Just Humans Being...

  It's not often that we big up a food company, but since sampling a few pies from Clive's range we felt that we should extoll the virtues of these delicious products. We've been vegan for a long time now and it's commonplace to find plant based foods in most outlets, of course this doesn't mean that they are all nutritious and of good quality - you have to sort the wheat from the chaff.  We took a chance on a couple of Clive's pies some time ago when we discovered our then local wholefood store, Archie Brown's in Truro stocked them. We each tried their creamy mushroom pies and loved them...really tasty, well filled and with a good crust. We are not huge fans of pastry, so were pleasantly surprised as to how good they were. We dipped our vegan toes into the Clive's portfolio and were rewarded with pies of consistently good quality. Other brands we've tried have been a bit hit and miss in terms of taste and consistency, but Clive's hit the mark ev

Taming some of the wilderness! We have started clearing little areas and putting in a variety of plants we have very gratefully received. (Thank you Sadie and Amy!) We haven't pruned the raspberries, but Sime was eager to get them tied up. We are using some scraps of recycled fabric as ties...I think seams and cuffs from our friend, Kath who makes fabulous patchwork quilts and all sorts of beautiful fabric art from recycled material.  Compost Corner. Inside our bin...we started this one 7 months ago and we are already getting some lovely compost. We only put in raw vegetable and fruit waste, which we layer with brown paper, newspaper and cardboard. Garden waste is put into a separate open heap and seems to rot down pretty fast. Making progress in what will become our hybrid greenhouse/polytunnel... We have the side panels and hoops ready to go on and the roof will be made from the old polytunnel plastic sheet - just need the supporting posts to hold it all together. Some views from

 Holidaymakers are swarming down to Cornwall, so we are enjoying a couple of days being homebased and it's finally warm and dry... instead of the cold, wet and windy weather we have had over the last weeks or is it months? We have much to do in the garden  jungle, and after being crazily busy for what seems like forever - we were dreaming of spending some quality time at home with the kitties, pottering about outside...and now we have exactly what we have been craving. Yesterday we visited our local farm shop and for the first time we bought some Green Wheat Freekeh from Palestinian company  Zaytoun  and we love it! We cooked up some spicy veggies and added the soaked Freekeh at the end and served on a bed of salad and topped with chopped coriander. We have also been experimenting and decided to have a go at making our own version of a vegan frittata using silken tofu and buckwheat - it was delicious! We'll make it again and share the recipe soon. The weekend wouldn't be co

  The idea for this stew came from Caldwell Esselstyn's book  Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease . His recipe for Marrakesh Express Red Lentil Soup is delicious, but we wanted something more filling. I added celery seed, as we didn't have any fresh celery, a pinch each of sage and thyme instead of a bay leaf and ground coriander (cilantro) instead of fresh. Along with fresh garlic, carrots, potato, leek and kale. Ingredients 1 large onion 4 cloves garlic 1 leek Small knob fresh ginger 2 large tomatoes 2 large carrots 3 medium potatoes A few handfuls of kale 300g dried red lentils 300g cooked chickpeas 1/2 tsp dried turmeric 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp celery seed 1 tsp ground coriander Pinch each of sage and thyme 1 litre or more of cold water Juice of half lemon Few drops liquid aminos Instructions 1. Chop all the veg into required size and place into a large pan. 2. Add herbs, spices and enough water to stir-fry ingredients. 3. Fry for around 10 minutes. 4. Add lentils and the rest

  A simple and comforting favourite! Ingredients 1 litre of homemade stock - 4 cloves garlic, 2 medium potatoes, 2 large carrots, 1 apple, 1 tsp each of dried sage, thyme and cumin, 1 tsp yeast extract, a pinch of ground black pepper and 1 litre of water. 700g onions  200ml French red wine 2 tablespoons cognac Instructions 1. Chop all the veg for the stock and put all the ingredients into a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. 2. Whizz up with a hand blender until nice and smooth. 3. Slice onions and fry in the red wine until translucent. 4. Add the onions and wine to the stock and simmer for 45 minutes. 5. Add the brandy and serve. Taking the time to make your own stock turns this soup into a filling meal and the apple adds a subtle sweetness, which is lovely in this savoury dish. We use Essential Yeast Extract, probably available from most UK health shops and must say it is worth the extra dosh! We had this for our New Years Day supper...delicious! Hope you enjoy it and

  These beauties are super easy to make and are delicious with a vegan breakfast! Ingredients 100g plain flour (we actually used wholemeal bread flour) 1 heaped tablespoon yellow pea flour (we use Hodmedods ) ½ teaspoon baking powder 2 carrots – grated 1 onion - finely chopped Water – enough to make a gloopy mix 1 teaspoon dried sage  Salt and pepper to taste Recipe Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix and leave to stand for 20 mins. Heat a non-stick frying pan and add enough mixture to make a pancake. This recipe should make 4 medium sized pancakes, but if you prefer to have a more crepe-like consistency just add more water and whizz the ingredients with a hand blender. Enjoy! Kay and Sime xx

  We were asked recently if we still stick to Ann and Caldwell Esselstyn's principles...being vegan and oil free and yes we do. It's over 8 years now since we stopped using oil and apart from when other people cook or we buy something while out we continue to eat the same healthy way - always vegan and oil-free.  Simple vegan meals really don't take long to make and are easy enough to cook from scratch each day. There isn't any need to spend huge amounts of money on junk food, when simply cooked vegetables taste so good! We wrote a blog post about this some years ago:  When Everyone Runs, Stand Still  but thought it would be good to remind people... It was Caldwell's 87th birthday on December 12th and he continues to enjoy good health...35 years of eating a whole food, plant based, oil-free diet has obviously worked wonders!  As a reminder, here is the list again... 1. Eat oats  (Old Fashioned) for breakfast, any way you can as oatmeal, as a cold cereal as we do

  After years of making big pans of porridge every morning we have discovered a new and improved way to eat our daily portion of oats. Ingredients 50g Oats (we use Mornflake Organic Oats) ½ tsp each of dried Turmeric, Cinnamon, Ginger and Rosehips 1 tbsp raisins or sultanas 1 tbsp ground seed mix - Flax (linseeds), Hemp and Pumpkin 1 tsp Blackstrap Molasses 1 heaped tsp peanut butter (Essential is our favourite) ½ chopped apple 1 tbsp berries (if in season) 1 small or ½ large chopped banana Boiling Water Plant Milk Sprinkle of Terra Nova Living Wellbeing Powder   Method Put all the dry ingredients into a breakfast bowl and mix well. Add Molasses, peanut butter and the chopped apple. Pour the boiling water over the mixture – we fill our bowls and leave for 5 mins. Mix well again. Top with the banana, berries, powder and milk.   Hope you enjoy it!   Love Kay and Sime xx

Bakes are a great way to use up the end of a loaf and any leftover cooked veg. The mixture can be made into patties, sausages and balls, but the laziest easiest way is to bung it all into a tin and bake! We make them a lot because they are easy, tasty and filling... This one has 1 tin of chickpeas, 4oz of our homemade sourdough crumbs, leftover purple sprouting, leeks fried in soy sauce and spices, a blob of tomato puree, wild garlic and nettles. We put all the ingredients together in the food processor...  Then into a loaf tin and bake on a medium heat for 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave for 10 minutes before turning out. We had half the bake between us for our second breakfast on Sunday and the leftovers on Monday with bread, salad and pickles. It really is easy to eat simple, healthy vegan dishes and we love it! Hope you are all keeping well. Love Kay and Sime xx

Oven baked potatoes with haricot bean hummus, baked tomato and mushrooms and silken tofu pan-fried with kale, onion and lots of crushed garlic. A simple tasty feast...vegan, organic and oil-free. Today's hummus is made with haricot beans, fresh lemon juice, fresh parsley, ground cumin, smoked paprika, a tiny pinch of Cornish sea salt and some crushed peppercorns.  We love baked tomatoes. These have fresh oregano pushed into the centres and a sprinkle of black pepper. We bake them for 30 minutes. Kale, onion and garlic frying in water and soy sauce, turmeric and cumin. We added silken tofu after 10 minutes and fried for another 10.  Sime's plate...piled high, as usual! Since we stopped using oil some years ago, we found that soy sauce, miso and lemon juice are great alternatives, though organic vegetables seem to be naturally more flavoursome, especially oven roasted vegetables. We rarely follow recipes and tend to make up meals wit

                           It's a sign there are big changes afoot, when a company like Lonely Planet acknowledges that veganism is here. Although we are not into buying stuff anymore, we do have a passion for books...especially travel books! We have collected many travel guides over the years and we continue to use our French ones even though they are probably over 20 years old now. We bought our first Lonely Planet Publication in 1991... Europe On A Shoestring ! We found it to be a great resource, using it frequently to do research when planning trips, as well as taking it with us.  We love nothing more than sitting with maps and travel books, dreaming and planning our next or future adventures and always try to find whatever information we can about places to eat, so when we heard about a new vegan travel guide - we had to check it out. Click here for a preview of The Vegan Travel Handbook  The book features various lists like The World's