A WEEK'S MENU FOR A VEGAN

This was first posted in 2013 and started out as a weekly menu, but I've since added to it. I need to update this, since I try to follow Dr Greger's Daily Dozen, and my lunch routine has changed considerably.)

Breakfast:

Porridge – made with water - is probably the healthiest breakfast. Combine it with blueberries, strawberries or whatever suits your fancy.  I like mine with blackstrap molasses – although I no longer draw faces and yachts on the porridge as I did with treacle when I was younger! (Still do with the grandchildren on occasion! :-) )

My wife has hers with sultanas (soaked overnight) and banana. (Ugh!)

I only have porridge about once a week - my usual breakfast used to be spicy fruit naan, slathered with mashed banana.

However, since I'm rarely hungry in the morning, I skip breakfast these days, except for the once a week porridge when my wife and I have a Sunday lie-in.

CALORIE COUNTED VEGAN PIZZA - CHEAP, WHOLESOME AND TASTY!

Tasty tomato pizza (Cost, around 50p or so)

Ingredients:
150g (1 mug) strong white flour 7.5p (551cals)
1/4 tsp salt
100g (1/3rd mug) lukewarm water
10g fresh yeast 4p (from Sainsbury's - free from Asda) (10cals)
1 dessertspoon veg oil 1p (90 cals)

Topping:Half a tin of tomatoes, reduced, with a tsp soya sauce and dried herbs - 15p (50cals)
Sliced field mushroom and tomato - 10p(?) (20cals)
A little roasted red pepper - 10p (10cals)
A good sprinkle of nutritional yeast (nooch) and oregano - pennies (20cals) [Or use your favourite vegan cheese - Applewood vegan cheddar is pretty good. (Not calorie or cost counted)]

(Total calorie count - 730. A pizza for one, using 100g of flour, would work out at 470cals!)

DIARY OF AN INTERMITTENT FASTER

22nd February 2016
Bingeing - we've all done it!

You know the feeling you get when you've had a biscuit, or a piece of chocolate - your taste buds tell you, "That was nice, I'd like some more, please." Then before you know it, you're halfway down the packet of biscuits, or the bar of chocolate has gone!

As a vegan, I have a sure-fire way to halt a binge in its tracks - a teaspoon of 'nooch'.

That's nutritional yeast to the uninitiated - made by Marigold Engevita, it's £2.99 in my local HFS. (I use the version fortified with B12.)

It has many other uses, it's full of flavour and is low on calories - a heaped dessertspoon is only 17 cals. I use it on a bolognaise sauce instead of parmesan - I sprinkle it on pizzas instead of cheese. It's very versatile.

Back to bingeing on sweet stuff - if you've had one chocolate or the whole bar, one biscuit or half a packet, a teaspoon of nooch will reset your tastebuds instantly. 

I don't always, but I have in the past, taken one biscuit out of the packet, put the tub of nooch close to hand, had the biscuit, then straightaway had a teaspoon of nooch.

I'm posting about this today since this morning my daughter confirmed everything I've said about its binge-halting properties.

BTW, to halt a binge on savoury stuff, I've found half a square of dark chocolate does the trick - but I have no independent confirmation of this! 


9th January 2016

I've said elsewhere on these threads that fasting has made me pretty zen when it comes to food - and I proved it again today.

It was the monthly meeting of Taunton Humanists - 2nd Saturday in the month at 12.00 midday - in the Winchester Arms, Taunton. We hadn't been here for a while, and the pub was under new ownership.

I would have liked something to eat, but, despite having 5 choices of soup, none of them were vegan! They all had either cream, or, bizarrely, honey, in them. My goto meal in the average British pub is generally chips, mushrooms and beans, but the pub didn't have any of these! They had sweet potato chips, but I decided eating could wait until I got home.

For a late lunch I fried up a field mushroom and made an omelette from gram flour, spread with hummus and with the mushrooms. Simple, quick and absolutely gorgeous!

Dinner was homemade pizza (dough made with hot paprika) spread with Pateole mushroom spread and either pesto or hummus - plus sliced m/rooms, tomatoes, roasted red peppers and sun dried tomatoes. I had this with curried potato wedges.

While the oven was on I made a fruit loaf a la Swedish tea ring, but instead of spreading the rolled out dough with oil and sugar, I mixed some apple puree with leftover mincemeat and spread that over the dough. Rather than roll it round into a ring, I left it in a log shape, just tucking the ends in.

7th January 2016

I began IFing almost 4 years ago - after losing 24lbs in weight practicing 5:2 (eating normally for 5 days and fasting on the other 2).  I've now been maintaining my weight by using 6:1 - and on the day I fast I generally don't eat for 24 hours.

