AllThePlantsIAte

A carnivorous vegetarianism.

[alltheplantsiate]

Why I've stopped eating non-traceable prawns

[alltheplantsiate]

Why Keep Eating Less Meat When #veggieweek is over?

I felt like I was eating too much meat for no good reason other than the fact it was there. Need bacon in that chicken sandwich? Really? Need chorizo in with that ham? Hmm?

I like being forced to think about what I’m going to cook for tea.

I was stuck in a cycle of meals I cooked on repeat, this has jump-started my interest in food again.

This was never a health thing — maybe eating meat is a healthier diet. Maybe veganism is better than vegetarianism. Maybe raw veganism is better than veganism. I understand what a healthy diet is and I also understand the importance of enjoying and appreciating food.

Knowing I can eat something if I want to is a better way for me to regulate it than denying it from myself completely.

It’s way cheaper. Like, waaaaaaaay cheaper. So much cheaper.

I’m eating more fruit and veg than ever and enjoying it — so health benefits are occurring naturally.

It’s making me feel less of a hypocrite when I talk about how important conservation is to me now that I rely less on intensive farming to feed myself.

Really, everyone should just be able to do what they want instead of feeling the need to justify themselves. I've come across a lot of very judgy veg/vegan/raw food/paleo blogs (which mainly appeared to be full to the brim with total bumarse) over the past couple of weeks and I'm happy to carry on doing what I'm doing rather than identifying as a certain type of person based on the food I eat. The last thing I want is to become somebody who looks down on others for eating food.

Yum yum food in my belly.

[alltheplantsiate]

Prawns and Wine

A more delicious combination, there is not. Unless you count butter and sugar but of course, nobody except me does, because that's disgusting (and the main reason I don't bake).

This prawn saganaki is meant to be served in little dishes as an appetiser or mezze dish, but Tom and I decided a long time ago that you might as well serve it with pasta and enjoy yourself. So that's what this recipe is for.

Prawn Saganaki

400g cooked, peeled and de-veined prawns

One tin chopped tomatoes

250ml (a large glass) of white wine

One onion

Two cloves of garlic

One block (a whole block) of feta

One bay leaf

Half a teaspoon of cayenne

EVOO

Salt & Pepper

1. Chop the onion and fry in a little olive oil. When cooked and transluscent, chop the garlic and fry with the onions, only for about 20-30 seconds.

2. Tip the prawns into the same pan and fry for a bit. They are already cooked, so don't overdo it with the heat or they'll go all chewy and rubbery.

3. Pour in the glass of wine (I use the dryest I can find because it ends  up being more flavourful) and cook until the alcohol is gone. You'll know when this is because it'll start smelling delicious instead of like the aftermath of the worst dinner party ever.

4. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and stir well. Add the salt, pepper, cayenne and bay leaf and cover, leaving to simmer for at least 20 minutes. You want the liquids to reduce by a third.

5. Take of the heat and stir. Crumble in all of the feata - don't be shy - and stir so most of it melts into the sauce.

6. Serve and eat.

You can serve as a mezze for several people or cook up some pasta and eat as a full meal for two. It's totally up to you.

[alltheplantsiate]

Food Lust: Aldi Chilli and Ginger Kiln-Baked Salmon

What is it? Delicious baked salmon packed in enough juicy juices that you don't need to pack a sauce with it to have it for lunch with spinach/salad.

Why is it so good? Well, Salmon is excellent for you, but this type is also fantastically tasty (although not spicy at all) and affordable (£2.10 at the Aldi near my work, a bargain for a piece of Salmon, especially when on buy one get one free.)

Recommendation: A great alternative to peppered/smoked mackerel, it works well flaked in salads, as a big hunk of meaty fish next to green veg or drizzled with lemon juice and wrapped in a puff pastry parcel for a super cheat salmon en croute.

[alltheplantsiate]

Tuna and Udon

Tom bought some sashimi grade Tuna steaks from the market and they looked and tasted so amazing raw we didn't want to ruin them with too many overpowering flavours. 

What we ended up with was some sort of Japanese/Mediterranean fusion. It was good.

