What's in my lunchbox this week? Full of flavour

 

This has been a very satisfying lunch. A really good mix of flavours and it took me no time to prepare on Sunday morning.

Clockwise from top right:

• No bake peanut butter balls- I was inspired to try these by Paper Bag blog and found a recipe on The Vegan Wolf
• Pear- raw
• Chickpea and tahini bake - this is basically a mix of onions, cooked rice, cooked chickpeas, tahini, water, garlic powder and a few dried herbs. I got the recipe ages ago from the sadly defunct Vegan lunch cast blog. I'm always surprised I don't make it more often.
• Purple sprouting broccoli - lightly steamed - I'd intended to do something a bit fancier and throw in sunflower seeds but sometimes plain works just fine.

My weekend - and more

I lead a very full life. In other words I'm a busy person. In an average week I need to fit in two nights of band practice, a night at Burlesque class, an allotment session, a five mile walk, Bass practice, Codecademy and dinner and sleeping are kind of fun.

Once a month I like to make my more difficult by adding London Vegan Drinks into the mix! And since I was going to London I decided it was about time I visited Vx. Wow talk about junk food heaven! I indulged in a hot dog, ice cream and a slice of cake AND took a bag of goodies away. Then I headed to LVD for vegan chatter (favourite tv shows, why everyone famous lives in Clapham and how listening to audiobooks improves verbal communication) and a plate of good as ever Tibits food.

The rest of my weekend didn't slow down much!

Weekend antics -*lunch with parents with lots of tea *getting to grips with zips, linings and my sewing machine *a mini wardrobe clear out *digging in the fresh air *a hilarious and liberating Burlesque workshop *my first attempt at no bake peanut butter balls *finally solving a Codecademy exercise that has perplexed me for days * the parking gods smiling on me *finally starting to watch The Walking Dead -awesome!

Things I Love Thursday - mystery parcels and packets of hope

I'm not certain I'd include brown paper packages tied up with string in a list of my favourite things. Probably because the possibility of receiving them seems so slight. Grey plastic packages another matter and I was thrilled to arrive home and find one waiting for me on Wednesday night. Even more exciting were the contents. My mum have knitted me a scarf and gauntlets in my favourite colours just because. I love these. They look great, are so warm and will make thing of my mum everytime I wear them.

Packets of hope! Spring is on way! I popped out to look at seeds and couldn't resist buying loads. I'm so excited about planting them and thinking about the amazing produce.

Other stuff *hot water bottles *sunny days *excuses to buy a green top hat *embracing unpredictability *letting go

 

What's in my lunchbox this week? Improving with age

This was nearly titled as being a lunch inspired by bloggers but I then decided that only 50% of it could claim this.

Clockwise from top right:

• Flatbreads inspired by Caroline at Second Hand Shopper. Fast, easy, cheap. I can see these turning up in my lunchbox on a regular basis.
• Popcorn. Which in all honesty would have benefitted from being cooked in a bit more oil (it was early Saturday morning) and not having the dregs of a bottle of watered down strawberry sauce sloshed over. Still quite pleasant though. Like cheap breakfast cereal.
• Cauliflower curry inspired by Tracy at The Vegan Butcher. She kept talking about this recipe on Twitter so I had to try it. It's slow(but not labour intensive) to cook which is great if you're preparing a number of dishes. Plus the taste seems to improve day by day.
• Apples and kiwi fruit. I can't wait for the new season of vegetables to be ready but these very nice in the interim.

 

My weekend - one eye on the muse

I had a very busy and exhausting week so I was really looking forward to the weekend to get my head back together and catch up on sleep, household affairs and emails.

I made a really early start on Saturday so I was awesomely ahead of schedule all day. It was great to get some more work done on my sewing pile and feel relaxed enough to stop when the muse began to get a bit weary! Always quit when your muse is tired, if you're lucky she might get a second wind following a cup of tea! If not life is just full of things to be done.

Weekend antics - *sleeping with a hot water bottle; the ultimate cheap luxury *a Phil Rickman novel just begging to be read *clean bed linen *really hot tea *my allotment being almost ready for spring