Day twenty… halfway treats

Whoo hoo! I am officially half way in my lent… yes you are right I didn’t start on the same calendar as everyone else. Refer to the first post and day 14 post.

So, for this halfway mile stone, I wanted some vegan “BISKITS” to celebrate. Besides I also promised those who were going away for Easter that I would make them today. So, I have made some savoury biscuit that you can eat with the chunky sauces/chutneys (recipe on day 11 & day 13 blog posts).

Here they are; savoury oat bran biscuit with ginger & rosemary (salty) and currants cookies with oatbran, grapefruit zest and rice milk (sweet).

To make the savoury biscuits, you will need:

1 glass of rice milk

1 glass of oat bran

2 table spoons of sunflour oil

1 tea spoon of grated ginger

½ tea spoon of rosemary

1/ 2 tea spoon of salt

Method: in a mixing bowl, pour your oatbran and the milk. Mix well and leave it for 20 minutes for the bran to absorb the milk. After, add in the ginger, rosemary, salt & 1 table spoon of oil. Mix all well.

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees for 10 minutes. In a ceramic baking dish, spray the rest of vegetable oil. Then, use a tea spoon to form your biscuits as you wish. With the

proportions above, you should obtain 18 to 22 small biscuits. Put in the oven to cook for 40 minutes at 175 degrees.

Once the time is up, get the biscuits out and lay them on a separate plate to cool.

It is ready. You can eat it alone or served with one of the chutneys on days 11 & 12.

Note: unlike normal flour, oat doesn’t rise at cooking. it is slightly compact and gummy. It therefore needs longer to cook and allow the centre of the biscuit to dry completely. Feel free to replace the ginger or rosemary with your preferred spices.

To make the vegan currants cookies you will need:

1 glass of oatbran

¼ glass of rice milk

2 table spoons of sunflour oil

1 apple (your choice)

A tea spoon full of grape fruit zest (didn’t have lemon to hand)

A hand full of dry currants. & 1 pinch of salt

In a mixer, blend together the peeled apple, grapes, half of the currants, 1 spoon of oil, and half the milk.  Once blitzed, pour the melange in a mixing bowl and add in your oatbran. Mix it all well; add in the pinch of salt and whole dry currents. Leave the paste aside for about 25 minutes. For the bran to absorb the liquid and soften.

Preheat the oven at 175c.

Once the paste is ready, use a tea spoon to measure the size of dough per cookie. Shape your cookies and place it on a baking dish. Don’t forget to spray the rest of oil on your baking tray before placing the cookies on it.

Place the tray in the oven and leave to cook for 40 minutes. Mine got slightly burned because I forgot how easily the sugar can burn, so, keep an eye on yer cookies.

When time is up, get the tray out. Put the cookies on a plate upside down to cool. Upside down because cookies are slightly thicker, this will allow the bottom of the cookies to finish drying.

They actually taste really nice. You wouldn’t know that no butter, eggs no sugar were used to make them.

I will definitely make them again with coconut milk. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know how yours tastes. C ya!

Day 19... Going away?

Wow 40 days of special food regime… One thing that you may not consider when deciding to eliminate some items of foods from you diet is, what would happen if you decided to go away for the weekend or take a sort break… No tea, no coffee, no sugar, no flour, no rice, no pasta, no biscuits, no deep fried food. How do you deal with that if you are not even going to have the possibility to cook your own food while away?

My solution? Do not go away! But if you are a certified vegan you would know how to deal with those situations. For me? I’d prefer not going away at all.

For some this is the season to take short breaks with partners and children, You can’t cancel the break unless every body is on the same regime or has the same concerns as you.  So here is what you could do. Be prepared. Make some chutney or dips in advance. On this blog, you will find two savoury chutneys; see day 11 and day 13. And to accompany them, make some savoury biscuits out of fruit and oatbran. For snack, make some cookies out of oatbran and liquidised fruits… I am going to try making some tomorrow and will post the recipe later on the blog. So, do check day 20 blog. Pack all that and you will feel safe until you find what you can and can't eat what you get to your holidays destination

I am still trying to lose the 3 pounds gained during the last 18 days and the best I could do was not to consume banana at all day today.

