Cabbages are definitely an under-rated vegetable. We get them sometimes in our veg box, and we always try to do something different and creative with them. They’re great in stir fries, soup and as an alternative to rice paper in spring rolls. This plant based sage chilli butter cabbage recipe is so delicious and hearty enough to be the hero piece of any lunch or dinner! And it’s healthy, too – cabbages are packed full of vitamins, calcium and fibre, as well as being low in calories.
Ingredients
1 Savoy cabbage
1 sweet potato
Handful fresh sage leaves
Teaspoon chilli
2 tbsp butter (we used Naturli)
500 ml vegan stock
10 walnuts
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Place a pan of water on the hob and slowly bring to a boil as you are preparing the cabbage and sweet potato.
Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, then cut it into six circular wedges through the core.
Put the cabbage circles in a baking tray and pour over the stock. Then cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato and cut into small chunks. Add to the pan of boiling water and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.
Five minutes before the cabbage is ready, add the walnuts to the baking tray.
Now make the sage butter., Melt the butter over a medium heat, and add the sage and chilli, stirring them in well.
Mash the sweet potato with a little of the butter and season with salt and pepper.
Remove the cabbage and walnuts from the oven and serve drizzled with the sage chilli butter and the sweet potato mash. I served the sweet potato with some salted capers from the local Italian deli that I’ve been obsessed with recently.
We decided this year that we were going to give some of the mindfulness apps out there a try. We have some books with mindfulness exercises, and YouTube has some free ones, but we both liked the idea of having something that would both chart our progress and which we could personalise. Here’s Caroline’s Headspace review.
HEADSPACE
Headspace is one of the world’s most popular mindfulness and meditation apps, so it seemed a good place to start. It’s free for the first seven days, then £9.99 per month, so one of the more expensive apps.
Interface
I found the interface very simple, with a clean, colourful design. It was really easy to navigate to various parts of the app and find what I needed – a good thing as the whole purpose of the app is to relieve stress.
Headspace interface
Meditation
Headspace features a daily meditation, with themes such as ‘hope’, ‘creativity’ and ‘intention’. I liked having these suggestions as it meant I tried meditations that I might not necessarily have chosen. The daily meditations can be as short as four minutes and up to twenty minutes. I tried to do these in the mornings, and each of them left me feeling refreshed, content and ready for the day.
I also did the mindful eating course. This is a thirty-day course, with the first ten days dedicated to ‘learn’, the next ten to ‘practice’ and the final ten to ‘master’. Each daily session lasts about ten minutes.
I’m definitely guilty of mindless eating, when I’ll grab something without really thinking about whether I’m hungry, and finishing food on my plate without really tasting it or enjoying it. The course really helped me to re-evaluate that behaviour and think about the space in my head between the thought of eating something, and my behaviour – making the connection that just because I think about eating something doesn’t mean I have to act on it. There were some really good exercises, like trying out eating a meal without any distractions such as phone, computer or other people. I thought the app was worth the money for the mindful eating course alone. It had a number of really helpful practical exercises, and was genuinely transformative in shaping my thinking around eating more mindfully, and the storylines behind when and how we eat.
There are also meditations dedicated to dealing with difficult times – stress, anger, exam prep, interviews and work stress. There’s even one for dealing with your anxiety when you have to do a presentation, which will resonate with most people! I tried the ‘flustered’ meditation when I was having one of those moments with far too many thoughts crowding in my head from different directions, and found it really helped.
Children’s meditations
I tried out the sleep meditations for 9-12 year olds with our 10 and 12 year old. They were a bit giggly at first, but relaxed into the meditation after a minute. and once it had finished said it definitely made them more relaxed and sleepy. They did go to sleep very quickly afterwards, and I found it a nice way to wind down with them at the end of the day.
Exercise
There are a number of physical exercise sessions on the app, from vigorous workouts to gentle yoga. Most of them try to integrate mindfulness and breathing into the practice.
I tried some of the yoga sessions and thought they were well designed, if a little impersonal and business-like at times in some of the sessions. There are sessions of varying lengths, from 8 to 45 minutes, and for different times of the day – morning, daytime and before bed. There are also sessions for different moods, such as stress and anxiety, and different body areas such as hips, neck, and core. I liked the Afternoon Reset, a 20-minute flow for intermediate yogi that’s good for lunch breaks, and the longer Calming Flow for before bed.
I also liked the Lincoln Center Dance Breaks, which teach dance moves from around the world in short sessions, and the Move Minis, quick sessions for when you just need to move and get your heart rate up but don’t have a lot of time.
