Goodies from Mummy

We visited my mum for the weekend recently and as always she filled her house with vegan treats and then sent us home with everything we hadn't eaten - which was mountains of it.

This Sunnyvale date and pecan cake was lovely. It was also really healthy because it was sweetened with fruit. That's a big bonus in this house of cake addicts. Tabitha is only 10 months old but she's already caught our cake obsession. But I figure it's okay for us all to enjoy cake as long as we try to keep it healthy (usually). I quite often bake muffins and sweeten them with fruit spread and raisins. It works pretty well but it's nice find something off the shelf which is virtuous too. Same goes for the Billy's Farm raisin cookies in the first photo. They're really nice but I saw them in a local shop yesterday and they're very expensive. Mum must have spent a fortune on that haul! Ah Mumsy.

Best of all she made a gorgeous nut roast which we devoured for tea with pasta, pesto and cheesly when we got home. She did tell me how she made it too but I've managed to forget. It was something like this:

Fry and onion and 3 large chopped mushrooms. Add a mug of freshly ground mixed nuts, 2 mugs of breadcrumbs and a handful each of pumpkin seeds and pine nuts. Mix in a jar of pasta sauce (and maybe some water to get it all wet enough) then press the mixture into a dish. Cover with more pasta sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for a good old while.

I'll check the quantities with her but she's probably forgotten too. She cooks intuitively rather than from recipes and her food is always amazing.

Nut roast

Well I haven't blogged for ages and I've got some photos that have accumulated over the past couple of weeks and I can't remember what I wanted to say about them. However I do remember that the best thing about this nut roast (apart from yumminess) was that it was very very easy. I used our mini copper to chop all the ingredients then chucked them in the pan, frying in a little oil. Then I pressed it into a dish and baked it for half an hour or so and that was it. I can't remember exactly what went in it now but it was something like: an onion, two carrots, a pepper, two tomatoes (helped make it moist enough to stick together), a good load of breadcrumbs and a handful each of brazil nuts and walnuts. I did't even add salt or sices and it was really tasty.

We had it with oven chips and steamed broccoli on the first day. The next day Tabitha and I met Chris from his work for lunch. It was raining hard and cold outside so we drove to a nearby common and sat in the car. We had the nut roast leftovers in sandwiches with tomato and almond butter. They were scrummy and helped make sitting in a steamy car for half an hour quite good fun.

Tabitha can't tackle a sandwich yet but she enjoyed her mashed carrot and sweet potato with a little of my bread. She only has two teeth but she loves holding the bread herself and nibbling on it because I think it makes her feel like a big girl.