Seriously Tasty Time Saving Porridge Topper

November 10, 2013November 10, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

Oats are amazing! They are great for the bacteria in your gut, give you loads of energy, keep you full up and are loaded with fiber. Being vegan I don’t really need to worry about fiber because everything I eat has it in, but you can always do with more right?

Mykey and I live a very hectic lifestyle. We are guardians to five cats and one very lively American Bulldog called Bailey. We also work full time and train twice a day everyday at the gym. A little while ago I decided we needed to cut down on the amount of time we spent getting ready in the morning for work, so I came up with this great time saving idea that gives porridge an extra health boost and tastes great.

I make up a jar full of super foods that I then sprinkle on top. Before I used to spend and extra twenty minutes in the morning making sure our breakfasts were as packed with nutrients as possible. Now I stick my spoon in my jar and throw it on top of my bowl of oats, before smothering in soya milk and sometimes heating in the microwave.

Yum!

The jar lasts about a month if two of you are eating porridge everyday for 5 out of 7 days a week. I also like to put different things in it each month, but this month I’ve gone with flaked almonds, pecan nuts, pumpkin seeds, dried goji berries, shredded coconut, walnuts, milled flaxseed, chia seeds and if I put anything else in there, I can’t remember!

Enjoy! 🙂

Red Lentil Dahl

November 3, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This is a dish I have been making for years. It’s really simple and totally yummy! 🙂

Firstly you’re gonna need some ingredients:

* Two handfuls of red lentils

* 800 grams of chopped tomatoes

* 4 cloves of garlic, crushed

* 1 can of coconut milk

* 2 cubes of vegetable stock

* 2 white onions

* 1 tablespoon of garam masala, cayenne pepper and cumin (each)

1) Heat some oil in a large pan. I used a wok because this makes plenty.

2) Now add in your two chopped onions and garlic. Give it a good stir to cover everything in the oil.

3) Turn the heat off and place the red lentils in the pan. Mix through thoroughly adding all the spices as you go.

4) Now add the whole can of coconut milk and again mix and stir through. (Turn the heat back on now.)

5) Open and pour the chopped tomatoes into the pan.

6) Place your stock cubes in the pan, add half a pint of cold water and again mix through.

7) Turn the heat right down to it’s lowest and stir the pan every few minutes for about 20-30 minutes, or until a good chunk of the liquid has been absorbed.

8) Serve with garlic and parsley vegan buttered chapatis.

Vegetable Paella

October 21, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Sorry I’ve not posted in a while! I’ve unfortunately had a lot of anxiety issues lately but fear not, I’m back on track to being a super fitness fiend.

Seeing as we’re all feeling the squeeze at the moment, I thought I’d do another one of my Cheap as Chips meals. Most of the ingredients you should have in your cupboard or fridge and if you don’t, you should be able to source them from your local corner shop.

Ingredients

1 red onion
2 bell peppers (you can even go for frozen ones if you’re super skint.)
A large handful of frozen peas
2 cloves of garlic
2 fresh tomatoes
1 tablespoon paprika
1 pint of long grain rice
2 pints of vegetable stock
A good pinch of black pepper

Method

Chop your peppers, onion and garlic and place in a heated pan with some oil. Add your frozen ingredients (which for me was just peas) and mix.

Then create a well in the middle of the pan and fill with your two chopped fresh tomatoes and the paprika.

Now pour the vegetable stock straight into the well in the middle and mix everything around thoroughly.

Add the rice and mix through thoroughly.

Allow to simmer on the lowest heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. In this time the liquid will start to be absorbed by the rice, so make sure it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan.

Once 20 minutes has passed, sprinkle with pepper and allow to stand for another five minutes. (The longer you leave it the thicker it will become.)

Spaghetti & Meatballs – Not What You Think!

October 3, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 3 Comments

This can be made raw if you have a dehydrator, which I do, however for the interest of the general public I’ll do this the traditional way…..for a very untraditional take on this classic Italian dish.

Ingredients

1 pack of sun dried tomatoes

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 garlic cloves

2 tsp flax seed

1 tsp hemp seeds

A large handful of standard mushrooms

A good sprinkle of both oregano and basil

A small sprinkle of fennel seed

Half a small bag of walnuts

4 large tomatoes

Fresh basil leaves

Sea salt

2 large courgettes

Method:

Get the oven on at full whack.

