'Citrus Surprise.' by veganessa

Bekind Team plus guests.

Yellow Cassette Tap... blackbirdandpe... $25	Yellow Vintage Toy ... BrooklynBobbie $5	Mens Wallet Recycl... OffChutes $20	Sunflower Plush Pil... WildRabbits $25
Running greyhound ... thedoghouse $10	Yellow Vintage Mela... mothrasue $12	yellow bracelet / p... greenchicliz $12.5	Slouch Pom Pom Hat ... KnotaGeek $30
Vegan bag, Small sh... estelladesign $59	OOAK Rooster Pendan... neva $25	Cable and Lace Mult... KnitsByNat $45	Mineral Eyeshadow -... dehandmadecosm... $12
orange bowl concreta $20	Retro Red Orange Fr... GrandManner $30	Flower Photography ... overthefencear... $4	Orange Clove Soap e... DancingGarden $5.75

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

A Mothers Love

Today we went to  Cefn Mably Farm Park .
I have mixed feelings about farm parks. Part of what they do is take in rescued animals. Some they rehome, some live there. There is plenty for children to do, feed the animals, walk around feeding the sheep, or horses, or goats or ponies, or cows by hand Have a picnic, play in the sandpit, ride on the toy tractors, have a ride on the go-karts, play with real diggers, climb on redundant tractors, play on the climbing frame, have a horse ride, have a rabbit on their lap, and brush it, play in the playground. there's a softplay area, a cafe, a farm shop................. and that's where the fun stops, the realisation that the cafe sell meat products, the shop sells large slabs of animals cut up. This is where some of the beautiful animals end up. I asked about the animals, where do they come from, what happens to them, the staff seemed a bit uncomfortable answering me but obviously wanted to appear confident that what they are doing is ok. The rabbits are all rescues taken in, pets that are now unwanted, some are rehomed, some stay there if they have health problems, or are elderly, or for some other reason would not be easy to rehome. There's a 'cat room' with several  cats, who are living there permanently, never going out. Seems a bit confined, but I guess if that's their only option, rather that than dying of starvation, or illness, or being put down.
Then comes the crunch questions," what about the sheep and pigs", there are piglets and baby lambs have just been born, they are so adorable. they are 'borrowed' from a nearby farm, as part of the attraction, and returned. Then realising that they have tagged ears, and some sheep have coloured dye on their backs. OMG - they are going to be slaughtered and sold for food. That's the reality of it. Those poor, beautiful creatures are on a time limit. It made me so sad. Of course it happens. Of course they have a better life than factory farmed animals, but to look into their eyes, and know they are going to be slaughtered for man's greed, is unbearable. You only have to look at them to know they are intelligent, feeling beings.

 A mother pig had had piglets. We were privileged to  be present when she fed them. They were busy little piggies, around her feet, so she gently laid down, and let them feed. they scrambled over each other  until each of them was settled onto her nipples. There they suckled, while mama pig grunted rhythmically, which sounded like a giant kitten purring.
When each of them had finished, they went up to their mama, and kissed her. Such a sweet moment, they were thanking her for the milk!

How anyone can see them and then go off and eat pork, or bacon, or lamb, or chicken, or any other animals is beyond me.

So glad I'm vegan!

A sweet vegan treat from Waitrose.

Waitrose has a vegan list.
I found on it, Iced Belgian Buns. Wow! Just had to try them.  2 for £1, very reasonable!
Checked the ingredients on the pack, just incase they had made a mistake - nothing to worry about.
Fabulous to have a shop bought iced bun with a cup of tea. Sweet and satisfying. Lots of currants  and a very sweet icing topping, with a glace cherry. Perfect. A big thank you to Waitrose!
next I want to try their vegan iced finger  buns.



The section of 'Morning goods' from the Waitrose Vegan list:


MORNING GOODS 57225 6 Hot Cross Buns 6s Essential Waitrose
76961 6 Fruited Teacakes 6s Essential Waitrose
82910 6 Iced finger buns 6s Essential Waitrose
89978 2 Iced Belgian buns 2s Essential Waitrose
489018 5 Plain Bagels 5s Essential Waitrose
495729 5 Sesame Seed Bagel 5s Essential Waitrose
637059 Organic Multi-grain Bagels (5 Pack) 5s Organic
758616 5 Cinnamon, Raisin & Apple Bagels 5s Essential Waitrose
793301 10 Mini Plain Bagels 10s Essential Waitrose

The most relaxing and refreshing weekend.

I recently participated in a weekend Meditation retreat at Fairfield House.
The house is situated in Williton, near Minehead, and a nice drive through country roads to get there (A39). As the evening was drawing in, it was dark, so I wish I'd have left earlier, as it's a bit daunting going somewhere new, in the dark! I made sure I left early enough to appreciate the scenery on the way home!

Upon arrival I was shown my room, a very comfortable, clean room, over looking the back of the house.
there was an introduction, followed by supper. the house is vegetarian, but the host, Shruti, provided delicious vegan food for me. Throughout the weekend we were provided with wholesome tasty food, that was very nutritious and satisfying.

The weekend was full of meditation techniques and practices that were both invigorating, and relaxing. There was so much more to meditation,  than I could ever have imagined. I particularly enjoyed the gibberish technique, the laughter therapy and the free form dancing.
There is a hot tub in the garden, and a sauna in the house, which was a welcome treat on Saturday night.
The meditation room was delightful. A large room, tastefully furnished/decorated, and very soulful, for a truly     amazing weekend. As the weekend progressed, I could feel the stress and tension, draining away from me. I could not have chosen a better venue or host to help me regain a sense of 'self'. Shruti was a welcoming host, and very encouraging to the participants on the retreat. I felt I had been in the company of someone who has an amazing spirit, something that doesn't happen very often.
There were tears, there was laughter, there were chants and silence. There was everything I could have wished for on my perfect weekend retreat. Since returning, I have joined 5rhythyms dancing, taken a yoga course, and have enrolled in a stress management course, all thanks to the wonderful experience I had at this amazing place, which not only de-stressed me, but gave me enthusiasm to help myself to relax and let go of stress. I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

My favourite bread recipe

Recipe using a bread machine.

Ingredients:
500g flour- made up of 250g wholemeal bread flour, 125g Rye flour and 125g Einkorn flour.
25g margarine- I use any vegan margarine that is in my fridge.
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
1.5 tsp dried yeast
25g mixed seeds, I like to use a mix of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and a few pine nuts, however any combination can produce a tasty mix, try linseed, or chopped nuts or hemp seeds, or may be add raisins or chopped dates for a sweeter bread.
350ml water

Put the water into the bread machine first (unless your bread machine says otherwise).
Then add the flour, covering the water. I find that the above flour mix makes a condense satisfying wholesome bread.
Make a well in the middle of the bread, but don't go as deep as to reach the water.
Put the dried yeast into the well.
Put half the seed mix in one corner and the other half in the opposite corner of the machine.
Put the margarine in one of the remaining corners.
Put the sugar in the remaining corner, and the salt alongside one of the seed mix corners.

Set the bread machine to bake a medium loaf, with a light crust, my bread machine takes 3.5 hours to complete, and can be set to start up to ten hours ahead, so making it possible to wake to the smell of freshly baked bread- wonderful. On my machine, I use setting 3, which is for a basic wholemeal loaf.
I have found that the flour mix and seed mix makes a very tasty, textured bread.

Treat yourself.

My latest fabulously sweet chocolate discovery, suitable for vegans, are these delicious Dairy Free Chocolate Covered Raisins. Can be found in good health food shops, and ordered online from various places (which come up in a google search), including the Viva shop. 

They taste luscious. they are just the right amount of sweetness, and chocolateness, and they texture is soft. They are the perfect sweet fix. A bit pricey at approx £1.79 but worth every penny, and a fabulous treat for vegans and chocolate lovers everywhere.

Bread making experiments

I have started to experiment with my new hobby of bread making. since I have several bags of bread mixes, which I mistakenly thought was bread flour, and a large bag of Spelt flour that isn't bread flour, I decided to mix them together and tone down the salt in the bread mix, and make the spelt flour more bread friendly (less crumbly when used in bread). the pack of bread mix states add 300ml of water, which I did, but I also decided to add 50ml of olive oil, to compensate for the dryness of non bread flour. I used 300g bread mix and 200g spelt flour, leaving in the bread machine on setting one (general) for 3 hours and  30 minutes. the result was a decent bread, much to my surprise.
So tonight I have used the remaining 200g of bread flour mix, 200g or spelt flour and 100 g of string wholemeal flour, thus finishing of the contents of 3 packets of flour in my cupboard! No olive oil left, so I used 50ml of sunflower oil, and the 300ml water, setting the bread machine on setting 1, as usual. Let's see what the resulting loaf tastes like!

Bread making: Mistakes that I've learned from so far!

Being new to bread making, I'm learning as I go along. So I decided to pass along the things I've learned by making mistakes, to save anyone else doing the same :)

Firstly, not all flour is suitable for bread making. I tried using wholemeal flour, and spelt flour, but the bread turned out very dry, despite using the same recipe as I had previously. It must have something to do with the flour. So I have learned that bread flour works much better. secondly, Bread Mixes, are not the same as Bread Flour. A Bread Mix already has all the ingredients in it, and you just add water. Whereas Bread Flour (even with seeds added), has to have the other ingredients such as margarine, salt, sugar, yeast, water, added, to make the bread. The end result from a Bread Mix can be fine, but it doesn't allow you to adjust any of the ingredients, such as less salt and sugar, as I have discovered that most recipes add too much for our taste, so it can be adjusted.
So there we have the two biggest mistakes I've made in bread making so far, I'll post more as I make them.............

Easy, quick, vegan mini cupcakes

It's been a while since  I made cupcakes, and had volunteered to make them for a kiddies Christmas party. As most of the children very toddlers, I decided mini cupcakes would be the best option, as they are sweet little bites, that won't get too messy, and the 'grown-ups' can just pop them in their mouth (if they want to!).
I used a recipe from a leaflet that I had picked up from a Viva Roadshow Fair, modifying the ingredients slightly.
Recipe for the cakes:
180g plain flour
half tsp bicarbonate soda
half tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
60ml sunflower oil
200ml sweetened soya milk
150g unrefined granulated sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
Juice of one whole lemon
Zest finely grated from one whole lemon.

I used a handheld whisk for the mixing.
Preheat the oven on a low heat (gas mark 3-4/ around 180C).
Set out a mini cupcake tray, and place your mini cupcake liners in the tray. The above recipe makes about 48 mini cupcakes, so if you only want a small amount, half the recipe, or make larger cakes, as each cupcake paper only takes about a teaspoon of the mixture (these are mini after all!).
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
In a seperate bowl whisk together the oil, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar for about a minute, until the liquid mix becomes frothy.
Add the liquid mix to the dry ingredients, bit by bit until it's all in the one bowl, and mixed together to make a loose mix, that will plop into the cupcake liners easily.
Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full, allowing space for them to rise. I used a dessert spoon and a teaspoon for this.
Put in the middle shelf of the over, and allow to bake for about 10-15 mins, using a wooden skewer to test if the mixture is baked, by sticking the skewer into the centre of a cupcake, and checking if it comes out clean - if it does, they're baked, if it comes out sticky, they need a bit more time. They will look quite pale, but they are baked if the skewer comes out clean.
Let them cool on a wire rack, while you prepare the topping.

Recipe for the topping:
62g vegan margarine
62g vegetable shortening, such as Trex
500g icing sugar (sifted)
2 tsp vanilla essence
30ml sweetened soya milk

As with the cake ingredients, half the mixture to make a smaller amount.
Sift the sugar into a mixing bowl, add the other ingredients, and use a handheld mixer, to mix the ingredients into a fluffy cake topping. Make sure the cakes are cool. Use an icing syringe to decorate the cakes with the topping.

Here is a photo of the cupcakes, which were enjoyed by the children and adults alike!

Making bread with a bread machine

 Firstly I apologise for the quality of photos. I'm not a very good photographer, my camera is a bit dated, and I don't have much patience when taking photos, let alone think about light, centering or whatever one is supposed to do to create decent photos.
I have a bread making machine, which is a few years old, and rarely used. Maybe it's the new year bringing enthusiasm for better quality foods (therefore life!)? but I decided to start making bread. I have never hand made bread, and I have lost the instructions that came with the machine, which is a Delta Bread Maker  from Aldi (good price). I have a bread making book, which is fabulous to look at as it has wonderful photos of delicious looking bread, but alas, a lot of the ingredients are not in my cupboard. The book is 'The complete book of Bread and Bread Machines'  
by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter.
So looking through some of the basic recipes and seeing what I had in stock, I gathered the ingredients to make my bread.
I had a packet of Wholegrain Seeded Bread Flour (lucky!), that was just out of date and needed to be used, so that was handy!

Recipe based on my bread:
500g of wholegrain seeded bread flour.
2tsp salt
2tsp unrefined cane sugar
1.5 tsp dried yeast - I have no idea how to use fresh yeast, and have always used dried yeast.
25g vegan margarine - I used Sainsbury's own brand, again , for convenience - it was in the fridge!
350ml water.
Keep the ingredients separate, as yeast does some weird things once activated.

The following instructions are for my bread machine, I believe different machines can react in different ways, so as most recipes say- check you machine.

First add the water to the machine.
Then the flour, making sure the water is covered. I based my bread on a medium size loaf.
The in separate corners put the sugar, the salt and the margarine. make a small dent in the  centre of the flour, not very deep, as the water is not to come through, and add the yeast.
Set the machine for a medium loaf, a medium crust. My machine takes 3.5 hours. Press the start switch a leave it to magically make bread :)

3.5 hours later, and a lot of whirling noises, the machine will bleep and the bread is done.
Getting the machine out of the pan is a trick and a half! The bread does not come out easily. The tin/pan is HOT! It needed a bit a tapping and banging the tin upside down, before the bread came out. Then the job of removing the blades that kneaded the mixture, which had now set in the bread. The bread machine comes with a handy little tool that hooks the blades and can be gently pulled out, leaving a hole and a tear in the bottom half of the bread, but I suppose that's normal.
I couldn't wait for it to cool down completely, so cut a slice of fresh bread. It was delicious. the break flour was tasty, the seeds could be tasted through the bread, and the consistency was quite dense, which I like, and the bread moist enough to be able to cut slices (it did not crumble- is what I'm trying to say). For our taste, it was too salty, but I understand that the salt restricted the dough from rising too much as it acts on the yeast. We tend to have a low salt diet, through choice, so it may not be too salty for anyone else.
The next day I decided to make another loaf, but this time use half the amount of salt and sugar (i.e. 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar). the result was a fluffier bread, which was less salty, but still tasty. Maybe I'll try 1.5 tsp of salt and sugar next to get something in-between. It's certainly nice to have freshly baked, homemade bread, and I definitely want to make bread regularly, and give up buying mass produced pappy bread. I find this bread to be much more satisfying and filling, and much tastier. Here's a photo of the two loaves next to each other which kinda shows the difference in texture/size (sort of!).
I have since found out that I can download an instruction leaflet from Aldi, the link being here.

Vegan Junk Food. Wicked and Delicious!

 Healthy food is fab, but every now and again, it's nice to eat junk food. vegans are no exception to this (well I'm not at least!).
What better on a lazy Saturday, than to have a delicious fat full dinner.
First, saute a mix of chopped onions, (red and white), cubed courgette and diced chestnut mushrooms. Let the smell of fried mushrooms fill your senses, I love it.
Put this tasty mix to the side (keep warm).


Put some spicy wedges in the oven to be cooking, while getting on with the rest of the food.
Then get the Fry's ' Spicey Burgers. Mmmmmm delicious.
You can use the same frying pan to fry these, the juices from the above season the burgers nicely. Turn occasionally, and try not to burn them (my usual type of cooking!)

 Next we have the 'Chicken' pops, another tasty savoury from Fry's.
The don't take long to cook, just light oil, turn regularly, and add the fruit seasoning right at the end. They're delicious. A bit of a treat - as not easy to find in shops!

All done. Find a lovely soft sesame burger bap. make up your burger, add to your plate, the spicy potato wedges, on this occasion I used McCain's lightly spiced wedges. McCain's have a vegan suitable list. Complete it with the mushroom mix, and 'chicken' pops, you have a truly, tasty, satisfying, junk food, meal. Now where's my glass of wine ! Perfect!

simple, easy way to stop those cold sores!

As a former cold sore sufferer, I know how painful, and nasty they can be. Not to mention unsightly.
A few years ago, an alternative therapist, who was also a qualified doctor (medicine), told me that to stop a cold sore breaking out, take a multi-b-vitamin at the very first sign of a tingle. I was sceptical at first, but decided to give it a try. Couldn't do any harm, anyway! So over the last few years I have taken different brands of multi-b-vitamins, and different strengths. It doesn't make a difference, but it does work! The latest ones I've bought are from Sainsbury's, were reasonably cheap, and small enough to swallow easily, and are labelled as vegan. I have not had a cold sore since I have started to take a multi-b-vitamin at the first sign of one. Mind over matter? I don't know. Does it matter? It works for me. When I tell cold sore sufferers about his, I can see the scepticism in their face, so I doubt very much whether anyone actually tries it. Why not give it a go, it could be the end of those miserable cold sores.

Trigger Finger - a natural vegan cure

I have been suffering from trigger finger for a few months. What is trigger finger you may ask? At least that's what I thought when someone mentioned it to me. My middle finger of my left hand locks, and is painful. When I force it to release, with some effort, it shoots out, hence the name 'trigger finger'.
It has been getting slowly more painful. I researched the Internet, and found a heap of remedies / advice, the main medical one being a steroid injection into the affected digit  - ouch! A few places mentioned Evening Primrose Oil and Vitamin B6, and this seemed the least invasive remedy, and readily available. Finding a vegan Evening Primrose Oil wasn't as easy as I thought. Eventually I found some EPO vegecaps on the HealthSpan website. So I ordered some EPO and vegan B6. Healthspan sell lots of vegan suitable supplements, but unfortunately, you have to trawl through the ones you want, looking at the listing for the 'suitable for vegans' listing, more time consuming than I would like, but hey-ho, got what I wanted.
Now for the million dollar question - do they work? well, yes, they do. When I take one of each, a day, I notice that my finger is less painful, and although still locks, not nearly as much. On the days I forget to take to supplements, I certainly notice, after a few days, the pain increases, as a not so gentle reminder, that I haven't taken them. I'm hoping that by taking them regularly the symptoms will disappear, in time.
Just a word - I believe the trigger finger is caused (for me) by increase use of computers, well that's not going to change in the foreseeable future, better stock up on those supplements.

Vegan wine, nice choice at Sainsbury's

Now, I'm all for that sumptious bottle of locally made, organic, vegan wine, bought at a local health food store, or market. Perfect. But occassionally, I don't have that luxury. sometimes, after a long, hard, day at work, I just want to pop to my local shop and get a bottle of wine that I know is suitable for vegans. Convenient, affordable, and palatable.
I'm lucky (?) enough to live near a Sainsbury's local store, so when finishing work, after a late shift, popped in and scoured the wine. I wanted red wine, seems to be my preference lately. I usually opt for category 'C' being middle of the range, in sweetness, as I'm no connoisseur  on wine, so I take no chances! I found these two bottles of red wine, labelled suitable for vegetarians and vegans, each under a fiver, job done! I did not drink them all at one (honestly). I spread them out over a week or so, enjoying the odd glass, in the evening. In terms of taste, they were both acceptable, both tasted a little sharp on first sip, but nicely mellowed as the wine level lowered. The Claret was the cheapest, at about £3.50 (I think), it was on offer. An acceptable red wine, that was easy to drink, fruity, suprisingly rich tasting. The other, the Merlot, was softer on first tasting, and slightly smoother than the Claret. Sweet and fruity, and again easy to drink. Both measured up as affordable, available, and palatable. And being labelled vegan makes buying so much easier, so thanks to Sainsbury's for that.

Vegan cupcakes - new finds for decoration.

When I make cupcakes, I use my favourite cupcake book " Vegan cupcakes Take over the World". Their basic vanilla cupcake, or chocolate cupcake recipe works every time, and is easy to follow. The cupcakes are a little too sweet for me, so I need to try adjusting the sugar to taste, also the topping seems like a very large amount, so I tend to half the ingredients suggested for the topping.
While browsing the baking section of my local Wilkinson and The Range stores, I came across some cake decorating foodstuff that were labelled 'vegan'. I always have to try things labelled vegan, it seems like my duty, that if a company has gone to the effort to make and label vegan products, I can at least try them! So, there they were, amongst non-vegan items: Sprinkles labelled vegan, and colouring labelled vegan. Not all the products were vegan suitable, so my choices were limited, but here are the ones I bought:

Kylie and Georgina's Cake Sprinkles
and PME food colouring.
Both labelled 'vegan'.

The resulting cupcakes. Hmmmm, maybe 'yellow' was not the right colour for these, but they were tasty, and looked adorable.
PME do a whole range of colours, and it's easy to pick out the vegan suitable colours as they are labelled vegan.
Perfect excuse to make cupcakes, and I can't wait for my next 'find' to try out some more decorations!

Another fabulous cider suitable for vegans

I was lucky to find this fresh and fruity Woodland Berry Cider by Belgars at an Asda Store. it's a large 750cl bottle, and reasonably priced at £2.35. A lovely light fruity summer drink, best served chilled. Labelled suitable for vegans, which is always a bonus when shopping, I'm a sucker to try anything labelled vegan, just because the company has gone to the trouble to label it. This cider is definitely worth a try. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to buying it again.

A white chocolate spread, for Vegans !

At last there is a vegan white chocolate spread. I found it on the Vegan Store website, and just had to try some. This chocolate spread is simply delicious. I love white chocolate, and to have it in a jar to spread is just heaven! I would so love to see this product in local shops, but I guess since it's come all the way from Germany, it'll be a specialist item, at least for now it's available at the Vegan Store. I always like to keep an eye on the Vegan Store, as they have new products in all the time, and sell everything a vegan could want (although you don't have to be vegan to shop there!!!!!) mmmmmmmmmmmm.

More Vegan Suitable Ciders.

My latest mission seems to be to find cider that is suitable for Vegans. Hmmmm, nice mission! The latest finds are these two, scrumptious, yummy ciders. Strawberry cider from Brothers. Wow, this cider is so delicious. It's easy to forget it contains alcohol. it's sweet, it's strawberry tasting. Makes a lovely summer drink, on a hot day - not that we see many of those in the UK. I love this sweet cider. I look forward to finding more sweet, fruit ciders. Also I found this refreshing cider, which is more traditional tasting (that is just apples!), from the wonderful Welsh Cider company Gwynt Y Ddraig. I'm not sure if all of their ciders are vegan, but this one is labelled as suitable for vegans making it sooooo easy to buy! I can't wait to try their Cider and Blackberry.
A good reference for vegan alcohol is Barnivore. Check it out, make a not of your favourite vegan drinks, and head to your nearest stockist, in some cases, supermarkets, making it easy to get those drinks in, and when the next sunny day happens, fire up the barby and enjoy. next mission is to check out the barby treats for vegans!