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Cauliflower Pizza Three Ways to Perk Up Your Meat Free Monday

This recipe is the perfect way to kick start your Meat Free Monday habit. This is not your average vegetarian pizza packing an extra veggie punch with its sweeter cauliflower base,for a healthy and unusual dinner sure to surprise your family and friends.

It’s pizza – so the kids will definitely love it! Plus we give you three exciting toppings to try, all vegetarian of course!

More and more of us are beginning to support the MFM campaign now because we’ve all read the headlines (and here), telling us too much meat is bad for you. It has been scientifically proven that we could prevent a total of 45000 deaths from heart disease, cancer and stroke whilst saving the NHS £1.2 billion each year just by eating meat no more than three tines a week. It’s a amazing what a difference a small change could make to our health.

Not only that but going veggie can save us lots of cash. Vegetables and lentils are cheaper than meats and fish and when you’re feeding a family three times a day, you’re always in need of a thrifty recipe. With recipes like this one you’ll be glad to have saved your pennies!

Cauliflower Pizza Base

Cauliflower Pizza

1 cauliflower head,

80g almond flour or finely ground almonds

1 tbsp dried oregano/thyme/rosemary

3 eggs, beaten (or use 30g chia seeds/ flaxseed meal mixed with 175ml water, leave in fridge for 15 minutes before use. Simply substitute the egg for this mix)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Chop the cauliflower into chunks. Blend in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. It should feel a bit like rice.

2. Measure 600ml of the cauliflower “rice” into a larger bowl. Add the almond flour, seasoning and herbs.

3. Make a well in the centre and pour in your eggs. Combine using your hands. The dough will be a sticky texture.

4. Flatten onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Shape into a pizza and bake for 25 minutes at 200°C pre heated oven.

5. Once the pizza has turned golden brown it is ready for the toppings.

Topping 1: Butternut Squash, Spinach and Feta with Toasted Pine Nuts

Roast a butternut squash until soft and mash into a smooth paste. Season well. Wilt the spinach in a pan with some garlic and olive oil. Spread the pizza base with the squash paste, scatter over the spinach crumble the feta and pine nuts. Bake in the oven again for 5-8 minutes.

Topping 2: Creamy Rosemary Potatoes

Soften an onion in a pan with butter and olive oil, ensuring they do not brown. Mix into a tub of ricotta and season. Thinly slice two potatoes and par boil until almost cooked through. Drain well. Spread the ricotta cream over your pizza base, cover with the thinly sliced potatoes and scatter over lots of rosemary. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes until the potatoes are cooked completely.

Topping 3 : Courgette with Chilli and Lemon and Sun Dried Tomato Paste (vegan)

Grate a courgette and toss in olive oil lemon juice and lots of freshly chopped chilli. Cover your base with this mix. Whiz up some sun dried tomatoes with some garlic, loosen with some of the oil that comes with jarred sun dried tomatoes. Drizzle over the courgettes. Bake in the oven for 5-8 minutes. Scatter over lots of fresh basil once baked.

Coping with Separation

Uncoupling, separation or divorce – whichever way you put it, it is often the saddest, most stressful time in any relationship. And with divorce rates on the rise and almost half of these happening within the first 10 years of marriage, it is something more and more of us have to deal with.

Whilst Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s “conscious uncoupling” splattered all over the media at the moment, the pair have got away to maintain their privacy and allow them some downtime. Gwyneth wrote “…while we love each other very much we will remain separate. We are, however, and always will be a family, and in many ways we are closer than we have ever been.”

Like Gwyneth and Chris, for many couples it is changes in circumstance, lifestyle and interests that cause separation and not necessarily a broken or unloving relationship. However, whatever the cause of separation, the procedures involved to separate a lifestyle that has been led as a couple in two can take its toll. Getting away, relaxing with some downtime before tackling that bureaucratic untangling is not a bad idea at all.

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Hay Fever Symptoms and Tips

Many of us suffer from hay fever in the UK. Research has found that between 15-20% of the UK population sneeze, cough and itch their way through summer’s hazy days.

Pollen is the allergen that causes an allergic reaction in hay fever sufferers.

Most hay fever suffers are affected by grass pollen. This starts to irritate people from about mid-May through to July. However, if you are allergic to tree pollen you may have begun to notice your hay fever symptoms already. Tree pollen allergies start irritating sufferers about now, from late March to May.
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