I held a competition a couple of weeks ago, giving a reader the chance to win a copy of Vegan Cookbook: The Essential Guide .

The winner – picked by an online random number generator – is Emzy Lemezma.

Well done Emzy!

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Veatable Savoury Snack Bars are a new chewy, savoury snack from Crendon Foods that you keep in the fridge, unlike most crunchy, sweet snack bars that you keep in the cupboard. They’re one of your 5-a-day, only 99 calories per bar, high in fibre, suitable for vegetarians (obviously, otherwise they wouldn’t be on this blog), gluten and wheat free, and free from artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives.

That’s where the good bit ends.

I got sent all three flavours to try: Tomato Pizza, Thai Sweetcorn, and Sweet Roast Vegetable. Being a complete pizza lover, I eagerly ripped off the wrapper from the Tomato Pizza variety and thought, ugh.

Not very appetising is it? Still, who cares what it looks like, it’s going to taste of pizza, yay.

Did it heck. It tasted like, oh, I don’t know what. It was flipping horrible though. So horrible I couldn’t get further than one bite. One bite that was full of grit. The rest went immediately into the bin.

I was too scared to try the other ones for a few weeks, but then I decided to be brave (OK, I admit it, I was out of crisps). Not being a huge fan of sweetcorn in stuff, I gave the Sweet Roast Vegetable flavour a try. This time I didn’t even get as far as one bite. Well, I did, but it didn’t get swallowed as I spat it out into the bin.

Inedible.

If this hasn’t put you off, I’ve still got the Thai Sweetcorn one left, if anyone’s brave enough to try it. If so, just leave me a comment and I’ll post it off to you.

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Vegan Cookbook - The Essential Guide

Vegan Cookbook – The Essential Guide by Isabel Hood is a new addition to the Need2Know range of books.

Comprising seven chapters, the first two chapters cover an overview and background of veganism, along with a checklist of ingredients every well-stocked vegan store-cupboard should contain and a list of essential equipment.

The next five chapters contain the recipes under headings of:

Fruit and vegetables
Pulses and grains
Nuts, seeds and oils
Fresh herbs
Chilli and spice

I haven’t tried any of the recipes myself yet, but a few that caught my eye as I went through the book are:

Middle Eastern Pitta Bread Casserole (this sounds fantastic – like a lasagne, but with toasted pitta bread layered with spicy, tomatoey chickpeas)
Turkish Stuffed Artichokes
Beaumes de Venise Jelly with Grape and Banana Salad
Butter Bean Ramen
Polenta with Sweetcorn, Roasted Tomatoes, Olives and Capers
Recipe for basic nut cheese or mayonnaise
Pasta with Spiced Cashew Sauce
Walnut and Olive Pâté with Fresh Fig Chutney
Spring Vegetable Laksa
Baked Mushrooms Florentine
Sicilian Aubergine Rolls
Roasted Aubergine with Satay Sauce
Sweetcorn in Chilli and Chocolate Sauce
Wild Mushrooms Tacos
Chili Bean and Potato Turnovers

There are many, many more recipes in this book and I’m looking forward to trying them. All the recipes use fresh ingredients and don’t rely on meat substitutes. Measurements are UK friendly (in grams, tsps and mls, etc.) and, as far as I can see, all the ingredients are widely available, although there are plenty of tips and guidance for ingredients you may not be so familiar with (i.e. Vege-Gel).

The giveaway

I’ve got one copy of Vegan Cookbook – The Essential Guide to give away. All you need to do is leave me a comment and I’ll (well, an internet random number generator will, anyway) randomly choose one lucky winner.

Terms
Competition ends 9 September 2011
UK entries only

Good luck!

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Well done to Jamie for winning the limerick competition. I chose Jamie’s entry for

a) the effort he put in;

b) the lines

He once threw a quiche
(just missing his niece);

and c) for using the word ‘agrarian’, that I had to go and look up in the dictionary.

Here’s Jamie’s winning limerick(s).

There once was an angry vegetarian
Who had liked his meals meticulously prepared for him
He once threw a quiche
(just missing his niece)
As the presentation, he declared, was agrarian.

Accidentally a stereotypical Bavarian,
Went into a cafe that only served vegetarian.
‘Vat? No Meat?’
He said, jumping to his feet,
And vowed he’d never go in there again.

Jamie, email me your address and I’ll get the voucher off to you.

