Date night, no 'maet' night

Hello all,

So once again I come to you with an update on my Vegetaruary. Last weekend was date night. My boyfriend couldn’t really get his head around the idea of not eating meat. He literally has chicken or chorizo in every meal! These are his grumpy/confused faces:

Sorry Ryan!

Finding a restaurant to cater for us both was easy, as Leeds is so full of choice and flavours. Had I tried to find a good vegetarian menu in my hometown, I feel I would struggle. Us Yorkshire folk like 'ar meat (pronounced mayte/maet), after all.

It can be a struggle getting a table on a Saturday night in Leeds if you haven’t pre-booked. However, after a quick online search on the train into town, we quickly reserved a table for two at Ciao Bella near Brewery Wharf.

It’s such a lovely place that makes you feel like you’re not in Yorkshire. It’s so modern and classy, like I’m in Central London. Anyway, after browsing over the menu, including the meat section more than once, I found one of my favourite vegetarian dishes: Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni. Now, the funny thing is, is that I love this as a Morrisons ready meal.

I love you.

It is so super tasty and this was the first time eating the dish in a restaurant. I was far from disappointed. It was so filling, and tasty. I’m really enjoying the different flavour combinations through cutting out meat. I feel when you eat meat, it’s easy to get the fried/grilled/seared fillet of meat then just stick it with chips or some form of potato. Through cutting out meat, I find myself opening up to ideas of different food combinations and I seem to get to have all the best flavours crammed into one meal!

I think date night was a great success, and my boyfriend doesn’t have to worry so much about choosing places that cater for us both. Although, he doesn’t have to worry, as the month’s almost up! I will be going back to eating meat, but I’ve definitely learnt that it isn’t a necessity to eat it everyday.

Ta loves,

Becky

Vegetaruary: Are you nuts?!

We're halfway through January, which means I'm halfway through my own, personal creation: Vegetaruary. I'm shocked and surprised to tell you that it's been very easy! 

I mean, New Year's Day, all I wanted was bacon. Sweet, crispy, fatty bacon. Agghhhhhh - I've had a few sore heads, and vegetables cannot cure a hangover. I needed fried chicken, or bacon-y goods, but other than a few almost slip-ups, it's been all gravy baby (vegetarian, meat-free gravy, that is).

Let's see what recipe I've come up with following last week's ALDI shop!

One of the wonderful concoctions I managed to throw together without glancing at a recipe book was the sacred nut roast.

I love a good roast dinner. I'm a big fan of my meat and two veg (Hey! Less of that!) so was intrigued to see what a meatless roast would be like.

I blended mushrooms, garlic, mixed nuts (pine nuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts), Italian seasoning and a bit of parmesan cheese, and produced this:

Ladies and gents: Becky's nut roast

Now I know what you're thinking: 'Becky?! YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BE ON MASTERCHEF!'

I know, I know, it's beautiful. But honestly, at this point - I was ready to cave and head to One Stop for some cheap chicken. I persevered though, and stuck the blob in the oven for 20 minutes.

I made some mash and boiled sprouts and carrots. I even bought some vegetarian gravy which is actually really, really good - better than chicken flavoured gravy (shock, horror)!

I ate the whole thing. It was super delicious, and doesn't look half bad once cooked and covered in gravy, if I do say so myself.

If the visuals don't put you off, I highly recommend trying a nut roast for yourself. Keep checking up for more news on my new found vegetarianism!

Ta loves
x

Happy New Year! Happy Veganuary?

Merry 2016 all! Where did 2015 go? 

What a friendly crow

It was an eventful year for me: returning to university after my internship, being reunited with my beautiful housemates, turning 21, travelling to different places in the UK and Europe, and meeting Ryan. I finished it off in style as a redhead, surrounded by great people, in the city I love: Leeds. Now the resolutions come pouring in all over Facebook #newyearnewme, going to join the gym, diet starts today etc.

Well I'm setting myself a challenge. Three challenges to be exact.

New Year seen in with the best friends

I have three resolutions (but will I actually stick to any? We’ll see!) 

