Almond Milk

Over the past six months, I have grown quite accustomed to my unsweetened, organic soya milk. So, when the health food shop runs out of it, I feel a little lost. My usual back-up was rice milk, but now that I’ve found out I’m allergic to that, I’ve had to look at other options. I’d heard loads of people raving about almond milk. It’s quite a bit more expensive than soya milk, but everyone said it’s worth the price because it tastes so nice. Unfortunately, I don’t agree. You know when you get yourself hyped up about something that’s over-sold to you? Well, that’s what happened to me. Everyone’s tastes differ, but personally I find almond milk too sweet, even sweeter than rice milk. Although, on the plus side, it’s thicker than rice milk, so you can use it as you would soya milk.

Caffeine Cold Turkey Day 3

Oh my God - I have no idea how people cope with coming off hard, class A drugs. All credit to them. After 3 days without any coffee, I still feel pretty terrible. OK, I will admit that I caved slightly. No, don't worry, I didn't run into Starbucks and order a double espresso, but I did take my migraine medication. I know it's not technically cheating, but I still feel guilty. Suffering two days with a constant headache and my brain feeling like it was full of cotton wool cracked me, I had to do something or I wouldn't have been able to function at all at work. I know I've been extra snappy with my colleagues this week, although the hot weather has fortunately also brought out the grumpy side of a few other people so I don't think anyone's noticed me too much.
Every morning this week I have dropped more things and walked into more objects than I did the day before. I boiled a pan of milk for five minutes yesterday before I realised that I hadn't put any buckwheat flakes in it. I'm really hoping that this feeling isn't going to last much longer. Outside of work, all I've done is sleep. I have felt SOOOOO tired. I haven't even been to the gym (apart from my pathetic attempt on Tuesday) or done any sport, which is really unlike me.
My original plan was to go caffeine-free for four weeks and then go back to just having a coffee once in a while. After seeing what it does to my body, though, I don't think I ever want to have caffeine again!

Caffeine Cold Turkey

Picking one of the hottest days of the summer to try going caffeine-free for the first time probably wasn't the best idea. It's hard to tell how much it is the sun making me light-headed and tired, and how much it's the lack of coffee. I thought the worst part would be first thing this morning when I got up. I imagined myself half-asleep, attempting to run through my morning routine and accidently putting the buckwheat flakes back in the fridge and soya milk in the coffee machine instead of water. However, I felt fine until about 10am. That's when the tiredness and the headache hit me. Considering caffeine is so addictive, I haven't actually craved it all day, although I almost went and bought a coffee to keep me awake at my desk. I persisted, though, and I've made it through the day sans-caffeine! My usual 45 minute gym workout was a bit half-arsed, and I had to have a nap when I got home, but I'm hoping my energy will come back as the days go on.

One week down, four to go...

Week one of my allergy-free diet and lifestyle is behind me, and I feel good. I'm not saying that I suddenly leap out of bed at 5am (unfortunately that's what time I have to get up for work) every morning and bounce around all day with a huge grin on my face instead of eczema, but I do feel better. One big difference I have noticed is that I'm much more focused and able to concentrate better. I don't feel as stressed, either. And I'm not really missing any of the things that I've cut out of my diet. I thought I'd be craving bread and chocolate, but it's not really bothering me. I think that's because I'm eating the right stuff so my body doesn't feel the need to crave the bad things, but whatever the reason it seems to be working.
This week my aim is to cut back on caffeine even further than I have done already. From tomorrow I'm replacing my morning filter coffee with decaf, so it'll be interesting to see how I cope without the caffeine fix and if I cave and go and buy a real coffee from the coffee shop in my office.

