Mum2VeganTeen

This is a fun & easy recipe to make and perfect for the quarantine as you can use up any biscuits you may have left in the tin!!

I’ve done a vegan (dairy-free) version as usual, although you wouldn’t guess it was if you tasted it!

When I started this blog I said it would be vegan & delicious recipes not healthy lol although you could add dried fruit to the mix!

Ingredients

125 grams vegan butter or spread (we used Flora)

300 grams dark chocolate (most dark chocolate over 70% cocoa is naturally vegan but check the packaging first! broken into pieces

3 tablespoons golden syrup

300 grams biscuits

(You can use any plain biscuits – Digestives, coconut rings, fruit shortcake or even a combination)

The beauty is you can adapt the recipe & put in anything you like – we added Brazil nuts & popcorn – you can also use dried fruit.

The traditional recipe has Marshmallows, however I couldn’t find any vegan marshmallows as they contain gelatine.

I discovered Dr Oetker Unicorn Confetti though which added some colour! (Checked & it’s suitable for vegans)

METHOD

• Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a bowl over a saucepan filled shallowly with simmering water (or microwave).
• Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and then bash them with a rolling pin or mallet. You’re aiming for crumbs and chunks of biscuits. (This was fun – taking out our anger & beating those biscuits lol)
• Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, and mix.

• Tip into a foil tray (24cm / 9 inch square); flatten as best you can with a spatula.
• Sprinkle with icing sugar or we sprinkled with Dr Oetker Unicorn sprinkles to finish off with a bit of colour.
• Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.
• Cut into small slices.

It must be my Irish heritage but I love potatoes!! During quarantine we’ve – had Baked, mashed, roasted and chipped potatoes.

I thought I’d try hash browns & they were easier to make than I realised I would have done them before if I’d known!

You just need some potatoes, a grater & a frying pan.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 or 3 medium potatoes peeled if desired

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder

• ¼ teaspoon onion powder – we grated an onion as didnt have the powder.

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Parboil the potatoes (peeled or not) for 5 mins.

2. Grate the potatoes

3. Transfer the grated potato to a bowl and toss it with the salt, garlic powder and onion powder.

4. Shape the potatoes into patties

5. In a large frying pan warm the olive oil over medium heat until sizzlling.

6. Put the potatoes in the frying pan and press them down with a spatula. Let them cook, undisturbed, for 2 minutes.

7. Stir again, press them down again, and cook for another 2 minutes. Repeat in 2-minute intervals, flipping in sections once they’re crispy enough to do so, until the potatoes are golden brown and crispy, about 4 to 8 more minutes.

8. Drain in paper towel to get rid of excess oil.

9. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

A lovely breakfast addition – to a breakfast muffin or side dish. We had with some fried mushrooms & spinach.

My son’s exact words after we baked and ate this amazing chocolate cake.

Yes we did cheat and use a ready cake mix! Sometimes it’s for the best. This one was incredible – vegan or not – perhaps you want to avoid dairy – this is a great easy way to enjoy a luxury chocolate cake with no eggs or butter.

We did make the chocolate butter icing ourself though which was also awesome!

We used the Betty Crocker – Tempting Chocolate cake mix.

As per instructions we added these to the cake mixture in a bowl.

Ingredients:

125 ml vegetable oil

8tbsp (we replaced water with oat milk )

Instead of eggs;

4 tbsps fizzy lemonade (sprite or 7 up)

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Instructions

Divide between 2 cake tins lined with baking paper.

Bake approx 20 mins (180c)

To make the choc butter icing which was literally the icing on the cake!! You can do this whilst the cake is baking.

Ingredients

1. 100 g Dark Chocolate
2. 1x Tablespoon Plant based milk
3. 1 X dessertspoon vegan butter/ spread
4. 6 x Tablespoons Icing Sugar
5. 3 x Tablespoons Vegan butter/ spread

With the butter icing – you can vary the amount as long as you do double the icing sugar to butter! We only had a few tablespoons left of icing sugar – measured it out & then added half of the vegan butter.

Instructions

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water (or in microwave ) with the spoon of butter & milk.

Mix the Vegan butter & icing sugar in a bowl until creamy consistency.

Add the melted chocolate & mix.

