Several days a week I need to take a packed lunch to my workplace, since not all the various jobs I do provide a break for finding lunch, or are near enough to a shop or café to make finding anything feasible. Mostly I try to think about this in advance and make sure there’s a cold dish ready to be packed, or bread available for making sandwiches. But sometimes I’m not that organised. Luckily I do have very healthy store cupboards though!

This is a tasty and filling bean salad that can be made entirely from store cupboard items (if your cupboard’s like mine!), and is thrown together in moments.

1 tin butter/lima beans
1 tbsp chargrilled artichokes
1 tbsp sundried tomatoes
1 tsp capers
Half-a-dozen fresh basil leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt
Balsamic vinegar
Good EVOO

Drain the beans, roughly chop the artichokes, sundried tomatoes, capers and basil.  Stir into beans, dress with salt, pepper, vinegar and oil. Pack in a well-sealed pot or jar. Remember to take a fork!

Really tasty, filling, easy and not too smelly for your work mates to suffer!

I’ve always been dubious about low-calorie and low-fat versions of regular foods. They generally do it by adding unpleasant quantities of fillers, bulking agents, artificial sweeteners, waxes, jelling agents and myriad other peculiar things that do you precious little good and you probably can’t pronounce. 

In theory I’d rather eat less of something good, than more of something rubbish. In practice I’ve never been very good at “less of”. So when I saw Alpen had got a low calorie version of their muesli bars I thought, well, how tough can it be to make low cal’ muesli snacks, that’s got to be easy to achieve without stirring in vats of gloop, right?

Right. It’s extremely easy. You just make them half the size. Of course, you sell them in the same sized packaging, and you charge exactly the same price - it just works out at twice the cost per gram, or half the calories per bar as you prefer… of course, you’ll need to eat two in order to get the same amount of food. 

I find it depressing that manufacturers have such a low opinion of consumers’ intelligence, and even more depressing that they’re usually right. Well hell, I didn’t suss it till I opened the first packet and wondered who’d stolen half my snack! 

(Note: Alpen bars are veggie not vegan containing milk powder)

The Einkorn produced a heavy, dense loaf with great (but unusual) flavour. Lovely buttered, solo. I think sandwiches would be odd… bread’s so dense the filling would probably squeeze out the sides! Be good topped sweet or savour though.

1KG flour, 2tsp sea salt, 2tbsp EVOO, 1pt tepid water. 

Sunday is turning into experimental baking day. Today’s new flour is this organic Einkorn from Dove’s Farm. There’s also a new sourdough starter made with rye (anonymous make) kicked off. This counts as exciting times in Meadow Court. :o) 

It seems like another good way of sharing interests. Anybody with a veggie or vegan board on there, let me know, thanks. 

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Lemon sandwich biscuits. I had a slightly tired lemon sitting about the place so decided to make some biscuits on the grounds that if it didn’t have much oomph left they’d still be perfect edible, just not very lemony! 4oz butter and 4oz golden sugar whizzed up together, then lemon zest and about 3/4 of the juice added. 8oz plain flour gradually mixed in. Tipped into a bowl, brought together as a soft dough and rolled out to a thin layer. I used the smallest of my set of cutters to make little round discs as they were going to be sandwiched with buttercream so would be rather rich. Baked on parchment for 10 minutes (first lot had 15 and came out too dark, hence two-tone effect in my picture) at 190. Leave to cool while whizzing up icing sugar and butter in roughly equal quantities, add rest of lemon juice, mix and spoon into a plastic bag. Cut the corner off the bag and pipe some filling onto half the cold (or the buttercream will melt!) biscuits and sandwich together. Leave to set for a bit.  Make a cuppa. Eat. Yum. Simply use good quality vegetable margarine to make vegan. 

p.s. I shall make these again with a really fresh lemon for more zing, but they’re still darn tasty as is!

Not really a recipe as the details are going to be even sketchier than usual, but if you like the look of these, they’re really easy to make. You need some raw cauliflower, and enough thick coating batter to make these little fritters/tempura. Trim the cauliflower and cut into little individual florets. You’ll need them nice and small so they cook properly. Take some plain white flour, a little cornflour to to lighten, salt and a nice light moderate beer (a Belgian or French lager works well). Mix the dry ingredients then whisk in enough beer to make a good thick but not stodgy batter. Throw in all the cauliflower and mix until well covered. Ideally you’ll have a good coating of batter but not so much the cauli’s swimming. Heat a centimeter or so of oil in a pan (I use my wok as it has nice high sides for safe and clean frying). Spoon pieces of cauliflower into the moderately hot oil a few at a time so they form separate little fritters, cook till golden brown, turn over and finish other side. When done put each batch to drain on kitchen paper while you cook the next lot. Serve with hot chili sauce. I like Linghams.

I’ve made a few variations on this theme now, and this is my favourite so far. As ever, quantities and method are a bit rough and ready, so if you try this feel free to play around and report back on any outcome!

6oz white flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a splash of vanilla essence
3 oz unsalted butter
2 oz golden demerara
1 generous tbsp golden syrup
1 generous tbsp molasses

Melt butter, syrup and molasses in a pan with minced ginger (this was the ready-prepared stuff in a jar) and vanilla.

Mix together flour, sugar, bicarb and spices. I sieved about half of it on the next step, then got bored and bunged it in anyway. Take butter mixture off the heat and beat in dry ingredients to form smooth paste. Put teaspoonfuls of mixture at intervals on baking parchment - press with finger, spoon or fork, and leave room for spreading.

Bake at 180C for ten or so minutes. I removed at ten, smacked the tray on the work top to encourage cracking and spreading and put back in for three more mins.

Remove, put on a wire tray to cool, and dust with icing sugar (a tea strainer helps!)

Ta da! 

Tomato and apple soup.

Three large cooking apples, peeled, sliced, sautéd in olive oil. Tin of tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, water, sea salt, black pepper. Simmer till thoroughly soft and squishy. Force through a sieve with a wooden spoon till utterly drained. Remember to scrape the pulp off the underside of the sieve where it clings, or you’ll waste the good stuff. Add lemon juice for balance, simmer & check. Serve with homemade wholemeal bread, still warm from the oven (any minute now…)