Allergy Testing

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've known since childhood that I have food allergies. Unfortunately, not many other people have believed me, including my parents and doctors. One doctor who did listen to me, however, was my doctor when I was living in Rhodes. He advised me to request an allergy test on my return to the UK. Once my laughter had died down, I explained to him that in the UK it's not so easy as walking into a surgery and asking for what you need. This practice seemed crazy to him, and rightly so. Surely it makes more sense, and is much more cost effective, for the NHS to diagnose peoples’ allergies that to repeatedly treat their reactions. Apparently not. According to my wonderful GP, there's no point in me knowing what I'm allergic to. He says that I'll work out my allergies on my own eventually, and even if I know what I'm allergic to I probably won't be able to avoid most of it anyway.

The problem, I believe, is that people who don't suffer from allergies don't understand the affect they have on your body. My main problem is eczema, which is classed as a 'skin allergy'. Most of my reactions are contact reactions, ie things that my skin literally comes into contact with, but eczema is also promoted by food allergies. The assumption by the medical world seems to be that eczema just causes itchy skin, but believe me it has a much greater effect. Everyone is different, but when I have an allergic reaction it makes my whole body feel ill. Sometimes my whole body or parts of it swell up, including my tongue and throat, which can mean I have problems breathing. Sometimes I feel so tired all I'm able to do is curl up on my bed.

As my GP suggested, I have been able to figure out a lot of my triggers through educating myself and omitting certain foods from my diet. Although this method can deliver results, it’s really just trial and error. The phrase ‘needle in a haystack’ comes to mind. Most recently, following a plant- based diet has had a huge positive impact on my health generally. There are some triggers, though, that I don't think I would ever find on my own. I figure that if I haven't worked it out yet (I'm 32 years old) then I'm probably not going to. So, when I saw that my local health food shop was offering private allergy tests, I signed myself up.

Using the Asyra Pro test, a simple and non-invasive machine that looks at your health status, the nutritional therapist was able to answer a lot of my questions that I have been asking for years. All that was required of me was to hold two electrodes and answer a few questions about my health and lifestyle. She seemed pleased that I was already following a plant-based diet. This makes a refreshing change, as most people look at you like you’ve just landed in your spacecraft when you mention that you live a plant-based lifestyle.

Although I’ve always suspected that I have complex food allergies, the results surprised even me. Apparently, if someone has food allergies, the computer usually displays about twenty foods that they are intolerant to. My list contained over forty.

There were some triggers which I would never eat anyway, such as clams, duck and haddock. However, knowing that I am allergic to them could explain some of my severe reactions in the past. Although I wouldn’t eat a clam, if I’ve come into contact with something that has been made near clams, that could explain why in the past I have suddenly blown up like a balloon with no known cause.

Among my other allergies, which I would usually eat but now need to avoid, are cabbage, caffeine (I knew that one already really, I’ve just been hoping I can pretend it’s not true), cane sugar, coconut (not worried about this one, I hate coconut), cucumber, ginger, mango, rice milk (gutted!), mushrooms, nutmeg, onion, pea and raisin. The list goes on, and if I avoided it all completely then there wouldn’t be much left for me to eat. The two main culprits, however, are dairy products and gluten. Dairy products are no surprise, as they are a common trigger for eczema. I remember when I first read that dairy products are not good for eczema sufferers. I was horrified that my doctor had not even suggested I cut down on dairy. I spent most of my childhood in horrific pain as a result of my condition, and my life was greatly affected by it, yet here was a simple solution that all the adults in my life were too stubborn to try. As I’ve been trying to follow a plant-based diet anyway, having a medical reason to give up dairy can only encourage me to be healthier.

The real surprise in my allergy test is that I can’t eat gluten. I’ve long suspected that bread is not good for my skin, but I assumed it was the wheat I was reacting to and not the gluten. This piece of information, I believe, is the key to me solving my food problems. It means I have to give up my beloved oats and replace them with buckwheat and quinoa. I can no longer eat couscous or drink beer, but if I don’t eat gluten then the hope is that my body can begin to repair itself and I can re-introduce some of the other foods into my diet.

When I first signed up for the allergy test, I was apprehensive and worried that I would just be faced with another ‘grown up’ telling me I was lying or trying to get attention and that really there’s nothing wrong with me. What I found, however, was a caring professional who genuinely wants to help me turn my life around. I’ll keep you posted on how the diet changes go.

