Veggie Life

How To Make Bird Seed Cakes

4 months ago
by DawnieBrown in ,

With all the snow around, I always feel sorry for the birds and so this morning myself and the kids made some bird seed cakes for them :) They are really quick and easy to make and the kids loved seeing them turn from lots of seeds to solid cake.

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You will need:

Bag of mixed bird seed
Honey
Vegetable Suet (we are veggie so if you are a carnivore then other less animal friendly versions can be used ;) )
A couple of yoghurt pots and some string.

1. Cut a couple of holes in the bottom of the yoghurt pots and thread the string through so it leaves a loop.

2. In a saucepan, gently heat the suet until it has melted and then start adding seeds until the fat is all mixed in.

3. Add a squirt of honey for good measure (not a vital ingredient but I thought the birds might like it).

4. Stuff the seed mixture into the yoghurt pots, making sure the string comes out of the top. Squash it down as much as you can. We had mixture left over so we put it into a small plastic container to make an extra cake.

5. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours to solidify.

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6. When solid, carefully cut off yoghurt pot with a knife and tie a knot in the bottom of the string.

Then hang outside and wait for the birds to find them :)

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The kids have been waiting patiently all day to see if any birds arrive for their cake :)

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Roasted Tomato and Pepper Soup Recipe

4 months ago
by DawnieBrown in ,

This is another fantastic soup I’ve made using the Morphy Richards Soup Maker we were sent to review, I’ve been loving creating my own soups and so I thought I’d better start keeping track of all the recipes I’m inventing :) The kids absolutely love this one, it has a sweet taste to it and really is absolutely delicious! It makes enough to serve 4 and then the rest can be stored in the fridge overnight and reheated for lunch the next day :)

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Ingredients:

2 red sweet pointed peppers

A large bag of tomatoes (I used a bag of salad tomatoes as I couldn’t find plum tomatoes and there was probably about 20 in it)

2 cloves of garlic

750ml Vegetable Stock

A handful of basil (I use frozen basil that I keep in the freezer)

3 tablespoons of sundried tomato paste

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees, in a baking tray place the whole tomatoes, peeled garlic cloves and the roughly sliced peppers. Drizzle with olive oil and black pepper and then roast for around 30-40 minutes.

2. Once the tomatoes are roasted, leave to cool for 15 minutes and then peel of most of the skins. This isn’t essential but as the skins pretty much fall off anyway I do it.

3. This is where the soup maker is genius – simply place all ingredients into soup maker, select smooth mode and in 21 minutes you will have delicious soup :)

If you haven’t already got a soup maker but love soups then I can’t recommend this product enough – it really is so easy to make fresh and delicious soups!

Cream of Watercress Soup Recipe

4 months ago
by DawnieBrown in ,

Ever since we received the Morphy Richards Soup Maker to review, I’ve been loving creating my own soups and so I thought I’d better start keeping track of all the recipes I’m inventing :)

This one is super easy and it tastes absolutely lovely. It’s also a great way of getting lots of greens into the kids :)

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Ingredients:

2 bags of fresh watercress (I buy the pre-packed salad bags in the supermarket)

2 small potatoes

A small amount of double cream (probably around 40-50ml)

750ml Vegetable Stock

Method:

This is where the soup maker is genius – dice the potatoes then simply place all ingredients uncooked into soup maker, select smooth mode and in 21 minutes you will have delicious soup :)

 

If you haven’t already got a soup maker but love soups then I can’t recommend this product enough – it really is so easy to make fresh and delicious soups!

Pom Bear Snowmen Review

5 months ago
by DawnieBrown in , ,

I’m always up for trying new vegetarian friendly snacks, especially with two constantly hungry toddlers around. Most of the snacks in this household tend to be fruit based but it’s always nice to have some crisps on hand for a special treat. When I was asked if I’d like to review some of Pom-Bear’s brand new Pigs in Blanket flavour Snowmen, I of course said yes :)

“Pom-Bear Snowmen are made from potato to the same basic recipe as standard Pom-Bear, but with a new seasonal flavour called ‘Pigs in Blankets.’ As with all Pom-Bear products they have no artificial additives, colours, flavours or preservatives and are gluten-free. Although the flavour is sausage and bacon, the recipe is meat-free and has been approved by the Vegetarian Society.”

Now, I personally am not really a big fan of “meat flavoured” food anymore, I seem to have lost my appetite for it after a few years of being vegetarian so I personally didn’t really enjoy these too much but MasterB and MissB loved them! They particularly liked the little snowmen shapes and spent a good amount of time acting out various family scenarios with the snowmen lol, it’s the first time I’ve ever had my role played by a crisp! :) They are definitely worth a try if you fancy adding a bit of “Christmas” into your snacks :)

Pom-Bear Snowmen are available at major and independent retailers in multipacks of 6 x 19g with a RRP £1.39

