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Mushroom, Mushroom, Mushrooms

There are many types of mushrooms, they can add flavour and texture to a dish. 

Mushrooms

Adding mushrooms to your meal can make it very delicious.

Mushrooms:

  • generally grow on the ground or on rotten trees
  • show up at certain times, for example a week after rains
  • can be distinguished by their shape, colour and the type of underside

The underside of mushrooms can have a frill shape or a sponge shape. So next time you want to identify a mushroom, check the under side of it too. Remember to check with mushroom experts and to learn which mushrooms you can pick in your area. Poison is no joke, but delicious, safe mushrooms add flavour and texture to a vegetarian dish. Some mushrooms give a hearty, almost “meaty” taste and texture, so try one of these in your hamburger instead of a patty next time.

Disclaimer: Obviously there are poisonous mushrooms so you cannot simply eat the mushrooms you find in the forest (or your garden), without checking them properly and consulting experts.

-Graham

graham@thevegetarianman.com

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Pancakes that Make you Lose Weight?

New year, New Me! Crowds gather at a 5km local park run as part of a strategy to make 2018 a healthy year. 

It’s the New Year and judging by the turnout at the local Parkruns (weekly free 5 km volunteer organized running events), there is a large cohort of people who made 2018 the year get in shape. While exercise is a great start to shed some of those excess kilos that we gained over the holidays, it alone isn’t enough. We have all heard of the saying that abs are built in the kitchen, meaning that what we eat has a far greater bearing on our physique than exercise.

Many studies suggest that if we ate well, 80% of the job would be done.

 

If eating well was easy we would all look swimsuit models, unfortunately, the reality is that many of us are pretty fallible when it comes to diet. We all know what we should eat but sugar, refined carbs, fat and salt are all too damn delicious. Given the choice between pancakes and quinoa after a long stressful day at work – most of us would choose the former. While quinoa is the healthier alternative, cooked quinoa (that is not drenched sauces) is blander than cardboard – it is utterly tasteless.

A few days ago I wanted to make pancakes (anyone who knows me will be aware that pancakes are one of my favourite guilty pleasures – they were the first thing I learned to cook at the tender age of nine) but a part of me was unwilling to make them in the traditional manner.   I wanted to transform them into a snack that was both delicious and healthy. Continue reading “Pancakes that Make you Lose Weight?”