Tuna Steaks with Asian-style salad and Roasted Cherry Tomato Udon

Two thick tuna steaks

One bunch of spring onions

Half a cucumber

One red pepper

Packet of piccolino or other sweet cherry toms

Packet of ready to wok udon noodles (what, you can get dried if you want)

Half a bunch of parsley

One green chilli, de-seeded

One tablespoon rice wine vinegar

One tablespoon dark soy sauce

Sesame oil

EVOO

salt & pepper

1. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and put on a medium heat. Place the tomatoes in the pan and drizzle a little more oil and some salt and pepper on top. Cover, if possible. If not, it's not the end of the world.

2. Place the tuna steaks on a plate and drizzle over some olive oil. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper and coat thoroughly.

3. Get a potato peeler and peel ribbons of cucumber into a large mixing bowl. Don't use too much of the middle seedy bit or the salad will be too wet. Chop the parsley, spring onions, red pepper and green chilli and add to the cucumber.

4. Add rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, a dash of sesame oil and salt and pepper and mix well. Leave to stand for around five minutes.

5. Add a tablespoon of sesame oil into a wok and stir fry your Udon. Add the roasted cherry tomatoes and squish a bit so their juices come out. Add a dash of rice wine vinegar as you stir fry.

6. Heat up a griddle pan and slap the tuna steaks on. Depending on the freshness of your tuna, you'll only need to cook until the outside is seared. I like mine rare so only cooked for a total of around 2 minutes tops. It's up to you.

7. Place the seared tuna on a plate, with the juicy salad on top and the noodles to the side. Add more of the salad juice as a sort of sauce. Eat.

[alltheplantsiate]

Avocado as a cream replacement

I figured that if I was going to let myself eat a giant bowl of durum wheat pasta, I should probably cut back on the luxuries elsewhere in the recipe.

This concoction started life as a parmesan-cream-watercress pipe dream, however with some pointers from some dubious "clean eating" Pinterest boards (last time I checked, just because something was green didn't mean it was a superfood) it morphed into a meal I could happily look Jesus in the eyes and tell him it was healthy. But then again I'd tell that guy anything, what's he gonna do? Katie: "Jesus, this pasta is really healthy." Jesus: "OMG I could just die" *dies*

Anyway, here it is.

Green Eating Pasta

One avocado

half a block of feta

150ml low fat natural yoghurt

half a packet of spaghetti

most of a big bag of baby spinach

half a bag of watercress

Juice of one lemon

One onion

two cloves of garlic

salt & pepper

EVOO

1. Boil a pan of water and add a big old pinch of salt. Add the dry spaghetti to the boiling water.

2. Chop the onion and sautee in a big pan in some olive oil. When cooked, chop the garlic and add to the pan, stirring for 30 seconds.

3. Add the spinach handful by handful, then the watercress, until it's all wilted. Turn off the heat. It should look like you hardly put any in, but you know you put loads in, and that's the main thing.

4. Add the lemon juice, salt and a decent amount of pepper. Pour in the yoghurt and mix well.

5. Get a stick blender (or pour it all into a blender if you haven't got one, or mash it up as best you can with a potato masher if you haven't got either) and blitz the ingredients until they turn into a bright green sauce.

5. Drain the pasta which should be cooked by  now and add to the pan of sauce.

6. Crumble the feta over the top - you can use parmesan if you really must - mix well and serve straight away.

7. Eat.

This meal is the only one I've had all week where I've thought "some chicken would go really nicely with this", but then it has been 10 days since I ate any meat.

I'd recommend coating chicken breasts in green pesto or a herby crust and pan frying to go with this, but that's just me.

[alltheplantsiate]

GoBurrito ain't got shit.

In my hometown everyone goes totally ducknuts over a Mexican food place called GoBurrito. 

I have to admit, when it opened it was the most amazing place in Lancaster, just what the City needed, but I've heard that it's going downhill a little. Shame when a good restaurant starts to rest on its laurels. (I haven't been in a while though so I'll have to visit again before I make any more judgments.)

I don't live there anymore and over the weekend I was craving it so bad that I nearly drove the hour up the M6 just to get one.

Lucky for me I found these recipes instead. If you're a part-time veggie, this is probably even better than GoBurrito itself because you don't have the added torture of walking through a deli full of pulled pork and marinated chicken.