Place the sundried tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, 2 garlic cloves (peeled), flax, hemp seeds, herbs, walnuts and sea salt in the blender and pulse blend until it forms into a crumbly mixture.

Shape the mixture into small balls using a soup spoon and place in a baking tray.

Then place in the oven on a 15 minute timer. Make sure you turn the heat down to about 200 degrees otherwise they will burn.

In the meantime, make the tomato sauce.

Combine the fresh tomatoes, two garlic, basil and sea salt and blend until smooth. (Use the food processor again. No need to wash it out.)

You can then place this in a pan to heat or you can serve it cold.

Next you need to cut or spiralise the courgettes into noodles.

I also added a cheeky splash of soy sauce just for some extra flavour.

Then remove the meatballs from the oven and place on top of your, “spaghetti.”

Pour your tomato sauce either warmed or cold over the top and enjoy the marvellous mix of flavours in this healthy, low calorie dish.

Chilli with crunchy tortilla & avocado salad

September 24, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

It’s been a while, but I had the perfect excuse to cook this luxurious meal the other night because my friend Jim decided to come over for dinner and a gaming evening. (Dawn of War if you must know! 😉 )

For the chilli and rice
1 fresh red chilli
1 red onion
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1-2 garlic cloves
1 big bunch fresh coriander
olive oil
2 mixed-colour peppers
1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas
1 x 400 g tin of black beans or pinto beans. (I used pinto because I couldn’t find black.)
700 g passata
1x 250 g pack of mixed long grain & wild rice
For the salad
4 small corn tortilla wraps
2 ripe avocados
3 heaped tablespoons soy yoghurt
2 limes
1 romaine lettuce
½ cucumber
1 fresh green chilli
1 handful ripe cherry tomatoes

Ingredients out • Oven at 200°C/400°F/gas 6 • Food processor (bowl blade)

Place the rice in a pan with cold water and crank up the heat. Keep and eye on this, it will take exactly 15 minutes.

Put the chillies, peeled and halved red onion, paprika and cumin seeds into the processor, squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher, then add the coriander stalks (reserving the leaves) and 2 tablespoons of oil, and whiz until fine.

Tip into the pan, then add the deseeded and roughly chopped peppers, drained chickpeas and black beans, a pinch of salt and pepper and the passata, stir well.

Fold the tortillas in half, slice into 0.5cm strips, sprinkle on to a baking tray and pop in the oven until golden and crisp.

Put most of the coriander leaves, a pinch of salt and pepper, half a peeled avocado, the yoghurt and the juice from 2 limes into a jug and whiz with a stick blender until silky.

Check and adjust the seasoning of the chilli.

Remove the tortillas from the oven into a bowl, cut the lettuce into chunky wedges and add to the bowl • Scoop and dot over curls of avocado • Peel the cucumber into ribbons and finely slice half a chilli, then scatter both over the top.

Pour chilli into serving dish. Make a well in the middle of the chilli and tip in the drained and cooked rice.

Pour the dressing over the salad, pick over the remaining coriander leaves, finely slice the remaining chilli and sprinkle over the top along with the halved cherry tomatoes, then toss everything together • Serve with dollops of yoghurt.

Munch the hell out of it! 🙂

Butter Bean Soup

September 18, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Yes I know I’m doing another soup recipe, but it’s cold and who doesn’t need warming up in this weather? By the way, I’m not looking forward to winter! 😦

First off, we need the ingredients. This is another cheap and healthy meal.

A tablespoon of vegetable stock
1 stick of celery
4 carrots
400 grams of butter beans (Mine are dried, so I soaked mine for a few hours before hand. Tinned are much quicker.)
Two medium sized potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
1 onion
Sage, parsley and thyme (or whatever similar herbs you have.)

Now get yourself a large sauce pan and fill with water. Place your butter beans in the pan and turn the heat on full.

Now it’s time for the potatoes. Make sure you dice those bad boys first.

Onion and celery are next. Again chopped up nice and small.

The water will be warming up nicely now, so it’s time to add the peeled and chopped carrots.

If you’re a fan of Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals like I am, you’ll have a garlic crusher. It is my number one time saving device because you don’t have to peel the garlic. 🙂 Add those crushed cloves in baby! (You can never have too much garlic!)

