I should Koko-ro

If you love sushi, you should definitely visit Kokoro, a little bento shop on Lower Liffey Street. When I was in London a couple of years ago I was delighted to discover bento shops aplenty, strewn all over the city. As a sushi lover this was paradise to me and I often wished for something similar in Dublin. It looks like my prayers to the Gods were answered as low and behold, Kokoro did not take long to emerge. Their menu offers many suitable options for vegans and I was impressed that filling a bento with their sushi costs only around €8.00, which is pretty cheap for somewhere so authentic and delicious. Their vegan rolls include tofu, asparagus, oshinko, mixed vegetable, avocado, kampyo, and carrot & coriander. There's a selection of yummy dips as well, not just the usual soy sauce, and all their produce always tastes so soft and freshly made. They always have very reasonably priced pieces, and I love the way you can go in and choose exactly what you want out of their fridge to go in your bento - in true pick'n'mix style!

At their hot deli counter they have a tofu yakisoba and tofu curry available, but I've never ordered anything from here as I seem to visit at funny times of the day, so I'm not sure if they are totally vegan as I haven't had a chance to ask.

I am planning on visiting Kokoro this weekend to pick up a stash for my Saturday dinner, so will update this entry with pictures of my sushi as soon as I can!

Monday Meal from Marks

I love Marks & Spencers food! I went there this morning to pick up a few bits, and I thought I'd show you what I got. Tonight's dinner was a Large Vegetable Samosa (filled with onion, chunky potato, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, spinach and peas), with their Giant Cous Cous, Wheatberry and Butternut Squash Salad.

These are two of my favourite things to eat from M&S. The samosa is probably the tastiest I've ever had, I prefer it even to any authentic Indian samosa I've had out at restaurants. It's got a great mix of veg and isn't too heavy on the potato as most samosas tend to be. I love the combination of the cauliflower and spinach filling, which is seasoned with cumin, coriander, garam masala, chilli powder, cardamom and bay leaves. The overall taste isn't too spicy however, and is even quite sweet to an extent - and the garam masala has some of my favourite spices in: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, fennel and nutmeg. The pastry is flaky and light and there are no artifical colours, flavourings or preservatives in the product. It's pretty much a perfect snack!

The giant cous cous salad is divine, in my eyes, because of the roasted butternut squash. I also adore balsamic vinegar and lemon juice, and this salad uses these two ingredients as a dressing. It's fun to eat because I love the texture of the giant cous cous - it's so much more satisfying than the smaller grains of cous cous too.

While I was in Marks I also picked up a couple of cans of cupboard-fillers: their new Chunky Vegetable & Bean Chilli Soup and a Fragrant & Spicy Vegetable Curry. I'm not really holding high hopes for these two, I've tried M&S canned soups and curries before and haven't been overly impressed. I'll just have to wait and see!

Other finds for the day were in Tescos. Here are a few pictures of their own brand Guacamole, Olive & Sundried Tomato Houmous and a bag of their lovely Dried Soya Bean Snacks. I've had to edit this post as I just this very moment discovered that the guacamole contains milk, so I will have to give the tub to my boyfriend (which I'm sure he'll be happy about). I am slightly annoyed by the fact that Tesco have thought it necessary to put dairy products into their guacamole - avocados are so creamy that dairy shouldn't really be needed.

The boyfriend also came home from Tescos today, clutching this lovely little find (bless him, he was so excited to have found something I can eat!!): Moroccan Chickpea Tagine Sauce. We're just about to go for a cycle together now, the weather is gorgeous...

Fruity Cooked Breakfast

I've not been feeling the best recently, I think my food and drink intake has been all over the place, so I'm determined today to make a fresh start and eat as healthily as possible from now on. The weekends always do this to me. I'll never know where I'll be at what time of the day, what I'll be drinking, who I'll be with, if I'll have to eat out somewhere or if I'll have such a long lie in that my dinner will become my breakfast! I think my body and mind need a bit of a break from this chaos! I'm going to go food shopping today as my cupboards are bare. I love going food shopping and stocking up on all my favourite good foods :)

Breakfast today was something I've never tried before:
Apples & Blackberries cooked in Rice Milk, Xylitol & Cinnamon

It was SO good!

Souper Saturday!

