I wanted to create more of a complete meal  which could be served up as lunch with a glass of wine and maybe a selection of salads or breads. I love spanish food and immediately thought of spanish influences such as olives, chilli, smoked paprika – all big rustic flavours! I think getting the balance of all the flavours was important as it was going to be quite bold but over all I think this dish is a lovely rustic vegetarian lunch!

I didn’t use cheese in my polenta because I think it would have been lost against the olives, it also meant this would be suitable for vegans.

Serves 2

For the tomato sauce:

2 Cloves Garlic
1 Small Onion
1 Can Chopped Tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
100g Spinach
Large Handful of Broad Beans

Heat some oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook on a medium-low heat for 8-10 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and spices and reduce the sauce for another 8-10 minutes so it’s nice and thick.

In batches add the spinach to the pan, stir it with the tomatoes untill wilted then add another batch. Once all the spinach is wilted in the pan add the broad beans, cook for another 2 minutes then take the pan off the heat and put to one side.

For the Polenta discs:

1 Garlic Clove
1 Red Chilli
50g Black Olives
75g Polenta
400ml Water
Salt and Pepper

Finely chop the garlic, chilli and black olives. In a frying pan heat some oil then add the chopped ingredients and fry for a few minutes untill the garlic is cooked through. You will get some lovely aromas come up at this point. Take them off the heat and put to one side.

In a saucepan boil the water then pour in the polenta in a steady stream whilst stirring continuously. Cook for around 6-7 minutes whilst stirring untill the polenta is smooth. Add the garlic, chilli and olives and mix together well.

Pour the polenta on to a cold plate and spread it out so it is evenly spread and around 1.5cm thick.

Allow this to cool down and set. Then cut discs from the polenta (around 3 or4 each) using either a cookie cutter or I used an upside down glass to create discs.

Add a little more oil to the frying pan and fry the polenta discs for 2-3 minutes on each side untill crispy and golden.

Serve hot!

NB: I have posted this recipe on Wellness Weekend over at Diet Dessert and Dogs blog – please go check it out there are some great recipes from Ricki and other contributors

I know that I felt massively over whelmed by articles telling us to eat one thing, then another telling us the opposite. Diet plans are flying around like hot cakes (low fat hot cakes) and there are money worries being advertised in every media outlet possible.

Ignore all of that and just look at your own life, your routines, your diet and what makes you happy. Then think, what small change can I make just to push myself to be slightly better/ healthier/ financially more secure. This is what I did and I started with diet, which actually in turn helped my bank balance! I read an article the other day which had a list of junk foods and what to swap it for, it looked a little something like this:

Chocolate Bar – Apple
Chips – Salad
Packet of biscuits – celery sticks

Now who in their right mind would think I really fancy a chocolate bar…I know I’ll eat an apple!… go away all you healthy people saying “I would” . Now in the hope that I don’t sound like one of those lists and am confusing you all more here are a few very subtle things I personally swapped to lose the weight!

Olive Oil for Spray oil
I always keep a small bottle of really good quality olive oil in my kitchen for when I am having guests and a drizzle of olive oil is needed, but for every day use I use spray oil! Especially for fried eggs! It works I promise you. It means I can afford to buy that good quality olive oil too as I’m not using it everyday.

Oven Chips for a Mixed Chip Tray
Let me explain because I completely just made up the term “mixed chip tray” for the purpose of this post. Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Parsnips, Sweet Potatoes etc can all be sliced into wedges, sprayed with oil, sprinkled with salt and baked in the oven to create a healthy, colourful alternative to chips! You can mix and match so it doesn’t get boring and you can just use up whatever if in your fridge. Sometimes I even throw a couple of carrots sliced in half into the mix.

Sauces for Spices and Herbs
A sprinkle of paprika, a bunch of coriander or a load of fresh chilli can pack as much flavour into a meal as adding a sauce to pour on top! Especially meat (sorry veggies) – rub some spice mix onto your steak and forget about that creamy peppercorn sauce. You can experiment with this too and try different herb combinations.

Boiled to death veg for Steamed veg
Theres nothing wrong with boiling your brocoli however if you want the maximum nutritional benefit from it then you would be better off steaming it. You can buy steamers that just sit in your pan over the boiling water for quite cheap so no excuses! Also sometimes I steam my veg then in a frying pan I add a few sprays of oil and give the veg a quick stir fry with some sliced garlic and your only adding about 3 calories from the oil.

Cream in soup for Stock
I have never missed having cream in a soup, in fact the idea of it now seems rather strange to me! If a recipe for soup includes cream then you can just swap it for vegetable stock and you will still have a soup! if you insist on adding cream then do half cream and half stock then see the difference! Same goes for milk – chowder may not look the same but yum it’ll taste just as nice!