Now sprinkle your mixture of herbs over the top, stir through. Turn the heat down and allow to simmer for about 35 minutes.

I actually put this yummy monster of a soup in a tub and took it to work.

You won’t need bread. This will fill you up with goodness from your head to your toes. Enjoy! 🙂

(The recipe will make two very large portions.)

Creamy Carrot & Ginger Soup

September 15, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 4 Comments

I don’t know about where you live, but here in the South East of England Autumn is just starting and it’s getting chilly. What better way to start autumn than with a lovely, warming soup? This is so easy, cheap and ready within 25 minutes. 🙂

Ingredients

1 red onion, peeled and chopped
10 carrots, peeled and chopped
A cube or large sprinkle of vegetable stock
Ginger paste
Coriander
Rapeseed oil

Method

Place a teaspoon of rapeseed oil into a hot pan and then place your chopped onions in.

Laugh at a mutated carrot

Add the rest of the carrots to the pan and mix well with a good sprinkle of dried coriander.

Then add the vegetable stock in it’s dry form.

Add a large squeeze of ginger paste, then pour in a pint of boiling water.

Allow to cook on a low heat for 20 minutes, or when the carrots soften.

Now it’s time to blend. Be careful that your blender is tightened up properly because you don’t want hot water to spray out onto you. (Speaking from experience btw.)

Pulse blend until you get a lovely thick paste.

Serve straight away with some more coriander, perhaps some soy sauce and a good chunky roll if that’s your thing.

This is literally the best soup I’ve ever made and it was really, really filling. 🙂

Get Ripped or Die Trying!

September 12, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

Whilst on holiday recently, there was a very large hill that we had to cycle up. Mykey and I probably could have gone most of the way, if not all of the way without a break. My little sister however kept coming out with the same phrase, “I can’t.” I kept telling her that there is no such thing as can’t, that there is try as best as you can. Do you know what? She made it up that 1.5k hill, even if she was grunting like a bodybuilder as the end. (Hey, who doesn’t man!?) She circuit trained with us most days and practised ballet. Anyway, my little sister is ten years old and vegan as fuck! So what’s your excuse for not exercising?

This morning when you stood at your back door having a cigarette and waiting for the kettle to boil, you could have been doing a high intensity interval session, before jumping in the shower.

That achievement it took you 2 hours to get on your Xbox? You could have run a muddy obstacle race in that time.

The 15 minutes you spent getting the kids and buggy strapped into the car could have been spent walking to your destination instead.

Time is certainly not an excuse. I train 10-15 hours a week, have a full time job, 5 cats, a bunny, a very happy and stable relationship and to top it all off, I quite often have to work away or commute up to 3 hours to my place of work. I FIND WAYS to make time for exercise. The internet is my friend. It’s not unheard of for me to look up some random work out and do it on my bed in my pokey little hotel room at 9 o’clock at night after a hard day at the office.

You can’t afford healthy food? Well that is absolute tosh! A can of kidney beans is 16p, a pack of chopped tomatoes is 34p and a bag of frozen broccoli is £1. Add some chilli powder or some curry powder and you have a very basic, healthy meal that will feed 2/3 people.(I aim to do a budget recipe page soon with challenges set by people who follow my blog with only three ingredients and one spice/herb. WATCH THIS SPACE!) Also things like bananas, rice and dried beans etc. are dirt cheap. The best time to go to the supermarket for a good deal on fresh fruit and veg is around 6/7pm. This is when they get their first produce deliveries in and start reducing all the produce that goes out of date in the next few days. You can get up to 80% off sometimes. Can’t get there in the evening? Go at 1pm. This is another reduction time. You won’t get as big savings, but you’re still looking at about 40% off. Now food isn’t an excuse either! : P

You think you can’t do it and you lack motivation? Look at me! I was overweight, depressed and a borderline alcoholic. I could never run, lift or really do anything since I hit 18. I jacked all my bad habits in and a couple of days ago I ran a Spartan Race. You CAN do it. Start small and work up to the big stuff. It takes ages, so don’t lose faith and whatever you do, don’t go on some stupid diet like Weight Watchers or Slimming World. They are businesses. They are there to make money out of you when you keep failing and re-joining. My mum has being doing this for the past 30 years. Maybe one day she’ll listen to me. Only 2 in 1000 lose the weight and keep it off with those programmes. It’s about a total lifestyle change. Eat clean and train dirty! Cut out refined carbohydrates, sugar and all processed crap. Eat whole foods. Eat lots of raw food. Drink loads of water. Eat enough food to sustain the amount of exercise you are doing, with a slight deficit and stay that way forever. You’ll go down to your natural bodyweight and you’ll feel better in yourself.

