The Extreme Staycation

  Location: London, UK  COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak World Vegan Day 🌍🍃🐄🐔🐖 The 1st November is World Vegan Day. I have two thoughts on that - firstly, that every day seems to be National or World something day and secondly that for me, every day is VEGAN DAY 😁 As I have alluded to my veganism in this blog,  I thought   I'd let you know what lead me to this point. At the age of 8, I connected the dots that the meat on my plate and the animal in the field were very much connected and I couldn't bear the idea of an animal dying just so I could eat it.  Although I now have many more reasons which support my choices, animals dying was and still is my primary motivator for being vegetarian/vegan. I used to eat fish for a long time, but I could never eat a fish if it still looked like one and gradually I found I couldn't face the idea any longer. In 2014 I decided that for Lent that year it would be a good challenge to go vegan - I loved and ate dairy on a dai...

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown I'm half Australian (which half I hear you cry?) and to celebrate my mum's birthday (she is the Aussie half) I made Lamingtons. For the uninitiated, a lamington is a sponge cake with jam in the middle, dipped in a chocolate sort of sauce and then rolled in coconut. I wanted a vegan recipe but I also wanted it to be written by an Australian (as they know what they should taste and look like!) so found this winner!  Enjoy! https://www.mckenziesfoods.com.au/recipe/vegan-lamingtons/ My photo below - also featured are some pecan and chocolate chip cookies - recipe from Lucy Watson.

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown How is everyone getting on with their lockdown bucket lists? I still haven't watched Star Wars. The planted things are growing so that's good. The Humax box is hovering between 18-19% free which I'm fairly pleased with. I'm getting a "Miranda Tan" as my friends kindly call it - i.e. a slightly darker shade of white My weekly meal plans are involving fewer recipe books as I'm losing motivation to try a new recipe. However, I've baked new cookie and cake recipes which went excellently, so clearly, treats are where it's at.

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown I love to bake and I've had a bit more time to indulge this during lockdown.  I asked my house mates what they might like and scones were requested and so scones were baked. I remember going for afternoon tea once and ringing up to check that my being vegan could be accommodated.  The woman on the phone detailed what they would serve me - what sandwiches and cakes - and with the alternative I would get instead of scones "because obviously they aren't vegan".  I remember being a bit dumbfounded by this statement.  They had managed to make the rest of the options vegan friendly, so why not the scones, surely the high point of the afternoon tea?  And the easiest to alter - change the milk and remove the egg.  I was particularly irked as I had literally baked a batch of vegan scones the day before. I like a challenge and I have made vegan alterntives of pretty much everything, including...

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown Cooking and Baking How is everyone doing on the cooking front? I've taken this as an opportunity to try some new recipes.  It's been quite fun and I've definitely found a few new ones which will be coming out again. However, as soon as I found a lush new south-east Asian aubergine dish, the aubergines disappeared from Sainsbury's! I've taken to shopping just once a week as much as I can. This does mean purchasing faintly ridiculous quantities of some items, namely bananas - we eat a lot in my house and yesterday I bought 17 in varying shades of yellow to green to keep us going. Apparently our shopping habits have reverted back to what they were 10-15 years ago with people doing one weekly shop rather than 3-4 times a week as has become more common. I finally got some more flour - hooray!  And celebrated by making some carrot, pecan and maple syrup muffins which were delish!

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown Today is Anzac Day For the uninitiated, this is the Australian national day of remembrance for military in  Australia  (and  New Zealand ) I'm half Australian so I like to acknowledge the major Australian memorial dates. I remember visiting the  KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY in Thailand with my sister and being bowled over by the number of Australian graves there.  I think coming from the UK, I tended to focus on the numbers of British soldiers lost but Australia entered WW2 the same day the UK did and lost 27,000 soldiers. Anzac Biscuits are eaten on 25 th April so here’s a recipe to make your own anytime: https://www.lazycatkitchen.com/vegan-anzac-biscuits/ makes: 20 prep: 15 min cooking: 20 min Ingredients 100 g / 1 cup oats 85 g / ¾ cup (slightly heaped) desiccated coconut 100 g / 1 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose flour 100 g / ½ cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar ...

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown In growing news, THERE ARE GREEN SHOOTS ON THE THINGS I PLANTED!  THIS IS VERY EXCITING! And I made a tea loaf to my Granny's recipe (she was a great baker).  I always, always forget until half way through the recipe that it makes two cakes.  Why two?  I don't know and now sadly can't ask her, but double cake, yay! Recipe made slightly more challenging with all the ingredients being in pounds and ounces - but who doesn't love a recipe that includes 1/2 pound of sugar?  Yum.