Moving on from cabbage

Well after three entries pretty much focusing on cabbage, I then ground to a halt.

However to tell the truth all my thoughts are currently focused on Saturday's Moonwalk. I hope to make it round in under 6 hours but who knows what will happen on the night.

With that out of the way I can get back to developing Pretty Little Parcels and organising bits and pieces for my sister's wedding (especially the hen night).

I intend to keep up my walking routine by getting off the bus early and walking the last three miles to work at least 3 times a week.

The vegan thing is going pretty well. I'm about to do my second day in a row!

More on cabbage

Cabbage with peanut butter? As a sort of alternative cheesey sauce?

My search lead me to this interesting site http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/dsmenu.html which suggest marmite and cabbage sandwiches. I love marmite so might give those a go.

Currently trying to decide how to decorate my bra for the Moonwalk. I still have the one I made for the 2004 Moonwalk so I might be able to recycle it instead of starting from scratch again.

Cabbage results

I made a pasta and cabbage bake. I cooked an onion and some sliced cabbage and when it was soft (and brown - hopefully caramelised rather than burnt!) I added some creamy tofutti and nutritional yeast flakes. I then layered this between wholemeal pasta spirals and sliced tomatoes.

It was pretty good and quite filling. I ate the leftover pasta and cabbage mixture for lunch with some more tomatoes and a couple of of slices of chilli pepper.

However I'm worried that a) the fat content was probably quite high and b) it required 3 stages which was rather annoying for a simple pasta bake.

I've always been reluctant to start stuffing cabbage and making parcels things but the time to give it a go might have come!

Seasonal foods and cabbage

Today is going to be one of my vegan days. I've been vegetarian for about 18 years but have been exploring veganism in the last year or so. It's become really clear that we live in a society obssessed with consuming animal products.

I also like to eat seasonally. This is most fun in summer when you can get a variety of vegetables actually grown in the UK. For most of the year though it means getting to like carrots, cauliflower, leeks and cabbage.

Annoyingly often things that are in season in the UK are imported from elsewhere. For example, I had real problems finding Butternut squash this winter. I know I could go to a farm shop but I don't drive (for reasons of environmentalism, economy and because I am incapable of passing a driving test). Dearly beloved could drive me, but vegatables aren't really his can of Stella (although I'm working on that). We are low on veg this week as I got the shoppping at the Co-op and they didn't have much UK stuff (bit surprised at that).

So tonight I need to do something inventive and delicious with cababge that doesn't involve dairy. I sometimes do cabbage boiled with brown rice and that's good but goes best with something salty like braised tofu.

I like the idea of something with soya mince and wholemeal pasta (seems odd to be craving comfort food when it's actually warm outside).

Any suggestions dear readers?

Thank you Dad

Well life has been rushing past as ever.

The last few days have seemed particularly packed.

Thursday night I got home from work and seemed to go straight out again for yoga. Friday I had a dentist appoinment (root canal work which after lots of drilling got changed to something else) and then had to hurry off to book club. We got a surprising large amount of disscussion out of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. I also got to spend time chatting with a couple of good pals as I waited for the last bus back to rural isolation to turn up.

Saturday also had a last bus theme! I was spending the day with my mother, sister and her future mother-in-law aiding their selection of suitable wedding outfits. The snag is everything this season seems to be unsuitably styled or worse (as far as wedding ettiquette goes) black or white. Time began to move on and and it became clear that I would not be home mid afternoon as anticpated (not that I wasn't having a good time).

Due to living in a delightful small town which is the biggest centre of civilization for 20 miles travel can take a bit of planning. I have to take the (not even hourly) bus to a larger town and make further connections from there. Hence in order to get home I needed to get from one side of the county to the other and make a bus connection.

Dearly beloved was filling in with the Red Hot Radiators whose guitarist has damaged a retina. No way was I going to be home in time to wish him or watch him play (and he wouldn't be around if I missed the bus and needed rescuing).

I finally decided that the best option was to go mad in Primark (and then feel really guilty about buying stuff produced so unethically) and then join assorted friends and family for dinner in the pub before getting a bus to get a train get the last bus home!

However my fabulous father very sweetly offered to drive me all the way home. This was so kind. It saved me lots of time and meant I could rest my feet (which hurt from all that shopping) all the sooner!

So thank you Dad for being so nice. And Mum we'll keep looking. The perfect mother of the bride outfit will present itself.