Now I’ve had a good rant, maybe I should actually get to my point. This post is titled, “Get Ripped or Die Trying.” I know I’m strong. I have been for a while. There is plenty of muscle under my 20 something % body fat (can’t remember what it was, but I have a new measurement in a few weeks. I think it was between22 and 24 %.) just screaming to get out for the world to see. Occasionally in the morning, before hydration you can see my biceps nicely and four of my six pack. (Damn little bit of belly fat that won’t go away!) I need to burn the shit out of that body fat percentage. Here’s how I’m going to do it;

Diet Clean-up

My eating habits have been really clean for a long time now, but they could still do with cleaning up further. Here’s how:

1) Alcohol will be severely limited to celebration days. This is as much to do with metabolism as it is to do with empty calorie intake. At the moment I only tend to have a couple of drinks a month. I want that down to birthdays, weddings, New Year and Christmas Day.

2) Any processed carbohydrates such as pasta and bread etc. will be completely removed and replaced with quinoa, amaranth and wild rice.

3) I’ll be using fruit for energy and vegetables for repair.

4) There will be lots more raw food, especially greens.

5) I will be eating three main meals and two snacks a day. All of them will be vegan wholefoods that are nutrient dense as fuck. Therefore I won’t be monitoring calories anymore. This makes me happy.

Training Clean-up

I’ll be upping the amount and intensity of my training. See below diagram for more information.

New Goals

The Spartan Race I ran recently has been the pinnacle of my fitness so far. I now have to raise the bar, so I’ve signed up for a Tough Mudder in April. I’ve shifted my training to match and told my personal trainer I want to get absolutely totally 100% on this. I fail at monkey bars currently, so this is a big hurdle for me to start with.

What are your goals?

Stuffed Tomatoes

September 8, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

A while back I asked my friend on Facebook to come up with three cheap ingredients and I’d make a simple, healthy meal out of them. The first person to post was my friend Pete. He suggested that I make something out of twigs, leaves and water in traditional vegan style. Of course he was joking and subsequently posted tomatoes, pine nuts and tofu. What a great combination! Tofu is rammed full of protein and calcium, pine nuts have loads of vitamin E and tomatoes have loads of vitamin C. A healthy and affordable combination.

I went to Asda and brought two pack of beef tomatoes. They are currently out of season so they cost more than I was hoping. I also brought just one pack of silken tofu. I already had a bag of pine nuts at home. They are the expensive part, but once you buy some you will find many uses for them and they last for ages. Total basic ingredient cost approximately £6.80 and that will feed two people for lunch or four people for a starter.

Turn on your oven and heat to 200 degrees.

Now the problem i have is that on it’s own, tofu tastes of NOTHING. I figured most people would have garlic, onions and turmeric in the house, so I’m allowing them as ingredients because they are store cupboard staples. (If you don’t have them, they are pretty damn cheap from any local corner shop.)

First things first; chop the onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and place in a hot pan with oil of your choice. I used sesame seed oil for some extra flavour.

Stir lots and then place about half of the bag of pine nuts into the pan.

Stir some more and then turn the heat off.

Next job is to prepare the tomatoes. Slice the tops off quite thinly and place to one side. (You’ll need them later.)

Now slice a deep circle around the center of the tomato and scoop out with a knife or a spoon. (I used a bit of both.)

Once you have completed this, place on a baking tray upside down to allow any extra fluid to drain away.

Place any leftover tomato center that isn’t part of the hard core, into the pan with the pine nuts etc and turn the heat back on.

Cut open the pack of silken tofu and squeeze into the hot pan. Mix well and then add a good sprinkle of turmeric. You can also add any other condiments that you have laying around here. Soy sauce, salt or black pepper would go really well and give it some extra flavour.

Mix everything really well. Then turn your beef tomatoes over and fill with the warm tofu mix. Then place the lids you chopped off earlier on top.

