Because I am a student (read: poor), I can't really afford nutritional yeast or raw cashews all the time. And currently I had no nooch and only a handful of a snack-pack of roasted cashews (ahem tesco VALUE cashews. Regular cashews are pricey). So this recipe is easy peasy, because you probably have loads of these ingredients already.
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp maple/agave/coconut sugar or your favourite sweetener
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (If you do not have this, add smoked paprika or double the amount of BBQ sauce)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

  I do apologise for the increasingly brief posts. I do love making posts decked out in fifty pictures and several gifts and my (hopefully entertaining) anecdotes but. Uni. Life.
  I made these summer rolls to take to a meeting for the Ox-Co op tonight. There is something special about the combination that is mint, mango and balsamic. Please, please, please invest in a good balsamic vinegar. I used an already reduced, sweet balsamic I picked up from a farmer's market here. But you can easily make your own, if just you have the regular ol' balsamic.

Mint, Mango and Balsamic Tofu Summer Rolls
Serves: 1 person

7-8 rice paper skins, mine were 16 cm in diameter
Half large bag of fresh baby spinach, preferably organic (dirty dozen!) and wash it well
Several sprigs of fresh mint
Flesh of half a mango, cut into 8 long thin batons
1/3 a block of extra firm tofu, drained, pressed & cut into strips, and marinated in 1/2 a cup of tamari overnight
Balsamic reduction
2 tbsp tahini
Lemon juice
splash of rice vinegar
Raw core love, of your favourite seeds, black sesame or poppy seeds look lovely here

Dip rice paper skin into a tray of water for 5 seconds. It will still be stiff but will soften as you work, if you soak the skin until it is pliable before filling it, it will be way too soft by the time you get rollin'.

Add several spinach and mint leaves, one strip of marinated tofu, mango and drizzle the balsamic reduction over. Tuck in the sides and roll it over into a summer roll. You can watch this video here on how to roll a summer roll if you are a new-B :P

Repeat until all your ingredients are used up. You may have extra spinach or mint, so keep these and place your spring rolls on top. A plus for presentation, and you can drizzle the extra dipping sauce over and eat it like a salad after the rolls.

For the dipping sauce: Mix 2 tbsp tahini with the juice of half a lemon and stir. If you want it slightly more water and acidic, add a splash of rice wine vinegar. If it is too acidic for you, add a little coconut sugar to sweeten it.

TOP TIP! Always try to eat iron-rich foods (in this case, spinach) with lemon, as it helps in the absorption of the iron in your body. Which is fab, no?

  The annual Gill Xmas party always has (a) an insane amount of food, (b) an impressive gingerbread house structure; and (c) a lot of violence when aforementioned gingerbread structure is demolished.
  The violence is mostly on Kyra's fault. I usually cling helplessly to whatever instrument we may be using to destroy said house, while Kyra flails it about with reckless abandon and screams (that girl is insane in the membrane).
  No, really.

  So here is a list of food that I made for the party along with any recipes/links to recipes. I know it's past christmas, but what better way to celebrate 2015 than with stuffing and mince pies?
  I can't think of a single one.
  Except maybe this time, plan your food prep time well ahead so you actually get down to making mulled wine. I am still bitter about that.

Candied Sweet Potatoes
4-5 large sweet potatoes, I like the orange variety
Olive/Coconut oil, optional
Pink himalayan salt, pepper
1/3-1/2 cup of maple syrup or honey

Wash and peel sweet potatoes and cut them into wedges. Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat a little oil on a pan, or you may use a non-stick pan with a bit of water, and brown the wedges a little, for about 5-8 minutes over a medium flame. Once this is done, transfer them to a large roasting or baking tray, and drizzle a little bit more oil if you want to. Spread them evenly out and pop it into the oven to 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, season them with salt and pepper and the syrup or honey, toss them well to coat, then pop them back into the oven for 4-5 minutes to glaze them.
Serve hot/warm!

Apple and Walnut Vegan Stuffing 
1 large loaf of your favourite bread, I used a nice crusty whole wheat french loaf, but GF also works!
1 cup of green lentils + 2 cups of veggie stock
1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water, stir and leave to gel up for 20 minutes)
1 large celery stalk, diced
1 large white onion, diced
3 small/2 medium apples, diced
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary/1 tbsp dried
1 1/2 cups walnuts
3/4 cup raisins/sultanas (or a mix, shake it up.)
Salt and pepper
3 cups veggie stock, use mushroom stock for a more 'meaty' flavour.

