EAT REAL FOOD

There has been so much about obesity in the media recently, adult and child obesity rates are on the rise. Today people are getting fatter and fatter, whose fault is that? As an adult it’s your fault. I can’t imagine that there is anyone out there who wants to be obese. Being overweight or obese makes lives harder and is one of the major causes of illness and death. Being overweight is bad for our health. So, if we had a choice, would anyone really choose to be obese? I believe not. We as adults have a choice, but our children do not as they are dependent on us, as providers, as teachers, as guardians we are responsible for shaping their lives.

So let's give our children the best and lead by example. What our children eat will determine their future health and well-being. Research in Ireland shows approximately one in four primary school children are now overweight or obese, with 6% of three-year-olds classed as being obese.

BLACK MAGIC

I spent the past weekend putting a nice layer of garden compost on my raised beds. As vegetables grow, the plants take nutrients from the soil, so it is important every autumn to add garden compost which provides organic matter to return the nutrients and improve your soil for the growing season ahead. Compost is decomposed kitchen and garden waste, including teabags, coffee grains, eggshells, old potting compost, cardboard, shredded paper and grass clippings. You can make homemade garden compost by simply heaping the materials up in a corner, using a plastic compost bin or for the more hardcore composter there are timber compost bins or bays.

a FONDNESS for FISH

I really do enjoy eating all seafood, fish and shellfish, but where did this fondness for fish come from, it wasn't always that way. Growing up, I didn't live terribly far from the coast, but my only introduction to fish was fish fingers or some whiting on Fridays and in early adulthood occasional fish and chips from a takeaway. A generalisation I know, but it certainly appears Irish people are for some strange reason predisposed not to eat fish and don't even suggest shellfish. Why is this when one of the greatest resources we have in Ireland is a bountiful supply of fish and shellfish. In a country that is surrounded by fish in the sea, the fish consumption is unusually low and most of our fish is exported to other countries. Understandably we export most of our seafood because there just isn't a market for it here.

PEA and MINT Soup (V)

INGREDIENTS:
                         
Large white onion, peeled and finely chopped
Medium Potato,peeled and chopped
50g Butter
900ml Vegetable stock
300ml Milk
350g Peas (frozen)
Large bunch of Mint, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper

Serves 4

GROW your own PEA SHOOTS

I have seen pea shoots in restaurant dishes, very posh but I have never seen them for sale in supermarkets or elsewhere, so I thought I would try growing my own. Pea shoots are the tiny, tender leaves and vines of young pea plants. They are tasty and when you grow your own they will be on hand for use in a recipe or as a garnish.

Everybody has a windowsill, whether you live in a city or the country. This is a very simple and quick way of growing your own pea shoots, unlike others where I have seen them grown mainly in a compost I have simply grown them using kitchen paper, which is a much cleaner approach altogether.