Veg Pledge

Such an exciting week ahead. First there's Shrove Tuesday with pancakes galore, then Valentines Day with the prospect of Chocolate goodies, all finished off with Chinese New Year on Friday and a plateful of oriental delights. The only blot on the landscape is Ash Wednesday when we should give something up for Lent.

Over the years I've tried cutting out all the bad things; pop and sweets and crisps and buns.Oh, and chocolate. I've had a couple of successful years but mostly I have succumbed at some point during Lent.

I'm beginning to think there's a conspiracy to convert me from Vegetarianism to Veganism. In the last 10 days I have received four emails relating to vegan products:-

John Lewis - Vegan beauty ranges

The Botanist - All new vegan menu

Apple News - Secrets every vegan already knows

Tesco- our favourite vegan recipes to inspire your menu at home

I had better give something up because it would seem Big Brother is definitely watching.

Coming home to roost

Happy Chinese New Year - 2017 the year of the Rooster. Across the world people have been celebrating with lion dances, dragons, red lanterns, red money envelopes, fireworks and, of course, delicious Chinese street food.

I had decided to take an easy option and buy in some ready meals. Marks and Spencer had a great offer of 2 mains and 3 sides for £10. Sadly, none of the mains were vegetarian. BIG mistake M+S - huge! I had to revert to my standby homemade Mushroom Fried Rice:-

Fry mushrooms down adding soy sauce and ground black pepper

Boil long grain rice, adding frozen peas in the last 2 mins

Lightly fry a few chopped spring onions

Scramble one egg

Once everything is cooked mix them all together adding more soy sauce (if you have cashew nuts stir them in to the mixture and warm through)

Serve with sweet chilli sauce and Thai spiced crackers followed by a fortune cookie - it may determine your new year outlook on life.

Happy New Year everyone.

Flippin' Crazy!

What a great run of events we have this week! Today is National Yorkshire Pudding Day, tomorrow is Chinese New Year and the following day is Shrove Tuesday! 

Q: What do all these days have in common? 

A: Flour, eggs and milk!

So today we can tuck into our Sunday Roast (nut roast for us) alongside our vegetables, roast potatoes and good old Yorkshire puddings.

Tomorrow we can enjoy a lovely Chinese takeaway, restaurant meal or homemade dish. I love to make the following Mushroom Fried Rice:-

Cook long grain rice as per instructions (adding frozen peas for the last two minutes of cooking)

Cook mushrooms in a little oil and butter and season with pepper (add chopped spring onions)

Scramble an egg and add to the cooked rice

Add the mushrooms and onions and a good long slug of soy sauce

Serve with sweet chilli sauce and a side of Thai crackers (suitable for vegetarians).

Another favourite is Veggie Chinese Pancakes using either tofu or mushrooms instead of duck.

Then, if you haven't had enough batter in one week, you can go for lovely sweet or savoury filled pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Below is a picture of my breakfast this morning (just a rehearsal for Tuesday) and my waffles eaten last weekend using the same recipe!

If you want to bump up the entertainment value you could have a pancake race. In my camping days we used to have a sports weekend and one of the races for the adults involved lighting a Primus stove, cooking a pancake and tossing it three times before running across the finishing line. A child-friendly version is sometimes done in primary schools and I remember my daughter's class excitedly discussing who was the "biggest tosser" in their year, whilst the teachers passed secret smiles to one another!