My Kitchen Story - what my kitchen means to me

The kitchen is often referred to as the heart of the home.  Others see it as the room that you are always found in at parties. For some it is the place to sit and natter with friends over a cup of tea.  But for me, my kitchen is the place where I do my best to keep my family healthy through the meals I cook. It's practical rather than cosy, and functional rather than being somewhere to socialise.  I may not enjoy too many evenings spent sipping G&T's at the breakfast bar and putting the world to rights, but I've done a whole lot of cooking in my kitchen!

We have been vegetarian as a family since the year 2000.  My eyes were opened to the old idiom 'you are what you eat' after researching the food industry for health reasons.  I discovered lots of things that I disagreed with from a compassionate, a spiritual and a biological point of view.  I was inspired to make changes, not just to myself, but to my whole family.  So we embarked on a new eating adventure together with open eyes, where our new mantra became 'if it's got a face we ain't eating it!'

With meat, poultry and fish off the menu, I started to find recipes using lentils, pulses, tofu, Quorn, soya and vegetables. I discovered a whole world of delicious ingredients and enjoyed experimenting with them to come up with my own family meals.

As the years went by, my interest in food and healthy eating increased.  We cut back on dairy products, increased the amount of wholefoods in our diet and reduced the amount of refined sugar we consumed. Don't get me wrong, we still enjoy a cheeky Indian takeaway or a big, veggie topped pizza and we love a good home made cake, but on a balance we do the best we can to eat as well as we can. It's not restricting to eat this way. In fact it's been liberating to discover new foods and experiment with wholesome ingredients and bold flavours.

My slow cooker, food processor and spiralizer have become essential kitchen appliances that I use all the time to make food. I love a good gadget and kitchen gadgets are my absolute favourite things. I even have a fondness for my squeezy egg separator that sucks the yolk clean out of the white. I could spend all day browsing the internet for the latest time saving device or humorously shaped silicone cake pan!

These days my cupboards are stocked with red and green lentils, coconut oil, Chia seeds, nuts, dried pulses, buckwheat flour and nutritional yeast flakes.  They are unrecognisable from my shelves of yesteryear,  filled with HobNobs, Pringles and KitKat Chunkies.

There are still some days when I just feel utterly unmotivated to do anything and these are the days when I am grateful for my American style fridge-freezer which I keep stocked with Quorn nuggets, veggie sausages and bean burgers. A bit of convenience food comes in handy from time to time!  Throw in some potato waffles and a can of beans and the kids are fed for the night.

If I ever won the lottery (I can dream!!) I would love a house with a huge, modern kitchen with an island in the middle where the family could sit and chat and where I could spread myself out while preparing food.  I'd have cupboards filled with fancy kitchen gadgets, novelty bakeware and gorgeous crockery. I'd spend many an hour cooking and baking and would serve up plenty of good meals and yummy treats for my family. Of course I would also love the convenience of having a huge and super efficient new dishwasher to clean up all the pots and pans, with Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets effortlessly keeping everything sparkling clean.  (Failing that, my Ian is an excellent and very accommodating pot wash!)

In the meantime, until my six numbers come up on a Saturday night, I will continue to enjoy my kitchen exactly as it is, and continue to do my best when it comes to feeding my veggie family!

“This post is an entry for the “My Kitchen Story” Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum.”

Meat-Free Meal Ideas From Dalepak

As a vegetarian mum with a vegetarian family I am always on the lookout for meat-free products to feed us all.  Although I do enjoy cooking veggie meals from scratch, there are times (lots of times!) when I need to (or prefer to) prepare something quickly and easily.  It's times like this when I am grateful to food producers like Dalepak!

Dalepak have a great range of frozen meat-free goodies that are approved by the Vegetarian Society, meaning I can buy them in confidence.  I was asked to review some of their veggie offerings.

Dalepak Cauliflower Cheese Grills are a blend of cauliflower, green beans, onion and mature cheddar cheese wrapped in golden crumb.  They can be grilled, baked or fried from frozen making them very convenient.

