Last week I had the pleasure of trying out Wa! Curry at their restaurant in the Cinema complex near Kassam Stadium.

It doesn’t take much to twist my arm into a meal out at a curry house, but having spent 6 months living in Indian in my 20’s I can be difficult to please.

The best all you can eat India buffet in Oxford

Wa! Curry is an all you can eat Indian buffet with a difference. Founded by Prad Walimbe on the basic belief that we should help feed and nourish the less privileged, Wa! not only provides delicious curry’s to the public here in Oxford, it does its bit by feeding many needy mouths around the world every time you buy a meal.

Furthermore, it also focuses on education in farming key ingredients to help the less fortunate to become self-sufficient. Don’t you just love the already?!? And if that wasn’t enough,  the curries supplied are nutritious, wholesome, locally organic and freshly prepared with minimal salt and no preservatives or sugar added; just packed with delicious fresh herbs and spices.

You may have seen Wa! Cuisine sold at delis, markets and food stores around Oxford? Their vegan and vegetarian soups, sauces and meal pots are a healthy way to get a cost effective ‘curry with a cause’ when you’re out and about.

Wa! Curry is situated to the left of the bottom of the escalator to the Vue Cinema – Ozone Leisure & Entertainment Park, Grenoble Rd, Oxford, GB OX4 4XP. You can’t miss it; it’s vibrantly coloured, yet slick and clean decor stands out. Plus you couldn’t possibly walk passed the wonderful aroma without noticing.

When we arrived, we were welcomed by Prad himself and sat at a window booth. We ordered some drinks and took in the atmosphere.

The way it works is that you take a plate and help yourself. You can eat as much as you like, and come back for more, but you are encouraged not to waste food – after all, food is a precious commodity in many parts of the World. And here in the land of plenty we tend to forget this.

It took a while for us to choose what we wanted to eat. There was a huge selection of starters, poppadoms, rice, curries, bread as well as desserts!

Personally, I’m a fan of anything vegan and vegetarian, and it was a joy to see such a wide variety of choice for those that prefer to eat without meat. The Butter Paneer was rich yet delicately spiced, whilst the black dahl sumptuous and wholesome. But my favourite had to be the egg curry – reminiscent of my time spent in India. I had to have seconds – I’m eating for 2 at the moment after all!

My husband Alex’s favourite was the lamb Vindaloo. He said that it was the most flavoursome hot curry he had ever tasted! He also loved the prawn curry and selection of Indian starters including the pakora and poppadoms.

My daughter Melissa, who has been eating curry since she was in the womb, loved the coconuty chicken Korma and Peshwari Naan the best.

She was also delighted to see the a large selection of desserts including strawberry ice cream, chocolate pots and Gulab Jamon.

All the curries are gluten free so great for Ceoliacs, and there’s even a choice of chips and other British foods should you chose to come with a friend that prefers that.

We had the privilege of talking to Prad about his journey into the restaurant business. He said his passion for food developed from a young age while watching his mother create original infusions from wild vegetables and spices in their home kitchen in Karad, India.

It’s obvious, from Wa! Curry that preparing and sharing food has been a huge part of his upbringing. And it’s clear that combining his zest for travel, history and culture as well as skills learned working in sales and marketing has proven to be a powerful and winning combination for Prad.

We wish him the best of luck and all our support in pursuing this worthwhile venture. As far as my family are concerned, every day is a curry day, and now I have so many more reasons to make it a priority to visit Wa! I hope that you do too.

If you can’t make it down to the restaurant, you may like to know that they will will soon be operating a delivery service. To book a table or discuss a party/event call
01865 395870 / 07713 942628 or email wecare@wacurry.com

Or to source meal pots, soups and sauces take a look in health food stores such as Gatineau in Summertown, The Athlete Centre in Oxford, The Market Garden, Eynsham, Cultivate Veg Van in Oxford, Farm Fresh Oxford, North Parade Market and the 1855 Wine Bar Bistro among other places.

For more information visit www.wacuisine.com

We all love a Halloween pumpkin lantern, but the mounds of pumpkins displayed outside large food shops for decorative purposes has been making me cringe lately.

Pumpkins are one of the most flavour-some and nutritious vegetables you can find. The yellow flesh is full of lovely anti-oxidants and beta-carotene. Plus you can get really creative with a pumpkin in the kitchen – for example – cumin roasted pumpkin, Pumpkin soup, pumpkin curry, pumpkin chutney, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake – the list goes on.

I’m loving local Oxford events that are making the most out of the discarded pumpkin flesh. Here’s a few you should check out!

Drop in to Potions and Pumpkins and taste our scarily delicious pumpkin soup by the fire and make some Halloween potions. £4 suggested donation per child, accompanying adult(s) free. No need to book.

Date/Time: Sunday, November 1 2015. 10:00 – 14:00
Location – The Earth Trust, Earth Trust Centre, Little Wittenham, OX14 4QZ

Or do as the lovely Hannah from Good Food Oxford suggests and ‘Squash food waste with the official Pumpkin Festival recipe book! Check it out for scrummy recipes to help you cook up that carved pumpkin flesh – everything from chutney to brownies’. The 2015 Oxford Pumpkin Festival runs from 24th October to 6th November. Here’s what’s on offer…..

Saturday 31^st October

• Pumpkin Carving at Sandford Market
  Times: 9am – 12pm
  Venue: Sandford Village Hall
  Cost: FREE
  Registration: Just turn up!
  Sandford are hosting a special pumpkintastic version of their Saturday market, with fun Halloween activities alongside the usual selection of scrumptious local produce and goodies from the cafe.

