Dear LPG,

I am a pensioner who moved in with her mum about 8 years ago, and while it was all a bit of a challenge at the beginning, we have got used to each other now.

After quite a few years of living alone it has been good to have someone at home when you get there, to have a day–to-day chat with, worry about and share meals with until we get to early spring each year.

It is all over for another year now but my mother is very strict when it comes to giving up meat for Lent, so each year we enjoy our pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and then go meatless for six weeks.  I could leave her to it but, as I said we share meals for the rest of the year so I have joined her in this habit.  We spend this time eating fish and veg for dinner, but I still find it a bit of a trial although you would think after seven years I should be used to it by now. 

Every year I try to find some more interesting things to eat and we have tried pretending to eat meat with vegetarian substitutes; but I think that eating something that looks like meat can defeat the object of the exercise.  Let’s face it; there is no fooling your taste buds!

Judging by the way that the price of fish goes up each spring there must be quite a few people that still adopt the meatless option as their diet staple during Lent, and while I know that there are many other meatless choices, I am always looking for something more interesting to sustain my masticating interest during this time.

With this in mind, I have found this latest collection of recipes and hope that other vegetarian readers, be they full time or part time vegies, find something a little different that takes their fancy.

There is one more thing that I have to add, and that is while doing some advanced browsing for something interesting in anticipation of next year, I found quite a lot of information about the health advantages of a meatless diet, although I think that six weeks, or 40 days, per year with a really good, over the top Easter Sunday breakfast to finish with is as much as I can manage!

EB, Lee

EB has offered some links to recipes and information on the advantages of being a vegetarian. Which include improving blood sugar levels and lowering the risk of heart disease?

PG will post this message again nearer the beginning of next lent for readers who go meatless and want a little inspiration at that time.

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