Quick and easy pickles

Thses quick pickles are a great staple for any fridge. They are a great snack straight out the jar, a nice quick side salad (no need for dressing, just mix your favourite veg pickles together) or as an accompaniment to sushi. The possibilities are endless!

I will give you the recipe I used for this lot but it is just a guideline as everytime I make them I use a different spice mix, vinegar or sugar. So feel free to change it up depending on  your favourite ingredients or whats in your cupboard.

2 cup of distilled vinegar (rice wine vinegar gives a lovely flavour too)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 stick of cinnamon
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
3 cloves
1 birds eye chilli (split in half)

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Leave to cool for an hour then strain an pour into sterilised jars fill with slices if your favourite fresh vegetables.

This week I used fresh organic baby carrots, kohlrabi and turnip.

Other veg I love with this recipe are red onion, ginger, radish, cabbage, cucumber, fennel, horseradish and celeriac just to name a few.

Have fun and enjoy experimenting :)

Thing's I have noticed about myself and my surroundings since going Vegan.

*Our rubbish bin no longer smells bad
*The amount of rubbish has dramatically reduced due to not consuming meat or processed foods
*Food tastes so much better
*I don't need or feel like I have to eat loads of food in one go. I used to be able to polish off a foot long subway with ease. I doubt I would get through a 6 inch now not that I even crave it anymore.
*I actually feel hunger. Before I would eat and eat just because it was meal time or I thought I was hungry but I know now it was more thought and habit rather than actual hunger.
*The money we spend on food has dropped dramatically.  People who say they can't afford to live healthily have obviously never tried very hard!!!
*The way I view farming has dramatically changed
*They way I view food and cook as a chef has also dramatically changed.
*Our milk consumtion has gone from 3 to 4 litres a week to half a litre

Ups and Downs

This week I have really been feeling drained :( I woke up on Wednesday morning with super sore swollen eyes (pic supplied lol thank you toxins) thankfully I was off work and could (and did) spend the whole day in bed dozing off and on with fresh Alo Vera and a cool face cloth on my eyes. I have started taking a spoon of Blackstrap Molasses in the mornings for a bit of extra iron and calcium and have ordered some Spirulina tablets which should be here next week. As well as trying to eat my weight in spinach and bananas as often as possible :)

I had a better day yesterday :) After my Angel Card reading with the lovely Erica I went for a nice long walk with a stop for a bit of meditation in the sun by the river. After some shopping and walking home with it, I still had the energy to do some gardening,  clean out the chicken coop, cook potato + vegetable cakes and mushroom + water chestnut steamed dumplings for dinner :) (I will post pics and recipes in another post)

Post Meditation selfie in the sun :)

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I post more pictures on there, so if you see something you like on there tell me and I will put the recipe on my blog :)

A Weighty Effect!!!

I should have done this post after the first week but I just haven't got round to it untill now. I will update it each week every monday from now on and having to actually post it for everyone too see will hopefully keep me motivated to do some exercise and not eat too much yummy vegan cake!!!

*Week 1 I lost 1.5kg :) (No extra exercise, just from switching to a Vegan Diet)

*Week 2 no change (I sated my egg and dairy cravings with yummy vegan cake. Note to self Not your best idea!!!!!!)

*Week 3 Another kilo gone :) maybe this week I will exercise.....

*Week 4 So stoked 1.2kgs gone this week!!! I have been walking home every day from Strood (about 25mins walk) 14.3kgs to go to get to my goal weight :)

*Week 5 Not a good week for weight loss :( too much Guinness and good times with friends! :) Maybe next week will be more successful... for the weigt loss ;)

*Week 6 The last week of my trial...

To egg or not to egg..?

So I have been thinking about whats going to happen with my diet when I finish the initial 6 week strict Vegan diet.
I am surprised I really haven't missed meat that much at all so I really don't think I will go back to eating it. I don't miss milk either but I do really miss cheese... So maybe I will occasionally indulge in some local cheeses If I can ascertain that the animals are kept properly and not forced to produce loads of milk through constant  pregnancy.
And so to my main question "To egg or not to egg?" I keep chickens we had 8 but lost Beatrice a few weeks ago so now we only have 7 :( but even so we still have loads of eggs!!! Now my thinking is that I should continue eating eggs once my initial 6 weeks is up because they are completely Organic,  Free Range and Cruelty Free. I mean these are probably the most spoit chickens in the world!!! So those of you who are Vegan would you? And to anyone reading this that isn't what are your views also?