For breakfast I had my beloved oatbran with rice milk… without fresh fruit. Yuk! This is getting hard. I need to cut down on fruit as they are full of calories and sugar too.

For lunch, I had some microwave steamed French beans with a special sweet and salty chutney and crushed walnuts.

To make the chunky sauce, you will need 1 beetroot, 1 yellow plum, 1 half onion,  5 garlic cloves, 2 table spoons of vegetable oil or olive oil, 1 small tomato and a hand full of dry raisins… I love sweet and salty stuff… even my pop corns are sweet and salty.

So, chop all the ingredients, fry the oinion with thyme until caramelized, throw in the rest of the chopped ingredients. Cook until soft, mash it a little bit and ad a bit of water to make it saucy, then crush half a vegetable stock into the mix. Leave to cook for another2 minutes don’t let it dry off. It is ready.

Steam the French beans separately for 5 minutes in the microwave, serve them topped with your chunky sauce and then add the crushed walnuts. Voila! Enjoy.

Sorry had to make it short tonight. It is soup run night it is raining and it is cold out side...bbbbbbrrrrrghgghh!

See you tomorrow.

Day 18th… Getting rid of extra pounds

After yesterday’s realisation, I have started a pounds shaving “diet”… laughable isn't it? But I do hate the idea of having gained gain that much in so little time. I am naturally already 10kgs over my normal weight but, I hide them well given my height. Having more on top of those 10kgs is a NO NO!

Since I started lent, I haven’t been exercising either because that time is now taken by the cooking the photos, the prayer times and the blogging.

I’ve no particular plan on how to get rid of those 3 pounds, but I am going to try really hard. So, in good faith this morning, I had a really light breakfast a grated pure ginger tea… I grated my own ginger and stirred it in that silver thing you can see in the picture. With the tea I had half a grapefruit and a bit of dry raisin for the sugar kick.

For lunch, I had this beautiful buckwheat tabouli.

To Make it, you will need: pre-cooked buckwheat, fresh coriander roughly chopped, olives, fresh broccoli finely chopped, grated carrots, a finely chopped tomato, some chopped dry currants, a bit of salt a small amount of vegetable or olive oil.

Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl, add salt and oil as the last elements to the tabouli. If you prefer your tabouli sharper than saltier, squeeze some lemon juice on it just before serving.

Shopping: Since starting this blog, I have been no where near a health food or whole foods shop yet. Most of the stuff that I have used can be found in out every day supermarkets and corner shops. If you want to buy like buckwheat, quinoa, bulgur, nuts, seeds and those kinds of things, whole foods shops are too expensive. You will find most of them in the whole foods section or world foods aisles in Tesco or Sainsbury. The big Tescos have a wider range.

Measuring ingredients: You would have noticed that I rarely give the quantities/proportions of ingredients used in preparing my foods. I tend to make it up as I go. The good thing about loving food is that you know the ingredients that you like and those you don’t. Since starting the blog, I have put a note book in the kitchen so I won’t forget what I have used…



My ideal kitchen



But I do hope that being unable to work out the proportions will not prevent you from trying some of the foods on this blog.

Know that the kitchen isn’t an enemy but the friend who keeps you away from the fast food and prevents you from eating the horse meat that you didn’t know was used in your meal.

The meals on the blog: I am trying to only post pictures of dishes only once on the blog. You will hardly find two posts about the same dish. If I don’t mention what I eat at breakfast, lunch of dinner, it is probably because I had a leftover or cooked a dish that is already on the blog.

Prayers: I now pray 3 time a day and managed twice in 18 day to bless my food,,, that is a start in my books. I am not mentioning the subject of prayer as they are getting more and more personal.

The end! :-)

Day 17th… Does my bum look big?

 Yes it does!  Ladies, do not ask the question if you can’t handle both answers! You better not ask me any ways.

In this instance the question is posed by me and answered by yours truly too. Yeah, I do talk to myself a lot… feel free to call me deranged. You are not teaching anything new. I am deranged.

