Spinach, orange bell pepper, cherry tomato, chickpea, pistachio and fig salad with a pomegranate molasses/tahini/orange juice dressing.
Spicy roasted aubergine, bell pepper, tomato, new potato and kidney bean ‘bake’ with spinach and balsamic salad.
I don’t really have a recipe for this - I just used what I fancied and tried to recreate something I’d had at a veggie cafe recently. However, I found something online that looks fairly similar if you want to try it out - recipe here. :)
Vegetarian chilli with tortilla chips.
In a saucepan I heated up some coconut oil and fried a red onion and 1/2 a red bell pepper until cooked through, then added the quorn mince. I then added a little bit of water and some chopped spinach, stirring until wilted. After that I added some tomato purée, about 1/3 cup of tomato pasta sauce (the cheap kind from a jar), some garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Lastly I added a little bit more water and a bit of a crumbled vegetable stock cube, leaving to simmer for 5 minutes or so.
This made two big portions! Probably 3 if you were to have rice with it - but I fancied tortilla chips. :D
I know this isn’t a ‘traditional’ chilli but I had my student brain engaged and so used things that needed to be eaten today.
Soup Sunday!
-Carrot, roasted red pepper and garlic, ginger and veggie stock. With a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds.
It was my dad’s own concoction, so I couldn’t tell you the recipe, but I’ll try it out for myself one day! It was delicious, and my dad used “my special stock”, aka, vegan stock, so I could have soup too.
And it really was that orange. If I have an orange glow to me later on, this’ll be why! :D
A new rice cake combination that blew my tastebuds away.
Chilli spiced rice cake, topped with red pepper hummus, red pepper, pine nuts and paprika.
Filling, warming, healthy and incredibly flavourful. I was surprised by just how much flavour there was! All thanks to five spice - a Chinese spice with is dominantly star anise and cinnamon. I’m not a huge aniseed fan, so I was definitely dubious, but it turned out delicious and made the house smell lovely. Serves 2.
You will need;
- 1 can aduki beans (or kidney beans), dried and rinsed;
- 2 carrots;
- 1/2 a zucchini/courgette;
- 1/4 red onion;
- 1/3 of a red bell pepper;
- 5 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce;
- 1 tsp olive oil;
- 1 tsp Five Spice;
- 1/2 tsp sugar;
- 1/2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (can omit);
- A few cashews to put on top.
1. Dice the red onion and pepper, slice the zucchini in to thin strips and peel the carrots. Still using the peeler, peel the rest of the carrot so it forms long, thin ribbons.
2. In a saucepan, add the teaspoon of olive oil and a few tsp of water, warm through then add the onion and pepper. After a minute or so, add the sugar to help caramelize the onions, and once completely translucent add the remaining vegetables.
3. Drain the beans from the can and rinse, adding to the pan once the zucchini and carrot appear soft. Add all remaining ingredients except the cashews, stir to combine the flavours and do this for about 5-10 minutes. Pour in to two bowls, top with a few cashews, then dig in!
All in all, it’s 250 calories per portion (only 25 from fat), 13g of protein, 214% of your daily vitamin A and 50% of vitamin C. Healthy never tasted so good!
Soy-Maple Crusted Tofu open faced sandwich with romaine lettuce and red bell pepper.
Half a wholewheat pitta with homemade veggie burger, tomato salsa and spinach. Strips of cucumber and red bell pepper with a heaping tbsp of hummus.
Best veggie burger I’ve made, I’d highly recommend this recipe. :D
Vegan lunch, fuck yeah! (Sing to this tune.)
A slice of toasted buckwheat and poppy seed bread spread with red pepper pesto, topped with grilled cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds and sauteed green bell pepper, zucchini and carrot, with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.
Grilled stuffed peppers, filled with veggie bolognese, topped with a little melted cheese on a bed of spinach. NOM.
Dinner tonight - wholewheat spaghetti bolognese, vegetarian style. (Well, vegan if it wasn’t for the baked beans.)
The bolognese sauce used soya mince, made from textured vegetable protein and is vegan! And scrumptious. (It’s Sainsbury’s own brand, for you UK folk.) There was also green bell pepper, tomatoes, tomato puree, spinach, sweetcorn, baked beans, s&p, oregano and basil.
Look at this kick ass vegetarian pizza. I made this shit. I’m proud, haha.
I had to cook for the family today, and they begged for tuna or bacon on the pizza, and I wanted just veggies and no cheese - we settled with no meat but with cheese.
I made the crust wholewheat (with yeast and everything) and added 1 1/2 cups spinach, 1/2 cup yellow and green peppers and 1/2 cup sweetcorn. Oh, and with mozzarella, medium cheddar, basil, oregano and fresh tomato sauce. Mmm good!
Dinner tonight; zucchini and bell pepper in marinara sauce with black pepper, a toasted wholewheat pitta and rocket with balsamic vinegar.
Nutrition and Stress - 5 Foods That Help Reduce Stress;
1. Salmon.
- High levels of the fats DHA and EPA in salmon have been shown to reduce anxiety and dampen down the effect that stress has on our emotions.
2. Pistachios.
- These don’t technically reduce stress levels, but they do reduce the impact it has on your body. People doing stressful tasks after eating pistachios suffer less intense spikes in blood pressure.
3. Red & Green Peppers.
- An excellent source of vitamin C. Research by German doctors discovered that when vitamin C levels in the body are high, we calm down from stress faster.
4. Oats.
- Herbalists have used oat extract for years as a calming remedy as they seem to act directly on the nervous system, making us less agitated. Oats also keep blood sugar stable - stress hits us harder if blood sugar is low.
5. Turkey.
- This is the best source of the calming neurotransmitter ‘tryptophan’, which then turns into the happiness hormone serotonin. Everything seems a bit easier to bear when serotonin levels are high.
