A few photos from Saturday
Plumes x
Pride in London
Month: June 2016
Round up of the week’s food 160626
I had some great food this week and I can’t wait to show you!
On Monday we went to the cinema to see Princess Mononoke as part of the Studio Ghibli Forever festival. We had been planning on visiting the Coach and Horses beforehand but they were replacing their floor so the kitchen was closed. We ended up going to Eat Tokyo, which was apt before seeing a Japanese film. They had quite an extensive vegetarian menu and I went for this tempura bento box. I love age tofu and this was one of the best I have had. There was real variety in the tempura and there was loads of it!
On Tuesday my Husband made sausages from a Granose pack and sweet potato fries. An easy wholesome dinner.
On Wednesday I made this mushroom and leek risotto. It was packed with veg and really filling.
On Thursday I went swimming with my Mum after I had worked from home as I was unable to get to work due to flooding on my train line. I got completely drenched on the walk to her house but it wasn’t too bad. We had pasta in avocado sauce with salad which was light but still filling after the swim.
On Friday I pre-ordered my lunch from CookDaily its about a 15 minute fast walk from my office to Boxpark Shoreditch so I get a bit of exercise to work up my appetite. I ordered the Hard Bowl which is yam, ackee, vegetables with wholewheat dumplings in a scotch bonnet sauce. The sauce was really hot for me but I managed it and it didn’t burn too much although my nose was running! The hot pepper did give it a really sweet taste as well which I enjoyed so I will endure the heat again to experience that rather than ask for it without!
We went to my in-laws on Friday night and we had a lovely sausage casserole. I like it when I can have the same dish with just a vegan substitute.
On Saturday I marched in the London Pride event with my company. I’ll post some more photos once I’ve collated them all.
On Saturday night my Husband and Mother-in-law made Japanese curry but unfortunately my phone was out of battery so I wasn’t able to take a photo.
Today we’ve just travelled home so I just grabbed some sushi from Wasabi when we passed through Victoria.
Hope you haven’t been too rained on this week, hopefully it’ll be better next week!
Plumes x
Round up of the week’s food 160619
I started off this week with left overs from last Sunday so it was jerk tofu again. I didn’t take another picture so imagine this without the peas!
On Tuesday I made Bolognese with wholewheat fusilli pasta. When I went into the freezer for the soya mince I realised we had none left so used a can of green lentils instead which worked just as well. I served it with my vegan favourite – garlic bread from Sainsburys at 70p for two baguettes!
On Wednesday my Husband was suppose to make dinner but he wasn’t feeling well so I popped to the chip shop after my run and had chips and salad, I felt I had earned it after all!
My Mum and I went to the amazing supper club hosted by Ruby and Pickles on Thursday which you can read all about here.
On Friday I went to Carnevale with my Husband for lunch which you can read about here.
On Saturday I took part in the Awakening vegan demonstration at Piccadilly Circus.
Afterwards I headed over to the nearby veggie Pret pop up. They’ve recently released some results here from their first few weeks. I was surprised when they originally said they expected a 30% drop in sales, they obviously didn’t appreciate the veggie pound as they’ve seen an increase of 70%! Also the 8 top selling products are all vegan! They are now decided what to do next so you can contact them on Twitter to let them know your thoughts. I had an artichoke, red pepper tapenade and olive baguette which was great and I hope they add it to the regular menu. I also had a kombucha which is a fermented green tea and this one was flavoured with lemon and ginger. I’m still not sure if I like kombucha, the fermented-ness reminds me a bit of cider but more vinegary. The chocolate orange pot is amazing and this will go down well with non-vegans too.
As I was in the vicinity I of course had to visit Yorica! for some ice cream, even though it wasn’t that warm! I went for the violet and chocolate orange with chocolate cornflakes. They had a rose one for the Queen’s birthday which I hope they’ll do again as its one of my fave flavours and would love the floral combination of that and the violet.
I had a picnic today with my Brother and Sister-in-law to mark the first Father’s Day without my Dad. I baked some banana bread and doughnuts and we had an assortment of vegan savouries. The weather was really lovely and it great being out inn the local country park.
Hope you have a great week!
Plumes x
Review -Carnevale
As my Husband and I were in the area we popped in to Carnevale for lunch yesterday. It had been years since our last visit so was interested to see if much had changed.
I had the homemade sausage and colcannon mash with a red wine jus. The sausages were really fruity and the mash was creamy with cabbage running through it. It was served with a load of mixed salad leaves which I’ve never had with sausage and mash, I think it might have been better with something like peas.
My Husband had falafel and houmous with a roasted vegetable casserole. He felt the falafel was a little over cooked and wasn’t keen on the chunky aubergine in the casserole. We took the rest of the casserole home and I had it for dinner with a pie and thought it was lovely!