Cube the bread the day before and leave it out in a pan to dry out, it should have the texture of day old bread. If you forget to do this (like I did) (ha, ha), preheat the oven to 100C, turn it off, wait 5 minutes and place the cubes on a tray in the oven with the door slightly ajar for 10 minutes.
Rinse the lentils and boil them in the 2 cups of veg stock, once it boils, bring it to a simmer until all the liquid is absorbed and lentils are soft.
Fry the onion, celery, apples and rosemary, until onions are translucent, rosemary is fragrant and apples are tender. At this point preheat your oven to 180C
Place the cubes of bread into a deep baking dish, then pour in the cooked lentils, the cooked veggies, the flax egg, the walnuts, raisins/sultanas, salt and pepper and veggie stock. Mix it up, don't be afraid to break up the bread. When it is nice and even, pat it down and cover it with either a lid or tin foil. Pop this into the oven for 40 minutes, then remove the lid, and bake a further 8-10 minutes uncovered, until the top has formed a slight golden crust.
Serve hot/warm!

 Sasha's Spicy Salsa: click here





Oh, and for the royal icing:

Vegan Royal Icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
3 tsp almond milk
2 tsp rice syrup
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Food colouring if you want to get fancy like that

Double/triple/quadruple as needed.

(I know I have not mentioned much about my gingerbread Noah's ark with Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Noah, but I thought you knew me well enough by now not to question it)
(yes, his robe IS bedazzled)
(no, I don't know where the second Zebra is)


Mince Pies
Makes: 15-18 mini pies

Filling:
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup currants/dried cranberries
2 medium apples, diced finely
Juice of 2 oranges
Zest of 1 orange (zest it before you juice, MUCH easier, trust me. I learnt the hard way)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp clove powder
Pastry:
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 cup jumbo/rolled oats
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1/2 cup applesauce
Pink of pink sea salt
2 medjool dates, pureed
2 tbsp rice syrup

Place all the filling ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat, and let it reduce down until apples are very tender, and the filling is fragrant and all the liquid has boiled down.

Grind the oats into a flour in a food processor, mix with the spelt, xantham and salt. Stir well. This distributes the xantham and prevents clumping (ick!). Add in the date puree (you can do this in the food processor as well), applesauce and syrup, and knead to form a dough, adding more spekt four if needed until it comes together in a nice ball and is not incredibly sticky. Wrap in cling film and place in the freezer for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C, roll out the dough really thin, something slightly less than 1/4 of an inch, cut out little circles with a nice pastry cutter or a small mug. Place these into either shallow mini pie-baking dishes or cupcake lines trimmed to half their original height. If you use the cupcake liners, be sure to place it in a cupcake tray so the pies keep their shape. Prick the base with a fork ever so slightly and bake these for 10 minutes, until slightly browned. Fill with a few tablespoons of filling then cut out a star from the remaining dough and place it on top, bake another 5-7 minutes, until nice and golden. Eat immediately (let it cool for a few minutes though!) or pastry will soften.

 Overall, I had a blast. I was in a food coma for the next 24 hours and I didn't get any sleep that night because of the sugar high, but.

I
Regret
Nothing.

xx
Sasha out.
And if I don't see you by 2015, which is very likely given that I have piles and PILES of embryology to memorise, have a great new years' day. Make some realistic resolutions, and drink lots of bubbly. And mulled wine if you didn't get any at xmas. (hands up!)

Tofu cheese // 'Shroomy chunky tomato paste

Fun food fact! A pine nut is not a nut (say what?), but a seed.

I have mastered the art of spreading and camera holding at the same time

  Here is what I did not know about dosa making: it took TIME.
  First there was the time to gather up the courage to attempt making dosa (this took approximately three months in my case), then the time taken to soak the rice and the oats and dhal, then the time to leave it fermenting in a warm place. THEN the time taken to train yourself how to ladle dosa batter into a perfect circle on the hot tawa pan.

This was not my best attempt, but annoying it was the only one I filmed