Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

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

Thursday, 14 January 2016

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