We bought our first issue of Vegetarian Living magazine early last year when we spotted it in Sainsbury’s and have been getting it on a regular basis ever since.

The majority of veggie magazines are just recipe based, which is fine if that’s what you’re looking for, but I want more than that. Magazines with just recipes end up making me feel guilty when I haven’t tried any of them by the time the next issue is out! Vegetarian Living is great in that it does contain plenty of good recipes to give you ideas, but it also has a lot more to offer.

Here are some of the things I like about it:

• There is a recipe index inside the front cover which makes it really easy to scan through to find a specific recipe or to get inspiration when you’re paging through your back issues.
• There is usually an interview or two with well known vegetarians, from TV celebs to chefs and more.
• They have loads of reader offers and competitions, all of which are obviously suitable for vegetarians, including some great kids’ products.
• They have a dedicated family section which is good for getting ideas and tips for parenting veggie kids.
• The newshoots section lets you know about some of the latest vegetarian friendly products and also includes Dates for the diary about upcoming events.
• Even the adverts aren’t too annoying, as I quite often find new veggie products for us to try out.
• There’s a useful fact filled section towards the end of each mag which includes info about recommended daily nutrition amounts, recipe terms and conversions, vegetarian and vegan alternatives, useful organisations, cookbook recommendations and a list of recommended suppliers.

They also have a great website, with Recipes, a Kids Zone and Places to Go amongst other things, and you can also enter their competions and take advantage of reader offers there. It’s also a good place to start to figure out whether you’d enjoy the magazine or not, as just because I enjoy it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will .

Vegetarian Living magazine is available from selected Sainsbury’s, Asda, Boots, Budgens/Londis, Eason, M&S, Morrisons, WHSmith, Tesco, Waitrose and all good newsagents across the UK and costs £3.50 per issue.

You can also get Vegetarian Living on your iPod, iPhone or iPad by downloading their £2.99 app, which includes one issue of your choice and then allows you to purchase other issues or subscribe from within the app. I’ve not tried the app though (I prefer a paper magazine to flick through ) so can’t say whether it’s any good or not. If you have, feel free to comment below to let us know what you thought.