Breakfast
Weetabix type cereal (Sainsbury’s economy version) with strawberries, soya milk
Strawberries and weetabix are definitely a classic combination and give a great boost for starting the day.
Lunch
Watercress, roasted pepper and butternut squash salad, pitta, grapes, a couple of oaty biscuits
The salad sounds a lot fancier than it actually was. I had some roasted veg left over from last night and just added it to a bowl full of watercress with some olive oil drizzled over the top. The whole thing only took a few minutes to prepare, including pitta toasting time. It made a really satisfying lunch but wasn’t too heavy for a midday meal. If you’re roasting some veg, I would definitely recommend doing double quantities (oven space allowing). That way, you have a great resource for salads and something to make a hummus sandwich really special.
Dinner
Lentil and veg soup, focaccia, a few coconut peanuts
Dessert: Grape, strawberry and chocolate pot
After a fairly hearty lunch, tonight’s dinner was only going to consist of a sandwich. As so often happens though, I was hungrier than expected so opted for soup and bread as a compromise. Making soups is one of my favourite kitchen based activities, as they’re so quick, tasty and nutritious. Unfortunately though, a blender is a fairly essential piece of equipment for soup making and not something that I have with me in London. In actual fact though, there’s no shortage of animal free soups in supermarkets, although there is still a bit of a tendency to add cream to those that could otherwise join the purely plant based range.
I have to admit that the bought soup I resigned myself to was actually pretty nice. I opted for a lentil and veg one from Waitrose (the essentials range) and found some rosemary focaccia to go with it. I’d never really shopped in Waitrose before but I have to admit that they seen fairly vegan friendly and the ‘essentials’ range isn’t too far beyond all purchasing possibility. The focaccia was nowhere near as good as its Italian counterpart but was still a nice bread in its own right, especially dipped in the soup.
Dessert is where the disguised fruit comes in. I wasn’t going to photograph tonight’s pudding, as I thought it just looked like a bowl of chocolate sauce and no one would see the grapes (and lone but fairly large strawberry) underneath. But then I had second thoughts, as I realised that this could be a positive thing- a way to eat some healthy fruit without even seeing it. In fact, what initially appears an indulgent dessert is actually a pretty healthy one. Fruit is presumably still good for you even if it has a sweet topping, and the chocolate sauce is an Alpro Soya dessert, so completely free from cholesterol. Kind to animals and kind to your health, just maybe not so kind to your teeth!
Snacks
Pears, piece of flapjack
Pears seem to make quite a good snack as they’re really sweet and you feel like you’ve had a good sugar boost after eating one.
