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Friday, 8 March 2019

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BY FIONA CUMMINGS


It’s Friday again, I have not long been in. I took Waggatail for a walk around our lake. It’s crazy how many seagulls are on that lake. It’s like living near the seaside. We are hearing them during the night starting at three in the morning. I must say, I do like the sound of them but I find it really odd that they are in a town. At one time you only heard them at the beach. The air was so fresh today, this is after weeks of horrid pollution. It was a lovely walk.

 

Hub and I had a great night last night but don’t have anything planned for the weekend. So, we may just have a local walk with the dogs and tomorrow they will go on their weekly free run on the field.

 

There is some good news today. A dreadful man, threw acid in the face of his 3-year-old Son in the middle of a shopping centre, well, he got sent to jail and he has had significant injuries in prison. Whoever did that, I don’t blame you. What an evil thing to do to anyone, let alone your child.

  

Have you ever wondered why supermarket rotisserie chickens are so cheap? It’s been said that they are the rore chickens that are so close to their sell by date. So, they lose money as rore chickens are more expensive than buying one already cleaned stuffed in some cases and cooked, but it’s better than having to throw out the rore ones and making no money. So, when you buy those, make sure you eat it on the same day.

 

I have been reading a lot lately about the amount of antibiotics that are in chicken, but apparently manufactures are trying to put less in. a lot of companies are removing artificial colourings too, which is great. I wonder if it will affect the flavour?

 

Some people think if you can’t pronounce a word in ingredients, then don’t eat it, well in some cases that may be our ignorance to chemistry and nutrition, riboflavin, cobalamin and pyridoxamim they all sound like big words that we don’t want in our food, but skipping them may be detrimental to our health as they are all forms of vitamin B.

 

Vanilla comes from an orchid bean. But if everyone in India for example, wanted a vanilla milk shake at the same time, there wouldn’t be enough to go around, so sometimes when you are eating vanilla, you may now find it comes from an algae it tastes and smells like vanilla and your body doesn’t know the difference! As for crackers, we think they are an healthy option, gosh reading about them this week, some of them are not good. They have so many preservatives to give them a long shelf life of up to a year. There is a lot of salt in them too and other bad things making them as bad for you as chips.

 

OK this will gross you out, it did me. And I have read it so many times of late, but today in Readers Digest. The red colouring used in many foods treats and drinks, comes from, ready? I didn’t believe it when I first read this, but this is the fourth time I have read about it and I really am shivering with the thought of it. (Crushed bugs)

Told you it was gross.

Even in some medicines, red powder is used and that can be from these crushed bugs… if you see Carmine or Cochineal extract in the ingredients, then it contains the powder from a little bug… Oh my, how on earth will blind people be able to read the packets/boxes

 

And finally, something vegan to cook?

Mushroom and Chestnut Wellington

200g chestnut mushrooms

200g of any other kind of mushrooms

300g chestnuts roasted and pealed

125g cooked black eyed beans

1 red onion and 3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp dried sage

1 tbsp of tomato sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

Shortcrust pastry make sure it’s vegan, you can buy really good ready to roll but be careful as the shelf life is short. And I’m not talking short crust ()

A little dairy free milk if you want to use for brushing pastry, but I haven’t bothered with that, it’s optional.

Roast your chestnuts

In a frying pan, fry onions after a couple of minutes, fry garlic then slice your mushrooms into the pan then put to one side to cool

In a food processor blend the nuts and beans so they are like bread crumbs

Add sage and tomato sauce a little salt and pepper and place into a loaf tin or whatever you have in your kitchen. Then roll the pastry out and place it on top, hopefully the ingredients you have will set to a solid ish shape. So, the pastry is just used for a lid. If you buy a block, you may have some left over unless you make a large one then double your ingredients

Cook in an oven for 35 minutes on about 180. You can have this with small potatoes baked in the oven leaving their skins on and may be some red cabbage? You can also get some gravy granules that are suitable for vegans, Bloggets from America, our gravy may be different to yours maybe you call gravy sauce, I know when I was in America, gravy was something totally different to what we have here. If you buy the gravy granules, add a little red wine just a tiny drop, it gives it such a delicious flavour. But make sure your red wine is suitable for vegans. Its quite bad just how many drinks are not suitable for vegetarians these days let alone vegans.

 

Happy cooking and have a great weekend.

 

 

 

 

   

 

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