There are some great rest day meditations too, for days when you’re not exercising and want to let your mind rest as well as your body.
Sleep
I particularly loved this part of the app. The sleepcasts were stories to send you to sleep, read in a variety of calming voices, and I don’t think I stayed awake to hear the end of any of them! The wind-down sessions are guided meditations to help send you off to sleep, with a variety of exercises from deep breathing and noting to mindful walking and mindful cleaning to help you sleep! The sleep section also has exercises to help you get back to sleep if you’re a night-waker, rather than reaching for your phone and scrolling. And I loved the soundscapes with sounds recorded in natural spaces, like cicadas on a lake, forests, rain on rocks and water running under bridges.
Other features
I thought the nature breaks in the productivity section, with videos of scenes from nature intended to help you refocus when you need to give your mind a rest, were a great inclusion and really grounding when my head had a million tabs open.
There were also quick breathing exercises with a visual guide – breathe with the waves was my favourite – that are a good way to stop whatever you’re doing and take a short mental break, either from work, a stressful situation or just life in general.
Value for money
The app is great value for money once you unlock the paid for features – which isn’t an option for many given the £9.99 per month price tag – and provided you use it on a very regular basis, as I’ve been doing. The sense of wellbeing it gives me is definitely worth the monthly cost.
Compared to other mindfulness apps, I felt that the free content was extremely limited – there was very little that you could access without taking up the free trial, though the app is available for free for some people, including teachers. Once you’re in the trial, many of the meditation courses are at least ten days long – I guess this is deliberate in order to encourage people to sign up beyond their seven day free trial.
I would have liked a family subscription option, which seems to be available in the US, so that I could share the app with other people in the family.
With a library of hundreds of meditations, it’s likely that you’ll enjoy and get your money’s worth from Headspace if you use it often. The app is great value for money once you unlock the paid for subscription – unfortunately not an option for many given the £9.99 per month price tag – and provided you use it on a very regular basis, as I’ve been doing. The sense of wellbeing it gives me is definitely worth the monthly cost, so represents value for money for me – I don’t spend money on a gym subscription or any other sports (yoga, swimming and running are all free!) so I justify it that way.
There are a whole host of free mindfulness apps available – check them out here.
This vegan turmeric miso rice is one of our favourite, make-on-autopilot-it’s-so-simple, delicious dinners. It takes hardly any time to throw together and uses low-cost ingredients you probably have in your cupboard or fridge. The turmeric gives it a nice golden hue and is packed with goodness and health benefits, with it’s anti-inflammatory properties and potential to improve heart health, along with the nutrition in the brown rice with its fibre and protein. It’s hard to imagine something with so few ingredients tasting so good, but trust us – give it a try!
Ingredients
125g (1 cup) brown rice
240ml (2 cups) water
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp miso paste
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp soy sauce
Bunch spring onions, chopped
Veg of your choice, steamed – we used green beans and baby corn
Lemon to season
Method
Bring the 240ml water to the boil and add the rice. Cover the pot and turn down the heat. The rice should be cooked in 40 minutes at a simmer.
Before the rick cooks, steam your vegetables in a microwave or bamboo steamer.
Chop up some spring onions to garnish the rice.
Once the rice is cooked, stir through 2tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp miso paste and 1 tbsp turmeric. Season with salt, top with the spring onions and steamed veg, and squeeze some lemon over to season.
It’s Veganuary, and like most years, thousands of people have pledged to go vegan for a month. As always, there’s lots of coverage in the media about veganism, with recipes and guides to vegan living. It’s wonderful to see.
This year though, we’ve noticed an extra helping of negativity creeping into the conversation. An article about how veganism is ‘snake oil’ in the national press here, a blog piece challenging the idea that veganism can save the planet there, all with the same tired old arguments about almond milk and soy and the assumptions that vegans eat only quinoa, avocado and mock meats with their higher carbon footprints.
Here are some of the vegan myths that continue to circulate … and why they’re not true.
Vegan Myth 1 – it’s not sustainable
Avocadoes, almond milk and quinoa are not sustainable and vegans eat avocadoes, almond milk and quinoa therefore veganism is not sustainable. I have heard this argument so many times, usually from people who have scoured the internet to find the handful of studies that support their view that veganism is an unsustainable way to live, even though there’s a growing body of evidence that a plant based diet is the kindest diet for the planet – this study from Oxford University for example concluded that the lower the fraction of animal-sourced products in our diets, the greater the health and climate benefits will be.
It’s true that almond milk, avocadoes and quinoa aren’t particularly sustainable. Almond milk still has a considerably lower footprint than dairy milk, however. And an avocado only needs a fraction of the water required to produce the same amount of beef, as does quinoa.