So, this morning I went to weigh myself. It looks like I have gained 3 pounds. Yikes! Proving once again,  that eating healthy foods doesn’t spell weight loss automatically. YOU MUST CONTROL YOUR PORTIONS!

I am much able to control my portions on my normal diet because I could take a coffee instead of a hand full of dry raisins or a handful of toasted seeds.

Since I started the lent, my snacks are really healthy and full of natural sugars and oils… meaning calories.

I have also replaced most of my coffees with … bananas. My colleague got so worried about my consumption of bananas that, he warned me that I might be poisoning myself with the amount I am eating per day. So I started to get worried too. I Googled “how many bananas can poison you?”. Well it makes an interesting read, click on the coloured text to read all about the dangers of that beautiful fruit we call banana. Amongst the side effects, there is headache… which explains that… Please take note: the recommended quantity is 1 a day… I wont tell you how many I have been eating before and now during this experience.

See, due to some health issues fruits were my best friends. 2 years ago, I was told that most of the ones I ate were not that good for me and I thought the banana was less threatening and was the best amongst the rest. Well well well. Here we are… I just have to take it down to one…. That is going to be a new challenge or there might be a death by banana before the 40 days are over (12 April). lol.

Few posts ago, I did wonder if I was supposed to like this experiment that much. Now we know!

The scale in my bathroom tells me that I must cut down on quantities and stop replacing every other thing that I have removed from my diet. To void that my “derriere” starts creating his own post code down south on it own with sister east and west (thighs sides), I suppose it is time to must listen to mister scale!

For breakfast I had an avocado and tomato salad… not great for a start, but the avocado was going off and I didn’t really want to carry it in my bag  for lunch “al desco”.

I thought I would skip “proper” lunch and go for a fruit fiesta in stead… including banana in centre stage, dry raisin, seeds more banana. By the time I looked up on Google about the poisoning thing, I was already had banana number 3 with number four about to be murdered… after reading Google, I gave it away.



Crazy Jack soup mix from Tesco

 

For dinner, I had a broth with celery, spring onions, fresh tomato and coconut milk… delicious.

If you take anything from this, DO NOT EAT TOO MANY “bananes” which incidentally are full of calories too!  Enjoy food, don’t overdose on anything. Compris?

C  ya tomorrow!



20 minutes. Job done!

Day 16… Thank you Lord

Nothing significant happened today, but a lot of great things are happening at work and tonight I just felt like thanking God. Just stop the routine and thank him… We sometime focus so much on what is wrong. The TV, the papers, the radio rarely take time to report on positive things happening around us. If they do, it is almost like a foot note.  We as Christians do that too, me included. Just look at my last two entries, I was complaining bout something or another.

So tonight as I was thinking about this post, I just felt so thankful about my day, my life, everything…

Dear Lord. Had it not been for you sustaining me Lord, I wouldn’t be here right now.  Many times I was ill you heal me. When I didn’t have, you provided. When I needed support you gave it me…

And…  “Just a little while longer I want to pray.

I can’t get you out of my mind so I say thank you Lord, just for loving me.

Many times I do forget every need that you have met, so I thank you Lord, I know that you are  showing me.

You are there when I am down and out, you are holding me. Your love is so amazing, and it changed me.

So, here I am with all I have, I raise my hands to worship you, I want to say thank you, thank you Lord.

Thank you for everything, for who you are. You have covered me, you touched my heart. I want to say thank you. Thank you Lord.

I could have died in my sin, but you saved me. I didn’t have any hope at all. But you gave me peace divine, and the strength to carry on.

I should have been the one to pay, but instead you took my place, what an amazing grace? It is more than just a song.

Even though I don’t deserve your love for me, you look beyond my faults and showed me mercy. So here I am, with all I have, raised my hands to worship you. I want to say thank you. Thank you Lord.

I want to thank you for the sun, Lord we want to thank you for the rain, Lord I love you. Thank you, that’s all I can say. Thank you for the love you gave.

Amen. 

I wanted to say a prayer, but this song from the Katinas was just the one. I know it by heart and when I run out of words. I say it as a prayer.