Veggie Burritos

One tin sweetcorn

One bunch coriander

Two handfuls of rice

Two poblano (I used romano) peppers

One tin kidney beans

A pack of Halloumi (optional)

Four tortillas

One dessertspoon tomato puree

One white onion

Two chubby cloves of garlic

One teaspoon of cumin

One heaped teaspoon of chilli powder

One teaspoon of oregano

One bay leaf

One vegetable stock cube

Two limes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Various sauces and dips

1. Put a milk pan of water on to boil and add a pinch of salt. When boiling gently, add the rice, turn down as low as you can (move to the smallest ring too) and cover with the pan lid or failing that, a small plate. Check in about 10 minutes to see if the water has been absorbed. DO NOT ADD MORE WATER. When the water's nearly gone, turn off the heat, cover and leave for five minutes.

2. Chop the onion and add to a medium-ish pan with a glug of olive oil. Fry on a medium heat until the onions are translucent. Chop/crush the garlic and add to the onions along with the bay leaf. Fry for another 30-40 seconds.

3. Add tomato puree and fry for a little longer, then add the vegetable stock cube, a teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper. Add about 200ml of freshly boiled water and drain the kidney beans and add those too.

4. Mix around until the stock combines with the tomato puree and then start smashing up the beans. Use a potato masher if you have to - try and keep some of them whole-ish, maybe smash up about 3/4 of the beans. Add the cumin, chilli powder and oregano. Stir well.

5. Turn down the heat and leave to simmer with the lid off, stirring well from time to time to make sure it doesn't stick.

6. Drain the sweetcorn and tip it into a bowl. Spear your peppers with something you can use as a handle - I used a fork - and burn and blister the skin on the hob by holding them over the open flame. Do this until the pepper is hot and pretty charred in places but try not to actually burn the whole thing to a crisp.

7. Put the peppers in a different bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm. Leave for ten minutes to steam.

8. Chop the corriander stalks and all and add half to the sweetcorn. Squeeze one of the limes over the corrander and sweetcorn and then add a generous pinch of salt. Once the peppers have steamed all they're going to, peel off the most burnt bits and chop the remainder and add to the sweetcorn mix. Mix thoroughly.

9. Slice the halloumi into 12. Fry in a little olive oil and set aside.

10. Uncover the rice and add a drizzle of olive oil, the juice of your second lime, salt, pepper and the rest of the chopped corriander. Stir well.

11. Make a clear space on your kitchen worksurface. Place a sheet of foil on the surface just bigger than your tortilla wraps. Put a tortilla on top and spread with the kidney bean mixture. Then add two spoons of rice, as much sweetcorn salsa as you like and three slices of halloumi.

12. Wrap the tortilla up and roll up the foil so it's secure. Serve as is. Make the remaining tortillas up in the same way.

13. Eat.

I recommend trying without any sauce first, then going nuts with Sriracha, garlic and chilli mayo, sour cream and guacamole.

[alltheplantsiate]

A week and a day

It's now Tuesday 27th May, so I've been a vegetarian for eight days and one breakfast.

Things I've learned:

Spinach is probably the greatest foodstuff ever

I couldn't live without cheese

Vegetables are surprisingly filling

My mum still thinks being a vegetarian will make me get anemia

Bacon is quite overrated

I care more about conservation than animal welfare

I am continuing my pescatarian (I will always still eat fish) diet for as long as I feel like it, because I like it. A week of not eating meat has taught me that aside from a couple of brief black pudding cravings, I've not really missed it, and I certainly don't want to eat it just because it's there.

I still care more about the way meat is farmed than the actual animals it affects. I guess it sounds strange for a person to openly admit that they don't mind animals being raised and slaughtered for food, but I have my own reasons. The issues it causes for wild animals and their habitats/our own environment is far more pressing an issue to me, and this is what's making me want to change my diet.

I also am enjoying being a bit healthier and having a lot more variety, which is what this was all about in the first place.

I'll keep updating this with veggie recipes as I go along, I hope it'll help you to think about maybe having a meat-free meal every week :)

[alltheplantsiate]

Spinach, Feta, Pasta.

(Original recipe here)

It's a perfect combination. Reminding me irresistibly of a friend's own Cannelloni recipe he dubbed "Angel Shit" (on account of it being so good it's like 'an Angel shat in your mouth'), I've decided to keep a normalish name for this lasagna.

One thing I will say is this - it's the only recipe I think I've ever made without garlic in and IT DOESN'T NEED IT. I was stunned. (If you feel you simply can't go on without it, I would suggest using wet garlic or garlic-infused olive oil rather than the ballsy stuff.)

