I've accidentally become a vegetarian

Yes, really. Since moving into our student house in September, my boyfriend and I have become predominantly vegetarian. As we were in the uni's catered halls last year, it's the first time that we've had to fend for ourselves food-wise, and Oli's made several attempts to go meat-less before now. But, at least during term-time, so as not to inflict our new and self-inflicted dietary restrictions on parents at home, he (and I) finally managed it. 

It happened for a couple of reasons - for one thing, going veggie can be better for you than eating a diet that includes meat (provided, of course, that you make sure you're getting lots of protein and all of the other essential bits and bobs). Secondly, because we're students, a near-constant concern for us is money, or lack thereof. Vegetarian food, as it turns out, seems to be a lot cheaper to make than meaty meals; even when we do a dreaded Big Shop, we're not spending as much as we would be if we had to buy enough mince, chicken or other assorted animals to last us for a week.

So, with a student budget and the corresponding cooking skills in mind, here are a few of our favourite cheap-'n'-easy things to eat...

Veggie burgers with homemade potato wedges - I'm kicking off with a super-easy one; basically, this  requires you to be able to take a box of veggie burgers out of the freezer, open it and bung them into a pre-heated oven. This is a meal I'd make if I'm heading out of an evening, because, once you've thrown everything in to cook, you can leave it be while you do your make-up, get changed etc. Don't worry about peeling the potatoes, just chop them into nice chunky wedges, coat in vegetable oil and cook at 200°C for about 40 minutes. Nice things to add to your burgers include rocket, salsa and a generous/Hayley-sized helping of cheese.

Vegetable pasta bake - if, like us, you have an abundance of tinned tomato soup in your cupboards, this is a good recipe to use some up - at the last count, we had at least twenty cans of it! You can use any veg you fancy. We usually go for peppers and courgettes, but I made this for my parents last night and added a lot of mushrooms, of which my Dad is a fan. It's a really easy dish to make, although it takes a bit of time to prepare, so having a chopping partner helps.

Traditional nut roast - if, like me, you're a part-time veggie who craves traditional roast dinners, this nut roast is a good way to go. Even if you are meat eaters, it can make a good substitute for stuffing. Nuts are quite expensive things, so we don't make this dish too often, but it's always a nice treat at the end of a particularly long and busy week. Add onion, breadcrumbs and mixed herbs to the nuts while they're cooking in the pan, then crisp up in the oven. All you need then are potatoes, green veg and a good glug of gravy!

Vegetarian chilli pie - this is a great Friday night dinner, especially if you're having a lounging-around-with-a-DVD sort of evening. Cook your favourite Quorn or bean chilli recipe (we've tried so many different ones that it's impossible to keep track), then pour into a casserole dish and top with nachos and another generous helping of cheese. To finish, pop it into the oven for the cheese to melt.

If you'd like to have a go at veggie food, but you're on a tight budget and you're not sure where to start, I recommend Vegetarian Nosh for Students by the wonderful Joy May, also the creator of the original Nosh for Students cookbook, from which some of our dishes are adapted. 

If you do have a go at any of our favourites, I'd love to hear how you got on and what you thought of them. Maybe you'll 'accidentally' become a vegetarian too...

The many faces of Somerset

Our trip to Somerset began bright and early on Tuesday morning as we set off to Weston-Super-Mare. As the town has always been known at home as 'Weston-Super-Mud', I was slightly apprehensive. It turns out that my mum was right about the mud - when we arrived at about 9am, the tide was so far out that we couldn't see any water. But we set off along the seafront, thus far unperturbed by the distinct lack of sea.

Once we had had breakfast in a café which, according to Ol, resembled that from The Apprentice, and walked up and down the high street, we turned back towards the pier. The Grand Pier, which was rebuilt and opened in 2010, was definitely the highlight of our mini-trip to Weston and we spent several hours in the arcade there before it was time to leave for our main destination, Wells.

