Thursday 1 January 2009

Chasing butterflies in January


New Year's Eve dinner was the same as Christmas, since realising we still had a tin of chestnut puree left in the cupboard. Desert was vegan plum pudding from 'The Village Bakery' with soya cream. Very seasonal and yum:

Our friends came up to see in the New Year and the boys had fun playing with the girls. They absolutely loved one game in particular, elefun, which involved catching paper butterfiles out of an elephant's blowing trunk!
My friend loves carrot cake so made this vegan version I found here.
It makes a lovely, moist cake and the icing is delicious although it was a little runny so had to keep it in the fridge, don't think I added enough icing sugar.



Part of lunch today was basmati rice salad from the book Vegan. It was a lovely tangy feast, the picture doesn't do it justice. I haven't made that much from this book before. It is one I leaf through when thinking about special occasions; most of the recipes use a range of ingredients, and are good for dinner parties. Very, very good though. We had the rice on the side with butternut squash soup.


Took a picture of the tree, which is stil adding a bit of magic to the setting:

Ended up this eve with a simple favourite of the boys- macaroni cheese; a vegan version on the left (for me) and vegetarian-right- (for the rest of the family) as we have some dairy cheese. The boys happily eat both versions at the moment.


Am on the lookout for inspirational packed lunch ideas. The boys are going to start having lunch at preschool; R currently only eats peanut butter in sandwiches.... but at the school there are two children with a severe nut allergy, and nuts are ruled out altogether as an option. This extends to all nuts so can't try the other nut butters such as cashew or almond. Thankfully the boys have been ok with peanuts. So, got to get creative! I would love to hear of any suggestions.

















3 comments:

RedLentil said...

For a thickish spread try blending cooked butterbeans with some tomatoes or cooked carrot and seasoning well. It makes a good, nutritious and colourful spread and the little ones can't pick any bits out of it! You could also add a spoonful of olive oil for extra flavour and to help the consistency along and for grown-up, add a kick of chilli to the tomato version.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year to you all xxx, good luck with the packed lunch ideas , sounds a tricky one, Picklemonster will only eat apricot jam on a toasted muffin or bagel at the moment for lunch which she is getting away with for now but my NY resolution is definitely to expand her tastes!

Bea said...

Happy New Year!
Like that idea a lot, thanks red lentil. I am trying it out tonight : )

L would like picklemonster's preferred lunch of the moment- he asks for 'bam' (jam!) sandwiches whenever I get the bread out...