I also sprinkled a bit of olive oil over the top here so they would bake more quickly, but this is optional too.

Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Serve as a starter with some rocket salad or as a lunch on it’s own. Two will most certainly fill you up.

Enjoy! 🙂

G’s Cafe Bude

August 13, 2013September 13, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Vegan Camp this year was held in a camp site about five minutes outside of Bude, in Cornwall. We are often not very hopeful of finding restaurants or cafes in the remote villages and towns that usually surround camp, but this year we did.

Our first dealings with G’s was after I had seen the group communal meal menu, that was organised for later in the week. It was raining pretty hard outside and I really couldn’t be bothered to cook, so I convinced my little sister Charlotte and my partner Mykey to have breakfast out in Bude. The cafe wasn’t very hard to find and had clearly marked outside that it had vegan options available.

Mykey and I ordered two pots of tea (with soya milk) and Charlotte ordered a soya hot chocolate.

Mykey also took a hell of a lot of photos of us messing around. *STANDARD*

The cafe was clean, tidy and not very busy when we first arrived however customers seemed to start arriving around 10:30. The atmosphere was lovely and the staff were very knowledgeable and friendly.

We of course could not help ourselves and had to order the biggest breakfast on the menu. It was called, “The Veggie Ansom.” At £8.95 you certainly got value for money. The breakfast contained, two Redwood’s sausages, two rashers of Redwood’s bacon, three hashbrowns, two slices of toast with soya butter, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. Charlotte had a smaller version, but couldn’t finish it so we ate the rest of her’s too. I’ve not had a breakfast like that for years. A proper holiday treat and absolutely exceptional. We revisited once more for breakfast and once for lunch with sandwiches (spaghetti for Char) and scones and jam with redbush tea. I also haven’t had scones in years because I am rubbish at baking.

The staff began to know us by site and always asked how we were and if we were enjoying ourselves.

The best night for food however was when the whole of Vegan Camp went to G’s for a communal meal. The owners and staff really pulled out all the stops.

To start Mykey had a creamy mushroom bruschetta. (Closed cup mushrooms with red onions, port, soya cream and herbs £4.95.) I had a carrot, orange and ginger soup. ( served with warm bread £3.80.)

Both dishes were full of flavour and tingled the taste buds. We’ve eaten in more expensive restaurants that have not served us starters this good.

Do you know what else is great about G’s? They have an alcohol license and sell traditional Cornish vegan cider. 7.3% I’ll have you know! 🙂

For the main course, Grandma, Mum and I had the lentil and butternut squash tagine (served with salad and cous cous £7.95.)

Grandma doesn’t do peppers, but she ate this lot. In fact she wolfed it down the same as my mum and I. It filled us all up, but was light enough to leave space for a pudding.

Mykey and my Dad had a falafel and hummus wrap (served with mixed salad and sweet potato fries £7.25.) Mykey described this dish as, “a massive tortilla stuffed with everything. Yum!” I tried a few bites and I was blown away with the textures and flavours in my mouth. Who ever thought something so simple could be so tasty?

Then oh my goodness, there was pudding. A rare treat for my family of vegans who are constantly trying to stay fit and healthy.

My mum and dad had the summer pudding (served with soya ice cream £4.95.)

I’ve never eaten summer pudding before, but I was so happy when loads of berries came flowing out of the middle when I nicked a spoonful from them.

Mykey had an ice cream sundae with summer fruit (£4.95) I thought it was a little basic for the price, but it tasted great none the less. An improvement could have been some chocolate sauce or even some chocolate chips. 😉

I think I had the best pudding of all; dark chocolate and ginger torte with ice cream. You can see the look on my face as I’m eating it, that I am enjoying it beyond words.

This place is a must visit. Thank-you for making our holiday…and the extra 2 kg on our waistlines. See you soon!

9.5/10

Queer Vegan

Food, fitness and culture from a queer, vegan, metal head.

food

Seriously Tasty Time Saving Porridge Topper

Red Lentil Dahl

Vegetable Paella

Spaghetti & Meatballs – Not What You Think!

Chilli with crunchy tortilla & avocado salad

For the chilli and rice

For the salad

Butter Bean Soup

Creamy Carrot & Ginger Soup

Get Ripped or Die Trying!

Stuffed Tomatoes

G’s Cafe Bude