My fact of the day for you is that Wells is the smallest city in England and it is absolutely beautiful. (Without wanting to be mean to Weston, I was quite glad to see the pretty side of Somerset at last). As soon as we had arrived and said hello to my boyfriend's grandparents, with whom we were staying for the next few days, we headed straight to Da Luciano's pizzeria for a bite to eat. The food is amazing - it's all homemade in the family-run restaurant and, although we didn't get to sample it this time, the homemade tiramisu really is a top dessert. Instead of sitting in the restaurant, we ate our pizza next to St Cuthbert's Church, the church in the Hot Fuzz movie (it was filmed in and around Wells) - you know, the one where the spire falls off and hits that poor person on the head. Ick.

Luckily, we left intact and made our way back through the city to the grandparents' house. The cathedral and Vicars' Close are two of the attractions en route (but I've also sneaked in some of the Bishop's Palace from a separate day, ssh!)

We had two whole days to spend in Wells and both were action-packed. On the first day, we spent the morning shopping in Street, or in the Clarke's village to be more precise, which is full of great gift shops and high-street favourites. We tried pink lemonade-flavoured tea and mint hot chocolate in Whittard of Chelsea and obviously we had to visit the Cadbury's outlet, purchasing the obligatory bag of Misfits (they're the odd ones that come off the conveyor belt a bit funny, so they're sold cheaply-ish in a bag of their own), a bag of Fudges and a whole box just of Roses' Strawberry Dreams - my favourite! Yum!

That afternoon (after Ol's grandad treated us to a pub lunch - I had a proper all-veggie meal, as I'm deliberating becoming a vegetarian - but that's another story), we went to Book Barn International, about 10 miles outside Wells. I'd never heard of this place before, but it was brilliant! As anyone who knows me will know, I really love reading and collecting books, so the Book Barn was like a dream come true. Apparently, it is home to over a million rare, vintage and otherwise interesting books, which I can believe. They all live in a huge warehouse where anybody can go in and buy any book for just £1. (!!) It even, to my surprise, had a big foreign languages section, so I stocked up on some German novels and plays, and a vintage French vocabulary book from 1956 .

On our second and last full day staying with bf's grandparents, they very kindly took us into Bath for the day. Although I've only been on a couple of occasions, it's one of my favourite cities, so I was very excited. We began the day in the magnificent atrium at the Roman Baths.

The baths had changed a lot since I'd last visited, so there were lots of new exhibits to explore and pieces to look at. (We also had audio guides to help us around the museum and I had a go at doing it in German - eventually I gave up with grown-up Deutsch and had to listen to the children's talks instead!) One exciting change was that we were now able to taste the water from the spring itself; it was very metallic and not particularly tasty, but I did drink a whole cup, just in case it turned out to be magic...

With our tickets to the baths, we also had entry to the Bath Fashion Museum, housed in the Assembly Rooms further up the city (there were more audio guides, but I chose English this time). One of the exhibitions we saw, and probably my favourite, was 50 Fabulous Frocks, which featured pieces by McQueen, Dior, Norman Hartnell (who once dressed the Queen) and Jean Paul Gaultier. Unusually, all the dresses from different eras were intermingled, leading to some hilarity when a passing visitor referred to a 2006 Versace dress hidden among 18th century crinolines and bonnets as being 'very sexy, even back then!' Below is a dress from the 1930s, designed by Handley Seymour, who also designed the Queen Mother's wedding dress.

Another highlight of the day, though, was the dressing up section! Even Ol, after dismissing Victorian men's clothes as 'boring', strapped himself into a corset and crinoline - although unfortunately I don't have any photographic evidence. I shall endeavour to get the pictures from him, because I had so much fun and look very funny in a bonnet.

To finish off this very long post, (sorry, it's several days worth of activities) I'll show you my last few photos of our day in Bath - including when we popped into the Krispy Kreme shop!

Hoping to go back to Somerset very soon.

(: xx