Spread over the top of one of the chocolate cakes (make sure it’s cooled down first) – then place the 2nd cake on top (like a sandwich)

I went wrong here lol & dropped the cake so it looks a bit messy but I was forgiven because the cake was tasting out of this world! Anyway it looks more rustic!! 🤗

Banana Fritters a lovely crispy treat. A simple recipe which is great to use leftover or spare bananas!

You wouldn’t know this recipe was vegan as with all my recipes – they taste great; everyone enjoyed them.

Ingredients

150 G Flour

100 ml Beer

1 tsp baking powder

half a can coconut milk

4 bananas, cut into chunks

3 Tbsp Light Brown sugar

vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Golden syrup to serve.

Instructions

1. For the fritters, sift the flour, and baking powder together into a bowl, then stir in the coconut milk, beer & sugar until it’s a smooth batter.
2. Add the banana pieces and gently mix until completely coated in batter.
3. Half-fill a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan with vegetable oil and heat. Do not leave unattended!!!
4. Carefully place the bananas into the oil and deep-fry for 4/5 minutes until golden brown. Carefully remove with a slotted spoon and drain onto paper towels.

Best served warm, you could coat with sugar or coconut flakes. We just served with golden syrup poured over them.

Would also be nice with vegan cream or ice-cream!

Russian Salad is a potato salad with the addition of vegetables & gherkins – this is a vegan version (without ham or eggs).

It’s a nice side dish and you can adapt the recipe to suit – we left out the gherkins. You could add peppers or sweetcorn. I cheated and used some mixed frozen veg – peas, carrots, sweetcorn & beans.

Ingredients

• 3 medium potatoes

• 2 carrots,

• 2 cups frozen or fresh peas (or mixed veg)

• 1 cup of gherkins, chopped into cubes

• 1/2 Onion (or spring onion)

• 1/2 tsp salt

Vegan Mayonnaise:

• 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

• 1 small handful dill, or parsley chopped

• Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Place the potatoes with skins in a saucepan and top with cold water.

2. Start cooking the potatoes on a medium to high heat. Add the whole carrots in 5 minutes into the cooking time. Cook all together for 20 minutes or until you can put a knife or a skewer through one of the potatoes easily.

3. Once the potatoes and carrots have finished cooking, rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.

4. Peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes. Place in a bowl. (We left the skins on ours)

5. Cut the carrots into cubes Add to the bowl.

6. Bring water to the boil in a saucepan and place peas in and cook for around 2-3 minutes. Drain and add to the bowl.

7. Set aside until the ingredients have completely cooled. You can place in it in the fridge to speed up the process.

8. Dice the onion & gherkins & add to the bowl. Add the salt and mix well.

9. Mix the vegan mayonnaise through the vegetables.

10. Sprinkle with dill/ parsley (optional)

11. Serve cold.

12. It can stay in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.

This delicious creamy soup is simple to make and really flavoursome – you can enjoy if you’re vegan or not & wouldn’t guess it’s dairy free!

It tastes so much better than tinned soup & doesn’t take much longer to make yourself from scratch with fresh ingredients.

Ingredients

1. 90g Vegan butter/ margarine
2. 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
3. 1 garlic clove, crushed
4. 500g mushrooms, finely chopped (chestnut or button mushrooms work well)
5. 2 tbsp plain flour
6. 1l Vegetable stock
7. 4 tbsp vegan cream ( I used alpro single soya cream)
8. Fresh Parsley chopped or dried herbs.

Instructions

1. Heat the butter in a large saucepan and cook the onions and garlic until soft but not browned, about 8-10 mins. 
2. Add the mushrooms and cook over a high heat for another 3 mins until softened.
3. Sprinkle over the flour and stir to combine.
4. Pour in the vegetable stock, bring the mixture to the boil, and simmer for 10 mins.
5. Remove the mushroom mixture from the heat and blitz using a hand blender until smooth. 
6. Gently reheat the soup and stir through the cream.
7. Scatter over the parsley, and serve.

A very easy recipe indeed which makes a yummy snack (Vegan & Dairy – Free)

The perfect quarantine recipe that needs very few ingredients. If you’ve got some porridge & syrup in the cupboard you’re sorted!

