Just Humans Being...

Day 16 of  World Vegan Month. We eat lots of fresh seasonal organic food, so the ingredients are often similar for a few weeks - we are using a butternut squash and kale from the vegetable garden here at  Cotna and all the other veg is from  Riverford . We fried onions, garlic, ginger and butternut squash with soy sauce and dried spices - cumin, coriander and mustard seeds. We added kale and savoy cabbage, while at the same time cooked up the red lentils... They look dreadful...Hahaha! We decided to add some soya cream, which made it look strange - but it tasted great, especially once all the veg was added. We served it up with brown basmati cooked with turmeric. And as you can see, Sime really enjoyed it! Here's Our Curry Recipe from a previous post, if you are interested in making a similar dish. Enjoy! Love Kay and Sime xx

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Day 15 World Vegan Month. Yesterday we were out all day.  A glimpse of sun through the clouds and torrential rain. We didn't expect to be finishing work in the dark, but one of our jobs was on a closed road and in the freezing wind and rain we had to leave the car and walk with all our cleaning equipment. The job took longer than we thought and on leaving we realised that we would have to return to the car in complete darkness...our only head torch was running low, needing a  recharge and there are no streetlights on that road, so not only was it very cold (the road is quite exposed and high above the sea), but we could barely see!  Lucky for us, we had earlier called into  Baker Tom's - a surprise discovery in St Awful and bought vegan pasties, which were very welcome...it was too dark for a photo, but they were ok. Anyway, our leftovers from Wednesday were put aside for this evening and what looks like a dish of

Day 13 World Vegan Month. Tonight's dinner has a spicy and nutritious kick. All organic, our chilli contains: onions, garlic, fresh ginger, butternut squash, red pepper, mushrooms, finely chopped tofu, brown lentils, red kidney beans and haricot beans.  Fried up in red wine, turmeric, cumin, chilli flakes and smoked paprika. We also added yesterday's leftover potato wedges, which we chopped into bite size pieces, some French passata and the juice of one lemon. Served with brown rice cooked in turmeric, as well as crispy kale and sesame seeds fried in soy sauce and black pepper. This meal contains lots of plant protein, calcium, iron and various B vitamins, as well as numerous other minerals and vitamins. It's also oil free, easy to make and absolutely delicious! Here's another version of  Our Chilli Recipe if you are interested - this previous post also features our cornbread recipe. Enjoy!!! Love Kay and Sime xx

This lovely village is in the Loire. It looks like it could be popular with tourists. But we had the place to ourselves. Lots of pretty places. And a huge Abbey where Richard the Lionheart is buried. A lovely old doorbell. Love Kay and Sime xx

Day 12 World Vegan Month. We like to make nut roasts, bhajis and burger-like patties and we pretty much follow the same process. Today we made these Walnut and Mushroom Burgers and potato wedges and we were so hungry by the time it was all ready - that we basically shoved it on the plate and ate it! The bread rolls and salad leaves were just cheap out-of-date supermarket ones that Sime picked up yesterday for a few pence (he can't resist a bargain). The recipe we use is similar to the one on this previous post: Our Simple Burger Recipe We used our food processor to whizz up around 200g of breadcrumbs, added 100g of walnuts and 100g of  mushrooms fried in soy sauce with 1 onion and 6 cloves of garlic.  Easy, stodgy...perfect for a cold day like today! Love Kay and Sime xx

Day 11 of World Vegan Month. For lunch today, we stir-fried onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and kale with soy sauce, fresh ginger, ground cumin and a good handful of peanuts. We cooked it up for around 15 minutes and added a heaped teaspoon of miso paste, juice of half an orange and a sprinkle of ground black pepper. Easy to make and a delicious combination of flavours! We served it with whole wheat spaghetti (which works well as noodles) and a green salad underneath. Sometimes we add peanut butter to the pasta/noodles, which is lovely too - if you like peanuts! Let us know if you try it and if so, what do you think? Night, night Love Kay and Sime xx

We have arrived home to a chilly and wet Cornwall, where our lovely Fleaby was waiting in the barn for us and has wanted lots of cuddles and fuss. We took a ferry from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth and for the first time, we experienced armed military police on board the ship...apparently for our security! As always, we take our picnic basket with us and enjoyed our usual feast of salad with rustic baguette and a vegan forest vegetable p âté. Last night, we were welcomed home with a supper of foraged food prepared by Sara at Cotna, which was delicious...unfortunately, we didn't get any photos. Today, we have cooked a simple stir-fry for Day 10 of World Vegan Month. We fried carrots with spring onions in soy sauce, ground turmeric and cumin... Then added chunky cloves of garlic, mushrooms and kale. Plus a Puy lentil and soya bean mix from France and some brown rice.  Finishing off with the juice of a whole lemon and some ground black pepper.

Day 7 of  World Vegan Month and our last night in France for this year, so we decided to treat ourselves to a vegan pizza.... With onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, olives and potatoes. We are now staying near to Roscoff in Brittany and will be taking the ferry to Plymouth tomorrow.  The pizza came from a pizza emporter in St Pol de Leon, a few minutes from where we are staying - another lovely place...and the owners lit the wood burner before our arrival, which we were thrilled with, as it feels so much colder up here...but at least the cabin is toasty! We will take some photos of the place tomorrow in the light. It's always a joy to be back in Brittany, having spent a winter here some years ago - we know it very well and love it's uniqueness. Visiting the monument for the Breton Resistance Fighters. Love Kay and Sime xx

We have spent yesterday exploring this lovely area of Brittany. Nice to do when it's a quieter time of year. We drove to Port Navalo at the end of the gulf where it was warm and sunny. We found lots of quiet villages. Marshlands. Maps. Lighthouses. We watched a storm come in while we ate our picnic. There was a cormorant sat on the rock just out at sea, but the camera hasn't picked it up. Lots of the beaches were covered in red seaweed. Chateau Suscinio A 13th century castle with connections to Henry VII and the War of the Roses. We enjoyed a walk around Port Navalo's headland before the stormy weather started! Such a warm and quiet day!  Love Kay and Sime xx

Day 6 of  World Vegan Month. We've been out all day exploring the Golfe du Morbihan...which is lovely and on return, we wanted to make something quick. As we had a few carrots and lentils, we decided to make a quick version of our lentil soup. It turned out a bit thin, but was tasty, warm and perfect with the crusty bread we had picked up. The place we are staying in has a blender, so we were able to whizz it up. We used 4 cloves of garlic, 1 onion, 4 carrots, 1 potato and approximately 2 tablespoons of red lentils (we would normally use more, but it was all we had). We boiled/simmered the lentils, added the potato and fried the rest of the veg with soy sauce and also added cumin, smoked paprika and black pepper. We whizzed it all up with some soya milk too and unfortunately this was the only photo we took, just after we put the soup back in the pan to warm through... Here is a more reliable recipe from a post some years ago...you can add fresh cori

We have travelled from the Auvergne, through the Loire and are now on the south east edge of Brittany in a lovely space. Finding places with kitchens is always important, as we like to cook! Tonight's dinner was fresh organic broccoli from the Biocoop, which we steamed for 5 minutes, then fried with 5 cloves of garlic and 1 red onion in soy sauce with dried basil and black pepper. We also added a tin of mixed beans and sweetcorn and finished with the juice of half a lemon. We served it with last night's leftover tabbouleh and a mixed salad. It's always good to have an opportunity to cook when travelling and it doesn't have to be difficult or long-winded. This place is perfect and it's obvious that the owners are enthusiastic cooks themselves, as the kitchen is well-equipped!  Another nice space to be!  This is Day 5 of World Vegan Month. Love Kay and Sime xx

We were travelling from the Auvergne to the Loire Valley and had a plan to visit the Biocoop in Saumur to buy supplies for dinner, but as usual we got distracted - stopping off and taking different interesting routes and consequently arrived too late. We had a few things to eat, but not really enough. On our journey, we had the spinach and spirulina cuppa soups, some peanuts and bananas. Then we felt a need to "carb up" and had just 15 minutes to fly around the supermarket and make our purchases. We bought tabbouleh, carrot salad, salad leaves, cornichons, baguette and as Sime was craving potatoes - we bought some very cheap tinned spuds! We already had this vegetable and basil chutney... And houmous from our last Biocoop visit. For desert we found these soya red berry yogurts. Day 4 World Vegan Month. Our feast while on the road...More tomorrow! Love Kay and Sime xx