Creating Delicious, Healthy & Simple Family Meals with Goodlife

Creating Delicious, Healthy & Simple Family Meals with Goodlife

Family life is hectic most days and I usually rely on a few favourite recipes that I rotate but I really enjoy trying new recipes and products that can become new staples in our routine. For weekdays, the meals I cook are usually quite quick and easy because I have to fit the cooking into my busy day of work and childcare.

I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 12 years old (I’m 29 now) and I mainly cook vegetarian food for our family. My husband eats meat but enjoys vegetarian food too.

Eating meat free is not just for vegetarians. You’ve probably seen the term #MeatFreeMondays encouraging people to try to reduce their meat intake for their own health, to cut down the cost of food and for the environment.

It’s not really a challenge to do this because there are so many fun ways to make vegetables the star of the meal and with products like the ones that Goodlife make, it’s really easy to enjoy vegetarian meals even when you’re out of ideas and don’t have much time.

Goodlife make delicious frozen, vegetable based products with amazing vegetables from some of Great Britain’s most dedicated farmers.

The range includes these exciting products:

• Leek & Caerphilly Glamorgan Sausages with Wholegrain Mustard
• Beetroot & Feta Sausages with Roasted Fennel
• French Bean & Spinach Sausages with Wensleydale Cheese
• Cauliflower & Mature Cheddar Sausages with Truffle Oil
• Tomato & Mozzarella Sausages with a Hint of Basil
• Spicy Veg Beanburgers with a Kick of Chipotle Chilli
• Picador Parsnip & Sweet Carrot Nut Burgers with Crunchy Cashews
• Mushroom & Spinach Kievs with a Creamy Garlic and Cheese Sauce
• Sunblush Tomato Grill with Black Olives
• Falafel with Chickpea, Cumin & Coriander

Over the last week, we’ve tried three of these products — French Bean & Spinach Sausages, Mushroom & Spinach Kievs and the Falafel. I was so pleased when I looked at the ingredients at the back of the packets — the products only contain the good stuff, the kind of ingredients you would use at home to make these kinds of meals. They do not contain any fillers or weird things.

On the Goodlife website, you’ll find lots of vegetarian recipe ideas for meals to create using their products and they’ve also made some recipe videos.

Our Goodlife Meals

The first product we tried was the Falafel. To create a summery and delicious meal I cooked the Falafel in the oven according to the instructions, then quickly fried them in a pan to add some more colour. While they were cooking, I chopped up some tomatoes and cucumber and washed some fresh spinach.

On soft flat breads, I put a dollop each of houmous and tzatziki, the vegetables and some pickles and finished with the Falafel. Such a quick and easy meal that looks and tastes impressive! The Falafel tasted like the do in restaurants — very authentic!

The second meal I made consisted of the Goodlife French Bean & Spinach Sausages with Wensleydale Cheese, cheesy mashed potatoes and cooked broccoli. I cooked the sausages in the oven according to the instructions and gave them a few minutes in a hot frying pan too for extra crispness.

I made a mash by boiling washed but unpeeled potatoes until soft then draining them and adding a dash of milk, a knob of butter and a couple of handfuls of grated mature cheddar before mashing it roughly with a large fork. We like our mash textured! We eat broccoli a lot nowadays and I just microwave frozen broccoli in a glass dish, then transfer to the oven to cook through. Sometimes I add a bit of butter but not on this occasion as the mash was already indulgent!

This was such a yummy meal and the sausages tasted great! The texture was perfect. I will definitely buy these again and will try the other types of sausages from the range too.

The third and final meal was the Kievs. I’d never had a Kiev before! The Goodlife Mushroom & Spinach Kievs with a Creamy Garlic and Cheese Sauce are a twist on classic garlic chicken kievs. They are full of earthy mushrooms and tender spinach and have a crunchy seeded breadcrumb and a creamy garlic and cheese middle. Very tasty!

I love it when vegetarian bakes have a saucy middle that you can dip your other food in. I cooked the kievs in the oven as the packaging instructed and served with sweet potato chips, steamed broccoli and mozzarella. Very easy and satisfying.

I’m really happy with all meals but my favourite was the sausages! We will definitely incorporate Goodlife products in our weekly meal plan from now on. I’m really impressed with the quality of ingredients, the flavours and the ease of cooking.

Goodlife products are available to buy from Ocado, Waitrose, Booths, GoodnessDirect.co.uk, Iceland and now also from Iceland Food Warehouse stores who stock the three products that I have reviewed in this post.

Collaborative Post. As always, all my reviews are 100% honest and all thoughts and opinions are my own.