It has been days and days since I last posted about our meat-free month. During those days (weeks really) we have had highs and lows of eating meat-free. When I last posted, with a snapshot of a vegetarian curry we were making, I was on a real high, thoroughly enjoying our meat-free month and the delicious new recipes we were trying out.
The past week has seen that go downhill with real desperate cravings to eat bacon and egg, and sausages. I don’t know why, but my body has just been desperate for something else – the result is we’ve eaten a lot of stodgy comfort food as you might get a glimpse of in my diary. My lovely friend Caroline who has just finished her meat-free month also said they experienced this, getting more and more desperate for, again, bacon and egg by the end of their month.
For now, here is my better week of eating…
Monday 23rd January
Stilton, onion and potato pie. Really, it is just that. Make some mashed potato, sweat some onions down until nice and golden, then in an ovenproof dish layer mash, onion, stilton and then more mash on top. Bake in the oven and eat. Fabulously stodgy and simple comfort food. Really should be eaten with lots of greenery.
Tuesday 24th January
Ah! No idea of what we ate! Didn’t take a picture so can’t remember. Oh well.
Wednesday 25th January
Macaroni peas. This is a new firm (and super easy and quick) favourite from Hugh’s Everyday Veg. You basically cook peas, then blitz half of them to a puree with some of the pea cooking water. You also add some sliced garlic you’ve gently softened in butter, along with some grated Parmesan (it’s a bit like a pea pesto). Then you mix together your cooked macaroni, pea puree and the remaining whole peas. It’s really delicious.
Thursday 26th January
Enchiladas with tomato sauce, kidney beans, sweetcorn and cheesey herby sour cream. We love fajitas and we love quesadillas, but I really wanted to try a different version of these so we attempted enchiladas. This was a bit of made up recipe, using one for herby sour cream filled enchiladas from The Pioneer Woman and another I’d spotted online for quesadillas with black beans and sweetcorn.
We made a slightly spicy tomato sauce, into half of that heated tinned kidney beans and sweetcorn. The corn tortillas were heated in a dry frying pan then filled with the mixture, and a big dollop of sour cream with herbs and cheese mixed through it. I folded them over then stacked more into the dish until full. Then I covered with the remaining tomato sauce and lots of grated cheese. I think we over cooked them before the tortillas disintegrated, but they were still edible and filling.
Friday 27th January
Mushroom burgers with stilton, onion marmalade and peashoots. Possibly one of our all-time favourite dinners – and there’s so many ways you can reinvent it will different fillings. We grilled some large Portobello mushrooms, top side first, then turned them over and crumbled in some stilton before grilling again. They were popped into lightly toasted sesame buns drizzled with olive oil, then topped with some shop bought onion marmalade (I prefer my homemade version, it’s much more sticky and dark in flavour), mayonnaise and topped with peashoots.
Eat the Earth 
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