1. Blog more: DO IT. DOOOOOO IT. YOU ENJOY IT, BECKY, SO BLEEDIN’ DO IT!

2. Tone up. Yes, this will last two seconds. Everyone says they’re going to lose weight in the New Year, but it never lasts. Last year, I lost a bit of weight after January, but it’s all come back (blame the boyfriend, beer, and desserts), but I’d like to tone up in some areas to feel a bit better about the way I look.

3. Eat more consciously. Now this brings me onto my post’s title. We as a nation eat too much meat. Too much meat is bad for you and it is also bad for our world. We are eating meat at an unsustainable rate. After visiting a Vegan Festival, I discovered amazing foods that don’t contain meat or animal products. Shock horror! I couldn’t believe it either, does anything taste good without bacon? 

Anyway, I was going to take part in Veganuary: a scheme where you become a vegan for the whole of January, but then I remembered…dairy. No cheese, no chocolate, no milk for my Yorkshire Tea, and no eggs for my yorkshire puddings. I’m just not ready for that kind of commitment. Yes, there are alternative ingredients to eggs, milk, cheese etc. but it's just not the same. 

So instead, I’m trying my own thing: Vegetaruary…it works if you say it fast. I will go all of January without eating meat. We’ll see how I get on, I’ll blog regularly, share recipes and how I’m finding the whole thing.

My ALDI shop

A Yorkshire lass can't live without her gravy

I spent £18 in ALDI on my weekly shop. I can already see the benefits to vegetarianism as my usual weekly shop comes to around £26 when buying different meats and seafood. From looking at what I’ve bought, none of the foods are standalone meals, but I’m excited to mix flavours and foods together to see what I create. Wish me luck!

Ta loves

Becky

Am bein’ Autumnal, orate?

Hellor! So a lot’s changed in the year and a bit since I last posted. Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. So yeah, first of all, sorry about that. I really wanna try and take this opportunity and make a proper go of it this time. Starting with this. 

A lot has changed. I feel a lot more confident thanks to the past year. I’ve interned at my University, taken a year out from my studies, made some amazing friends, travelled to some cool locations, met an amazing boy and eaten foods and drank drinks I couldn’t possibly imagine tasting that beautiful outside of my beautiful Yorkshire. Overall, I feel a much happier, more confident person who wants to make a real go of this blogging business.

One of the biggest changes my friends will have noticed is my hair! Out with the blonde and in with the, oh, aup, what’s that? Becky, the girl who for the past 21 years of her life has been bright blonde either through natural sun, highlighting or dyeing, has gone RED.

It was a big step. I’d spoken to a few people about the change, and they were divided. I was told it could clash with my pinkish skin tone, that I should just go for it, and that it could go ‘ewww ginger’! I bought Loreal Preference’s Brooklyn shade and went from bright blonde to dark auburn in the time it takes to watch an episode of Corrie (which I did whilst my hair developed FYI).

I was immediately so pleased with the results. When I was younger, as a natural mousey blonde, it would go dark in winter. As an awkward 12/13 year old with no make-up and a cheap pair of hair straighteners, pictures would emerge of this Hanson reject with the largest black bags under her eyes and a wide, fat nose. I always thought that darker hair would bring that look back from 2006 where it belonged. However, I was so wrong and I really suit the colouring.

Now, when I see pictures with my old hair, I can't believe I stayed blonde for so long. I went from golden blonde, to ash blonde, to platinum blonde which in the end made me look like an E.L. James novel: 50 Shades of Blonde, although no Christian in sight! Just look at how unhealthy it looked, and how pink it made my skin!

It seems to be a good colour for the Autumn and Winter months, but I’ll have to stay on top of it when the sun comes back from wherever he goes. Not sure I’d rock orange roots! My head is the colour of chestnuts, fallen leaves, and mulled wine, which is probably my favourite thing about this time of year because I get warm and drunk. YAY.

I love being red, and even more recently I’ve had a lot of hair lopped off. IT’S SO SHORT NOW OMG. I’m loving this new look and feel sassy af. Thank you to everyone who’s complimented my new look, I even plan to go a bit redder next time!

So, I hope to carry on blogging. I have a few ideas ready to post in the next couple of weeks. Please, if you enjoy it, keep telling me to post stuff otherwise my next post will probably be December 2016. Who knows?! Maybe then I’ll be rocking a green cropped ‘do! Hopefully not though!

Ta loves

x