They are ideal for feeding to my vegetarian children who all thoroughly enjoyed them saying they were "very tasty" and "cheesy"!  The clean plates were proof of how much they liked them.

The Cauliflower Cheese Grills were just £1 in Iceland, making them really reasonable as well as yummy!  They are a great product to keep on stand-by in the freezer for a quick, nutritious, veggie meal.  They are also great for non-vegetarians who want to cut down their meat intake making an easy, everyday meal option for all the family.

Other Dalepak Meat Free products include Vegetable Quarter Pounders, Vegetable Fingers, Vegetable Grills, Stuffing Balls, Mini Crispbakes, Nut Roasts and Spicy Bean Quarter Pounders.  Asda and Iceland are the main supermarket stockists of Dalepak products.  I live in a very small market town and I've not been able to find some of the products, but I am definitely looking forward to sampling them next time I shop further afield.  I especially like the sound of the Mini Crispbakes in cheese and onion, garlic mushroom and spicy bean flavours...perfect for a hot buffet!  And the Nut Roast, perfect for a Sunday lunch.


Find out more about the Dalepak range at www.dalepak.co.uk

Show Me, Show Me - The Recipe Book Edition

This week Carolin wants to see our favourite recipe books.  Mine is the first completely vegetarian recipe book that I ever bought myself on becoming a fully fledged veggie, imaginatively entitled Vegetarian.  It's a big, glossy, fully illustrated book which has over 300 recipes.  It has a reference section at the front and I remember pouring over the facts and figures to be sure I wasn't in some way going to starve my family by deciding to go completely vegetarian.  It has had such a positive influence on my vegetarianism.  It made everything look so easy and so appetising.  It gave me a lot of confidence at a time when being a veggie was not so mainstream...back in the pre-Quorn days!  It inspired me to use different ingredients and get experimental in the kitchen, whilst at the same time holding my hand and guiding me through the transition into vegetarianism!

I love recipe books that have lots of  photos and I can sit and flick through the pages for ages just looking at the pictures of the food and salivating slightly. (There are no calories in looking!)

My most used recipes are for the easily adaptable, to use up whatever veggies are left in the fridge, Veggie Hot Pot with Cheese Triangles (a version of which I made for Valentine's Day with heart shapes on top!) ...

...and the Spicy Bean and Lentil Loaf, which is fabulous and so easy.  It's nice to find good, simple, hearty veggie recipes, so beautifully illustrated and so easy to follow.

I'm linking up at Show Me, Show Me on Mummy Alarm's Blog!

Healthier Meals With Quorn

Everyone wants to give their family a healthy diet, but at the same time we still want to give our partners and children the foods they love.  With Quorn you can do both!  Cutting out the meat in your diet, needn't mean compromising on meal choice or losing out on a key source of protein, vitamins and minerals.  All you need to do is swap the meat in most recipes for Quorn.  It is not only delicious, it is a good source of essential nutrients and is low in saturated fat and has no cholesterol.  You can cook all sorts of recipes from scratch and discover new dishes, expanding your repertoire of  fabulous, tasty and healthy family favourites.  What's more, you can hardly tell the difference so there is no compromise on taste at all!  It's an easy change to make.

Whether you are a seasoned vegetarian or someone looking to cut down on meat, the Quorn website is full of recipe ideas to give you inspiration.  From family favourites such as Cottage Pie and Spaghetti Bolgnese using Quorn Mince to an exciting Risotto or Thai Green Curry using Quorn Pieces, there are plenty of suggestions for feeding your family healthier, tastier dinners.  Quorn also makes a range of ready meals, deli products and snacks giving a wide range of options for all mealtimes.

Quorn Tikka Masala

You can share your own recipes and photos of Quorn dishes on their Facebook Page and share your favourite meals to inspire other families who are trying to make the change to a healthier lifestyle.  