I also honestly don’t know anyone who eats the shed loads of these foods that would be required to create a higher carbon footprint than an omnivorous diet. We hardly ever drink almond milk, eat quinoa equally rarely, and avocadoes when they come in our veg box. And omnivores eat these things too!
As for soy, which is often cited as another reason veganism is bad for the planet as its production requires the destruction of extensive natural habitats – most soy is grown to feed animals being raised for slaughter.
Avocadoes – best enjoyed sustainably
Vegan Myth 2 – it’s unhealthy
Vegans exist on a diet of fake sausages, bacon and Beyond Burgerswhich are unhealthy and bad for the planet. No one should be eating meat, or mock meats, every day. Meat free burgers have similar amounts of saturated fat and sodium to beef burgers, though without the cruelty that goes into them. Mock meats are great as a treat, and good if you’re transitioning to a vegan diet and want to stick with familiar tastes, but whole foods are better for your health, and better for the planet.
The Oxford study mentioned above also looks at the major health benefits of a vegan diet, and the positive consequences of eating fewer animal products.
Vegan Myth 3 – you can’t get well-balanced vegan diets
A vegan diet isn’t balancedor healthy. Any diet can be unhealthy if it isn’t well balanced and a vegan diet is no different. I could live on chips and dairy-free chocolate and truthfully say I was following a vegan diet, but it would be far from healthy or well balanced. However, the British Dietetic Association says that a well balanced vegan diet is healthy and appropriate for all life stages, and NHS advice is that it’s possible to get all of the nutrients you need with a well planned healthy vegan diet. As long as you make sure you’re getting all the vitamins you need – vitamin B12 is especially important – a plant based diet is a healthy and sustainable one to adopt.
Vegan Myth 4 – being vegan costs too much.
It’s expensive being vegan. As above! Any diet can be expensive if you make it so. Yes, it’s true that food producers often whack on a ‘vegan surcharge’ to new vegan versions of their food – Cadbury’s are recent offenders with their vegan chocolate bar costing around twice what a standard bar of Dairy Milk would. And yes, you can be a vegan and live on expensive mock meats, out of season vegetables and Booja Booja truffles (which are amazing, just kind of pricy!) But a home cooked vegan meal made from scratch, is usually not going to cost as much as something that contains chicken, meat or fish. An Oxford University study from last year showed that a vegan or vegetarian diet is the cheapest option in high income countries. Try our cheap as chips lentil dhal or pasta arrabbiata, or have a look at the Deliciously Ella blog for budget vegan recipes. We subscribe to Oddbox, who deliver wonky fruit and veg to us every week for less than £20 – each box comes with a meal plan and recipes, so you can make lots of delicious meals from scratch.
Lentil dhal
Vegan Myth 5 – it’s too hard to be vegan.
Being vegan is too difficult and complicated. When I went vegan over a decade ago, yes, that might have been true. There was very little information around about vegan food, and very little decent vegan food outside of health food shops compared to what can be found now in your average supermarket. Now, it’s much easier. If you’re just getting started, I recommend checking out Bosh for their simple, delicious vegan recipes – starters, mains and snacks.
One of our favourite vegan dinners is just spaghetti with chilli, lemon juice and a courgette, grated and fried. That’s it. It doesn’t need to be complicated at all, unless you’re looking to bake bread from scratch and make your own mock meats for every meal (yes, we know someone who did this for Veganuary and unsurprisingly didn’t make it to the end of the month!)
Vegan Myth 6 – vegans are annoying and smug.
Vegans are sanctimonious and always want to tell you that they are vegan within five minutes of meeting you. There are smug, sanctimonious people in every community, from your local Facebook selling group to the international knitting community (no disrespect to knitters!) and veganism is no different. And if someone tells you they are vegan early on in a conversation, consider that it might be relevant – I’ll only bring it up if I’m offered food that may contain dairy or eggs, or if it’s genuinely relevant to the conversation.
To find out more about going vegan this January, visit the Veganuary website.
Read more about vegan myths in this new book by Ed Winters.
And try some of our vegan recipes, from starters to main courses and baking!
I know a lot of people don’t like the idea of New Year’s resolutions as they think of them as a way of setting yourself up to fail.
Colin always has small handful of resolutions. I’m a lover of a list on the other hand, and come January 1st can find myself with up to 25 resolutions, or intentions, covering every aspect of my life. I always see them as something I’d like to try to do though, and if I get to the end of the year and realise that I didn’t achieve them, which is usually the case with about 50% of my intentions, I’ll either shrug my shoulders and forget about them or add them to my list for the following year.. I see them as suggestions – a could-do list – rather than something that I need to beat myself up about if I get to December 31 and haven’t done.