Spinach & Feta Lasagne aka. God Lasagna

600g frozen spinach

6 spring onions

1 tin tomatoes

150g feta cheese

Two generous glugs of EVOO

1 teaspoon salt

Plenty of black pepper

Half a teaspoon of nutmeg

12 lasagne sheets (I only used 5 and made a four layer lasagne but you can go nuts. I can never cook the sheets through properly so I used fewer.)

Cheese Sauce

~Cheese Sauce~

2 dessertspoons of butter

2 dessertspoons of flour

200ml of milk (you might not use it all, best to pour straight from the carton to save wasting it)

100g tasty Lancashire cheese, grated

1. Pre-heat oven to 225 degrees C. Put the weird frozen discs of spinach into a pan and put on a low heat to defrost. Add your chopped spring onions, a glug of olive oil, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

2. Once the spinach and spring onions have cooked a little, add the tin of tomatoes and stir. Turn off heat and cover.

3. In another pan, boil your pasta sheets (if needed).

4. In yet another pan (sorry), melt the butter and add flour to make a roux. Stir on a medium heat until a light brown colour.

5. Add milk to the roux bit by bit until you have a silky smooth white sauce. Add salt and pepper. If you've never made sauce like this before, here are the four stages of roux: i) This looks like breadcrumbs, how is this a sauce? (add milk) ii) Oh shit, this looks like play-do, how is this a sauce? (add more milk) iii) Oh shit, maybe I used too much flour (add more milk) iv) Ah, it's a sauce now. I knew it would be. I am fucking ace at this. You might need more or less milk depending on the robustness of your roux (ie. if you couldn't be arsed to measure the flour and butter and just went ahead and guessed like every time I make white sauce.)

6. Turn off heat and let cool slightly. Add grated cheese a handful at a time, taking the opportunity to eat some as you do so, stirring and adding until it's all melted into a delicious melty goo.

7. Get your chosen lasagne dish and add a layer of spinach filling, followed by a layer of cheese sauce, followed by a layer of pasta. Repeat. End with a layer of cheese sauce.

8. Crumble all that delicious Feta on top. Don't be shy. You want a snowy roof of perfect Greek cheese on that mother.

9. Drizzle on some olive oil and sprinkle some pepper on for good luck and then put it in the over for about 25 minutes. Check every now and again in case of accidental cheese-seepage or burning.

10. Eat with salad. I liked mine with spinach, watercress and rocket.

[alltheplantsiate]

Quorn mince has reeeally upped its game lately.

Far from the mushy grey substance I remember from when I was a short-lived veggie back in 2006/2007, the stuff I bought today (frozen) fried and simmered like beef mince, holding it's steaky integrity throughout. 

A light round of applause for our beleaguered fungus-and-egg-white friend.

This chilli is a straight-up adaptation from my regular beef mince chilli, but I reckon I'll be making it like this 80% of the time (unless we have guests) because it's cheaper and there's less chance of finding bits of tendon/bone in your mouthful. I love serving guests offal.

Trill Chilli

300g Quorn mince (one frozen bag should do)

One white onion

Two chubby cloves of garlic

One fat carrot

One tin of chopped tomatoes

One tin of red kidney beans

One big spoonful of tomato purée

Two teaspoons of Marmite

One heaped teaspoon (might as well make it two) of hot chilli powder

One teaspoon of cumin

one teaspoon of oregano

A couple of glugs of EVOO

Salt & Pepper

1. Chop the onion and start frying it gently in a largeish saucepan with a glug of olive oil.

2. Chop/Mince/Grate the garlic cloves and add to the onion when they are almost softened. Turn the heat down if necessary - try not to burn the garlic or it'll smell bad and you'll kinda make your chilli taste weird.

3. While the garlic and onion are happily fizzling away, peel and grate the carrot. Once the onion is soft and translucent, add the Quorn mince and grated carrot.

***This is my secret trick! The carrot bulks out the chilli so you get more servings out of it AND it's another veg added for fun AND the texture is pretty satisfying***

4. Stir a bit and add more olive oil because the Quorn will soak up that badness so fast you'll be like "whaat". Keep frying everything and mixing it around and add the Marmite.

***This is another secret trick! The Marmite gives the chilli a big savoury flavour, so even if you hate Marmite 1) You're fucking wrong and 2) You won't know it's there. So there.***

5. Add the cumin, chilli powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Keep stirring. You're trying to get rid of at least some of the excess moisture from the carrots and Quorn.

