A Christmassy Lana

Hi all!  It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, I’ve been soooo busy recently!  I’m really looking forward to Christmas but I’m also looking forward to the new year when we can relax a little.  The last couple months have all been about moving up the country, changing jobs, changing cars (quite stressful in itself!) and now sorting out Christmas.  It will be nice to have a lovely sit down!  Anyway, here is our tree:

Our stairs from above :)

I’m also looking forward to eating healthily again and joining a gym here in Norfolk.  I have been eating a lot of rubbish recently….I’m eating bourbons while I type this.  Here are some of the things I’ve had, it’s not all bad though:

Chilli with Roasted Aubergine

Leftover Chilli on Jacket Potatoes with Nutritional Yeast

Lunch from Sainsbury's: Tabouleh & Melon & Grapes

This is the Tabouleh, looks nice but MUCH too garlicky.  Chewing gum anyone?

Sweet Potato, Broccoli & Pea Korma with Rainbow Rice

A Customised Redwoods Cheezly Pizza with
Curly Fries - tastes so much better with onion and sweetcorn on it!

Chinese - just looking at it make me feels full!

We ordered a Chinese to watch the X-Factor final with (don't judge me!).  I had sweet and sour bean curd with vegetable rice and seaweed...and chips and ketchup.  It was really nice but I ate far too much. The bean curd was a bit dry too, I think I will try a different dish next time.  The Chinese we went to in Southend did a really nice sweet and hot, spicy bean curd dish that I haven't seen here yet.  I might have to shop around! :)

 

This was a warming stew type dinner I threw together: veggie mince, veg stock, potatoes, onions, a few flavourings in a casserole dish and in the oven for an hour.  It was really nice with gravy so I might have a go at making this again.  I'll add carrots next time though, I didn't have any at the time!

Below is a pic of the iced 'Free From' mince pies I got from Sainsbury's.  They are really good, they're also gluten free.  In the second pic I have it with some coconut cream, nom!  On the gluten front I've only really stopped having bread. I haven't been eating pasta or anything similar recently anyway although I do have some GF pasta to hand.  I had a slice of toast yesterday and I really didn't enjoy it.  It had been 3 weeks since I'd had any bread and I was craving it a little so thought I'd give it go. I'm glad I wasn't too fussed about it :)

I also had my Christmas work doo on Friday, this card made me laugh:

I think the picture of the Turkey makes it even better....well this is Bernard Matthew's Country.

The food was actually very nice.  I had a vegetable soup to start with and the nice waitress assured me there was no dairy in it.  My main was really delicious and I fully intend to try and make it myself.  It was just a nice big mushroom with breadcrumbs, garlic, olive oil and other tasty bits.  Very simple but VERY nice.  I had it with loads of veggies with balsamic vinegar and roast potatoes (cooked in vegetable oil).  I was very happy as I was worried I would get forgotten about or they wouldn’t get what ‘vegan’ was.   ‘Can she have wafer thin ham?’ ‘What about prawns?’  etc.  Fruit salad for pudding was boring but I was too full by then anyway :)

They're not the best pics, it was very dark!

I also learned that I won't be drinking several vodka's followed by a bottle of red wine for quite some again either.....it was like a scene from the exorcist when I finally got home.  Poor sober Andy had get me a bucket and listen to me heaving for a good hour or so.  NOT GOOD!! :(  Bad drink, naughty drink.

I bought myself some granola to try, I haven't as yet but it bloody well wants to be good as it cost me nearly 4 quid! I wanted to have a decent healthy breakfast but I often can't face porridge first thing so hopefully this will be the stuff.   I also got myself some vegan mayo by Tiger Tiger.  I was a little hesitant as I've had vegan mayo before and it was RANK! (Essex slang for BLEUGH!!!!).  I was very pleasantly surprised though, this is good stuff and I'll get it again.  I've bought some cabbage to have a go at making some coleslaw and this will come in handy :)

Do not mix these together....

I took part in my first vegan swap box this month!  I’m so glad that I did too, I’m going to dedicate my next post to it.  You can check out the details for joining here: http://www.tohappyvegans.com/wordpress/uk-vegan-food-swap/ 

I'll post it mid-week, have a wonderful Christmas time until then :D

Lana x