Sharabelle bakes

Winter Warmers With the weather getting colder I start to crave comfort food.  Homemade soup has always been one of my favourite things to eat. My mum made the best, it was one of the first things she taught me to cook.   Shop bought soup never tastes as good as homemade, no matter what brand you buy.  Making your own soup is easy and more cost effective.  It's also a lot healthier as you know exactly what is in it. I used to buy my carrots loose and chop but now I have shaky hands, it's safer to buy them pre-chopped.  Most supermarkets have fresh diced carrots and swede.  You could also use a bag of there casserole vegetables as well.   This is the simplest soup you will ever make, it's one of my favourite to eat x  Morrison's Diced Carrot and Swede - 60p   - Whole bag Vegan Bouillon Powder - £2.00 - 3 - 4 tsp's Red Split Lentils - £1.15 - 1/3 Cup or a handful - Add all the ingredients above into a...

    Large Vegetable Samosa   Marks and Spencers Health and Nutrition site  I'm not Vegan, I just love a lot of Vegan food.  Using the Label also means I do not need to get into a long conversation explaining that I have IBS and several food Intolerances, one of which is lactose/Dairy. Vegan food blogs and sites have been a great inspiration the last few years.  Proving to me that you don't need dairy or animal products like meat and poultry to have an interesting and varied diet.  I can still eat seafood, eggs and honey all food that are not part of the vegan diet.  Out of respect for vegans I wanted to make the distinction clear.  It was when I became lactose intolerant that I discovered how hard it is to find dairy free food in many supermarkets, restaurant and Cafes.  There's plenty of alternatives for Gluten free Products, while there are hardly any for Dairy free, which really annoys me Consider...

10 EASY WAYS TO MAKE QUICK MEALS When I talk about cooking with friends and family one familiar phrase I always hear is  "I don't have the time" Some Ready  meals take the same time to cook in the microwave, as I can make from scratch.  So no matter how much or little time I have, I am never far from a cooked meal.     The best thing I ever did was not to replace my microwave when it broke.   It does not take that much longer to cook or re-heat food on the stove. Making your own quick meals, cuts down on the additives you eat and more importantly it saves you money.   My food shopping bills have gone down and eating less processed food helps me manage my IBS symptoms.  Still not convinced have a look below for my favourite quick meals. No 1:     The 3 P's - Pasta   Fresh pasta only takes a few minutes to cook.  Whereas Dried pasta takes between 10 - 12 Min's to cook. ...

My diet might be limited due to my IBS, however would you be surprised that the only supplement I take is for Calcium and Vitamin D.  I eat a varied mostly plant based diet, which provides all the nutrients I need.  It's also a myth that meat, poultry and dairy are the only sources of protein available.  Beans, lentils and  pulses Includes all non dairy milk products made from soy beans eg soy milk, soy spread, soy yogurt & tofu Nuts and seeds Includes non dairy products made from nuts eg almond milk, nut butter, tahini, Vegetables especially green veg ones eg Cauliflower, broccoli, green peas, spinach, sweet corn Grains and cereals eg Bread, oats, breakfast cereals, pasta Fresh/Dried Fruit and berries Fresh :  Avocado, peaches and figs Dried : Figs, apricots Keeping too a varied diet, keeps me healthy.  It also keeps me from getting bored...

Sweet Potato Chips  I'm from the UK, so too me Chips and French fries are the same things.  Only difference is that French fries are thin cut, while chips are thicker.  Either way they both taste great.  There also one of my biggest temptations. I love traditional fish and chips but they give me horrible heart burn. The oil is also not too great for my IBS.  Rather than cut them out of my diet totally, I switched to baking chips at home.   Which was okay for a while, but some of them are still half cooked in oil before there packaged.  So I started to make my own. There cheaper, simple to make and take very little cooking expertise. They also don't need to just be make from Potatoe's, any root vegetable will do.  Potatoe, sweet potatoe, parsnip, carrots, turnip Buying pre-made fresh or frozen food is almost a habit now,  I know it was for me.     You also buy into the adverts messages,...

Baked Vegan Stovies I made the  Healthy start vegetarian Stovies  recipe yesterday.  Traditionally stovies are boiled potato's mixed with onions and leftover cooked meat.  In reality it's more often browned mince or cubed tinned Corned beef, that is mixed through the boiled mashed potato's.   Making a vegetarian version is kind of difficult.  Mixing various veggies through mashed potato's just isn't the same.  So I can understand why they came up with this method,  however It reminds me more of a vegetable gratin rather than Stovies.  Either way it's easy to make and tasty, so I can't really complain. The healthy start recipe cooks the veggies on the stove top, I decided to bake mine in the oven instead.  I used chopped onion and thinly sliced parsnip,  carrots and  turnip, which I layered in the casserole dish.  I seasoned the middle with black pe...

I don't bake all the time, just most of the time.  I also cook a lot of my food from scratch.  Self preservation really, I got fed up of reading food labels to see if I could safely eat the stuff.  In some cases it takes less time to make a meal than read the bleep bleep labels.  Todays lunch My aim today was to use the tomato's in my fridge that were turning soft. ( Note to self, never buying fruit and veg from Asda again it never lasts.)  They also didn't have much taste.  So I roasted them in the oven at 180 celcius for 30 Min's, then turned off the oven and left them in.  When it was nearer lunch time I added them to a pan with some yeast free veg stock, a splodge of tomato sauce and some salt and pepper.   After a quick blitz from my hand blender, I left the soup to simmer for 20 Min's. Finally I added some basil leaves.  A lovely easy to make creamy tomato soup. Proof that you don't need to add dairy to...