Month: August 2020

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Ten easy eco changes to make your life greener

At the beginning of the year, when single use plastic was firmly on the agenda, we decided to look at the day to day changes we could make in our household that would be a bit kinder to the planet. Here are some of the changes we made, as well as some things we were already doing – some require a little initial expenditure, but long term most of them will save you money as a bonus!

1. Laundry. Instead of buying laundry detergent in plastic bottles, invest in an Eco Egg. We’ve had ours for years and you just need to replace the inner beads every so often. You can add essential oil to the wash if you want it to smell – I use lemon and it makes the laundry smell lovely.

2. Buy a reusable bottle – again, you’re looking at an investment of £20-25 for a decent bottle, but if you were buying a bottle of water every day you’ll have covered your costs in a month. My favourites are Chilly’s – they are durable, come in a beautiful range of sizes, patterns and colours, and you can even personalise them. It keeps your water nice and cold too.

Have you ever seen a plastic bottle that’s this beautiful?

3. Buy food wraps as an alternative to cling film – or make your own using soy wax! These are great for wrapping up sandwiches in, leftover food, and a lid for cans or tins going in the fridge.

4. Make your own household products. You will save SO MUCH money and plastic doing this. You can invest in some fancy glass bottles or just reuse plastic ones. There are lots of different recipes for various household products, from household cleaner to fabric softener – all much gentler in your home, on your purse and on the planet.

5. Reusable period products – I wish I’d discovered these sooner. Again, a little expenditure at the outset will save you lots of money in the long term. Tampons and pads are really terrible for the environment and take a long time to biodegrade. There are so many choices of period products now, from these fab period pants by Ruby Love, which I can personally recommend, to washable pads, moon cups and sponges – check out Folksy or Etsy for these – the pads come in every design under the sun. Periods aren’t always super fun but can be made a little more so if you have pads that have pictures of carrots on them.

So pretty!

6. Washable nappies – same as tampons and pads, nappies are a nightmare for the environment. I was a little nervous the first time I used these on our daughter as I was convinced they’d leak or leave her with awful nappy rash. Neither was true – she ended up wearing them right through to potty training age two and a half, then passing them on to her baby brother – so we got five years out of them which definitely justified the initial cost. There are loads of brands to choose from – my favourite is Tots Bots – funky patterns and so soft and easy to use. Just add a nappy bucket and you’re ready to go.

How cute is this?

7. Cloths instead of kitchen roll – this one is easy. Cut up an old towel into cloths. Chuck them in with your usual wash. Never buy kitchen roll again – I haven’t, for years.

8. Buy clothes from charity shops or swap them. New clothes bought in the UK produce more carbon emissions per minute than driving a car around the world six times according to a report from Oxfam. I’d say at least half my clothes are from charity shops – my best ever find was a beautiful Whistles dress in my size that I wear all the time. Or join a Facebook group like the Great British Clothes Swap so when you need something new and are having a clear out, you’re not spending money on brand new stuff.

9. Make do and mend! We’re so used to chucking clothes out when they’re ripped or stained when often they’re totally salvageable. If you can’t get stains out of clothes, I’m a big fan of iron on or sew on patches to cover the stain – I love these cute bee patches from Etsy. If you’re not the best with your needle, take a sewing class in taking up hems or mending ripped seams so you don’t have to throw out your favourite things.

10. Cut down on meat and dairy. I don’t think this needs any explanation – we all know how bad these things are for the environment. There are so many delicious ways to eat that don’t involve animal products with dishes that are bursting with flavour – including some of the recipes on this blog!

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Vegan Laksa with Tofu and Peas

This vegan laksa is easy to make with a bit of prep, but once you’ve made a big batch you can freeze it and reheat it on cold days, sick days, and can’t be bothered to cook days. So warm and comforting with a spicy kick!

Ingredients

4 tbsp sesame oil

6 cloves of chopped garlic

3 cm ginger

3 – 4 tsp chilli powder depending on how spicy you like it

2 tsp cumin

1 white onion, chopped roughly

Litre vegan vegetable stock

1 tin coconut milk

100g dry rice noodles

4 tbsp fresh coriander

1 block tofu, which you should press 72-12 hours beforehand. Do this using a tofu press or suspending the tofu in a sieve over a bowl and covering it in heavy books for at least two hour. Then chop into 2 cm square cubes and marinade in soy sauce and a pinch of salt. The longer you marinade it, the better it will taste.

100g frozen peas

2 limes

1 tsp sesame seeds

Method

Make the laksa paste by blending the garlic, ginger, chilli powder, cumin, 2 tbsp coriander and white onion with 150 ml stock in a blender.

Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp sesame oil and heat the paste over a low heat for ten minutes.

Slowly add the stock and coconut milk, then add 2 tsp salt and simmer.

After 10 minutes add the rice noodles and peas and continue to simmer and stir for another 5 minutes.

Heat up a separate pan with 2 tbsp sesame oil and fry the tofu cubes for 15 minutes over a medium heat until golden. Add them to the soup and garnish with a handful of coriander, sesame seeds and limes cut into quarters, and serve with a good squeeze of lime.

