ayamami's Profile

I know I need to eat more veggies and cut back on the fatty foods I adore like cheese, butter, cream cheese frosting on cinnamon buns and pretty much anything dairy.

But I think the key is to have things in moderation. Like Bittman, I'm a vegetarian during office hours and in restaurants and a carnivore at home. I've stepped it up a gear this time cooking "nearly veggie" meals at least 4 out of 5 evenings. I say nearly veggie as sometimes they include small amounts of meat or fish, eg a rasher of bacon to flavour a batch of hearty green lentils. I've had to resist the temptation of putting cheese into every dish to make it veggie and instead experiment with spices to liven up my vegetables.

This week's menu includes spiced parsnip soup (made with coconut milk rather than cream), warm potato and leek salad with shreds of smoked fish and watercress, Szechuan mushroom fried rice and (ahem) caramelised onion and blue cheese tart.

Portions are important with veggie food as they can be perceived to be less filling, so I up the ante with the carbs to fill me up. My tart is the least carb friendly of these so I made layer slices of thin potato on the bottom of the tart to beef it up. And you know what, I'm damn well looking forward to the end of the week for that tart and I will be savouring every mouthful!

I love making pancakes with Chestnut flour (http://dinneratmayas.blogspot.com/2011/03/chestnut-pancakes-gluten-free.html). I find the flour makes them similar to buckwheat pancakes but much nuttier and delicious.

I live in the UK and I use two organic vegbox companies (Abel & Cole, Riverford) for my fruit, veg, and basics. There was a point when I was buying my meat from there as well so I never left the house to go to the supermarket. I've found a good local butcher recently so I've started buying the meat from there.

I used to use supermarket online services when I was in university. But I found the service to be poor for those, they would substitute items if the product isn't in stock (eg strawberry soy milk instead of chocolate...etc), which I found annoying. Sometimes they would forget an item altogether, so I don't find them dependable for basics.

The vegbox companies are small and very helpful. The two I chose have their own drivers so if your box is late, their customer services team and locate your driver to find out the problem. I've been using the vegbox companies for over 2 years now and they've never missed a delivery or delivered the wrong items to me. Perfect!

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