If you feel like doing a bit of baking over the Christmas holidays, here are three easy vegan Christmas baking recipes that I make every year – hope you enjoy!
Orange cookies
Ingredients
150g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla
150 dairy free butter, melted or very soft
280 g flour
Juice and zest of one orange
Method
Combine the sugar, vanilla and butter.
Add the flour and the orange juice and zest. The mixture will be crumbly and sticky so be gentle with it and add a little more juice or water to make it less so.
Form a large ball with the mixture and wrap it tightly in a large tea towel, flouring it a little so it’s not too sticky, then refrigerate for half an hour.
Flatten the mixture through the tea towel if that’s easier, then form into balls or flat discs. I used this cookie cutter from Bakerlogy on Etsy.
Bake at 175 till golden.
Top with icing sugar and try not to eat all at once.
Festive Granola
Ingredients
200 g oats
2 oranges
8 tbsp maple syrup or agave nectar
Handful cranberries
Handful pistachios
Handful chopped glace cherries
Handful slivered almonds
Method
Toss the oats in the juice of the oranges and the maple syrup/agave nectar till they are all damp.
Spread the oats in a baking tray and top with the slivered almonds.
Bake at 175 degrees for 20 minutes then turn, baking for a further 20 minutes until crispy and golden.
Top with the cherries, cranberries and pistachios and serve with plant milk or yoghurt.
This makes about four servings so can be kept in an airtight container for up to to two weeks.
Mince pie traybake
What’s even better than mince pies? Mince pies mixed up with fruit and chocolate and cut into slices, that’s what.
Ingredients
4 vegan mince pies – make your own or use store bought (I used Oggs)
100 g butter
125 g coconut oil
2 tbsp vegan cocoa
Handful cranberries
Handful pistachios
Handful glace cherries
200g bar dark chocolate
Method
Start by melting the butter, coconut oil, broken up chocolate and cocoa over a low heat in a large pan.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl bash up the mince pies till they’re in small chunks.
Add the pistachios, cranberries and cherries, keeping a few back for the topping.
Pour the melted butter, coconut oil, chocolate and cocoa into the bowl and combine with the mince pies, pistachios, cranberries and cherries, adding a few of the pistachios, cranberries and cherries to the top of the traybake.
Pour into a baking tray and leave to set in the fridge for up to two hours. Cut into slices and enjoy!
The mince pie traybake squares are best kept in the fridge.
When do you start your Christmas shopping? I start mine in October, and Colin starts the shopping he has to do usually about two weeks before Christmas!
I always love reading gift guides for inspiration – so here’s our 2020 Christmas gift guide.
I receivedthis beautiful book about treesfor my birthday, written by our friends Anna Deacon and Vicky Allan. All about humans who love trees, it’s a joy to read – full of love letters to trees from people from across the world. Their other book dedicated to the joy of wild swimming, Taking The Plunge, is very special too – I defy anyone not to want to throw themselves in the sea after finishing it!
Photo credit Anna Deacon
These mindfulness cards are full of creative mindfulness exercises to do every day that can be completed in 10 minutes. Having taken a course in mindfulness this year, I know how big a difference to your day that 10 minutes of mindfulness practice can make, and these cards are perfect for giving you inspiration and ideas.
Mindfulness cards
If you’re based in or around Edinburgh, for the swimmer in your life, or the person who’s been talking about trying outdoor swimming for ages but has never taken the plunge – how about some lesson vouchers? You can buy some here from Colinaka Scottish Swimmer.
Scottish swimmer gift vouchers
A gift voucher for Mindful Chef, the recipe box service. We are big fans of Mindful Chef’s recipe boxes. We’ve been using them for a couple of years now, with monthly boxes containing everything you need to make three delicious vegan meals for two, and haven’t had a single meal yet that we haven’t liked. There’s no food waste, as portions are measured out beforehand, and it’s great to discover new recipes you might not usually try. They’re working hard to minimise waste in their packaging, too.
Mindful Chef sticky tamarind and ginger tofu with mangetout
These yoga diceare a fun present for any yogis in your life. They’re aimed at yogis of all levels with a variety of poses and are great for someone new to yoga who wants inspiration to develop their own practice, or more experienced yogis who want to mix it up a little.
Yoga dice
A Cool Camping voucher. 2020 was the year that many people discovered the joys of UK holidays through camping. I booked most of our camping holidays this year through Cool Camping, including this one – their site has thousands of suggestions, from the very basic and wild to glamping and yurts. A voucher is a great way of giving someone a holiday to look forward to through the grey days of January and February, with the hope that holidays will be more possible in 2021.
