I’ve had a lovely week spent with friends and family.

On Monday my Husband and I had lunch at Zizzi when we were in town shopping.

I’ve had the vegan pizza a few times and this one was quite disappointing, I went for butternut squash, artichoke and peppers. The toppings didn’t feel that warm and there were only three peppers on there. I was also served a thin a crispy one when I had asked for a classic. We had a long wait for our mains so I didn’t feel like dessert in the end. I had a 40% discount and I don’t think the food we had would have been worth the full price.

On Tuesday I headed down to Bournemouth to visit my friend Karen who I have known for a long time. She used to work for a broker I dealt with when I first joined my company over 9 years ago. We had to speak multiple times a day and clicked straight away.

She made this lovely pasta dish served with this accidentally vegan stone baked garlic bread from Asda.

On Wednesday we had bubble and squeak with some chard picked fresh from the garden. I don’t eat mashed potato very often as my Husband doesn’t like it so this was a real treat!

Karen has an amazing vegetable garden and gave me some freshly picked, organic vegetables to take home with me. I’m really excited about the corn cob and the purple carrots!

Here’s some more pics of her fab garden.

My Brother came over for dinner on Friday and I made a tofu stirfry. When I get the stirfry veg, noodles and sauce from Sainsburys I usually just add a few frozen soya beans and that does it for my Husband as me but as there was three of us I used this marinated tofu my Mum picked up for me in Lidl which was only £1.50. I bulked out the veg with the peas and purple carrots from Karen’s garden.

My cousin and his Wife came to stay with us at the weekend. I had bought some tinned jackfruit a week or so ago and wanted to try something different to the usually bbq wraps I do. I saw this recipe from Leicester Veggie for vegan “crab” cakes that fitted the bill perfectly. The homemade tartar sauce was pretty special which I’ll definitely make again. I served it with some sautéed chard from Karen’s garden.

Today we went out for a pub lunch. The curse of the brioche bun reared it’s ugly head but I was able to sub it for ciabatta which I saw on the menu was used for the sandwiches. I had a sweet potato and bean burger with chips.

I tried some of Amanda’s coconut and lime cider from Brothers. I wasn’t too sure about it, I might need a whole one to make up my mind! I think all of Brothers ciders are vegan I picked up some toffee apple flavour in Aldi for the weekend and they are clearly labelled suitable for vegans.

I’m looking forward to watching lots of Olympic events over the next couple of weeks hopefully my cooking doesn’t suffer!

Plumes x