Thai Green Curry

  My family has been vegetarian for over 10 years.  My two youngest children have been vegetarian since they were in-utero!   Quorn products make it so easy to serve up healthy, interesting and delicious dinners for us all.  I can cook in confidence knowing my family are getting all the protein and nutrients they need.  I love the extensive range which means that  I can feed my children many traditional kids' favourites such as burgers, nuggets, sausages, meatballs and the incredibly yummy Fishless Fingers!  The mince and the pieces are so versatile that I enjoy being experimental. Our family favourite cuisine is Mexican and we love making Fajitas, Enchiladas and Tacos using Quorn products. I swear by it!

Fishless Fingers

Quorn really is a great choice and is many things to many people.

• For the food lover it is a simple way to make favourite dishes ...healthier.
• For anyone looking to reduce their meat intake Quorn means you don't need to give up choice or taste.
• For the weight watcher it drastically reduces the fat and calorie content of meals without compromising on favourite meals.
• For the healthy eater it is a cholesterol free source of protein, fibre and essential nutrients.
• For vegetarians it is a great source of protein which causes no suffering to animals.
• For the busy mum like me, it is convenient, versatile, easy to use, nutritious and delicious...who could ask for more?!

Find out more at Quorn.co.uk

Featured post in conjunction with Quorn.

Why I am a Vegetarian

This week's theme for Ella's Friday Club Carnival is Ethics and Activism.  Although I'm not very militant in my beliefs, I am a very committed vegetarian.  I write about my veggie family in my blog in an anecdotal way, but I've never really written about my core beliefs.  The reason why I decided to go veggie and why I have kept it up for a decade!

As a teenager I dallied with vegetarianism.  At one point I was a militant vegetarian refusing to touch anything that had ever so much as come across an animal.  I made a point of making sure everyone knew about it and listening to The Smiths' "Meat is Murder" on my Sony Walkman at high volume.  I was probably highly annoying, badgering the waiters in Pizza Hut as to the source of their rennet.  As in the case of most teenage rebellions, my vegetarianism didn't last.  My home made baked bean lasagne was shelved and I was back to McDonald's ordering Big Macs.

My commitment to a vegetarian lifestyle began in earnest ten years ago.  It was born out of a desire to achieve the optimum healthy lifestyle for me and my family following the devastating and untimely death of my eldest sister due to cancer.  I did a lot of research and it became evident to me that a diet high in animal protein was not how a human should eat.  A veggie diet is typically high in complex carbohydrates and dietary fibre, it's low in saturated fat and more likely to provide the recommended 5 a day. There are so many health benefits and the long term protection against diseases is well documented.

At first the children were still given the option of eating meat albeit "Happy Meat" sourced from local farms where the livestock had names until the fateful day when the stun gun came calling.  But quickly, they decided they preferred Quorn because it didn't have the "wet stuff" in it (turns out this was my 4 year old's interpretation of grease!)  So it was a natural and organic process to include the kids into the equation.  We signed up to the Vegetarian Society and got our pin badges.

My last two pregnancies have been sustained with a 100% veggie diet.  I didn't crave kebabs so my body must have been quite happy nourishing a baby without the aid of pork chops and chicken wings in my diet. I received a lot of negativity about my decision...even from the medical profession.  However, I gave birth a two healthy babies weighing in at 8lb 11oz and 9lb 10oz.  They are my only two asthma-free children and both have the constitution of little oxen.  Coincidence? Maybe...but definitely proof that a veggie diet doesn't harm babies in-utero.

As I delved deeper into the science of vegetarianism I became convinced that its benefits went a lot further.  I began to unearth facts and figures that I'd never seen before regarding the ecological effects of diet. Vegetarian diets are more sustainable, greener and could literally help save the planet and alleviate global human starvation.