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I’ve got a voucher worth £3.49 that can be exchanged for an Innocent Veg Pot of your choice in any supermarket.

All you have to do to win is post a limerick below and I’ll send the voucher to the composer of my favourite one.

To start you off, here’s the first line (or you can choose your own):

There once was a veggie called Kate

Good luck!

Terms
UK residents only
Competition closes at midnight on Monday 18 July 2011

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A few days ago I posted about Linda McCartney’s competition to find the UK’s tastiest meat-free dish. As most of the dishes on here are from recipes found either on websites or in my collection of vegetarian cookbooks, I didn’t think I had anything to enter. But going back through my posts, I found my recipes for meatfree balls in a spicy tomato and spinach sauce and aubergine melt and duly submitted them.

Each week, ten recipes are chosen as that week’s favourites and this week both of my recipes were chosen! I thought that maybe they didn’t get many entries but I was assured on Twitter (@MeatFreeTweets) by the organisers that they get lots of entries, but not all of them make it on to the weekly favourites.

You can see my dishes, along with the other favourites, here.

Please vote for me!

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Linda McCartney foods are launching ‘The Search for the UK’s Tastiest Meat-Free Dish’ and they would love for you to be involved. They’re inviting people across the country to help create the next Linda McCartney meal. So get creative and show the UK that meat-free doesn’t have to mean taste-free.

Here’s how it works:

1. From the 15th of November 2010 until 28th January 2011 people can submit their meat-free dish online at www.tastiestmeatfree.co.uk

Each recipe has to meet some simple criteria:

• The recipe should be a complete dish – preferably no salads or soups.
• It should only contain vegetarian ingredients, like cheese and stock, and of course – no meat!
• It has to be tasty!
• People can also upload a photo

2. In February 2011, the judging panel will select what they consider to be the top 3 dishes, worthy of the title ‘The UK’s Tastiest Meat-Free Dish’.

3. Then, in Spring 2011, each finalist’s home town will be visited to film them making their recipe on the Kitchen Table. The mini-films will go on air in April on ITV. Each finalist will also win a Baumatic cooker worth up to £1,500.

4. ITV’s This Morning viewers will be invited to go online to vote and a winner will be chosen.

5. Each week the favourite dishes will feature on the website, Facebook and Twitter.

6. The winner’s dish will then be developed into a Linda McCartney product, with the winner themselves featured on the box. They will also win a beautiful Titchmarsh & Goodwin hand-made kitchen table, worth £4,000.

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After asking on Twitter for a number between 1 and 71 (inclusive), the first reply was 34 and therefore Laura is the winner (sorry to numbers 55, 27, 46, 42 and 71; you just missed out).

Well done, Laura!

Email me your address and I’ll get the book in the post to you.

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I don’t make a lot of cakes or cookies or things. This is obviously  because I’m a finely tuned athlete. Ok, it’s because if I did make cakes or cookies or things, I’d eat the whole lot in one sitting like the fat pig bloater I really am.

But, if I did make a lot of cakes or cookies or things, I’d be sure to make some from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (from the brilliant Post Punk Kitchen website and also authors of the even more brilliant Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook).

This lovely little book has over 100 recipes for cookies, bars, biscotti, brownies and more, featuring full-colour photographs throughout.

Going through this book and seeing such tempting things as

• chocolate chip chai spice shortbread
• espresso fudge brownies
• carrot raisin spice chewies
• peanut butter chocolate pillows
• macademia ginger crunch drops

is almost making me want to keep it!

Still, I’ve decided to part with it (it’s unused so in perfect condition) and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning it, is to leave a comment here and I’ll pull the winning name out of a hat.

Good luck!

Terms & conditions
UK entries only*
Competition closes midnight Friday 24 September 2010
The winner will be announced on this blog, so make sure to check back over the weekend after the closing date

*If you’re not in the UK but have a friend here I can post it to, to post on to you, that’s fine.  If you’re not in the UK and don’t have any friends here but want to pay the postage, that’s fine too.

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As promised, I put the names of all those who entered the competition into my pink straw hat

My pink straw hat with the names in

and engaged the services of my able assistant (aka The Meat Eater) who put a shirt over his head to stop him peeking (he wanted Jill to win because she made more effort but I said that was cheating)

My able assistant picking the winner

and he picked out a name, and the winner is

The winner!

Well done Tracy, email me your address and I’ll get a copy of Vegan Brunch in the post to you.

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