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Vegan Eggs Benedict

I love this vegan Eggs Benedict dish for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. Like most tofu based recipes, a little prep is required, but the good news is that once you’ve done that you can put it all together wherever, including on a camping trip!

Ingredients

It’s helpful but not mandatory to have a tofu press for the tofu. If you don’t have one you can press the tofu by wrapping it in a tea towel or similar, putting it in a colander over a bowl, and putting heavy books on top of it.

You’ll also need a medium – large frying pan and some oil for frying.

For the muffins

380g flour plus a little extra to knead

2 tbsp very soft vegan butter – I used Naturli.

2 tsp caster sugar

2 tsp fast action yeast

1 tsp salt

200mls lukewarm water

1 tsp baking powder

For the toppings

1 block firm tofu

Kala namak salt – 2 tablespoons

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

6 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp salt

Vegan ham – I used Quorn

Hollandaise sauce – you can make your own using this recipe by Loving It Vegan or use premade such as this one by Inspired Vegan

A bunch of chives

A round implement such as a jam jar lid or cookie cutter to cut the muffins, tofu and ham to your preferred size – you’ll want them to be about 8 – 10cm in diameter.

This makes around 6-9 servings.

How to make

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – the secret to any tofu dish is to PRESS and PREP the tofu. That means pressing the moisture out for at least a couple of hours, and marinading for as long as you can – up to three days if possible so it soaks up lots of flavour.

Press the tofu for at least 2 hours.

Next, cut your tofu into round slices – about 8 – 10 cm wide and 1cm thick. You can use the extra tofu by mashing it up or chopping it into small cubes, including it in the marinade below, and baking or frying it to add to pasta, noodles, salads or sandwiches.

Then marinade the tofu in a bowl or tofu press with the soy sauce and salt. Add warm water to this to make sure all the tofu is covered.

Next, fill your ziploc bag with the kala namak and nutritional yeast. Put the tofu circles in, making sure each surface is covered as much as possible with the mixture. Fold the bag over if you can so the tofu is tightly sealed and leave for another hour or so.

Now, the muffins. Make the muffin dough by combining all of the ingredients, give it a good knead, then leave it to prove for a couple of hours in a clean bowl covered by a teatowel.

Roll out the dough and cut into round shapes using your round cutter that you used for your tofu – you should be able to use all the dough up. If you’re prepping this for later, store the muffin shapes in an airtight box, separating each layer with greaseproof paper or similar.

If you’re making the muffins now, fry the muffin rounds over a medium heat. They can cook – and burn – quickly, so turn the first one over after a few seconds to see how it’s doing and gauge your temperature, then cook on each side until golden.

Next prep the ham by cutting it into circles the same size as the egg. You can use the leftover ham for sandwiches, salads, or even in this recipe for a slightly messier looking egg!

Then make the tofu egg. Make sure each surface of your egg rounds is as well covered as possible with the kala namak and nutritional yeast mix, massaging it in if you can. Using the same pan you used for the muffins, fry each side for a couple of minutes until golden.

Lightly butter the muffins, add the egg and ham, top with the hollandaise sauce and chives and enjoy!

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Ten super useful camping tips I’ve learned this summer

There are so many blogs and articles that contain brilliant camping tips both for camping in tents and vans that I read avidly before our trip this July and August. Here is some of the wisdom I’ve acquired since that trip that I hope is helpful!

I’ve found that every trip we take I think of something new – a way of doing things to make everything easier, or a new gadget that saves time and space. I’m sure by this time next summer I’ll have at least ten more camping tips to share on this blog.

1. NO BACON in the van! Vegan bacon smells amazing but the smell is just as strong as normal bacon, and it lingers for weeks afterwards. So we cook our bacon rolls outside, on the stove, under the gazebo if it’s raining. Same goes for cooking bacon in a large tent – don’t do it, the smell just does not go away!

2. Scented candles are a great thing to take with you camping. They can be left in the van (though not unattended – make sure someone is around and don’t go off for the day and leave it burning!) after cooking or before bedtime so that you fall asleep to everything smelling nice rather than the smell of dinner. Not needed of course if you’re lucky enough to be camping somewhere where you fall asleep to the scent of honeysuckle and mimosa wafting in from outside….

3. Routine – setting up and striking camp/ your van becomes so much easier when you have a fixed routine and order in which you do things. This will quickly become mechanical. For us it’s – arrive, pop the van top, set up the storage tent and gazebo which have been packed so we can get to them first, unpack everything else into the storage tent and under the gazebo.

3. Storage – Rather than having lots of bags and rucksacks containing various things, we have a three box system with three large plastic boxes. One is for bedding, one for food and cooking related items and one is for everything else such as games. Add to that a small clothing and toiletries bag for everyone and that’s all we pack for trips. It means everything can be found easily and the plastic boxes double up as tables as well as being fairly weatherproof.