For example, every year since I can remember I’ve written down an intention to listen to new music and discover new artists in the year to come, and I never ever manage. I’ll download a playlist on Spotify of new sounds for that particular year and then forget to listen to it. The only new artist I discovered in 2021 was Olivia Rodrigo, courtesy of our kids!
I also promised myself I’d do Duolingo every day this year as I’ve been brushing up on my stale Russian and trying to learn Swedish. I did it quite often, but every day just didn’t happen. And I had a huge, ambitious list of podcasts I was going to listen to by the end of 2021, that didn’t happen either.
With that in mind, here are my intentions for 2022 –
Swim 25 lengths at our local lido, Jesus Green Lido. And it’s 90m long, so those are quite big lengths. I’ve done lots of outdoor swimming in the past twelve months, in wonderful locations, but I need to work on distance. I’ve set myself this as a goal, and am also thinking of signing up to a swimming challenge later on in the year. Being in the very fortunate position of having an outdoor swimming coach as a husband, I’m hopeful I’ll ace this one.
Run 5k without stopping. Confession – I don’t really like running. I got quite good at it years ago, but it was never something I enjoyed doing in the way other people seem to. I enjoyed the sense of achievement afterwards though, and loved doing it with Colin who was always great at encouraging me to keep going and not stop. This morning Colin went out for a run and I wished I’d joined him – he’s always saying that if I persevere I’ll end up enjoying it, and I would like to be able to run 5k as I was once able to do without having to stop and walk. Will be starting this week!
Continue to try and find ways to cut down on our plastic use and live more sustainably. I think we do OK on this as a family, but there are always ways to cut down further. Here are some of the changes we’ve made so far – and in 2021, we improved on that again by cutting down on car use and cycling more (moving to Cambridge helped a lot!), switching to a veg box delivery, getting smarter about waste and making consumer choices that favoured sustainable companies. In 2022 we want to build on that. We’ll be looking out for local events to get involved in, and continuing to share plant based recipes and stories of sustainable living with our growing audience.
Take our camper van to Europe! We’re trying not to get too excited about this one as we’ve been here before (in January 2021!) Back in the pre-pandemic era, when we bought our camper van, we planned an amazing two week European holiday with the van for summer 2020. Of course, we ended up cancelling it, and then didn’t take it in 2021 as a multi-country visit juggling the entry requirements of various countries didn’t seem feasible. This year, we really hope that it will finally happen and that we’ll be able to take our tour of some of Europe’s best hiking and swimming spots this summer. Watch this space!
Creating and maintaining good boundaries – when I look back at moments of stress and unhappiness in 2021, many of them were down to not having good boundaries in place, and I’m going to make sure that these are better, and stronger in 2022. One of the things that has helped me in 2021 is a regular digital detox – switching my phone off for a couple of days or longer over holidays, ensuring that the important people in my life know how to get hold of me if they need me. A firm boundary between real life and the online world is a really important one to maintain and one I’ll be working on this year.
The most important thing for me with all of my 2022 intentions, though, is to see them as just that. They’re not written on tablets of stone, they’re simply suggestions – so I won’t beat myself up if they don’t happen. I’ll update on our progress via this blog and Instagram – looking forward to getting started 🙂
Like most of us, we went into 2021 feeling hopeful that we were coming to the end of the pandemic, that with the introduction of vaccinations we’d all be out of the woods soon and back to normal life by maybe … Spring? Summer at the latest, anyway.
As we all know, it didn’t quite turn out like that. You don’t need us to rehash the last twelve months – we all know how it went. Yet despite the restrictions and gloom and ups and downs, we managed to make 2021 a year that we’re saying goodbye to with some memories that make us smile. We’ve climbed hills and mountains, cycled along green country lanes, swum in the sea at both ends of the country, watched dolphins burst out of the water so they were almost close enough to touch, and eaten lots and lots of delicious (plant-based) food.
Colin swimming in An Lochan Uaine
2021 Review: Favourite swim
CAROLINE : Hard to chooose, but my favourite was probably a swim in a little loch near Aviemore called Loch Vaa. It was a beautiful, hot August day and the water was at least 12 degrees and felt wonderful in the hot sun. We both did handstands and swam as the children played on the shore. A perfect Scottish swim. I also had a lovely swim on my birthday in October in Loch Lubnaig. First thing in the morning, the water was as chilly and clear as you’d expect on a late autumn morning in Scotland. – the best way to start a birthday, and a new year of my life.
