Healthy Vegan - Aloe Vera In My Kitchen

One again, I really thought I was not going to be able to join in with In My Kitchen this month, but here I am with a few little bits in my kitchen and some in cupboards.
March sees lots of daffodils around Wales, but sadly this year many of them got crushed by the extraordinary weather: blizzards, strong winds, drifting snow and bitter cold and a storm.  This was then followed by a rare phenomenon of freezing rain, yes rain drops that freeze.  

I don't have any happy yellow daffodils to share with you today, but instead I share with you two house plants that are not in my kitchen as there is no room on the window sill, so they are upstairs in one of the rooms.  The cactus given to me by my mother and the other - an Aloe Vera by a new work colleague who happens to be from Mauritius, who is becoming a friend.   I must confess, even though I do well growing vegetables and herbs in my allotment garden plot, house plants are another story.  Cacti and Aloe Vera are the two that do relatively well without much help from me, so I am very pleased to have them.  



In my Kitchen you will find a jar  of Yasko Tempeh.  I tend to buy tempeh shrink wrapped, but thought I would try t. 
 I have two brands of  Tofu in my fridge.  One is from The Tofoo Co .  I have been seeing this brand popping up recently and was ignoring, but when Kari from Bite Sized Thoughts showcased a flavoured version on her blog last month, I thought I would give it a try.
The other Tofu was pricked up on a recent trip to Cardiff city centre - Mushroom Strogonoff.  It was so flavoursome and quite nice. I may pick it up again to use in vegan sushi as I often only ever use vegetables in mine. 
I use soya mince quite a bit in my recipes, so I amused to find these Soya Balls - non GM.  I know we probably eat a lot of GM products without knowing especially as it is not often declared on packaging. I am not sure what I will do with these balls, but I am hoping they will be better than the soya chunk cube variety that I have used in the past, that made the food look like dog food
Tropical Sun Jamaican Jerk Paste Seasoning.  I have used this product in the past and it was lovely, but a little too salty.  
A tin of Southside Ackee in Brine - I actually got this last year when we went to Birmingham and somehow missed to share it.  Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica, but it is often eaten as a vegetable in savoury dishes, the most famous being Ackee and Saltfish patties.  I have cooked with Ackee in the past, but not since starting the blog almost 10 years ago.  Ackee- fresh and tinned are not an easy ingredient to source in the UK even though Afro-Caribbean communities have been in the UK for decades.  You will only find it with ease in cities with a thriving ethnically diverse communities.  I still struggle to find it in the city of Cardiff, Wales; and when I do it is quite pricey.  One of the other interesting things about Ackee is that it was often used as a vegan 'egg' scramble substitute.
However, if you want to find Eastern European ingredients like gherkins and Sauerkraut, they are easily found on most, if not all Supermarket shelves.  It does amuse me how some communities are catered for quickly than 'others'.  I picked up the Sauerkraut because I saw a recipe in a cookbook that called to me, I just cannot remember what cookbook now and the gherkins are for D.  He has always liked them.  
I don't drink much in the way of fizzy pop, but I do have a liking for Sanpellegrino.  This started when I was working at Hunky Dory's.  My favourite is Blood Orange, but this Clementine is a close second.  Its not something I indulge in that often, but when I do I enjoy it slowly. 
And finally, a couple of weeks back we went to Bath, we were feeling a little nibbly so I picked up these Cliff Bar Cool Mint Chocolate, but neither of us wanted to eat it as we wanted something a bit more savoury.  So these bars are still waiting to be ripped open. 

I am sharing this blog post with Sherry Pickings for In My Kitchen series, an opportunity to have a good nosey to see what other bloggers have in their kitchen world wide. 

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