Find it in the Indian shop

All peeled!

I did eat today. The quinoa left over for lunch. And for dinner I had a beautiful African roots vegetables stew with soya meatball, sweet yellow potato and yam. All cooked with palm oil (also used in Nutella choc spread). I usually do the stew with lamb neck... delish! Tweet me for the recipe.

Thanks for reading. Peace.

Here it is. my roots stew!

Day 15… I’ve lost my bible

Not found, still looking

This morning I didn’t managed to do my devotion before leaving home this morning. Thought I would do it on the go, alas couldn’t find my bible… now at 8pm I still don’t know what happened to my bible. I do have a few around the house, but the others are French or much bulkier… I left the house with one of the bulkier ones... HEAVY!

I am not sure who to blame for this… the devil perhaps? Not sure

I’ve got a theory. In Daniel 9, Daniel fasted for 21 days for his people after a vision he had. He had to wait 21 days before he the angel appeared to him with a response to his prayers. The Angel proceed to explain that the response to the prayers was blocked by the Prince of Persia  (the Devil) from the first day of his prayer.  Daniel 9 v 12-14.

Is this a coincidence? At the end of this week it will be 21 days since I started this Daniel fast/XL vegan lent. Something happened yesterday that made me change the order of my prayers… I decided that this week’s prayers would be dedicated to few members of my family 1, 2 or 3 different members per day. So, today was the first day and the first time during this week  was going to pray  for one of my siblings household, I didn’t managed it, I got side tracked as I was looking for my much loved bible. Then I got to work late… coincidence? Not too sure.

I decide then to crank up the prayer routine during the day and added 1 more time of prayer mid afternoon on top of the morning devotion and mid morning break.  This is what we will apply at least for this week.

On the food now, after eating the content of a vitamins cabinet yesterday, I chose to have lighter and less starchy foods today.

For break fast I had my beloved oatbrand with dry raisins, seed, rice milk and grape fruits.

For lunch I had a big salad with beetroot, grated carrots and balsamic vinegar very filling

For dinner I had a quinoa stir fry with load of sweet pepper and carrots cut a la julienne.

To make the quinoa stir fry, you will need some part cooked quinoa, an onion, garlic, leek, celery, spring onion, a green pepper, a carrot, a tomato and a cube stock.

The quinoa usually takes 20 minutes to cook. So, for the stir fry you will precook it for 15 minutes, plain and Just with water. Set aside don’t let it cool down.

While the quinoa is cooking, peel and chop all the other ingredients as you want. Preferably thin and of the same size. Pay special attention to the carrot as it will be the hardest to cook amongst the ingredients. Set aside.

Put a bit of oil (vegetable oil) in a really hot wok, throw in your onions first and your carrots, stirs for two minutes.

Quinoa stir fry

Add in the other chopped ingredients keep stirring the lot for another 2 minutes.

Now throw in your precooked quinoa, mix it well, add black pepper, salt and your crushed stock cube. Mix well.

Now cover for another 5 minutes the time for the quinoa to finish cooking.

Et voila! Enjoy. I did.

I enjoyed mine watching the Simpsons on TV finally (first time in at least 3 weeks). I still can’t find my bible, but I feel relaxed and at peace. God bless you for reading.

See ya tomorrow.

Day 14… It was a brain wave

I am beginning to think that doing the prayers, the cooking, the blogging and overusing my brain was a tad ambitious. Man! This is time consuming. I haven’t watched a cartoon in 14 days, my sleeping time has considerably reduced. But I owe to keep up with at least the blog as I feel it serve to keep me in check.

This blog thing was just a bored moment brainwave. I mentioned the idea to my colleague, asked another which blog he used, tweeted to ask recommendations and in the space of 1 hour lunch I had set up a page and posted my first blog… I didn’t realised it was going to cost me so much and I am  for the last 48 hours trying to think of a good reason to stop blogging daily. Perhaps I could do it only every other day? Once a week?

But if I take that route, it would mean that I am slowing down and not keeping myself in check that tightly as I have been so far… Hate the idea of letting my self down so I will keep this daily blogging going until at least half way (day 20) then, we’ll if we carry on daily.

