Healthy Daily Plan

Since I gave up meat, I have also ended up giving up plenty of other bad things. I still have the occasional take-away but I haven’t eaten in fast food place since February of this year. It’s totally changed how I feel about food. I always loved it. But now I really realise how big an effect it can have on how we feel.

Breakfast: Fiber first thing in the morning is great to tackle stress, and kick starts your day. A bowl of wholegrain cereal or wholegrain bread toasted.  A glass of orange juice goes down great too.

Lunch: If possible, protein at lunch is great. The boiled egg sandwich I listed below is perfect for this. Or scrambled egg on toast is super. I love bread and this is in no way a weight loss blog, so I love four slices of toast!

Lunch 2: That’s right, two. I can’t go from 1 til five or six without food so I tend to have two lunches. A bowl of soup is great for this, cos it’s light enough to have before dinner. Avoid the bread here.

Dinner: Carbs. My favorite word. For dinner, I love a curry with Quorn “chicken” peices,  rice and beans. It’s so easy. It only takes about 20 minutes and fills me til the evening. Another great meal to keep you full is Quorn mince with potaoes and mushrooms.

Noodle Stir Fry- Best Lunch Ever

I’ve been making this noodle lunch for about a year, since I discovered it in Argentina. Took me a while to get it just right so I’ll save you the trouble of my trial and error and give it to you here!

Ingredients:

Best quality dried noodles. I use Sharwoods.

Soy sauce

Green peppers

Baby corns (aww)

Onion

Garlic

Chili

Mushrooms

Cumin/Curry powder

Time Needed: About 15 mins

Method:

Boil water and add about a nest per person of noodles, simmer until soft and broken up.

Finely chop the onion and garlic, slice the mushrooms and peppers. Fry in a pan until the mushrooms are cooked but keep a bit of crunch.

Strain the noodles and add them to the pan of vegetables on a low heat. Add a dash of cumin/curry powder and a sprinkle of soy sauce. You really don’t need much of this, it’s very salty.

Stir and serve 🙂

I like adding the noodles to the pan because it takes the moisture out without leaving them too dry, which happens if you don’t add enough water. Enjoy!

Best Veggie Soup

I love soup. Even in summer. It’s just delicious and so dam easy to make. Plus, what I really like about it is that you can throw whatever you have in your fridge into the pot. It’s one of those things that you can make to your own tastes. The ingredients I’ve listed below are entirely flexible, if you have more in your fridge, throw it in!

Five veg soup:

2 small potatoes

1 large onion

Two leaks, white bits only

Red and Green peppers

One small chili (more if you like some spice)

Two large carrots

2 Large tomoatoes

Vegetable Stock

Salt & Pepper

Cumin/curry powder

Time Needed: 30 mins

Method:

Chop potatoes in half and roughly slice. Peel onion and half, again, slice roughly. Chop leaks. Add to pot with about 200 ml of water and steam for about 3 minutes.

Chop one pepper and slice thinly. Chop carrots into small slices, also dice tomatoes.  Slice chili and de-seed.

Boil vegetable stock and add to pot, the amount of stock you use is optional. I like a thicker, creamy soup so I don’t add much stock, but in summer, a slightly watery soup is more appetizing. Here, throw in the salt and pepper and a handful of curry powder and cumin, again depending on how spicy you like it.

Add all chopped vegetables to the pot and cover, simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes.

Add the full pot to a food processor and blend. Again, the length of time you blend is up to you. If you like the veg a little chunkier and full, just blend a little.

Return to pot and serve up right away if you want. If not you can reheat it on the ring or in the microwave at any time. In the winter, it’s fine to leave the pot of soup out at room temperature and it should stay fresh for about three days. In summer, stick it in the fridge.

Veggie Lunchbox

This was the biggest problem I ran in to when I gave up meat; sandwiches. No standard coffee shop seems to cater (in any decent way) to the vegetarian. So until I can afford to set up my own cafe, this recipe for your  own sandwiches will have to do!  I went with eggs cos their delicious and an excellent source of protein. Plus, we can now have two a day!

Time needed: 20 mins

Egg salad with home-made hummus

Firstly, it’s got to be fresh bread, I’d suggest brown, wholemeal for health and also for pure yum-ness.  But soft, cushy white bread is also delicious.

Boil an egg for about 10 minutes or until you’re pretty sure it’s hard boiled.  While you’re doing that, take a handful of chickpeas, add to a blender with about a tbls of olive oil, some salt, some pepper and some cumin or curry powder. Blend on a low setting until the consistency is to your liking.

Peel the hard boiled egg and slice and cut into small pieces. Put in a bowl and add some mayo, some onion and some rocket lettuce leaves. Mix together well. Tomatos are optional. I know people who just hate them!

Favorite Bean Stew

I really love this recipe. It’s quick,  really really easy, and is remarkably filling, with plenty fibre. The beans I’ve included are a good variety but really this can be made with any one of those.  You can also add a ton of other crunchy veg like peppers and carrots. I love stuff like this added raw for the extra crunch.

Ingredients;

Serves four

500 ml vegetable stock

1 onion, chopped finely

1 leak (more if you want a thicker stock)

1 glove of garlic

Large tomato

1 tbls cumin (more for some spice)

100g Haricot beans

100g chickpeas

100g cannellini beans

Time needed: 10 minutes.

Method:

1) Boil stock

2) Fry Vegetables for 2 minutes, add tomato

3) Add beans, cover pot, and simmer for 4 minutes. Strain and add vegetables.

Hello world!

I gave up meat about three months ago, since then I’ve sort of struggled to find a vegetarian recipe website that I really like. So I hope that I can create that here, I hope you enjoy!