Ice cream for Frozen Yoghurt
You can make your own version of frozen yoghurt by blending natural yoghurt with frozen berries. Grate some dark chocolate or drizzle with honey and enjoy!

Everyone is different and so if you want to make a change, ignore all the media hype about dieting and just think “ok what can I swap from my own personal eating habits which might make a change to me”.

Ps I am not a dietician, I am just someone who has done the dieting thing and is now doing the maintaining thing! If you need help with losing weight please see you GP or get proper advice…not just my ramblings!

Have you made any subtle (or none subtle) changes to your diet to help you be more healthy? What are the foods you just couldn’t swap for anything?

I’ve been eating these quite a bit recently as I’ve wanted to have a dinner which is light yet will fill me up for the evening (perfect for fighting off those unnecessary evening snacks!) Staying true to the Mexican feel of a taco I have used ingredients such as fresh chilli, coriander and avacados to bring it together.

You can use Taco shells or (as I have here) you can use the taco trays which are also sold in most supermarkets! I find the trays easier to eat and also they make for a nicer portion size!

Serves 4

160g Cooked Chickpeas
100g Green Lentils (Cooked as per instructions on the packet and then drained under cold water)
100g Feta Cheese
1 Red Onion
1 Green Pepper
1 Red Chilli (adjust to your own personal taste)
Bunch Coriander
Juice of 1 Lemon
Drizzle of good Olive Oil
2-3 taco trays/ shells per person

To serve with:
1 Avacado
2 Tomatoes

Finely chop the red onion and green pepper. De-seed and finely slice the chilli. Roughly chop the coriander.

In a large bowl mix together the chickpeas, lentils, onion, pepper, chilli and coriander then crumble in the feta cheese. Gently mix it all together and then drizzle over a good glug of the best quality olive oil you have and squeeze the lemon juice in. Give it one final stir then put on the table ready for everyone to dig in!

Heat the taco trays/ shells in the oven for 2-3 minute (or as per instructions on the packet) and then serve with a platter of sliced tomatoes, sliced avacado and an extra pile of coriander leaves.

Everyone can build their own tacos and then try and eat them without spilling it all!

This recipe I tried is from the Readers Digest Low fat No fat cookbook which I also used for the Tofu Omelette recipe last month. I’ve seen lots of versions of this recipe but I was drawn to this one the most because it looked quite rich but still fairly healthy! Mine didn’t quite turn out like the photo in the book because my polenta was a little grainy and not smooth and shiny like theirs! Also my sauce looked less vibrant (however they could have adjusted this in post production I guess). Aesthetics aside I think it tasted delicious! The sauce included red wine, rosemary, mushrooms obviously and also some onions!

In this recipe the polenta is not flavoured with anything so I was a little worried it would be boring but with the mushroom ragu it actually worked really nicely! I think this was nice because any flavourings would have been lost under the rich mushrooms.

I think I prefer Polenta when it has been set and then fried because it’s a little easier to eat, I found this to be a bit sloppy- however I think it may have needed a little extra cooking.

What have I learnt about Polenta?
I’ve taken on board a few things from doing this recipe. Firstly, you don’t need to pack polenta full of flavourings if you are pairing it with a strong sauce as it can help balance a meal out. Secondly I think Polenta is often used as an ingredient to serve on the side but it doesn’t often take centre stage! I’m definitely going to make my polenta the star of the show and also a complete meal (as I felt the river cottage veg meal was more of a snacky lunch for me).

This year I spent the day making an afternoon tea for us to enjoy in the evening, my mum had sent over a bottle of Rose bubbly from France which washed it all down very nicely! It’s also my husbands birthday in 3 days and I had planned to make him a cake in the style of one of his favourite online games – Minecraft, however he’s on a stag do that day now so I decided to incorporate the Minecraft idea into the afternoon tea. I made square cupcakes decorated like ‘Creeper’ faces and the rest I decorated like the cakes you can make within the game.

I got the recipe for the sponge cakes from An Irish Village Pantry blog and it really is a fail safe recipe for a newbie baker like me! It was the best feeling to make everything from scratch! I used a lime jam to help the icing stick to the cake which gave each bite a little citrus kick.

Here are a few pictures from my day:

Chocolate coated strawberries (White choc and Milk Choc), Grapes and CherriesSandwiches (top layer are ham for the hubby), bottom later are cheese and tomato wraps and my own recipe Coronation stye chickpea wraps: see recipe below

Corontation Style Chickpea wraps – Serves 2

80g Chickpeas
35g Dried Apricots
40g Raisins
8 tablespoons Natural Yoghurt (Drained in a colander lined with kitchen paper for around 1 hour)
1/2 teaspoon Curry Powder
2 teaspoons Mango Chutney
Small bunch of Coriander
3 Spring Onions

Chop the Apricots into small pieces and slice the sprig onions. Mix all the ingredients together and have in a wrap with some spinach and sliced tomatoes. These were delicious and a lovely alternative for an afternoon tea!

