VEG OUT

I originally started the business under the name ‘VEG-OUT’ in 2018 as a result of really seeing the positive impact of plant based eating as a family, not only from a health perspective (actually managing to totally eliminate the need for my anti-inflammatory medication through eating this way) but also finding it a really positive tool in supporting the mental health challenges being faced by my daughter Ruby too.

“It’s fair to say that when we decided to make the shift towards a more plant based way of eating, the convenience options were VERY limited!”

VEG OUT began offering frozen ready meals and fresh soups in individual portion pots for local delivery and at local farmers markets after noticing a lack of nutritionally balanced options available. For people with similar dietary needs that needed a convenient healthy option during those busy weeks when work shifts were all over the place, kids had all sorts of after school events as well as the other ‘life stuff’ that impacted on them finding time to eat well. The range soon grew to include fresh soups, curries, stews and a firm customer favourite, ‘Grandma’s Black Bean Bourguignon.’

The very first VEG OUT range felt a little like a GCSE design & technology project – I guess those transferable teaching skills had to come in useful somewhere!? ..EVERYTHING was so carefully deigned to be as sustainable as possible, right down to the packaging (which, after much testing, resulted in me using meadow hay to insulate the frozen pots!)

Evolving the business through the pandemic was quite a natural process, there was no longer the need for the corporate catering packages, that by this time had become a regular part of the business, or for regular deliveries of perfectly portioned ready meals to take to work.. However, as a small business it was relatively straight forward to shuffle the product offer to something that better met the needs of my customers with the development of recipe boxes for delivery as a convenient, sustainable and local alternative to joining the endless queues at the supermarket to source food.

It was a brilliant opportunity to test out a wider range of family recipes and share them with customers in my small scale, locally sourced, fully plant based alternative to the big brand recipe box options out there. Through this process the sustainability message remained strong, with perfectly portioned ingredients packaged as plastic free as possible and returnable glass bottles as well as recipes celebrating locally grown veggies and quality ingredients. The simple to follow recipes allowed customers to have the convenience of a recipe box delivery but also have the opportunity to learn more about plant based cooking, new ingredients and gain confidence in their own kitchen. Alongside the recipe boxes, VEG OUT also developed a new range of frozen ready meals which, inspired by the customer favourites from the recipe boxes, which were stocked in the prestigious Doddington Hall Farm shop as a sustainable, plant based alternative for their shoppers as lock down stated to ease and we gradually got back to ‘normal.’

Community

The pandemic provided an opportunity for me to use my foodie skills to benefit the community too. The ‘VEG OUT Community Project’ was started in response to conversations with the food bank and noticing a gap in the services provided locally. The hybrid ‘food bank recipe box’ (which actually got christened the ‘store cupboard recipe box’) was born.. with funding support from Gusto Group as well as the emergency food assistance grants, the project was able to provide local families in need with healthy food boxes. This project relied on local partnerships with Happy Culture Cafe, Mint Lane Cafe as well as the Abbey Access Training Center in Lincoln serve as a collection space for the boxes which not only encouraged an increased focus on affordable veg based meals but also helped to build kitchen confidence with easy to follow recipes.

“During the course of the project I provided free meals kits to make 1,052 family meals ..that’s around 5,260 servings of nutritionally balanced, veg packed good stuff for families struggling financially as a result of the pandemic. It was a pretty weird time for everyone – I’m very proud that I managed to make a small difference for local families”

Supper Club

After the pandemic as things started to get back to a form of normality, the catering jobs returned to the diary and group gatherings started to become more frequent.. There were also opportunities for more pop up events and social gatherings too. This provided the perfect excuse to start a local plant based supper club.. allowing people to have a space to get together again after lock down. The process of planning a supper club is a little like a kids party but for grown ups! ..With some really quite varied themes including ‘Harry Potter’ & ‘Friends’ inspired evenings on the list, it was a fab opportunity to get a bit creative with menu planning and celebrate how versatile plant based food can be.

Over the last couple of years, the supper club dining experience has evolved to also include bespoke private events for birthdays and hen parties as well as a full plant based pub take over night at the Royal Oak in Collingham – Not to be confused with the very brief stint I did looking after the pub earlier in 2024 to avoid it being fully closed. Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t actually turn it into a fully vegan pub (although if you read the local ‘gutter press’ you’d be forgiven for thinking that!).

“I love creating the bespoke menus with clever links to the theme and sourcing props for the these events – It’s like being a contestant on the ‘Great British Menu’ .. and because this is literally one of my favourite things to do, I now offer a full private chef service with all of the same attention to detail across the menu.. PERFECT for a special gathering to remember”

Football

The 2022-23 football season provided the opportunity to support the newly named ‘Newark & Sherwood United FC’ with their food offer. Working closely with the first team manager to develop fully plant based post match food packed with protein, veggies and wholefoods to provide the players with what they need after an intense 90 minutes.

