Making A Meal Of It

Hello, dear readers!

You are what you eat, or at least that’s the theory. I think there may actually  be something to it.

Lockdown has seen me swap the weekly Slimming World meetings and healthy recipes, for chocolate, crisps, take-aways and a complete lack of exercise. Add in the traditional Xmas over-indulgences, and it means a big fat pile of food and a big fat pile of me.

Something had to be done.

Pants!
Now, admittedly, I’m joining the New Year health kick just as a significant amount of people will be getting fed up with theirs, but I’ve never been the resolution type of guy, especially when there’s still stollen to be eaten. No, waiting until the sweet treats and starchy snacks were out of the way was always the smart move.

 Of course, it might have been a move that was never made if my trousers hadn’t made their opinion clear. It’s one thing to put on a pair of pants you’ve not worn for some time and find them a little on the snug side. Putting on more recent purchases and finding them impossible to fasten? Well, that’s another thing entirely.

No, as I say, something had to be done, and I was the only one who could do it. The only question was what. It was morning telly, which provided me with what I hope will be the answer.


TV Dinners
It was one of those magazine shows. The type that blends articles on innovations and new-fangled theories about how the life you’ve been happily living can be lived better and happier, with ‘celebrities’ trying to sell you their latest book, or promote their new show. There’s even a five-minute exercise segment which ‘anyone’ can do (spoiler: I can’t). Now and then, however, there’s a bit which actually sounds interesting. Friday was a case in point.

My burgeoning waistline must have been on my mind, because it’s not something I would usually pay much attention to, but on this occasion, curiosity got the best of me and I waited patiently for an interview with two down-to-earth Yorkshire lads who were promoting their new cookbook.

A vegan cookbook.

Yes, yes. I know. It sounds disgustingly faddy to me just typing it. And no, I’m not actually planning on going vegan. In fact, as the nature of their school of foodiness was revealed, I might actually have reached for the remote. Then, one of the chaps made the point that their meals weren’t just for those wishing to make wholesale changes to their lives, but also for those who wanted quick and easy ways to cut down on meat and introduce more veggies into their diet. That sounded interesting.

Northern Soul
I guess, like most people, I’m a product of my environment. A working class northerner brought up on meat-and-two-veg. There’s nothing wrong with that; but since then, life has moved on. Options are available nowadays that would have fair made me head spin when I were a lad (Excuse me while I fetch my flat cap and take t’whippet for a pint o’ mild). In those days a vegan meant the pointed eared bloke off Star Trek, or possibly the latest model of small family car. The idea of a meal without meat, well that was unthinkable.

The more I thought about it, the more interested I became. Sacrificing dairy wasn’t a huge issue for someone who takes their tea and coffee black and doesn’t each much cheese or cream, and the idea of trying a recipe or two with different protein sources intrigued me, Shifting myself out of my comfort-eating bubble to try something which could be both a damn-sight healthier and, well, just different? Yeah, that sounded enticing too. Turbo boosting a little weight loss? Well, that was the dairy-free icing on the cake. I popped on a well-known shopping site and purchased the book.

Now, as I mentioned, no wholesale changes are going to be made. The steaks in the freezer will still get eaten, as will the chicken and the mince. Every now and then, however, I intend to cook up a storm and get some serious veggie goodness on the table instead. As I’m the main cook in the Rankin household, it does mean that my wife, Tina, will suffer the same fate, but I’m sure she can live with three or four meals a month (let’s not get crazy here) being at least vegetarian. The first of those meals was last night.

Up To Speed
It took a fair amount of cooking, but by 7pm both Tina and I were tucking into a vegan lasagne which contained a whole butternut squash, two aubergines, mushroom, spinach, onion, celery, two tins of tomato, and a red pepper. It was tasty. Sweeter than a meat lasagne, but not unpleasantly so. If I’d cooked the pasta through and added the white sauce in the layers, rather than dumping it over the top, it might have been even better. That was a case of PICNIC though (problem in chair, not in cookbook).

If slimming world taught us anything, it was that the more ‘speed’ foods you eat, the likelier you are to lose weight and live a healthier and more energetic life. As the majority of these ‘speed’ foods are veggies, upping our intake can only be of benefit. It's an experiment. Of course it is. and there's nothing to say it will in any way stick, but while I'm looking to shed the excess tonnage and get myself back to my healthy best, I can only think it's an experiment worth running.

Especially for my trousers.



Until next time…