My Store-Cupboard Staples: Healthy Vegetarian-Based Eating

Let’s just start with an disclaimer: I am not “a vegetarian” or “a vegan”, nor do I claim to be. I don’t label myself anything (other than picky!) and therefore this post does not contain exclusively vegan/vegetarian foods or what is necessarily the perfect choice for health or for the planet. I am not pretending to be something I’m not and I have a long way to go before I am eating what is best for me – I am still recovering from an eating disorder, working out what I do and don’t like, what is and isn’t good for me, and what balanced eating looks like, so bear with me!

I have always liked vegetarian food best and I LOVE my veggies and pulses. To be honest I’m not a great fan of most meat, nor do I like cheese, cream, butter or yogurt. So I figured that with the popularity of “plant-based diets”, “Meat-free Mondays”, and growing concerns about the global effects of increased meat and dairy consumption, a lot of people are cutting down (or out) their meat and/or dairy intake and so it could be relevant to write a post featuring my fridge and store-cupboard staples as someone who doesn’t cook with cheese, meat or added dairy products at home.
Note: I am a novice cook, but I’m gradually expanding my repertoire – so these items aren’t used in fancy ways, but they serve me well! 

• Varied Vegetables (Broccoli, Mange Tout, Green Beans, Baby Spinach, Carrots, Red Onions, Spring Onions, Baby Corn, Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Courgettes, Avocado)
  As I said before, I love my vegetables and a meal doesn’t feel complete without some form of veg on it. My absolute favourites are garden peas and Tenderstem broccoli (it’s insane how sweet broccoli can be!) and I probably go through red onions the quickest as I use them in everything! I love how versatile and colourful vegetables can be, and they all do something different to serve your body health-wise. I hate celery, parsnips, celeriac and swede, and I don’t often have fresh tomatoes as they irritate my stomach but there’s enough other vegetables to use so don’t worry if you can’t or won’t eat certain ones!
  How I cook them: I generally want quick ways to cook small amounts of veg (my partner does not eat vegetables at all) so I tend to prepare green veg, put them in a bowl with some water, cover and microwave for a few minutes. With mushrooms, onion and courgettes I tend to chop them finely and saute them, and I generally stir-fry peppers, baby corn, mange tout, spinach and sugar snaps. I love mashing avocado with lemon/lime juice, chilli & salt to make guacamole or a dressing.
• Canned Beans & Other Pulses (Chickpeas, Pinto Beans, Cannellini Beans, Red Kidney Beans, Butter Beans) 
  Beans and chickpeas are a key base in lots of dishes from a variety of cultures, both alongside and independently of meat (think Indian curries, Mexican black beans, chilli con carne). They are also known for being a common meat substitute in vegetarian dishes (e.g. bean burgers, veggie curry) so they’re a great staple in a veggie, vegan and plant based diet, and they’re a natural good source of protein and fibre. They last for ages and they’re fairly cheap, helping to make eating veggie, vegan and/or healthier more affordable! If you want to really save money, you can buy dry beans in bulk and cook them up, I just know realistically I won’t think about it enough in advance, so I go for ease over penny-saving.
  Notes: make sure to rinse canned beans before use and balance out your intake of them with some non-canned proteins. If mashing them or using them in burgers, rinse them under boiling water to soften them so they’re easier to process/mash.
  How I cook them: my favourite is roasting chickpeas with spices and a little olive oil. I also add kidney beans to rice dishes, I’ve made butter bean mash and will soon be trying a sweet potato-bean burger recipe using cannellini beans.
• Nuts & Seeds (Peanuts, Cashew Nuts, Pine Nuts, Sesame Seeds, Mixed Seeds)
  I have an array of nuts and seeds as I find them a really great addition to vegetable based dishes (curries, stir-fries etc.) – they add texture and often a creaminess and sweetness. I love toasting nuts and seeds before adding them to pastas and salads to give an added crunch and flavour, and I am a complete peanut fiend. I can’t have salted peanuts in the house as I tend to eat them all in one go, so instead I have peanut butter (see the next staple!) and occasionally I’ll treat myself to some actual salted peanuts and cope with the fact I just consumed 700 calories in one sitting! 
• Natural/Organic Nut Butters (Peanut Butter – Smooth & Crunchy, Almond Butter, Mixed Nut Butter)
  I absolutely LOVE peanut butter and I have now come to eat only organic, natural peanut butters (made by Whole Earth). I used to have the processed stuff all the time but I rarely have that now as it’s very sweet and not great for me – I  now like to know what all the ingredients in my peanut butter are (there is even one that is just peanuts and salt!)
  How I use it: I eat peanut butter on toast sometimes as a comfort food, and I will confess to the odd spoonful out of the jar! But my main thing is that I love love LOVE satay sauce, so I often make my own using smooth peanut butter with soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, coconut milk, chilli and garlic. I’d eat this on its own if it wasn’t a weird thing to do….
