(A delivery from my local health store…ready to cook up a storm!)

 

I have never had so much time to properly cook, and one thing I have to promise myself is that I will continue this once Lockdown is over 🙂

So just a little post, showcasing some of the things I have been cooking over this period of time.

I love cooking, it helps me to connect to myself.

I find it deeply grounding to nourish myself (and others) with food.

It’s also far less wasteful and much cheaper to cook all meals from scratch. 

So here we go:

 

 

 

Veggie Shepherd’s pie!

I used vegetarian mince for this, the fresh kind that actually looks like meat.

I chopped up and fried onion and garlic in some coconut oil, then added the mince, seasoning the lot with cumin, paprika and chilli powder.

After adding a tin of chopped tomatoes, I also added about 4 fresh tomatoes, and one large aubergine, chopped up into little chunks.

I then added some water and two vegetarian stock cubes.

Leave to simmer for about 20 minutes.

Whilst this is simmering, I peeled and boiled roughly 10 small potatoes.

Once the potatoes are soft (test with a fork) I drained off the water, added some dairy free margarine and mashed it all up to create a batch of mashed potato.

By this time the mince was simmered, and I poured it into a large rectangle casserole dish and topped with the mashed potato!

I forked over the mixture to create that textured look.

Voila! Before and after picture above.

This dish gave me 5 portions that I refrigerated for my week-day lunches.  (You can also freeze to extend the time it will keep.)

 

 

Very Simple Gluten-Free Biscuits (with a variety of flavours)

 

These biscuits are silly easy and there is no need for eggs. These are made using this recipe as a base.

I mix together about 125g of dairy free margarine and 80g of sugar until ‘creamy’

I add to this mixture, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of xantham gum, 1 teaspoon (ish) of baking powder.

Then I added 200g of gluten-free flour and  2 teaspoons of grated ginger to make ginger biscuits (on the left).

or

I used only about 80g of gluten-free flour and 120g of gluten-free oats to make oat biscuits (on the right)

The mixture should be a little stodgy, wet enough to hold together but dry enough to make into a malleable ball.

Use your hands to really mould it into shape and then with the help of a spoon, make little blobs that you flatten into round biscuits.

Place biscuits on a well lined tray, or on a baking tray ‘greased’ with margarine/butter and bake in a pre-heated oven on 180 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Voila! Leave to cool thoroughly before transporting to an airtight container and they will keep for about a week. (Though I eat all mine in about 3 days!)

 

Vegetable Soup

Now this is a recipe passed on to me from my mum.

I usually only cook it when I am unwell, but have been making it ‘just cos’ for now. It is so comforting and easy.

Basically whatever ‘soup like’ vegetables you have, chop them all up into manageable bite-sized pieces.

I used sweet potatoes, leeks, carrots, spinach and of course onion and garlic and some fresh ginger.

Place into a large pot or saucepan and let them all ‘sweat’ for a while, adding 2 vegetable stock cubes.

Next fill the whole pot with water, covering the vegetables, and almost to the top.

Bring to the boil and then let simmer until all vegetables are cooked.

This keeps well in the fridge for about 2-3 days so eat it up quick!

 

Voila! All done!

Right! I think that is enough recipe for one post, I will try and do more of these type of posts over the next little while –  so look out for them!

Much love Txx