6. When it seems pretty much cooked (the carrots will be all limp), add the tinned tomatoes and the tomato purée. Stir well and then half fill up the tomato tin with water and pour that in too. Mix, mix, mix.

7. Drain the kidney beans (I like to rinse them too but you don't have to) and tip them into the chilli. Stir and leave to simmer for around 10 minutes so that the kidney beans cook through.

8. Eat. I have mine with rice because it's my favourite, but it's equally good with cauliflower rice, wraps, chips or on nachos covered in melted cheese.

[alltheplantsiate]

Peanut Noodles (With Shrimp)

(Original recipe here)

I doubted the integrity of these noodles when I first saw the recipe. "Peanut butter? No fish sauce? No raw chillies? You're 'avin a larf!" I thought, in the cockney accent my in-head voice has developed since becoming temporarily engrossed with the current Eastenders clusterfuck of a storyline.

However, I am not a chef, nor should I be judging by my initial reaction, as these are incredibly, amazingly, stomach-swellingly delicious. Stomach-swellingly because they are moreish beyond belief and it's amazing easy to eat a horrific amount of them, the actual gravity of the situation only revealing itself to you five minutes later when you're trying to drink a post-meal cup of tea. Warning: You will feel like you're going into labour. Don't eat more than a modest portion. Ration yourself.

Here I changed a few ingredients a) because I don't like rice noodles and b) I couldn't be arsed spending any more time in Tesco looking for the right type of soybean-based sauce. By the way - buy Sriracha in huge vats from your friendly local Asian supermarket or well-stocked corner shop, because Tesco are currently spanking my arse with their insultingly small "gourmet" bottles of the stuff. It's beautiful and it goes with everything. Trust.

Ingredients

Two servings of egg noodles or brown spaghetti

Four beyond-generous dessert spoons of crunchy peanut butter (I used Sun Pat on offer from Lidl so it really doesn't matter how good it is)

One teaspoon of dark soy sauce

One tablespoons of rice wine vinegar

One tablespoon of Sriracha (but just add more, it's really nice)

One tablespoon of roasted sesame oil

One (two, three) cloves of garlic

A big chunk of ginger about half the size of your thumb

Four spring onions

One teaspoon of salt

Black pepper

250ml warm water

(300g brown shrimp, optional)

1. Put a pan of salted water on to boil and begin to cook your noodles. Chop the spring onions.

2. In a blender (I used my margherita smoothie maker) add the roasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, Sriracha, ginger, however much garlic you see fit, soy sauce, salt, pepper and peanut butter. Blend until smooth.

3. Add the warm water as you go if the going gets tough - eventually you'll need to end up with a sauce roughly the same thickness as chip shop curry. If you don't know offhand how thick that is, go away and come back when you've decided to be more sensible.

4. If you're using them and your shrimp need cooking or you'd like them to be hot, add them to a frying pan with EVOO, salt, pepper and some cayenne. Fry for a few minutes until they start looking grey/brown and delicious.

5. Drain your cooked noodles and return to the pan. Add as much of the sauce as you're willing to spare and toss with most of the spring onions (and shrimp) until it's all fairly distributed. If you have any sauce left you can keep it in a sealed container in the fridge for about a week.

6. Put the noodles in suitable serving bowls and add the rest of the spring onions on top. Eat.

[alltheplantsiate]

So Tesco make Broad Bean, Asparagus and Mint Houmous now. Just putting that out there.

I bought some yesterday (it had been yellow stickered and looked too beautiful to be left with the unwanted tripe and bottles of Actimel) and immediately thought "This will be the perfect way to avert the use of cheese in that Vegan Slaw Wrap recipe!"

You won't feel guilty for crumbling some cheese into this though - nor should you - if you choose a tasty Lancashire or a tangy goats cheese it'll make the carrots and tart dressing zing and you'll cry with happiness. Probably.

Vegan Slaw Wrap

(Original recipe here)

Two Chubby Carrots A Hefty Courgette A Hungry Grab of Pumpkin Seeds A slop of EVOO 2 tablespoons of Cider Vinegar 2 teaspoons of Maple Syrup Heaped teaspoon of Cayenne Salt and Pepper, as posh as you like, no judgements

1. Toast the pumpkin seeds with the cayenne pepper until they're well toasted. Don't be shy. Put the extractor fan on, your eyes will sting.