COLIN: I doubt I’m alone when I say that choosing a top swim is a challenge! Selecting the one that got away is, sadly, somewhat easier.
The swim that escaped me was the Ullswater Chill Swim, a seven-mile summertime epic from Glenridding to Pooley Bridge. Two weeks before the event I was struck down with Covid. Despite being at peak fitness, with regular winter swims and longer training swims behind me, overnight I went from a strong swimmer capable of swimming several sea miles to a weak swimmer who couldn’t bear the cold and who struggled to do 100m. It was a real blow, and while I’m still not back to the level of swim-fit I was in June I’ve high hopes for 2022!
So while the big Chill Swim escaped me, there were a plenty of other cracking swims during 2021. A night swim down the River Cam under a full moon. A freezing Loch Morlich dip with my sister. My first ice kilometre and other numb, fun swims with the Wardie Shiver Club. A roasting splashabout in Loch Vaa with my wife, kids and cousins and their families. A swoosh down the River Teith. The Fairy Pools with my son.
But with Wardie Bay on my doorstep until our move down south, it’s hardly surprising three of my favourite swims hail from there. In February, plummeting temperatures froze the sand and saw sea water turn to icy slush on the shore. On one particular day, big easterly winds brought in some serious waves, the remnants of a huge storm out to sea. The water was challenging 3.8C. My friends Lachlan, Christa and Tine and I went in anyway. Too stormy even for the surfers, we bounced about in the icy waves; gleeful, high, joyous. Massive grins and numb fingers.
Brrrrrrrilliant swimming at Wardie Bay last winter.
Another top swim was with my friend Sam, when we swam from Wardie Bay to Newhaven Harbour and back for the first time. At around 2.8k there and back, it’s not a particularly long swim, but it was the first time I’d done it and there was a real pleasure in kicking off the harbour wall for the return leg, and experiencing the changing currents and flow for this great bay swim. He and I swam it a few times and I can’t wait to give it another go.
My third Wardie Swim was one of my last. A fond farewell swim with many of the fine folk, all of them friends, who we’d had the pleasure of swimming with over the past few years. Family aside, that’s what I miss most about leaving Scotland.
As much as these were all swimming highlights, my favourite swim of the year wasn’t about pushing the distance or braving the cold. It was jumping off rocks into a Trossachs loch with my friends George and Jen. I was still recovering from Covid – the week before a 100m swim had proved exhausting – so we’d opted for a splashabout instead. We cycled for a few km along bike trails to a hidden cliff overlooking a deep part of a wee Scottish loch. I struggled on the bike ride, and was nervous about the cold, remnants of Covid still making themselves felt. After a short scramble over brush, moss and heather, we came to this fantastic wall of rocky slabs reaching out into the water, the highest about two metres. Again and again we jumped off into the deep lack loch water. Diving down. Climbing out. Jumping off again. Splashing. Laughing. It was the best. Adrenalin and wellbeing flowed through me. I felt restored, physically and mentally.
2021 Review: Favourite camping holiday
Both of us had the same choice here – our camping holiday in Aviemore at Dalraddy in June!
CAROLINE :This was the second time we’d camped here, and for good reason – it’s such a perfect little campsite that has everything you could ask for. There’s plenty of space for each pitch, clean and modern showers and loos, picnic tables, a choice of electric hook up and of course an incredible location right in the Cairngorms with everything it offers on your doorstep. We camped here with family, with room for our campervan, tent and gazebo on our pitch, and their three bedroom tent on theirs. The site is huge but feels very safe, so children can roam around freely, playing football and hide and seek till the sun goes down. There’s even a shop that sells basics and a cafe with vegan food!
Dalraddy Campsite
COLIN: It’s such a brilliant location, and while the facilities can be a bit or the basic side, I much prefer this to more sanitised sites. Loved the freedom it gave our kids, but also the proximity to so many activities and experiences. Bike hire and mountain biking. Gorge-walking and tree-climbing. Wild swimming and forest bathing. I can’t wait to go back and explore more.
We’ve had lots of walks in Scotland and England this year, in all weathers, up mountains, along meandering quiet rivers, across spectacular cliffs and around deep blue lochs.
CAROLINE: My favourite was our walk up the Fyrish Monument, near Dingwall, in late July during a family holiday in the Black Isle. It was a beautiful day with the sun splitting the skies when we climbed. This was both wonderful and slightly tiresome as the heat beat down on our backs as we emerged from the forest. The blue skies made views from the top even more spectacular, and once we’d taken in the great sweep of the Cromarty Firth and dark, looming Ben Wyvis, we admired the monument, built in 1783 by the local laird to provide employment for the locals. You can read more about our holiday in the Black Isle here.