Sigh…how perfect does this look?
Some swimming art. We love this printfrom Sea and Stream, which would look beautiful on the wall of the swimmer or sea lover in your life.
Stargazing Mermaid from Sea and Stream.
A monthly Vegan Kind subscription. With boxes from £8 per month filled with vegan products from around the world, this is a great gift for anyone – whether they’re vegan or not – from this Glasgow based vegan start up who have grown to become a serious player in the online vegan marketplace. The boxes, which are either lifestyle boxes or beauty boxes, are always brilliant value for money and often contain new to the market items or things that aren’t widely available in the UK. And each month, they make a donation to an animal charity from the proceeds of each box.
Gift a tree. With a wide range of trees, and something to suit most budgets, Treedom gives you the opportunity to buy a tree. A farmer will then plant the tree in their own country and can use it as a food resource or to support their family, and the tree will help the environment, too.
Gift someone a tree for Christmas
The best things in life are free. For those of us who are feeling the financial effects of lockdown and who aren’t in a position to buy a gift for someone this year, a gift that costs nothing could mean the world to its recipient. Here are some ideas –
A babysitting voucher for when things open up again
Gift a baking subscription from you, by promising to deliver bread, cookies or cake to the recipient once a month.
A personalised playlist. Make a Spotify playlist for someone, with songs that mean something to you both.
A memory book. Take an old notebook that hasn’t been used, and fill it with writing that will make the recipient smile with everything from jokes you know they’ll laugh at, favourite song lyrics, recipes you know they love, to memories of a holiday shared together.
A mystery nature walk. Read up on a nature walk near to your gift recipient. Find out about the points of interest on the walk – wildlife, trees and flowers, as well as points of historical interest – then act as their guide on the day – they only need to turn up at the right time and place!
I’ve been swimming in the sea for four years now, so wanted to share my wild swimming journey in this blog. Here’s the story of how I got into wild swimming….
“You’ve got to try it” said Colin, his lips blue, his teeth chattering and his skin the colour of a lobster. We were standing on Portobello beach. I think it was January 2016, during the Christmas holidays. Colin had been swimming in the sea, rivers and lochs for three years by this point. The colder the water, the better.
I could see that he was getting something out of it, I just couldn’t understand what that something was. To me, someone who hates the cold, it looked like a miserable way to spend half an hour. I’d always loved swimming in the sea as a child, but that was in summer, in warm-ish water, not the depths of a Scottish winter when the water temperature was in single figures. As an adult, and a weak swimmer, I hadn’t done more than put my feet in the water – then snatch them out again seconds later – for years. No, make that decades.
Back in the water in Iona, August 2016
Fast forward to that summer, on holiday on the island of Iona. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we were down at the beach. “Put your feet in” said Colin. “Just see if you can do it for ten seconds”. I did. It wasn’t just cold, it was painful. I could feel the blood shooting from my core into my toes and my whole body rebelling against the icy shock of the freezing water, though it was probably about 13 degrees, which is toasty warm by most wild swimmers’ standards. I honestly couldn’t stand it. I felt a bit ashamed for being such a wimp – I used to swim in this sea when I was wee!
Over the next few days I tried to build up from ten seconds, to thirty, then fifty, then a minute. And on our last day, I decided I’d go for a swim. I didn’t have a swimsuit with me so squeezed myself into a too-small wetsuit we had in the house and went in. And it all came back to me, just why I’d loved swimming so much in the sea when I was little. It IS cold, though less so with the wetsuit. Freezing, at times. But that feeling passes after sixty seconds or so, and then it’s beautiful. The sea in Iona is the clearest I’ve ever swum in, and swimming in it is pure joy. I remembered just how free swimming in the sea makes you feel.
When we got back to Edinburgh, I decided I’d go along with Colin on Sunday mornings to swim with the Wild Ones at Portobello. By this time, I’d invested in a swimsuit, as I hadn’t enjoyed the feeling of wearing a wetsuit in the water – too buoyant, and too bulky. I told Colin I’d go with him until the end of summer. Each time we went in I got a little braver and stayed in for longer.
Swimming in Iona
And during that time, my amazing, patient, husband taught me to swim. Really swim, with my head under water and coming up for breaths, not the head above water jerky breast stroke I’d been doing until then. At first, it was a struggle to get used to the technique. I hadn’t understood before, watching others swim, that you exhale under water, rather than holding your breath, then come up to inhale.
The first time I managed to swim and come up for air five times I felt like a swimming champion. Then ten times, then twenty, then I stopped counting. I learned how to make my body straighter in the water, keep my face down looking at the bottom, reach out with my arms and scoop the water back till my hand was grazing the top of my thigh, and stop kicking my legs up and down so frenetically.
And all the while, the seasons were changing, and it was October, then November, then December, and I was still swimming. I loved the way swimming made me feel. I’d be nervous beforehand, afraid that THIS would be the time that I wouldn’t be able to do it, that I’d found my limit and that it would just be too cold. But I’d always get in, eventually, and I’d yelp and squeak and faff about before fully immersing myself, and I’d swim.
By December, I would only swim a few strokes in the 7 degree water, but the pride I felt at having swum in the sea in December carried me through the whole day. The exhilaration you feel after a swim in the sea – even a short one – is better than any drug. You feel like a hero. People look at you as if you’re mad, but you know better. The endorphins are rushing round your body as you dry yourself with a towel, your fingers frozen as you fumble to do up your bra and pull up your leggings. And it feels amazing.
Swimming in Loch Katrine in March
And in the sea itself, all your problems and worries really do just disappear. It’s the most mindful activity I can think of. There’s no space in your head to think about anything other than this moment, the feel of the cold water on your skin, the psyching yourself up to lower your chest in, then your shoulders, then your arms and hands. You leave your troubles on the shore, and when you come out again, they always seem to have gotten a little smaller.
Since then, I’ve swum in many places around Scotland, and the UK. Up in Durness on the north coast of Scotland was the coldest, swimming in under 5 degrees at the top of the world. The Serpentine Lido in London was the first time I’d swum without Colin, my coach and support blanket. That felt really brave. Off the coast of Wales this summer, the waves toppling me back over every time I tried to stand up, so I just swam through them. And this summer at Wardie Bay, our local beach, swimming out to the white buoy with Colin, a rite of passage for any Wardie swimmer and my personal goal for 2020.
When swimming in the sea at New Year, fancy dress is obligatory at Wardie Bay.
I love swimming in the open water. It makes me feel strong, and brave, and happy, and so connected to nature and when Colin and I swim together, so connected to each other. Sometimes there are mornings when you have to really talk yourself into it, the thought of getting out of your warm bed into the freezing sea seems like madness. But you never regret a swim. And you’ll never regret taking up swimming – I only wish I’d done it sooner.
If you’re interested in being coached by Colin, you can visit his coaching website here.
I’ve always been interested in mindfulness, but until I began studying it formally and reading about it in more detail, I often found myself not knowing ‘how’ to practice it when I had some time to myself. Here are five of my favourite mindfulness exercises, that are particularly good if you are new to mindfulness.
The body scan. This is a great exercise for beginners who are new to mindfulness.
Start by sitting in a comfortable position, and bring awareness to your breath, focusing on where your body meets the ground and where you’re sitting. Then starting at your head, shine a ‘spotlight’ of attention on each area of your body noticing the sensations in it. Move all the way down your body to your feet, focusing on each area of your body and noticing how it feels, gently guiding your mind back to the breath when your attention wanders.
It can be a good idea to do a guided body scan initially – I like this one.
Bringing mindfulness to your daily routine. For days when you’re too busy to sit down and go through a mindfulness meditation, bringing mindfulness to something you do every day is a great way of tuning in to your senses and being present in the moment. This could be cleaning your teeth, making your bed, maybe eating your breakfast. So you might want to pay attention to the way the toothpaste tube feels, the smell of the toothpaste as you squeeze it on to your toothbrush, the feel of the bristles in your mouth. The important thing is that you observe the steps of something you do automatically in a more mindful way.
A 4321 mindfulness exercise outdoors. This can be anywhere – out in the wild, or in your back garden. Find a comfortable place to sit, either on the ground or on a seat. Close your eyes, and connect with your breath.
Then notice four things that you see, taking time to observe them one at a time. From there, move on to three things that you can hear, focusing intently on the sound. Follow on from that by observing two things that you can feel – perhaps the breeze on your face, or the feel of the grass underneath your feet. Finally, notice one thing that you can smell or touch – maybe the flowers in your garden, the scent of the sea, or the bark of a tree you’re sitting near. Take time to observe all of these things fully is a great way to ground yourself, especially if you are feeling worried or anxious, and to stop negative thoughts spinning out of control.
Setting an intention for the day. Choose a positive intention that you are going to keep in your mind and work towards during the day.
Maybe you’ll decide that you’re going to spend today feeling gratitude for the things you’d ordinarily take for granted – a warm house, family who love you, food in your fridge, strong legs to get you out of bed in the morning, if these are things you are lucky enough to have in your life.
Maybe you’ll focus on self care with your intention, promising yourself you’ll eat well and that everything you put in your body will be nourishing, clean food.
You can write the intention down, or just hold it in your mind throughout the day. Make time to check in with yourself during the day and revisit your intention, calling it to the centre of your mind.
Mindful eating. How often do we shovel down our food, hardly tasting it and missing out on all of the enjoyment a good meal brings, loading up the next forkful as soon as we’ve put the food in our mouths?
Try slowing down when you’re eating instead. Take time to sit down with your plate in front of you and appreciate what you’re about to eat. Notice the different colours and textures of your food, the smell, and finally, the taste. Focus on chewing every mouthful and finishing it before getting your fork or spoon ready with the next one. Notice the texture and flavour as you breathe slowly and enjoy the meal in front of you.
Sea buckthorn berries grow in abundance at Gullane beach, where we often go swimming. I’d noticed the berries before, but hadn’t really paid them much mind. That was until our last visit, when I got chatting to a lovely lady who was snipping them into a basket. She told me that they contain many times the amount of vitamin C as your average orange and that she was going to make them into a tonic that could be taken daily.
I was intrigued and used Colin’s pen knife to cut a few sprigs for myself. When I got home, on the lady’s advice, I put them in the freezer for 24 hours to take away the astringency and then made them into a juice. You can also use the berries to make jams, powders, tonics and in baking.
Reading more about sea buckthorn, I learned that it has a number of health benefits. As well as being packed with vitamin C, it’s full of potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron. It’s also thought to be good for heart health, and for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol in some cases.
Here’s how I made the juice –
Add equal quantities of blueberries and sea buckthorn, which has been frozen and de-thorned, to your juicer.
Add the same amount of water as fruit to the juicer – so I used 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup sea buckthorn berries, and 1 cup water.
This totally vegan coconut and vanilla face and body scrub has to be one of the nicest things I’ve ever put on my face. My skin felt so soft and smooth afterwards and it smells AMAZING – that’s because it actually is good enough to eat!
The good news is that it’s the easiest thing ever to make. You only need three ingredients, plus a container – I used an old body scrub container but you can use a small plastic tupperware if you don’t have any old packaging.
Ingredients
1 cup coconut oil, melted
2 cups coconut sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method
Melt the coconut oil in the microwave or over a low heat on the hob and combine with the sugar and vanilla.
Mix it up with a little warm water, apply to face and body, massage in and rinse off!
This chewy, flavour filled vegan pumpkin and turmeric flat bread is packed with goodness and makes a delicious lunch topped with the warm garlicky pesto, juicy tomatoes and seeds that taste just like popcorn!
For the bread
Ingredients
260g plain flour
150g pumpkin puree (take the insides of a pumpkin, discard the seeds and blend to a puree in a blender)
3 tbsp plant milk
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp nutrional yeast
1 tbsp melted vegan butter
Method
Put the ingredients together in a bowl and combine till they form a dough. Knead the dough for five to ten minutes then let it rest for half an hour.
Then divide into small balls, rolling each one into an oval or rectangular shape of around 3-4mm thickness.
Bake in the oven at 175 degrees for 20-25 minutes. It’s a little harder to tell if this bread is baked as it’s already a golden colour, so from around 15 minutes check in on it till it seems ready. It will be a little puffed and lightly browned.
For the pesto
Make this ahead of the bread and topping, or while the bread and topping are in the oven.
Ingredients
100g kale
85g walnuts
75ml olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
Method
Put the ingredients together in a blender and blend till smooth.
For the topping
While the pumpkin bread is baking, make the topping.
Ingredients
100g kale
500g tomatoes
Pumpkin seeds from one pumpkin, rinsed in a sieve
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
Method
Toss the kale, tomatoes and seeds in the olive oil, salt and nutritional yeast and bake in a hot oven until crispy – for about 20 minutes.
Spread the pumpkin bread with the warm pesto then top with the kale, tomatoes and pumpkin seeds and enjoy!
We spent a wonderful weekend this September camping in Ardnamurchan in the western Scottish Highlands. I’ve lived in Scotland most of my life, and consider myself to be fairly well travelled in my own country – but had never visited the Ardnamurchan peninsula until last weekend. All I really knew about it was that there was a lighthouse there, a distillery where Colin has a cask of whisky, and that it was very remote.
