Home Sweet Home

Wow, It’s been a busy three weeks! You know that feeling when time has completely disappeared and its suddenly June and you’re not really sure what happened to May? My inspiration for this post, and the reason I’ve not really stopped since my last post, is my Boyfriend has just bought his very first flat so we’ve been very busy painting, decorating and cleaning to make it into somewhere that can be called home.

 

Now, being so busy, we (I mean I) have had very little time to cook; we may have resorted to a couple of indians and a gluten free dominos before the cooker was installed. The main problem I had when trying to decide what on earth we we’re going to eat was finding things that were quick and easy and still delicious because many of my favourite recipe’s are amazing but take an extortionate amount of time, time I wished I had. So my recipe’s for you today are simple, yummy, comfort food that take less than half an hour whether you’re busy making your home sweeter, rushed off your feet or simply wanting to spend a little more time snuggled up  on the sofa in an oversized hoodie which reminds you of someone or somewhere special with a bowl of tasty goodness.

Todays recipes include a super simple vegetable curry, the best baked sweet potato with ‘cheese’ and beans and vegan chocolate ice cream. And, of course, all these recipes are Gluten Free (I accidentally ate a hash brown at Ikea when going to pick up some furniture yesterday, lets just say it was a very, very bad mistake which I will not be making again.) , Refined Sugar Free and Vegan. My playlist for you this week is made up of some my favourite new music, as well as some great throwbacks, which are great for just chilling out, cooking and eating, or belting out tunes using a roller as a microphone (i.e me last week). These songs remind me of, and make me feel at home, wherever I am and I hope these, and the recipes, make you feel the same. 🙂

 

Super Simple Vegetable Curry

This was one of the first meals I made in the new flat. It may be mild but it’s so warming on a rainy day. I just made this with fresh veggies as I haven’t stocked the cupboards with my various tins yet but when I’m at home I normally add chickpeas, lentils or both to give a bit more of a protein hit. This recipe served two very hungry people but could probably have served 3. I would’ve frozen the other portion, if there had been any, for another time.

Ingredients:

• 150g Easy Cook Brown Rice
• 400ml Coconut Milk
• 4tbsp Mild Curry Powder ( Morrison’s own brand is the best I’ve found so far as it contains turmeric, coriander, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder and cayenne pepper & means you don’t need a cupboard full of different spices to make a good curry. You could also use medium or hot if you prefer a little more spice or just add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper or chilli powder.)
• 1 red onion (You can use white, they just don’t agree with me)
• Half a red pepper
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 100g of mushrooms
• 1 aubergine
• salt & pepper

1. Put the rice into a large saucepan and 600ml of water. Add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil and let it cook for 30mins (or as suggested on the pack).
2. Chop all the vegetables into bite sized chunks.
3. Heat a little oil in a saucepan then add the onion and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. The add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a further 3-4 minutes.
4. Add the curry powder so it coats the vegetables and then add a little salt and pepper.
5. Mix in the coconut milk and simmer for 6 or 7 minutes.
6. Drain the rice then serve up your dinner with a serving spoon and be careful not to get it anywhere,especially on white things (like the edges of new cookers, oops!) as turmeric really stains things.

The Best Baked Sweet Potato with ‘Cheese’ and Beans

This has always been one of my favourite quick and easy dinners and when I first became a vegetarian, 8 and a half years ago, it was a dinner that my Nanna would always make me when I go round there. Since cutting down on the dairy and cutting out the sugar (why baked beans contain so much sugar I will never know!) I havent had it in a long time. So I decided, whilst I had a nice evening a home alone tonight I decided to adapt the classic so it would be healthier and make my poor little tummy (after yesterday’s
hash brown fiasco) a little happier. The recipe for the ‘cheese’ element of this is not my own and can be found at http://deliciouslyella.com/creamy-raw-cashew-nut-cheese/ . I used the recipe from Deliciously Ella’s app which also included a quarter cup of olive oil. I added a little extra water (about 30ml) and another tbs of Nutritional yeast. My recipe serves one but there’s a lot more cheese so you can have some the day after with some rice cakes or oatcakes (well at least that’s my plan for tomorrow, in between making furniture).

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato
• 5-6 tbs Deliciously Ella’s Cashew Nut Cheese
• 1 small red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a quarter of a red pepper
• 2-3 mushrooms
• 200ml of passata
• 200g haricot beans
• 2-3tbs smoked paprika
• 1ts chilli powder
• 2ts tamari
• 1tbs basil

 

1. Pierce the Sweet Potato, season with a little salt and pepper, place in the microwave and set the timer for about 7 minutes depending on the size of your sweet potato and press start. You can also do this in the oven but it takes about an hour to cook properly.
2. In a small saucepan heat a little oil and cook off the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the other vegetables and cook for a couple more minutes.
4. Add the paprika and coat the vegetables in it.
5. Add the passata, basil and chilli and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Finally stir in the haricot beans and continue to simmer until nice and hot.
7. Make sure your sweet potato is nice and tender, cut in half on a plate, fill with 3 tbs of ‘cheese’ then pour on the beans and top with a further 3 tbs of ‘cheese’.
8. Curl up on the in your favourite hoodie and Enjoy 🙂

 

Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream

There were 2 reasons for deciding to make this ice cream. Firstly, my day job is to basically scoop ice creams, and not just any ice cream, but Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and although I’ve never been an ice cream lover, I prefer a sorbet or a lolly, but working around it so much and cutting down on dairy I’ve, of course, really fancied it. Secondly, I’ve been wanting to attempt to make Vegan Ice Cream with Bananas for a long time but since I really don’t like bananas (I never have, and although my mum thinks I’m changing, I don’t think I ever will) I’ve not had any around to try it out. But my boyfriend was given a big fruit basket as a house-warming gift and whilst we ate most fruit or turned it into smoothies neither of us can stomach bananas in normal or smoothie form so I decided to turn them into an unrecognisable form and if it would taste any good as I have tried eating it before and it has still been too bananay for me. This time was different and it was good! and so simple! and so chocolatey you didn’t notice the banana! This recipe makes one good-sized tub of ice cream. I don’t know whether it’s just my freezer but it was very solid baring in mind that I’m a professional scooper 😉 – so you might want to let it defrost a little before serving.

Ingredients:

• 5 very ripe bananas
• 6tbs raw cacao powder
• 1tbs maple syrup
• 1-2tbs water ( if necessary)

1. A couple of hours, the day before, or the week before if you like cut your bananas into coins put them into a freezable bag or airtight container and put them into the freezer.
2. Put all the ingredients into a food processor, adding the water only if necessary, and blitz until smooth. Put in an airtight and freeze until you want to eat it.

 

Here’s my Home Sweet Home playlist full of comforting and fun tunes, both old and new, which will hopefully make you feel at home, whilst you’re cooking or chilling, wherever you are as I know they do that for me 🙂

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy trying these out for yourself. Thank you for your lovely feedback from my first post and sorry that it’s been so long since my last post. Can’t wait to hear what you think of these & I hope they make your home a little sweeter 🙂

#Vegetable #Curry #SweetPotato #Cheese #Beans #IceCream #Vegan #SugarFree #GlutenFree #Food #Home #ComfortFood #Quick #Simple #DiaryFree