Making a Meal Out of Sides

   Today I found myself eating in a chain restaurant with friends where the food is generally reheated rather than served fresh. My first glance at the menu led me to believe there was quite a selection for vegetarians. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that three of the vegetarian meals were the same cauliflower cheese dish that had been included under different course options. The only main I could find that included no animal protein was a jacket potato with baked beans. Tinned beans aren't ideal, I know, but sometimes you have to cheat a bit. With all the will in the world, a jacket potato with beans is never going to be an exciting meal. So, I decided to add a side of flat mushrooms to make it a bit more interesting.
   Making a meal out of starters and sides is a skill that I picked up whilst living in Greece. Whereas Greek main meals generally revolve around meat, the starters (or mese dishes) are usually vegetarian, and a lot are plant-based.
   If you are finding it hard to make a plant-based choice when eating out, why not order a combination of starters and sides instead? It gives you much more variety and your dining companions will no doubt be jealous of your personal buffet!

Take a Step Together Reminder

   A few weeks ago, I talked about my initiative to 'Take a Step Together'. In a nutshell, the idea is to get together with some like-minded friends or work colleagues and encourage and support each other to lead a healthier, more environmentally aware lifestyle. This has worked really well for me and my work colleagues, but a regression by one of our team has got me thinking that maybe I should post a reminder.
   The colleague in question will remain anonymous, but over the last few weeks the rest of us have noticed that he has taken a couple of steps back in his diet, and he has started making excuses not to got to the gym. The rest of us have banded together to remind him of why we made out pact in the first place, and what he wanted to achieve, and we hope to get him back on track as soon as possible.
   So, why not check in with your 'Take a Step Together' buddies and see how they're getting on. They might just need a little nudge to get them back on track too.

Why freerangecarrots?

I thought I should take a moment to explain where the name Free-range Carrots comes from. I first turned vegetarian when I was nine years old. Unfortunately, it being the late 1980s and a time when everyone listened to their GP unquestioningly, my doctor told my parents they should force me to eat me and they did. For another four years. Then, when I was thirteen, I told my mum that I really couldn’t eat meat anymore. I’d always felt that I was born a vegetarian, and I needed to find my way into the lifestyle where I belonged. My mum’s initial reaction was that I was just being a fussy eater. I’m glad to say her viewpoint has now radically changed and my vegetarianism has in fact encouraged her to eat a healthier diet. Due to health problems when I was born, I’d struggled with food phobias all my life, and even then I could understand her apprehension at my converting to vegetarianism. So me made a compromise. I would take the conversion one step at a time, and together we would educate ourselves about healthy vegetarianism and make sure I was doing everything properly. Red meat was the first to go, and then I gradually gave up white meat, fish, animal fats, gelatine, leather and so on until I was a complete vegetarian.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the reactions you get from people when you tell them you’re vegetarian. I never set out to convert the world, and my belief at that time was that everyone has the right to eat whatever they want. I only told people I was a vegetarian when I had to, i.e. when someone insisted I eat a cocktail sausage at a party or I was in a restaurant when the menu wasn’t labelled for dietary needs. Most people seemed to want to catch me out, to find something I did that proved I wasn’t a real vegetarian. They demanded to know what my shoes were made of (in case it was leather) and quizzed me on what sweets I ate (assuming I wouldn’t know that most jelly sweets contain animal gelatine). Bizarrely, a common response I received was ‘plants have feelings too’. Although this may one day be proved true, my survival comes first for me, and I have to eat something. Ever the sarcastic teenager, and wanting to confuse people before they could drag me into an argument, my stock answer to this comment became ‘Yes, but I only eat free-range carrots’. Hence the name freerangecarrotsJ

Obesity can't be ignored

On Friday 24^th February 2012, The Metro newspaper published an article about the rising numbers if hospital admissions due to obesity. The statistics they quote are scary:

‘The number of weight-loss stomach operations has risen 12 per cent in one year as fatter people try to reverse the rising tide of obesity.
There were 8,087 operations in England’s hospitals in 2010/11, up from 7,214 the previous year, according to NHS data.’
The Metro 24/02/2012

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, and you think that the way we eat does not have an impact on the planet we live on, you cannot deny that obesity is a problem in the western world. Every week in the UK there are numerous documentaries on television about people who are literally eating themselves to death. Although it’s commendable that these documentaries are getting the message out to the wider world, it’s sadly ironic that they do it via one of the sources of obesity, the television. We live in a world where technology is so advanced that we don’t even have to leave the sofa.

One in four people in the UK are now classed as obese. What is even scarier is that in the child population, the figure is three in ten. We are teaching our children how to live unhealthy lives and become overweight. Only 25% of the population eat the recommended 5-a-day of fruit and vegetables, which by the way is supposed to be a recommended minimum. What shocked me the most in the data was that 20% of people said they walk less than 20 minutes a year. I can’t even comprehend how that can be possible.

I’m reminded of when I worked with children about ten years ago. Serving dinner to a group of young boys one night, I asked them if they wanted carrots and one of the boys asked me what a carrot was. I was stunned that a child could not recognise what is a very common vegetable in the UK. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The boy tried the carrots and liked them so much that the next night he asked for just a plate of carrots. Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of children out there who do not get the right advice.

So, what’s the answer? A good start is to watch those documentaries on TV, as long as you make sure you get up off the sofa and take their advice afterwards.

The Plant-Based Traveller

   Before I go any further, apologies for being absent for so long. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy to find internet access on my trip to Germany, and since I've been back I've fallen victim to the dreaded flu that has been making its way round Cardiff. I must point out, though, that this is the first time I've been ill since converting to a plant-based diet, and there's not many people in the UK who can say they've gone almost a whole winter illness-free.
   During my absence I have been doing lots of reading and learning, and I have so much I want to share with you. First, though, a bit about my adventures in Germany. If you want to read more about my adventures, there will be a full blog on http://thetravelbug.blog.co.uk/ soon.
   OK, I'm not going to pretend that on my 4 day skiing trip to Garmisch I stuck to a completely plant-based, organic, wholefood diet. I did, however, as always, do my best to be conscious of what I was eating and made small changes wherever I could. It surprised me how little effort it took. The excellent continental buffet that my hostel provided made it very easy for me to choose a suitable breakfast. I was happy to drink black coffee, although I know from my experience working in the Alps that hotels and guesthouses will provide soya milk if you request it. Along with my coffee, I had a fresh semmel with jam, no butter. For those who haven't visited the Alps, a semmel is a small, round bread roll and is present at pretty much every meal. Believe me, when you work there you soon get sick of eating semmels everyday, but I'd had long enough away for them to be tasty again.
   Lunchtime up the mountain is generally spent in a self-service restaurant, most of which offer spaghetti and tomato sauce as an option. Remember to ask for no parmesan, though, Austrians and Germans seem to like putting cheese on top of everything. One thing that self-service restaurants in the Alps do very well are salad bars. So there's no excuse not to fill up on the fresh, tasty food available. You can also have yet another semmel to go with it if you choose.
   Most restaurants have at least one vegan option on the menu, you just have to ask. The range of dishes available might not leave you spoilt for choice, and in ski resorts will most probably revolve around pasta, but at least the options are there.

   I know I repeat this all the time, but I've learnt that the best way with a plant-based diet is to be prepared. Health food shops are really popular in Austria and Germany, so stock up on things to snack on. Most supermarkets now stock a 'bio' range, and they will highlight what is organic and what has been grown in the local region. In German speaking countries, look out for the 'bio' sign and 'aus unsere region' (from our region).

Take a Step Together

What started as a blog about me trying to eat a more plant-based diet has developed in to me blabbing on about anything to do with health, fitness, food and the environment. I’m aware that a lot of my recent blogs have been about converting to a healthier lifestyle, and I’m also aware that even with the best will in the world this is difficult for a lot of people. Which is why I’m introducing my new mantra ‘take a step together’.

