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Reflection on 2018

Looking back on 2018, it has been busier and more varied than I could have imagined. I have spent most of my working hours engaged in 2 main activities: supporting my clients and learning, but as well as that I have written a weekly newspaper column, given educational talks to local charities, support groups and schools and created many new recipes. The learning which I have done this year has been not only from organised CPD (continued professional development) events, but also from conversations with other practitioners in the breaks at these events, in a professional supervision group, from my own individual research and from my clients themselves. It might seem strange to be learning fro

A meal in a bowl

Following my current theme of easy, but nutritious and warming meals, here is another soup but this one has chunkier vegetable pieces than the smooth soups I usually prefer. The vegetables in the recipe are my choices and can easily be swapped for other vegetables that you enjoy, like parsnips and cabbage instead of carrots and kale. Minestrone traditionally contains meat and pasta, but this one has lots of vegetables, and beans provide some protein. Minestrone 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 onions, chopped 4 carrots, diced 2 sticks celery, diced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 courgette, diced 2 large leaves kale, shredded 400g tin chopped tomatoes 400g tin cannellini beans, drained (could replace wit

Another simple supper

Carrying on with my new found passion for sheet pan cooking, here is another very simple but nutritious supper that I made using the same method I described in the last blog. Once again, I started the process 1.5 hours before I wanted to serve the meal. For the first 45 minutes, chunks of sweet potato, parsnip and carrot baked on the tray. Then, I added the red onion and courgettes (this was about 45 minutes before the meal). At 15 minutes before serving, I added cubes of fresh tuna. In another pan (yes, sorry I did use one saucepan this time!) I sautéed some spinach leaves in the water that was still clinging to their leaves, then I added the wilted spinach and some plum tomatoes to the she

So simple!

I am really into sheet pan cooking at the moment. It is a great way to make a whole meal without using any saucepans and not spending lots of time tending to a meal. The idea is to cook the entire meal on one oven tray, adding the ingredients in order of how long they need to cook. Last night’s dinner comprised of cod, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, fennel, carrots and cauliflower, and there was barely any clearing up to do at the end!! I chopped up all the vegetables into chunky pieces, and put the oven on 1.5 hours before dinner time. First the potatoes went in the oven (sprinkled with sea salt and brushed with a little oil), 30 minutes later I added the carrots and Jerusalem artichokes,