2. Peel and grate (or julienne if you can be arsed) the carrots and courgette and squash with some kitchen roll to get some of the excess juiciness out of them.

3. Put the grated carrot and courgette into a bowl - one that has a lid or can fit in the fridge is ideal - and add the maple syrup, olive oil, cider vinegar and a generous amount of salt and pepper. We're all adults, use your best judgement. Check on your pumpkin seeds, they'll be ready by now.

4. Add the pumpkin seeds and mix the whole lot thoroughly. Eat now as a side dish or as a wrap filling (here is where you'd add the cheese), or seal and eat later. Keeps for about a day before getting too sloppy to be genuinely enjoyed.

[alltheplantsiate]

This is actually three recipes, two that are new to me (and one that is so ridiculously simple frankly it's an affront to refer to it as such).

I made these as side dishes for a barbecue we had over the weekend (I burnt my face in the sun - it was hot!) and despite the high level of meat participation, these got quite a lot of love.

As you can see, they all keep well for a day or two in a sealed container in the fridge and are perfect for yummy, sunny lunches. Expect your colleagues/school friends to be hovering around like midges.

Sweetcorn Salsa (Vegan)

(Originally found here)

1 tin sweetcorn (you can use fresh, frozen, whatever, 300g is enough)

4 spring onions, chopped how you like

1 pepper - I chose an orange one because they are pretty

1 avocado, chopped - actually don't worry if it's not that ripe, being more solid kinda helps the longevity of this salsa

Big handful of corriander

Medium handful of mint

Fair old glug of EVOO

Juice of a lime (batter the lime on the counter top until it's soft before you cut and squeeze it, it's easier to juice that way)

Salt - can be as pretentious as you like

Pepper - likewise

1. Put all your veggie ingredients into a suitable bowl. It may as well be the bowl you're going to serve it in.

2. Add the olive oil, lime juice and pretentious gourmet salt and pepper. (Pink Himalayan, citrus, lavender...I mean, I used Saxo but it's up to you. Go nuts.) Mix around until you're satisfied it's mixed enough. Use your hands, it's better.

3. Eat.

Easiest Greek Salad Ever

Large handful baby spinach

Large handful beetroot leaves

Handful rocket

As many olives (your choice) as you can legitimately call a handful without having to measure in tonnage

A block (a block) of Feta

Half a bunch of flat leaf parsley

A hearty blurg of EVOO

Salt, Pepper

Juice of one lemon

Pinch oregano

This probably isn't a Greek Salad per sé, however it does taste fantastic so I don't really care for pedantry at this point.

1. Add all your salad leaves into a big bowl. Use the serving bowl, you might as well.

2. Tear up the parsley and add to the bowl. Pour in the olives, eating any strays to teach the rest not to bother trying to escape.

3. Cut up the block (whole block) of Feta into bite-size, Apetina-esque chunks. Add to the bowl. One or two pieces can be stolen for the common good.

4. Make your dressing by adding the olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper and lemon juice together and mixing well. - you can mix it in a jam jar like Jamie Oliver, you can whisk it in a mug with a fork, or you can do what I do and just add the ingredients into the bowl and mix it there. Whatever makes you feel more accomplished.

5. You can add parmesan if you want but I don't because it would take my mind off the Feta.

6. Eat.

Corn Bread

120g polenta

120g plain white flour

110g golden caster sugar

80g butter

100ml milk

3 eggs

Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 175 (fan).

1. Tip the polenta (or "corn meal", to use it's less Italian-Romantic name) and flour into a bowl. Don't bother sieving it unless you ground it yourself.

2. Soften the butter and sugar together. Basically, you're creaming it. This is more of a cake mix than bread dough.

3. Mix the eggs, milk and seasoning together in a small bowl or jug and add bit by bit into the corn bread batter until it's smooth. It'll look a bit more curdled than traditional cake mix - that's the polenta. Just ignore it, it'll be fine once it's baked.

4. Pour into a greased tin and bake for around 25-30 mins. Check after 15 to make sure it's not catching.

5. Turn out and leave to cool. Eat.

[alltheplantsiate]

National Vegetarian Week

I decided to take part in national vegetarian week this year for three reasons:

1. My diet has been getting steadily worse (I am addicted to 'gourmet' pork pies)

2. I want to try a lot of different foods

3. I like a challenge

Here are the recipes that got me through this week, I'll update it throughout the week, some might be disasters, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.