Punkin seeds loaf ingredients

Today’s lunch and dinner was a Cameroonian dish made from white pumpkinseeds power. It is a pumpkin seeds loaf with soya meatballs, accompanied with cassava and yellow sweet potato. The loaf is often cooked with parboiled boneless meat or flaked fish all wrapped in banana leaves to give that extra  something . This dish is packed full of goodness. As I said previously, there must be a good reason for West Africans to be built like trunks. Just look at me! Lol.

Now let me tell you about my food. The pumpkin seeds are packed full of Vitamin E, vitamin B6, proteins, Anti-oxidants, help lower bad cholesterol,  they are also full of calories… who care it tastes so guuud!

To make the loaf, you will need some seasonings: Onion, Garlic, coriander leek. All this is to give a bit of taste to the soya meat balls. You can’t cook this loaf like a meat loaf in a baking tin, but in aluminium foil wrap (or banana leave if you’ve got it) and placed in a pot with  shallow water and plenty of steam. For full recipe & method DM me on twitter @hjulienne.

the yellow sweet potato

The cassava is a very versatile root vegetable also full of goodness. Get this. It full of proteins, vitamin K, vitamin B complex and B6.

The then the yellow sweet potato which is full of starch and contain vitamin B6, Vitamin A,K and Iron. Please note the yellow potato has a slightly more tougher constancy  than the regular potato. It will stay together in stews. The one that you find easily on the stalls is the red variety that easily goes mushy. I don’t like it…yuk.



it tastes better than it looks!



Both the cassava and yellow sweet potato ca be found at the Indian shop. They will cook in shallow water for about  20 minutes depending on the cut and in a covered pan. They are a bit unruly when it comes to cut them raw they basically break whenever you are trying to cut nice little shapes. Best cut it rough for an easy cooking then, cut to shape once they are cooked.

My plate just seems like an edible vitamin cabinet, but bwoy am I glad I have been researching these foods. If manage to keep this diet, there is no reason I should my Docs any time soon this year.

See Ya!

Day 13 … leftovers party

Today I went to meet few new friends at the BFI for brunch… I checked out the menu of the café before I went. Of course that didn’t cater for vegans… Quelle surprise!

Before I arriving at the venue, I stopped by Wasabi at Waterloo station to pick up some Edamame beans so I won’t just watch others eating.

When I arrived at the venue, I checked with the kitchen if there was something I could eat… they couldn’t event make ma a fruit salad. They response gave me an excuse to whip out my beans and eat the openly. All washed down with a pot of sugar free Ginger and lemon tea. .. This is good because all I spent in that very expensive café was £2.35! Wow. My new friend thought it was odd that I had brought my own beans…  I really really feel sorry for vegans. Seriously. It is not just because they are not catered for, but because other s that are not are very unsupportive.

I had my lunch very late afternoon today… a collection of left over foods from the week. My plate had some boiled potatoes, boiled in the skin plantain, chunky tomato sauce and chunky green sauce (salty chutneys sauces).

The sauces are really handy to have in the fridge. They will go well with almost every thing savoury and can be eaten hot or cold. To see the recipe of the chunky tomato sauce, please go to day 11.

To make a jar of my chunky green sauce /chutney, you will need the following:

*1 green sweet pepper

*1 big onion

*5 garlic cloves

*1 leek

*Half a bunch of fresh coriander

*2 or 3 stems of thyme

*1 red chilli pepper

*Plenty of vegetable oil (100 ml), Salt & 1 vegetable stock cube

Start by washing and chopping everything. Keep the onion and thyme separately.

Pour all the oil in a non sticky pot. When hot, throw in the chopped onion and thyme stems stir until the onion is caramelised. Throw in All the chopped ingredients above and cook stirring continuously for a bout 10 minutes… all ingredients should be soft then.  Crush the stock cube and add to the mix. Leave to cook another 2 minutes and remove form fire. Leave to cool and spoon into the jar.

