Tuesday, 6 August 2019

Picnic Degustabox

Grab your picnic rug, pack up a cooler bag and treat yourself to a summer feast in the great outdoors or just in your garden.
Picnic is the theme of the latest Degustabox.

This monthly food and drink subscription box is an excellent way to discover products which have only just appeared in the shops or those which might have been around for while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.
Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Each time the box arrives, it's a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.
If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet and would like to have a go, I have a whopping £7 off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time) - just use a code 8EVI8 when you place an order.

What did we receive in the July'19 Degustabox? Let's have a look.

food box delivery


Deli Kitchen Greek Style Flatbreads (£1.35) are a new addition to the Deli Kitchen range. These easy to fold flatbreads are inspired by Mediterranean flavours. They are a perfect receptacle for all kinds of fillings, from meatballs and kebabs to falafel with hummus.

flatbreads for sandwiches

As it happened, the food box arrived just before our holidays, and I have made a few quick sandwiches to take with us on the train.
My younger son loved them, and I'm hoping to buy them, when I visit Sainsbury's next time.
These flatbreads are a great addition to any picnic.

Greek style flatbread


Mister Free'd Vegan Tortilla Chips with Beetroot (£1.99) are available from Wholefoods Market, As Nature Intended, Planet Organic, WH Smith and local independents.
Mister Free'd chips offer strong flavours and a good crunch. Beetroot combined with corn make pretty pink chips with plant-based goodness.
They are gluten-free, vegan, high in fibre and non-GMO.
Nutritional info: 114kcal per 25g.

vegan snacks


Rowntrees Randoms Squish'ems & Sours Sharing Bags (£1.29) are favourites with both children and grown-ups. "Let your random side out" with every pack of unpredictably-shaped multi-coloured sweets.
Randoms Squish'ems are a combination of squishy foam and fruity jelly.
Randoms Sours will make you pucker up, they are so delightfully sour.

sour sweets

Kallo Belgian Milk Chocolate Rice Cake Minis (£1.99) are tasty rice cakes for chocolate lovers.
One mini pack of rice cakes comes at 104kcal, so you don't feel guilty about treating yourself, while on a diet.
They are gluten free, vegetarian friendly, contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

low calorie chocolate snacks

Ape Snacks Coconut Bites Sesame Seed (£1.49) are a tasty combination of coconut and natural ingredients like cocoa and super seeds. These mini bites are baked to create a delicious and unique snack. With a satisfying crunch, they make a lovely snack to help fuel your day ahead.
They are gluten free, high in fibre, vegan friendly and have no added sugar.
You will receive 1 of the flavours.

healthy coconut snacks

It's a great snack for all coconut fans. Mini crunchy disks are absolutely delicious.

coconut-based snacks

Ravish Pineapple & Yuzu Salsa (£1.50) is a delectable tropical fruit relish. Zingy and sweet, it's lovely with grilled cheese or topped on burgers.
I had it in a goat's cheese and rocket salad sandwich.
This is a vegan product, made by English Provender Company.
Its ingredients include cider vinegar, pineapple puree, pineapple, onion, ginger puree, yuzu juice, dried apple, red chillies, spices etc.

vegan relish

Simply Cook Piri Piri Chicken 3 step meal kit (£2.50) allows you to cook a restaurant-quality meal at home in just 20 minutes. Just add the chef blended authentic flavour mix to your chosen fresh ingredients.
Discover the full range at simplycook.com

Current offer: choose 4 recipes for just £1 (including free letter-box friendly delivery) with code DGYUM at Simplycook.com.

I haven't tried this meal kit yet, still thinking of which vegetarian dish to prepare with it.

Simply Cook meal kits

New Ribena Frusion (£2) is a refreshing blackcurrant water, naturally infused with real fruit and crafted botanicals.
Frusion contains no sweeteners, is low in calories and rich in antioxidant Vitamin C.