For dessert I went for the chocolate roulade. It was really rich and had a raspberry sauce running through it. The menu said it came with Earl Grey truffles but they were no where to be seen.
Although the food was alright I do think it was overpriced at £13.50 per main, I don’t think we’ll be rushing back anytime soon.
Plumes x
Review – Ruby and Pickles Supperclub
I first became aware of Sareta of Sareta’s Kitchen when I was searching for a vegan haggis recipe (Sareta’s is fabulous click here to try it for yourself!) Since then we have been commenting on each other’s blogs and conversing on twitter, so I was really excited when I found out she was going to be hosting a monthly supper club with her friend Jasel under the name “Ruby and Pickles”.
Their first supper club was on my Mum’s birthday so we weren’t able to attend, but as soon as I saw their second date I got Mum to pencil it in to her diary!
We walked to The Joker near Angel from Liverpool Street and got a drink at the bar before heading upstairs.
We were seated on a table with four other guests near the window and we were all looking forward to the meal.
We started off with Indian style arancini balls, marinated olives, Turkish pide bread and a gorgeous tomato and tamarind chutney which was a recipe of Jasel’s Father. We all really enjoyed the starters but were a bit wary of filling up on bread before the main course! We were served a very refreshing lemon and mint drink with went well with the spice of the starter.
For mains we had a ratatouille with various salads, an aubergine raita (I had my own dairy free version), couscous and as the name suggests we had a pickle, this month it was lemon. Again everything was fabulous, I particularly liked the garlicky potato salad and the raita. I’m not a huge watermelon fan, but the salad with olives, onions and mint was really refreshing.
For pudding I was served minted pineapple with a dairy free yogurt infused with cardamon. This was lovely and light at the end of a big meal! The non-vegan option was an Eastern mango Eton mess and my Mum says it was absolutely delicious!
We felt well and truly spoiled! All the food was great and I loved how many fruits and vegetables were included in the dishes. All this for the bargain price of £22.50!
If you get the chance to attend one of Ruby and Pickles’ supper clubs I’d really recommend you go. You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook or contact them via rubyandpickles@gmail.com
Plumes x
Review – Amie Skincare
I first came across Amie Skincare when I received their Morning Clear Purifying Facial Wash in my Beauty box from The Vegan Kind which I wrote about here.
As soon as I started using the facial wash I was impressed. It left my skin feeling so smooth and I knew when I had finished I would be straight on their website to but another one!
When I ordered from the website I bought two facial washes which are £4.95 each (one for me and one for my Mum) and I also ordered their Spring Clean Deep Cleansing Mask (£5.95). I tend to use a mask at least once a week to give myself a treat and I really liked this one. It smells of peppermint and left my skin feeling so soft.
I had been using Lush’s Imperialis for my moisturiser but I had to take one pot back as it was bubbling and smelt really funny, I was given their Enzymion as a replacement as the whole batch of Imperialis was off. I used a couple more pots of the Enzymion before I went back to Imperialis, it wasn’t bubbling anymore but it didn’t have the same smell I remember from when I first started using it. As I had been so impressed with my other Amie products I decided to buy a moisturiser from them. They offer two moisturisers, Morning Dew Matte-Finish Moisturiser and Morning Light Hydrating Daily Moisturiser (both £4.95). As I have combination skin I went for the matte-finish one. I have been using it for a few days and I am really happy with the results. I only need a small pea-sized amount to moisturise my whole face.
As I was buying the moisturiser I thought I’d treat myself to the New Leaf Exfoliating Polish (£5.95). This is designed to be used no more than twice a week to give your face a deep cleanse. It contains mango and orange blossom and smells gorgeous when you apply it to your skin. The exfoliating element is rice granules so no nasty microbeads here!
They sell a few other products including an exfoliating daily wash, facial wipes and micellar water along with a mini travel duo of the face wash and moisturiser.
Amie Skincare are proud of their natural credentials and lay it out on their website.
As I have only bought from the website I have tried to buy at least two products at a time to balance out the delivery charge, although the products are so reasonably priced it isn’t so much of an issue! They are also available at Waitrose and John Lewis in the UK.
I really recommend these products, I can’t believe they work so well for such a reasonable price, you can also read more testimonies on their website.
Have you tried Amie Skincare? What did you think?
Plumes x
Roundup of the week’s food 160612
I’ve been a bit quiet this week blog-wise. I have a few things in the pipeline for next week so watch this space!
On Monday I made a stir-fry. I had some tinned red bean curd which I bought in Brighton a few months ago which I’ve never tried before. Unfortunately I still haven’t tried it as when I opened the tin it had all broken up and was floating in the liquid, it obviously didn’t like travelling in my backpack! Luckily I had some frozen soya beans which I could sub in. I used a stir fry veg pack from Sainsburys with fresh Singapore noodles and some ginger and teriyaki sauce. Really quick to make after my evening run.