• Meat Substitutes (Quorn, Tofu, Own-brand Veggie Burgers)
  I LOVE veggie burgers – especially bean-based ones as they are filling and tasty. I do also like the “meat type” patties if I want something a bit smaller and more as a “meat substitute”.  I do also have some Quorn products – occasionally I’ll eat their snack foods (cocktail sausages, picnic eggs) and I sometimes eat their sausages. I am gradually trying to use firm tofu instead of Quorn pieces in things like stir-fries as it is vegan and plant-based. Make sure to drain and press extra firm tofu for a while.
  Bonus: tofu and many Quorn products last for AGES in the fridge which is good, especially when you’re the only one in the house eating them and you somehow need to get through the 3 products for £5 you bought in order to “save money”!!
  Favourite products: Tesco frozen onion bhaji burgers, Tesco frozen nut cutlets, Quorn Chicken-Style Pieces, Tofoo Original Extra Firm Tofu, Quorn Sausages
  How I cook them: I coat extra-firm tofu (drained, pressed & cubed) in cornflour before sauteing then I add my own sesame-ginger sauce which caramelises around the pieces, making them crispy and sweet. I add veggies, more sauce and some sesame seeds, then serve with brown rice or noodles for a great stir-fry.
  I get supermarket branded veggie burgers which often have interesting flavours and I find one makes up the main component of a meal without the need for a bun (just oven bake, add some starchy veggies, salad and a sauce and you’re good to go). 
• Microwave Rice, Grains & Pulses (Brown Rice, White Rice, Mixed Grains, Quinoa, Couscous, Lentils)
  Now I will admit – I don’t often cook rice from scratch, I am very uneconomical in that I buy microwave rice packages, often flavoured, for convenience and quick cooking. I’m the only one who will eat quinoa or brown rice etc. and I get very anxious about reheating rice I’ve cooked (and I am terrible at cooking rice and quinoa anyway), so I find comfort in the 2-portion-per-pack microwave packs (particularly Tilda and Merchant Gourmet branded). Merchant Gourmet do amazing puy lentils – they are tasty, perfectly cooked and easy to use – just chuck a sachet in the microwave for a couple of minutes and you’ve got the bulk of a lunch. Tilda also do amazing mixes of rice and beans (I personally love the jerk coconut and black bean flavoured one) which are in single portion sachets. I know this isn’t the cheapest or healthiest way to eat these great veggie staples, but it does mean means I don’t turn to loads of refined carbohydrates full of gluten all the time (bread, white pasta) as they tend to trigger digestive discomfort for me.
• Dried Herbs & Spices (Paprika, Chilli Powder, Garlic Italian Mix, Oregano, Ground Cumin, Turmeric Powder, Garam Masala, Crushed Chilli Flakes, Garlic-Chilli-Salt Mix, Cajun Mix, Season-All, Curry Powder)
  I love using spices in my cooking, partly because it’s the best way to get flavour into food and also because I feel like I’m being creative and making food to my own tastes when I combine different spices. Season-All, Paprika and Garlic Italian are my favourite standbys but I also love the unmistakable heady smell of Garam Masala – it screams curry! I don’t think there is any shame in having bought spice mixes, sometimes they have the perfect balance and if you’re like me, it means you don’t have a million jars of obscure spices that you use once in a blue moon. As long as you have a few extras to supplement your mixes then I’d say you’re sorted. I also have salt (both rock salt and table salt) and black pepper (however I personally don’t use this in my cooking as it irritates my stomach – other people love it though so we have it anyway).
  Notes: don’t bother keeping spices past their use by date as they end up getting soft and flavourless or all clumpy and solidified which is just…yuck. In any case, they won’t add to your dish at all, so you may as well get some more! 
• International Products (Soy Sauce, Rice Wine Vinegar, Tinned Coconut Milk, Sweet Chilli Sauce, Tinned Water Chestnuts, Sesame Oil, Curry Paste)
  Although these may sound a bit specialist to be staples, I end up using them a lot as I make a fair amount of stir-fries, satay sauce, basic curries AND I love mixing sweet chilli sauce with mayo (pictured is my favourite brand)!
• Other Additional Staples (Cornflour, Plain Flour, Gravy Granules, Stock Pots, Various Oils, Various Vinegars, Various Mustards, Tomato Puree, Honey)
  I always have these in the cupboard as they are useful for all sorts of things like dressings, thickening sauces or adding flavour to soups.
  Daily Essentials
  I pretty much always use extra virgin organic coconut oil to cook with as I love the flavour it gives, and I often add garlic paste or ginger-garlic paste when cooking dishes. These are probably my most used store-cupboard/fridge items as they come out every time I cook! I also have light mayo as a table sauce (I eat this as my only dairy really), and often mix it with ketchup, sweet chilli sauce, chutneys or avocado to add a creamy component to my dishes without needing cream sauces or anything. It is a bit of an addiction as I’m terrible coping without light mayo and I dislike regular mayo, but hey – it could be worse!!

