I'm (Not So) Fancy.

Recently I seem to have read quite a few articles about what I would call 'fancy' vegetarian food. It seems to be all the rage which is exciting, all sorts of new ways to cook an aubergine or unusual ways to incorporate celeriac into a meal. I felt like I should write about this as a vegetarian food blogger because I don't eat lots of unusual vegetarian food, I eat lots of pasta and rice. I have a takeaway pizza every once in a while. I've never had pasta made from courgette or garlic fried samphire. Maybe I should make more of an effort to try some different meals but usually on a day to day basis I just want something fairly easy and tasty to fill me up.

 Perhaps this blog isn't as fancy as I'd like but I've got years of cooking ahead of me where I can experiment more. If you're looking for dinner party food inspiration then I'm afraid you won't find it here right now. I know most people would just say they eat 'normally', that they eat average things that everyone else does but I don't actually know that many people outside of my own family who eat like I do! I eat a lot, but I remain a healthy weight. I don't ever calorie count or not eat carbs or gluten or don't eat after 6pm or all these other fads. I've known people who've only eaten food cooked in the oven from frozen, or people who have fast food just about every day. Someone I knew once predominately ate Coca Cola and chocolate every day! 

People have different relationships with food, some are more interested in cooking than others. I hope if you stumble upon my blog then you might be inspired to try something different in your kitchen. Maybe you eat artichoke hearts and feta pastries all the time! If you don't, then I'm sure something on one of my What I Ate This Week posts will catch your eye. 

I hope you continue to keep reading and enjoying my blog

:)

Vegetarian Problems

Just a quick post to share this link with you. I found it hilarious. maybe you recognise some of these problems as a vegetarian too?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/awkward-moments-every-vegetarian-understands?utm_term=cxhua4#2xbm7mx

Finding the V - Restaurants.

I like eating out, I consider it a treat and I really look forward to it. Chain restaurants, cafes, pubs etc, I love browsing menus. Sometimes I can scan up and down a menu all I want, only to find a very limited choice of vegetarian options.

Sometimes there will be a helpful, obvious 'V' by a meal description which makes a world of difference as a vegetarian diner. It means I can be sure what i'm eating is suitable for my diet and makes me much happier. 

In this day and age it's really a poor show to have barely any vegetarian options. Much as I like pasta and as much as I like mushrooms, I AM TIRED OF MUSHROOM PASTA. Someone who is a normal meat eater surely wants a bit of choice too, they might not always want a meal including meat. As I've touched on in a previous post, some people seem to think vegetarians only eat salad so perhaps restaurant chains are just playing it safe with offering a pasta choice, or a veggie burger. There is so much you can do to make amazing vegetarian friendly meals, just look at the Bistro 1847 menus for an insight into some well thought out, super tasty meat-free food.

Obviously I know there are more people in the world that eat meat, that don't. So I would never expect a menu to be half meat free, half including meat but there could be more choice for veggies.

I recently saw a menu where nearly every dish had a gluten free option too so it seems restaurants don't mind making the effort to prepare food slightly differently yet still they seem to think vegetarians only eat mushrooms. If you were a vegetarian who wasn't keen on mushrooms you'd be pretty stuck sometimes when eating out!

I just did a quick browse of the menus in some popular restaurants - Frankie and Benny's, Chiquito, Nando's, Pizza Hut and Harvester. I was looking at the main meal options, I know these restaurants offer different styles of food - Mexican, Italian, gastro pub etc. So their veggie options will reflect that. Frankie and Benny's didn't fare too badly with 2 pasta options, 4 pizzas, 1 burger and 1 wrap to choose from, however strangely, they didn't offer a vegetarian salad main meal! Chiquito offers one veggie option in nearly every category such a a veggie burger, wrap, fajita, salad, 2 quesadillas. Not the worst but some of the options are lacking in imagination. 