Morphy Richards Soup Maker Review

6 months ago
by DawnieBrown in ,

When Morphy Richards asked me to review their new Soup Maker, I admit I was rather excited. You see we like soup in this house but I never have time to make it and the thought of being able to make soups and smoothies (yes it makes smoothies too!) really quickly easily and quickly had a huge appeal. It was extremely well timed seeing as I’d just filled the freezer with the contents of the halloween pumpkins we had carved and I was planning on a making a soup with it :)
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The Soup Maker really is so simple to use, it has a 1.6l maximum capacity and it is as simple as add ingredients, select required program and then wait for your soup/smoothie to be ready. There are 3 programs to choose from, Smooth – which is ready in 21 minutes, Chunky – which is ready in 28 minutes and Smoothie which is ready in 2 minutes. There is also an extra blend button which allows you to blend by hand to create your perfect consistency. We decided to start off by trying the smoothie function as we quite often have these in a morning. So we poured in a mixture of berries, banana, yoghurt and hazlenut milk and pressed start…
20121113-115424.jpgExactly as described, 2 minutes later we had a nicely blended smoothie which tasted delicious! The only slight issue we had is that the Soup Maker has a minimum capacity of £1.3 litres which is a lot of smoothie to mix and so we probably wouldn’t use this function on a regular basis as it makes a little too much for our family, however with soups this isn’t an issue as we either save any extra in the fridge for the next day or pop it in the freezer.
20121113-115440.jpgMy next experiment was Tomato and Basil Soup, basically we put in the Soup Maker freshly chopped plum tomatoes, basil, cream, vegetable stock, black pepper and a chopped onion. Looking inside the soup maker before putting on the lid, I was doubtful that the machine could turn it all into a smooth soup in just 20 minutes but yet again it did the job perfectly.
20121113-115454.jpgThe soup was a lovely smooth consistency and tasted nice, my preference would have been for it to be a bit more tomatoey but that’s the fault of the recipe and next time I’m popping in an extra tin of chopped tomatoes aswell. The kids certainly loved the soup and it was a really nice and easy lunch to make at the weekend when we don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen. I’m seriously impressed with just how simple to use it is!
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I even finally got round to using up the pumpkin in the freezer and made a lovely pumpkin and chilli soup (note: ingredients require defrosting before use). Again, it was just the case of chucking whatever ingredients you fancy into the soup maker and pressing a button. It really is so easy and it definitely encourages a bit of experimentation. I’ve been going through my cupboards thinking of exciting concoctions to make and popping in random herbs and spices to my soup. Next weekend I’m planning on a cream of watercress soup! It’s a great way of getting more vegetables into your kids (my kids are vegetarian so that’s never been an issue but I imagine if your kids don’t like veg then this could work a treat! :) )

The Soup Maker really is a fantastic product and I’m hooked on using it :) It sells for £99.99 which I think is pretty good value if you like soups in your household and would use it frequently! It definitely gets a big thumbs up from our household :)

Meal Planning Monday

7 months ago
by DawnieBrown in , ,

Another week of slow cooker and comfort foods this week as the weather continues to become more wintery :)

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P.S. If you like the look of my magnetic meal planner you can find my post on how to make one HERE, even better I’ve now added a pdf download of all my meal cards so you can just print them off to get you started :)

P.P.S. Don’t forget to check out my Veggie Recipe page for other veggie recipes and to link up any of your own veggie recipes :)

Meal Planning Monday

8 months ago
by DawnieBrown in , ,

Gosh it seems really wintry at the moment so it’s a week of comfort foods here in the Brown household, you can’t beat Veggie Chilli on a cold, wet and windy evening :)

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P.S. If you like the look of my magnetic meal planner you can find my post on how to make one HERE, even better I’ve now added a pdf download of all my meal cards so you can just print them off to get you started :)

P.P.S. Don’t forget to check out my Veggie Recipe page for other veggie recipes and to link up any of your own veggie recipes :)

My 25/75 Bread Recipe

8 months ago
by DawnieBrown in ,

I absolutely love my breadmaker, we use it around 3 times a week in this household. The recipe below is one I’ve tweaked from other recipes as I found wholemeal bread very heavy from the breadmaker. Both MasterB and MissB absolutely love this bread

The measurements below are in cups as these are the standard measures which came with my breadmaker.

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Ingredients

1.5 cups tepid water
4 tbsp skimmed milk powder
4 tbsp groundnut oil (you can use sunflower oil if you prefer)
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup wholemeal bread flour
3 cup strong white bread flour
1.25 tsp dried yeast

1. Place ingredients in the bread pan in the order they are listed above
2. Select a program for a standard 2lb white loaf
3. Sit back and wait :)

I’m sure if you don’t have a bread machine then you can make the bread using more traditional baking methods but I have to admit its been years since I’ve made bread in an oven :)

Meal Planning Monday

8 months ago
by DawnieBrown in , ,

It’s not the most exciting menu this week, it’s been put together in a bit of a rush but it’s full of meals we love so it should keep everybody happy :) You’ll notice there is a day missing because hubby had an open evening and so we opted for macaroni cheese out of a tin because sometimes you just have to have a super quick alternative after a solo nursery run :)

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P.S. If you like the look of my magnetic meal planner you can find my post on how to make one HERE, even better I’ve now added a pdf download of all my meal cards so you can just print them off to get you started :)

P.P.S. Don’t forget to check out my Veggie Recipe page for other veggie recipes and to link up any of your own veggie recipes :)

Meal Planning Monday

8 months ago
by DawnieBrown in ,

Another week, another meal plan. Quite a bit of comfort food on there this week although I have the mother-in-law arriving on Friday so I may need to jig things round a little :)

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P.S. If you like the look of my magnetic meal planner you can find my post on how to make one HERE, even better I’ve now added a pdf download of all my meal cards so you can just print them off to get you started :)

P.P.S. Don’t forget to check out my Veggie Recipe page for other veggie recipes and to link up any of your own veggie recipes :)

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