I hope you all had a lovely day whatever you chose to do for it. I had a truely great day

Did I ever mention that I LOVE veggie burgers? Oh wait only a hundred times. This little beauty of a burger came about because I wanted to do something different to show how versatile a burger can be. I went through ideas of spinach burger, carrot burger, black bean chilli burger and decided on beetroot burger! I like beetroot but I don’t love beetroot so I wanted to try and balance out the earthy flavours with something a bit sweeter (so I added feta); I also wanted to give it a twist so I used chickpeas instead of my usual beans and I added some curry paste. The first time I made these I added toasted spices but the flavour was so harsh against the beetroot so I found that using a paste gave it a more mellow taste.

It may sound like a mish mash but I can promise you that this is a tasty little burger!

Makes 4 burgers:

150g Chickpeas
145g Beetroot (120g when peeled)
80g Breadcrumbs
1 Egg
1/2 Red Onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon Curry Paste (I used Rogan Josh paste)
65g Feta Cheese

Mash the chickpeas in a bowl untill broken down but don’t mash them untill smooth! Grate the beetroot into the bowl (this is a messy part as fingers and worktops begin to turn pink!) and add the finely sliced red onion, the breadcrumbs, the egg and the curry paste. Stir all these ingredients together to combine.

Crumble the feta into the bowl in quite large chunks and gently fold the cheese into the mixture.

Mould the mixture into 4 patties and then put them on a plate in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes. This will firm them up before cooking.

In a pan heat some oil (use spray oil if being healthy) and then fry the burgers for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Serve with a burger bun and salad…and even some chips yum!

The first thing I did was cream the butter and sugar. Luckily me and the hubby had made cupcakes a few days before so I now knew that this could just be done in a big bowl with a hand held eletric whisk. I started off slowly and unfortunately got a little carried away and it went everywhere. Literally. It was on the ceiling, the fridge, the cupboards, the floor, the sink, the window and of course all over me. It has been quite funny because since then we have found hidden little splashes of sugary butter dotted around. Anyway don’t worry because I saved enough to still make the cake.

Next I added the almonds and then cracked in the eggs and I started to doubt whether this was going to work because it was so gooey but I trusted the recipe and carried on. which was a good thing because it turned out great in the end.

Unfortunately it was only when pouring the cake mix into my cake tin that I realised my take tin was only 20cm not the required 30cm so I filled it then poured the rest into cup cake cases. I didn’t want to ruin my oven timings so I cooked the cake on its own first – but because it was smaller it must have needed a different temperature as it was dark brown on the outside before it was cooked in the middle. The cupcakes however turned out perfectly after 25-30 minutes in the oven.

Usually I would remake something if I felt it wasn’t perfect (my fault not the recipes) however this cake feeds 11 people….theres only me and my husband…. and were on a diet… so no more cake baking in this house for a few weeks untill its all been eaten!

What I have learnt about Polenta:

Polenta is a great alternative to use in cakes for people who are Gluten free/ Celiac as teamed with the ground almonds there was no need for flour. It resulted in a denser cake but still very delicious.
I don’t think I’m confident enough to try my own version of a polenta cake but I will definitely have another go at this recipe in the future, with a bigger cake tin!

“What do you eat?”

I’m always quite taken a back when I’m asked this question because for me it was a very easy transition which opened up a whole new repertoire of recipes, ingredients and techniques! I think people assume that not eating meat means just eating vegetables n a few boiled potatoes or something but there are just endless meals to be eaten as a vegetarian! In fact my food is more diverse now as before I often would just cook a chicken breast with mash and veg, which to me seems boring now!

I know some people who have swapped meat for Quorn steaks or soya chicken pieces but this feels wrong to me because the amount of chemicals that go into that food would probably be worse. Although of course I will occasionally eat a veggie sausage or some Quorn mince – but my point is I haven’t swapped one for the other on a daily basis.

One of my favourite ways to come up with new recipes is to read a non vegetarian cookbook and try to think about how I could make the recipe vegetarian but still have the same substance and look to it.

For example chicken and coconut curry – I swapped the chicken for chickpeas and sweet potato and then used the rest of the same ingredients and it was so delicious, really low fat and also you are still getting protein and fibre from the chickpeas.