My boys enjoyed this drink.

drinks for kids

Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne (£1.50) is made with a premium blend of aged cayenne peppers that will add a kick of heat to any dish.
Its great taste made it the secret ingredient in the original Buffalo wings created in Buffalo, NY, in 1964.

hot chilli sauce

MONIN Butterscotch coffee syrup (£3) allows you to recreate a coffee shop experience at home - just stir 2-3tsp of syrup into your cup of coffee.
Monin range of syrups has been used and trusted by many coffee shop chains around the world.
Butterscotch flavour is a limited edition which is available for a limited period of time in the hot beverage aisle of selected Sainsbury's stores.

flavoured syrup for coffee

If you prefer to have your coffee neat and unadorned, you can always use this syrup in desserts.
I made a batch of chocolate mousse with butterscotch syrup, and also baked a chocolate cake and added the syrup to chocolate frosting.

Monin coffee syrup

Sunday, 4 August 2019

Photo diary: week 31, project 365


I wasn't sure whether I was going to do a photo diary post this week, as it was a very sad week for us. A daughter of our friends died earlier this week, and this has been a big shock. She was one of Sasha's mates at his old school, a lovely girl with a radiant smile.

Now that the summer holidays are in full swing, we're trying to keep everyone busy. Last Sunday we went to the toy shop for Eddie to spend his pocket money (for reading aloud and home chores) on a LEGO set.
We're big fans of Marvel movies, and loved the latest Spiderman, so it was no surprise that Eddie has picked a Spiderman Far from Home set.


On Monday I was finishing a post for the blog tour for A Right Royal Face-Off by Simon Edge, a book which I thoroughly enjoyed. Gainsborough is one of my favourite artists.


That Tuesday morning we got the tragic news of E's passing. I couldn't stop crying after I put the phone down, which upset Eddie even more, and he started sobbing too.
Later that day we had E's younger brother with us. He's Eddie's friend. I just wanted to scoop up both boys and hug them to my chest.

This is a photo I took in St Michael and St Piran's church in Perranuthnoe a week before, but I wanted to post something solemn and sombre.

Beyond the door
There's peace, I'm sure.
And I know there'll be no more
Tears in Heaven...


Keeping myself busy in the kitchen, it's my way of coping with stress. I made some chocolate mousse with butterscotch syrup.


The day before we were offered an extra overnight stay at the respite centre for Sash. He missed one last month, when he wasn't well, and we were grateful to have another stay for him. Sash loves going there, and we do things with Eddie.
We went to Oxford, without any particular plan. They were doing the water zorbing in the West Gate centre in a small pool, which can fit 3 balloons. Eddie was on cloud nine. He told me he had tried it before in Italy, when his grandparents took him to some play centre.
They look fun, those capsules, but I think I would feel rather claustrophobic inside.

We had dinner at Pizza Pilgrims, a totally overrated place, if you ask me. My husband said they were supposed to be the best Italian pizza around. I was left underwhelmed. My pizza was OK, but I've definitely eaten better pizza in my life.
Back home, and an early night for us.


Three years ago my Mum planted some hollyhock seeds in our garden, it took the plant two years to produce any flowers. Last year it was still a pretty short plant with a few blooms, this year it's in a much better shape. My Mum asked me to take a photo of the flowers for her.


I was worried about my potted plants, when we were away in Cornwall, as the heatwave struck hard here. But my friends have keys to the house and kindly watered the flowers in my absence. The echinacea is doing well this year.




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Wednesday, 31 July 2019

Chocolate Mousse with Butterscotch Syrup (Eggless recipe)

eggless chocolate mousse

There are days, when only chocolate will do. For me it has to be a proper dark one which satisfies that huge chocolate craving. My guys are happy to gobble up any chocolate, including the white one. I'm not a big fan of the white chocolate, but I make an exception for Hotel Chocolat Vanilla white chocolate or Venchi white chocolate with salted almonds and pistachios (absolutely heavenly!).

