Annoyingly, when I could have had a lie in, I woke up very early on Saturday morning.  Maybe I was feeling guilty for eating 4 slices of this bread with cashew nut butter the night before and having a glass of dessert wine!    These are only very small slices but nonetheless, that was a lot of late night calories which I shouldn’t have had.  This bread is great.  No yeast in it, which I react badly to, and no wheat which I am trying to avoid.  Harvey loves it too so this will be making an appearance again.  We have not had standard bread in our house for a long time and often don’t have any bread at all but occasionally it is handy to have and I am pleased to have found one we both like.

It rained overnight for which the garden was very thankful. My Aunty gave me these tulips for my birthday last year and I planted them in prime position next to the greenhouse so I can be sure to see them at least twice a day. They look even more beautiful with rain drops on them. I then decided to empty the fridge.  I completely emptied it and literally took out EVERY single item and every shelf and washed it all, including the sides and even the central drawer unit.

I have not done a supermarket shop or had a delivery for 2 weeks and have tried to eat my way through the fridge (and freezer and cupboards) instead. I often eat the same things so challenging myself to eat the contents before refilling was a good thing to do.

Most of the content of the bottom 2 drawers was eaten for lunch or supper so before the Ocado cavalry came, the fridge really was nearly completely empty of fresh food.

In my fruit drawer I was left with 2 avocados, some mandarins and these lovely oranges. The blood oranges had been in there for ages but I ate them anyway.  Once you cut the mould off the skin, the inside seemed fine!  I juiced about half of them and made two smoothies for myself and Harvey. Mine had one whole orange, orange juice, half an avocado and about a cup full of frozen pineapple chunks. It tasted so fresh it was a perfect way to start the day and it kept me feeling full for many hours. I was out and about all day – Saturdays are often like that aren’t they?  I grazed on 2 apples, some almonds and dates.  Probably too many in the end but I just didn’t have the time or opportunity to make a proper meal until supper time when, I must say, I did excel myself.

I picked some swiss chard and thyme from the garden. To cook with these beauties. 6 perfect portobello mushrooms. I have read a lot of vegan sites recently promoting these mushrooms as apparently they taste meaty, or at least have the texture of meat. To be honest I do not look for meat substitutes.  I am embracing the whole foods and plant-based diet for what it is but the many references to them had got me intrigued.I couldn’t find a vegan recipe for stuffed mushrooms.  They all have bacon or cheese in them so I made a recipe up.  Lara had come home at very short notice for the evening, which was lovely, and she really liked them too so I shall share the recipe.

Portobello Mushrooms with Rice, Pine Nuts and Tomatoes

Ingredients

6 portobello mushrooms
1 cup of brown basmati rice
2 tomatoes (medium sized vine tomatoes)
half a cup of pine nuts
half a cup of sultanas
1 stalk of fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper

Method

Cook the rice until al dente
Remove the stalk from the mushrooms*, wash the mushrooms and dry as well as you can
Chop the tomatoes and sultanas (my sultanas seemed very large which is why I chopped them)
Mix the tomatoes with the pine nuts, sultanas, thyme and garlic and season
Turn the oven on to 190 °
Place the mushrooms on to a baking dish and add a layer of rice, a layer of tomato mixture and top with another layer of rice
Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes
Remove foil and replace for 5-10 minutes until done to your liking

* I put the mushroom stalks away in the fridge for another day

I did have lots of rice left over but I like to have rice handy for a quick supper or lunch box addition.
I served mine with swiss chard and broccoli which I stir fried in coconut oil with garlic.  Plus a dollop of Cholula (pepper sauce) on each one. We both loved this and there are 2 mushrooms left over in the fridge for a mid week supper. For pudding we had nice-cream made with blue and black berries. Blitzed together with frozen bananas and topped with coconut.  That was a top notch supper, enjoyed in girly fashion in front of the tv.  We watched ‘Diva’ which I have not seen for years and I enjoyed it again but was astonished at quite how old it all seemed and how bizarre!

Whoever thinks vegan food must be boring doesn’t have any imagination.