Today was a fast day (FD) - I ate last yesterday at 6pm and I've just had black coffee and water today. We're going out to dinner with some friends very shortly, so I won't eat until the starter arrives, which will be around 7.30 or so.

From the beginning I've considered myself very lucky in that I don't get hungry on these fasts - not at all. In fact I have in the past fasted for 48 hours and still didn't feel any pangs of hunger. Of course I drink a fair amount of water to keep myself hydrated.

I've had a great day - I always have so much energy generally, and even more so on FDs. I teach breadmaking, and this morning I had a Family Learning class with 11 families, in a lovely school in Bridgwater -Hamp Primary School.  12 children made pain au chocolat, mincemeat doughnuts and fancy dinner rolls. Then, this afternoon, I had a couple of students making de luxe Chelsea buns - de luxe in that, when the dough is rolled out, it was spread with mincemeat instead of oil and sugar, before being rolled up and cut into buns.

I then followed this session with a visit to my garage, then I did some food shopping for the weekend, returning home about 5pm.

After only 6 hours sleep last night, I was now knackered - and, since I wasn't going to be eating for another 2 hours or so - I did what any sensible person would do, and had a short nap.

To the pub about 6.30, and I ended my fast, and quenched my thirst with a pint of real ale - Barnsey, made in Bath.

Had a couple of pints+1/3rd of a bottle of Merlot with my risotto - which was OK.

On return home I treated myself to a couple of Crepe Suzette with a dash of Tia Maria.

I reported this on the latest Mumsnet 5:2 thread and received this advice:

Alcohol during / right after a fast removes health benefits

...which I wasn't aware of! :(

I'll know better next time.

FREEZING TOMATOES FOR THE WINTER

I try not to eat fruit and veg out of season, but I do love tomatoes - so, in the summer, when they're very cheap and there's a gIut, I freeze them. The other day I bought half a kilo of pearl tomatoes for 50p which were deemed not for sale by the greengrocer - but they were ideal for freezing.

Simply slice the tomatoes, place them on baking parchment on a baking tray and stick them in the freezer for a little while.

Once frozen, prize them off the baking parchment and place them in a freezer bag.

They're not great for salads - but I don't have many salads in the winter anyway! :)

But they're ideal for topping pizzas and, of course, for fried tomatoes when making a vegan fry-up!

PIZZA WITH A LID? FILLED ROLL? PANZAROTTO? HUMMUS SANDWICH? YOU DECIDE! (Vegan)

Lunch today - in the absence of any bread - was:

Filled with hummus, tomatoes and mushrooms - with nutritional yeast

Ingredients:
50g wholemeal flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 stock cube

Mixed together briefly

Plus:
33g water
10g sunflower oil from a jar of roasted peppers

And:
Hummus, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, nutritional yeast

Before starting, place a lightly oiled frying pan over a medium heat.

Mix the flour, seasoning, water and oil into a soft dough and divide in two. Using plenty of flour, roll out both pieces out into circles about 15cm across and place one in the frying pan.

Spread this with hummus and add slices of fried mushroom and tomato, then sprinkle with nutritional yeast. 

Cover with the second circle of dough and set a timer for 4 minutes.

When the first side is cooked, carefully turn over the bread and cook the other side for a further 5 minutes.

Not so carefully turned over!

This took me about 20 minutes to make and was simply delicious. When I'd finished it, I could have eaten another one!

I'll certainly be making it again.

BREADMAKING MADE EASY, Burnham on Sea, Somerset

Andy's 4-strand plait and smiley face!

Satisfying breadmaking session at Burnham on Sea Somerset Skills and Learning centre, this morning.

Only 4 students, one of whom was a regular bread baker, with the other three being novices, attended, and they all went home with 5 different varieties of bread.

BREADMAKING AT WELLINGTON CHILDREN'S CENTRE, Nov 2013

Wednesday 20th November 2013
Another lovely session with 4 families attending. This time we made pain au chocolat, jam and mincemeat doughnuts and jam and mincemeat tarts.

The table before we start - mincemeat, jam and chocolate at the ready. The only equipment needed is a bowl, a beaker and a teaspoon for each family. Beakers in bowls so that any flour spillage is collected in the bowl.

15 minutes later - dough made and rolled out - circles cut out, turned into doughnuts and tarts

The beakers double up as cutters

The two small rolls in the middle are pain au chocolat. The chocolate pieces are halved chocolate squares from Lidl's Fair Trade range. Lovely dark chocolate costing £1.00/100g - bargain!

Noah's bread

Alisha's

Michelle's bread with one pain au chocolat missing already - but it was her birthday!

Kelly's bread. She came to the session a bit late and only had time to make the pain au chocolat. Shame! :)

Michelle and her birthday loaf - which contained, from  left to right, mincemeat, chocolate and jam

Here's a close-up of Michelle's bread - I'll turn it right side up when I get a moment.