As a part of my role with the club, I also developed a club food strategy that supports the wider football family too – the main focus being the sharing of the healthy recipes enjoyed by the players through the clubs website and within their printed match day programmes as well as the specially developed recipe for the meat alternatives used in the kebabs and burgers served. The kebabs and burgers served on match days to the supporters actually pack in 1.5 portions of veggies in every serving as well as a far healthier nutritional profile when compared to the other mainstream options available on the market. These alt. meats were to become the starting point of what is now my wholesale range for food service, available via Lincs Table.

The Newark and Sherwood United club sponsors, BOSH! (vegan legends) have also been very supportive and were ‘very impressed’ with the healthier alternatives being offered at half time supporting the overall health and wellness of the club as a whole ..The recipes for the post match meals have even been featured in ‘Vegan Food & Living’ magazine as well, helping to share more widely how easy and fuss free high protein meal options can be.

Teaching & Talks

Over the last 6 years alongside the hands on food ‘stuff’, services have expanded to include a wide range of plant based learning elements, to make full use of my 12 years of teaching experience and food knowledge. More recently I have worked with Lincolnshire Co-op as part of their ‘Cook with Co-op’ series, this was a brilliant project and allowed me to put my recipe writing skills to the test – resulting in a range of budget friendly, fully plant based recipes (available to download for free on their website) as well as a series of cooking classes for members, cooking demonstrations across the Lincolnshire show and also a live cooking demonstration on stage at their members AGM.

“The main focus of the business and my main driving force is to help more people to eat well, regardless of what budget they are on or how busy they are. My work celebrates the versatility of plants and quality locally sourced ingredients to help create more sustainable way of eating that still ticks the comfort food boxes but avoids the beige oven food vortex! ”

Nutritionally balanced and budget friendly recipe development seems to have become my niche, Last year I completed a collaborative project with BGU and Linc Higher to share a range of accessible recipes in the form of a cookbook, ready to hand out to new students to help them to navigate the world of living away from home and cooking for themselves.

Other work has included talks and cooking demonstrations for groups of trainee teachers, women’s wellness groups, the WI and most notably.. TED. I had the privilege of being selected for a TEDX talk in 2022, where I took to the iconic red dot to bang on about vegetables and the importance of ‘banishing the beige’ and eating more wholefoods for the benefit of our mental health and well being. This theme is a constant thread through all of the work that I do. The main focus for me is to increase the amount of veggies we eat to help with overall wellness and mental health. I refer to myself as ‘a recovering veg hater’ because I really struggled to eat well when I was younger. I hated the textures of anything healthy so I just didn’t eat it. This resulted in me growing up on 1990’s convenience foods, which as you’d imagine, really didn’t help my relationship with food as an adult or did much for my mental health either! ..and so the work continues, as a much needed continuation to the TEDx talk, I will be sharing a wider project; ‘Banish the Beige’ very soon which will act as an online support system for anyone who is also a self confessed ‘salad dodger’, struggles with food textures and wants to start the process of making positive changes.

The Allotment

After being a one woman operation for so long, in 2023 I opened The Allotment Kitchen & Deli in Collingham with the help of a fabulous team. This project provided an opportunity to bring all of the elements of the business under one roof and help to get even more plants on plates. Sadly, after just 16 months, we closed the doors on our lovely plant based cafe. The location just wasn’t quite right and in an ever challenging economic climate, hospitality is a tricky thing to navigate as a new player. As with everything that I do, The Allotment had a fully accessible plant based venue with a firm focus on wholefoods, sourcing locally grown produce, celebrating seasonal vegetables and encouraging everyone to eat more good stuff.

In the short time that we were operational, The Allotment gained recognition in the local press for our fully plant based Sunday lunches and we received excellent feedback on our full range of seasonal menu options. Possibly the most notable achievement in our short trading period was the development of community links, support for the food pantry and also achieving our B Corp pending status as a firm sign of the vision we had for the business.

Whilst it is obviously sad that this was a short lived experience – it has been an excellent learning opportunity. The skills I have developed in this short space of time mean that I can now offer a far more confident service as I step back to working for myself again.

Greens & Good Stuff

So this brings us to the here and now. Clicking back into what I know best and what I enjoy doing is the main focus of the ‘Greens & Good Stuff’ business. I will be continuing to offer my catering services and will be channeling my knowledge of women’s health, well being and ‘food for focus’ into my retreat and ‘away day’ catering packages as well as continuing to work on my ‘veg dodgers’ support project.

The new wholesale range will allow local food service providers to have access to artisan wholefood, plant based options to help elevate their offer and stand out from the crowd.

…and finally, possibly the most exciting part of the chapter is the chance to develop food workshops and bespoke events with a diverse range of people using the full range of my creative skills. I am really looking forward to building this part of work, exploring story telling through food and helping to craft memorable experiences.