If you don't like halloumi you're stuck. I like Nando's and despite halloumi and mushroom not being a groundbreaking combination, it is tasty and I do really like it. Nando's has this to say on preparing vegetarian dishes. It also offers a beanie and mixed veg option. Pizza Hut doesn't have anything big and fancy vegetarian wise but pizza is always good so to have 4 to choose from isn't too bad, the pasta dishes leave a lot to be desired though from when I've eaten them. Harvester stays very safe with their veggie options, they even do a veggie sausage and mash. A cauliflower tart, veggie burger and stuffed peppers. You don't expect anything amazing from basically a pub but at least there are a few choices.

Of course there is choice out there for none meat eaters, some restaurants are better than others at providing good vegetarian food but i'm sure it's a lot better now than it was 20 years ago. I will talk about some of my fave vegetarian places to eat out at on the blog soon. Let me know what your experiences are eating out as a vegetarian, do you think there is enough choice or have you been stuck with barely any options?

GUEST POST: Kayleigh on lifestyle adjustments as a vegetarian

Today you have a special post for you to feast your eyes on!  I'll let my guest take it from here...

Hello guys, Kayleigh here! Cressida asked me to write a guest post for her blog and I jumped at the chance to write about a topic dear to my heart – vegetarianism. Despite Cressida being an all-round lovely person, who anybody would want to be friends with, I would say that it was our joint advocacy of the meat-free lifestyle that really made us bond when we first met. This was back in the heady days of sixth form college, and I remember jumping over the table in our A Level English class to give her a cuddle on National Hug a Vegetarian Day – it was nice to have somebody to share a slightly silly national day with!

The primary difference between myself and Cressida would be that she is a lifelong veggie, whereas I stopped eating meat and fish when I was about 15 years old. I was a moody teenage goth at the time, more interested in skulking around with my friends than exploring any culinary endeavours, and so I had to seriously re-think my eating habits. Looking back, it is hard to express just how much less there was to offer then compared to these days. I must have spent my first meat-free month living off chewy “chicken” nuggets and cheese and onion pies. If you’re only looking for a replacement for meat, food can get pretty boring. It was when I started to develop my cooking skills that I found I was trying more and more foods I had never eaten before – and I loved them!

My first big discovery was spinach. I had never touched a leaf in my life before turning vegetarian. My only knowledge of this food was that it was the tinned green stuff Popeye threw down his throat in the cartoons. Now, Popeye is great and all, but it didn’t exactly entice me to eat the stuff. I first tried it in a Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni, a staple of my early vegetarian diet and still a favourite dish of mine. Considering how much spinach I eat these days, I cannot believe I had never tried it before giving up meat. It’s fantastic in salads instead of lettuce, added to quiches, pasta and curries, and it’s an amazing source of iron and vital vitamins – it truly is a superfood! Throughout my vegetarian journey I have also discovered, chickpeas (falafel is now probably my favourite food), halloumi and tofu, among many others.

However, not only did I begin to consider more foods I had never eaten before, I also now had to re-think foods I had previously eaten. Unfortunately, becoming a vegetarian does require some adjustment regarding foods you would think nothing of in the past, but once you’re aware of the changes you need to make, it’s all plain sailing. My biggest barrier was cheese. Wow, don’t get me started on how much I love cheese. But when you’re veggie, you have to check hard cheeses, as part of the process of making it involves adding rennet, which is a stomach enzyme from calves. The biggest problem is that most non-veggies are totally unaware that this is even a thing, and will proceed to offer cheeses like parmesan to you, which is why you’re likely to come across angry vegetarians in Italian restaurants.

For somebody with a sweet tooth like mine, sweets were another disappointing adjustment. I don’t eat any sweets containing gelatine (derived from pigs and cows) which includes most marshmallows and, most upsetting for me, liquorice. There are however several veggie friendly brands if you look for them. I once came across Halal gelatine-free Haribo in a pound shop, and it’s embarrassing how many bags I bought. Being vegetarian does mean you develop a very keen eye when shopping for food!

I’m lucky to have a very supportive family, and most days of the week I share vegetarian meals with my parents. They now eat Quorn and meat-free meals more than they eat meat, which is great. It’s all about open-mindedness. Once you begin to reconsider how you eat and stop thinking within the lines of “meat, potatoes, and veg”, you begin to discover there’s so much good and healthy food out there. So I urge any meat eaters curious about the vegetarian diet to think beyond meat substitutes, and try a vegetable or pulse based meal at least once a week. Your taste buds will thank you, trust me!