During my own personal lifestyle change, one of the things I constantly tell myself is ‘one step at a time’. The longest lasting change is gradual, and if I happen to slip up and take a couple of steps backwards I try not to beat myself up about it and work out how I can move forward again. Making those small steps can be incredibly difficult, though, and it is so easy to make an excuse as to why you have to wait until next week to start.

At the moment I work in an office, a very sedentary environment where it is very easy to become lazy and put on weight. Determined to break this trend, my team and I have been making changes together. All five of us are trying to live healthier lives (and I’m also encouraging them to live more environmentally friendly lives J ). We all have our own personal reasons for doing it, and we’re all going about it in different ways, but we encourage each other daily and share ideas and knowledge. I have no doubt that, without the support of the other four, no one of us would have succeeded as well as we have so far. Who needs a personal trainer or nutritionist when you have four coaches stopping you from buying that chocolate bar from the vending machine.

So, why not find a few more like-minded individuals and try taking a step together. It might give you the push you need to improve your life forever.

Thirsty for Knowledge?

Are you fed up of being one of the millions of ignorant people who don’t know where their food comes from? Do you want to know more? One of the biggest habits I’ve picked up since starting the freerangecarrots blog is to check out the websites on food packaging. Pretty much every food brand and producer has their own website these days, and they’re all packed full of information. Whilst I would recommend taking the information that company websites give you with a pinch of salt (their main mission, of course, is to promote their products), they’re a great place to start. If you do suspect they are being economical with the truth just to sell to you, my top tip is to google whatever it is you are reading about. Unlike other mass communication outlets, the internet is somewhere where you will get a completely broad view of a variety of opinions!

Forks Over Knives

Great news! Dr T. Colin Campbell and Dr Caldwell Esselstyn from Planeat have been working on a new project. Forks over Knives is a mission to teach the world about how to eat a plant-based diet and the health benefits associated with it.

Although the website, www.forksoverknives.com, is still in development, there will be a new film coming soon, and you can sign up to receive information by email.

Want to be a revolutionary?

One of my missions when I started this blog was to share my new-found confidence with as many fellow humans as I could find. Encouraging other people to try new experiences and venture out of their comfort zone really motives me.

It’s not easy to make changes in your life, especially if you’ve got into a long-term routine of doing the same things again and again. Don’t despair. Changes can be made. If you want to make a step towards a different way of life, but you’re not sure where to start or you’re finding it hard to find the motivation, Channel 4 have a great new website to give you a helping hand. www.channel4.com/revolution is a fun and inspiring one-stop shop where you can discover the new you. I first heard about the revolution whilst watching The Fat Fighters, a very entertaining show that’s based in a gym and aims to help people from all walks of life get fit. I’m addicted to all shows that encourage people to get healthy and change their lives, and the unique selling point (USP) of The Fat Fighters is the unusual methods the four trainers use with their clients. From cheerleading to bouncing on trampolines, their clients seem to genuinely train with a smile on their face.

As well as encouragement from The Fat FIghters team, you can also get tips about saving money and trying new things. If you sign up for one of the revolutions, they will even email you tips and ideas to keep you motivated.

Alternatively, why not ask a friend to write a list of new challenges for you? Or, think back to all the things you wanted to do as a child. What stopped you from doing them? Stop making excuses and give things a go. Today!

Read the Label!