 

What are your favourite foods and store-cupboard staples – whether you are vegetarian or not? Do you think naming your diet or identifying as a particular type of eater is essential? If you have tried “going vegetarian” or eating a lot of veggie food but returned to eating meat, what stopped you staying vegetarian?

My Cough & Cold First Aid Box

Ok so first off I know it technically isn’t cold & flu season anymore, but that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods and wouldn’t you know it…..I appear to have caught a cough and cold – unsurprising after my recent trip to Zermatt ski resort in Switzerland. It has hit both myself and my partner, but as per usual I seem to be struggling with it more. He is overall more resistant to bugs etc. and he doesn’t have the daily pain that I do as standard. Although it isn’t flu (I’ve had Aussie flu and man was that a different kettle of fish!), it is a nasty one with aches and exhaustion so overall we’re rather under par.

Anyway, I thought I’d put together a list of what I use to cope with a cough/cold – it’s nothing ground-breaking but I’ve had enough of them to be fairly confident with what I need and what does or doesn’t work. Of course, every person is different, as is every cough and cold, so no blanket plan is guaranteed to work but it’s nice to have an idea.

Kleenex Balsam Tissues – we have these everywhere, 365 days a year! Cube boxes on our office desks, standard boxes on our bedside tables and individual packs in each of my handbags. They aren’t the cheapest brand, but I have a sensitive nose and thankfully these are one of the few that don’t seem to irritate it to the point of bleeding, so I figure it’s not worth investigating further. Also, they are often on offer in supermarkets and shops like Boots and Superdrug so I get multi-packs and keep them until they are needed!

Warm Honey & Lemon – this is great for soothing a sore throat, and overall making you feel a bit better. The vitamin C in the lemon juice plus the antioxidant and antibacterial effects of both honey and lemon mean it is physically great for the symptoms of a cough and cold, whilst the warmth of it soothes you and the honey coats your throat. You can either add honey and lemon juice to hot water and drink that like a tea, or you can make a more syrup-like mixture with much less water and take a tablespoon of it twice a day. The best thing about it? It’s natural!! I like to use freshly squeezed lemon juice and then leave the lemon halves around the house for a little while to kill off those pesky the germs and make it smell fresher everywhere! You can also have a spoonful of manuka honey on its own – if you can afford it! It is extremely expensive but is amazing quality and so unbelievably good for you.

Boots Own Brand Ultra Cold & Flu All In One Capsules – I know this is a super specific product but basically the message is OWN BRAND IS GENERALLY BETTER, READ THE INGREDIENTS. I directly compared this product with Benylin Mucus Cough & Cold All In One Relief Capsules and not only was it cheaper by £1.40 for 16 capsules, the ingredients were identical and the Boots brand had larger quantities of Paracetamol and Phenylephrine per tablet. Try not to get fooled by packaging and branding – it may sound ideal if it says “mucus cough & cold relief” if your cough is mucus-y but it is just the same product as the non-specific all-in-one. Recognised brands are not always better, but they are usually more expensive and potentially by significant amounts. The same applies to pain relief (you may notice you’ll pay a lot more for something branded and targeted towards period pain compared to standard [and IDENTICAL!] own-brand painkillers).