Chinese Stemed Vegetable Dumplings

I adore authentic Chinese food especially dumplings!!! I always have a packet or two of dumpling skins in my freezer for a quick and easy dinner. If I have a bit more time I make my own skins or steam bun pastry, I will post my recipes for those another day :)

For this filling I sauted onion, spring greens, cabbage, chestnut mushrooms, spinach, ginger and garlic till everything was soft then folded through chopped spring onion and seasoned to taste with dark and light soy, black vinegar and Shaohsing Wine. But you can used any combination of your favorite veges :)

Wrap a spoonful of mix in each skin and steam for approximately 10mins then enjoy with your favourite dipping sauce.
I mix light soy, my homemade chilli oil, black vinegar, sweet chilli sauce, toasted sesame oil and chopped spring onion.

Hearty Hashbrown Breakfast :)

Home-made hash browns are sooooooooo delicious and so simple, every time I make them I kick myself for not making them more often!

All you need is

1kg waxy yellow potato (I used Desiree)
2 large Spanish onions

Scrub the potatoes clean and place them whole in pot of cold well salted water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins.
Drain and let cool for half an hour
(if your in a hurry you can skip the cooling step and use clean rubber dish gloves for the next step)
Grate the potatoes on the larger side of the grater, followed by the onions.
I grate mine without peeling because I don’t mind a few bits of potato skin in the mix but If you want them to be neater you can peel the skin off after cooking.
Season the mix with salt and pepper, mould into desired shapes and shallow fry on a medium heat. If you like thicker hash browns finish them on a tray in the oven at 180°C for 10 mins

Serve them on their own with a dipping sauce as a snack or as the platform for any of your favourite scrumptious breakfast ingredients :) or any other meal for that matter!

Today we had them with lightly blanched Organic English Asparagus and fried Organic English Chestnut Mushrooms and Spinach.

Tofu Scramble

Tofu scramble is a lovely vegan breakfast. I will list the ingredients I used to make the scramble in this picture but you should use it as a base recipe and add ingredients you love to personalise it :)

1 x packet of Cauldron Firm Tofu

1 x red onion

7 x chestnut mushroom

4 x slow roasted tomatoes or sun blushed

1 x packet of fresh baby spinach

4 x cloves of garlic

3Tbs of Vegan pesto

Fry the onions and mushrooms till soft add the garlic, spinach and tofu and cook gently until all the moisture has evaporated and everything starts to colour slightly. Turn off the heat and stir through the tomatoes and vegan pesto. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I have served it here on toast rubbed with a garlic clove when hot then spread with olive oil spread but you could serve it in loads of different ways. On home-made hash browns, herb and garlic roasted Portobello Mushrooms, vegan cornbread or in a burrito wrap just to name a few. 

The most important thing is to have fun cooking and eating it :) Enjoy :)

Unintentional Detox...

Wow ok so when I decided to take on a vegan diet for 6 weeks it really didn't occur to me at all that I would be hit with a massive wave of toxins all fighting to leave my body at once!!!!
A few days in I started getting a really bad flair up of eczema,  puffy swollen itchy eyes, fatigue and irritability. At first I didn't think much of it, maybe I was coming down with something until I googled my symptoms and came across a whole bunch of people describing how they went through something similar when they switched to a vegan diet!!! 
So now it's dawning on me what kind of effective meat and dairy really have on our bodies...

A little intro...

Ok so I really wasn't that prepared for this 6 week Vegan experiment. I honestly didn't think it was going to be a big deal but one week in and I have decided to start this blog to share my experiences.

I recently started working as a chef at Fortify, a vegan/vegetarian café.
Which if you asked anyone in my family they would say was pretty unlike me as I grew up on a small lifestyle farm in New Zealand, eating meat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in-between too if possible!!!

I have been a chef for over 13 years now and have worked in kitchens all shapes and sizes around the world including top restaurants in London, my biggest achievement being hired personally by John Torode to be his Pastry Chef at Smiths of Smithfields. I have always had an interest in Vegetarian/Vegan food and was always the go to girl for Veggie and dietary requirement dishes as most chefs weren't really bothered to do more than a salad.. as Im sure many of you are already aware!!!
I have experimented at work & home but have never cooked Vegetarian/Vegan food solely for a living. So having to cook and invent mostly vegan dishes for work I decided to undertake a 6 week vegan diet to help me understand the lifestyle and hopefully inspire me to create new and exciting recipes for the customers at Fortify, friends, family and of course myself to enjoy.

I will be posting as often as I can with updates and recipes so watch this space...