About

Vegan? Thinking of becoming a vegan? Maybe you have a vegan guest for dinner and are wondering what to feed them? Well then you have come to the right place!

Welcome to A Veggie Cooks, my name is Margaret and I live in the south-east of Ireland in the countryside. I am lucky enough to live beside mountains but also only 20 minutes from the sea so I have the best of all worlds!

My adult son and daughter, test all my recipes and cooking experiments so far surviving the experience!! I have four very spoiled dogs who are my fur babies and a cat who thinks I am her servant! A large part of my day is spent opening and closing doors for animals who cannot decide which side they want to be on!

Becoming a vegetarian when I was fourteen was a big change from the meat centered meals I was raised on. Being a vegetarian was something I knew nothing about. Ireland at the time was being newly introduced to rice and pasta. They certainly were not available where I grew up!

Every meal consisted of boiled potatoes and vegetables with some form of meat. Food was very plain and this is still how a lot of people still eat today. There is nothing wrong with this but as a vegan, eating just boiled vegetables would get boring very fast! I have always loved to cook and bake so I set out to explore the world of food.

Inspiration

When I had my son I was confronted by a Health Nurse who was horrified when I told her I would not be giving him meat. She told me he would not grow properly but he is over six-foot so I think I did alright! Thankfully attitudes have changed now and many children are vegetarian. I always made it clear to my children even to this day that if they decide to eat meat it is entirely their choice but they have no desire to.

My children are always annoyed by the inevitable question of “what do you eat if you don’t eat meat?” It always makes me wonder what people eat if they cannot imagine a delicious meal without meat?!

Making meals for my children that were nutritious and tasty was a challenge but I learned! Meals had to fit into family life by not taking hours to make. They also had to be made from inexpensive ingredients easy to find in shops.

My children have had many friends here for meals over the years who never seemed to notice they had no meat and loved what I made them.

I have been a vegetarian since I was fourteen but over the last few months of 2018 I became a vegan. Both my children are vegetarian and it makes me happy that they never felt the desire to eat meat.

I became a vegetarian because I was often brought to an abattoir as a child as my father drove a cattle lorry. I could not have it on my conscience to be responsible for what I saw there, believe me they do not go peacefully to death, they start panicking in the lorry miles from the abattoir.

I decided to became a vegan after I discovered some things about the dairy industry which I had not known before which I could not be a part of.

I was watching a program on farming in which a farmer mentioned letting a newborn calf have one feed from their mother and then separating them permanently. I grew up in the countryside and around dairy farms but I had never realised that this was common practice.

I was horrified at the thought of the intense suffering this inflicted on the desperate mother looking for her baby and the poor calf being deprived of the most basic right of any animal which is the love of its mother.

Cows are devoted mothers and their calves will wean naturally at around ten months old if left with them. They are taken from the mother soon after birth on dairy farms so the cow can be milked and the milk sold.

I was extremely distressed to realise that I was contributing to this and decided I could not be a part of it anymore.

I believe it is easier to convert people to a vegetarian or vegan diet not by preaching at them or condemning them but by showing them the amazing array of delicious plant based meals that are quick and easy to make. People simply do not know where to start so I hope to help with this.

A large number of my children`s friends that initially mocked them for not eating meat are now vegetarian or vegan so every conversation about the benefits of veganism is important as long as it is an opportunity to educate instead of attack.

Baking has been my passion ever since I was small playing with leftover pastry when my aunt was baking. Let me share my favourite recipes and all I have learned over the years with you.

Having a big garden and a vegetable patch is my other passion. I grow many types of fruit and vegetables (or try to!) so I will share my trials and tribulations in this with you too!

Keeping in touch

Because I am entirely self taught I do not claim any expertise in nutrition or cooking. My recipes are the result of trial and error which means you are saved the work! I think you will be interested in my food, which is why I decided to start A Veggie Cooks.

I hope you find it inspires you to try some of my food! All of my recipes are vegan. Please contact me with any questions or thoughts because I love to hear from you!

Follow me on Instagram at aveggiecooks__ and on Twitter @aveggiecooks

If you make any of my recipes don`t forget to tag me on Instagram and use the #aveggiecooks hashtag as I love seeing what you made!