• Food Surplus Cafe – Halloween Special
  Times: 12pm – 3pm
  Venue: East Oxford Community Centre
  Cost: Pay as you feel
  Registration: Just turn up or get in touch to volunteer.
  The third in a series of super successful Oxford Food Surplus Cafe pop up events, serving scrummy meals made by volunteers from food which would otherwise have been thrown away!The Oxford Food Surplus Café aims to help redress the imbalance in our food system by reclaiming surplus food and transforming it into delicious healthy meals accessible to all. Using the pay as you feel system, customers are able to contribute either what they can afford or what they think the food, space and idea is worth. They want to create an inclusive space to encourage community engagement and reconnect people with the food they eat.

• Sunday 1st November

  • OxGrow Pumpkin Day
    Times: 12am to 5pm
    Venue: OxGrow Community Garden
    Cost: FREE
    Registration: Just turn up!
    Feeling hollow and empty post Halloween? Bring your empty pumpkins down to Ox Grow and get your inner lantern shining again! We’ll be turning old pumpkins into bird feeders, cooking up a feast, playing games and gardening galore.

Please come and join me at SESI Cotswolds Organic Flour launch celebration. Where there will be free soup, bread and dips.

Come and join us!

• Hear the story of FWP Matthews Mill
• Taste delicious bread baked with FWP Matthews flour
• Enjoy homemade seasonal soup – ingredients from SESI and Cultivate Oxford
• Dip into delicious organic olive oil from Granada in Spain
• Make oatcakes with Anna Pitt, author of 101 Ways to Live Cleaner and Greener for Free http://rosiesecoblog.blogspot.co.uk
• Learn to make gluten free treats with Caroline Mentzer of feedafamily.co.uk

Zero Waste Week is in its 8th year of running! It’s held next week from 7th – 13th September 2015. We’re looking for YOU to get involved and to pledge to reduce your waste.

This year’s theme is ‘REUSE’ – basically stop wasting money by saving resources!

This could mean……

I’m an ambassador for the week and my pledge is to buy food for a week without packaging. I’ll ‘reuse’ my old packaging when shopping. e.g take my own container when buying fish / meat / eggs / veg and fruit. No new packaging or plastic will be used!

I’ll be posting about my experiences here over the next few weeks.

You can sign up and make your own pledge here at – ZERO WASTE WEEK
Or alternatively just do your own bit at home for you your family.
Read more about Zero Waste Week and get inspiration here

Let’s fight waste together for a healthier future and planet!!!

Summer is finally here. After all the wind, rain, gales and even hail stones the sun is finally starting to push through. And with its rays comes much needed vitamin D. In the UK we can only really get vitamin D from the sun during the spring/summer months – April to October, and only when the sun is high in the sky around 12-3pm.

When you’re on a tight family budget there’s no money for expensive supplements, so you need to maximise the sunlight and also get it right nutritionally.

In the UK we apparently don’t get enough vitamin D because we don’t get enough sun! What I really think the problem is that in the UK we don’t get enough TIME in the Sun. We’re a nation of desk addicts that rarely take a lunch break as opposed to other Europeans who regularly take time off during daylight hours for leisurely lunches and siestas.

Our children have a more indoors lifestyle thanks to too much homework, TV, computers and video games as well as a fear of letting them play freely on the streets as I used to do as a child.

To top it off, skin cancer awareness has been heightened in recent years and sun screen is liberally applied at any sign of a small ray of sun for fear of burning. I witnessed this over last Summer at Melissa’s nursery where factor 50 was slapped on at every opportunity for an outside play.

This is despite data showing that skin cancer is in fact still on the rise, and that some sunscreens do not protect against the more dangerous UVA component of the spectrum that may cause malignant melanoma. Furthermore, some sunscreen ingredients have carcinogenic (cancer forming) properties, and also block production of Vitamin D resulting in deficiency which has been shown to increase your risk of other cancers.

Yet just 10-15 minutes a day of decent sunlight is all you need to get enough vitamin D! And unlike other nutrients it’s free this way; no need for expensive supplements or modified diets.

What is Vitamin D?

Unlike other nutrients, vitamin D isn’t really a vitamin at all; it’s a hormone, made by your body as you are exposed to sunlight. Its relationship to bone metabolism is more complicated than you might guess as it acts to increase calcium in the blood stream by increasing your ability to absorb calcium from foods and by reducing the amount of calcium you lose in urine.

So sadly, if you don’t have enough Vitamin D in your body, then all the milk and cheese in the world won’t give you strong bones.

How to maximise your vitamin D!

1) Get some SUN!

Expose yourself to 10-15 minutes of sun every day in the UK from April to October before applying sunscreen, covering up or simply getting out of the sun so you avoid burning. If you have dark skin you may need longer.

Eat Vitamin D rich foods.

10% of your vitamin D intake comes from the food you eat. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin so you need to eat fat to get it. Fat is good for you as long as it’s the natural kind (none of these man-made margarines – that’s a whole another blog post). Fortunately oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, pilchards, herring and anchovies is pretty cheap as are farm eggs if you can find a good local source. Try this beetroot and mackerel salad for starters. Here’s where I like to buy fish and eggs in Oxford. So load up on these goodies and enjoy the sun!

Earlier this year, after we’d completed the first few months of feeding the family for just £100 pcm, I contacted the Green Parent Magazine with our story. They decided they would like to publish us and here is the finished article which you can find in the June/July edition of the magazine – in the shops now.

‘Thanks to The Green Parent for taking such and interest in us, also to Mark Bassett , our local Oxford photographer, for snapping some lovely photos, as well as The Market Garden at Eynsham for letting us use your beautiful shop as a back drop for the photos’.

Mark did a good job to capture a happy Melissa, as moments after the nettle photo was taken she got stung and it was melt down and game over for us all. Anyway, if you’d like to read the article please click on the photos below to enlarge. We’re very excited to share it. I hope you enjoy reading it! Caroline x