This weekend, I've decided to try out some different kinds of soups. This Butternut Squash Soup with Indian Spices from Blazing Salads was so tasty I was rather disappointed when the carton was empty. It reminded me of a thicker and sweeter kind of carrot and coriander soup. I didn't really notice the spices, although there are cumin, tumeric, mustard seeds, curry powder and garlic listed as ingredients on the side of the tub. All the ingredients complimented each other nicely and were not at all overpowering. I imagine it would be an ideal soup for a cold Winter's day, as it was so comforting and filling.

However, my favourite was this Ukrainian Borche, which is also from Blazing Salads. I found the colour a little offputting, as the onions and parsnips mixed with the beetroot made it look like a bowl of rhubarb... and I hate rhubarb with a passion! I managed to look beyond this though and I was so glad that I did: the Borche is one of the nicest, heartiest soups I've ever tasted. It is very similar to a standard vegetable and bean broth, but the celeriac, bay leaves and marjoram give it an interesting kick.

At €3.90 these are reasonably priced for fresh soups with all-natural ingredients. I'm definitely going to go back and try some more!

I've been busy in the kitchen this morning, making a polenta and vegetable "pie" for this evening, whilst trying to do a million and one other things at the same time... as I was putting the dinner plates away I accidentally knocked Mr. Saltz off the shelf. Here he is, looking quite stunned, while Mr. Peppie is in shock and seems rather distraught that his best friend (who he was quite attached to) is now defunct.

Burgers, Pasties & Some Culture!

Today I went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art to see two exhibitions of works by Spanish painter Ferran Garcia Sevilla, and Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa. Both were very interesting, especially Garaicoa's architecturally-inspired paper creations, so I'd recommend a trip to IMMA to see them if you're at a loose end around Dublin one weekend in the near future.

On the way back I decided to call into Blazing Salads to pick up some food to review for the blog. I was planning on buying some of their ready meals. I would not normally buy any sort of ready meal as I prefer to cook from scratch, so I know what has gone into my meal and know that it will be healthy... of course this would not be a problem with Blazing Salad's excellent standards of cuisine, but when I saw the price they charge for this privilege I decided I couldn't really afford to get a few meals when they were over €7.00 each! Instead I opted for the Sweet Potato Burger and the Butternut Squash Pastie. Neither were listed on the website as I thought they would be, so I do not have a list of the exact ingredients. At just over €2.00 each they were good value and filling. I preferred the pastie to the burger, as I found the burger to be a bit blander than I expected. However the butternut squash in the pastie made it sweet and juicy, and it was the perfect size. Pasties are normally quite greasy, but this little wholemeal-pastry-encased delight was nothing but healthy :)

I also picked up a couple of their frozen soups to review over the next couple of days. One is a Ukrainian broth with beetroot, beans and parsnips, whereas the other is an Indian spiced butternut squash soup. A large pot costs only €3.90, and you can get them already heated in store for lunch, along with a slice of their sourdough bread. All their soups are vegan and I had trouble choosing which ones to buy. I can't wait to try them as they look adventurous and intriguing!

Back out West...

The boy, a couple of friends and I went to Galway over the August Bank Holiday weekend. I've been wanting to visit "Food for Thought", a little vegetarian and wholefood café in Galway City, for a while now, so we decided to check it out. Based on Lower Abbeygate Street, Food for Thought is a homely little eatery run by a friendly couple and their food is delicious. The way in which you have to go to the deli counter to order your food before you sit down to eat is similar to Cornucopia in Dublin, where all the main courses are set out in baking dishes on the counter. It's nice to be able to see exactly what you're ordering, but not so advantageous in that you can only really choose from what is available at the time. The guys both had the Vegetarian Lasagne with a mixture of salads, and my friend Katie and I both had the Vegan Shepherd's Pie. I wasn't aware at the time that I could have chosen some salads to go with my pie, but was given a small side salad anyway - I think it was because most of the salads weren't actually vegan and either had a dressing with honey or mayonnaise in them, so they didn't mention it to me. For €6.50 our plates were piled high with food, and it was the cheapest, most satisfying and tasty lunch I've had out in a long time. The shepherds pie had a mashed sweet potato topping, which was far nicer than regular potato, and the inside layers were rich,  tomatoey and filled with soya mince. The café is not strictly vegetarian, as I noticed it has some chicken and tuna dishes on the menu - the only vegan main courses are the shepherds pie and soups, but of course you can also get an array of salads and sandwiches made especially for you. The bread that came with the lasagne was a lovely stodgy homemade bread of a cake-like consistency, which was really filling and flavoursome. Everyone loved the food there, and it was such amazingly good value that if I lived in Galway I'd certainly be a regular customer.