The Fyrish Monument
COLIN: In October we enjoyed a big family gathering near Aviemore for my Auntie’s 70th. On the Saturday, as various folk went off on restorative bike rides, explores, walks or just endless games of hide and seek, Caroline and I, joined by one of our kids, took a hike up Meall a’ Bhuachaille, a cracking but serious Corbett that is famous for its views. With the path easy to follow, and the weather perfect, we easily made the exposed summit, although somewhat out of breath. Most of my Scottish hillwalking memories are of grey clouds and horizontal rain; Meall a’ Bhuachaille more than made up for it. There is a stunning panoramic view from the top, from the nearby Northern Corries of the Cairngorm range, over to Loch Morlich then reaching out to a stunning serrated skyline that wraps all around you.
The Ryvoan Bothy on the way down Meall a’Bhuachaille.
After sugared almonds and rehydration at the top, it was time to get going. In general, I much prefer a steep ascent over the repetitive strain of a steep and winding descent, and Meall a’ Bhuachaille was unforgiving in this sense. An old climbing injury to my ankle means every step down jars, so by the time we were on the flat track back through beautiful woodland I was limping quite badly. But as we passed the stunning green An Lochan Uaine, a firm favourite and another top swim spot, spirits were lifted and aches eased when we bumped into a group of swimmers from Edinburgh! It was a tremendous coincidence and lovely especially to see Christine, Tanya and Susie, who I’d regularly swum with at Wardie Bay for the past few years.
As always, we’ve made and eaten so much delicious plant-based food in 2021. and there were definitely a few standouts. Our vegan jambalaya with sausage, rice and red wine was a definite crowd pleaser, easy to make, and brilliant for camping. I loved our lemon spaghetti with chickpeas and sage from our new garden – best enjoyed alfresco in the sunshine. And the Edgy Veg’s lobster rolls made with hearts of palm are out of this world!
Vegan jambalaya
COLIN: As much as I loved Caroline’s campsite Peanut Butter Curry (it’s now a camping staple), one of my favourites is her Vegan Smoked Salmon Blinis with Sour Cream. Utterly delicious and a real treat! I love seeing folks’ reactions when you tell them the “salmon” is actually made from marinaded carrot! It’s a doddle to make; just needs a bit of planning. And the vegan goat curry from London-based vegan Caribbean takeaway Jam Delish at the Vegan Campout in September was out of this world.
2021 Review: Favourite moment
CAROLINE: We’re really lucky to have lots of wonderful 2021 moments to choose from. Standing on Chanonry Point shivering as we waited for a pod of dolphins appear and the excitement as a mother and her baby burst out of the water was one. Sitting around a campfire with family, playing twenty questions under the stars and eating marshmallows was another. And jumping into the cool Cam on a baking 30 degrees day in Cambridge was one more.
COLIN: Getting Covid was the low point of 2021. It knocked my fitness, but also hit my motivation. I’d given up coaching in Edinburgh, and had hoped to quickly reprise in Cambridge. Being ill within days of moving sapped all my motivation, which in turn led to a gloomy spiral that sapped my swimming and coaching mojo. So returning to swim coaching has been a massive thrill for me, especially as it’s at such a wonderful location, the historic Jesus Green Lido, the UK’s longest outdoor pool. One of the great things about coaching is being able to see, week on week, a swimmer’s improvement as you work with them. It’s incredibly rewarding, and I hope it’ll continue and indeed grow in 2022.
The other top moment of the past year was when our big family all got together. Grandparents and parents, kids and cousins, brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, it was a joy to have (almost) everyone all in one place. It felt like a major victory against lockdown and all the restrictions and setbacks we’ve all had to bear. We hope you also had a similar happy experience with your families and/or friends.
As we go into 2022, we’re full of hope and excitement – hope that this year will be a little easier for all of us, and excitement about all of the things we can do, despite the C word. Happy new year!
Scottish tablet is a type of traditional hard, very sweet fudge that anyone from Scotland will have grown up with – we all had a granny or auntie that would produce a home-made bag at Christmas or during visits. My Aunt Isobel would bring us each a bag full at Christmas, and I’d always finish mine then move on to stealing bits from everyone else! There are recipes for Scottish tablet that go back to the early 18th century, using sugar and cream, and you’ll find tablet in most Scottish sweet shops.
Luckily it’s very easy to make tablet vegan by swapping the milk for plant milk and the condensed milk for condensed coconut milk.