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice – I recently bought a slow-masticating juicer (Aicok brand) and today we decided to try it out for the first time. We bought 2 bags of large Navel oranges, peeled them and juiced them. The results were HEAVENLY. I don’t like bits in my juice so I was so excited when I saw how smooth the juice was and how dry the pulp left was – that meant I knew we got all the goodness into the juice. We got a whole jug out of the 12 oranges and it tasted AMAZING. Super smooth, sweet and refreshing. I could feel the nutrients flooding into me and hopefully aiding healing, tackling pain & lethargy. (This picture is my actual juice!)

Ultra Chloraseptic Spray – this is basically an anaesthetic throat spray and is the one medication for my throat that I do turn to, because it is effective, fast, and is a lifesaver for me at night as I am a nightmare when I can’t sleep because of coughing and a sore throat. Given it is medicated, it states it is only to be used for 3 days at a time (and hopefully that is all you need it for) but you can use it every few hours which is a relief! They do a variety of flavours and even do a kids version – in all honesty none of them are great tasting because they have a strong medicinal flavour but I find it’s worth it and I generally tolerate blackcurrant or original menthol best. I tend to put this spray in my handbag wherever I go when I’m ill so I can soothe on the go.

Nasal Sprays – these are a godsend at night when you can’t breathe out of both nostrils and it is frustrating you and keeping you awake. I have tried many and my favourite is definitely Vicks Sinex Soother Nasal Spray due to the long spray nozzle and how effective it is! Much like throat sprays, you should only use a nasal spray for a few days (7 days usually) and I always make sure to disinfect the nozzle after the cold is finished so I’m not perpetuating illness next time! At night I tend to blow my nose fully, then use the spray so I go to sleep with a clear nose (even though I still wake up bunged up – OBVIOUSLY). I also carry the spray around with me as soon as I get the signs of a cold so I can definitely breathe!

Vicks Vaporub – this has always been a reassurance for me as my mum always used this on me when I was a kid. It was how I went to school basically throughout winter – everyone was coated in the stuff for months! It is still a great standby – personally I find it really comforting to have my partner rub this on my back and chest before I go to sleep, it is relaxing and I put a little bit under my nostrils to help me breathe at night. Overall, the smell is reassuring and given you always feel a bit like a kid when you’re ill with a cold or whatever, it is nice to have something that comforted you as a child! I also personally love the smell! One thing I will say is, some versions are not quite as strong as they used to be (as reflected in reviews) so they are therefore less effective.

Cooling Patches For Headaches – I use these a lot, given I have a constant headache and it often spikes into intense pain levels where I have to go to bed, and I got fed up of using a cold wet flannel that falls off and soaks your pillow! My favourite brand is Kool’n’Soothe as they don’t smell too strong, and they also do a kids version for when your little ones have a fever. It can really help when you’ve got a congested face and/or a slight temperature to have something cool on your head or neck. It’s great as it is non-medicinal, something you appreciate when you’re dosed up with enough medications to make you rattle while you try to tackle the symptoms of the bug so you can actually function!

A couple of final things: I try to eat as well as I can when I’m not well. I try to have enough of each food group even if I don’t feel like cooking, and I try to eat as many vitamins and minerals as I can, by eating the rainbow in fruit and vegetables etc. (each colour contain different disease-fighting phytochemicals). I do make sure to minimise how much dairy I have because it thickens mucus (not what you want!) and it also makes me feel fairly sick anyway. Sometimes I do resort to chicken soup as there is a reason for its reputation for treating illness, but the dairy content in cream of chicken soups (my standby) irritates me and I don’t like thin broth-like soups. I just try not to eat 100% junk/processed food (that said, I am about to have McDonalds as both my partner and I are absolutely drained. I did make sure to cook totally from scratch for my last 4 meals so I feel like it’s not quite so bad!)

I also make sure to keep the central heating down low as it gets stuffy, and to air the bedroom each day by opening the windows to kill off the germs. I try to rest as well and if I’m really not able to do much, then sometimes I just need to give in and sleep for a bit to recharge. It’s natural to need more rest when you’re ill – you just have to listen to your body a bit more than usual.  I make sure to have two pillows so my head is raised (which makes it easier to breathe) and I definitely have the heating OFF at night, otherwise I don’t stand a chance of breathing and therefore sleeping!

Sad woman with tissue and medicines lying on bed

Do you have any ways of coping with cough/cold/flu that you turn to when that season comes around? These are very much ways of coping with it once you’ve caught a bug, but do you have any particular ways of preventing getting ill?