   In a previous job I was trained to constantly review and reassess everything I do, and it's a habit that I'm very glad to say has stayed with me. So today I had a look back at the top tips for eating a plant-based diet that I first picked up from the Planeat website. After all, I wouldn't want to revert back to any bad habits and take a small step forward and then a massive leap back.
   No 8 on Ann Esselstyn's Principles is to Read Labels. As a vegetarian this is something that I've been doing for years anyway. Even after the V logo was applied to most vegetarian foods in the UK, I still checked the ingredients out of habit. And it's the ingredients that are the important thing to read. Having worked in food retail myself, I know that food packaging can be very deceptive. This is particularly true here in the UK, where laws and rules are a little more relaxed than in other countries such as the USA and Canada. It's easy to think that if something is labelled as 'low fat' or 'diet' then it's better for you. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Personally, I try to only eat things that come in a packet if they're wholefoods and as close to their original state as possible.
  If like me, though, you're trying to start change by taking small streps, then the important thing to remember is always read the ingredients. As a general rule, if you can't pronounce it or you don't know what it is, it's probably best to put it back on the shelf.

What to do in a hummus emergency

   I had a bit of a hummus incident a few weeks ago. I put a can of chickpeas into the blender, then my intention was to add a little water to make it smoother and to prevent my blender from catching fire. Unfortunately, I accidently added too much water, so I then had to add another can of chickpeas to thicken it up again. I was left with way more hummus than I could ever eat in a week.
   As you know, I'm always keen to try a new kitchen experiment. So I thought I'd put some of the hummus into the freezer and see if it survived. Well, the results are in, and I'm pleased to say I've been eating defrosted hummus since Saturday and I haven't been sick yet.

The Latest Accessories for 2012 - A flask and a water bottle:)

The purpose of this blog is to see if making small changes to our lifestyle as individuals can have a bigger impact to us as a species. Although I have generally been good at sticking to the changes I have made, I will admit that over Christmas I ended up consuming more dairy products than I would have liked. With the combination of visiting restaurants for Christmas meals, where vegetarian meals are pretty much guaranteed to contain cheese because they think we'll keel over without it, and staying with family who are not yet fully aware of what a plant-based diet is, it became too much of an effort to avoid it. In a way I'm glad I did, though, because it made me notice how ill dairy products make me feel. Admittedly, due to my eczema I am more prone than most people to having a reaction to dairy, but I'll deifinitely avoid it as much as possible in the future.
If you feel you can only make one change to your lifestyle at the moment (and don't worry, it all counts) than my tip would be this - buy a water bottle and a thermos flask. I carry both almost everywhere with me, including to work. Compared to my colleagues, who waste countless disposable cups and bottles everyday by buying drinks from vending machines and the coffee shop, I wash and refill my water bottle and flask everyday. I also carry some herbal teabags with me, so I can refill my flask during the day. As well as the environmental advantages, there are two other huge benefits to using your own water bottle and flask. The first is that it's healthier. The best thing you can drink is water (although, depending on where you live in the world, your tap water may not be good). Any soft drink that comes in a bottle, regardless of whether it says 'diet', 'sugar free' or anything else on the bottle, will never as good for you as water is. I promise you, if you cut out soft drinks from your diet, you will notice weight loss within a couple of weeks. Plus, if you cut down on caffeine and start drinking herbal tea instead, you'll sleep a lot sounder at night and feel much better when you're awake.
The other benefit is that you save a lot of money. When I see how much my colleagues spend throughout the day on bottles of cola and take-out coffees, I can't believe that I used to do the same. If you work out how much you spend on these items over the course of a month, I'm sure you'll find something else much more worthwhile to spend the money on.

