One of our vegetarians that didn't eat vegetables has written an account of her experiences with weight loss and working with Achieve, I'll be sharing parts of her story over the next few days.  Reading it was a real eye opener for me on how difficult it can be to get started on a nutrition plan and how hard the search for a long term answer can be.  

I'll focus more on how to succeed in the long term over the next couple of weeks to set you up ready for when the schools go back in September.  As I said last week, you need to pick the battles you can win; in our case that means not trying to get people to start a new diet or plan when their whole life is out of sync because the kids are of school.

That doesn't mean just right the next 3 weeks off but to just do the best you can and don't take the p!ss with the ice-cream and booze ;)

Back to the kitchen gadgetry; below are a list of the kitchen gadgets and utensils that we use on a daily basis.

Juicer  

We have been experimenting with juicing more recently, since Fran came back from her juice detox week.  We got out of the habit of juicing because of the amount of time it was taking to clean the damn thing. 

A friend then let me in on the secret of juicing - clean it straight away.  It saves so much time, it's unbelievable; no more scrubbing dried lemon rind for hours, just a quick rinse under the tap. 

The juicer we have has now been updated and has had a price increase to match but still looks good.  The ability to put full fruit down the shot does make it easier.  Phillips HR1871 Juicer.  

Blender

Something that gets used multiple times per day is our magic bullet.  It's basically a mini blender with various attachments for juicing etc, we very rarely use anything other than the quick whizz.  It is ridiculously easy to clean though and we use it for eggs, sauces, grinding nuts and smoothie making.

We've had it for a few years and as with everything it has been updated to the nutribullet.  Fran has told me I'm not allowed to buy one until our magic bullet breaks though :)  It's more powerful and includes less of the things that you don't need.

We also have a full food processor that gets used for bigger jobs, like grating veggies for curries etc.

If you're interested in juicing, we have a juice and smoothie recipe book you can get here.

Utensils

We use a lot of garlic in our recipes at home; if a recipe calls for 3 cloves we use 6, no vampires living in our house.  I saw this garlic peeler at the good food show and thought it would be just a gimmick, it's not, it's brilliant.  If you are short on time, garlic can be a really picky job, this just sorts it. A quick smash and roll and everyone's happy.

Sticking with garlic, the garlic twist gadget is brilliant for mincing it down in to a mush in a few seconds, rather than chopping frantically.  It keeps your hands garlic free too.  The bonus is that it also works on ginger and chilli's, so is handy for making sauces.

A sharp knife is essential if you want to save time in the kitchen.  It simply makes everything easier.  You can spend anything from £10.00 to £1000.00 on knives.  It's important that you get one you feel comfortable with and like the way it feels in your hand. 

You can get a reasonable one for around £30.00 that will sharpen well and last a lifetime of normal kitchen use.  I picked up our last one with a sharpening steel in TK Maxx.  The very expensive ones are really designed for chef's and commercial use.