One of the products in the latest Degustabox was Monin Limited Edition Butterscotch Syrup for Speciality Coffee.
I do like a flavoured coffee from time to time, though it has to be a tiny amount, so as not to overpower the taste of coffee. Chain coffee shops like Nero and Costa add a generous glug of syrup to coffee, even if you ask them for just a dash, and then it's way too sweet.
That 25cl bottle of syrup will most likely last me for ages, if I don't use it in desserts.

I have googled for a chocolate mousse, and though I like the sound of Delia's chocolate mocha mousse, she uses raw eggs, and I'm rather reluctant to do that.
I searched then for eggless chocolate mousse recipes, and the result is a combination of ideas and recipes.

chocolate dessert without eggs


Chocolate mousse with butterscotch syrup
Ingredients:
1tsp coffee granules, heaped
60 ml hot boiling water
2 dark chocolate bars (100g each)
2tbsp Butterscotch syrup
250ml + double cream
cherries (or raspberries to decorate)

Monin limited edition syrup


The recipe is pretty easy.
Set a medium sized basin over a pan of simmering water (the basin must not touch the water in the pan). Add the hot water and coffee granules and stir until dissolved. Break chocolate bars in the basin. Switch off the heat, and the chocolate should melt. Add the syrup (or if you prefer, rum or brandy) to the chocolate and stir together.
Whisk the double cream in the mixer, add the chocolate and blitz together, until smooth and even in colour.
Divide into individual ramekins and decorate with cherries or berries.
Place the ramekins, wrapped into a cling film in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Eat chilled.

It's so good with coffee.

chocolate desserts

Monin limited edition butterscotch syrup

Tuesday, 30 July 2019

A Right Royal Face-Off by Simon Edge #BlogTour

Thomas Gainsborough


A Right Royal Face-Off: A Georgian Entertainment featuring Thomas Gainsborough and Another Painter by Simon Edge is a richly entertaining account of Gainsborough's life and his rivalry with Sir Joshua Reynolds.

This beautiful novel is written with a light touch and sharp, quirky style, reminiscent of Henry Fielding.

We see Gainsborough at his most vulnerable period, when his previous quarrel with the Royal Academy four years earlier means that he hasn't exhibited his work at the Academy in these past few years.
"The sense of being excluded, of a great snub, grew and grew. The following spring he wrote to the committee to say that he would not be sending anything for exhibition that year.
It was a bold statement of rebellion, making him all the more the outsider and, for the ensuing three years, his great sulk had persisted".

For all his sulks and diva-esque outbursts, Gainsborough is a loveable character.

The narrative is split between Tom's inner thoughts on the art world, his sitters and family, and his servant David's letters home, to his illiterate mother and brothers.

David's letters are a delight. They are truly funny, especially when you know that he is not trying to be funny. His sage observations of the eccentric artist and his household are pure comedy gold. He is very fond of the family, and his criticism is mild, respectful (most of the time) and affectionate, and his account of the social norms, fallacies and delusions is amusing and light-hearted.

He portrays Gainsborough  as "a great gentleman... much given to carousing, but he has a worthy Christian soul too, and although he is quick to temper, he is right afeared of my mistress, as we all are".
Mrs Gainsborough is a bit of a termagant, though she clearly has good reasons to be concerned about her two grown-up daughters, Molly and Peggy, one of whom has mental health issues.

Gainsborough often finds it tedious to pander to the tastes of his grand sitters, when he feels obliged to entertain and flatter the nobles and celebs of his times. He'd rather paint landscapes, animals and rural scenes, but the portrait commissions keep his family in style and afford him a financial freedom.
"There is no shortage of eminent - and sometimes scandalous - personages willing to visit his studio at the back of the house at Pall-mall and sit while he captured their likeness in pigment and oil".

dogs in art


Sir Joshua Reynolds is widely acknowledged as the first greatest portrait artist, and being the second best irks Gainsborough immensely.
When a position for a court painter becomes vacant, who will be invited to occupy the much-coveted job?

