Soya mince chilli with seedy rice

I know what you’re thinking. “Mmmmmmmm, soya mince”. But this is proper tasty. And ripe for freezing and reheating in the work kitchen microwave. I guess this could be made with beef mince too.

Chop a large onion. Chop up two cloves of garlic. Add to a big heated saucepan which has got some oil in it. Add some chopped mushrooms and a thickly sliced green pepper. Fry off for a bit, and add plenty of dried oregano and cayenne pepper, and throw in a can of kidney beans.

While this is cooking off, put around 120g of soya mince in a jug, and rehydrate with boiling water and a generous sprinkle of vegetable buillion powder. Lace with tabasco sauce and worcester sauce, stir and wait a bit until the mince has rehydrated before pouring into the pan. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste.

Put a dollop of marmite in the bottom of the can the tomatoes came in, add about a teaspoon of buillion powder and fill with any remaining boiled water, stir and add the liquid to the pan. Add more cayenne pepper and/or chilli flakes to taste, and cook for around 15-20 minutes until the chili is more sauce than liquid.

For the rice, boil up 250g of American easy cook rice with a splash of oil. Half way through cooking, add a couple of generous handfuls of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

This should make about six portions.

My new old phone

I can’t believe how good it feels to have a Samsung D500 again. After my old one got stolen from me on the way home from the Christmas party last year, I’ve been resigned to using my LG chocolate. The chocolate was the phone that came with my new contract. But I hate it. It’s completely a case of all style, no substance; the pinnacle of which is it’s stupidly over sensitive touchy feely interface. Bleurgh. My contempt for it is bounded only by the fact it was there when I needed it, which is hardly an accolade worth fighting for in the personal electronics department.

However, today it’s been made ebay fodder, as a second hand Samsung D500 finally made it’s way to me. Now all I need to do is work out whether I want to accept the challenge of taking it apart in order to change the ‘definitely used’ aesthetic of it’s current fascia in to something more shiny.

Ape skellingtons

Last Sunday we went on a bit of a day trip to South London’s Horniman Museum. I particularly wanted to go to see the exhibition on the Great White Bear (thirty four photos of all known British examples of taxidermied polar bear). They also have a walrus. And these beauties.