Once in the jar all the oil will come to the surface of the jar. Just leave that oil there as it will protect the chutney and keep it from moulding. 1 jar will keep 2 weeks in the fridge. Only use clean spoons to scoop from the jar. Using a dirty spoons or one that has been in your mouth will cause your chutney to spoil quicker.

Enjoy!

Day 12... praying for our leaders!

As I am doing the Daniel fast/XL vegan lent, I have set up theme of prayer week by week.

This week was my week of praying for people in authority in churches and Para churches organisations in particular.

Over the years we have heard of leaders in ministry falling from grace, thus reminding us that even though they are chosen by God to fulfil their roles they are still human.

The bible often reminds us that we must pray for our leaders and intercede for them without ceasing especially those who we are seeing are clearly in the wrong and won’t change their ways. Often, those leaders are surrounded by ‘Yes’ people who will applaud them until they drop off the bridge.

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar was reminded in a dream that he was king because God placed him there. He had become big headed and was asked to change his ways but he didn’t and was send in the wilderness etc…

We owe to remember that whatever comes from the top filters down to you, who ultimately have to execute the orders. And if you are in some sort of ministry, you will be passing them to God’s people…

We owe to pray that our leaders will remain humble, teachable, seek God and REMAIN in touch with the master. So that, when your leaders decide something, it is in line with what the Lord wants. That way, when the orders filter down to you it will feel as pure as the olive oil that was poured on Aaron’s head travelling smoothly from his head to his beard to the hem of his garment (psalm 133).

Praying for them is also selfish because ultimately, it will save you a lot of heartaches as you will stop questioning their decisions when you know that they are in tune with the Lord. It will stop you trying to justify them when they are wrong. It will stop to jeopardising your own integrity.

Whether you like your leaders or not… stop dancing around get on your knees and get praying.

Ok sermon over. Peace.

Day 11 … Conspiracy!

Have you ever decided to cut out an ingredient from your food and discover that the said ingredient is in every thing you want to buy?

My beef is with sugar today. It is one of he items banned on my XL vegan lent. Try buying a jar of tomato sauce that doesn’t have sugar or animal dairy in its ingredients list.

A week ago I was going to eat vegetables for lunch. I hadn’t had the time to stir fry them. Iwas going to find some sort of sauce to put over my microwave steamed vegetables… I can tell you it wasn’t fun trying to read all the Dolmio and the likes sauce that were on the shelves… I ended up irate and no longer hungry… I had spent my lunch hour any way. So I took my vegetables back home for dinner. Got home, decided to look at my black soy sauce’s label. There was sugar in it too!

I think this is a conspiracy against people who are trying to live a healthy life style including the diabetics, vegans and vegetarians. Even the simplest items of foods are full of extra unwanted and unnecessary stuff. Ready meals are cheaper than a bag of good apples in the supermarket and then people cry out when they see muffin tops walk past. Raw unprocessed foods are much more expensive than refined foods… how the hell did that happen? How can the food industry put all that energy, add ingredients only to sell it cheaper?... don’t get it. Now I can put a name to my suspicions… I am always questioning the 3 for 2 or buy one get one free… do you think the supermarket work hand in hand with the NHS?...



Chunky tomato chutney

Anyways that night I made my own chunky tomato sauce (salty chutney) to eat my vegetables with. It is really practical to have a jar of it in the fridge. These sauces are great for snacks too and would work on a salty pancake, piece of bread, potato or plantain…

Roasted mushrooms

To make a the sauce you will need a Jar (really important), plenty of vegetable oil, a big onion, 5 garlic cloves, 1 tin of peeled tomato, 2 medium fresh tomatoes, a hand full of  chopped leek. Fry the onion, chuck the rest in the oil, cook the mix for 10 minutes to get rid of the water. Don’t over fry the tomato or it’ll lose it sweetness. Leave to cool put in the jar, Voila!

For my lunch today I had some seasoned roasted giant mushrooms with a green pepper and yellow plantain… don’t be fooled by my plate here, I had seconds… and my friend chunky tomato sauce was at the party too! It took me 30 minute to get this ready last night. Good food doesn’t take ages to prepare once you know where to start. A good knife makes everything simpler!