The narrative moves from 1777 to the present time, when two and a half centuries later, a badly damaged portrait turns up on a downmarket TV show called Britain's Got Treasures, which is a cross between Antiques on the Road with The X-Factor or Britain's Got Talent.
"The show had one other talent-show trick up its sleeve: public humiliation... the anti-treasure, a piece of such obvious junk that the very act of bringing it in was laughable."

Gemma works on the show in a less important capacity. Her role is to do a "triage", i.e. assess who might have genuine treasures and who should go through as the candidate for the Grot Slot.
The show crew and presenters are rather caricature-ish.
Simon Edge is less kind to his contemporaries, portraying them as frauds who deserve to be mocked.

Some of the scenes will make you chuckle. When Gainsborough smuggles three little piglets in his house to use them as sitters, a pandemonium ensues.
In one of his letters home, David describes the scene in great detail:
"In front of her [a peasant girl], my master had begun to sketch the outline of the three pigs, gathered around a big basin of milk. Two of them were drinking nicely from it, with the third one waiting his turn at the back, as polite and patient as you like. If he had asked my opinion, I would have told him... that no pig ever held back when there was food on offer. I also never saw any of Old Ben's pigs eating from earthenware as was fit for the dinner table, but it was not my place to say so. I do not imagine that any of the folk who see the painting when it hangs at the Royal Academy will know any better, neither, so it makes no odds whether the scene is life like or not".

As you can imagine, three boisterous piglets do not make good sitters, unlike the members of the Royal family who sit for the artist patiently for hours.


Edge is adept at creating a whole cornucopia of characters. His portrayal of the artistic genius and ego is quite outstanding.
I enjoyed both the historical and modern settings, but it was Gainsborough's life that is a genuine triumph of storytelling.

Many thanks to Simon Edge, Lightning Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Thomas Gainsborough

Monday, 29 July 2019

A Summer to Remember by Sue Moorcroft

summer reads, top summer chick lit books


"Clancy climbed from the car and stretched. The salt-scented breeze filled her lungs so easily that it was as if a giant rubber band had dropped from around her chest."

That's exactly how I feel by the sea, recharged and unrestrained. I never get tired looking at the sea, alas, we live in Oxfordshire - and though it counts many wonderful attractions, the sea is not one of them.

Clancy Moss, the heroine of A Summer to Remember by Sue Moorcroft, doesn't realise at first just how lucky she is to have a chance to live by the sea.

Clancy is left heartbroken, after a humiliating break-up with her cheating boyfriend. To add an insult to the injury, she loses her job in London as well. Her treacherous colleagues/friends take her ex's side and would rather keep him as an employee of the company than Clancy.

She snatches the chance to get a caretaker's job with the accommodation at the Roundhouse.
Nelson's Bar is a far cry from London. It's a quaint little village on the Norfolk coast, with no Wi-Fi, no signal, and seemingly not many problems.

However, the real life brings its own issues and challenges, no matter where you live. The scumbag boyfriend makes more shocking reveals on the social media, the lazybones cousin makes the most irresponsible decisions, and the local villagers take umbrage at Clancy's arrival to Nelson's Bar, because they hate her cousin.

Actually, they have a very good reason to. Six years earlier Clancy's favourite cousin Alice was supposed to marry Lee, but dumps him at the altar, running away without an explanation or an ounce of shame.

It's difficult to understand just why Alice is Clancy's favourite cousin. She is an incredibly selfish, high-maintenance diva, who has no consideration for anyone else's feelings. There is not a single redeeming feature about her. She's the kind of character you love to hate.

Clancy is the complete opposite. Brough up self-reliant (her parents travel around the world, doing good deeds - they sound quite neglectful and not very caring), she is kind, practical, selfless, thoughtful and generous.

Clancy is not looking for a new relationship, she is still licking her wounds from being jilted in the most spectacular fashion. But there is Aaron, Lee's brother - an eye candy - who she has very fond memories of kissing those six years ago, before the disaster of the wedding which never happened.

Aaron has been looking after his brother, who was left quite fragile after his fiancée has so cruelly abandoned him at the alter. Lee is rather spiritless and weak, he is in a limbo, supposedly moving on and having a child, but still pining after the past, and not seeing how it affects his close family.

There is a plethora of secondary characters, which are drawn effortlessly and convincingly, from an elderly couple Ernie and Dilys, who live in separate cottages but love each other, to a slobbery endearing dog Nelson, from young Rory and Harry who try to find their way in an insular, conventional society, to scheming Genevieve (Aaron's girlfriend).

It's an uplifting tale of a life-changing summer, with plenty of light-hearted notes as well as drama, and a delightful romance. A perfect diversion for a holiday afternoon.

The evocative Norfolk setting brought back many happy memories of a summer many years ago, when we were newly married and stayed at the friends' cottage in one of the Norfolk villages.
I just had to find an old photo album and look at the photos, of when I was young, carefree and so much in love.


I took this book with me on a holiday to Cornwall, and left it in the cottage for the other visitors to enjoy. There is a shelf in the cottage, where we stay, with paperbacks of all kinds of genres and topics.
I read it in the garden, sipping tea and eating scones with cherry jam, and also on the beach, listening to the sound of the sea. That was the perfect setting for a feel-good summer read.


feel good summer romance

Sunday, 28 July 2019

Minestra with star pasta

Italian summer soup, vegan soup

Having grown up in Russia, I have eaten a fair amount of soup. In the days of my childhood, the soup was a staple first course, which people would eat daily. I think the Russian grandmas' mantra was that you had to have "hot food" (or you won't grow up).
I actually do love soups, from stodgy winter ones, to light summer ones.
And though these days I don't eat them every day, I cook soups often enough.

This is a variation of an Italian pasta and vegetable soup. There are as many recipes, as there are Italian nonnas, who, of course, know the best recipe, and use the "secret" ingredient.
My mother-in-law cooked a soup like that for my boys, when they were little, using the alphabet pasta shapes to keep them entertained. Star shaped pasta or mini shells are great in soups.

Italian soup recipes, vegan soup


Minestra with pasta stars
Ingredients:
1 medium carrot
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 small onion
1 clove of garlic
1 small courgette
1 medium potato
a handful of baby tomatoes, halved
a handful of olives, halved
1 sweet pepper
1 vegetable stock cube
a big handful of pasta stars (pastina)
1tbsp vegan mayonnaise for the soup, plus 1tbsp per portion to serve
fresh herbs, chopped (to serve)

Peel and chop the carrot, and fry it in the olive oil, with the finely chopped half onion for about 5-6 minutes stirring frequently. Add a crushed clove of garlic and fry for another minute.
In a medium sized pan add a cubed potato, chopped courgette, halved tomatoes, sliced (deseeded) sweet pepper and a stock cube, add enough water to cover the vegetables, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer. Add 1tbsp of Hellmann's vegan mayonnaise to the soup, as well as fried carrots with onion and garlic, and halved olives.
Cook for about 10+ minutes, then add the pasta shapes. They cook very quickly, it takes a couple of minutes.
Serve hot, with a spoonful of mayo in each plate.

Adding mayonnaise or soured cream to the soup is one of my Russian habits. I plop either of the two to most soups. A thick Greek yogurt is also a good choice.

There are no fresh herbs added to the soup in the photos, I realised that after I looked at the photos.

vegan soup, vegetarian soup

Italian soup recipe

Photo diary: week 30, project 365

"I've long suspected that the term "family holiday" is an oxymoron, and now I feel more sure", muses Grace Dent in the latest Guardian Weekend. I nod my head in agreement - Holidays are a blimming hard work, when you have a young family.
We're just back from a week in Cornwall, which was mostly lovely, but hardly relaxing. A kind of vacation about which people say You need a holiday after this holiday.

I didn't post a week 29 of photos, as we were travelling, thinking I would combine two weeks, when I return home, but by now that week is a distant memory. It was the last week of school, and pretty hectic at that. Eddie's school staged a musical Joseph, and all children took part for three days in a row. But my Week 30 is an extended version, including a couple of days from the previous post which never happened.