Scavenging for food at Heathrow Airport

The travelbug is in Austria this week, so I apologise for any spelling errors. I'm having to use a German keyboard, and the spell check is trying to correct me in German so everything is coming up in red!
Admittedly, Heathrow Airport is not on my top 50 list of favourite places on planet Earth. It is, however, a useful place to pass through if you need to get to an awkward destnation quickly. Which is how I found myself there on Saturday morning. The awkward destination being Innsbruck, where I was headed to visit family.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how difficult, or easy, it is to stick to a plant-based diet whilst in transit. I appreciate there are thousands of vegans out there who do this on a regular basis, and are probably telling me to shut up right now. But for me it was an interesting experience. It actually reminded me of when I first turned vegetarian, before the days of labelling foods for dietry requirements and before most people really understood what vegetarianism was. I remember many a trip where my staple diet would be fries, salad and bread, and I would constantly have to tell people that no, I don't eat fish, and I can't just pick the chicken out or eat around the beef.
So there I was in Heathrow airport, having to read every single ingredient again. I must point out here that, unfortunately, I was flying from Terminal 1. The larger terminals at Heathrow do have some excellent fresh food outlets, and I can't wait for them to make it onto the UK high street. I settled on a carrot, houmous and salad leaves on wholemeal sandwich from Boots, a fresh pear and filling my water bottle up from the water fountain. The sandwich is made by a company called fresh! (I believe the exclamation mark is an essential part of the name). The blurb on the box (which is recyclable by the way) promises 'no gunk and no junk', and I have to say it was a really tasty sandwich. The only downfall is that the houmous did contain tahini. On that note, does anyone know the correct spelling for houmous? I've come across a few different variations so far.
Extra brownie points go to Caffe Nero, where the lovely barista was more than happy to make me a latte with Alpro Soya, which I might add was one of the tastiest lattes I've ever had.
For the benefit of anyone else who is travelling through Frankfurt airport in the near future, they have a lovely fresh food outlet. The vegetarian options are still quite dairy-based, but there's a lot of fresh fruit and juices.

Magic Sprouting Beans

OK, so maybe they're not exactly magic, but they're still pretty impressive. One of the common arguments against a plant-based diet is that you don't eat enough protein and calcium. I must add at this point that most comments I receive like this come from omnivores with very bad eating habits. Like all nutrients, however, you can easily get enough protein and calcium from plants, you just have to do it right. Plus, plant-based protein is also much healthier for you. Green vegetables such as kale and brocoli are great sources of calcium, and beans, lentils and seeds will also provide essential nutrients. Which is where my magic sprouting beans come in. A few years ago, a friend took me to an organic farm shop in Devon. This was the first time I had been in such a place, and to me it was like Aladdin's cave. There, she introduced me to organic sprouting mix, a dry mixture of beans that you soak in water for 3-5 days until they're soft enough to eat and begin to sprout (hence the name). I immediately found a new favourite food, and when I returned to work abroad the next week I made sure I had a packet in my backpack. There are different contraptions you can buy that are specially designed for sprouting the seeds, but personally I prefer the jam jar method. Simply soak the beans in water and drain, then leave to stand out of direct sunlight. It's recommended you put a piece of muslin cloth over the top of the jam jar, but I discovered last week that a j cloth also works well. A clean j cloth, of course.
On my return to the UK, I couldn't wait to but another pack of sprouting seeds. After all, they'd proved to be an easy to transport snack whilst I was travelling. Imagine my horror when I couldn't find them anywhere in Cardiff!. Some shops did stock ready-sprouted mix, chilled in the fridge, but I didn't fancy the look of them, and would probably had to eat them up in an incredibly short time before they went out of date.
At this point I could leave you in suspense and make you wait until my next blog to discover if I was ever reunited with my magic sprouting beans, but I'm not that cruel. I'm pleased to say that a couple of months ago I was browsing in Beanfreaks in Cardiff (you can order online too) and was overjoyed to find they stock organic srpouting mix in their basics range. I was that excited that I think I actually did let out a small whoop of joy, and for that I apologise to anyone who was in the shop with me. I now put them on my salads to take to work with me, and chuck them in stir-fries to make them a bit more interesting. I've also discovered through (accidental) experimentation that it doesn't matter if you sprout them a few more days than you intended, they're still edible. Although the ones I put on my lunch today were so far gone that Alan Titchmarsh could have presented an episode of Groundforce on it.

Soya Milk Success!

Had a minor breakthrough the past couple of days. Through some controlled experimentation, well, through trying different things in my kitchen at least, I think I've solved the issue of my soya milk looking like it's gone off when mixed into hot drinks. If you leave the drink to cool slightly first before adding the soya milk, it seems to be fine.