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.