Thank you so much Kayleigh for writing a great post for thevegetariangirl. You can find her on Twitter here. It really does ring true the phrase "if you're only looking for a replacement for meat, food can get pretty boring". There is so much more to a vegetarian diet that Quorn or salad (nice as those foods are)! Mentioning spinach has made me want to include it in meals more often as I rarely have it. I'm now on the hunt for vegetarian Haribo again. 
Let me know if you find it! Hug A Vegetarian Day is on Friday 26th September 2014.

Do vegetarians eat fish?

I used to eat fish fingers, when I used to go for pub lunches I used to eat scampi, I used to eat pasta with tuna. When I was about 11 by Granny served me tuna pasta and I turned around and said "nope, I don't eat fish anymore." She claimed that was me being a fussy eater but I can't quite remember why I stopped eating fish, I just did. My brothers soon followed suit and I haven't eaten fish since.

If you choose to eat fish and seafood but not the flesh of other animals then technically, you're a pescetarian. I've often heard of those people being called vegetarian too and I don't have a big problem with it, but supermarkets/restaurants etc don't usually label meals including fish as suitable for vegetarians. Recently I read someones pretty horrified tweet that a pub in Bath had labeled a salmon sharing platter as vegetarian friendly. Even if people want to use the general term 'vegetarian' as meaning not eating meat, surely they know fish and seafood come under that too when it comes down to eating meals.

Writing this just made me think of the scene from Finding Nemo where the sharks say "Fish are friends, not food!"

I think the reason I stopped eating fish was probably just because I was old enough to realise that they were animals too (i'm sure I realised this before but probably didn't make the connection) and it was a living, breathing creature that I didn't want to be eating! I enjoyed reading this article about fish whilst writing. I know that some people choose to follow a vegetarian diet but include fish and seafood for health reasons, fish contains omega-3 fatty acids. Then again so does cauliflower, hummus and brussel sprouts! Why does everyone hate on brussel sprouts, they're not that bad!

Or maybe some people just don't see fish in the same category as a sheep or a pig. Which is a shame because why would you differentiate? They both have a brain, heart, nervous system. I see this happening with chicken too. People don't see eating a chicken as that bad, and some that you can even continue eating chicken but call yourself a vegetarian! (Which seems very strange to me).

At the end of the day of course it is entirely up to the individual to follow whatever diet they choose, for whatever reason and I respect peoples choices to eat meat, or fish or enjoy a vegan diet. I appreciate it when people make an effort to provide me with a meal free from meat and fish, even when it's not the norm for them.

Happy eating!

I hate mushroom stroganoff.

Today something not very nice happened. My Grandparents took me and my brothers out for lunch at a local restaurant. They had looked at the menu online before booking and saw that it had a good selection of vegetarian options to had decided to make a reservation which was very kind of them.

I chose a veggie burger, one brother chose a cheese and onion pie and the other brother chose a mushroom stronganoff. We even asked what the chips where cooked in to be sure - vegetable oil. (Recently had a disappointing meal when we couldn't eat chips because they were cooked in beef dripping. Boo, hiss!)

The waitress brought our food to us and it looked super tasty, my brother smelt his mushroom stroganoff, poked it about a bit then put a bit in his mouth. No sooner had it left his fork, he spat it out. It was a beef stroganoff. Beef stroganoff wasn't even an option on the menu. The waitress was still by our table dishing out meals, my brother asked what his meal was and she beef stroganoff (I promise I'll stop saying stoganoff soon. STROGANOFF.) My poor brother rushed to the bathroom and I felt sick and so sad for him. For someone who has never eaten meat, to even touch a piece of meat with your fingers, let alone it be in your mouth for a few seconds is a horrifying thought. He was understandably, upset and shaken.

It might be difficult for meat eaters to understand why someone would get upset about it, he didn't chew a steak, he didn't swallow a black pudding. He spat it right out. But each person has their individual reasons for not eating meat and to experience something like accidentally nearly eating it is really horrible. It was an innocent mistake, my brother isn't sitting in a corner crying about the incident, but it made him feel sick and he was sad about what happened, I just tried to reassure him by saying that he hadn't eaten it, he washed his mouth out and it was barely touching him for more than a second or two.