We set off one Friday in September to spend two nights with family at the Ardnamurchan Campsite , situated just outside the pretty, remote village of Kilchoan
From Edinburgh, right on the other side of Scotland, it took us five hours to get to the campsite. Once you get off the motorway at Stirling, the journey is just a joy, with incredible scenery as you drive through the Trossachs and the lonely moors of Glencoe within the shadow of Buchaille Etive Mor. We stopped at the Green Welly Stop at Tyndrum, where you can go to the loo and buy some fresh food in the cafe or some gifts and outdoor clothes if you feel inclined! There’s also a great cafe across the road at the Real Food Cafe – my vegan chickpea curry with chips was delicious, and you can order in advance on their website and pick the food up in the car park. Or, ten minutes on there are some incredible places to stop at Glencoe if you fancy eating your takeaway in one of the most scenic and iconic places in Scotland!
We stopped again at Ardgour for the five minute car ferry journey to Corran on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, then on to the single track winding road to the campsite. The views of mountains, lochs and beaches are breathtaking, but do pack a travel sickness pill for anyone who suffers from motion sickness as it’s a VERY winding road.
Playing pass the pigs by the camper van!
The site itself is pretty basic and no frills but has everything a camper could need. There’s a toilet and shower block – though I should warn you that if you don’t like creepy crawlies, it could be an issue as there are quite a few daddy long legs spiders who’ve made the block their home. They won’t touch you, but our kids weren’t fans. There’s also a washing up block with sinks and a washing machine.
Outside the blocks there’s a small communal area with seating and I think there’s one inside for use in non pandemic times too. There are sites for tents, motorhomes and vans with electric hook up, and the boundary of the site is a beautiful beach. There’s also free WiFi, and dogs are welcome. Campfires are allowed, and we spent evenings toasting marshmallows, listening to the sound of the sea and gazing at constellations in the clear dark sky – Jupiter and Saturn were visible, it was so clear! Waking up to the sound of the waves lapping at the shore nearby was pretty special, too.
You’re spoilt for choice with things to do in the area. On the Friday evening we headed to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and the most westerly point of the UK mainland to see a spectacular sunset as we were buffeted by the winds coming in off the ocean. The lighthouse is the only lighthouse in the world designed in an “Egyptian’ style – it’s automatically operated now, but fully operational.
There are also a number of beautiful beaches – we spent an afternoon at Sanna Bay, which we had almost to ourselves. It’s a perfect expanse of white sand and clear blue sea, and we spent a few lovely hours kayaking, swimming, sunbathing and jumping off the sand dunes. Geologically, it’s a fascinating place to visit too, as it’s part of a concentric circle of volcanos, with plenty of wildlife to see as well.
Paddle boarding and kayaking at Sanna Bay
Another day we took the CalMac ferry from Kilchoan to Tobermory on nearby Mull. We were foot passengers, but you can also choose to take the car – though be warned that if the pandemic is still live if you take the car on the ferry, you won’t be allowed to leave your car for the 40 minute journey to enjoy the beautiful views from the top of the ferry across to the Small Isles. We spent a few hours in Tobermory doing a treasure trail that we’d downloaded in advance – a great way to see the town and learn about its history – while Colin visited the distillery.
Tobermory Bay
On our last day we climbed Ben Hiant, the highest point on the peninsula, and from where the sun rose each morning from the campsite. It’s not a particularly challenging hill at 528m, and the views at the top are breathtaking – across to the inner Hebridean islands and the mainland. It took us just under 3 hours to get to the top and back down.
Our view from Ben Hiant
You can book your pitch at the campsite here – they do get busy throughout the season, so make sure you book well in advance. Do go and explore this remote, unspoilt corner of Scotland – it’s been on our to visit list for years, and I only wish we hadn’t waited so long!
I ended up making this vegan breakfast bake with apple, coconut and maple syrup as I wanted to find some new recipes to make with the glut of apples in our back garden. This needs quite a lot of apples, but it’s a lovely breakfast or pudding and serves around four medium bowls. You can be healthy and eat it with some vegan yoghurt – coconut would be especially delicious with this – or be like me and eat it with some ice cream.
Ingredients
2lb apples – quarter then chop quarters into four slices. Peel if you prefer but you don’t need to.
4 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp apple juice
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 tbsp vegan butter, soft or melted
4 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp plant milk
2 oz plain flour
8 oz oats
2 tbsp raisins
4 tbsp pecan or walnuts
4 tbsp chopped coconut
Ice cream or yoghurt for serving
Method
Mix the apples in a bowl with the cinnamon, 4 tbsp maple syrup, apple juice and cornflour, making sure the apples are completely coated in the mixture.
Line a baking tin with this mixture.
Mix the butter, 4 tbsp maple syrup, plant milk, flour, oats, raisins, nuts and coconut together in a bowl and pour over the top. Bake at 175 degrees for around 45 minutes or till golden on top.
