Fairtrade Banana Crumbly Squares

...or rectangles. From the Fairtrade Foundation but with vegan margarine... I made these once for a Fairtrade stall and became addicted.  
Buying Fairtrade products guarantees a better deal for third world producers so remember to use Fairtrade ingredients whenever possible! In this case bananas and sugar! 

Lydia, Ros, Tom, Dayné and Hazel enjoying the rectangles..

Chickpea and Tahini Casserole

Really simple, nutritious and tasty but takes over an hour to prepare as the brown rice takes around half an hour to cook and then you still have to cook it all together for another 40 minutes. From the brown rice/chickpeas/tahini there's a lot of protein, calcium and B vitamins...and it's really filling.

It's from here but I don't think the bit about the rice makes sense, about a cup and a half/240g of uncooked brown rice is enough, which you need to cook before hand....Serve with salad.

Lemon Cheesecake

I didn't make this...I just watched my sister and friends make it while I made pancakes (previous post), but it turned out so prettily that I had to take a photo of it. It's from the Vegan Cake Book (shown below) of the Vegan Society, a really cheap little booklet with a lot of easy recipes that don't require stupid amounts of different types of ingredients. Well done Bethan, Jess and Ash!

Bean Burgers

I got this recipe from Vegan Fat Free Kitchen and swapped black beans for borlotti beans because that's what was in the cupboard. I love this because you can make a load and put it in the fridge and make a burger for lunch the next day in about five minutes. They're really filling too and help you with getting your omega 3 (from the ground flax!).

My burger's so round because I have a burger press type thing (shown below) that I got for a couple of quid in one of those shops that has everything.

Simple Vegan Pancakes

I got these from here. I've written the recipe with metric measurements below.

Makes about 6 pancakes.
 

Ingredients

Banana x 1

Water - 500ml

Oats - 45g

Whole wheat flour - 180g

Baking powder - 2 tsps

Cinnamon - 1tsp

A little vanilla extract

Method

1. Mash the banana in a big bowl and add the water.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. The mixture will seem a little lumpy even after a lot of stirring, leave it like that.

3. Heat a little oil in a pan and pour in half a cup of the mixture. When a lot of small holes appear (resulting from little bubbles popping) flip the pancake.

I served them with agave nectar and fruit.

Thanks to my sister Bethan and our friends Jessica and Ash for tasting the pancakes :)

Lentil Chili

Lentils and beans are a great source of protein, that's one of the reasons why this chilli is so great, it has both! It's my mum's classic recipe, very easily and quickly made, especially useful in awkward cooking circumstances (i.e. while camping).

Serves 4

Ingredients

Onion x 1 large

Garlic - Minimum 4 cloves

Mild chili powder - 2 tsp

Red lentils - 350g

Red kidney beans - 1 can

Chopped tomatoes - 1 can

Olive oil

Vegetable stock cube

Methods

1. Rinse the lentils thoroughly and set to boil.

2. Chop the onion and garlic and fry together in olive oil. After five minutes or so add the chili powder and the crumbled up stock cube.

3. When the lentils are soft add them to the onions and garlic and mix well.

4. Add the tomatoes and the kidney beans and simmer until a lot of the water from the tomatoes has evaporated, it should end up quite thick. This might tight 10 or 15 minutes on a low heat.

5. Add some black pepper before serving with rice or a jacket potato.