The key to tablet is getting the temperature right. It has to reach a temperature of 120C/soft ball on a sugar thermometer. You need to hold your nerve and keep stirring until it gets to that point or you’ll end up with much softer fudge, or toffee. If you don’t have a sugar thermometer I’d recommend getting one, as they’re so useful for making fudge, jam and tablet. If you aren’t able to get hold of one, you can use the ball method, detailed below.
6 candy canes, bashed into pieces (put them in a bag and hit them hard!)
Method
Prepare a square baking tin to pour your tablet into.
Put all of the ingredients except the candy canes into a pot and melt them together on the hob over a low heat. Once everything is dissolved, increase the heat.
Stir the mixture continuously until it reaches 120C on your sugar thermometer, or until it is boiling and a small spoonfulled ball of it dropped into a cup of cold water keeps it shape.
Turn down the heat and wait a minute for the mixture to settle, then stir vigorously for a few minutes until it is almost setting. Pour into the baking tin and score lightly with a knife both ways so it is easier to cut later, then pour the candy cane over it!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but can also be the most stressful, lonely and difficult one. A recent thread on Mumsnet about people’s worst Christmases revealed tale after tale of Christmases that were memorable for all the wrong reasons, with stories of drunken relatives, toxic families and abusive spouses.
And even without the difficulties of family time at Christmas, there is so much pressure on us to make Christmas perfect, from the Instagram posts of perfectly curated colour co-ordinated trees and piles of presents, to the relentless messages from all quarters to spend, spend, spend on things we don’t need or can’t afford, whether it’s on useless gifts that end up going in a cupboard and then to the charity shop or the latest toy or piece of jewellery that leaves you overdrawn well into spring.
Each year brings a new gimmick that we’re encouraged to spend on, from Elf on the Shelf, to Christmas Eve boxes and beauty advent calendars. And that’s not to the mention the ‘must-do’ Christmas experiences, whether it’s the local Christmas light show at £15 per head, Santa’s grotto, or the Christmas markets that can end up setting you back a fortune. It can be unaffordable for the average family.
And then there are those of us who find Christmas sad and painful. Perhaps it was once a happy time, but you’ve lost someone special in your life and Christmas is a reminder of how things used to be. Or you’re not in the place you’d want to be in life – perhaps you wish for a partner, or children, to share Christmas with, but find yourself without. Sometimes it can feel as though everyone is enjoying Christmas except you.
Any and all of these things can lead to stress, depression and burnout at Christmas. Here’s our guide to looking after yourself at Christmas so January doesn’t begin with you feeling exhausted, miserable and overwhelmed.
Take some time on your own in nature. Even if this means braving the elements and taking a ten-minute walk around the local park or green space, it will benefit your mood and help to make you feel happier and less stressed. A 2020 study from Cornell University showed that just ten minutes spent in a natural setting can improve mood and reduce stress levels. It doesn’t matter whether you’re walking or just sitting – getting outside will help to make you feel better. While you’re out, take time to notice what’s around you. The sound of the birds, or the feeling of the wind, or the noise of the rain gently falling on the pavement. Slow everything down and just breathe.
And if you have a little longer, and can do so safely, we cannot recommend the tonic of a swim in cold water enough for resetting your mood – you’ll come out of the water feeling totally refreshed, with whatever was worrying you hopefully feeling a little less big and overwhelming than it did before you went in the water. Just make sure you follow the rules for safe swimming – go with someone else or tell someone where you’re going, make sure you’re familiar with the body of water you’re swimming in, don’t get too cold and get out if you start feeling warm or tired. Read more tips on safe outdoor swimming here.
Remember that the best things in life really are free. Recently, we decided to go to London to visit the Christmas markets. This was a nice idea on paper, but ended up being stressful with the crowds, noise and queues. On the way back home, I told our 11 year old that I was sorry the day hadn’t been as Christmassy as we’d hoped. She replied that to her the most Christmassy thing she could think of was all of us sitting in our living room watching Christmas movies together. You don’t have to spend money to make Christmas.
Try a mindfulness meditation. Carve out five or ten minutes for yourself to spend time meditating, and remember that self-care doesn’t mean self-indulgence. A meditation in the morning can set the tone for the day, and help you recognise and manage any feelings that have come up over Christmas time. I have posted before about how invaluable I find mindfulness meditation and how helpful in managing any negative emotions I might be feeling. Try these Calm Moment meditations which have been especially tailored for Christmas.
