rachel.blog

Tag: cooking

  • Meals that start from 9 pence per person

    Early last month I gave a short talk at Aberdeen Climate Action’s Climate Café where I shared my top tips on how to easily and cheaply reduce your carbon emissions. Taking action on climate change can sometimes feel overwhelming or even impossible. Many solutions are just not practical for the individual like putting solar panels […]

  • Apple and butternut soup

    Apple and butternut soup

    It’s Halloween so it seemed apt to have butternut squash soup for dinner tonight (also known as butternut pumpkin in Australia). Lately I’ve been thinking it might be worthwhile to share cheap meal ideas since so many people are struggling with bills right now. It’s not hard to feed a family of four on a […]

  • First blackberry crumble of the season

    First blackberry crumble of the season

    It’s blackberry season – yay! This means lots of blackberry crumble. Ben went foraging and collected a huge container full yesterday, half of which got eaten last night. There are so many wild blackberries all over the place in Aberdeen and the fruit ripens at different times – I guess depending on how sunny a […]

  • Slow food

    Slow food

    Cutting out salt has been a bit of a learning curve for me. But we’re slowly falling into a good routine and I thought I’d share some ideas for inspiration. I started making my own bread and whether it’s a coincidence or not the start of homemade bread consumption is when my blood pressure dipped […]

  • Homemade haggis

    Homemade haggis

    I made my own haggis last night for the first time ever and it was delicious, better than the supermarket version. I got the recipe from the Scottish Vegan Cookbook by Jackie Jones. It’s a wonderful book and I do recommend it. Scottish food is renowned for being fatty, meaty, and generally unhealthy but Jackie […]

  • Lebkuchen for lunch

    Lebkuchen for lunch

    I dreamt last night that it snowed and in my dream I woke up and looked out the window to see Santa skiing down a nearby hill. I got up – still in my dream – and had breakfast but by the time I’d finished eating all the snow had melted. When I really did […]

  • Sometimes we need pancakes for dinner

    Sometimes we need pancakes for dinner

    I’m really snowed under with work and cycling-related activities right now that I couldn’t be bothered cooking dinner tonight and since I’m the parent I get to decide what we eat so we had pancakes. The kids were shocked and delighted all at once when they found out. I’ve found a great recipe for vegan […]

  • Recipe for oat milk and cookies for the remaining pulp

    Recipe for oat milk and cookies for the remaining pulp

    I’m so excited about making my own oat milk that I’ve been experimenting a bit with different recipes to get a flavour that I like. Here’s what I’ve settled on for now: 2 cups oats 1L water 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1-2 tbsp maple syrup (depending on how sweet you like it) a small slice […]

  • Making your own milk

    Making your own milk

    One of the advantages of drinking plant-based milk is that you can make your own. You can’t do this with dairy unless you get your own cow. For a little while, I’ve been trying to make my own oat milk using a cotton bag to strain it. This is quite messy and time-consuming so I […]

  • Scottish vegan cookbook and lebkuchen

    Scottish vegan cookbook and lebkuchen

    It’s lebkuchen time of year which means it’s time to share my recipe. It has become a tradition in our family to make numerous batches of lebkuchen every December. Lebkuchen is a German Christmas dish which translates to “ginger bread” but there’s no ginger in the recipe. I got the recipe from a German friend […]

  • The perfect burger

    The perfect burger

    One of my favourite meals to eat that’s super easy to make, vegan, inexpensive, and anyone, even the most cooking-averse among us can easily create is the vegan burger. In my freezer, I have several packs of different types of burgers that I get from the supermarket. There are chickpea burgers, chilli bean burgers, parsnip […]

  • Red sauerkraut

    Red sauerkraut

    I’m making a batch of sauerkraut with red cabbage and it looks so pretty. I can’t wait to try it.

  • A little bit hyper

    A little bit hyper

    I had a great day yesterday and got so much done. My employer gives us all our birthdays off work and I wanted to make the most of it so I baked scones, made another batch of courgette chutney, made the no-bake walnut oatmeal cookies from Dr Gregor’s book, did some crochet, I vacuumed the […]

  • What to do with a glut of courgettes?

    What to do with a glut of courgettes?

    It has been a day of cooking. It’s that time of year when my allotment is producing way more courgettes (zucchinis) than we can eat so I had to take desperate measures. I took the advice of an old friend from Christchurch and made chutney. This is my first attempt and I didn’t make a […]

  • An easy vegan meal, shed painting, and slim pickings

    An easy vegan meal, shed painting, and slim pickings

    I’ve been making a lot of pasta with pesto lately. The kids love it and on Tuesday and Thursday evenings I have less than an hour between when my workday ends and my General Assembly course begins so I want something that’s quick and easy to cook. I buy the pesto sauce which is vegan, […]

  • Decadent choc marshmallow biscuits

    Decadent choc marshmallow biscuits

    We saw a video online the other day about making your own chocolate marshmallow biscuits and we decided to give it a try today. It’s very easy and requires only digestive biscuits, jam, marshmallows, and chocolate. Take two digestive biscuits.  Spread one biscuit with jam then put some marshmallows on top. Put the other digestive […]

  • A doggy to cuddle and I made sauerkraut

    A doggy to cuddle and I made sauerkraut

    Today I’ve had Millie for company. She’s an adorable 1-year-old cockapoo. As you can see she’s made herself at home 🙂 Millie is our first dog from Borrow My Doggy. Her owner works all day and wanted her to have some company while he’s at work. I’m at home working all day and also wanted […]

  • The hungry gap, vegan haggis, and cast iron cookware

    The hungry gap, vegan haggis, and cast iron cookware

    I heard a new word recently – well, two words – hungry gap. It has come, once again, into popular parlance thanks to Brexit. Britain imports more food than it produces and there are fears that without a trade deal on 29th March 2019, Britain will run low on food. Before Britain became a net […]

  • How to cook for 10 people for less than £8

    How to cook for 10 people for less than £8

    They say healthy food is expensive but this isn’t my experience. Unhealthy, processed food is expensive but healthy, fresh food is cheap, albeit time-consuming to prepare. Today I made a lentil shepherd’s pie for ten people and as I was cooking I couldn’t help thinking how cheap the ingredients were so I decided to add […]

  • Beetroots, beans and bikes

    Beetroots, beans and bikes

    We went to the allotment today and the kids harvested a couple of beetroots. The allotment is giving us beetroots, tomatoes, broccoli, kale, and herbs right now. The other crops have either died away with the cooler weather or have been harvested already. We have an abundance of kale which should see us right through […]