Vegetarian Nut Loaf

Wow, wow I've been trying to post this recipe for ages but I couldn't find the piece of paper with my notes on it and I just could not remember one of the ingredients! Finally I spotted them while doing this weeks food shop and I am now able to share this meal!
This is a vegetarian take on the traditional meatloaf. As I've mentioned before our little foodie is not a meat fan and I want to make sure we're not forcing her to eat something she really doesn't want to SO along came this Nut Loaf. I hope you try it and your family loves it! I served with mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, peas and some gravy. We used beef gravy which is obviously not vegetarian friendly but a vegetable gravy would be just as nice! R x


Serves 6

You will need;

Vegetarian Nut Loaf

175g Butter
1 lrg Brown Onion, chopped fine
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
100g Mushrooms, your choice, chopped
100g unsalted Cashew Nuts, crushed
100g Brazil nuts, crushed
225g Brown Breadcrumbs
2 Eggs, beaten
4 tbsp Fresh Cream
Salt & Pepper
1 tsp Dried Thyme
3 tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped (dried can also be used)
1 Lemon, juice & zest


Grease and line a loaf tin. I use silicone cookware for this like this which cuts out the lining. Yes I can be lazy at times :)
Pre heat the oven to 200C / 400F

In a hot pan, cook the onion in half the butter until the onion is soft

To chop the nuts, you can use a food processor or if you don't have one, a Ziploc back and a rolling pin does the job. Also helps to get out any pent up frustration you may have

Pop the nuts into a large bowl with half the breadcrumbs.
Add the onions and any remaining butter
Stir in eggs and cream and season with salt & pepper

Melt the remaining butter in the pan and cook the mushrooms and garlic until soft
Add the zest of the lemon and the juice to the cooked mushrooms

Add the remaining breadcrumbs, thyme, parsley and season with salt & pepper

Back to your tin

Press HALF the nut mix into the bottom of the tin

Top with the mushroom mix, spreading evenly

Add the remaining nut mix and press down well using the back of a spoon

Cover with foil and pop into the oven for 45 mins

After 45 mins, remove the foil and return to the oven for 15 mins to brown

Leave to stand before removing from the tin

Organic Carrot & Thyme Soup

I'm sitting in my garden writing this post. The evening is cool but not cold. Just enough to pop something around your shoulders. I'm sitting at a wooden bench surrounded by my pots & crates where we are growing our veg. My 3 year old is sleeping soundly, my lovely husband is at work and our dog is throwing a toy at me wanting to play...again...

I did an awesome food shop this week. Loads of fresh, organic produce that I found at great prices. We only have one meat dish on our menu this week so that also helped stock the house with lovely fresh smelling veg. My daughter doesn't eat much meat and we decided to not try and encourage her but instead to up her intake of vegetarian meals which she happily eats. So do we! Lately my mini foodie has a love for fresh made soup. This week I made her a carrot soup and she ate two bowls with some brown soda bread :) So I decided I would share the recipe with you :)

R x


Of course you don't have to use organic produce!


You need;

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lrg brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
750ml vegetable stock
250g carrots, ends removed, washed & chopped
1 tsp (roughly) of thyme, dried or fresh
Salt & Pepper

Heat the butter and oil in a large soup pot

Add the onion and cook until soft. When making a soup, don't worry about chopping the onion too carefully because you will be blending it at the end

Add garlic & thyme

Add stock & carrots soon after and bring to the boil

Season with salt & pepper

Reduce heat and simmer until the carrots are soft. This took about a half hour

Once the carrots are soft you can blend the soup. Be careful if transferring to a standing blender because it will be hot. No burns on my watch!

I served with some garlic croutons/brown soda bread

I also left the remaining soup to cool and portioned it into Ziploc bags and popped them into the freezer. I'm planning on building up a soup stock for winter. You know, for those days when it's more appealing to snuggle under a blanket watching a movie than to potter around the kitchen.


**I didn't peel the carrots to retain (in my opinion) goodness in the soup**
**You will need a hand blender or standing blender**

Healthy Pizza Night

Hi foodies!

Wow it feels like forever since i've posted. My desktop is FULL of pictures awaiting posting with recipes. Life its very busy right now and time is running away from me. Our little chef starts pre school in a months time and i'm trying to soak up all I can get before the big wide world gets its hands on her.

So I am going to try post at least some until September when I will give you all the attention you deserve! After I shed some tears because i'll be missing my baby girl!

Here is something I put together for dinner tonight. It's pretty simple but really fresh.

I hope you like it!

R  x


You will need;

Ready rolled Puff Pastry (store bought, lets take it easy)
1 courgette (zuccini), sliced thin
400g cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 large red onion, sliced thin
1 tsp fine grain sugar
Olive oil
Handful Feta cheese, crumbled
Handful fresh basil, torn
1/2 fresh lemon


Add roughly 2 tbsp of olive oil to a hot pan and cook the onions until soft
Add tsp sugar and heat until melted. Only a few minutes
Set aside

Cut puff pastry into what ever shape you like. I usually do a small circle for our little chef and a large for us to half
Using a fork, pierce the base several times

Leaving a thin edge, spread the onion over the base

Top with tomatoes and courgette

Sprinkle the feta and drizzle with olive oil

Pop into the oven @ 200C
It will take 25 - 30 minutes to cook fully

After about 15 minutes take it out and add the fresh basil
Return to the oven until the pastry edges are golden


Before serving, drizzle with fresh lemon juice