Hello, and welcome to this, my new blog. I have been writing for a while without much direction but the past few months have channelled my thoughts towards food. I have always loved food and cooking and have come a long way since my appalling attempts to cook at Uni, when my veggie curry consisted of microwaved frozen vegetables with a spoonful of curry powder stirred through. Yuck. What was I thinking?
My first proper curry, bought for me by my uncle and aunt on the famous Rusholme curry mile in Manchester, was a delectable feast (vegetable biryani) that tantalised my tastebuds. It was mythical and I still think about it more than twenty years later.
My relationship with food has varied over the years and has not always been positive. I first became vegetarian aged 15 and this unfortunately coincided with a period of depression and anorexia, which my parents blamed on my vegetarian habits. I was made to eat meat again and did so until I turned 18 when I became vegetarian and didn't look back for years. When I started having children I stopped eating properly and cooking properly and became very tired and not too healthy. I started eating fish to boost my diet and became pescetarian. I was fairly happy with that, making sure I only bought MSC certified fish and free range eggs. We kept our own chickens for a while, which was wonderful. They are lovely animals and definitely have their own character. They were fully free range and had a fantastic diet of spiders, slugs and other creatures as well as grains and seeds. Then we moved and had to give them up, (to chicken owning family members) which was very sad.
Last year I needed an income and having lost confidence in my abilities within my previous profession I took a local job as a cook / chef / baker in a café. I loved it from day one and have really enjoyed inventing and developing recipes. The menu in the café had a fairly strong vegetarian identity anyway, but it soon became apparent that several of our customers were vegan. I began trying vegan cake recipes as well as making sure we had several vegan savoury dishes on the menu, and the feedback was great. I started to think about my own diet and re examine my values. When an advert for veganuary popped up on Facebook I jumped at the chance to sign up. I fully embraced the challenge and soon realised it wasn't actually a challenge at all. I started out convinced I would at least have to keep having cows milk in my tea and having the odd bit of milk chocolate, but soon got used to oat milk and darker chocolate. I also discovered vegan cheese which is actually ok. I was eating better than ever and had rediscovered a passion for great food as well as refreshing my knowledge of food, farming and environmental issues.
So, on January 30th, with one day of veganuary left, am I stocking up with cheese, eggs and milk chocolate? No, I'm not. I am sticking with it. I will write more about my vegan journey throughout the blog and share recipes and ideas. But for now I must sleep. I hope you stick around to read more. Do leave a comment and say hi.
Bye for now,
Green x