Just say no. Remember that you don’t have to say yes to every Christmas opportunity that comes your way. This year, there are far fewer socialising opportunities, so December is far less of a whirlwind. Remember though, it’s fine to pass up invitations if it’s all feeling too much. You don’t have to go to the midnight mass carol service on Christmas Eve, or your neighbour’s drinks party, or the informal office Christmas lunch. No one is judging and no one is keeping score – Christmas isn’t about how many people you see and how many events you attend.
Connect with people over Christmas. Check in on your loved ones, especially this year. It may not be possible to do this in person, but if you know someone close to you who might be having a hard time over Christmas, resolve to check in on them regularly. It will make you, and them, feel good.
Practise gratitude. Think about the things that you are grateful for this Christmas. This could be your health, a warm home, friends and family, good food to eat, the sight of frost on the lawn and the blue December sky. It’s a good way to remind yourself that there is always something to be grateful for in life, even if it seems small. Christmas is a perfect time to reflect on the good things in life, as once you start you usually find that there is more than you might imagine.
Plan beyond Christmas. If this time of year is really difficult for you, try to plan something nice for January and beyond. Maybe book a holiday, lunch with friends, arrange a walk in the countryside or invite someone over for a meal. It will give you a focus beyond Christmas and something to look forward to.
Remember that it’s just one day. Be kind to yourself. Everyone else in the world apart from you isn’thaving an amazing time. What you see on Instagram, however lovely it is – the piles of presents, children in matching Christmas pyjamas, stockings by a roaring fire – is rarely the full picture. For most people, Christmas time, like life, is a mixture of happy moments and flashes of stress and sadness.
It’s winter, it’s cold, it’s wet, and it’s dark almost all the time … so obviously it’s time for DOUBLE CARBS! (We’ll worry about those extra calories next year.)
We think potatoes dauphinoise are the food of the gods, and wrapped up in fluffy golden puff pastry, this creamy and flavoursome vegan potatoes dauphinoise pie is a hearty slice of Christmas cheer.
Ingredients
Serves 2 in a round baking dish – double the ingredients to serve more and prepare in a larger rectangular dish.
4 large potatoes, thinly sliced, best done on a mandolin slicer
4 tbsp frozen peas
Handful parsley to garnish
Salt
Pepper
Method
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat and fry the onions for a few minutes until golden, then add the garlic. Set aside.
Add the milk, cream and peas to a pan and heat over a medium to high heat until boiling.
While the milk, cream and peas are boiling, roll out the pastry and use half to line the baking tray. Add the thinly sliced potatoes.
When the milk, cream and peas mixture is bubbling, remove from the heat and add the onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the potatoes.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Cut the rest of the pastry into thin strips and arrange as a lattice over the top of the pie.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
These vegan mince pie puffs can take five minutes or less to throw together if you choose to use shop-bought mincemeat (just double check it’s vegan, because not all mincemeat is) or a bit longer if you want to make your own mincemeat. For us, eating mince pies or anything filled with mincemeat starts on December 1st and is usually a daily activity from then on. There’s nothing more Christmassy than eating one of these mince pie puffs with a cup of hot chocolate on the sofa, with the Christmas decorations up, watching a festive film!
Traditional mincemeat is made with suet to hold everything together. I’ve seen vegan versions using vegetable shortening, but our version doesn’t use any fat. It means that the mincemeat is looser, but every bit as delicious.
Ingredients
1 block vegan puff pastry – we used Jus-Rol
200g cored and grated cooking apples
75 g raisins
100g dried cherries
100 g currants
50 g sultanas
70 g dried cranberries
80 g soft brown sugar or coconut sugar
100 g demerara sugar
2 small oranges – zest and juice
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp port, or orange juice if you want to make it non alcoholic
Method
Make the mincemeat. Put all the ingredients except the juice/port in a bowl, then stir them together. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave it in a cool place for an hour. This will allow the flavours to combine.
Set the oven to a low heat – around 110 C. Give the ingredients another good stir, then put them all except the port/juice in an ovenproof dish. Cover it with foil and bake for around 2 1/2 hours. Set the bowl aside.
While the mincemeat is baking sterilise some jars – you’ll need around 4 medium jars for this. Sterilise them by washing them in the dishwasher then adding to the oven at 180 degrees for five minutes – you can turn the oven up and do this once you remove the mincemeat.
Remove the mincemeat, and put it back in the bowl. Stir through the port/juice.
Add the mincemeat to the sterilised jars.
To make the puffs, roll the pastry sheet out and cut it into four equal size rectangles. Spoon the mincemeat into the middle, leaving an edge on each side that you can pinch closed. Bake for around 20 minutes at 180 C. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.