[More to come]


Wednesday 13th November 2013
Much better turnout this time - making pizzas and sizzlers. 5 families turned up - with 2 dads and 3 mothers.

Once again, busy tables with lots of activity - this time I remembered to take a few pics, both of the proving dough and of the finished article.

The sizzlers were filled with either mushroom and cheese or tomato and cheese. depending on preference - and they're proving on top of the ovens to take advantage of the heat. 

They don't need to prove for long, since there is about 10g of fresh yeast to 150g of flour they rise pretty fast. But, since we only have an hour and a half for the whole session, there's no time to waste.

Some of the finished bread - could have taken Noah's pizza out a couple of minutes earlier, though! :(

Next week we'll be making pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts - probably I'll bring some mincemeat as well to make 


Wednesday 6th November 2013

The first of three visits this month to this Children's Centre I've visited several times before.

"It's a new group, so we're not sure how many will come" said Kelly, the organiser. And, in the event, two families came, one mum with two children and a dad with one - all of the children under 2 years old.

For the first session, we made bread rolls, which, with only a couple of families participating, didn't take long. So Kelly went downstairs to the playgroup and recruited half a dozen 2 to 3-year-olds!

Not many pics - just lots of activity! Once the half a dozen playgroup children joined us it became a very busy session indeed!

VEGAN SODA BREAD PIZZAS with sun-dried tomatoes and olives

More pics further down

It was the end of term session this morning, of our U3A Enquiring minds (P4C) course, so we all brought something in for a buffet lunch. My contribution was a couple of vegan pizzas - with a soda bread crust - which went down a storm.

Ingredients:
200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bouillon powder
125ml liquid (100g water, 25g tomato puree)
50g oil from the sun-dried tomatoes (This enhances the crust and gives it almost a shortcrust pastry-type feel.)

Topping:
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 dessertspoon mushroom sauce
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
2 dessertspoons nutritional yeast

This was mashed with a potato masher to make it more smooth, and simmered to reduce it.

Plus: 
Sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips, mushrooms, olives, nutritional yeast and oregano

PIZZA - with a soda bread crust

Makes two 30cm (12") pizzas. Ready in a jiffy, and very economical, costing less than £1 each.  

Ingredients:

400g (or 2 mugs) self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

250ml (or 2/3rds mug) water

2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

Topping:

½ tube tomato puree thinned out with hot water into a passata-type sauce

1/2 tsp mixed herbs) (optional)

1/2 stock cube (optional)

2 heaped dessertspoons nutritional yeast, or:
100g vegan cheese (Eg. Smoked Applewood)
Plus sliced mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers

Method:

1.     Since the baking powder begins working as soon as it comes into contact with the water, you need to have everything ready before mixing the dough. So, heat the oven to 220C, 425F, gas mark 7 and either grease two baking sheets or line them with baking parchment.

2.     Place the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, add the water, then the olive oil (if using) and begin mixing together into a dough, bringing the flour from the sides to the middle. Don't be too gentle, and work fairly fast. The dough should be soft and squishy, so don't be afraid to add more water to keep it soft.

3.     Once the dough is formed, give the mixing bowl a final wipe and turn it out onto your worktop, knead it firmly several times, then mould it into a cob shape. Working quickly, divide the dough into two and, with a rolling pin and plenty of flour, roll each one out into a large circle to fit your trays. (With practice you can get the mixing and shaping done in two or three minutes.)

4.     Divide the sauce between the pizzas, spreading it not quite up to the edges - leave about a centimetre gap - and smoothing it out evenly. Sprinkle with cheese.

5.     Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, but check after ten – you may need to swap shelves, or turn the pizzas around to cook evenly. When they're done the pizzas will lift up all along one side when you check underneath, using a bread knife or similar. The bottom should be browning from the edges.

Notes:

The topping I've given is just a suggestion - use your own favourite toppings, and get the family to join in with their own favourites. 

About using soda bread in this way: 

I've been making my own bread for almost 40 years, and pizzas for most of this time - but I've only recently discovered this variation, and it really is a revelation! 

If I'm using s-d tomatoes, I'll add about 25g of the oil they have been soaked in to the dough instead of olive oil. This enhances the crust and gives it almost a shortcrust pastry-type feel.

5:2 DIET CHEESE AND TOMATO PIZZA - FOR AROUND 70P

(For those who aren't sure what the 5:2 diet is, there's a great deal of info on this thread.)

Calorie count:
Whole pizza - 910 cal
1/2 pizza - 455 cals
1/3 pizza - 303 cals
1/4 pizza - 228 cals

BREADMAKING WITH THE FAMILIES OF 40 COMMANDO

Began a new project at half term, Autumn 2012, out at Norton Manor Camp, just outside of Taunton, home to 40 Commando Marines who are currently deployed to Afghanistan.