Here's my friend's plate with the salads, although I am unsure whether they were vegan or not: Potato Mustard Salad, Mixed Bean Salad & Celery and Apple Salad.

















Galway also has a milkshake bar in the Eyre Square shopping centre, so we popped along to try it out. I've been here before and was very impressed with the gingernut and peanut butter combo, but this time opted for my favourite biscuit of all time: the pink wafer. IT WAS HEAVENLY - really sweet and creamy. I definitely want to experiment with this at home sometime, although am hesitant to buy a whole pack of pink wafers as I know the packet will be gone in an instant if I get my hands on them! The milkshake bar in Galway is so much cheaper than the bar in Dublin, but is still extortionate when you consider how cheap the shakes would be to make at home. I really cannot justify visiting the Dublin bar very often, especially as the soya shakes come to a euro more than the normal dairy shakes!

A few more discoveries over the weekend included some out-of-this-world Apple & Pomegranate Soya Yoghurt by a company called Sojade. It had lovely little chunks of apple in it and I ate it for breakfast, drizzled over some fresh strawberries. I've really got into my soya yoghurt recently, although all I can really get locally are the Alpro varieties. I particularly like their raspberry and vanilla flavour and wish they did bigger pots.

I also tried some dark chocolate with freeze dried raspberries by Divine. It was nice, but not really my type of thing - I prefer nuts or orange or mint in my chocolate. I picked up a few small Nakd bars as well, as they were so cheap in the health food shop in Gort. The Pecan Pie and the Gingerbread ones are definitely my favourite!

We spent the weekend exploring Coole Park, Yeats' Tower, Galway City & the seafront at Salthill. I loved walking along the beach and finding colourful shells and pebbles to bring home with me.

Blazing Salads

Today I went for lunch at Blazing Salads, which is a little deli on Drury Street in Dublin 2, just down from the rear entrance to George's Street Arcade. Their salads are freshly prepared on the day and although filling a tub can be quite expensive, it is worth every cent. There are several salads available, all of which are vegan:

• Tabouli
• Fruity Red cabbage with orange & apple
• Carrot with toasted almond in a lemon olive oil dressing
• Noodles with spicy/balsamic shoyu dressing
• Dutch white cabbage salad with dulse seaweed
• Tossed mixed leaves, red onion shaved carrot with lemon & mustard
• Chickpeas with carrot, red onion in chilli/lemon dressing
• New potato with pinto bean, radicio in balsamic dressing  
• Energy boosting lentil & barley salad  
• Tomato, avocado, cucumber with fresh oregano, fresh mint & olive oil
• Hummus

Blazing Salads also have a refrigerated section for sandwiches and healthy homemade ready-meals, a deli counter full of samosas, burgers, cakes and biscuits, and always have a few soups on offer. Most of their produce is vegetarian although there are several vegan options and it's definitely worth a visit - I guarantee that everything is so nice you won't be able to choose what to get, so you'll just have to keep on visiting! ;)

Here's a picture of a lovely hot cocoa with soya milk that I had while I relaxed on the streets of Temple Bar, chilling and chatting with friends.

Oh YES Please!

Look what I found in the Asian Market! Peanut Butter and Chocolate flavour Oreos! I assume they are vegan as there's no mention of milk on the ingredients list... then again there's no mention of chocolate or peanut butter :-/ I have come across other varieties of Asian Oreos before which are totally vegan, so I assume that these are as well as they were alongside the vegan cream, strawberry and chocolate flavour ones on the same shelf... if anyone knows otherwise please inform me!

Lush Foundation & Blemish Control

Lush have recently brought out vegan Colour Supplements for the face. They come in very small pots and can be blended with your favourite moisturiser to give your skin a nice glow and even-coverage, or can be used on their own to hide blemishes. If you have trouble choosing which colour is most suited to your skin tone you can blend different colours together until you find the right shade. The pots are quite expensive but go a long way. I don't use much make up on my face at all as I prefer the natural look, but if I'm going out I'll apply some of this and one application lasts the whole night. I've been avoiding using it lately though, as I'm a bit wary of how it affects dermatitis, but I'm sure the occasional application won't do any harm!