On the way home from work on Tuesday I picked up a couple of new chocolate bars from Marks and Spencer’s “Made without Dairy” range. I had heard about them online but couldn’t locate them in my local store. The M&S twitter people told me there were stocked so I should ask a member of staff. I managed to find them, I was looking around the chocolate area but they were in a free from area which mainly had wheat free pasta, bread etc and they were on the highest shelf so they weren’t immediately obvious to my 5’4″ self! There were 3 available, a plain dark chocolate one, dark chocolate with mint and dark chocolate with orange. I thought I would prefer the mint one but the orange one was my favourite. I do prefer dark chocolate but as these were in a “made without dairy” range I did expect them to contain a dairy alternative such as rice milk. Still it is nice to have another option on the high street.
For dinner we had falafel and houmous wraps with salad. Another quick and easy dinner and it tasted great!
On Wednesday I went swimming with my Mum and she made spinach dhal from A Vegan Taste of India which I bought her partner for Christmas, served with rice and paratha. This was a lovely wholesome meal after swimming.
My Mum had also been to the local Asian supermarket and picked me up some mochi (after she had read about my disappointment here). These were made with mung bean paste instead of the usual red bean one and were really tasty. Like always I ate them too quickly, I really need to learn to ration myself!
On Thursday my Husband made us a lovely chilli to have in some of the wraps we had left over from Tuesday. I didn’t take a picture as you couldn’t really see anything when they were done!
I was excited to see Tesco had added another vegan sandwich option to their lunch range. Unfortunately I was quite disappointed after I had eaten it. This houmous and veg bagel thin had a scraping of houmous, as if it were butter and the veg didn’t taste of much. I’m also not sure why it needed to be a bagel thin, what’s wrong with a full bagel? Lastly this was cheaper than some of the sandwiches in the meal deal (sandwich, drink and a snack for £3.00) but wasn’t included in it. I definitely won’t be buying it again.
I had bought some new potatoes which I needed to use up as they were starting to sprout eyes so I decided to make a potato salad using an avocado, spring onions and some black beans we had left over from the chilli. I really love using avocados in a dressing or as a pasta sauce.
Yesterday I used up some bits and pieces, I still had a lorne sausage in the freezer from my More Than Meat review and I sprayed the left over new potatoes with oil and baked them in the oven. I had some mushrooms that were on the turn so I fried them with ropey spring onions and my freezer failsafe peas!
Today my Husband was planning on making doughnuts, but we hadn’t read all the way through the recipe and didn’t realise as it was a wetter cake like batter we would need a doughnut tin. We weren’t able to find one locally so the doughnuts will have to wait until the Amazon delivery!
For dinner I made jerk tofu (my Husband had jerk pork), it’s really easy just to mix jerk seasoning with oil and add some garlic to make a marinade. I served it with rice and peas and some garden peas and onions to add some more veg. We made a big batch so we can have the same again for dinner tomorrow!
While we were in Sainsburys not buying doughnut ingredients I picked up these dairy free iced desserts (so annoying their not allowed to just call it ice cream!) I had seen the chocolate one posted on Twitter a couple of weeks and I’m glad that both that and the strawberry one have made it to my store. I think Sainsburys is still way behind Tesco in terms of vegan offerings but I was really impressed today to see they had vanilla and chocolate Swedish Glace as well as the strawberry chocolate covered lollies, 3 flavours of Coco Collaborative and these new own brand delights as well as their sorbets available. The strawberry was sweet and creamy but I think there could be a stronger strawberry flavour. The chocolate was the real star! Thick and creamy with a rich flavour. These are both made with coconut milk and are £3 each which I think is pretty reasonable.
Have you tried any new vegan products this week? It seems like there are more and more everyday!
Have a good week!
Plumes x
Clothing Cravings and Latest Buys
I have completed 5 months of my “No New Clothes for a Year” challenge! This is where I am buying no brand new clothes for 2016, however I am allowing myself to buy second hand clothes. I have found this quite easy up until now and have really enjoyed my vintage shopping trips as more of “events” than just browsing when I’m in town etc. I walk past some lovely shops from the station to my office everyday and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I think by buying more/only vintage clothes I’m developing a bit of a style and I’m really loving a 70s vibe!
I have started getting cravings for some vegan themed tees. I follow a few ethical brands on Instagram/twitter and am really tempted when I see something really cool! I also saw so many cool things to wear at London Animal Frew Festival on Saturday! I won an Amazon voucher at work last week and I had a look at some stuff and debating whether it counted within my rules as I wasn’t paying for it. I decided it definitely didn’t count and I’m going to have to hold out until the new year!
My Sister-in-law Gemma and I went to the East London Vintage Fair a few weeks ago. There was so many stalls and items it took a while getting round everything. They had changing rooms which is great when a lot of the clothes don’t come with sizes and sizing has changed over the years anyway! Some stalls had items priced and those that didn’t had a more sort of haggle/negotiation vibe going on which I’m not too keen on. There was also a little bit of fur and quite a lot of silk going on. When the stall holders tell you something is silk saying what a real bargain it is, most people would be impressed, but my Sister-in-law and I both recoiled in horror!
I bought this dress for £20 I love the colour, pattern, cut and length. I have been complimented when I’ve worn it, even if my Mum thought it was frumpy!
I also love this top I bought for £15. The material is really soft and I like the colours. I love the cut on the sleeves and feel like a butterfly fluttering around when I wear it!
I have started doing a bit more exercise and needed a some more gym gear to save me doing washing nearly everyday. East End Thrift Store who are located in Whitechapel now have an ASOS marketplace boutique so I picked up these Adidas tracksuit bottoms and cut off top. I usually run with small bag to keep my keys and phone in but these are my only joggers to have pockets in! I love the colours and they are lined and feel really cosy. They are a bit long for me but the elasticated ankles mean I’m not tripping over them. This picture doesn’t really do them justice as they’re much brighter. (I’ve cut my head out as my hair was doing crazy things!)
The only thing I think I’m going to have to buy new soon is tights as most of my black opaque ones are coming to the end of their lives. Hopefully they’ll hold out until the end of June so at least I can say I did 6 months!
Would you consider doing a new new clothes challenge? What do you think you would find the hardest? Let me know?
Plumes x
Roundup of the Week’s Food 160605
I’ve been feeling a bit up and down this week. I am really pleased about completing my runs this week which you can read about here, but I also felt a bit ill with hot and cold and dizzy spells. These have reduced now and I think it was just a sign I need to slow down a bit.
On Monday I had some buckwheat pancakes with cheese and onions for lunch. These are quite thick and bready and I’m not sure whether I would buy this mix again.
For dinner I made a Japanese lotus root curry with noodles. I love Japanese curry sauce and the lotus has a interesting texture.
On Tuesday we had Chinese takeaway, I went for my usual seaspice beancurd and rice. I actually fancied something different but the website was down so I couldn’t see the menu. Luckily I now have a hard copy up on the fridge!
I had rice left over from the takeaway on Wednesday and not much imagination! I cut up a Fry’s traditional burger and mixed up some sweetcorn and sweet chili sauce and plonked some pickles on top!
On Thursday I went to my Mum’s for dinner, we didn’t go swimming as this was the day I felt the worst. We had black bean stew for dinner but I forgot to take a photo. We popped into Tesco and I bought this sweet pizza from GoodFellas. I was tempted as it was the only vegan one in the range but I wouldn’t get it again. It tasted quite doughy and the crumbly bits weren’t sweet enough for me.
On Friday I had a simple dinner after my run, Country pie from Linda McCartney and baked beans.
Yesterday I went to the London Animal Free Festival which you can read about here. I picked up some great treats.
I popped into the mini Tesco behind my flat to get a jacket potato when I saw these 3 for 2 offers. I had the sweet potato fries and courgetti with cheese and chipotle tabasco. I would usually make something like this from scratch but it’s nice to use prepared food when you’ve had a long week!
I had the grains for lunch today after I had been to mass and seen my brother, another easy wholesome meal.
There were some fruit platters reduced so I grabbed one to have one for dessert, some beautiful colours!
We decided to have channa (chickpea) dhal for dinner. I usually just add a variety of spices from the cupboard with onions, garlic and tomato puree to make my base. I added cardamom, cloves and green masala paste to my rice to make it more fragrant, and now I have some for lunch tomorrow too!
My Husband and I sat down and planned our meals for next week (very grown up!) so I’m looking forward to my food and I’m pleased as it means I know my Husband will be having multiple vegan meals!
Plumes x
London Animal Free Festival
I went to the London Animal Free Festival today at the Camden Centre.
There was so many people there it was insane and bit too crowded and hot for my liking. But of course it’s encouraging to see so many people there.
I was quite hungry when I arrived so I grabbed a seitan burger and a slice of pizza from Pomodoro e Basilico. I met up with my Sister-in-law Gemma and her friend to take a look around the stalls.
I grabbed this baked cheesecake from Unless Vegan Catering and it was amazing!
This is my little haul! Condensed soya milk, mint and original round ups (vegan wagon wheels) from Ananda Foods, Donkey cards from Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land, matcha twix bar from Pomodoro e Basilico, cookie dough brownie from Ms. Cupcake and vitamins from Vegan Society.
I also saw some great tee shirts available. Here’s a list of sites I’d recommend you check out.
I’m looking forward to more vegan fairs/festivals to come over the summer, it always great to see what new products are coming out.
Plumes x
The World according to Plumes 