Basically, I've volunteered to spend a couple of sessions a week out there, teaching as many families as I can how to make bread, while their husbands and partners are away.

Wednesday 5th December
Made pane casereccio (PCs, rolled, stuffed pizza) with 3 families - 4 youngsters - this evening. We managed to get all 5 baked - this oven isn't too bad!

4 of the PCs were stuffed with chopped mushroom and a Linda McCartney sausage also chopped, then sprinkled with grated Cheddar. The other was made with vegan ingredients, since one of the children is allergic to dairy. This was spread with Pateole mushroom spread, covered with vegan pesto, with chunks of vegan sausage and mushroom.

Tuesday 4th December
5 youngsters made farthing buns, and their 3 mothers made what was supposed to be focaccia, but wasn't, since I didn't remember to bring any olive oil! I did, however, bring a jar of olives, so the bread was a flattish disc, with olives pressed into the top. The mothers took them home to bake, and I asked them to add olive oil at home. We'll find out next week how this worked out. 

Although I did get a text from Carla, who said, "Wow the focaccia bread was amazing it's almost all finished. Thank you soooo much!"

The farthing buns were baked in the session and the kids were soon tucking in with relish!

(We've decided to use the oven in the centre, despite warnings it was too slow. However, we decided to use it on maximum and it worked fine.)

Wednesday 28th November
Expanding on last week's bread, we made the fruit dough - then turned it into Chelsea buns, which the mothers took home with them to bake.

Wednesday 21st November
But the Family Centre session went ahead, albeit with just two families.

The unbaked rolls that went home with the mothers last week were pronounced a success! We'll be doing more of that in future! 

Today the families went home with a batch of fruit buns each.

Tuesday 20th November
After school session cancelled because of the floods here in Taunton.

Wednesday 14th November
Success! Finally managed to work with some pre-school families - 5 in all, with 8 children all playing with some bread dough and then making some shapes.

A combination of factors  - risk assessment issues - time restraints, etc - unreliable oven - decided us on a different course of action from my usual sessions. Instead we sent the families home with their bread (and recipes) so they could bake it in their own ovens in their own kitchens.

We'll found out on Wednesday how successful this has been.

Tuesday 13th November
Once again, no-one attended the morning session, so my volunteer helper and I just swapped stories over a coffee, just as we did last week. Nikki, my welfare contact has suggested I attend a weekly pre-school family session tomorrow to drum up some support.

The afternoon session was again well-attended, making chocolate and banana bread. No photo's since I forgot my iPhone

Tuesday 6th November 
No-one came to the first session of the pre-school children's session - but the afternoon session with the after-school children was a great success with 7 children attending.

We made cheese and tomato pizza and vegan chocolate cake:

We made  Tuesday 30th October
I began yesterday, first day of half-term, with families with school-age children; today was for the under-fives; and tomorrow is for the school kids again.

Next week we've agreed I'll have the under-5s in the morning and the school kids after school.

We've started slowly, with two families in each session (these things always take time to build up). However, they all had a great time and have promised to go out and spread the word.

I've had brilliant co-operation from the Marines, from Welfare, and from the cooks and chefs in the galley (we're occupying a corner of what most people would call the restaurant) - plus I have plenty of help from volunteers!

The set-up is quite different to any I've experienced before, in that I don't have any access to the ovens - or even the kitchen! So, when I have some bread which needs baking, I present myself at the kitchen door and hope that one of the chefs comes over and takes the bread away. Then I come back later and check if the bread is ready. For someone who is used to instant access to the ovens I'm using, this is a little disconcerting. However, I'm sure I'll get used to it.

We made soda bread on Monday, and my usual method is to stick it straight into the oven as soon as it is shaped. On this occasion I waited until everyone had finished their loaves then took the tray to the kitchen for baking. I'm afraid they didn't rise too well. They were just about OK, and, at least, the students (and volunteers) took the recipes home to have a go in their own ovens.

We also made fancy dinner rolls and shapes - here's a few of the results:

Some of the volunteers also made bread, here's a bull's head by Adam 

On Tuesday, we made more fancy dinner rolls - this time with the younger children - and jam doughnuts. I did my usual trick of forgetting half the ingredients, but the chef, Mark, came to my rescue with jam and sugar.

Here's some pics of the results:

A busy table. We used beakers to cut out the circles

Two circles of dough for each doughnut - 1/2 a teaspoonful of jam in the middle of one of the circles then another circle is placed on top as Katie is doing here. Press with a finger all round, then the two edges are squidged together.

I don't always remember to take pics of the breads my students make, but I had to take this one:

Monkey - by Bazz!

The third session this week saw 6 children making jam doughnuts and petit pain au chocolat: