My first post!

I love vegan food blogs. I spend hours reading lindy loo's rants, getting inspiration from Sal and drooling over Emmie's photos (to name just a few of the brilliant bloggers whose sites I'm addicted to). I don't think I have what it takes to be a good blogger. I don't generally have much to say. But I've been inspired by the idea of veganmofo. I want to join in. So just for October, I'm going to give it a go. My aim is to post about what I'm cooking and eating, hopefully post some nice recipes, and just sort of stand up and be counted. I've been vegan for almost twenty years now and I just love how much more commonplace veganism is now. The fact that some things are actually labelled vegan in the supermarket and that there are so many great vegan cookbooks available now is really exciting. So rather than sitting back and quietly being vegan, I'm going to talk about it for a while. If you've stumbled across this blog then I'd love to know what you think but please be nice because it's my first day!


Breakfast this morning was porridge, made with rice milk. I stirred in a spoonful of fruit spread to sweeten it. I'd usually use jam but we've just begun weaning our six-month old daughter, Tabitha, so I'm going for the healthy option at the moment. The spread contains only pear, apricot and apple. I feared it might be a bit 'worthy' when I bought it but it's actually lovely in porridge.

Tabitha LOVES porridge and fruit spread. She didn't manage quite all of the little bowl on the right but she ate a good three quarters of it before she stopped thumping her feet on the floor and gaping her mouth at me for more.

Lunch was tortilla wraps filled with butter beans that I fried up with some ready-made fajita spice, tomatoes from our greenhouse and leftover rice. I charred the wraps over a gas flame and wrapped them up with some salsa verde that I made from my friends' tomatillo harvest. Thanks Lu and Nick! The salsa verde was pretty good, although not quite as nice as the stuff I've had in America. Still it was fantastic to have some because I've never seen it for sale in England and you can't buy tomatillos either.

This afternoon we had thumbprint cookies which I made yesterday :)

Dinner this evening was the most fantastic veggie stew with some lovely granary bread. It was the sort of thing you dream about when you've been on holiday for a while and you've been having fun but eating crap and you just can't wait to get home and eat something hearty and healthy. Here's what I did.

Veggie Stew


2 heaped tsp cumin
olive oil
2 dried chillies
1 onion
1 leek
1 head of brocolli
2 carrots
2 medium potatoes
1 clove garlic
2 heaped tsp bouillon powder
1 handful  red lentils
1 large handful fresh coriander

Fry the cumin in a little olive oil. After about a minute, add the chopped dried chillies and the sliced onion. Once the onion is soft, add a leek, brocolli, carrots, potatoes and garlic. I chopped everything large except the potatoes which I wanted to disintegrate a bit. Cover with boiling water and bring it back to the boil. Add the bouillon powder and a handful of red lentils. Simmer for half an hour and then add a large handful of chopped fresh coriander before serving.