Consider these facts:

• Livestock rearing produces 18% of greenhouse gas emissions which is more than the entire transport system which is responsible for 13.5%.
• To produce a typical vegetarian diet uses 300 gallons of water a day, a meat based diet uses 4000 gallons.
• Livestock production is responsible for 70% of the Amazonian deforestation.
• One third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food.
•  According to the Environmental Protection Agency farming pollutes rivers and lakes more than all  industrial sources combined.

It is a sobering thought that the food that we eat without thought could be contributing so negatively to this planet's demise.  This is a science based belief and doesn't touch upon animal rights, cruelty or the needless suffering of millions of sentient creatures.  These emotive issues upset me, but aren't my motivation for being a signed-up, badge wearing vegetarian.  However, the welfare of animals influences me enough that I only buy Free Range eggs.  I used to try to only buy organic dairy products, but this was just too hard and too expensive so my morality had to give a little!  I still however use soya milk instead of cows' milk as a token gesture. You have to do what's right for you and your conscience.

I am quietly passionate in my beliefs.  If someone questions me I will stand my ground, but I will not force my beliefs on anyone else.  I am changing my own life, my family and our lifestyle.  I am doing my tiny bit to help our suffering planet.  But on the most part I'm doing it because I believe it is the right thing and the best thing to do.  Fifteen year old me was misguided in her conduct...but the ethics weren't half bad.

I've changed my life for the better...and I don't miss meat at all.

My First, My Latest and My Favourite

The lovely veggie blog We Don't Eat Anything With a Face has started a blog hop where you write a post about your first, your latest and your favourite 'something'.  You can pick whatever 'thing' you want to share...Lisa has chosen cookbooks and I was very pleased to see that she is a fan of Rose Elliot.  I love my Rose Elliot cook books.  Her no nonsense style results in excellent wholesome vegetarian meals.  All too often veggie cook books are so faffy and use ingredients that are just not found on the everyday shopping list of a busy mother on a budget.  Elliot's love of beans and pulses results in hearty fayre a long way from Alfalfa Salad and Chicory with Orange Sauce (why do people assume veggies don't want pie and chips??? It's just the meat I don't want...not the comforting, homely, substantial elements of proper grub!!)  Anyway, I digress....

Although Lisa generously opened up the theme, I'm continuing with her theme...Cookery Books!

My very first cook book that I bought myself was the Children's Party Cookbook.  I'd just had my first born and wanted inspiration for his birthday.  I still use it for the gingerbread man recipe and it's got some nice ideas for kiddies' parties in it.  I got quite good at making cakes.  Here is a pic of Joe's 2nd birthday cake...I'm still quite proud of this one!

My latest acquisition to the recipe book shelf is the Quorn Kitchen that I sent off for.  For just two Quorn labels and P&P, I received this lovely paperback book through the post.

It contains some nice simple recipes which all incorporate a Quorn product.  I was most pleased to see some proper good food like this Quorn and Leek Pie.  It's user friendly, well illustrated and a fabulous freebie.  I love Quorn products...they have made feeding my family so much easier and they are versatile, low in fat and low in calories.  

My favourite cookery book is actually the first completely vegetarian book I bought myself.  It's a big, fully illustrated book simply called Vegetarian which has over 300 recipes.  It has a reference section at the front and I remember pouring over the facts and figures to be sure I wasn't in some way going to starve my family by deciding to go completely vegetarian.  It has had such a positive influence on my vegetarianism.  It made everything look so easy and so full of flavour.  It gave me a lot of confidence at a time when being a veggie was not so mainstream.  I love books that have photos and I can sit and flick through the pages for ages just looking at the pictures of the food. (There's no calories in looking!)

My most used recipes are for the Veggie Hot Pot with Cheese Triangles (a version of which I made for Valentine's Day with heart shaped cobbler on top...yum!)...

...and the Spicy Bean and Lentil Loaf, which is fabulous and so easy my daughter has made it on her own.  It's nice to find good, simple, hearty veggie recipes, so beautifully illustrated and so easy to follow.