Prawn, pea and tomato curry

This recipe came from BBC Good Food. It is quick, low-fat and pretty tasty.
A good mid-week meal.

Vegetable stirfry al fresco

Had this simple, quick and tasty stirfry at my sister's. Just a supermarket basic stirfry with some added soy sauce and vegetables from the fridge.

Jamie Oliver's vegetable rogan josh, carrot salad and lemon pickle

This is one of Jamie's 30 minute dinners - although it took my mum a lot more than 30 minutes!

Made good left overs too.

Molly cake

This is a lovely moist fruit cake - tastes a bit like Christmas cake.

It contains no refined sugar or fat. It is free of eggs and dairy products and it works fine with wf flour. It's really easy. Put the chopped dates and water in a pan and bring to the boil. Then remove and set aside.

Mix all the dry ingredients - wf flour, wf baking powder, mixed spice, dried mixed fruit and ground almonds. Stir in the wet date mixture and orange juice. Bake in a loaf tin for 45-50 mins.

Goes down well with my whole family.

Liz's green salad

Liz made this delicious salad when she came to stay over the recent bank holiday.

Packed with goodies!

Rocket, lettuce, coriander, parsley, dill, oregano, sage, mint, wakame, kelp powder, spirulina. And also some non-green ingredients; buckwheat, kidney beans, chickpeas, tinned sardines, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, liquid aminos.

Liz also has this with quinoa or rice. 

Pink 'sushi'

This raw food recipe came from a magazine clipping.
The sushi nori is lined with watercress, julienned carrot and cucumber, sliced avocado and pink 'pate'.
The pink pate is made by blending raw beetroot, red pepper, olive oil, tamari, cider vinegar, cashew nuts, ginger, red chilli and maple syrup.

It turned out quite well and was fun to make. I was nervous using raw beetroot for the first time but it wasn't as messy as I expected.It was tasty.

I seemed to have a lot of pate left which I had the next day in salad and  over salmon.

Prawn, spinach and red pepper stir-fry with shiitake mushroom and gojii berry rice

This stir-fry is delicious and quick. I served it with a new convenience food I found in a local health food store - rice with shiitake and gojii berries that is partially pre-cooked. All it needs is 5 mins in boiling water. I served it with furikake (Japanese sesame and seaweed sprinkle).

Jamie Oliver's tray-baked salmon

I got this recipe from Naked Chef cookbook. It's very simple. Just blanch the green beans and mix them in a bowl with the cherry tomatoes, black olives and olive oil. Put salmon fillets, seasoned with salt pepper and lemon juice at one end of the tray and bean mix at the other end. Lay some anchovy fillets over the beans and roast on high heat for 10 mins and hey presto.

  

Vegetable and prawn curry

This recipe comes from Simple Vegan Recipes. I added some leftover prawns and some spinach my friend gave me from her garden.

Vegetable lasagne

This recipe comes from the cookbook "Cooking Without". Instead of the polenta sheets I use spelt or corn lasagne. The recipe offers three variations; vegetable, lentil or seafood. I like the vegetable one so much I have to say I keep coming back to it.

It also makes great leftovers which I freeze for later. Lovely with salad or for the ultimate pig-out with potato wedges.

   

Liz's divine chocolate mousse

 I learned this recipe from my friend Liz who runs Sweet Sensations workshops for guilt-free sweet treats - perfect for people who have food sensitivities.

It is delicious. The texture is rich and velvety and freezes well to make a lovely icecream.

Aduki bean bake

This is a Gillian McKeith recipe.

Green lentil and mushroom soup - bags of taste!

Spring is springing but it's not too hot to still enjoy soup. This is one I haven't had for a while but is one of my old favourites. It comes from 'The Bean Book' by Rose Elliot which I scooped up at an Oxfam bookshop and which has loads of great ways with beans.

It's very easy - the hardest bit is remembering to soak the lentils in advance. It is made with onion and garlic, mushrooms (I used chestnut), green lentils, water or vegetable stock and seasoning with a parsley garnish.

Mediterranean black eyed bean casserole

Had this with my folks last night. Very tasty. I would describe it as more fusion than Mediterranean. As well as the black eyed beans it contained shiitake and tamari, oregano, marjoram, basil, parsley, diced carrots, julienned courgettes, capers, tomato quarters, onion and garlic. I served it with white basmati.

Smoked haddock chowder

Tasty, quick and filling with minimal washing up - bonus! I used undyed smoked haddock with the leeks, onions, potato and prawns.

Quick and tasty black-eyed beans

This recipe is from http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/. It has been independently tested by friends not on special diets who brilliantly suggested having a blob of mango chutney on the side - delicious. Something I remembered to add after I'd taken the photo!

Although called black-eyed beans (hardly visible in the photo!) this dish also contains red kidney beans, tinned cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, turmeric, cumin seeds, curry powder, lemon juice, tomato puree and fresh coriander.

This time I served the black-eyed beans (right) with vegetable pilau rice a la Uncle Ben (it's nice to find the odd convenience food that ticks all the boxes) and some instant oily fish (a tin of mackerel fillets in tomato sauce)!

Butterbean burgers

This is another favourite although I haven't yet mastered the burger shape. Mine usually resemble balls.

With cumin, coriander and chilli powder it has a gentle kick.

Here I served it with salsa and greens but they are equally nice cold with a salad.

It makes 4 large or 6-8 smaller ones and they freeze reasonably well for about a month.
This recipe came from http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/

Sweet potato and carrot soup - packed with flavour

I love this soup. It is a recipe from a Terence Stamp cookbook.

The great colour and flavour come from the spices. As well as the sweet potato, carrot and onion it has cardamon, coriander seeds, turmeric, bay leaf, lemon juice, black pepper, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Lovely. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Hidden fish casserole

There is fish in this casserole honest! It just seems to have sunk to the bottom. The photo I took showing off the fish was out of focus, so you'll have to take my word for it!

This is my take on a provencale cod recipe I found in a supermarket magazine. It begins by sweating onion, garlic and celery in a pan. Then I add vegetables - this had diced courgette, sliced carrot, red pepper chunks, sugar snap peas - some fish stock, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a bay leaf, some black olives  and chunks of cod. I give it a stir and tip it into a casserole dish with a lid and bake for 30 minutes.

I served it with spring greens, asparagus and a baked potato.

Mexican bean burger

I got this recipe came from BBC Good Food and it was a definite hit! It was very tasty even without the lime yogurt.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9978/mexican-bean-burgers-with-lime-yogurt-and-salsa.

It was quick and easy. (To help I used a mini chopper to make my wheat-free bread into breadcrumbs and a stick blender to mash the kidney beans - so much easier and worth the washing up).
It makes 6 burgers and any extras can be frozen for a future meal.