious pasta water to stir in. I don’t know the science behind this but apparently the starchy water is really good to use in your sauce, so I always do it and it does work nicely to loosen it up. Once the pasta was cooked (al-dente of course) I stirred it into the sauce, added some chopped flat leaf parsley and more black pepper. I love having a rocket salad alongside tomato-based pasta dishes, but to add some interest I ribboned some courgette (just using a vegetable peeler), fried it with garlic and olive oil, and added it to the rocket.

Friday 15 January

Porridge again. I know, bore off.

For lunch, post-walk I had my leftover pasta but drizzled some more olive oil over it to make it saucier and topped with more rocket. I think rocket is my favourite salad leaf.

And for the most exciting event of the day… dinner! I was going to make an exciting new curry from one of my many cookbooks, but I couldn’t be arsed, so a takeaway it was. I have been searching for a while for the perfect vegetable biryani and felt like today could be the day that I found it. It was supposed to come with a vegetable curry on the side, but I asked to swap it out for a tarka dhal instead and requested that everything was cooked without butter or ghee to make it vegan. I also mixed it up from the usual naan and got a roti instead. It was absolutely spectacular, so much so that I forgot to take a picture.

Image: Vanilla vegan yogurt with berries and raspberries

I only just found out that This Is Us is back, with new episodes being released weekly on Amazon Prime, so that was my Saturday night sorted. The emotions caught up with me after a while (This Is Us makes me cry almost every episode) and so I grabbed one of the Coconut Collaborative Chocolate Pots which comforted me for about 5 seconds.

Saturday 16 January

Cheers to the fricken weekend… amirite?

My pain au chocolats were still going strong so I warmed two in the oven, made an oat milk latte and had side of vanilla vegan yogurt with berries. I actually got this yogurt the other week in Aldi and forgot about it. The only vegan yogurt I’d had before was the Alpro one which, I’m sorry to say, was rank. This was actually really good and tasted like a sweet, vanilla desert.

Lunch was a big fat nothing because my breakfast was basically a late brunch. And then dinner was sexy leftover vegetable biryani and dhal. The portions at my favourite local takeaway are so huge they always get me two dinners out of it.

 

Sunday 17 January

I enjoyed my breakfast so much yesterday that I had the exact same thing, but this time with an even bigger bowl of that yogurt with berries.

Image: Vegan chocolate and courgette cake

After a long walk, I was a bit peckish and had some hummus and pitta on my return. I tried making hummus a few months ago and ended up breaking my food processor so now I just stick to buying it – the Tesco Finest one with extra olive oil and chickpeas on top is pretty good.

For dinner I tried those new M&S Plant Kitchen Melt in the Middle Fishless Cakes and although I was actually very impressed with them, they were a bit too realistic for me and I probably wouldn’t buy them again. I never really liked fish before I went vegetarian and so the fishy taste from these was a bit too much for me – but if you did like fish then I would definitely recommend giving them a go. I had some roast potatoes along with sugar snap peas, tenderstem broccoli and carrots on the side.

And for the grand finale, I decided to do some baking again today and made a chocolate cake. I actually made this same cake a few years ago and then forgot all about it. It’s a vegan chocolate and courgette cake; I highly recommend trying the recipe out. It works exactly like a carrot cake, but it’s courgette that goes into the batter. It all breaks down so you can’t taste it; instead, it just adds a rich, fudginess to the cake. It’s so good you will forget it’s even vegan! I had a slice after dinner whilst watching Misbehaviour on NowTV – highly recommend for an uplifting feminist fix.

Words and Photography by Mollie Cohen