It's all about the food baby!

In Peterborough there is a wonderous website called greeniversity.this is a site started by Peterborough Environment and City trust where you can access courses for free by people who want to share their knowledge,usually green or sustainable activities such as gardening,knitting,swishing and cooking from scratch etc click here to find out more I have been on quite a few classes such as aromatherapy,foraging,soup making,sprouting and a self confidence class where I walked on broken glass! I love the fact that you never know what's coming next!!

I set off on Wednesday morning to Bretton woods where I thought there was a medicinal plant walk,unfortunately I had the wrong day! (It's this Saturday can't wait!) Whilst there I had a stroll in the woods and came  across a familiar sight alongside the plentiful bluebells.

Bretton woods Peterborough

There was a carpet of wild garlic either side of the pathway! This lovely plant has a subtle taste of garlic in the leaves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_ursinum

Wild garlic

I collected a large bunch and used most of it to make soup alongside spinach from the green back yard (our local community allotment) link to green back yard to offset the dense greenness I added sweet potato,carrot,lots of onion and fennel,this made a very tasty soup which I blended as I like to eat my soup in a cup alongside my salad. 

Soup ingredients before cooking

Unfortunately I had eaten the soup before remembering to take a cooked picture!!it was very tasty!

In other food related matters I have recently signed up for a woodland farm organic fruit and veg box,this is their £16.50 box which I got on offer from groupon for £6.50 each box for 4 weeks(result!)

You get a lot in the box and they deliver to your door,in Peterborough it comes on a Thursday.

http://www.woodlandsfarm.co.uk

Today I made sweet chilli sauce to go over my spralized courgette noodles(courgette from veg box)

Sweet chilli sauce(raw)

You will need

Fresh tomatoes cherry are best,roughly chopped

Dates soaked in water(madjool)

Spring onions chopped finely

Red pepper(half) chopped

Wild garlic leaves shredded or garlic bulb

Chillis(I used powdered as didn't have fresh)

 Spiralized courgette to serve 

I use the Lurch Spiralizer,I have bad arthritis in my hands and I can manage this,it doesn't require much force) spiralizer on Amazon

Easy peasy! put all ingredients in food processor and blitz til the veg is broken down but still,a little chunky,like salsa, also added the soak water from the dates. Pour over the Spiralized courgette,lovely over salad or rice.

 I use my hand blender as I have broken my processor and works just as well just don't over blend or you will get fresh soup!!!

Chocolate for breakfast

This is the result of my latest play with my slow cooker.....vegan chocolate rice. I fancied something hearty and chocolatey but didn't have time to make a cheesecake or something similar so put all my ingredients in went off to do my shopping and because I used flaked rice it was done in just over an hour!!! There was some left so in the morning I had a very decadent breakfast,what a nice way to start the day.I will try and put it down as a recipe but in reality I just wing it and tweak as I go (the trip to the shops was because I decided it needed some real chocolate in it as the chocolate oat milk was quite a subtle taste and as the chocolate was orange I decided to put orange peel in too)

Vegan chocolate rice

50g flaked rice (this is approximate I used what was left in the packet)

I tin coconut milk( I use Pride rich and creamy coconut milk,it's really creamy!)

Half pint chocolate oat milk

Nutmeg to taste

Cinnamon to taste 

Few drops vanilla

Tablespoon dark agave nectar( you can use any sweetener)

Sainsburys free from choc n orange bar (35g I think)

Orange peel finely grated

 Add all ingredients to the slow cooker except the chocolate,cook on high about 1 to 2 hours,add more milk if necessary,melt the chocolate bar into the cooked rice at the end,when it's all melted stir thoroughly to incorporate it. Eat for pudding

Eat leftovers for breakfast,blast in microwave and start your day with chocolate...you know you want to!!!

Vegan seed and nut pate

Ingredients

 

1 cup mixed seeds and nuts,I used cashew nuts,hemp seeds and walnuts 

6 large sundried tomatoes finely chopped

1/3 onion finely chopped(chop and freeze remaining for soup)

1/2 tsp lime juice

Fresh sage finely chopped

1/2 tsp miso paste

3 tblpn nutritional yeast

Nigella seeds for more oniony flavour

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

 

Method

Grind seeds and nuts until fine

Soak sundried tomatoes in hot water(I soaked my sage too to infuse it into the tomatoes)

Add everything to food processor including the soaking water and blend until fairly smooth,don't over process you want a bit of texture.

This is lovely on toast.

Little blue flowers

I decided the wreath needed a small addition and went with tiny blue flowers dotted about between the daisies and buttercups. The pattern for the blue flowers I worked out for myself based on the larger yellow buttercup.The buttercup is made by chaining up to get the height,doing a couple of trebles and chaining down again for each petal.i figured this would work one a smaller scale so started doodling.

Not very technical I'm afraid as am tentative in my pattern drafting. The pattern is as follows

Little blue flowers

(Uk terminology)

Form a magic ring

Row 1 Work 5 double crochet into the ring ss into first dc

Row 2 ch 1,dc in same stitch,ch 1.ss into next stitch,ch 1, dc in same stitch,ch 1,ss in next stitch,ch 1,dc in same stitch,ch 1,ss in next stitch ch1,dc in same stitch,ch 1,ss in next stitch,ch 1,dc in next stitch,ch 1,ss in first stitch,this forms 5 petals,fasten off

Make loads.........

Sew middles in contrasting colour and add to project

Wreath finished?

Have finished my first wreath but feel it needs something extra,am toying with the idea of tiny lilac flowers dotted about. you can't tell from this picture but there are quite a few big gaps.my other idea was to have a crocheted bow at the top. I may make both and pin them on to see how it looks.

Been busy in the kitchen,made vegan pizza with vegan cheese from vegusto and chilli in my

 New slow cooker with vbites mince.i have also made extremely crumbly but not dry flapjack,I don't mind the crumbly bits,they are nice for breakfast with almond milk on top.

My crumbly stop your tummy rumbly flapjack!

Vegan pizza,the brown bits are vegan chorizo.

Chilli slow cooker styly! Love my slow cooker.......