I've been served a meat version of a vegetarian calzone pizza at Frankie & Benny's before without me knowing. I cut it open, ate a bit of the outside with no filling, starting cutting it up more and realised there were chunks of meat in there. I think I burst into tears (I was about 11 at the time).

In the end a waitress brought the mushroom version but I had that and gave my brother my veggie burger. It wasn't even that nice and I'd lost my appetite anyway. This is why I always smell food which looks ever so slightly meaty to make sure it's veggie friendly. (my brother did that and still couldn't tell with all the sauce in the meal). I've given bits of my meal to my Dad and Boyfriend to test and tell me if it has meat in or not. I'm usually wary of quiche because meat always seems to hide in the bottom of those things and is in tiny chopped up pieces indistinguishable from tomato! 

Have any veggie readers had a near miss with a meaty meal? I understand it might not upset everyone in quite the same way but for a life long veggie, it was a big deal.

The problem with vegetarians.

A boy once told me that, as a result of my vegetarianism, I wouldn't grow. Eventually I grew to nearly 6 foot and he stayed around 5"5. I'm fairly tall but I'm pretty sure that's not to do with not eating meat, good genes is to thank for my long limbs!

I'm not a crazy militant vegetarian, I don't shove my choice in peoples faces but when I do mention that I am a vegetarian I've had all sorts of responses. I'm sure other veggies can identify with some of these! I've heard these reactions when I've said "I'm a vegetarian." 

• "So you've never had bacon? HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT BACON?!"
• "But do you eat chicken? I know a vegetarian who eats chicken."
• "Where do you get your protein from?"
• "Don't you want to know what meat tastes like?"

Everyone just loves to know where vegetarians get their protein fix from. I get mine from beans, lentils and soy. People seem to want to catch you out and prove that a vegetarian diet just cannot compete with a meat filled one. People also want to know if you eat jelly sweets such as Haribo, when I was little I probably had a few at a Birthday party now and again but since then, I haven't. I have had these once before. People have told me cheese flavoured crisps and Redbull aren't vegetarian.

Being a vegetarian isn't a new trend, its roots are in ancient India and Greece. Apparently in Greece they would call a vegetarian diet 'abstinence from beings with a soul'. That's really something to think about! I don't eat meat or 'slaughterhouse by-products' because I absolutely hate the idea of eating anything that's been alive. The thought of it turns my stomach! Also, animals are sweet, I've been brought up this way and I like the health benefits.

I think nowadays it's easy to be a vegetarian. Well, in the Western world with so much choice of food. Vegans, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free diets can be followed with relative ease if you make the effort to find alternatives. Some people can't live without a bacon sarnie. For me, long live the pigs!

Fake meat.

Today I ate Quorn Mince for the first time. I was made a meal using it in vegetarian spaghetti bolognese. It was a nice meal, it tasted okay and filled me up but there was something really weird about eating something that looked so much like meat. Now i'm sure meat eaters would tell me it actually looks nothing like meat and doesn't taste like it either but i'm seeing this more and more with vegetarian alternatives, that they look very similar to real meat.

In the supermarkets I've seen pepperoni 'style' pieces, meat free bacon and vegetarian chicken fillets, amongst other things. I don't understand why, people who choose to be vegetarian would want to eat something that looks so similar to actual meat?! Now I know people choose to be vegetarians for a tonne of different reasons, maybe some just don't like the taste of meat, they want to be more environmentally friendly or it's just all they've ever known. 

I know these foods aren't flavoured with a meaty flavour, but the fact they look so similar to meat unsettles me. My Mum, two brothers and me are all vegetarian, my Dad isn't. This means there is a drawer in the freezer with the meat stuff my Dad likes to eat. Every time my Mum cooks vegetarian sausages i'm cautious to eat them to start with as they look so much like meat sausages and I even think they smell not so veggie friendly.

It probably depends on your reason you are vegetarian, whether you take issue with very meat looking veggie friendly food. I personally would prefer not to eat anything that looks very much like real meat. It just feels weird!