Marlay Soup Stall

At the Food Market in Marlay Park they now have a soup stall that sells some vegan soup! I tried the deliciously creamy broccoli soup, and could have eaten at least another three bowls full! There was also a vegan mushroom soup, a vegetarian spinach soup and a tomatoey-oniony kind of soup which I was dismayed to discover had sausages in it! For €3.50 you get a reasonably large takeaway pot of your choice of soup, a large half-slice of wholesome brown bread (although I'm sure you could ask for two if you wanted!), topped with herb & cruton garnishes. My friends and I also bought vegan almond & hazelnut cookies from the Blazing Salads stall, falafels, and many other kinds of cakes. Next time I come here I am going to try the tabbouleh and baba-ganoush from the falafel stall.

Oh-ts My Goodness!

Now here's something worth blogging about - a healthy superfood breakfast that tastes like dessert!

A lot of people seem to be blogging nowadays about these vegan overnight oats so I thought I'd give it a go from the recipe they have all been using over at Oh She Glows. It's very simple to throw together the evening before, and then you just layer it up in the morning with your desired toppings. I chose to mix in a teaspoon of cinnamon, a layer of blackcurrant purée and a dollop of vegan chocolate spread.

I used:
- 1/3 cup of oats
- 2 tablespoons of chia seeds
- just under 1 cup soya milk
- 1 small mashed banana
- dash of vanilla essence
- blackcurrant purée
- blob of vegan hazelnut chocolate spread

I wasn't sure what it would taste like, as I've never had chia seeds before. They swell up overnight, becoming soft in texture and look rather like tapioca. The mashed banana really adds sweetness without having to add any extra sugar. Next time I am going to try it with peanut butter & chocolate spread. I can just tell I'm going to be having this breakfast quite regularly over the remaining Summer days!

Mojitos!

Nothing better than some rum, lemonade, limes and fresh mint!
All those fruits and herbs are good for me, right? ;)

TAGGED!

The lovely Aoife from Adventures In Veg tagged me in a post to write 10 facts about myself. Of course, being the fascinating person that I am, it is going to take me a while to whittle the vast array of amazing factoids about myself down to the meagre number of 10... but I'll give it a go! ;)

01. I was once in a train crash when I was 18 years old.
02. My favourite bands are Holy Fuck, Ratatat, Caribou, Liars & Dan Deacon.
03. I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but am content all the same.
04. When I was 14 a landrover crashed into me and my horse and he had to be put down.
05. I've gone from a size 14 to a size 6, used to hate cakes but am now addicted to them!
06. My boyfriend and I have the same taste in everything, yet still manage to argue!
07. I have always wanted to go to Mexico and Japan, I'll get around to it some day.
08. There is no better feeling than riding my bike, I've travelled all over Europe with it.
09. My dad is the most amazing person I know and I miss him every single day.
10. I ♥ finding bargains, although all these bargains probably add up to a lot of money!

I have to pick others to tag. I choose:
- Vegan Crunk
- Maple♥Spice
- Food Flora and Felines

Berry Smoothies

I have no idea why I don't make smoothies more often. Bananas are the most useful ingredient when making smoothies, as they make them creamy without having to use milk, and make them thick and gloopy - more like a meal than a drink. As I've been snacking all day today and haven't really had any exercise I wasn't really in the mood for a big dinner so I thought I'd get a good healthy smoothie down my throat :)  I'm not the biggest fan of banana - since I was 6 years old I was *convinced* I was allergic to them after throwing up and thinking my throat was swelling and closing in on itself - however, fast forward about 25 years and I discovered I was indeed NOT allergic to them, so started to eat them on a regular basis... so much so that I began to hate them again!  Now I only eat them in smoothies and in dried chip format.

All I did to make this smoothie was blend together one large banana and half a cup of mixed fresh berries with 200ml of fresh orange juice. It's so simple, so cheap, yet so tasty...

Burritos!

Following on from the Spaghetti Bolognaise I made last week, I used some more TVP soya mince to make Burritos this week. Here's a picture of the Burrito before I rolled it up:

It contains refried beans, rocket, salsa and soya mince fried in Old El Paso burrito spice mix and a bit of chilli sauce. The boy had some mayonnaise and cheese with his as well, and the tortilla flour wraps were garlic flavoured. I'd planned on getting some veganaise and guacaomle, but it was very tasty without.