We arrived to Cornwall on Friday the 19th, and the weather was abysmal. Thankfully, the rest of the week turned out better, with sunny spells. And we managed to escape the great heat which tormented the rest of the country.
We walked to the beach in the evening, in the rain, and laughed at the English holidays.

English holidays

Saturday was a different day, the sun was out, and we were back at the beach, building sandcastles, playing football and enjoying the sea breeze.

holidays in Cornwall, summer holidays with kids

The beach in Perranuthnoe is enclosed, and is a mix of sand and rocks. If you walk towards Marazion from the village, you venture into a rocky beach. We love a long walk to that beach, and always stop by someone's villa, with the old cannon pointing to St Michael's Mount.

old weapons

On Monday we went to Penzance, to have lunch at Admiral Benbow. We've visited it before. The food is so-so, but the place itself is amazing, it's a museum of old maritime memorabilia, with genuine artefacts. It was not busy, and we explored the nooks and crannies, admiring the naval antiques.
And of course, if you are a book lover, you'd treasure being in Admiral Benbow for a different reason. R.L.Stevenson got his inspiration for Treasure Island, visiting Penzance and Admiral Benbow.

where to eat in Penzance

Every time we returned to the cottage from the beach, we were greeted by this heart in the wooden gate, with a glimpse of lavender and rosemary in the garden. This is a symbol of how I feel about this place. I love Cornwall, and I love "our" little cottage. We've been staying in this village every summer, since Eddie turned one (except last year, when we were too late to book anything).

summer flowers

Sash loves the sea. He seems to be relaxed and happy by the seaside. I've been trying to catch him in the photo, as he's constantly on the move.


We celebrated Eddie's birthday in Cornwall, eating a chocolate cake for breakfast. The cake was a tad babyish, but quite tasty. We bought it in Penzance, and there wasn't much choice, unless you wanted a unicorn or a frilly pink concoction with a crown.

While our hometown was melting in the 38C heat, we escaped the heat altogether. In fact, when we went to the beach before lunch, we had to return to the cottage to get hoodies and cardigans, as it was so fresh and bracing by the sea.


We said Good bye to the sea on the evening before, and got on the train from Penzance to Reading.
I'm always sad when we leave Cornwall, it's one of my most favourite places.
The trip was long and arduous.
Sash endured the long trip, but had a meltdown of epic proportions when we were at home, at bedtime. It was stressful for everyone involved.

Eddie spotted this Trump poster at Reading, and thought it was amusing.


I've already mentioned our local Waterstones on the blog before. The ladies who work there are brilliant, they are passionate about books, and often organise fantastic events for children.
Yesterday it was the Escape from Azkaban event, which you had to book in advance.
It was great fun, and Eddie (and I) enjoyed it very much.

bookshop events


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Wednesday, 17 July 2019

Rice and mushrooms-stuffed peppers

vegan stuffed peppers, vegan recipes, Hellmann's vegan mayo


Stuffed peppers have always been one of my favourite comfort foods. I remember as a child going into my auntie's kitchen garden, where she grew most flavourful sweet peppers (as well as fiery little chillies, which would make you gasp if you were silly enough to have a bite of a fresh one), and picking a few for dinner, along with big-sized beef tomatoes and a bunch of fresh herbs.
My grandma and auntie were great cooks, and in summer the smell of the food cooked in the summer kitchen would waft around the garden, making your mouth water.
They lived in a small town in the South of Russia, and I enjoyed visiting them. For me, a city girl, their town was full of promise and discoveries, including a local speciality - a blue ice cream named after the river Don. I loved going to the market and seeing local produce, heaped up on wooden tables. Ah, memories, memories...

