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Wednesday 27 June 2012

Vegetarian Beans and Sausages.

Sometimes beans on toast can be a bit, well, unsatisfying and monotonous so I don't actually eat it that often.

But, as a child I LOVED the tins of beans and sausages you could get, it just added that little something to just plain old beans on toast.  But as a veggie, this is something I have to say good bye to, or so I thought...

This week is moving week, so I was after meals that would be quick to cook (I have a lot to do still in preparation), cheap, reasonably nutritious and wouldn't require ingredients that I would have left over (therefore more things to take over).  Reluctantly I decided on beans on toast.

However, when I went to procure said beans from my local ASDA I found that they now sell VEGETARIAN sausages and beans! Woo Hoo!

They taste as good as the non-veggie sausages and beans (although I doubt that the normal sausages actually contain that much meat anyway!) and they have made meals this week a bit more bearable.  Probably not the healthiest of options, but then I'm sure I can cope for 4 days.

I try not to make a habit of shopping at supermarkets, and try where possible to use independent shops, but it's not always easy to do with busy lives, especially when independent shops insist on sticking to 9-5 opening hours. However ASDA do some great veggie stuff, including vegetarian chocolate mousse (although there low fat version contains gelatine!) and I think all (if not a great deal) of their vegetarian frozen food is approved by the vegetarian society.

So if, like me, you're a veggie hankering after childhood memories of tinned beans and sausages head to your local ASDA!

*Having read this, it seems like I'm promoting ASDA, and I would like to therefore add that I am NOT receiving any payment in any form (including freebies) from ASDA or the Walmart company and all opinions are my own.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Restaurant Review: The Great Kathmandu, Didsbury

This last two months have been a little indulgent, with so many birthdays and Father's days etc. etc.

Anyway, one of these indulgences involved a visit to The Great Kathmandu in Didsbury, Manchester.

The Great Kathmandu was founded in 1987 and offers traditional Nepalese cuisine in the lovely area of Didsbury.

The first thing that you notice as you sit down and look at the menu is that there is much more on offer than the typical dishes you expect at Asian restaurants, which is great for me because I like to try new things and I can't stand it when you go to a restaurant and every single dish is familiar.

There is a wide range of vegetarian food, in fact a whole section of the menu is devoted to it (rather than the usual 'same sauce, just with the veg instead of the meat') and a lot of thought had obviously been put into the vegetarian options.  There are vegetarian starters but the do not seem to appear on the online menu for some reason?!

I also liked the poster in the window that said 'Keep Calm and Eat Curry', it definitely made me laugh but at the same time, it's so true- the UK has fully embraced Asian food, and food from all other cultures for that matter.  I think Jamie Oliver is right, we ARE a nation of magpies when it comes to food!

I ordered the Muttar Paneer, which is paneer cheese and peas, as I had a craving for paneer and anything with peas gets my vote!  Plus, since The Boys (The Boy plus twin) were present we also ordered a paneer starter as well. The service was good, the waiters were friendly, the food was lovely and reasonably priced. The portions were just right and weren't too filling, and the only issue was the cheese nans, which The Boys ordered, apparently we're that cheesy- although I think they were expecting cheese to come oozing out, so I'm not too concerned by that! We did have the issue of table too small for all the dishes, but that seems to be an issue at most Asian restaurants.  Unfortunately, again I forgot my camera so there are no photos.

I would definitely recommend Kathmandu, and it is worth a visit.


Monday 11 June 2012

Hospital Inn- Preston.

I've not posted in a while now due to being to busy with studying and moving.  But since I've managed to magic some free time (nothing on TV, except Gok Wan cooks Chinese and since there are no veggie dishes this week there seemed to be no point in watching it) I decided to do a blog post.

One of my favourite pass times is eating out, it stems from frequent pub meals as a youngster, when my Dad use to pick my Mum up from work (he worked nights, my Mum 9-5) and on the way home she'd say:

"So what's for tea?"

My Dad, having got too distracted by Neighbours (and therefore was frequent late on picking her up) to think about tea would say

"Pub???"

Although becoming a Vegetarian has made eating out more challenging, it still something I do whenever I get chance to. So I thought I would start to do my own restaurant reviews. This post is about the Hospital Inn in Preston (sorry it doesn't have a website!).

It all started on the Boy's and his twin brother's (also a veggie) birthday two weeks ago, they planned on going to Smithills, however that was out the question when we found out it didn't open Wednesday tea time so the hunt began to find a new venue. After driving to two other pubs in Bolton- one who's veggie options were mushroom risotto with parmesan and roasted stuffed aubergine with brie (both of these were £15!) the other had only one option of cauliflower cheese risotto with parmesan (and then asked if we ate fish) a decision was made to drive to Preston and go to the Hospital Inn, a place The Boy's family rave about but I had yet to visit.

When we arrived there, I noticed that the specials board- which in most places only has meat options, had a whole section of vegetarian specials. Including:

Sizzling Halloumi with stir fried veg in a teriyaki  sauce and served with rice
Leak, broccoli and Stilton pie
Pasta with home made cherry tomato pesto served with garlic bread

Plus various other options on the regular menu.  I opted for the sizzling halloumi special (halloumi is the one few cheeses I like).  The halloumi was well cooked, sometimes it can be 'squeaky' but this had been cooked to perfection and hence, was 'unsqueaky', the teriyaki sauce was divine and  although I got 2/3 of the way through it and started to feel full, it was too nice not to finish.  So I finished it, and then felt very sleepy afterwards! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I haven't any pictures.

The Hospital Inn goes to show that British pubs can be veggie friendly, and vegetarian food doesn't have to be an after thought, and it can be as different and exciting as the meat options.

I would definitely recommend that you give the Hospital Inn a go.