Just Humans Being...

The day we were travelling back from Stoke, my thyroid - out of the blue - decided it was time to have another storm... My heart beat had been sitting around 90, which is just about ok & I was taking my herbal remedies, but I started having palpitations & on the way home. My heart just got faster (180 bpm), which made me feel really anxious. As soon as we arrived home, I called the surgery & was told to get to A & E. And so began the nightmare... I was taken into the resus room, wired up to a monitor & the staff tried to persuade me to have an adenosine injection to drastically slow down my heart, I refused - as I know that it can stop the heart altogether. The doctor told me that he was not sure if it would work, because they had no evidence of use with Graves Disease & the procedure could cause a permanent heart defect... Why would I want this? My heart was healthy, just running fast as a result of my thyroid problem & I really didn't

Yesterday was our first Saturday off in a long time, so what better way to celebrate than with a late brunch... Home made toast covered with baked beans, baked tomatoes, mushrooms & tofu scramble. For this scramble, we fried red onions & garlic in a little water & soy sauce. Then added half a teaspoon each of turmeric & cumin, about 150g firm tofu & a handful of rocket. We finished off by whizzing it with our hand blender & added some black pepper. We also like adding smoked paprika & fresh parsley to the tofu, leftover potatoes & mushrooms are delicious with it too! We're off up to Stoke now & when we get back I'll be sharing some dessert recipes. Tonight we're eating at a pub next to the hotel - Sime phoned ahead & spoke to the chef, so we shall see what he comes up with... Have a lovely Sunday! Kay & Sime xx   

One of the things most people seem to think is that vegans don't get enough protein, but what lots of folks don't realise is eating vegetables can provide even more protein than meat... Dr Michael Klaper explains more... Hope you all have a great weekend! Kay & Sime xx

If you consume a lot of processed foods then please watch this film:  Hungry For Change   It's only available to watch for just over 24 hours, so don't miss it. Jason Vale is in the film, he is the author of several juicing books... I first came across this book in St Austell library & the juices are fantastic. We go through phases of juicing lots & then not at all, but we love drinking fresh vegetable juices - though we hate the waste... We do compost it & have tried simmering the pulp & using the liquid as stock, but it tastes odd to us. I've been very interested in raw foods since the 90s, when I came across a  Leslie Kenton  book in a charity shop. We started drinking juices with either spirulina or wheatgrass twice a day, but we've never fully embraced a raw diet - we love our cooked food too much! Though I do believe that raw organic vegan food is the best way to heal the body.   From the same charity sho

We're not really auditioning for a vampire film... Or preparing for the Zombie Walk in St Austell... It's just easy to get into a mess... When drinking a dark juice... We juiced 5 small beetroot, 4 carrots, a bunch of celery, 3 apples, a whole lime & a knob of ginger! Which made nearly 2 pints - a delicious quick lunch between jobs. We've been really busy today, catching up with work now our car is back on the road. We were hoping to go away for a couple of weeks in November or December & had been looking at cottages in the Scottish Highlands, but the car has cost us the holiday money, so looks like we'll be having a staycation instead, a very local one...  Perhaps we'll stay in our guest room & just pretend we're away! Kay & Sime xx

Tuesday meals are usually made up of whatever we have left, as our organic veg box arrives every Wednesday. We buy our grains & pulses in bulk from a wholefood warehouse, so we just add any vegetables left in the box... This is a spicy mixed bean stew served with basmati rice cooked with turmeric. There's onions, garlic, mushrooms, red pepper & courgette all fried in a little water, then herbs & spices added, as well as a tin of tomatoes & soy sauce. Simple, delicious & filling. Kay & Sime xx

It's that time of year when comfort food is needed & this is one of our favourites... Brown Lentil & Mushroom Cottage Pie Brown lentils & mushrooms are really good together in such a savoury dish.  You can also add a few chopped walnuts & more vegetables, green lentils work well too. You'll need :  2 large onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 2 sticks celery, sliced 8oz (225g) brown lentils 6oz mushrooms, sliced 1 teaspoon each of cumin, sage & thyme Approx 1 1/4 pints (650mls) boiling water or stock 2 heaped teaspoons miso paste or 1 teaspoon yeast extract 1 tablespoon tomato  purée salt & pepper to taste Topping 2 lb (900g) potatoes, washed & chopped A sprinkle each of seasme seeds & nutritional yeast (Engevita) Method Boil & mash the potatoes, we put soya or oat milk, a teaspoon of mustard & some chopped mint in our mash. Simmer the onions, garlic & celery in a large saucepan

        Being carless in rural Cornwall is quite a challenge, our car is in the garage & we had things to do... We were at the train station early this morning... Waiting for a train to Truro... It takes about 20 minutes to get from St Austell. On arrival, we were hungry & wanted something to eat - we walked into town & just couldn't think of anywhere to go... Until we caught sight of the cathedral... We decided to visit the cathedral cafe...  We were sure we could get something cheap, cheerful & vegan, but we were wrong... They do breakfasts from 8.30am, but the only thing we could have was toast & jam. Instead we ended up at BHS for a not so cheap or cheerful beans on toast & a cup of camomile tea. We were soon ready for lunch & saw a sign for lunch time deals at an Italian restaurant, so we ventured in & were pleased to find out that they could provide us with vegan food. It's the first we've

Starting on Monday, we will be joining in with a whole month of blogging about vegan food. I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some of our favourite recipes, experiment more with apple purée to replace oil/margarine & talk about the cookbooks we have been using for many years. Sime & I will also be having a few days in Stoke-on-Trent during the month, so there will be the usual dining out adventures... Thank you to  Molly & Mike  for featuring  Vegan MOFO  on their blog - I nearly forgot to sign up! Hope you all have a great weekend! Kay x The Smiths On Tour Luxembourg 2009

That is the question... We don't have a television, but because of the licensing law in the UK, every two years we get hassled by the license people. They keep bombarding us with letters asking us to confirm that we are still managing to survive without a TV & reminding us that it is a crime if we do have one without a license. This year, I just thought we should ignore the letters & see if anyone comes to check up on us, but after receiving quite a few - Sime had enough & called them... As we've left it a bit late, they have said that someone may come out to visit, but unless they come with a warrant & are accompanied by the police - we don't have to let them in. We have nothing to hide, we don't have any televisions in the house & our broadband isn't fast enough to watch live programmes, but it's just the principle of the matter.  We have chosen to live without & feel annoyed that we are treated like criminals be

I've made a discovery... My thyroid condition is back & I'm really pissed off about it! All this time, I thought I'd lost weight because of my healthy food choices, but it looks like my immune system just doesn't like hard work & has started attacking itself again.  I eat far better than ever, so it has to be from just doing too much...  This weekend will be the last of the full on changeovers, which is great for me - but for Sime, it's the season of worry... Will we make it through to next spring on the money we have made this summer? So I'll get better over the winter, while Sime will probably slip into the worry zone. Money has never bothered me, I know we can budget & do without. I'd rather do that than work as much as we do, besides we have more money than last winter, so things aren't so bad!  Sime likes to be busy, he loves work coming in & is happy to juggle things to shoehorn every last job into our workin

Hello! We are so busy, we're struggling to keep up with our blog, as well as read others... We haven't even shared all our holiday photos yet, but Sime took this video of our evening walk on Bodmin Moor... And here's a photo from today... Mondays Cafe reunion. A meal at  Sam's On The Beach  which we will post about later. Night, night & hope you are all well! Kay & Sime xx

Having a holiday always makes me dread coming home, I just never want our good times to stop. Not that home life is crap, but there is room for improvement with our work. I really have felt fed up with the constant cleaning, the washing & especially the ironing...  Yes we get paid fairly well for what we do, but it's hard bloody work! I really can't wait to slow down & since our return - we've been talking about making some changes yet again... Our B&B is going great - we're booked up for all this month & we've had lots of lovely guests, so we're definitely going to prepare another en-suite room for next year.  We both love having folks to stay & find it much more enjoyable than our day job. So a move towards doing the B&B full time is looking very good indeed at the moment, especially as our last guests have inspired us to think about offering more than just a bed & meals. We dream of being home based, of having the opportunity to