About Me: From Vesta Curry to Vegan Sushi

When I first became a student the only thing I knew how to cook was scrambled eggs and Mary Baker fairy cakes – from a packet!

Over time, thanks to my aunt’s gift of a basic cookery book, I learned to enjoy experimenting with – for me – unusual ingredients like green peppers, aubergines and garlic.

I would invite student friends round for dinner to experiment on: 2 of them still don’t know that I nearly threw a whole bulb of garlic into the Hungarian Goulash because I didn’t know what a clove was! I stopped at 4 because it seemed like a lot. Either they were very polite or it passed muster, but no-one choked or spluttered into their dinner.

I loved creating meals and of course loved the appreciative comments afterwards. It was quite a step up from Vesta curries and Bird’s Instant Whip – remember those?!

I never had any real cooking disasters – oh, except when old friends were visiting and I spent the whole day making a perfect lemon meringue pie from scratch, only for my coin-filled wallet to dive out of a cupboard and land straight dead-centre into the pie minutes before they arrived!

But I digress.

Growing up, meals were about sustenance, not for entertaining or to nurture good health, we knew nothing about that. Mum cooked for us, that’s what mums did. She did her best, but she didn’t enjoy it and didn’t have much money to be inventive. Dad liked plain food, so no room for creativity anyway. She liked to get on with it and we weren’t encouraged to join in – though she did let us do the washing-up! (This she came to regret when, unbeknownst to me, she had spent all day making a huge pan of ham stock for pea soup and I threw it down the sink thinking it was soaking water! Poor Mum. You can imagine the scene).

So, the kitchen was not my favourite place and, for me, cooking was nothing more than something that had to be done in order not to starve.

Having a child changed all that.

When my son was born, I became more interested in healthy eating. I would get books from the local library – our favourite place to go on a wet Winter’s day –  which eventually led me to becoming more informed.

He would learn about colours and I would learn about conscious eating:

What we eat doesn’t just affect our bodies, but also the planet, the economies of developing countries and animal welfare too.

 I became a vegetarian and eventually a juicer, raw foodie and vegan.

In my blog, I’ll write about the people and books who inspired me on my road to raw, (some are still available via secondhand sites, see Raw Energy) and about my juicing experiences (eg My First Juice Cleanse – Do’s & Don’ts and Preparing to be Superjuiced

I’ll also recommend equipment (see Retro Super Blend review, Spiralising: A Great Way to get Your Kids Eating their Greens, Reds, Yellows,  Which Juicer?) and include plenty of recipes for raw treats, juices, nut milks, shakes and smoothies.

Oh, and there’ll be the occasional musings and anecdotes posted under ‘Life.’

Pull up a pew, have a warm cuppa or a refreshing juice and I hope you enjoy the read!

Copyright: Chris McGowan