A week of no cooking!

So I feel like I've been cooking myself out lately, especially last week (or two weeks ago now!) which was the lead up to the marathon, when I appointed myself chief nutritionist for the American vegetarian. So last week I decided to give myself the week off from cooking. And it turned out to be quite nice.

On Monday we went to a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant called Cafe East. It's a little gem of a place with the most authentic dishes on offer. Now this isn't the best place for vegetarians, as it only has ONE veggie option available. Usually this fact would make my blood boil, but the veggie option at Cafe East is soooooo good, that we keep going back. Its a spring roll noodle salad. Spring rolls, are not my favourite thing. I always find the pastry to filling ratio favouring the pastry, they seem to be too greasy, and they look better than they taste. But not the ones at Cafe East. Here the spring rolls, are the best I've ever tasted. Crisp, light, and a generous filling to boot. These are then placed on top of a very generous serving of noodle salad with fresh herbs. It really is a delight to eat, and at only £6.50, a fantastic bargain.

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of being invited round for dinner, by my neighbour Viv. She had her organic veg box delivered that day, so I knew I was in for a treat. Now I won't go into too much detail about the dinner as it wasn't entirely vegetarian, but the sprouting broccoli, grilled courgette, and for dessert; roasted rhubarb with fresh orange juice was delicious.

On Wednesday I went to a fantastic 'cheap eat' vegetarian restaurant called Sagar. This restaurant serves delicious South Indian cuisine. Dosa's, Idli, Thali, and authentic Indian street food like Bhel Puri, Aloo Papdi Chaat, and Bhajia. We went with two friends who had never been there before. I find it's always nice to introduce new places to eat, to new friends. South Indian food is fantastic for vegetarians. There is a lot of choice and the food is reasonably priced, and very filling. If you've never had a dosa before, I do recommend you try them. They are savoury pancakes filled with potato curry and served with a lentil and vegetable soup called sambhar and coconut and coriander yoghurt chutney. You can get ones without filling, with a spicy tomato chutney or a paper dosa, which is just fun to eat.

On Thursday, I gave in and made fajitas. But not much cooking was involved with that. I just sauteed off some peppers, mushrooms, onion and courgette, with a fantastic already made spice mix. Made some guacamole, salsa and put it all in a wholemeal tortilla.

On Friday, I went to my very first summer barbecue. The American vegetarian and I went over to my very good friend Nafisa's (Naf) house, and she layed on an amazing spread. The veggie options were as follows;

• three types of veggie burgers
• sweet corn
• halloumi
• green salad
• a chick pea and red onion salad
• potato, onion, peas and egg salad
• an assortment of dips and salsa
• crisps and muffins

Now on that same day I received my monthly subscription of Olive magazine, and it came with a 'free' booklet titled '21 Great Summer Barbecue recipes'. I thought, 'Fab, what can I impress people with now?', But not one single recipe in the booklet was vegetarian. I have to say I was disappointed and a bit hacked off. There are a lot of vegetarian dishes you can make for barbecue season. And so I intend to put as many dishes as I can think of on this site. But not now, as this is my 'No cooking' week.

On Saturday we ate at Wahaca. Now Wahaca have this philosophy that they want their customers to be able to eat whenever they feel like it, and not be pinned down to a booking time. So with this in mind they don't take any bookings. Now you might think 'fab, we can go there now. We'll be able to get a table as they don't take bookings', but not so fast batman. Every time we have gone to the Covent Garden branch, there is always a waiting time of 1hr-1hr and a half. That to me is not being able to eat when I want. When I go to a restaurant, I'm usually hungry at the time that I decide to go. I don't want to wait for over an hour for a table so I can have some guacamole. On these grounds, Wahaca annoys me. Luckily on Saturday we were at Westfield, and there was no que (line) and we only had to wait 10 mins for a table. The food was lovely. I recommend getting a selection of the vegetarian street food. My favourite being the black bean Tostadas.

On Sunday, I went home to my brothers house for my second summer barbecue. It rained all day. When I went to sleep on Saturday night, it was raining, when I got up on Sunday morning it was raining. On the drive to my brothers, it was raining. When we (ok, my brother, Dad and some cousins) tried to put up a gazebo, it was raining and windy, (cancel gazebo). When we (ok, my brother and cousin) lit the charcoal it was raining. When the meat food was cooking on the bar be it was raining. But it didn't matter, as it was a fab day with family, and some amazing food, including my veggie burgers, which I will put up as a recipe this week.

So no recipes, last week, but I did have some fabulous food cooked by friends, family and some lovely 'cheap eats'. Oh and the picture above is of a cake my niece made. I had to put something up which was home made.