The Training Begins, Homemade Sausages and Scones!

Nadine stretches woo!

We started training for our half marathon last week, really. We accidentally walked 10km! We thought the distance would be about 6km but it took us 2 hours to get there and back, so we looked it up and it was actually ten. No wonder our legs hurt. But today we did just a short one - 5km walking with sporadic jogging to break up the monotony. I just bought two cheapie pedometers, so hopefully it makes it a little easier to see exactly how far we are going. Google maps isn't really accurate enough for my liking!

Like my stretchy pants? I love them. About $10 at Target, they are SO COMFY and prevent chafing - important in a 21km walk. They come in all different lengths. I got one pair in full length and one in 3/4.

After lunch we wanted to go to have coffee somewhere but the place had closed up for the day so we came back home and I made some fluffy white scones and coffee! (To celebrate the royal nuptials hahahaha). I made them as traditional as I could - bought white self raising flour and everything! I used this recipe I found on the BBC. Unfortunately it barely makes 4 scones, but that's probably a good thing as scones don't really reheat well. We had them with jam and some cashew cream I had leftover from the Panna Cotta I made yesterday. I'm not too fussed on the cashew cream - I wanted to make the 'clotted cream' I found on this entry by Oh She Glows (which inspired me to make scones to celebrate the wedding in the first place) but I couldn't find Tofutti cream cheese (or any other vegan kind) at woolies (and the shop I would otherwise get it from was closed) so I couldn't. Next time.

I have a three level steamer! It certainly comes in handy.

I decided to make some sausages for dinner! I found the recipe yonks ago on Vegan Dad's blog and have always wanted to make them (but I am lazy and keep buying the sanitarium ones which are good). I doubled the recipe and made about 8 or 9 I think. I could have made them smaller, they were a bit giant!

I also didn't mash the beans enough (I used black beans) and I thought they would be ruined but they weren't at all. Though next time I am pureeing them in the food processor first. Yes it looks like a poo.

I also didn't put enough herbs in, but trial and error! They were still delicious. We made mashed sweet potatoes (with rosemary), and steamed brussels sprouts, carrots, peas and corn with lemon and pepper and garlic. Yum. I didn't think as far ahead as sauce though! Gravy would have been good.

A take on Tuscan Beans and Tomatoes

Every single radish seed I planted sprouted! Very exciting. Soon I'll be able to prick them out (I put two in each hole just in case). And then have radishes! I'll have to protect them from birds.

I got some very nice looking rainbow silverbeet (chard) at the Farmer's market this Sunday. Funny how I can drag myself out of bed at 6am on a Sunday but struggle to wake up to go to school? It wasn't on my list, but the bright colours made me buy it! Rainbow silverbeet is very very awkward to carry while riding a bike. I ended up putting it in my front basket on top of potatoes and beetroot and tying it down with the chain lock! It didn't come out nor was it damaged in any way :)

Tonight for dinner I made a sort of beans and tomatoes thing from Vegan Italiano. I was originally going to follow the recipe exactly but this morning we were hung over (lots of gin last night! date day!) so we decided to buy some vegan sausages and have a fry up. So I put the leftover sausage in dinner tonight so they didn't go to waste.

Italian style beans and tomatoes with polenta

Serves 4

Ingredients

About 1 1/2  cups of dried white beans, cannellini beans, cooked

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 vegan sausages of choice, sliced thinly

3 cups cooked tomatoes (about 1 800g can)

1 cup weak chicken stock (I use Massel Chicken Style)

3 large leaves and stems of silverbeet, stems sliced thinly and leaves torn

1 tbsp ground dried sage

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup polenta*

1L water/weak stock

1 tsp vegan margarine

pinch nutritional yeast

Method:

Fry garlic, silverbeet stem slices and sausage slices in a bit of oil until sausage is browned on both sides.

Add beans, tomatoes, stock and sage. Stir to combine. Let cook for a while.

When it's near to serving time, bring a medium saucepan with 1L of water/stock in it to boil. Slowly whisk in polenta until it's thick and creamy looking. When cooked stir in margarine and nutritional yeast.

Add the silverbeet leaves and cook until wilted.

Serve!

This was quite delicious. And would have been cheap if I didn't use sausages!

*1 cup of polenta to 4 cups water works better. I just didn't have enough left and tried to make it stretch - it turned out quite thin so it was soupy. Which is OK if that's what you want :) Also it only made enough polenta for 3.