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Kate L Pugh - Cookery Diary

This is highly experimental. Don't be surprised if I get fed up of updating it. It's dual-purpose - first, it'll give new vegans or people thinking about becoming vegan an idea of what a real actual vegan eats day-to-day; and second, it'll encourage me to cook properly instead of living on toast.


[Archives: 11Feb0118Feb0125Feb014Mar0111Mar0118Mar0125Mar011Apr018Apr0115Apr0122Apr0129Apr016May0113May0120May0127May01]

Week Beginning Sunday 11 February 2001

Sunday

I'd been in London since Friday lunchtime. Got back at around 7pmish today.

I made three portions of rice at supper - the rice cooker works best with that amount or more, and rice is useful to have about for taking lunch to work with me. It dries out if you keep it in the fridge though, so I packed the two spare portions into plastic containers ready, and put them in a cool part of the kitchen. (Disclaimer: I'm not recommending that you do this. Apparently it's a huge health risk, so don't do it (do a websearch if you want to know why; don't email me about it please). That's me covered.)

I prepared for tomorrow's lunch by saving some of the stirfried veg and mixing them with some Blue Dragon Thai Green Curry Sauce (comes in a sachet, vegan and nice). I also mixed in with that some firm cotton-style tofu which I cubed and stirfried in a bit of oil (then removed from the pan and reserved) before doing the veg. I didn't use all the fried tofu but kept some in the fridge for use later in the week, or just snacking.

Prepared some wholemeal English muffins for breakfast on the go - split them in half and spread one side with unsweetened peanut butter and the other with Marmite (yeast extract; savoury spread thing), then put them back together, wrapped each individually in aluminium foil, and froze them. I'll take one out to defrost each night before going to bed.


Monday

I cooked twice as much pasta as I needed in the evening, in order to have some for a pasta lunch box for work. As soon as it was drained, I tossed it with red pesto to stop it drying out, then saved half for the lunch. Before I stirfried the vegetables for supper, I browned some thinly-sliced onions in olive oil, then added some sliced Chinese mushrooms, and when these were done I put them in a bowl with some shredded raw fennel and grated carrot, then did supper's veg in the same frying pan (less cleanup, you see). I mixed the reserved pasta with the onion/mushroom/fennel/carrot, then put it in plastic containers in the fridge.

I wanted to use up last night's rice as soon as possible, so instead of planning the pasta thing for tomorrow, I rooted about in the freezer, and took out a box of home-made black bean chilli that I'd had as leftovers and frozen a month or so ago.


Tuesday

Got home late tonight, but I was expecting that. I'd planned ahead and made tomorrow's lunch last night, but if I'd gone out on the spur of the moment, I'd have taken something out of the freezer for tomorrow's lunch. I need to restock the freezer soon though, since I only have one home-made ready meal in there at the moment that isn't soup.


Wednesday

Roasted a few vegetables over the course of the evening for tomorrow's lunch; it only took a few minutes of attention in between reading news and chatting on IRC. I cut up a green (bell) pepper and half a small aubergine (eggplant) into chunks, tossed them with a bit of seasoned olive oil left over from a jar of roasted artichoke hearts, then roasted them in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes. Took those out of the roasting tray, added a small chopped leek with some more seasoned olive oil, roasted 15 minutes, added the leek to the pepper and aubergine.

Mixed in some lemon juice, some squeezy garlic from a tube, a touch of Kikkoman (ie, good quality) soy sauce, a bit of paprika and some tahini (sesame seed butter) that had been whisked with enough water to make a thick sauce. Then I added some canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and left it all to marinate in the fridge.

I'll heat it up in the microwave at lunchtime tomorrow and serve it with couscous which I'll take in dry (and have already put into a tub and seasoned with onion powder, garlic powder, dill and celery salt), and cook by soaking in boiling water for 10 minutes. I put the couscous into a tub big enough that I can cook it in the tub.


Thursday

Didn't do any cooking tonight because tired. I'm going out for lunch (colleague's birthday) and dinner (with Art) tomorrow anyway.


Friday


Saturday