Stuffed peppers are also one of my Mum's signature recipes. She cooks them in a deep pan, simmering in soured cream and herbs sauce. She makes different versions - a mix of rice and minced meat with lots of herbs for the meat eaters, or rice and mushrooms for Lent days.

vegan stuffed peppers, meat-free dishes, meat-free Mondays


In this recipe I use whole peppers as vessels for stuffing. I like to use a mix of mayo and soured cream, but as this recipe is a vegan one, the soured cream is not included. I have tried soy and other dairy-free yogurts, but they don't have the same level of acidity as the soured cream.
If you're not a vegan, mix the mayo with soured cream or thick Greek yogurt.

Rice and mushrooms-stuffed peppers
Ingredients:
3 sweet peppers
1/2 red onion
1 carrot, grated
3tbsp rapeseed oil
2 Portobello mushrooms
about 125g coconut rice (half a pack of precooked rice, I used Tilda coconut rice)
5tbsp vegan mayo
1tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves and mint
salt and pepper

Cooking time: 30+ minutes

First cut out the tops of the sweet peppers and remove the seeds from inside.
Pre-cook the peppers in salted boiling water for 5-7 minutes. You don't have to precook and just roast the peppers in the oven with the stuffing, but it will take much longer.
In a medium pan heat up 2tbsp rapeseed oil and fry finely chopped red onion and grated carrot, stirring frequently. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the chopped mushrooms and 1tsp vegan mayo. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
Add the precooked rice and mix well.


vegan meals

Spoon the rice and mushrooms mix into the peppers, and top up with a dollop of mayo. Place the peppers in a medium deep ceramic or roasting dish.

vegan meals, Hellmann's vegan mayo


Put the dish in the oven preheated to 180C.
In a small bowl mix the remaining mayo with lemon juice and herbs, pour it over and around the peppers.
Cook for about 15-20 minutes.



vegan dinner, vegan meals

vegan recipes, stuffed peppers

I've first tried Hellmann's vegan mayo a couple of months ago, and since then bought it a couple of times. It is creamy and tasty, and you won't guess it's dairy-free.
It's definitely a perfect alternative to a dairy-based mayo.

Hellmann's vegan mayo

If you're a fan of Hellmann's Vegan Mayo, you might want to enter a competition which is running until the 28th of July.
I enjoy entering creative cooking competitions, and wanted to share the competition in case you might have missed it.

Here are T&Cs for Hellmann's Vegan Quick Eats Competition (partially reproduced with permission from Hellmann's PR):

1. This promotion is open to residents of the UK aged 18 or over except employees of the Promoter, their families, agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion.

2. To enter, join the Hellmann's Vegan Deli Club Facebook Group (the "Facebook Group") and create a post (each, and Entry)

For the entry to be valid, the post must include the following:
a photo of your "Quick Eat"; and the following as it relates to your original dish:
- name of your quick eat
- description of your quick eat
- total time to make (preparation and/or cooking)
- ingredients
- recipe to make your quick eat
- and include in your post #quickeats and #hellmannsvegan
For the entry to be valid, entrants must use the hashtags #quickeats and #hellmannsvegan.

3. The opening date for entries is 17:00 BST on 17th June 2019 and the closing date for receipt of entries is 11:59 BST on Sunday 28th July 2019.

4. There are three prizes in total. The overall winner will receive 1 x £1,000 in the form of a wire transfer, the second and third winners will receive £150 each in Amazon vouchers; and 150 additional randomly selected eligible Entries will receive a £5 Amazon voucher, up to £10 per winner (£5 voucher excludes challenge winner and runners up).

5. The overall winner and runners up may not win more than one prize. The winners of the £5 Amazon vouchers may win up to £10 in Amazon vouchers.

6. No applications from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted. No incomplete or corrupted entries will be accepted. Entries will only be accepted if they comply will all entry instructions.

For the full T&Cs please visit the Facebook group, as there are 24 clauses of the promotion.



I really wanted to alert you to the competition, as it's exactly the type of creative competition I wish were more widely available.

If you do join in, I wish you all the best. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed as well.

In case you are not sure where to buy Hellmann's Vegan Mayo, I found it in Sainsbury's locally, but it's also available in Tesco, ASDA, Amazon Pantry and Ocado.

Hellmann's vegan mayo