Another recipe I love to play around with is burgers! Before I was vegetarian I would always have a vegetarian burger any way because I found a beef burger to be too heavy in my stomach. A beef burger is so fattening and devoid of any high nutritional value but swap it for some mashed beans, breadcrumbs, vegetables and seasoning and it can be a very valuable meal. It’s a great recipe to experiment with and it can be super healthy or a bit more indulgent by adding crumbled cheese etc.

A naughty weekend breakfast can be eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, vegetable patties, grilled spicy potatoes etc without needing a slice of bacon to complete a meal.

Special occasions can include an elegant mushroom tart, soufflé, open lasagne, truffle risotto without needing a rack of lamb to take centre stage!

So my answer to the question “What do you eat?” is always “everything I want… with a little sprinkle of imagination”

Do you feel you have eaten a more diverse range of ingredients since going vegetarian? Are you a meat eater and worried that a vegetarian diet would be difficult or restricting?

I really like making Lentil Dhal’s as they are quite simple and really healthy but filling! You can use all different kinds of lentils but I always use red lentils as they are so easy to find and not expensive. I came up with this idea after seeing the Romanesco Cauliflower in France and thinking that I don’t cook with Cauliflower enough, I went through different ideas in my mind and settled on the fact that curry and cauliflower go hand in hand!

I had used Cauliflower in my Open Mushroom Lasagna to create an alternative to a white sauce so I knew that blending it would work! In this recipe I roasted it with some whole cloves of garlic first then blended it to really bring out the flavours.

The hubby liked this one too and I served it with some mini naan breads and green veggies!

Serves 4 (Freezable!)

330g Cauliflower (cut into florets)
8 Garlic Cloves
170g Red Lentils
1 Green Chilli
2 Onions
1 tablespoon Tomato Puree
Bunch Coriander
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
800ml water
1/2 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1/2 teaspoon Mustard Seeds
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
Vegetable Oil for Roasting

Blanch the Cauliflower florets in boiling water for 1 minute then drain it really well. Drizzle some oil in a baking tray and heat it up in the oven, remove and then add the cauliflower and unpeeled garlic cloves and roast for about 10 minutes at 190c.

In a saucepan heat a little more oil and fry the onion, green chilli and spices untill softened, then add the tomato puree and squeeze the roasted garlics out of their skin into the pan.

Puree the cauliflower with a splash of water untill smooth (keep a few slices of cauliflower to one side for garnish). Add the puree to the saucepan with the lentils. Stir for a minute to combine the ingredients well then add 800ml water and some seasoning.

Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on.

Chop the coriander up and add it to the pan then cook for a further 10 minutes without the lid on.

Serve hot with the slices of cauliflower as a garnish and some naan bread!

NB: since posting this I decided to link it up to Wellness Weekend ( a great site I just stumbled across) which promotes recipes using whole, natural, good and healthy ingredients! So many good recipes on there so please check it out

After mixing the polenta with the boiling water I had a little taste and soon realised that this strange stuff is really just a carrier for flavour as it’s really quite bland!

In this recipe the flavours added are garlic, chilli, rosemary and cheese (I used reduced fat cheese – old habits die hard!). When it was boiling in the pan it became almost volcanic so watch out! I took a few hits and it’s so messy!

Once I had boiled it, poured it out and let it set it became oddly flexible – not what I expected at all – and it was very easy to slice up ready to be fried! Theres no need to be too delicate with this stuff.
The flavour balance was delicious and much stronger than I’d expected and I think it would have tasted even nice if I’d used a mature cheddar as it suggested in the recipe. I think for a beginner this is a pretty fool proof recipe, it was easy to make and everything came out like it was meant to It would be really nice as a rustic lunch or even as a side dish but I do think next time I’d make half the amount of tomato sauce because that drowned out the polenta a little bit!

What I have learnt about Polenta:
Well it definitely needs a good amount of flavour adding to it to make it more exciting! It’s a very versatile and forgivable ingredient, I felt like you couldn’t go too wrong with the process! It definitely got me thinking about flavour combinations which could be used with polenta so I have lots of ideas

Also I found out that once you have set the polenta (before frying it in slices) it can be frozen. This was great because I had made too much so I now have batches in the freezer ready to be defrosted and fried

My husband said that he thought it tasted a bit like a cheesy pancake – not sure if this is what its meant to taste like but I liked it!

So Polenta Challenge week one is over, any advice on Polenta is of course welcome! Next week I’m going to cook a polenta pudding (Another versatile ingredient)
NB I’ve also taken part in a challenge on a great blog Ive found - Jo’s Kitchen – River Cottage Rocks  – What a great idea to get people cooking recipes from the River Cottage Collections! I got the River Cottage Veg for christmas and have hardly put it down . thanks Jo! x