Ingredients

250g porridge oats

125g vegan butter/ margarine

125g light brown sugar (or any sugar)

3 tbsp golden syrup

(You can adapt the flapjacks & add dried fruit, nuts or melted chocolate on top but I kept it simple)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
2. Melt the butter in a medium pan over a low heat. Add the golden syrup and sugar to the butter and gently heat.
3. When the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the porridge oats.
4. Pack the mixture into a greased baking tin and squash down.
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
6. Once cooked, remove from the oven, leave to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a chopping board and cut into squares.

These can be enjoyed if you are vegan or not like all of my recipes! In fact I only managed 1 photo as they disappeared very fast!

This recipe for Creamy, crunchy, tangy coleslaw you’d never guess it’s dairy free! It’s easy to make and a perfect side dish for a barbecue; we had one yesterday as the weather was nice & luckily we have a garden.

Yes vegan’s can enjoy a bbq – there are a good range of Vegan burgers & sausages – homemade Chips & Coleslaw was the perfect accompaniment.

Vegan mayonaise is a game changer! It tastes as good as a dairy mayonnaise. You can purchase in most major supermarkets. We only use vegan mayo now.

Ingredients

• White and/ or red cabbage. 1/2 of each

• 4x Carrots – adds more color and crunch.

• 1x Onion (you can also use spring onion)

• 1 x Cup Vegan Mayonnaise

• Salt & pepper

• You can add Parsley, garlic, mustard or lemon if you like but I kept it simple.

Instructions

1. Wash & drain the vegetables.
2. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage.
3. Thinly shred the cabbage you can do this by hand with a sharp knife or use a food processor.
4. Dice the onion
5. Shred the carrots with a grater.
6. Drain the carrots well as otherwise they make the dressing quite watery.
7. Assemble the coleslaw: Add the cabbage carrots & onion to a large mixing bowl, pour the dressing on top and mix together. Finish with salt and pepper to taste.

These simple yet delicious Easter nests are quick & easy to make! Childs play!! I learnt to make them when I was in primary school. They’re a classic favourite any time of year! Easter is just another excuse to make a chocolate treat. Also fab if you don’t have a lot of ingredients to hand or can’t be bothered to bake a cake.

This version like all my recipes is dairy-free, plant-based & vegan. My teenage son enjoys snacks & sweet treats which can be hard to find in the shops. I enjoy adapting recipes for him – in fact we all scoff them!

Ingredients:

• 50g vegan butter/ margarine

• 100g dark chocolate broken into chunks

• 3 tbsp golden syrup

• 100g Rice Krispies or Cornflakes

(I made half Cornflakes & half Rice Krispies)

Instructions

1. Add the butter, chocolate and syrup to a bowl and melt in short bursts in the microwave (stir often so the chocolate doesn’t burn) or in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. 

2. Mix the Rice Krispies or cornflakes into the chocolate mix and spoon into cupcake cases.

3. Refrigerate until set, if you can wait that long!

(We didn’t have the patience so we put them in the freezer lol)

(If I could source some vegan mini eggs they would go in the middle but maybe next year?!)

This soup is so easy to make with very few ingredients it’s a simple but hearty recipe – so fresh & tasty a bowl of comfort!!

INGREDIENTS

4 Leeks

1 onion

3 potatoes

1 litre Vegetable Stock (I used 2 stock cubes)

150 ml plant milk

1/2 carton of alpro Soy Cream (vegan) or any vegan cream alternative.

50 G dairy free vegetable spread

Salt & pepper to season

Parsley – fresh or dried if you have

(If you don’t have vegan cream you could try with coconut milk)

(You can use olive oil if you don’t have vegetable spread)

Method

Chop the onions, leeks & fry for 2/3 minutes in a pan with the vegetable spread.

Chop the potatoes into small pieces.

Add the potatoes to the pan – simmer very gently on a low heat to soften (sweat) all the vegetables.

Add the stock & milk & simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup to preferred consistency- I used a small hand held blender – you can even use a potato masher.

Add the vegan cream & gently heat before serving.

This soup was amazing you wouldn’t guess it was dairy free it tasted perfect. The soy cream amazing! We had it with part baked baguette – I will definitely make it again & attempt to bake my own bread. 😊