4. Shoes for in the night – there’s nothing worse than needing to go to the loo in the middle of the night and scrabbling around for shoes. Have a pair that are waterproof in case its raining, easy to slip on and know where they are in the van or tent should nature call at 2am.

5. Know where everything is – this relates to storage above, but it makes such a difference if you have a place for everything in your van or tent, that everyone knows and sticks to so when you need the salt for cooking or the bungee cords to hang a light from, you’ll know exactly where they are and don’t need to waste ten minutes upturning everything to find them.

5. Games including solo games – important when camping with kids, especially on WiFi free campsites. Always have a stock of games that they can play, including games like Solitaire that they can play on their own if one of them doesn’t feel like playing. Our favourite camping game is Exploding Kittens. It’s brilliant fun and doesn’t take up much space. Sussed is another great game for 8 plus and also a space saver. Also include plenty of pens and paper, some activity books and a few reading books – our last camping trip saw our 10 year old bookworm devour three books in five days which necessitated a not-unwelcome trip to this lovely bookshop in Keswick for some more!

6. Download videos on an iPad or laptop for those camping evenings when everyone’s a bit fed up, when the kids are fighting, you can hear the rain bouncing off the roof of the tent/van and it’s COLD – they do happen with the best will in the world. The thing to do on those evening is to get everyone in their sleeping bags, make some hot chocolate and stick on the Harry Potter film you cleverly downloaded earlier.

7. Collapsible washing up bowl – there are so many camping gadgets you can spend money on, but this one I’ve found super useful. Means you’re not balancing a pile of dirty dishes on the trek to the washing up station, or dropping the clean ones in the mud on the walk back, as I did one rainy evening!

8. Plenty of water – seems obvious but make sure that you have plenty of receptacles for water, and that you keep them filled and handy, avoiding miserable middle of the night moments when you wake up with a raging thirst to an empty water bottle and a walk through the rain with your torch to fill it up.

9. Plenty of towels – at least two per person. These don’t need to be luxury, fluffy, towels – we always pack our thinnest, oldest towels for camping. But make sure you pack enough so that there’s alway at least one dry towel for everyone. Don’t be like me and have to borrow your teenager’s towel for a shower, which you later learn she used to wipe the floor of the shower cubicle.

10. MIDGE CREAM! This is VERY specific to camping in the west of Scotland but so important. We were attacked by a vicious cloud of midges while in the Cairngorms and had to break out the midge cream and apply it in extreme haste – even then, we were all left with a few bites that tormented for days afterwards. If you’re camping in this area, insect repellent really isn’t an optional extra. If you’d prefer not to use cream, or as an add-on, invest in a hat with a mesh screen and make sure you cover every bit of skin so they have nothing to bite!

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A little corner of zen in Wales – Nantgwynfaen Farm

camping

You know your happy place, the place you go to in your head when all around you is stress and noise and worry? From now on I think my new happy place will be the beautiful, peaceful glade that we had all to ourselves for three days when we camped at Nantgwynfaen Farm, a beautiful organic farm in the Teifi Valley in South Wales.

Love At First Site

The farm, situated in rural Pembrokeshire and about half an hour from the Pembroke coast, offers BandB, glamping in the wonderful Glamavan, and camping in one of five private pitches. We stayed in Love at First Site, a gated glade enclosed by hedges and trees, about 300m from the main farmhouse.

Run by the very lovely Amanda and Ken, the farm offers facilities including WiFi at the farmhouse – though not on the campsites – showers, wood, and an organic farm shop run on trust, so you take items and fill in a ledger to be added up at the end of your stay. There are also toilets – ours was a compost toilet which we were initially a little reticent about having never used one, but it was surprisingly airy and odour free! Ken, who makes wooden furniture in his spare time, will also bake his delicious flowerpot seeded bread to order for guests.

Jam and marmalade from the shop with Ken’s flowerpot bread for breakfast

Our site was so secluded and quiet and felt as close to wild camping as its possible to get on a campsite. Our shower was on the site – an outdoor shower that also doubled as a tap for the sink and dishwashing station. There was a picnic table and benches where we ate meals and played board games, and a fire bowl for campfires at night, over which we toasted marshmallows and corn on the cob. We had so much space – enough for a tent, the van, our camping chairs and plenty of room left for yoga and ball games.

The Nantgwynfaen Farm shop

Nearby Nantgwynfaen Farm is the Pembrokeshire coast, with all it has to offer. We had a surfing lesson with Outer Reef Surf School at Freshwater West, one of Wales’ top surfing beaches (also the setting for Dobby’s final scene in Harry Potter). As beginners, we were all a little nervous but within half an hour were all riding waves lying flat on our boards, as well as falling off more than once and getting a few mouthfuls of sand! Nearby Cardigan and Aberaeron are beautiful with shops, cafes and views, and we also spent a beautifully sunny afternoon at Penbryn beach with its golden sands and caves to explore.

Stay at Nantgwynfaen if you want to truly get away from it all. You’ll leave feeling restored and full of inner zen with beautiful memories to cherish.

3 nights in July on Nantgwynfaen Farm cost £96 for two adults, a teenager and two children – more information here.